Description:

Previous Award Number: R305A160027
Previous Awardee: University of Texas, Austin 

Co-Principal Investigator: Beretvas, Natasha

Purpose: The researchers conducted a research synthesis and set of meta-analyses focused on the role of classroom structure in preschool through high school students' academic competence beliefs, engagement, and achievement. By classroom structure, the researchers meant an overall approach to creating a predictable classroom environment that includes an assortment of practices implemented by teachers meant to organize and guide students' school-relevant behavior and in turn, support students' in effectively navigating the learning environment and accomplishing desired outcomes. Research and theory suggest that teachers who provide structure and organization in the classroom environment support students' academic outcomes by facilitating feelings of competence, keeping students engaged and on task, managing their behavior, and avoiding chaos in the classroom. However, heterogeneity in findings from previous studies is also evident.

Project Activities:  To uncover stable patterns, project researchers conducted a set of related meta-analyses focused on the role of classroom structure in student competence beliefs, engagement, and achievement outcomes. The researchers conducted a comprehensive literature search using traditional and grey search approaches was conducted to create the evidence database. Correlational evidence linking classroom structure with students' outcomes and field-based experimental and intervention evidence focused on manipulations of classroom structure was synthesized separately. The researchers meta-analyzed evidence to do the following:

• Examine what the cumulative experimental and correlational evidence suggest regarding the extent to which classroom structure is associated with students' academic competence beliefs, engagement, and achievement.
• Examine how these relations vary depending on characteristics of the classroom structure construct or structure intervention.
• Examine the role of characteristics of the setting, students, outcome, and research methods in these relations.
• Assess the limitations, challenges, and areas still in need of inquiry regarding the links between classroom structure and students' academic outcomes.

Key Outcomes: The main findings of this exploratory study were as follows:

• Provision of classroom structure was related to higher student achievement, engagement, and competence beliefs (Patall, et al., 2023).
• The results varied across characteristics of students, settings, and the nature of the classroom structure. Some relationships between structure and achievement or engagement were stronger for non-USA samples, middle to high income students, and when structure was paired with other psychological supports. Methodological features of this research study also explained variation in results, highlighting the importance of using methods that center teachers' and students' experiences and align with the nature of the focal outcome (Patall, et al., 2023).

Structured Abstract

Setting: This meta-analysis included studies that were conducted within an authentic classroom context and involved the provision of structure by a teacher. Studies could focus on any level from preschool through high school in any setting (urban, suburban, or rural) and be from any country, provided the results were reported in English.

Sample: Studies included in the synthesis must have somehow assessed the relation between classroom structure and students' academic competence beliefs, engagement, or achievement outcomes. The researchers included studies conducted with students in preschool through high school, and the researchers made efforts to gain access to published and unpublished data to minimize potential publication bias. In total, this synthesis included 223 total articles (182 published and 41 unpublished) appearing between 1968 and 2022 from which included 309 effect sizes from 71 samples in 46 interventions studies (from 46 reports) that manipulated educators' classroom structure practices and 1497 correlations from 191 samples in 165 studies (from 177 reports) correlating classroom structure and student outcomes were gathered. For intervention studies, the participant sample sizes ranged from 11 to 3,188, with a total sample size of 25,577. For correlational studies, the sample sizes ranged from 8 to 61,879, with a total sample size of 260,339.

Malleable Factor: The researchers reviewed and synthesized evidence focusing on classroom structure. For the purposes of this review, classroom structure was defined as any and all non-instructional practice that is implemented by teachers with the intent to organize and guide students' school-relevant behavior. Classroom structure was alternatively labeled classroom management, classroom organization, among other terms, and may focus on one or several of a variety of individual teacher practices, in particular the provision of clear expectations or goals, rules, plans, or routines, organized lessons or materials, appropriate monitoring or signals, feedback, rewards, or punishment.

Research Design and Methods: The researchers conducted a comprehensive literature search using electronic database, antecedent, descendent, and grey literature search strategies to uncover all potentially relevant published and unpublished reports focused on the relationship between classroom structure and academic motivation, engagement, and achievement outcomes. They used three broad strategies to search the published literature: reference databases, descendant searches, and antecedent references. The databases included ERIC, PsycINFO, Dissertation Abstracts International, and Academic Search Complete. The researchers examined cited references within all articles selected for inclusion and searched Social Sciences Citation Index for documents catalogued in any year that referred to early seminal papers on the topic. Finally, they also used a number of strategies to locate grey (i.e., unpublished or difficult to retrieve) literature. Next, they screened report titles and abstracts for fit with inclusion criteria and retrieved full-text documents for further screening and coding. Trained coders extracted and evaluated data from included reports using a coding guide developed by the research team. Finally, the researchers analyzed overall, weighted average associations in correlational meta-analyses and weighted average standardized mean differences in the experimental meta-analyses and examined effect size variation through meta-regression moderator tests.

Control Condition: This research synthesis involves synthesizing experimental evidence comparing a teachers' implemented structure to a control condition. Possible control conditions include business-as-usual teaching, waitlist, attention-placebo, or an alternative unrelated intervention. Synthesis of the correlational studies do not involve a control condition due to the nature of their study design.

Key Measures: Academic outcomes most typically included students' grades, standardized test scores, or other measures of learning (e.g., teacher or researcher designed knowledge or skill tests), behavioral, emotional, or cognitive engagement, on-task behavior or attention, and perceptions of academic competence. Measures of classroom structure may use both observational and survey methods.

Data Analytic Strategy: This research synthesis and meta-analysis employed state-of-the-art aggregation and moderator analysis methods. These methods involved an approach that views research synthesis as a data gathering exercise and applies criteria similar to those employed to judge the validity of primary research. The approach required (a) precise problem definition, (b) exhaustive and unbiased gathering of the research evidence, (c) careful examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the included research, (d) appropriate methods for data integration, including meta-analysis, (e) cautious interpretation of the cumulative evidence, and (f) complete reporting of the syntheses' methods and results. The researchers synthesized results for each type of study design and outcome category separately. All data integration analyses used a random effects model of error and accounted for data dependency by using multilevel modeling and cluster robust variance estimation (CRVE) with small sample size correction. Heterogeneity was examined with moderator analyses using meta-regression.

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here and here.

Select Publications:

Patall, E. A., Yates, N., Lee, J., Chen, M., Bhat, B.H., Lee, K., Beretvas, S.N., Lin, S., Yang, S.M., Jacobson, N.G., Harris, E., & Hanson, D.J. (2023) A meta-analysis of teachers' provision of structure in the classroom and students' academic competence beliefs, engagement, and achievement. Educational Psychologist, 1-29.