The development of a behavioural competency framework for school principals

Orientation: More than two and a half decades into South Africa's democracy, the majority of the country's learners receive low-quality school education, adversely affecting upward social mobility. Ensuring quality education for all South Africans requires a combined approach of equitable resource allocation and effective school leadership that transforms resources into educational outcomes. Research purpose: The objective of the study was to develop a behavioural competency framework for school principals. Motivation for the study: While past studies highlight school leadership and management to be pivotal in the establishment and maintenance of well-performing schools, less is known about the behavioural competencies required by school principals. Research approach and method: Guided by a synthesis of literature on school management, critical incident interviews were conducted with a sample of 10 school principals with good track records. The salience of the literature-derived competencies was established, and the content supplemented by contextualising the competencies with specific behavioural denotations from the interviews. Main findings: Eleven key competencies emerged from the data: creating a school vision and setting strategic direction, setting goals and expectations, developing school staff, influencing and communicating, resourcing strategically, leading with compassion, maintaining a student-centred learning environment, making decisions, managing self, managing teaching and learning, and leading across school boundaries. Managerial implications: The competencies identified provide a blueprint to guide human resource management interventions aimed at establishing effective school leadership. Contribution: The study provides a rich source of information about critical school principal behaviours, explored from an integrated perspective that acknowledges the school context.

Access to ICT at Argentine elementary school children's homes and its impact on school achievements.

This article analyzes the relationship between access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and school performance. It contributes to the empirical literature in the area since there is no consensus yet. Moreover, the context associated with COVID-19 pandemic also considers the analysis as the most relevant. The goal of this article is to study the impact of ICT on school performance at elementary level. The hypothesis set forth is that having both a computer and connection to Internet at the students' homes, improves their school related achievements. To contrast it, we propose an econometric model using the Propensity Matching Score (PSM) methodology with data from the Learning 2018 (Aprender 2018) campaign of students at the last year of elementary school in Argentina and in each of the regions that conform it. Finally, there is evidence in favor of the hypothesis.

The Influence of Mental Health on Students' Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction. The pandemic has led the world's population to face mental health problems, such as anguish, anxiety, and depression. In addition, preventive measures to reduce the number of infections in the countries resulted in isolation that represented a challenge to the traditional form of education. Aim. This paper aims to present a bibliographic review of the consequences of mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship with school performance within the new form of education based on applied technologies. Results. The results show that incorporating mental health in learning strategies, with the help of educational technology, will allow students to develop adequate behavior before society and increase academic performance. © 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.

Academic performance of architecture students in pandemic: obstacles and motivations

The COVID-19 contingency transformed face-to-face classes into remote classes via the Internet. The teachers of the Bachelor's Degree in Architecture at the Universidad Veracruzana (UV) in Mexico stated in the meetings that they had observed low performance indicators in their students, assuming disinterest as the cause. In order to determine the main factors that affected their performance, an exploratory descriptive qualitative research was carried out, using a questionnaire as an instrument. The sampling was non-probabilistic by convenience. The results show that the most important obstacles for the students were the family and emotional effects of physical isolation due to the pandemic, while the motivation to study allowed them to face the changes and give continuity to their courses. Therefore, the teacher can favor external motivation by implementing didactic strategies that interest the students in their learning. © Legado de Arquitectura y Diseno 2022.

TRANSITION TO VIRTUAL LEARNING AND ITS EFFECTS: TECHNOSTRESS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19.

This research work aims to analyze the level of technostress, causes and effects in students of the University of Guadalajara, under the context of online education, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology used is quantitative, descriptive, non-experimental. The instrument used was Salanova’s «technostress» questionnaire (RED-ICT), «effects» by Jena, and «causes» by Suh and Lee, instruments with verifiable acceptable levels of reliability and validity. Survey applied virtually through Google Froms, to a sample of 221 university students. The findings show that students report having a moderate level of technostress. The dimensions that most influence this condition are: work overload, role ambiguity, and individual aspects, such as neuroticism. Regarding the effects, it was found that university students are not satisfied with the online modality;they recognize that their learning has not been entirely satisfactory. It was concluded that it is essential and necessary to propose projects and strategies to reduce this condition in students. It is suggested to take actions and allocate resources, in order to improve the satisfaction, performance and quality of education. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo analizar el nivel del tecnoestrés, sus causas y efectos, en estudiantes de la Universidad de Guadalajara, bajo el contexto de la educación online, durante la pandemia de la COVID-19. La metodología empleada es de enfoque cuantitativo, tipo descriptivo, no experimental. El instrumento utilizado fue el Cuestionario de Tecnoestrés (RED-TIC) de Salanova, los «efectos» por Jena, y las «causas» por Suh y Lee: instrumentos con niveles de confiabilidad y validez aceptables, y comprobables. Con una encuesta aplicada virtualmente a través de Google Froms, a una muestra de 221 estudiantes universitarios. Los hallazgos encontrados exponen que los estudiantes manifiestan tener un nivel moderado de tecnoestrés. Las dimensiones que más influyen en este padecimiento son: sobrecarga de trabajo;ambigüedad de rol, y aspectos individuales, como el neuroticismo. Respecto de los efectos, se encontró que los universitarios no están satisfechos con la modalidad online y reconocen que su aprendizaje no ha sido del todo satisfactorio. Se concluyó que es primordial y forzoso plantear proyectos y estrategias, que reduzcan este padecimiento en los estudiantes. Se sugiere tomar acciones y asignar recursos, con la finalidad de mejorar la satisfacción, el rendimiento y la calidad de la educación. (Spanish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Revista Panamericana de Pedagogía: Saberes y Quehaceres del Pedagogo is the property of Universidad Panamericana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The Impact of Family, Lifestyle, and COVID-19 Factors on Private High School Students' Academic Performance: Data Mining Approach

Bahrain private high schools currently face a significant gap in identifying trends that impact students' learning outcome. Currently, Bahrain's Education and Training Quality Authority (BQA) is tasked with evaluating educational institutions' infrastructure and technology availability's impact on learning outcomes, overlooking factors such as family lifestyle, students' time allocation, health, and COVID-19 related factors. This study aims to identify trends that influence Bahraini private high school students' learning outcomes and measure the extent these factors impact to raise actionable recommendations. Specifically, this research implements Decision Tree (DT), Density-Based Clustering (DBC) and Linear Regression (LR) to identify such trends. In this context, learning outcomes are identified as average grades, which serve as an indicator of the knowledge retained. This study's results found that family life;parents' educational level in particular, has the most influential impact on student grades, while for time allocation, students must pay attention to their time management skills to ensure a balance trade-off between recreational activities and studying;not over allocate time to a specific activity. Finally, and interestingly, COVID-19 had minimal impact on student performance.

COVID-19 Stressors and Latinx Adolescents' Mental Health Symptomology and School Performance: A Prospective Study.

This study addressed the need for research examining impacts of the Coronavirus-19 (COVID) pandemic on Latinx adolescents' adjustment. Survey data for a probability sample of 547 Latinx adolescents (Mage = 13.71, SD = 0.86; 55.2% female) were collected from 2018 to 2021, including two times both prior to, and during, COVID. Independent variables assessed COVID-related household hospitalization, job/income loss, and adolescents' increased childcare responsibility. Structural Equation Model results indicated that COVID-related increases in adolescent childcare responsibility were associated with increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms and declines in school performance. COVID hospitalization and job/income loss were associated indirectly, through childcare responsibilities, to worse adolescent outcomes. Family adversities may harm adolescents' adjustment by burdening adolescents with responsibilities such caring for children.

School attendance during a pandemic.

When officials relax school attendance requirements as a prophylactic measure against a pandemic, students of higher prior performance take more absences, while students of lower prior performance keep going to school. Prior performance is positively associated with neighborhood income.