Social Adjustment of At-Risk Technology Education Students

Educators at all academic levels strive to provide students with a high-quality education while maintaining an environment that promotes learning as well as the health and well-being of each individual. However, in a 2011 study, Preble and Gordon recognized that there are confounding difficulties challenging K–12 education, such as student feelings of social isolation and collective student emotional needs not being adequately met. Students identified with at-risk indicators (students with disabilities, students from economically disadvantaged families, or students with limited English proficiency) are specifically susceptible to experiencing the difficulties firsthand (Ernst, Bottomley, Parry, & Lavelle, 2011). Despite numerous readdress and transformation initiatives, these challenges persist in many schools (Preble & Gordon, 2011). Many of these educational challenges are brought on by low social competence or poor social adjustment (MacKay, Knott, & Dunlop, 2007). Krips, Lehtsaar, and Kukemelk (2011) pose that social competence is composed of dimensions pertaining to personality, appropriateness, communication, and human relations, thus highlighting a critical structure for sociometrics.