School Belonging and Successful Transition Practice: Academic Self-Concept and Achievement Motivation in Primary School Students

Abstract

Academic transitions, such as those between nursery to primary school, primary to secondary school or the return from special education to general education, can be key factors that affect a young person’s feeling of school belonging. The professional organisation of these transitions is the key factor shaping whether these transitions have a positive effect on student self-concept and academic motivation in children and adolescents. If transitional phases in childhood and adolescence are poorly implemented, adjustment difficulties can be a consequence, which may result in socio-emotional or behavioural issues, such as maladaptive coping, truancy, and school attrition (Rosenkoetter, Schroeder, Rous, Hains, Shaw, & McCormick, 2009; Mays, Jindal-Snape, & Boyle, 2019). This chapter considers the question of whether students identified by their primary school teachers as having issues with socio-emotional development will show changes in their selfconcept and achievement motivation during the transition from Grade 4 to Grade 5. It was anticipated that academic self-concept and achievement motivation would decrease during the transition for students identified as having social-emotional development issues. Using a pre-post study design, students aged between 9 to 11 years in 4th grade were monitored across one year in regular primary schools in Germany. The social-emotional development of 33 students identified by teachers as having difficulties in this area were assessed across the year and compared with a similar aged control sample in 4th grade (n=531) and 5th grade (n=611) over the course of a year