TEAM COOPERATION TO FIGHT EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING

Students’ social behavior : predictor of students’ academic achievement and ESL

mercredi 11 février 2015, par Maša Vidmar



The policy brief No More Failures : Ten Steps to Equity in Education (OECD, 2008) describes policy recommendations which would help reduce school failure and ESL. As already noted by other authors (e.g. Downes, 2011) this brief neglects the importance of emotional dimensions to ESL ; social dimension is also overlooked. The aim of this article is to review empirical studies linking academic achievement/failure and social behavior in order to highlight the importance of supporting student’s social adjustment from early years. The article also explains underlying mechanism for the relation.

A very recent report prepared by PPMI (2014) for European Commission describes competence profile of underachievers and early school leavers which among others includes poor social skills as well as being too disruptive (externalizing behavior) or too quiet, isolated (internalizing behavior) in the class. Moreover, research evidence shows that externalizing behavior has negative effect on academic achievement particularly in the beginning of schooling, while in later years the relation becomes reciprocal (Chen et al., 1997 ; Masten et al., 2005 ; van Lier et al., 2012 ; Vidmar, 2011 ; Welsh et al., 2001). The link between internalizing behavior and academic achievement was found less consistently and is under-researched (for exceptions see van Lier et al., 2012 ; Vidmar, 2011).

What are the underlying mechanisms for the relations ? On one hand, prosocial and cooperative behavior helps create constructive atmosphere in the class for learning, while aggressive behavior disrupts these processes. It is likely that deficiency that leads to problem behavior also causes academic difficulties (e.g. inability to focus attention). Moreover, students who are rejected can develop negative attitudes towards school. On the other hand, low academic achievement and struggling with curriculum demands can cause feelings of frustrations, anxiety, boredom in students which can lead to maladaptive behavior (either isolated, anxious or aggressive, oppositional).

This, in order to prevent ESL it seems warrant to help build social adjustment in students (particularly for externalizing behavior) from the beginning of school.

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