Quality conditions for learning - Confirmation of Candidature

Quality conditions for learning: how schools can maximise engagement to impact student achievement and wellbeing.

Kathryn Bekavac

Schools are complex, dynamic systems that aim to prepare all students for success in a society and economy characterized by complexity, unpredictability, global connectedness, change and opportunity. This 12 month longitudinal research study will examine the relationships among upper primary and lower secondary school students’ perceptions of conditions for learning, school engagement, academic achievement and wellbeing. The use of a culturally and socioeconomically diverse sample aims to address the limitation encountered by other studies of school environment conditions, conceptualised in this study as safe and respectful climate, student support, high academic expectations and challenge and social emotional competence. The research study proposes to use a large representative sample of over 2500 students to investigate which features of school environment conditions, from a student’s perspective, best support or undermine school engagement, academic achievement and wellbeing. Participants (students in years 5 and 7) will be drawn from a range of primary, secondary and P-12 schools in diverse urban and rural areas within the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Therefore, a broad range of socioeconomic status levels, school type and size, representative percentages of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, students with verified disabilities and students from English as a second language backgrounds will be represented. The research study will examine trajectories of the three components of school engagement and investigate how behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement differs as a function of both perceived school conditions for learning and student characteristics. A further goal of this research study is to examine whether school engagement mediates the associations between students’ perceptions of conditions for learning and their academic achievement and wellbeing. By examining the social, safety and instructional conditions typically influencing school engagement, the interplay between school engagement, student achievement and wellbeing will be illuminated.

Date Wednesday 8 June 2016
Time 3pm to 5pm
Location Social Science Building 24 Room 303 St Lucia Campus

Panel: Professor Robyn Gillies (Chair) and Dr Jenny Povey
Principal Advisor: Professor Annemaree Carroll
Associate Advisor/s: Dr Julie Bower