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This study aims to use the servicescape model of higher education environments to measure the students’ perceptions of the learning environment (classroom) and the effect this has on students’ learning ability.

The present study follows the stimulus-organism-response paradigm framework. A self-administered and well-structured survey questionnaire is used to collect data. The snowball sampling technique is used to collect samples of 403 students belonging to Maldivian higher education institutions.

Findings show that the physical appearances of these higher education institutions greatly influenced the pleasure dimension. Furthermore, pleasure is found to have a significant and positive relationship with the approach behaviour and engagement/involvement of the students.

The main contribution of the study is that it successfully tests the “Eduscape” model adopted from the servicescape model, and thus helps to extend existing knowledge on the critical elements in the Maldivian higher education learning environments and student’s behaviour within them. The findings have implications for higher education institutions to improve their learning environments and better engage with their students.

The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to determine the perceptions of preservice teachers (PSTs) on the effectiveness of instructional rounds as a clinical experience in promoting awareness of student diversity and supporting the acquisition of professional knowledge (Essential 2).

The instructional rounds were implemented in a junior-level general pedagogy course prior to formal clinical experiences. Professional development school (PDS) personnel supported the course instructors by scheduling the classroom observations, supervising groups of PSTs and debriefing the PSTs after each observation (Essentials 4 and 8). The data were collected through an end-of-course survey of 18 secondary PSTs.

There were several themes that emerged from the analysis of data. First, the study revealed that PSTs credited the variety of campuses visited as supporting their awareness of student diversity and varied instructional strategies. Second, PSTs acknowledged that the instructional rounds supported their connection of theory to practice. Finally, over 70% of the participants noted that they most enjoyed in-person experiences in different classrooms to observe students and teachers in action.

The findings for this study were specific to the teacher preparation program (TPP) utilized for the research. Each TPP requires different coursework and clinical experiences; therefore, the inclusion of instructional rounds may not be possible in all programs. Yet, the implementation of the rounds as a PST experience prior to clinical experiences is a strategy to consider to support the preparation of PSTs for their clinical experiences.

This study supports the continuation of instructional rounds at the teacher preparation program where the research was conducted. This research also informs other TPPs that strive to provide early clinical experiences that support PSTs’ emerging perceptions of student diversity and applications of instructional knowledge.

Investigates relationships between school and classroom environment. Explains how in Australian secondary schools, instruments were developed and validated for assessing seven dimensions of school environment (empowerment, student support, affiliation, professional interest, mission consensus, resource adequacy and work pressure) and seven dimensions of classroom environment (student affiliation, interactions, co‐operation, task orientation, order and organization, individualization and teacher control). The study involved a sample of 2,211 students in 104 year nine and year 12 religious education and science classes and 208 teachers of religious education and science in Catholic and government secondary schools. Indicates that weak relationship between school and classroom environments emerged, suggesting that the school environment cannot be assumed to transmit automatically to the classroom.

The development of educational models that prioritize the well-being and sustainability of educational communities has become increasingly important in recent years. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of teachers’ training in strategies for implementing a multidimensional approach to classroom well-being through the Teacher Centred Coaching Model on well-being in the classroom – teachers and students well-being.

Through a qualitative design, the authors conduct the present study to assess the perceptions of elementary teachers regarding their own competency development and that of their students during a 25-h intervention program. The study involved teachers (n = 8) and their 8–15-year-old students (n = 423). The “Teachers Perception of SWCI Impact on students” questionnaire was used to collect student data, while teacher competency data was obtained through individual interviews entitled “Strategies for Well-being in the Classroom Intervention”.

The analysis of the data showed that teachers believed that improving well-being strategies could benefit the personal development of both themselves and their students. Furthermore, the study revealed a positive impact on the personal and professional well-being of the teachers who participated in the program. After completing the program, students displayed improved abilities in attention and concentration, as well as better personal relationships, organizational skills and emotional regulation. The teachers emphasized that self-awareness and self-regulated learning had a positive influence on their own well-being, as well as on that of the educational community, by promoting empathetic communication, sharing experiences and implementing good practices aimed at enhancing well-being and sustainability.

The study involved eight participants, comprising eight females and two males. This number could be seen as a limitation, but in another way, these participants (from all the several regions in Portugal) allow us to reach a level of theoretical saturation of the contents in analysis because they complete all the several moments of training, coaching and implementation of the proposal, and their practices, reflections and actions guarantee the depth of data, as Burmeister and Aitken (2012) and Fusch and Ness (2015) propose.

The teachers emphasized that self-awareness and self-regulated learning had a positive influence on their own well-being, as well as on that of the educational community, by promoting empathetic communication, sharing experiences and implementing good practices aimed at enhancing well-being and sustainability.

After completing the program, students displayed improved abilities in attention and concentration, as well as better personal relationships, organizational skills and emotional regulation.

This study adds to both theoretical and practical development of continuing teacher training about social and emotional learning and executive functioning and its possible role in promote the personal development of teachers and students.

The purpose of the present study was to predict reading comprehension, reading interest, and reading efficacy from teaching styles. Participants were 109 students with learning disabilities from seven elementary schools in Germany. By use of observational protocols and multilevel random coefficient modeling to account for the multilevel structure of the data, results indicated that: (a) reading comprehension was positively predicted from students’ attitudes and a structured classroom discourse, and negatively by a flexible teaching style, (b) reading interest was positively predicted by a structured and positive climate, and negatively by a discourse that was too guided, and (c) reading efficacy was predicted positively from students’ attitudes and teachers’ fostering, and negatively from teachers’ flexibility, guidance, and structure. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of creating adaptive classroom climates for learners who have difficulties in learning.

A report is provided of an evaluation of two “Senior Colleges” designed to offer viable alternatives to traditional secondary education for students above the age of compulsory schooling. The evaluation involved several researchers working independently and information collected using a variety of both quantitative and qualitative methods (including student and staff interviews and questionnaire surveys, nominal group procedures with staff and administration of instruments assessing student perceptions of classroom‐level and teacher perceptions of school‐level environment). The most striking finding emerging from almost every aspect of the evaluation was the success of the Colleges in creating a positive ethos for both students and staff. Some of the areas of concern which were identified included a relatively low level of student cohesiveness, confusion about the purpose of the Colleges, the distracting behaviour of some younger students and staff's conditions of service.

This paper is about extraordinary performance in organizations. Our specific focus is unusual. We examine a context with which many readers are deeply familiar, the public school classroom. We consider the work of highly effective teachers and generate a framework of hypotheses about how they get extraordinary results. These hypotheses may contrast with the reader’s assumptions of what a public school teacher does. The framework may therefore provoke insights about how to create and lead high performing organizations in other contexts.

Children experience trauma more often than many early childhood educators realize. As many as 26% of children experience multiple trauma events such as abuse, neglect, parental substance abuse, parental incarceration, and so forth. Trauma impacts brain development in many negative ways that may have serious consequences on the child’s ability to learn, grow socially and emotionally, and develop physically. These brain changes also change how the child will play in the early childhood classroom, and information is given to help recognize the signs of trauma in children. The early childhood educator can make trauma-sensitive modifications in the classroom to assist the traumatized child’s ability to play out the problem. School counselors can be a resource for assisting early childhood teachers when working with traumatized children. A brief description of the importance of play therapy as a developmentally appropriate method to help traumatized young children is provided.

Purpose – To describe four instructional components teachers can use to help create more inclusive spaces for struggling readers: (a) language use, (b) repositioning struggling readers as primary knowers, (c) making struggling normal, and (d) creating reading partnerships.Design/methodology/approach – The chapter describes research findings from studies of middle grades students in English language arts, and theorizes work with struggling readers on the basis of identity theories, research about identifying and utilizing students’ own funds of knowledge, and research about the conditions for building reading self-efficacy, motivation, and engagement.Findings – Provides detailed descriptions of how teachers’ language use, reading partnerships, making struggling a normal part of reading processes, and helping struggling readers become full participants in classroom life, including models, examples, and interview data with middle grades struggling readers.Research limitations/implications – Adjusting teachers’ language use in discussions of how to read, using students’ knowledge of reading and other topics from outside of school, enabling collaboration through peer reading partnerships, and positioning all students to understand that struggling with reading is normal and not necessarily a sign of low ability.Practical implications – This is a valuable source for classroom teachers who are seeking successful strategies for engaging and supporting struggling readers while also creating a positive classroom environment for reading instruction in general.Originality/value of chapter – The environment a reading teacher creates, including the language that teacher uses, can have a powerful and positive impact on struggling readers’ classroom identities, self-efficacy, motivation, and ability to engage successfully with reading processes in school.

This chapter aims to discuss methods for promoting student engagement to counteract declining academic motivation and achievement in the contemporary setting.

In this chapter, two studies are presented that describe ways to promote student engagement in and out of the classroom. The in-class study was conducted with psychology students at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK). The Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) developed by Handelsman, Briggs, Sullivan, and Towler (2005) was used to measure student engagement. Study 2 examined the extent to which four high-impact educational practices promoted student engagement. Undergraduate UNK students who had participated in undergraduate research, learning communities, service learning, or internships were surveyed.

The results of the first study indicated that instructors can promote engagement by how the structure of the classroom (discussion classes), individuation (knowing student names and keeping class sizes small), and teacher support in the form of being responsive to student questions, encouraging students to seek assistance, and assigning effective aids to learning. The second study indicated that undergraduate research and internships were more engaging than service learning or learning communities.

These results suggest practical methods for meeting a variety of student needs, including their need for relatedness — by encouraging them to seek assistance and knowing their names, competence — by assigning effective learning aids and autonomy — by encouraging intrinsically motivating activities.