The influence of parents on undergraduate and graduate students’ entering the STEM disciplines and STEM careers

This research examines the influence of parents on students’ studying the STEM disciplines and entering STEM careers. Cases of two graduate students (one female, one male) and one undergraduate student (male) are featured. The first two students in the convenience sample are biology and physics majors in a STEM teacher education programme; the third is enrolled in computer science. The narrative inquiry research method is used to elucidate the students’ academic trajectories. Incidents of circumstantial and planned parent curriculum making surfaced when the data was serially interpreted. Other themes included: (1) relationships between (student) learners and (teacher) parents, (2) invitations to inquiry, (3) modes of inquiry, (4) the improbability of certainty, and (5) changed narratives?=?changed lives. While policy briefs provide sweeping statements about parents’ positive effects on their children, narrative inquiries such as this one illuminate parents’ inquiry moves within home environments. These actions became retrospectively revealed in their adult children’s lived narratives. Nurtured by their mothers and/or fathers, students enter STEM disciplines and STEM-related careers through multiple pathways in addition to the anticipated pipeline.     

Individual attitudes and social influences on college students’ intent to participate in study abroad programs

Participation in study abroad programs (SAPs) is widely viewed as offering important professional and personal benefits for college students. This study applies the Theory of Reasoned Action [Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.] as a theoretical framework to better understand how undergraduate students’ individual attitudes and subjective norms from three social groups (family, friends and professors) impact their intent to participate in SAPs. Surveys were conducted at three public and private universities in the USA and Taiwan. The results suggest that both individual attitudes and subjective norms are influential factors for college students, and the effects are dependent on the type of SAPs. The current research offers several additions to the SAPs literature. Also, the results offer new insights for higher education and other institutional managers for increasing student participation in SAPs.     

Modeling undergraduate STEM students’ satisfaction with their programs in China: an empirical study

Asia Pacific Education Review - Several major reform areas attempted by ‘New Engineering Education’ (NEE), China’s most recent engineering education reform initiative at...     

Australian teachers voice their perceptions of the influences of stereotypes,mindsets and school structure on teachers’ expectations of Indigenous students

Research demonstrates that teachers’ expectations of students have long-term effects on students’ educational, occupational, health and well-being outcomes. In this Australian-based study, teachers were invited to explore the questions Do teachers have different expectations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students? Why/why not? The findings provide insight into how teachers perceive the expectations of other teachers in relation to Indigenous learners and highlight the underlying assumptions of those perceptions. Teachers also provide valuable insight into what they feel is needed to address these issues. Recommendations are made to enhance pre-service teacher education and professional development to better support those working with Indigenous learners.     

In the eyes of the beholder: students’ and teachers’ judgments of students’ motivation

This study was designed to examine the nature and accuracy of teachers’ judgments about students’ motivation related to mathematics. Seventeen fourth- through sixth-grade teachers and 100 of their students participated in this study. Teachers were asked to rate six target students’ motivation four times during the school year. At each of these times students also rated their own motivation. Teachers’ ratings were more stable over time and across mathematics topics and were less differentiated across motivation dimensions than were students’ ratings. The findings suggest that teachers need to pay careful attention to evidence related to children's motivation that might contradict their perceptions and therefore support more effective interventions.     

Humanizing and conducive to learning: an adolescent students’ perspective on the central attributes of positive relationships with teachers

The aim of this qualitative study was to identify central attributes of positive relationships with teachers from the adolescent students’ perspectives that could help delineate the meaning of student–teacher connectedness while exploring to what extent its main attributes were similar or different in England and Spain. As part of the EU-funded project “Well-being among European youth: The contribution of student-teacher relationships in the secondary-school population”, we conducted focus groups in England and Spain with 42 students aged 11 to 18 years. Using a bottom-up approach for thematic analysis, we identified two main attributes that were linked to positive relationships with teachers as seen by our participating students from England and Spain: humanizing relationships, in which the students are acknowledged and respected as individuals and feel understood and supported by their teachers; and relationships conducive to learning, encompassing aspects such as a perception of a genuine commitment with their learning on the part of the teachers, a positive classroom management, and teachers motivating students. This study contributes to the conceptualization of student–teacher connectedness and provides useful insights for teachers and educational professionals. In addition, the study findings pointed to the importance of power and authority dynamics in student–teacher relationships that foster or undermine connectedness, and they revealed some cross-cultural differences in the role of emotions in the class, two important aspects which deserve further attention in future research.

     

Teacher sensitivity in interaction with individual students: the role of teachers’ daily negative emotions

ABSTRACT

Research stresses the importance of teacher sensitivity for the development of special needs students, including students with attachment problems. However, little is known about the antecedents of teacher sensitivity. This study investigated associations between teachers’ daily negative emotions and teacher sensitivity towards individual students. Data were collected from 71 teacher-student dyads in special education primary schools and included students with mild to severe attachment problems (6 to 10 years old). Teachers reported their daily negative activating (e.g. anger) and deactivating (e.g. sadness) emotions in relation to individual students during a three-week period. Teacher sensitivity was observed in interaction with the target student in a cognitively challenging and an emotionally challenging task. Teachers’ higher but decreasing negative activating emotions were associated with higher levels of observed teacher sensitivity in the cognitively challenging task. In addition, heightened levels of negative deactivating emotions were associated with lower levels of observed teacher sensitivity but only in the emotionally challenging task.     

Epistemological beliefs of students and teachers about the nature of science: from ‘baconian inductive ascent’ to the ‘irrelevance’ of scientific laws

The main objectives of this study are to: (a) to investigate students' and teachers' beliefs about the nature of science; (b) to explore the relationship among the students' and teachers' beliefs; and (c) to carry out a rational reconstruction of students' and teachers' beliefs based on a Lakatosian perspective of the history and philosophy of science. Eighty-nine freshman students and 7 chemistry teachers at the Instituto Universitario de Tecnología, El Tigre (Venezuela) were asked to respond to a 4-item questionnaire. Students' and teachers' responses were classified as positivist, transitional or Lakatosian. Most of the students and teachers responded with a very similar positivist approach. Epistemological beliefs of students and teachers in this study can be summarized as follows: a scientific theory has not been proved in its totality, whereas a scientific law has not only been proved, but is also universal, and furthermore, a theory tells us about more complex and explicit things. In view of the Lakatosian interpretation that the conflict is not between theories and laws, but rather between an interpretative and an explanatory theory, it is concluded that science teachers reconsider the dichotomous presentation of scientific progress found in most text books, in terms of theories and laws.     

A systematic meta-analysis and meta-synthesis of the impact of service-learning programs on university students’ empathy

Higher education institutions seek not only to prepare students for their chosen profession, but also to develop graduates that are civic minded and make a positive social impact. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on whether participation in service-learning leads to students reporting increased empathy. The study also examines the features within a service-learning placement that contribute to development of empathy. The review followed the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. The authors searched Scopus, ERIC (EBSCOhost), PsycInfo, CINAHL, Web of Science, Medline Complete, Google Scholar and specific service-learning journals not indexed in major databases for studies published before Nov 23, 2020 that met the Bringle and Hatcher (1995) definition of service-learning and measured change in, or development of, empathy. Of 662 records identified, 35 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Overall, across the 14 studies included in the meta-analysis, there was a significant small effect for increase in empathy for those who participated in service-learning compared to those who did not (g = 0.261) and from pre to post service-learning (g = 0.176). Across the 21 qualitative studies, the main feature which appeared to contribute to the development of students’ empathy was direct interactions with the community. This paper provides insight into the efficacy of service-learning as a pedagogy and contributes to our understanding of the educational value of service-learning for universities. We conclude with avenues for future research and implications for practice.     

Exploration of the contribution of teachers’ knowledge about reading to their students’ improvement in reading

Recent studies of elementary teachers’ knowledge about reading have been built on the premise that teachers need thorough knowledge about language and reading processes, but these studies have provided only limited evidence that teachers’ performance on tests of such knowledge contributes to their students’ reading achievement. The present study was designed to examine the contribution of first- through third-grade teachers’ knowledge about early reading to their students’ improvement on tests of word analysis and reading comprehension, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics of students, their prior reading achievement, and teachers’ educational attainment, professional experiences, and socio-demographic characteristics. Preliminary analyses indicated that the test of teachers’ knowledge had adequate psychometric characteristics. However, performance on this measure of teachers’ knowledge did not significantly explain students’ improvement on the two reading subtests. The complexity of the factors that influence teachers’ knowledge acquisition and the context in which the study was carried out offer possible explanations for these results. In addition, teachers’ content knowledge about reading might not be closely associated with the practices they use in reading instruction, and therefore might not be significantly related to their students’ improvement in reading over a year.

Elementary teachers’ use of content knowledge to evaluate students’ thinking in the life sciences

Science learning environments should provide opportunities for students to make sense of and enhance their understanding of disciplinary concepts. Teachers can support students’ sense-making by engaging and responding to their ideas through high-leverage instructional practices such as formative assessment (FA). However, past research has shown that teachers may not understand FA, how to implement it, or have sufficient content knowledge to use it effectively. Few studies have investigated how teachers gather information to evaluate students’ ideas or how content knowledge factors into those decisions, particularly within the life science discipline. We designed a study embedded in a multi-year professional development program that supported elementary teachers’ development of disciplinary knowledge and FA practices within science instruction. Study findings illustrate how elementary teachers’ life science content knowledge influences their evaluation of students’ ideas. Teachers with higher levels of life science content knowledge more effectively evaluated students’ ideas than teachers with lower levels of content knowledge. Teachers with higher content exam scores discussed both content and student understanding to a greater extent, and their analyses of students’ ideas were more scientifically accurate compared to teachers with lower scores. These findings contribute to theory and practice around science teacher education, professional development, and curriculum development.     

Mixed emotions: teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with students

This paper describes the conceptual framework, methodology, and some results from a project on the Emotions of Teaching and Educational Change. It introduces the concepts of emotional intelligence, emotional labor, emotional understanding and emotional geographies. Drawing on interviews with 53 teachers in 15 schools, the paper then describes key differences in the emotional geographies of elementary and secondary teaching. Elementary teaching is characterized by physical and professional closeness which creates greater emotional intensity; but in ambivalent conditions of classroom power, where intensity is sometimes negative. Secondary teaching is characterized by greater professional and physical distance leading teachers to treat emotions as intrusions in the classroom. This distance, the paper argues, threatens the basic forms of emotional understanding on which high-quality teaching and learning depend.     

Secondary teachers’ experiences with students with disabilities: examining the global landscape

This study contributes to the international conversation about the education for students with disabilities at the secondary level by providing some international data about secondary teachers’ training and experiences with inclusive practices. Teacher leaders from 20 different countries participated in this exploratory survey research about the context in which they work, their experiences and their training as related to their efficacy to educate individuals with disabilities. We acknowledge that efficacy and teacher training for inclusion are predominated by a discourse defined through Western best practice. We learned that despite variations in the countries’ concept of disability and their implementation of inclusive educational systems, the teachers had moderately high self-efficacy for inclusive practices yet had limited training and experience with students with special needs. Results are discussed in relation to the preparation of secondary teachers for educating students with special needs.     

Changing workloads of primary school teachers: ‘I seem to live on the edge of chaos’

The roles and workloads of teachers have been widely noted as changing considerably over recent decades. In this 2009 replication of a 1992 study, 379 New Zealand primary school educators are surveyed regarding their workloads, how these changed and their perceived sustainability. It investigates how respondents believe that educational reforms and initiatives impact on their work, their home life, their health, and their view of teaching as a career. Results from both cohorts signal warnings to school leaders as workloads increase in hours and complexity, leaving educators to grapple with the complicated balance of demands made of them.     

Factors correlated with teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of students with special educational needs in Cyprus

Inclusion of SEN students in mainstream classrooms constitutes an ambitious objective of the education system in Cyprus. The legislation currently in effect provides for a clear‐cut frame of action, largely based on the willingness of teachers in the mainstream school, who are expected to develop positive attitudes that encourage and support the coeducation of SEN and non‐SEN students. However, the impact of infrastructural insufficiency, prejudice and, above all, the lack of specific knowledge as regards special education, seems in many cases to pose obstacles that undermine any efforts made. The present study, based on recent research in the schools in Cyprus, aims at recording teachers’ perceptions and determining the factors that influence Cypriot teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion after the implementation of the new laws on special education in Cyprus. The findings of this research confirm that the provisions in the new laws have adopted the right course of action, although teachers’ feelings of inadequacy, non‐SEN students’ circumspection and SEN students’ hesitation have not yet been satisfactorily addressed.     

Dualing with gender: teachers’ work,careers and leadership in physical education

The discursive practices of physical education reflect not only the expectations and constraints of discourses in the wider society, educational organizations and bureaucracies, but also the pervasive influences of working with and within sport. Within physical education, and specifically in the lives, work and careers of physical education teachers, in what ways are gender dualisms breaking down and in what ways are powerful gendered discourses still influential? This paper will outline results from research on teachers’ work, careers and leadership in physical education, with a particular focus on gendered patterns. A mixed methods research design was used with 556 female and male participants in the quantitative phase and 17 participants in the qualitative phase. Some of the results challenged gender dualistic ways of thinking about physical education teachers’ work, careers and leadership while other results indicated ways in which powerful dominant discourses still shape gendered patterns.     

A micro-perspective on students’ behavioral engagement in the context of teachers’ instructional support during seatwork: Sources of variability and the role of teacher adaptive support

Despite increased acknowledgement of the significance of situational factors to engagement, engagement is traditionally seen as a student characteristic. In this study, we investigated to what extent variation in observational measures of behavioral student engagement during seatwork is due to students versus teachers, teacher-student dyads, or situational (i.e., variation in time) effects. Additionally, we studied whether adaptive support during teacher-student interactions contributes to student engagement following that interaction. A cross-classified multilevel analysis of 324 video- and audio-recorded secondary school teacher-student interactions showed that situational factors and error were the strongest source of variability in student engagement. Other than expected, teacher-related and dyad-related variability were limited. Although behavioral engagement after teacher-student interaction was significantly higher than pre-interaction student engagement, higher post-interaction levels were not related to the level of adaptive support provided during the teacher-student interaction. These findings imply that situational factors deserve more attention in engagement research, for example by investigating what situational factors contribute to engagement. For teachers, the time-variant, situation-dependent nature of engagement opens up valuable opportunities to actively design optimal learning situations.