Extending the PDAC framework to examine associations between school type and character virtues and pupil perceptions of key competencies
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study examines whether school type is associated with primary pupils’ self-perceived key competencies and whether the associations between character virtues and those self-perceptions vary across school types. The Positive Development and Assessment Competencies (PDAC) framework conceptualises competencies as multidimensional and context-dependent. The present study treats school type as a distal structural indicator of institutional context and tests an empirical extension of PDAC rather than assuming that PDAC predicts school-type moderation. The cross-sectional sample comprised 993 Year 5 and Year 6 pupils from 16 participating schools in Andalusia, Spain (8 public, 5 state-subsidised private, and 3 private schools). Virtues were measured with the I.V.yF. Niños and self-perceived competencies with the #ICOMpri1. Continuous subscale scores were analysed using generalized estimating equations (GEE) with pupils clustered within schools, an exchangeable working correlation, and a bias-reduced covariance estimator. Models adjusted for sex, grade, and grade repetition, and false discovery rate correction was applied. School type showed FDR-adjusted omnibus associations with linguistic communication, knowledge of and interaction with the physical world, and cultural and artistic self-perceived competency. In a sensitivity analysis additionally adjusting for all six virtue scores, only linguistic communication retained an FDR-adjusted school-type association. No school-type-by-virtue interaction survived correction across the 48 interaction tests. These findings provide preliminary evidence that some competency self-perceptions vary with school type while offering no robust evidence that school type systematically changes virtue-competency associations in this sample.
Source: Discover Education
Institution: University of Bath
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,390
OpenAlex ID: W7225621687