Gender differences in self-confidence and educational beliefs among secondary teacher candidates

This longitudinal study examined gender differences among secondary teacher candidates across three categories of criterion measures: (a) levels of self-confidence in teaching, (b) anticipated sources of professional knowledge, and (c) educational orientations and beliefs. Relative to males, females entered teacher preparation programs with lower levels of confidence in themselves as teachers and higher expectations for what they would gain from education courses and practical experiences related to teaching. Females were also more likely to favor student-centered approaches to instruction and to believe that instructional strategies have limited generalizability. These differences in self-confidence and educational beliefs persisted to program completion.     

“老师”与“教师”的差异辨析

"老师"与"教师"虽一字之别,但自诞生之时二者的意义和用法就大有不同。目前社会对二者的用法并没有进行严格区分,以致出现混淆二者用法的现象,尤其要引人注意的是社会上出现了大量的"老师"称呼语,出现在各种正式场合上,可见,"老师"的意义已不局限在其本义上,显然超出了教育界,对这种现象进行分析对于区别"老师"和"教师"之间的差异是很有帮助的。     

The place of the personal: Exploring the affective domain through reflection in teacher preparation

Emotions and emotional states play an important role in learning to teach, encouraging teacher educators to consider the place of the affective domain in preservice teacher preparation. Preservice teacher reflection provides a means by which to constructively explore the affective domain in teacher preparation. This article draws from two qualitative studies on reflection and technology conducted at an American university to explore the affective domain in teacher preparation. Using the web-based data of online discussion posts and weblog entries, this article considers the affective issues addressed in preservice teacher reflection and the implications of those emotional concerns for teacher preparation.     

Mature student teachers in initial teacher education in Greece: personal and academic identities

This qualitative study examined mature student teachers in initial teacher preparation for primary schools in Greece. More specifically it sought to identify the profile of mature student teachers, their intentions to become primary school teachers, their academic needs, concerns and expectations as well as their coping strategies across private and public spheres in university departments preparing primary school teachers. Adapting an ethnographic research approach and a case study design, 15 mature student teachers were followed throughout the final year of their studies, investigating patterns of personal and academic identities developed in order to become primary school teachers. Mature student teachers consist of a limited number in the total higher education student population. However their skills and experiences can be regarded as significant in course completion and contributing to a high standard of education in both the university and primary schools.     

The personal relationship between the kindergarten teacher and the parents as a mediator between cultures

The purpose of the study is to describe the teacher's personal connection with parents as an intermediary factor between cultures and to examine the implications for the future of the migrant group in the receiving society. The study is a qualitative study based on the phenomenological approach and involved five teachers working with African children. The findings show three categories: (1) social and cultural, (2) language, (3) behaviour and education. The contribution focuses on the importance of developing intercultural competence among the teachers and the importance of having a joint-personal dialogue in order to cope with migration challenges.     

What are the personal attributes a teacher needs to engage Indigenous students effectively in the learning process? Re-viewing the literature

ABSTRACT

Background: Teachers have the potential to make an enormous positive impact on the lives of their students, and may enter the classroom with a deep-set belief that education is, fundamentally, benevolent and good. However, such an uncritical stance may fail to account for the negative experiences of Indigenous students in Australia, where teachers are often cited as the primary reason Indigenous students leave school or refuse to go to school. Despite this, Aboriginal communities remain strong advocates of education and continue to lobby for a genuine and meaningful role in decision making.

Purpose: Given teachers’ critical influence, a collaboration was formed between the two authors: a Gamilaroi (Aboriginal) woman and a non-Indigenous Canadian woman, to conduct a review of the research. We asked: ‘What are the personal (non-academic) attributes a teacher needs to engage Indigenous students effectively in the learning process?’

Method: The literature review focused primarily on the Australian context and used a framework-based synthesis approach, whereby a decolonising ‘Relationally Responsive Standpoint’ framework was identified a priori. This provided the structure for extracting and synthesising the literature.

Findings and Discussion: The themes arising from the literature review were organised and considered through the framework, which foregrounds awareness through Respecting (self/motivations), Connecting (interpersonal) and Reflecting (knowledge) before concluding by Directing (future role). In Directing, the implications of the findings are discussed through yarning, a dialogical and dynamic approach with a strong future focus regarding the next steps of research and action.

Conclusions: Reviewing the literature in this way offers teachers, researchers, teacher educators and, arguably, policy-makers an opportunity to consider the personal attributes necessary to engage Indigenous students. It highlights the importance of critical self-reflection to being a relationally responsive teacher. We believe that the findings span international and professional boundaries and could impact on Indigenous Peoples globally, if all professions engage with an understanding of their own axiology and ontology.     

Shared responsibility for teacher preparation: An exploratory study of the match between skills of clinical teachers and those required of their teacher candidates

This paper reports the results of a study conducted within the context of a school–university partnership. Researchers investigated the degree to which clinical teachers regularly use and model proficiently the skills and knowledge required of teacher candidates to successfully move towards initial licensure. Results were encouraging for most domains, although less so for areas such as math, standards-based curriculum, and technology. Results indicated differences in the perceptions of clinical teachers, site coordinators, site professors, and other faculty within the professional development school. Researchers discuss the implications for the teacher education and professional development components of school–university partnerships.     

Relations between student learning patterns and personal and contextual factors and academic performance

This study was aimed at clarifying relations between the way students learn and personal, contextual and performance variables. Students from seven different academic disciplines completed the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS). Besides, data about their age, gender, academic discipline, prior education and exam performance were gathered. Regression and correlations analyses were used to analyse the data. The results showed that students learning patterns were indeed associated with personal and contextual factors such as academic discipline, prior education, age and gender, but that the different learning patterns had different sources. Second, students learning patterns proved to explain an important part of the variance in their academic performance. However, the results also revealed that exams as usually used in the first years of higher education hardly capitalise on students use of critical, analytical and concrete processing strategies.     

Examining the aesthetic dimensions of teaching: Relationships between teacher knowledge,identity and passion

Having an appreciation for the subject, their students and what the subject can offer their students has both cognitive and emotional dimensions for teachers. This paper uses empirical data to explore the efficacy of a Deweyan inspired framework called “Aesthetic Understanding” to scrutinise relationships between teacher knowledge, identity and passion. The paper uses case study data of three teachers of maths and/or science generated from a video study to illustrate the relationships between the three elements of Aesthetic Understanding. The need to value the aesthetic dimensions of teaching when examining the subject-specific nature of secondary teaching is discussed.     

Supporting presence in teacher education: The connection between the personal and professional aspects of teaching

This study follows one individual student teacher during a period of one single school year in which she was supported in developing ‘presence’ while teaching. The notion of ‘presence’ was formulated by the teacher herself, and coincides with the growing interest in this aspect in psychology, and in theories about becoming a teacher. In her supervision, the so-called core reflection approach was used, which strongly builds on the concept of presence and on positive psychology. Based on analyses of audio taped supervisory sessions, six stages were identified in the teacher's development. These stages are described and related to theories about positive psychology and core reflection. The supervisor's interventions leading to the transitions between the stages were identified, analysed, and related to key principles of core reflection. It appeared that the teacher's growth not only led to experiencing ‘presence’ while teaching, but also to a greater use of her personal qualities. Taken together, it appeared that after the supervision the teacher was much more ‘in flow’, and that she was more effective as a teacher. In this article, both the teacher's growth and the supervisor's interventions are described in detail, and illustrated using quotations from supervisory sessions, logbooks, and interviews. A case is made for connecting professional and personal aspects in supervising student teachers.     

The relationship between affective response to social comparison and academic performance in high school

The goal of the present study was to study the relationship between affective responses to social comparison and test scores among high school students. Our analyses showed that three types of responses to social comparison could be distinguished: an empathic, constructive, and destructive response. Whereas girls scored higher on empathic response, boys scored higher on destructive response. In addition, students who had a high social comparison orientation (SCO) scored higher on all three types of responses than students who expressed a low SCO. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for previous performance, a destructive response was negatively related to performance on tests for reading comprehension and mathematics. An empathic response was positively related to performance on reading comprehension only whereas a constructive response compensated the negative relationship between destructive response and reading comprehension. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Assessing the personal qualities of applicants to teacher training

From this evidence, it is clear that tutors do make assessments of personality during interview, and that this assessment determines selection. In general, their responses on the forms show that this is done with some care. Tutors try to put candidates at ease and give every opportunity for them to display their best; for example a number of forms make reference to initial nervousness of candidates, but this made no difference to the final outcome and ‘nervous’ is only included in the categories if it refers to a specific and persistent quality (e.g., ‘too nervous a disposition’). Although offset by unfavourable judgments and often qualified, all rejected candidates had something positive said about them. In general, the remarks about rejected candidates are fuller and more individual than those for accepted candidates.The expressions tutors record on the interview form may differ in detailed wording, but the kinds of qualities laid down by the DES are measured and the students selected are perceived to have those qualities to a greater degree than those rejected. The insights which can be gleaned from comparing the judgments made at interview with the outcomes of the course indicate that not only do interviewers take this responsibility seriously they also carry it out well in respect of subsequent performance in practical teaching.     

河北师范教育百年发展启示录

河北师范教育已经走过了 10 0年的发展历程 ,在百年发展历程中 ,创造过辉煌 ,也陷入过低谷。回顾百年历史 ,它给我们很多启示 ,有许多经验值得总结 ,也有许多教训应该吸取。