Caleon, Imelda S.

Psychological capital (psycap) pertains to the psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. It has received much attention in the industrial-organizational literature and is related to a wide range of adaptive job-related outcomes. However, most of these studies have been conducted on adult populations and the role of psycap in the school context has not been given enough attention. The current study aimed to develop a measure of psycap for the school context and examined how it was associated with academic-related (e.g., motivation, engagement, achievement) and well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, affect) outcomes among school-aged populations. Study 1 (N = 1159) demonstrated that the School Psychological Capital Questionnaire developed in this study had excellent psychometric properties. School psycap positively predicted optimal motivation and engagement. Study 2, a cross-sectional study conducted among high school students (N = 246), revealed that school psycap was associated with optimal academic and well-being outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Although learning analytics (LA) dashboard visualizations are increasingly being used to provide feedback to students, literature on the effectiveness of LA dashboards has been inconclusive. To address this, a LA student dashboard visualizing students’ latest data against their own data from previous weeks (i.e., self-referenced data) was designed – informed by Fredrickson’s (2004) broaden-and-build theory, as well as studies highlighting personal best goals (Martin & Elliot, 2016) and the negative effects of peer comparisons (Corrin & de Barba, 2014). The self-referenced LA student dashboard was implemented and evaluated in a Singapore secondary school as part of a larger study, WiREAD. This paper reports on the quantitative impact of the WiREAD self-referenced LA dashboard visualizations on 15-year-old students’ critical reading fluency, cognitive reading engagement, and English language (EL) self-efficacy, as well as students’ qualitative feedback on the usefulness and shortcomings of the LA dashboard.

This research had a two-fold objective. The first objective was to develop an intervention programme that was grounded on positive psychology and tailored for academically at-risk students, that is, students who, by and large, achieved lower aggregate scores than the cohort mean in the national test given at the end of primary education. The second objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of each of the components of the intervention programme in terms of improving positive emotions, well-being, and academic outcomes of academically at-risk students.
Three positive psychology interventions (PPIs) were developed to form the intervention programme. Each PPI comprised five core activities, with a wrap-up session that was conducted after the core activities. The Gratitude PPI comprised the following activities: Gratitude Collage, Counting Blessings, Mental Subtraction, Facing Challenges with Gratitude, and Gratitude Card. The Hope PPI featured activities such as Goal Setting and Goal Mapping, Journaling, Best Possible Self, Savouring Success, and Sharing Formula for Success. The Strengths PPI involved activities such as Identification of Top Strengths, Journaling about Top Strengths, Identification of Signature Strengths, Journaling about Signature Strengths and then Create a Superhero.
The evaluation of the effectiveness of the PPIs involved six sub-studies, with two sub-studies tied to each PPI. For each PPI, the first sub-study, which utilised a quasi-experimental design, served as the first trial to test the impact of the PPI and identify areas for improvement; the second sub-study utilized a split-plot experimental design (i.e., each participating class was randomly split into group A and B and all students in group A formed the intervention group while all students in Group B formed the control group). The six sub-studies involved 305 academically at-risk students.
The results of four sub-studies support the potential of two (i.e., Hope and Gratitude PPIs) out three PPIs in cultivating positive emotions and well-being, and enhancing adaptive motivation and learning strategies. In terms of promoting students’ well-being, the effect of the Gratitude PPI was found to be more consistent and stronger than that of the Hope PPI. Specifically, the Gratitude PPI has generated greater increase in students’ life satisfaction and reduction in depressive symptoms than the control activities did. The Hope PPI seems to be more effective in terms of preventing the worsening of the students’ self-reported depressive symptoms, rather than directly reducing them. Concerning academic achievement, the effects of the PPIs were generally weak.
All the PPIs did not generate a significant effect on academic engagement; however, when it comes to academic motivation, results associated with one PPI was promising. In particular, the Hope PPI was found to have beneficial effects in terms of preventing the decline in students’ intrinsic motivation.
The general results of the present investigation also point to the effectiveness of the Hope PPI, but not the other two PPIs, in increasing students’ use of deep learning and elaboration strategies. The Hope PPI was found to be more effective than the usual CCE activities in enhancing the students’ use of these adaptive learning strategies. The effects of the Hope PPI on these outcomes were not significantly mediated by the students’ academic hope (i.e., positive expectations to achieve school goals). These results suggest that the Hope PPI may operate directly, rather than indirectly through enhancing academic hope levels, in improving adaptive school outcomes.
The benefits that can be derived from the PPIs appear to be stronger and more amenable to measurement when a considerable period has passed after the students’ exposure to PPIs or after booster sessions were conducted. These results suggest that some effects of the PPIs may take a while to manifest and that state-like measures may be more appropriate in capturing the effects of such PPIs accurately.
Overall, the results of the six sub-studies have shown the potential benefits of PPIs, particularly the Hope and Gratitude PPIs, in enhancing adaptive school and well-being outcomes for academically at-risk students in Singapore. The Gratitude PPI appears to have relatively stronger effects on well-being while the Hope PPI seems to be more effective in promoting the use of productive learning strategies and in preventing the decline in intrinsic motivation to study. Educators and interventionists may select the PPIs that suit the needs and profiles of their subjects, or implement the PPIs in combination and in longer duration to generate optimal impact.

The impact of two cryogenics-based enrichment programmes (CBEPs) held in out-of-school setting on the learning of science concepts and attitudes towards science was evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The findings presented in this study are based on a sample of 531 Primary Five and Six students from six schools in Singapore who had their class enrichment lessons at the Snow City.

In general, students reported large significant learning gains immediately and two-weeks after their CBEP experience. The learning gains in relation to the CBEP involving liquid nitrogen remained stable after around two weeks but those for the participants of the CBEP involving liquid oxygen slightly waned. About 93% of the participants of the former and 88% of the latter reported cognitive test scores above pretest level around two weeks after their respective CBEP experience. Greater learning gains due to participation in either CBEP were recorded for EM1 than for EM2 students. CBEPs did not have any differential impact on the learning gains of boys and girls.

Regardless of gender and stream, CBEPs produced fairly significant improvements in the attitudes towards science of the participants, specifically in relation to enjoyment of science and motivation to pursue science careers; however, no significant change was detected in the participants' perceptions of the social implications of science. Although satistical tests revealed that the retention of the said attitudinal gains did not occur for most if the students who took retention test, 13 to 20% of such students were found with at least a three-point improvement in scores in the given attitude areas. A substantial proportion of the participants shifted from negative or neutral responses to positive responses for at least two items in both enjoyment of science and career preference subscales two weeks after participating in CBEP. The contents of such items point to the possible "ripple effects" of CEBPs in the participants' future activities that could eventually lead to better achievement and more stable attitude change.

Learning gains derived from CBEPs were found to be basically determined by academic ability while attitudinal gains were predominantly influenced by initial attitude towards science. EM1 students have greater propensity to learn more from CBEPs than EM2 students. These who have initially more positively attitude towards science tend to maintain or improve such level of attitude after experiencing CBEPs. Gender did not have any significant in determining the cognitive and affective benefits that students derived from CBEPs.

Additionally , positive association bewteen post-CBEP attitude towards science and learning of cryogenics-related concepts was detected. The causal direction of the association appears to be from attitude towards cognitive: meaning positive attitude leads to greater learning gains and not the other way around.

At least 92% of the subjects liked the CBEPs covered in this study and expressed willingness to attend similar programmes in the future. The students expressed recognition of both entertainment and educational value of the programmes. The CBEPs appeared slightly more appealing for females than males for EM1 than EM2 subjects of the study. The complexity of the topic and the degree of students participation are two factors that are of importance in relation to the likeability of a particular CBEP.

This study served as an appraisal of Snow City's CBEPs, as well as a pioneering work on the evaluation of cryogenics-based programmes. Its results have provided empirical evidence that Snow City can be venue for a novel learning experience that can generate positive cognitive and effective impact on students. The findings of this study have shown that CBEPs can benefit the majority of its participants, at least for upper primary students, regardless of gender and academics ability.

This study intends to extend the applicability and address the gaps in the study OER 01/14 OP where it was found that when the 7 structures of learning in community music is present in the music module for the General Music Programme (GMP), artistic habits of mind are nurtured in the process. The framework that emerged from the study is called Community Music-based Structures of Learning (CoMu-based SL) and was used in this study to develop unit designs for both Primary and Secondary levels.

This investigation involves two studies that were carried out to augment the extant literature on the effectiveness of teacher-implemented positive psychology interventions (PPIs). The studies sought to provide preliminary evidence on the potential benefits of two PPIs on students with different levels of academic ability, which was based on their academic achievement as they entered secondary school. The student participants in the Express or Normal Academic streams were categorised as the “academically more able” group and those in the Normal Technical stream were categorised as the “academically challenged” group.
Study 1 focused on assessing the impact of the Gratitude PPI while Study 2 zoomed in on the effectiveness of the Hope PPI. The participants in Study 1 were Secondary Three students from the Express (n=63) and NT (n=52) streams in one school. For Study 2, the participants were two classes of Secondary Two students (n=79) from the NA stream in one school and one class of Secondary One students from the NT Stream in another school (n=30). Study 1 followed the quasi-experimental design whereby each of the two classes from the same stream were assigned as the experimental or control group. Study 2 involved the split-plot experimental design whereby students in each class were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. In each study, all of the participating students were asked to complete the same survey questionnaire a week before, and then one week and four to eight weeks after experiencing the assigned intervention (i.e., Gratitude or Hope PPI) or control activities (i.e., Citizenship and Character Education lessons). The Gratitude PPI was implemented by trained class teachers in five 30-minute sessions over 10 weeks; the Hope PPI was implemented in six 50-minute sessions spread over six weeks. The control activities were implemented at the same time as the pertinent PPI activities.

The results of the study suggest that the effects of the Gratitude and Hope PPIs did not significantly differ across ability groups. Both academically more able and academically challenged students were found to draw benefits from the PPIs in terms of preventing the decrease in positive emotions (i.e., gratitude or hope) and increase in ill-being (i.e., depressive symptoms). The Hope PPI was found to be useful in improving academic outcomes, such as the use of deep learning strategies, and maintaining moderate levels of intrinsic motivation. The Gratitude PPI was found to be effective in promoting positive relationship with teachers and friends; it can also help cultivate school resilience, which is a disposition linked to effectively handling stressors associated with performing school tasks. The students’ written feedback suggests the benefits of the Hope PPI in the social, emotional and cognitive realms. For the Gratitude PPI, the academically more able students showed greater engagement in the activities than the academically challenged students did. For the Hope PPI, the academically challenged students seem to have appreciated and recognised the importance of the hope activities more than the academically more able students did.