Relationships Among Teachers’ Positive Discipline,Students’ Well-being and Teachers’ Effective Teaching: A Study of Special Education Teachers and Adolescent Students With Learning Disabilities in Taiwan

The authors proposed a positive discipline, well-being and teaching effectiveness model that suggested that teachers’ positive discipline would facilitate students’ well-being and effective teaching, and students’ well-being would play a mediating role in the association between positive discipline and teaching effectiveness. The model was tested by including 255 resource room teachers (mean age = 32.71 years, SD = 7.09) and 255 matched adolescent students with learning disabilities (mean age = 14.06 years, SD = .74). Teachers responded to a scale for rating positive discipline strategies, and adolescents completed a students’ well-being questionnaire and a students’ awareness of teachers’ teaching effectiveness questionnaire. To evaluate the fit between the collected data and the proposed model, structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. The results supported the proposed model and revealed that the link between teachers’ repertoire of positive discipline strategies and their students’ perception of teaching effectiveness was partially mediated by students’ well-being. Thus, the authors suggest that instead of eliminating individual student misbehaviours, teachers should focus more on positive classroom management, which is linked to improved outcomes for students and teachers.     

The Relation of Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence and Students’ Social Skills to Students’ Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties: A Study of Preschool Teachers’ Perceptions

The present study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine predictors of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties in preschool classrooms. Specifically, the study examined (a) the link between teachers’ perceptions of their own emotional intelligence and students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties, (b) the link between teachers’ perceptions of students’ social skills and emotional and behavioral difficulties, and (c) how teachers’ perceptions of their own emotional intelligence were related differentially to their perceptions of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties based on students’ social skills. Participants were 92 preschool teachers and 238 students from 52 state schools in central Greece. Research Findings: Results indicated that higher scores for teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and students’ social skills were related to lower scores for teachers’ perceptions of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties. Teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence were important in predicting students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties, especially in the case of students’ lack of social skills. Practice or Policy: This study provides empirical support for the predictors of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties by taking into consideration both teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and students’ social skills, thus suggesting new insights into the interpretation of emotional and behavioral difficulties in preschool.     

Chemistry Teachers’ Knowledge and Application of Models

Teachers’ knowledge and application of model play an important role in students’ development of modeling ability and scientific literacy. In this study, we investigated Chinese chemistry teachers’ knowledge and application of models. Data were collected through test questionnaire and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The result indicated as follows: (1) Chemistry teachers’ knowledge of some known chemistry models was limited; (2) Chemistry teachers preferred those models that were vivid when they chose models; (3) Teachers’ modeling process was incomplete; (4) Teachers adopted a general pattern when applying models in chemistry teaching. The findings have implications for teacher education.     

Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Using Video Games to Enhance Science Instruction

Science education video game research points toward promising, but inconclusive results in both student learning outcomes and attitudes. However, student-level variables other than gender have been largely absent from this research. This study examined how students’ reading ability level and disability status are related to their video game-playing behaviors outside of school and their perceptions about the use of science video games during school. Thirty-four teachers and 876 sixth- through ninth-grade students from 14 states participated in the study. All student groups reported that they would prefer to learn science from a video game rather than from traditional text, laboratory-based, or Internet environments. Chi-square analyses indicated a significant association between reading ability level, disability status, and key areas of interest including students’ use of video games outside of school, their perceptions of their scientific abilities, and whether they would pursue a career in the sciences. Implications of these findings and areas for future research are identified.     

Teachers’ and Students’ Conceptions of Good Science Teaching

Capitalizing on the comments made by teachers on videos of exemplary science teaching, a video-based survey instrument on the topic of ‘Density’ was developed and used to investigate the conceptions of good science teaching held by 110 teachers and 4,024 year 7 students in Hong Kong. Six dimensions of good science teaching are identified from the 55-item questionnaire, namely, ‘focussing on science learning’, ‘facilitating students’ understanding’, ‘encouraging students’ involvement’, ‘creating conducive environment’, ‘encouraging active experimentation’ and ‘preparing students for exam (PSE)’. Significant gaps between teachers’ and students’ conceptions on certain dimensions have been revealed. The inconsistency on the dimension ‘PSE’ is particularly evident and possible reasons for the phenomenon are suggested. This study raises the important questions of how the gap can be addressed, and who is to change in order to close the gaps. Answers to these questions have huge implications for teacher education and teacher professional development.     

Social and Emotional Learning and Teacher–Student Relationships: Preschool Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions

The study aimed to investigate how teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence, and social and emotional learning (SEL) relate to teacher–student relationships. Teachers’ perceptions of teacher–student relationships and the degree of agreement with students’ perceptions was also investigated. Preschool teachers from 92 public schools in central Greece completed the Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Teacher SEL Beliefs Scale, and the Student–Teacher Relationships Scale-Short Form for 238 students aged 5–6 years old. 170 students were interviewed using the Young Children’s Appraisal of Teacher Support. Regression analysis revealed that both teachers and students emphasized the role of teachers’ perceptions of SEL in positive teacher–student relationships. However, there was no agreement between teachers and students regarding teacher–student relationships. These findings and their implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Correction to: A Critical Review of Students’ and Teachers’ Understandings of Nature of Science

Science & Education - The original article unfortunately contains incorrect presentation of Tables 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.     

Preparing Teachers’ to Raise Students’ Mathematics Learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the ORIGO Stepping Stones program in a large suburban school district in the Midwestern U.S.. The sample included 11 elementary schools that implemented the program during the 2013–2016 school years. Findings are presented from teacher surveys, classroom observations, and analysis of standardized student mathematics achievement scores on the Northwest Evaluation Association Measurement of Academic Progress (NWEA MAP). Using multilevel models, the program did not demonstrate a detectably larger effect on mathematics achievement than the comparison. Classroom observations and views of teachers that support program implementation were explored. In terms of fidelity of implementation, findings suggested that the program was delivered differently from how it was intended. With respect to researchers and policymakers, the approach used to evaluating mathematics program effectiveness is informative and could be used as part of larger accountability systems.     

A Critical Review of Students’ and Teachers’ Understandings of Nature of Science

Science & Education - There is widespread agreement that an adequate understanding of the nature of science (NOS) is a critical component of scientific literacy and a major goal in science...     

Science and Language Teachers’ Assessment of Upper Secondary Students’ Socioscientific Argumentation

Researchers and policy-makers have recognized the importance of including and promoting socioscientific argumentation in science education worldwide. The Swedish curriculum focuses more than ever on socioscientific issues (SSI) as well. However, teaching socioscientific argumentation is not an easy task for science teachers and one of the more distinguished difficulties is the assessment of students’ performance. In this study, we investigate and compare how science and Swedish language teachers, participating in an SSI-driven project, assessed students’ written argumentation about global warming. Swedish language teachers have a long history of teaching and assessing argumentation and therefore it was of interest to identify possible gaps between the two groups of teachers’ assessment practices. The results showed that the science teachers focused on students’ content knowledge within their subjects, whereas the Swedish language teachers included students’ abilities to select and use content knowledge from reliable reference resources, the structure of the argumentation and the form of language used. Since the Swedish language teachers’ assessment correlated more with previous research about quality in socioscientific argumentation, we suggest that a closer co-operation between the two groups could be beneficial in terms of enhancing the quality of assessment. Moreover, SSI teaching and learning as well as assessment of socioscientific argumentation ought to be included in teacher training programs for both pre- and in-service science teachers.     

Constructivism in Mathematics Classrooms: Listening to Ghanaian Teachers’ and Students’ Views

One of the challenges of implementing a new curriculum is how to bridge the gap between the underlining principles of the curriculum and the cultural and social orientations of the society which includes teachers and students. This article reports on a study that explored how the cultural and social orientations of teachers and students can influence the implementation of a constructivist curriculum in mathematics classrooms. The data for the study came from 250 students and 41 mathematics teachers, using questionnaires, observations, and interviews. The results showed that inasmuch as mathematics teachers and their students acknowledge the importance of student’s active participation and teamwork, these practices have not been fully conceptualised into the Ghanaian mathematics classroom due to some cultural factors. Two main cultural factors were discovered from the analyses of the results. Firstly, the culture of acknowledging only correct answers in class has a negative impact on individual students’ confidence and participation during mathematics lessons. Also, the culture of teamwork is not fully accepted within Ghanaian classrooms as most students find it difficult working in groups and accepting and appreciating each other’s view. It was evident in all lessons that students were ridiculed by their peers when they provide a wrong answer to a question and this affected individual students’ participation in the classroom. Therefore, we suggested that teachers should be pro-active in promoting a classroom environment which is free from fear and intimidation to motivate students to be actively involved in the classroom discourse.     

Australian TESOL Teachers’ Cultural Perceptions of Students

Over the last decade, research in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) has increasingly focused on the relationship between culture and learning. Researchers such as Kumaravadivelu (2003) have been vocal in their opposition to the practice of cultural stereotyping. In the current study, Holliday’s (2005) model of Culturism was used as a theoretical basis. Six Australian TESOL teachers were interviewed to determine the nature and extent of the cultural stereotypes that they held, particularly as they pertained to specific learning-related behaviours. A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that teachers most often grouped students in terms of national or regional cultures and believed that cultural background strongly influenced student learning behaviour, resulting in the formation of a number of stereotypes. Despite this, the findings also demonstrated that teachers were self-aware of the pitfalls of cultural stereotyping and took other factors influencing student behaviour into consideration.     

Effect of Peer Coaching on Teachers’ Practice and Their Students’ Scientific Competencies

Research in Science Education - This study aimed to explore the effect of peer coaching on science teachers’ practice and their students’ scientific competencies. The mixed method...     

Teaching Objectives in Chemistry: a Comparison of Teachers’ and Students’ Priorities

Summaries

English

An inventory which consisted of 12 objectives of chemistry teaching was constructed from lists compiled from the responses of 12th‐grade students and given to 10th, 11th and 12th graders and to their teachers. All four groups were asked to rank the objectives according to their order of significance.

The analysis of the order of rankings gives an insight into what are considered as the most important and interesting aspects of chemistry by students and by teachers.

The use of an objectives questionnaire in this manner is recommended to curriculum developers as part of the process of development and implementation of any curriculum. This may help to make the subject matter more suitable for the needs of both students and teachers.     

Relationships Among Teachers’ Use of Mental State Verbs and Children’s Vocabulary Growth

Research Findings: Mental state verbs (MSV), a component of literate and academic language, may facilitate vocabulary growth, as they relate to metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness as well as decontextualized talk, all of which have been associated with vocabulary growth. In this study, we examined teacher MSV use in group content instruction and book reading in Head Start classrooms (N = 49) to determine the prevalence of teachers’ use of MSV. We sought to determine whether there was an association between teachers’ MSV use and children’s (N = 402) receptive and expressive vocabulary scores across 1 year of preschool. Results from hierarchical linear modeling revealed that teachers’ use of MSV in group content instruction was positively associated with children’s end-of-year receptive, but not expressive, vocabulary scores. No significant relations emerged for book reading. Positive associations between MSV in which the child was the referent of the verb and children’s receptive vocabulary were found, which indicates a potential scaffolding effect. Practice or Policy: Results indicate that teachers should consider including MSV in their content-rich instruction and provide support by placing the child as the referent of the verb. Additional instructional implications are addressed.     

Urban Students’ Perceptions of Teachers: Views of Students in General, Special, and Honors Education

Students’ satisfaction with school experiences has been linked to their sense of belongingness, connection to school, and achievement. Though the extant research addresses students’ perceptions of school climate and sense of belonging, there is a paucity of research about students’ views of teacher–student interactions. Five hundred and seventy-seven students from one ethnically and academically diverse urban high school were surveyed and interviewed about the nature of teacher talk with students. Findings from this mixed-methods investigation indicate students from general, special, and honors programs experience a wide range of interactions based on academic services received, gender, and ethnicity. More frequent perceived punitive feedback was reported by all students in special education as well as males in general and honors education programs, while Hispanic students indicated a greater frequency of perceived supportive feedback. Findings also reflect a wide range of attitudes and feelings about teachers, the educational system, and learning.