No abstract

Students (n ¼ 452; ages 12-14 years) attending two South Australian metropolitan high schools completed the 'Living & learning at school: Bullying at school' survey in which they reported ways they were bullied and the strategies they would use to deal with bullying. Results showed that a small proportion of students were bullied in three or more ways, and that males and females differed in the coping strategies they would use if bullied. Significant differences were found between bullied and not bullied students in their use of 'problem-focused' in contrast to 'emotion focused', or 'approach' in contrast to 'avoidance' coping strategies, with bullied students more likely to use 'avoidance' strategies. Findings suggest that in terms of coping, it does matter whether or not a student is bullied in multiple ways.

Previous school-related bullying research focused largely on inter-relationships among perpetrators and victims and more recently has included influences on, and by, peers. Still, less attention is given to wider school relationships that consider families and teachers. Students across grades 5—9 in 22 South Australian schools reported on how well they felt supported by their peers, families and teachers and the extent to which they perceived these groups as sources of stress in their lives at school. Six hundred and twenty-one teachers also assessed their students’ adaptive and non-adaptive behaviour. Links between stress and support and students’ experience of school, including bullying and victimization were examined using path analysis. Along with the expected impact of poor peer relationships and bullying/victimization, relationships with teachers exerted an equally powerful influence on students’ reports of bullying. Teachers need to be made aware that developing strong supportive relationships with students has a flow-on effect of reducing bullying.

Learning styles and approaches to learning represent two different perspectives on student learning processes that may influence academic achievement. The Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) is used to measure 20 elements of learning style, and the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) to measure students' surface, deep and achieving approaches to learning and studying. Factor analysis of PEPS and SPQ data obtained from 400 Australian university students indicates that these two instruments measure two quite distinct conceptualisations of how students learn and that it is therefore appropriate to differentiate between the way students learn in terms of either style‐based or approach‐based constructs. Test‐retest reliability of the PEPS and SPQ produced from correlational analysis of data collected from two administrations of these instruments, a year apart, shows that approach to learning is relatively stable over time but that learning style, as measured by the PEPS, is not as stable a construct as its authors claim. Researchers and practitioners should take care to select instruments according to their intended use and to take into consideration the strengths and limitations of each instrument.

Judgments about the quality of students' experience of school generally focus on their academic performance and indeed this is an important indicator but closer attention needs to be paid to equally important, more broadly based outcomes that include social/emotional adjustment as they also are shown to impact on students' lives at, and beyond school. In this study, students' academic performance and social/emotional adjustment were informed by data collected from both students and teachers. Teachers of years 5 to 9 students in 58 separate classes across 21 South Australia schools reported on randomly selected students in each of their classes yielding data for 888 students who themselves reported through a questionnaire on (a) the extent to which they perceived relationships with family, peers and teachers as sources of stress or support at school; (b) their psychological health; (c) coping strategies; (d) experience of bullying and victimisation; (e) their academic performance; and (f) feelings about and sense of belonging to school. Data were used to estimate direct and indirect effects of a path model of hypothesised influences on students' social/emotional adjustment to school. The model fit the data well. The quality of a student's experience of school is most accurately represented by the inter-relationship of both academic and social/emotional outcomes which are influenced in large part by the quality of the relationships (supportive or stressful) among students, not only with peers and families but also with teachers who exert just as strong, and a sometimes stronger influence, on students' wellbeing.