How to help students in their transition to middle school? Effectiveness of a school-based group mentoring program promoting students’ engagement, self-regulation, and goal setting
Juliana Martins , Pedro Rosário , Jennifer Cunha , José Carlos Núñez , Guillermo Vallejo , Tânia Moreira
{"title":"How to help students in their transition to middle school? Effectiveness of a school-based group mentoring program promoting students’ engagement, self-regulation, and goal setting","authors":"Juliana Martins , Pedro Rosário , Jennifer Cunha , José Carlos Núñez , Guillermo Vallejo , Tânia Moreira","doi":"10.1016/j.cedpsych.2023.102230","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>School transitions are labeled as challenging events in students’ academic paths likely to affect students’ development and engagement in school negatively. Grounded on extant research advocating the need to act preventively, school-based mentoring programs emerge as responses suited to provide students with developmental and instructional support during school transitions. Using a multivariate mixed-effects model for repeated measures quasi-experimental design, the present study assessed the effectiveness of a 12-session group mentoring program designed to promote fifth-grade students’ self-regulation, school engagement, and goal setting during their first school transition. Participants were 330 fifth graders in four schools randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Students’ self-reported measures were collected in four moments. Data were analyzed using a multivariate mixed-effects model for repeated measures analyses with two covariates (age and gender) and considering the students’ level of prior mathematics knowledge. Results indicated that participating in the group mentoring program led to improvements in all dependent variables. The effect size found was large considering all dependent variables simultaneously. However, when considered individually, the effect sizes were medium, small, or null, depending on the dependent variable. Lastly, and contrary to expectations, the effectiveness of our program was not influenced by students’ level of prior mathematics knowledge. The relevance of group mentoring programs in addressing students’ engagement and self-regulation needs is discussed. Future research and educational implications for designing mentoring programs are provided.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":10635,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Educational Psychology","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 102230"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Contemporary Educational Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X2300084X","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
School transitions are labeled as challenging events in students’ academic paths likely to affect students’ development and engagement in school negatively. Grounded on extant research advocating the need to act preventively, school-based mentoring programs emerge as responses suited to provide students with developmental and instructional support during school transitions. Using a multivariate mixed-effects model for repeated measures quasi-experimental design, the present study assessed the effectiveness of a 12-session group mentoring program designed to promote fifth-grade students’ self-regulation, school engagement, and goal setting during their first school transition. Participants were 330 fifth graders in four schools randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Students’ self-reported measures were collected in four moments. Data were analyzed using a multivariate mixed-effects model for repeated measures analyses with two covariates (age and gender) and considering the students’ level of prior mathematics knowledge. Results indicated that participating in the group mentoring program led to improvements in all dependent variables. The effect size found was large considering all dependent variables simultaneously. However, when considered individually, the effect sizes were medium, small, or null, depending on the dependent variable. Lastly, and contrary to expectations, the effectiveness of our program was not influenced by students’ level of prior mathematics knowledge. The relevance of group mentoring programs in addressing students’ engagement and self-regulation needs is discussed. Future research and educational implications for designing mentoring programs are provided.
期刊介绍:
Contemporary Educational Psychology is a scholarly journal that publishes empirical research from various parts of the world. The research aims to substantially advance, extend, or re-envision the ongoing discourse in educational psychology research and practice. To be considered for publication, manuscripts must be well-grounded in a comprehensive theoretical and empirical framework. This framework should raise critical and timely questions that educational psychology currently faces. Additionally, the questions asked should be closely related to the chosen methodological approach, and the authors should provide actionable implications for education research and practice. The journal seeks to publish manuscripts that offer cutting-edge theoretical and methodological perspectives on critical and timely education questions.
The journal is abstracted and indexed in various databases, including Contents Pages in Education, Australian Educational Index, Current Contents, EBSCOhost, Education Index, ERA, PsycINFO, Sociology of Education Abstracts, PubMed/Medline, BIOSIS Previews, and others.