Children spend more time in school than in any social institution outside the home. And schools probably exert more influence on children’s development and life chances than any environment beyond the home and neighbourhood. The purpose of this book is to document some important ways schools influence children’s development and to describe various models and methods for studying schooling effects. Key features include: Comprehensive Coverage – this is the first book to provide a comprehensive review of what is known about schools as a context for human development. Topical coverage ranges from theoretical foundations to investigative methodologies and from classroom-level influences such as teacher-student relations to broader influences such as school organization and educational policies. Cross-Disciplinary – this volume brings together the divergent perspectives, methods and findings of scholars from a variety of disciplines, among them educational psychology, developmental psychology, school psychology, social psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and educational policy. Chapter Structure – to ensure continuity, chapter authors describe 1) how schooling influences are conceptualized 2) identify their theoretical and methodological approaches 3) discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing research and 4) highlight implications for future research, practice, and policy. Methodologies – chapters included in the text feature various methodologies including longitudinal studies, hierarchical linear models, experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and mixed methods.

First Published in 2002. This single-volume reference provides readers and researchers with access to details on a wide range of topics and issues in the sociology of education. Entries cover both national and international perspectives and studies, as well as tackling controversial points in education today, including gender inequality, globalization, minorities, meritocracy, and more. This is a key, one-of-a-kind resource for all educational researchers and educators.

The essential reference for human development theory, updatedand reconceptualized The Handbook of Child Psychology and DevelopmentalScience, a four-volume reference, is the field-defining work towhich all others are compared. First published in 1946, and now inits Seventh Edition, the Handbook has long been consideredthe definitive guide to the field of developmental science. Volume 4: Ecological Settings and Processes in DevelopmentalSystems is centrally concerned with the people, conditions, andevents outside individuals that affect children and theirdevelopment. To understand children's development it is bothnecessary and desirable to embrace all of these social and physicalcontexts. Guided by the relational developmental systemsmetatheory, the chapters in the volume are ordered them in a mannerthat begins with the near proximal contexts in which children findthemselves and moving through to distal contexts that influencechildren in equally compelling, if less immediately manifest, ways.The volume emphasizes that the child's environment is complex,multi-dimensional, and structurally organized into interlinkedcontexts; children actively contribute to their development; thechild and the environment are inextricably linked, andcontributions of both child and environment are essential toexplain or understand development. Understand the role of parents, other family members, peers,and other adults (teachers, coaches, mentors) in a child'sdevelopment Discover the key neighborhood/community and institutionalsettings of human development Examine the role of activities, work, and media in child andadolescent development Learn about the role of medicine, law, government, war anddisaster, culture, and history in contributing to the processes ofhuman development The scholarship within this volume and, as well, across the fourvolumes of this edition, illustrate that developmental science isin the midst of a very exciting period. There is a paradigm shiftthat involves increasingly greater understanding of how todescribe, explain, and optimize the course of human life fordiverse individuals living within diverse contexts. ThisHandbook is the definitive reference for educators,policy-makers, researchers, students, and practitioners in humandevelopment, psychology, sociology, anthropology, andneuroscience.