Dealing with school violence: The effect of school violence prevention training on teachers' perceived self-efficacy in dealing with violent events

Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio antropológico fue comprender la experiencia de violencia escolar que viven los adolescentes en el contexto de probreza crónica en una comunidad de Africa del Sur.Método: Para la recolección de los datos se utilizaron métodos cualitativos como observación participativa, entrevistas y discusiones en grupos. Diez y seis niños y tres adultos mantuvieron diarios y escribieron los reportes durante el período de la investigación de trs años y medio (Junio 1992-Diciembre 1995). Los siete alumnos Standard (N = 76) de la escuela local completaron un cuestionario de auto-concepto y escribieron dos ensayos sobre sí mismos y sus vidas, respectivamente.Resultados: La ideología y las estructuras del apartheid crearon un contexto de empobrecimiento y violencia estructural a la que los niños habían sido expuestos. La escuela era una de las instituciones sociales donde los niños eran sometidos a biolencia estructural, psicológica y física diariamente. La conducta violenta o disciplinaria era utilizada por padres y maestros autoritarios como práctica justa y efectiva de enseñanza. Las manifestaciones de la pobreza incluían erosión emocional, un auto-concepto negativo y violencia reactiva.Conclusiones: La violencia escolar estaba estructuralmente entremezclada con el tejido mismo de la jerarquía social del contexto escolar y considerada una estrategia efectiva para adquirir control social y para disciplinar a los niños. La pobreza en sí misma ofrecía el caldo de cultivo para la violencia en el hogar y en la escuela. Los niños estaban atrapados en un círculo vicioso de violencia pro- y reactiva; y socializados para aceptar la violencia como un instrumento de poder. Se ofrecieron recomendaciones para posibles intervenciones y futuras investigaciones.

La parabole du gaucher et de la casserole à bec verseur: ètude des processus d'apprentissage dans un environnement de calculatrices symboliques

This paper concerns the problems of conceptualization of the function limit in technological environments (principally graphic calculators today, symbolic calculators tomorrow) that are gradually being adopting in precalculus teaching. In France, such teaching takes place in the scientific stream during the last year of high school (18-year-old pupils). This paper shows out how the instrumentation process and the conceptualization process are dependent on each other and stresses especially:

Planification a long terme du systeme pedagogique Hongrois

Cette étude s'occupe du problème de la planification à long terme de l'éducation. Tout d'abord, elle considère la conception fondamentale du système d'éducation, indiquant quels sont les facteurs essentiels dans l'éducation nationale en Hongrie. Les auteurs cherchent alors, au moyen d'une conception de la théorie de systèmes, de donner à cette éducation une place dans la société et dans la civilisation — en tenant compte du fait que l'éducation nationale est un système d'une indépendance relative. De là, ils examinent les motifs imposés par la planification du développement à long terme.Un chapitre important examine la planification comme un processus et la considère comme un élément essentiel concomitant de la stratégie du développement dans les phases suivantes:

Assessing Teachers’ Beliefs to Facilitate the Transition to a New Chemistry Curriculum: What Do the Teachers Want?

In this article, we describe the results of a study of chemistry high school teachers’ beliefs (N = 7) of the chemistry curriculum and their roles, their beliefs on the teacher as developer of materials, and their beliefs about professional development. Teachers’ beliefs influence the implementation of a curriculum. We view the use of a new curriculum as a learning process, which should start at teachers’ prior knowledge and beliefs. The results reveal that it is possible to develop a new curriculum in which teachers’ beliefs are taken as a starting point. Promising approaches to prepare teachers for a new curriculum is to let them (co)develop and use curriculum materials: It creates ownership, and strengthens and develops teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

Signifying “students”, “teachers” and “mathematics”: a reading of a special issue

This paper examines a Special Issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics comprising research reports centred on Peircian semiotics in mathematics education, written by some of the major authors in the area. The paper is targeted at inspecting how subjectivity is understood, or implied, in those reports. It seeks to delineate how the conceptions of subjectivity suggested are defined as a result of their being a function of the domain within which the authors reflexively situate themselves. The paper first considers how such understandings shape concepts of mathematics, students and teachers. It then explores how the research domain is understood by the authors as suggested through their implied positioning in relation to teachers, teacher educators, researchers and other potential readers.

Just knowing how to read isn't enough! Assessing knowledge for teaching reading

Debates persist over the knowledge needed to teach elementary reading effectively. In one commonly held view verbal ability is what matters most and the best approach to improving teacher quality is to recruit teachers who themselves are good readers. Others argue that teachers need special forms of professional knowledge that differ substantially from common adult reading and verbal ability. These different assumptions about what teachers need to know are directly relevant to whether teaching reading demands specialized professional knowledge and they have lead to radically different policy recommendations for both teacher preparation and induction. This study presents preliminary evidence that elementary reading teachers can hold a special knowledge of language, text, and reading process that differs substantially from common reading and verbal ability. Implications for the measurement and study of teacher quality and related implications for teacher evaluation and teacher development are discussed.

Academic mathematics and mathematical knowledge needed in school teaching practice: some conflicting elements

In this article we analyze the relations between academic mathematical knowledge and the mathematical knowledge associated with issues mathematics school teachers face in practice, according to the specialized literature, and restricted to the theme “number systems”. We present examples that illustrate some areas of conflict between those forms of knowledge. We point out some implications of our study for teacher education, such as: 1) the importance of making conflicts explicit and of discussing them with prospective teachers in order to develop a professionally relevant perception of academic mathematics; 2) the relevance of further research in order to better understand the extent of those conflicts and their effects on the process of integrating, in a body of professional knowledge, the different kinds of mathematical knowledge presented to prospective teachers.

Teacher policy: a framework for comparative analysis

This article outlines a framework for analysis of teacher focused policy studies within an international and comparative perspective. Using the notion of the professional life cycle of teachers, the article examines examples of key empirical studies that illustrate the impact of policy on addressing such issues as teacher recruitment, education, selection, retention and development. The article concludes that the framework is useful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses in the conceptualization and design of teacher focused policy and studies, and gives recommendations for the design of rigorous studies to inform future policy in this area.