Ten Years of Teacher Workshops in an Environmental Problem-Solving Model: Teacher Implementation and Perceptions

Abstract

In this study, the authors focus on quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the training model for Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions (IEEIA). The authors examined (a) the relationship between IEEIA implementation rates and type of training; (b) workshop participants' perceptions of support for their use of IEEIA and the relationship between those perceptions and implementation; and (c) workshop participants' perceptions about the impact of the instructional approach on themselves, students, administrators, colleagues, parents, and the community. A direct-mailed questionnaire was used to collect data from 132 teachers who had participated in IEEIA training between 1990 and 1999. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 8 workshop participants. More than half of the teachers used the approach. Participants of extended or multiple trainings tended to use IEEIA more than their counterparts. Support after the workshop was important to implementation; IEEIA teachers perceived that it had positive impacts on themselves, students, and others.     

Teacher Perceptions of Learning Motivation and Classroom Behavior: The Role of Student Characteristics

The present study investigates whether teacher perceptions of students’ cognitive skills, their learning motivation, and their classroom behavior differ according to students’ socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and gender. Data from N = 4746 German fourth graders and data from their parents and teachers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Controlling for student achievement as measured in a standardized achievement test and student motivation as measured by student and parent reports, we found that teachers overestimated the cognitive skills of high-SES students and girls in comparison to those of low-SES students and boys. Similarly, teachers perceived high-SES students, students who are not from an immigrant background, and girls as having a higher learning motivation and as having more cognitive skills. Finally, we found that teachers’ perceptions of students’ learning motivation and classroom behavior mediated the relationship between student characteristics and cognitive skills as perceived by the teacher.     

School Library Media Specialist-Teacher Collaboration: Characteristics, Challenges, Opportunities

The most successful school library media specialists are those who collaborate with teachers as full partners in the instructional process. Without assertive action by the school library media specialist, however, school administrators and teachers are likely to be more aware of the media specialist’s administrative role than the roles of teacher, instructional partner, and information specialist. Reductions to library media staff and finding common planning time are examples of serious challenges, but these are not insurmountable. In the context of well-planned instructional projects, collaboration with teachers is a primary way that school library media professionals can demonstrate that their work is a vital part of the academic life of their schools, and a positive factor in improving student achievement.     

The appraisal of teachers' performance and its impact on the mutuality of principal-teacher emotions

The current study examines the mutual discrete emotions among superiors and their above- and below-average workers within a hierarchical organisation (school). Using a survey method within a random sample of 40 elementary schools in Northern Israel, each principal and four of his or her teachers (two who had been appraised as excellent and two who had been appraised as poor-performing) completed two questionnaires which addressed the teachers‘ perceived performance and emotions toward the principal/teacher. As expected, the above-average teachers were found to be more favourably professionally evaluated by their superiors than the poor-performing ones. The principals expressed very positive emotions toward them. These highly regarded workers shared mutually positive feelings and similar teacher performance appraisals with their principals. In contrast with the principals’ evaluations, the below-average teachers perceived their own performance as very good. Unlike the teachers' mainly positive feelings, the principals experienced mixed emotions. The lower intensity of emotional ‘tone’ reflects the principals’ hesitation about taking any action which might lead to a deterioration in relationships with these teachers. The discussion proposes the theoretical framework of a vicious circle, in which the principal's undelivered direct feedback does not reach the teacher, who mistakenly believes that if nothing is said everything is all right, and therefore maintains his or her high self-esteem and poor performance.     

Perceived effects of action research on teachers' professional efficacy,inquiry mindsets and the support they received while conducting projects to intervene into student learning

Based on information gleaned from questionnaires and interviews with teachers who engaged in action research as a capstone to their Master's program during the years 1992 through 2001, and on data from these teachers' administrators and colleagues, six assertions are reported. (1) Teachers sustained the ‘inquiry mindset’ gained while learning the processes associated with conducting action research and continued using aspects of the process; however, conducting new projects was less likely. (2) Teachers' sense of professional efficacy was enhanced, even after many years had intervened. (3) Action research had immediate benefits for students but long-range benefits were not determined. (4) Though challenging, teachers perceived conducting action research was professionally valuable. (5) Teachers reported that administrators, although supportive, played passive roles, whereas colleagues were more collaborative during planning and implementing their projects. (6) Teachers described school environments conducive to conducting action research as ones that provide structures for teams to work on mutual goals supported by strong administrative leadership.     

Bridging the Gap Between Preservice Early Childhood Teachers’ Cultural Values, Perceptions of Values Held by Scientists, and the Relationships of These Values to Conceptions of Nature of Science

This study explored preservice teachers’ views of their own cultural values, the cultural values they believed scientists hold, and the relationships of these views to their conceptions of nature of science (NOS). Parallel assignments in a foundations of early childhood education and a science methods course required preservice teachers to explore their own cultural backgrounds and their perceptions of the cultural backgrounds of scientists. The Schwartz Values Inventory was used to measure preservice teachers’ personal cultural values and those they perceived of scientists. The Views of Nature of Science version B questionnaire and interviews assessed teachers’ conceptions of NOS. Copies of student work were collected and sought for themes indicating how preservice teachers perceived scientists’ cultural values and how those perceptions changed over time. We found that from the beginning to the end of the semester, preservice teachers perceived fewer differences between their own cultural values and those they perceived scientists held, though they did not change their own cultural values. We found that preservice teachers’ NOS conceptions improved, and that they were related to both their cultural values and those they perceived scientists held. Preservice teachers who indicated the fewest differences between their own cultural values and those they perceived scientists held the most informed conceptions of NOS.     

Teacher-student classroom interactions among science students of different sex and cultural background

The purpose of this study was to determine associations between science students' perceptions of their interactions with their teachers, the cultural background of students and their attitudinal and cognitive achievement outcomes. A sample of 3,215 students from 158 secondary school science classes in 43 schools completed a survey including the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), an attitude to calss scale, an enquiry skills scale and questions relating to cultural background. The sample was chosen in order tobe representative, though only coeducational classes were used in order to permit an unconfounded test of sex differences. Statistical analyses confirmed the reliability and validity of the QTI for secondary school science students. Generally, the dimensions of the QTI were found to besignificantly associated with student attitude scores. In particular, students' attitude scores were higher in classrooms in which students perceived greater leadership, helping/friendly, and understanding behaviours in their teachers. Correlations between cognitive achievement and interpersonal behaviour were not as strong, but there were positive associations with cooperative behaviours and negative associations with oppositional behaviours. Females perceived their teachers in a more positive way than did males and students from an Asian background tended to perceive their teachers more positively than those from the other cultural groups identified in the study.     

Teachers’ Attitudes Towards the Integration of Disabled Children into Regular Schools

Regular and resource teachers from New South Wales government and nongovernment schools were surveyed to elicit their attitudes towards the integration of individual disabled chldren, the support services currently provided and the skills considered essential for teachers of mainstreamed atypical students. Differences among sub‐groups of teachers and between teachers and principals who had completed the same questionnaire in a previous study were also examined. Results indicate that teachers’ attitudes to the integration of individual disabled children reflect lack of confidence both in their own instructional skills and in the quality of support personnel currently provided to them. They are positive about integrating only those children whose disabling characteristics are not likely to require extra instructional or management skills on the part of the teacher. However, teachers’ attitudes may be significantly modified by their pre‐service training and the nature of their subsequent professional experience. Examination of the skills needed by mainstreaming staff reveals that, while general competence is considered essential, neither regular nor resource teachers seem aware of the need for a structured approach to curriculum objectives. The finding that principals’ attitudes arc consistently more positive than those expressed by teachers suggests a somewhat unrealistic perception by the former of teachers’ current anxieties about integration. Implications of these findings for policy and practice are discussed.     

Student Grades and Average Ratings of Instructional Quality: The Need for Adjustment

Abstract

The authors compared the average grades given in 165 behavioral and social science courses with the average ratings given by students to the instructors who taught the courses. Significant positive correlations were found between the average ratings for instructional quality and the average grades received by students. The courses in which the average grades were the highest were also those in which students gave teachers the highest ratings. Among possible reasons for the correlations are that better teachers attracted better students or that quality teachers provided more effective instruction, resulting in more student learning and, thus, higher average grades. Another explanation is that most college students tend to bias their ratings of instructional quality in favor of teachers who grade leniently (I. Neath, 1996). If correct, the latter reasoning begins to explain why the widespread use of student evaluations in the United States in recent decades has been accompanied by increases in the average grades that university students received. To prevent grade inflation, and particularly to avoid rewarding and promoting instructors who use increasingly lax grading standards, administrators should adjust student ratings of instructional quality for the average grades given for a course. In general, only courses near the extremely high and low ends in terms of students' average grades were significantly affected by the statistical adjustment.     

Preliminary development of the Brief–California School Climate Survey: dimensionality and measurement invariance across teachers and administrators

A brief 15-item version of the California School Climate Scale (Brief-CSCS) is presented to fill a need for a measure that could be used for periodic monitoring of school personnel's general perception of the climate of their school campus. From a sample of 81,261 California school personnel, random subsamples of 2,400 teachers and 2,400 administrators were used in the analyses. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a model in which general school climate was a second-order latent factor composed of 2 first-order latent traits, organizational supports and relational supports. Measurement invariance of factor loadings for teachers and administrators was found. Additional analyses revealed that administrators held more positive perceptions of school climate than teachers, with this difference increasing from primary through high school. The implications for these findings for educational research and policy reform are outlined.     

Teaching Experience and Educational Psychologists' Credibility with Teachers: An empirical investigation

The extent to which educational psychologists' credibility with teachers relies on their own teaching experience is an issue that has been hotly debated in the profession for more than 30 years. It is widely perceived as a key reason for retaining qualified teaching experience as a requirement for training as an educational psychologist (EP). The studies reported in this paper investigate whether teachers know that educational psychologists have been teachers (a logical pre-requisite to affording them high credibility on this basis). The studies also examine the regard in which EPs are held by teachers who know, and teachers who do not know, that EPs have been teachers. Results indicate that teaching experience cannot be regarded as necessary to EPs' credibility with teachers. However, a positive relationship between teaching experience and credibility with teachers, among primary school teachers, raises questions about ways of broadening EPs' pre-course experience.     

The perceived needs of support of parents and classroom teachers a comparison of needs in two microsystems

The aim of this study was to describe and compare from a systems perspective the perceived needs of parents and teachers of school-age children with intellectual impairments. The relationship between type and degree of impairment to perceived needs was analysed. Comparisons revealed that while the parents and teachers differed regarding their respective needs, they agreed on specific informational needs. It was found that certain child characteristics in interaction with contextual factors evoked specific needs within microsystem settings. Motor impairments tended to correlate with needs regarding family routines, and impairments in communication and behaviour tended to correlate with family informational needs. Teachers expressed significantly more and stronger needs than parents, and teachers who instructed according to a reading based curriculum expressed more and stronger needs than teachers who instructed according to a life-skills based curriculum. These findings are discussed, together with their implications for future research and changes in teacher education.     

The social transmission of knowledge at the University: Teaching style and epistemic dependence

It is argued that an epistemic authority would induce greater influence in transmitting knowledge to students when there is a correspondence between the (authoritarian vs. democratic) style of the authority and students’ perceptions of their relation to the authority (high vs. low epistemic dependence). In two studies it was predicted, and found, that students who perceived themselves in a state of low epistemic dependence towards their teachers were more influenced by a democratic than by an authoritarian teaching style. This difference in appropriation was not found for students who perceived themselves in a state of epistemic dependence towards the epistemic authority.     

Socio‐demographic factors relating to perception and use of mobile technologies in tertiary teaching

In 2014, we investigated how socio‐demographic factors such as gender, teaching disciplines, teaching experience and academic seniority were related to the perception and use of digital mobile technologies in learning and teaching of a group of university teachers from one research‐intensive university in New Zealand. Three hundred and eight teachers from this university completed an online questionnaire and 30 of them participated in a follow‐up interview. Survey results showed that while there was a strong positive correlation between using mobile technologies for personal learning and their use in teaching, only a small number of participants utilised mobile technologies in their learning and the vast majority also did not use these technologies in their teaching, More female teachers and humanities teachers used mobile devices and applications more frequently than male teachers and teachers from other academic disciplines. Also, female teachers had a more positive perception in learning and using mobile technologies. Junior teachers also tended to be more positive in technology use. While the overwhelming majority of the interview participants also perceived positive benefits of incorporating mobile devices and applications into their teaching, it was found that female teachers paid greater attention to pedagogy when considering mobile technology use and the lack of professional development limited their use in teaching.     

Teacher beliefs and the mediation of curriculum innovation in Scotland: A socio‐cultural perspective on professional development and change

The purpose of this study was to investigate socio‐cultural factors underpinning curriculum change by examining teacher beliefs in the context of professional development. Scottish teachers in the study were participating in policy implementation based on formative assessment. Teachers were selected who were positive about the formative assessment initiative, so as to examine the inter‐relationships amongst beliefs, policy, and practices when teachers intended to implement curriculum innovation. The aims of the study were to investigate: (a) the nature of teachers’ beliefs about teaching, learning, and the professional development programme; (b) how those beliefs influenced the teachers’ mediation of reform policy in their own classrooms; and (c) points of resonance or tension between teacher’s beliefs and the council’s philosophy towards and management of policy implementation. A qualitative interpretive cross‐case study approach was used with five participant teachers from different secondary subject areas. Results suggested that the unique stance of district administrators to give teachers the opportunity to create their own reform methods, a ‘bottom up’ mode of implementation, appeared to be a significant factor in promoting the reform policy.     

Student/teacher relations and attitudes toward mathematics before and after the transition to junior high school

In a longitudinal study of 1,301 students and the teachers they had for mathematics before and after the transition to junior high school, we assessed whether changes across the transition in students' perceptions of their teachers' supportiveness were related to changes in their valuing of mathematics. Using repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance, we found that when students moved from elementary teachers they perceived to be low in support to junior high teachers they perceived to be high in support, the intrinsic value of math was enhanced, while students who moved from teachers they perceived to be high in support to teachers they perceived to be low in support experienced a sharp decline in both the intrinsic value and perceived usefulness and importance of math. For students' perceptions of the usefulness and importance of math there was an interaction with achievement level. Math values decreased more sharply during the first year of junior high for low-achieving students who moved from more supportive to less supportive teachers than for high-achieving students who experienced the same change.     

Learning problems, anger, perceived control, and misbehavior

Fifty-four students diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD) and 73 students in regular education were administered the School Anger Inventory and the Perceived Control at School Scale. Teachers and parents rated student deportment and motivation. Predictably, those in the LD sample indicated higher school anger levels and were rated as exhibiting more negative behavior, less positive behavior, and lower motivation for on-task performance. The samples did not differ in their ratings of perceived control, which was moderate, and were given comparable positive teacher ratings for recall of relevant and interesting material. Significant correlations between school anger and behavior were found only in the LD sample, and there was no significant overall relationship between school anger, behavior, and perceived control within either sample. Overall, however, students who reported both a high level of anger and high perceived control were found to exhibit more negative behavior than those with high anger and low perceived control.     

The Unseen Digital Divide: Urban,Suburban, and Rural Teacher Use and Perceptions of Web-Based Classroom Technologies

This quantitative study investigated the differences in perceptions and attitudes toward technology integration of K-12 public school teachers in rural, suburban, and urban environments. The purpose was to examine the relationship between frequency of use and perception of effectiveness of web-based learning tools based upon the type of school setting. A survey of 2,200 school teachers in a Mid-Atlantic state revealed significant differences of usage and perceived effectiveness among respondents. The research found teachers from urban schools trailed rural and suburban schools in usage and perception. Suburban schools indicated the highest perceptions of technology effectiveness, followed by their rural peers. Current teachers, administrators, and teacher educators may benefit from this insight to identify the most effective technologies, as well as work focus on improved use of technology, particularly in the urban classroom.     

An Investigation into the Status of the Teaching and Learning of the Concept of Democracy at the Junior Secondary School Level in Botswana

This paper identifies the aims and contents directly linked to the teaching and learning of the concept of democracy at the junior secondary school level in Botswana. It examines the perceived extent to which the objectives of teaching the concept of democracy has been achieved by 72 social studies teachers, in addition to finding out the perceived challenges they face and their suggested solutions while teaching topics related to democracy. It was found that the majority of the social studies teachers believe that the level of the achievement of the teaching of the aims is either average or above average. The problems of defining the concept of democracy and the handling of mixed ability students were identified as major challenges to the teaching of the concept of democracy in social studies. The study found a moderate but positive correlation between the self-assessment of 36 purposively selected subjects from the 72 social studies teachers and the observed attributes on some traits on democracy while teaching a topic on democracy. A correlated t -test further indicates a significant difference between the ratings of the teachers and those of the investigator. It was concluded that a gap exists between theory (what teachers perceive as practicing) and practice (what they actually do in the classrooms).     

“They Think I Am a Pervert:” A Qualitative Analysis of Lesbian and Gay Teachers' Experiences With Stress at School

Qualitative methodologies were used to identify the demands and resources lesbian and gay (LG) teachers face in their schools. Data sources included 2 interviews each with 11 teachers who each identified as lesbian or gay. Analyses of interview data indicated 3 main findings. First, although all teachers experienced demands because of their sexual orientation, the nature of the demands were different depending on their level of openness. Second, social support from others (e.g., colleagues, administrators, and partners) emerged as a particularly important coping resource for LG teachers. Third, by identifying specific demands unique to participants' roles as teachers, the results suggested the importance of work context in understanding LG teacher stress. Implications for teacher educators and LG teachers are discussed.