Various types of visuals are included in social studies textbooks such as pictures, illustrations, maps, and photographs as they are considered powerful learning aids. Therefore, it is important to investigate how visuals in social studies textbooks are perceived by the students. Thus, the first purpose of this paper is to discuss how students…

School sense of belonging is critical for students' academic achievement and emotional well-being. The development of a sense of school belonging is influenced by direct and indirect factors within the school environment. Categorization into low and high achievement groups based on academics is a process largely outside the direct control of a…

A sociocultural investigation with Year 8 secondary-school students experiencing marginalization and displaying signs of social and emotional difficulties in engaging fully with school life who participated in a mediated outdoor education programme was undertaken for this study. The findings indicate that there was a very statistically significant…

This article considers school climate and perceptions of social disorder. When a school is characterized by disorder or physical risk, basic educational goals and processes are jeopardized. We use survey data from 33 public schools serving grades 6-8 in a large mid-Atlantic city to examine relationships among physical disorder (e.g., broken…

Throughout the world, today's students are being characterized as digital natives, the "net generation." This twenty-first-century student cohort is adept at multi-tasking and at using a variety of tools and resources including electronic search engines, blogs, wikis, visual images, videos, gaming platforms, and social networking.…