Invitational education in Hong Kong secondary schools: relationships among students' perceptions of schoolclimate and their academic affect, academic self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting, and social concern

Abstract

Invitational Education (IE) is a theory to be practiced in the five areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes (the five P’s). The emphasis of IE on creating an inviting school environment, developing students’ self-concept, and fostering positive perceptions of school is well supported in the field of education. This study investigated the invitational climate of seven secondary schools in Hong Kong that implement IE. The research involved a large scale survey of the seven schools that received the “Inviting School Fidelity Award” in 2008, followed by a qualitative study undertaken in the school with the highest invitational climate. A Chinese translation of the revised Inviting School Survey (ISS-R; Smith, 2005) was used to measure the invitational climate in the seven schools. The five subscales of ISS-R were found to be valid and reliable in a sample of 706 Grade 11 students.

Students’ perceptions of the invitational climate in the key areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes were analyzed. The findings of this study suggested that indications of invitational climate in the five P’s could facilitate teachers’ and administrators’ consideration in improving invitational practices to cater for the needs of different groups of students. Teachers also need to be aware that IE may be perceived and received differently by students of different genders and levels of ability.

In addition to the invitational climate, students’ affective and social development were also examined in the areas of academic affect (feelings about learning and achieving in school), academic self-concept (beliefs about oneself as a learner), self-regulation(the ability to manage one’s own learning and behaviour), goal setting (setting own learning targets), and social concern(concern for self and others). Correlations were found between the five key components of IE and students’ academic affect and self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting and effort, and social concern. ANOVA revealed differences in perceptions and outcomes across different academic achievement levels, and by gender. Results supported the view that IE encourages students to become self-motivated and autonomous learners. The qualitative part of the study involved individual and focus group interviews with 30 Grade 11 students from the IE secondary school with the highest invitational climate (according to the ISS-R survey). Students’ perceptions of the school climate were examined in relation to five key areas―People, Processes, Policies, Places, and School Programmes. The aim was to explore how these five areas influence students’ academic affect, academic self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting, and social concern. Findings suggested a definite relationship between these five areas of affective and social development of the students and their perceptions of the inviting school climate, particularly the influence of teachers, and the processes used to encourage autonomy in learning. In addition, this qualitative section confirmed the survey findings that students with different levels of academic achievement had different perceptions of invitational climate. Less-able students felt less positive than more-able students about the inviting nature of people, policies, and places. Implications for the implementation of Invitational Education to cater for learner diversity are discussed.