Factors of School Failure – Framework of a Prospective Model for Prevention

Abstract

Several interpretations have been proposed in recent decades to explain school failure. These interpretations not only expanded our, previously limited, knowledge about the reasons behind failure, but also allowed for considering the cognitive, non-cognitive and environmental dimensions of the problem as well as their relationships. Results (e.g., Ibabe, 2016) indicate that school failure is a complex phenomenon, and tackling it may not be effective or successful neither on an individual, nor on a system level without taking this complexity into consideration. This study describes the prominent interpretations of school failure, and, based on these, introduces a newly developed research and developmental model. The study focuses on those interpretations of school failure which, besides the cognitive psychological characteristics of the social context, also emphasize the non-cognitive factors; as a growing number of studies (e.g., Heckman & Rubinstein, 2001; Ibabe, 2016; Paksi et al., 2020) have called attention to their role not only in school failure, but also in school dropout – which is closely tied to school failure. These interpretations provide a framework for our research and development model, which is the foundation of a 4-year longitudinal research running from 2021 to 2025 in elementary school students (7–14 years of age) and their teachers. The research pays special attention to the motivational–social–emotional factors of school failure (e.g., learning motivation, self-concept, mindset) as well as to the environmental factors (e.g., parenting style, parents’ and teachers’ attitudes), which have received less attention than cognitive factors (e.g., cognitive skills, achievement).