Well-being and learning in school

Although there are various definitions for the term “well-being,” it is agreed that well-being in school represents a set of subjective feelings and attitudes toward school. Moreover, enjoyment (some use the term “happiness”) is recognized as a core element of well-being in general as well as at school. Well-being in school is defined as an indicator of the quality of scholastic life, and contributes to students’ physical and psychological health and development. As such it is strongly connected to learning. Well-being in school consists of cognitive, emotional, and physical components, i.e., a learner’s thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. Consequently, it differs significantly from an individual’s cognitive appraisals like satisfaction, or from discrete positive emotions like enjoyment. Well-being in school can be described through the relationship of positive and negative aspects of school life

Lehrer/innenexpertise zwischen Wissen und Können

Von Lehrer/inne/n wird erwartet, dass sie Expertinnen und Experten für Schule und Unterricht sind. Deshalb wird im vorliegenden Beitrag dem Konzept der Expertise nachgegangen. Es wird erläutert, was unter der Expertise von Lehrpersonen zu verstehen ist, und es wird hinterfragt, inwiefern das Konzept einen bedeutsamen Beitrag zur Diskussion um die Qualität in Schule und Unterricht sowie in der Ausbildung von Lehrer/inne/n zu leisten vermag. Im Text werden einerseits Grundlagen der Expertiseforschung im Allgemeinen, andererseits Argumentationslinien und Forschungserkenntnisse der Expertiseforschung zum Lehrberuf dargestellt. Abschließend wird diskutiert, welche Herausforderungen sich für künftige Forschungsarbeiten zur Lehrer/innenexpertise stellen.

Wellbeing

Well-being is an important component of physical and psychological health and an important source for individual development. The article aims to give an overview of different research traditions and definitions of well-being and to outline the basic ideas of research into well-being. It also examines well-being in school, the sources and predictors of well-being, as well as the function of well-being in educational settings. Both student and teacher well-being are considered.

Early adolescents' enjoyment experienced in learning situations and its relation to student achievement

While many studies confirm that positive emotions, including enjoyment, lead to better student achievement, less empirical evidence exists about possible mediator variables that link achievement to enjoyment. It is proposed that achievement and enjoyment form a circular dependency; enjoyment in learning leads to higher achievement but a degree of achievement is required to enjoy learning. This study provides insight into the reverse of the much studied enjoyment to achievement link and provides practical recommendations on how to use these findings. Founded in Control-value theory, which suggests that control and value cognitions are important variables that mediate the connection between enjoyment and achievement, this study explores the reciprocal achievement-cognition-enjoyment link. The reciprocal link was investigated by applying a one year longitudinal design to students of grade 6 and 7 (N = 356). This age group was chosen because early adolescence represents a critical period during which a strong decrease in positive learning emotions is observed. Part of the work involved identifying factors that might be responsible for this negative development. Results of cross-lagged path analysis identified reciprocal effects between student achievement and enjoyment with control and value cognitions functioning as partial mediators. High achievement goes with high control and value cognitions, which in turn positively affect enjoyment. However, cross-lagged correlations could only be partly confirmed. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications.