A structural model for the effectiveness of nonviolent communication in education on the academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism of late learners with the mediating role of teaching methodology

The present descriptive correlational study aims to determine the effectiveness of nonviolent communication (NVC) in education on the academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism of late learners with the mediating role of teaching methodology. The study population consists of students in senior high school in Landeh town. Using Morgan's table, 242 participants were selected by stratified sampling. The nonviolent communication in education questionnaire by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Pham and Taylor’s Academic Performance Scale, Morgan-Jinks’ Student Efficacy Scale (MJSES), Tschannen-Moran’s Student Academic Optimism Questionnaire, and Rajabi’s teaching methods were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by simple linear regression and structural equations modeling (SEM) in SPSS-22 and AMOS-2020. The findings showed that with the mediating role of teaching methodology, NVC in education significantly affected the academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism of late learners in Landeh both directly and indirectly. The model fit indices and RMSEA of 0.21 indicate the high model adequacy. The findings reveal that NVC in education enhances the quality of the learning process in late learners, leading to the mitigation of many behavioral, emotional, psychological, and social challenges. Nevertheless, the role of the mediating factors, such as teaching methodologies, should not be neglected, as they increase the effectiveness of NVC in education and facilitate the progress of these students.
Introduction
In recent years, many professional teachers have focused on the term ‘late learners’ for the correct treatment of students, as they believe that students engage differently in their learning process and the progress of learning differs for each individual student. The term ‘late learners’ refers to children whose learning pace is slower than their peers and who have less capacity for understanding concepts (Fakhruddin et al., 2024, P7). Blessy et al. (2024, P1949) believe that late learners are not officially recognized in schools, but still face challenges in learning because of their IQ range of 70-85 and suffer from lower levels of social, emotional, and psychological well-being and safety. Fakhruddin et al. (2024, P8) stress that late learners must be approached in a manner that does not make them feel isolated and left out. Sumiati and Gomiandari (2022, P1052) point out that late learners perform better when they have more active and creative teachers. They believe that teachers’ growing tendency to engage in collaborative teaching and to involve the students in the process of learning can lead to better learning. In light of the challenges faced by late learners and the consequences of the conflicts between them and their teachers, the authors of this study seek to investigate the effectiveness of NVC in education with respect to the academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism of late learners with the mediating role of teaching methodology.
Methodology
This is an applied study in terms of objectives that has a descriptive correlational design based on a quantitative approach and path analysis. Teaching methodology was examined as the mediating variable, the variables of academic progress, academic optimism, and academic self-efficacy as the criterion variables, and NVC in education as the predictor variable. The statistical population included students in the senior high schools of Landeh town in the academic year 2023-2024 (n=644). Of these, 242 participants were selected as the study samples using Morgan's table. Sampling was performed by both stratified random and multi-stage cluster methods. Data were collected using the standard nonviolent communication in education questionnaire by Marshall Rosenberg (2009), with an alpha reliability of 0.85, Pham and Taylor’s Academic Performance Scale (1994), with alpha coefficient of 0.87, Morgan-Jinks’ Student Efficacy Scale (MJSES) (1999), with an alpha coefficient of 0.89, Tschannen-Moran’s Student Academic Optimism Questionnaire (2013), with an alpha of 0.83, and Rajabi’s Active Learning Method Questionnaire (2006), with an alpha of 0.79. The questionnaires had face and content validity and the data were analyzed in SPSS-21 using descriptive (mean and SD) and inferential (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and simple linear regression) statistics. Path analysis was performed in AMOS 2020.
Results
As shown in Table 1, the research assumption regarding the direct and significant effect of NVC in education on the academic progress, self-efficacy, and optimism of late learners is confirmed.
As shown in Table 2, the research assumption regarding the direct and significant effect of teaching methodology on the academic progress, self-efficacy, and optimism of late learners is confirmed.
The following is a structural model for the effectiveness of NVC in education with regard to the academic progress, self-efficacy, and optimism of late learners with the mediating role of teaching methodology produced by AMOS-2020.
Discussion and conclusion
The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of NVC in education with regard to the academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism of late learners with the mediating role of teaching methodology. The findings show that NVC has a significant impact on the academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism of late learners both directly and indirectly with the mediating role of teaching methodology. The results of the present study are consistent with the findings reported by Savage et al. (2017), Eidhof & Ruyter (2022), Choi (2016), Casiso et al. (2018), Mascall et al. (2008), Nazari (2019), Tavakoli et al. (2021), Salajegeh and Bazmandegan (2022) and Bahri and Pourjamshidi (2023). Furthermore, the structural model presented in the study also confirms this finding. By studying the model fit indicators, it can be concluded that NVC in education not only provides optimal circumstances for late learners in the school to acquire knowledge, but also helps them develop adaptability in the social environment and strengthen their academic and practical skills. The findings of this research also showed that by implementing NVC in education, late learners perform successfully in terms of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects and can attain high academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism compared to before. This study also suggests that in addition to implementing NCV in education, teachers must be highly professional and develop themselves further in information literacy in methodology, as this study also investigated the direct effects of teaching methodology on the academic progress, self-efficacy, and academic optimism of late learners and our proposed structural model also confirmed this finding.