Warking with other adults: what teachers need to know

This paper discusses the concepts which trained teachers carry into the classroom from their initial teacher education courses and argues that these outmoded concepts must be altered so that the roles which other adults play can be understood by teachers. There is a common perception that teaching is a solitary activity carried out by a trained adult with a group of learners. The reality is that there is often another adult present. To maximize the support of another adult, teachers must understand the roles of those involved and they must be prepared to manage the involvement of other adults who may not be trained teachers. The paper is set in the context of classroom assistants working in Scottish primary mainstream classrooms. It concems the way in which teachers and other adults work together to support children with behavioural difficulties. Although the data is peculiarly Scottish, the lessons learned have a wider national and international currency, for it seeks to explain the changes necessary in teachers' thinking about collaborative working. This paper argues that continuing professional development must be provided to allow teachers already in the field to consider the effect on their professional identity produced by the presence of other adults. Most crucially, it is argued that initial teacher education must acknowledge the changes happening in mainstream classes and must include personnet and performance management training in courses for student teachers.     

Understanding the level and causes of teacher turnover: A comparison with other professions

It is commonly believed that teacher turnover is unusually high and that this is a sign of failure in the education system. Previous studies have tested this idea by comparing teacher turnover with that of similar professions, but have come to contradictory conclusions. We provide additional evidence by comparing teachers with professionals from other fields that are arguably comparable, namely nurses, social workers, and accountants. Using data from the Current Population Survey, the results suggest that the average rate of teacher turnover is not significantly higher than these professions, even after controlling for other measured differences among them. Where teacher turnover differs most from other professions is in the greater prevalence of turnover among older workers, likely reflecting earlier retirement. We find some evidence that the relatively high ratio of pensions-to-salaries in teaching partially explains this behavior. Other factors affecting turnover are also studied.     

Understanding the nature of science: A comparison of scientists and science teachers

Interpreting science in the culture is coming to be the responsibility of a science teacher. The author finds that some neophytes are prepareil.     

Selecting teachers and prospective teachers: A meta-analysis

The purpose of this review article was to examine the methods used for the selection of teachers for employment and prospective teachers entering initial teacher education (ITE) programs, and to assess the predictive validity of these methods. We reviewed 32 studies reporting selection methods administered in high-stakes conditions and that included an external (not self-reported) teacher effectiveness outcome measure. The overall effect size was small but significant (r = 0.12, p < .001). Moderator analyses showed that academic and non-academic predictors were both significantly associated with teacher effectiveness measures and that effect sizes were small (but significant) for selection into employment and ITE. We conclude the review by proposing a research agenda that has the potential to enhance educational outcomes by improving the selection of prospective teachers.     

Employability credentials: A key to successful youth transition to work

Conclusion Employers place considerable emphasis on credentials. The assumption that a high school diploma can be used to screen for competencies is problematic. First, it leaves much of the translation of what a high school diploma means, in terms of skills, knowledge, and attitudes, with the employer. Second, it fails to differentiate among youth because the diploma does little more than signify that high school has been completed. Finally it places young people without diplomas (dropouts) at a great disadvantage.Although a high school diploma may demonstrate a certain level of maturity, motivation, perseverance, and some specific academic skills, it does not provide an adequate picture of the employability or marketable skills, knowledge, and competencies that an individual possesses. In order for youth to make successful transitions to work they need more than their high school diplomas. They need an employability credential that identifies and documents the array of their developmental experiences and translates these into component competencies—a credential that employers will respect and youth will value. A credential that is more than a document. One that represents a process that helps youth understand themselves and their marketability and provides them with a sense of self-worth and future direction.Ivan Charner is the Director of Research and Development at the National Institute for Work and Learning, Washington, D.C.     

Studying mathematics problem-solving classrooms. A comparison between the discourse of in-service teachers and student teachers

In the article we compare the approaches of 3 in-service teachers and 3 student teachers when they tried to solve a verbal arithmetic problem in the classroom. Each interaction was studied using a System of Analysis that takes into account the cognitive processes involved in the solution of a mathematic problem and describes the interaction at different levels showing what is done and to what degree teachers and/or pupils are responsible for what is done. The results of the study suggest that both groups of teachers are different in how they direct the student’s attention toward the essential aspects implied in the resolution of word problem. On the one hand, the in-service teachers guaranteed students’ understanding of the problem before dealing with the solution, while students teachers only did so when pupils committed errors. On the other hand, the in-service teachers allowed a high level of student participation, while student teachers took a more prominent role so children’s participation was lower.     

Perceptions of competence: How parents and teachers view each other

The home-school relationship typically has been described from the perspective of mothers and teachers, disregarding fathers, and there is usually no reference to the child involved. A 22-item Parent and Teacher Attitude Questionnaire (PTAQ) was completed by the mothers (N = 150), fathers (N = 114), and teachers (N = 127) of children in grades kindergarten through five in relation to vignettes of an overreactive and underreactive child. The gender and grade in the vignettes also were varied. A factor analysis of the PTAQ demonstrated that the most salient dimensions were Teacher Competence and Parent Competence. Parent and teacher attitudes on these dimensions were compared as a function of vignette behavior type, gender, and grade, using an analysis of variance with repeated measures. The results showed that parent and teacher perceptions did not vary according to child characteristics, but there was a significant interaction between parents and teachers on the PTAQ dimensions.     

A comparison of role concepts between public and parochial school teachers

This study seeks to determine if the same five bipolar factors that appear for the ideal role concepts of public school teachers also appear for parochial school teachers. Subjects included 185 teachers from a Catholic diocese. The data were factor analyzed by means of a principal axis analysis with varimax rotation. An analysis of variance was used to compare the factor analyses. The results indicated that parochial and public school teachers have similar factor structures. When comparing factor scores of the two groups, there were significant differences on several factors, indicating that parochial school teachers adopt a more facilitating role than do public school teachers.     

A comparison of personality attributes of science teachers and medical technologists

Undergraduate students who major in science make diverse career choices. Two such career choices are medical technologists and science teachers. One possible reason for science majors selecting different career choices might be attributed to varied personality dimensions. The purpose of this study was to identify a set of personality attributes that distinguish practicing medical technologists from practicing science teachers. The subjects of this study consisted of 83 medical technologists and 57 science teachers. Eysenck Personality (EPI) was utilized to investigate the personality attributes of subjects in terms of Eysenck's personality variable of Extroversion-Introversion and Neuroticism-Stability. Vocational Preference Inventory was utilized to investigate the vocational personality profile of subjects in terms of Holland's classification of occupations and work environment. Data with EPI revealed that there was no significant difference between medical technologists and science teachers with respect to Eysenck's personality variable of extroversion. However, there was found a significant difference between the two groups with respect to Eysenck's personality variable of neuroticism. Data with VPI revealed that there was no significant difference between medical technologists and science teachers with respect to Eysenck's personality variable of extroversion. Both the groups were characterized by the personality profile of IAS (Intellectual-Artistic-Social). This profile was different from that required earlier in literature.     

Teacher credentials and student achievement: Longitudinal analysis with student fixed effects

We use a rich administrative dataset from North Carolina to explore questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this research are not new—and, indeed, have been explored in many papers over the years within the rubric of the “education production function”—the availability of data on all teachers and students in North Carolina over a 10-year period allows us to explore them in more detail than has been possible in previous studies. We conclude that a teacher's experience, test scores and regular licensure all have positive effects on student achievement, with larger effects for math than for reading. Taken together the various teacher credentials exhibit quite large effects on math achievement, whether compared to the effects of changes in class size or to the socio-economic characteristics of students.     

发达国家高职院校聘任兼职教师的国际比较

发达国家在高等职业教育师资管理方面有两个突出的表现:一方面,极为重视高等职业教育师资的规格,主要体现在职业教育师资的专职化和培养培训的正规化;另一方面,强化教师聘任制度中的市场因素,主要体现在兼职教师的数量大量增加.本文就美国、德国、澳大利亚、法国、英国、日本等发达国家高职院校聘任兼职教师的情况进行一个国际比较,以期对我国高职院校兼职教师的聘任有所借鉴.     

A cross-cultural comparison of German and Canadian student teachers’ assessment competence

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ competence in educational assessment is a key feature in teacher professionalism. Understanding of assessment competence has evolved from the learning of technical skills in assessment to a context-dependent, socially defined understanding encompassing a multitude of approaches to assessment. Thus, a holistic approach to assessment competence is used in this research to specifically consider the role of education culture on assessment competence. In particular, we compared Canadian and German student teachers with regard to their self-rated competence in, and approaches towards, educational assessment. While structural analysis revealed that the overall dimensions in which assessment is perceived do not depend on culture, ANOVAs pointed at some differences between the two countries, particularly concerning assessment purposes and approaches to fairness.     

The learning preferences of students and teachers: An Australian-American comparison

The Learning Preference Scale—Students and the Learning Preference Scale—Teachers were administered to large samples from Sydney schools (n = 1,814 and 619, respectively). With corresponding American versions, a large sample of students and teachers was tested in Minneapolis schools (n = 1,059 and 342, respectively). Data were analyzed first in separate batches by country, and then combined using country as a variable. School year and sex findings are discussed for students. Teaching subject, sex, and years of teaching experience findings are discussed for teachers. The Sydney and Mineapolis data are similar when each data set is analyzed separately. In both cities the girl-boy differences are identical: the girls show stronger cooperative preferences and the boys stronger competitive and individualized preferences. The overall trends with regard to school year, too, are the same, with cooperative and competitive preferences increasing with year level and individualized preference decreasing. In addition, teachers in both cities show striking similarities. Males have more orientation to competitive learning than females. Primary/elementary teachers express more cooperative preferences than secondary teachers, whereas high school teachers, especially those of science and mathematics, are more strongly competitive in their preferences. Dissimilarities become evident, however, when direct comparisons are made between the sets of data for the two locations. Both students and teachers in Sydney are more competitively inclined, more individualistically inclined, and less cooperatively inclined than the sample of their American counterparts. Although the emphasis on competition and individualization in American schools has been seen as excessive and has drawn loud criticism from social commentators, this emphasis in Australia, which is even greater, has attracted very little attention. Because of geographic and social isolation, certain aspects of Australian society have been relatively free from criticism. Comparative data such as those from the present study offer the chance to bring the competitive/indivudalistic ethos predominant in Australia under critical examination.