Predictors of primary schoolteachers’ behavioural intention to teach students demonstrating inappropriate behaviour in regular classrooms

This study examined the relationships between primary schoolteachers’ attitudes, efficacy beliefs and perceived support and their behavioural intentions in regard to teaching students who display inappropriate behaviour in regular classrooms. Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used to guide the conceptual framework of the study. A total of 1090 teachers from 263 government primary schools located in urban, suburban and rural areas of one educational region of Bangladesh were surveyed. Hierarchical regression was utilized to analyse data. Results revealed that attitudes and efficacy beliefs were significant predictors of teachers’ behavioural intentions in teaching students who exhibit inappropriate behaviour. The three predictive variables (attitudes, efficacy beliefs and perceived support) accounted for 59% of the variance in teachers’ intentions. The findings of the study indicate possible implications for policymakers and teacher educators in Bangladesh.     

Widening access to writing support: beliefs about the writing process are key

Abstract

Universities’ performance indicators for scholarly outputs depend on academics having productive and sustainable writing behaviours. Research shows that writing programmes can increase research output, but less is known about which writing processes are productive. A project was initiated at a university which widened access to writing support to include staff who were not included in these performance targets, but who might be in the future. Following a writing for publication workshop, 36 academics were offered a place at a structured writing retreat. The evaluation aimed to increase our understanding of participants’ perceptions of their writing skills and processes before and after the retreat using a transactional model. We found that participants’ perceptions of their writing abilities were greater than their perceptions of their ability to employ effective writing practices. Both scores improved after the retreat. This finding confirms that a structured writing retreat provides an environment and structure for academics to practise effective writing. It enhances self-belief in the processes and skills required to produce output. Widening access to writing support for academics is essential for success in performance-based systems. Writing support must provide opportunities for academics to develop strong performance beliefs by practising writing skills and productive and sustainable writing processes.     

Some reflections on mathematics classroom notebooks and their relationship to the public and private nature of student practices

This article considers students' classroom notebooks, their character and their role in learning. The results presented were found within the frame work of a broader international project, the Learners Perspective Study, whose goal is to identify classroom practice from the students' point of view. Two 8^thgrade classrooms were studied. In each,every lesson over the course of three weeks was videotaped. After each lesson, two students were interviewed and their notebooks entrees for that lesson were photocopied; once a week, the teacher was interviewed as well. From the analysis of the data it became apparent that the notebook in the classroom is a publicobject; it is ever open for inspection and contains only finished work. That it is not a private object in which the student may freely record preliminary ideas, musings, and reflections may affect student learning negatively. The categorization of public and private as a categorization of learning activities is discussed. The relationship between the findings on notebooks and research on writing and classroom journals is discussed; in particular, a connection is made between public and private domains and transactional and expressive writing,respectively. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

成也模板,败也模板——英语作文模板普遍化现象的分析与对策

各种英语考试里,大量的作文运用相似的词汇、句子,采用相同的篇章结构,表现同样的主题,透露相似的情感基调,出现明显的＂模板＂痕迹。本文通过对模板的普遍化现象的利弊分析并辨本溯源,探讨摈除模板弊端的对策。     

Teaching writing for learning at university: a proposal based on collaborative review / Enseñar a escribir para aprender en la universidad: una propuesta basada en la revisión colaborativa

This study analyses the relationship between collaborative review and final quality of a text, as part of an intervention in which writing was used as an epistemic tool and students acted alternately as writers and reviewers. Participants included 49 psychology students, who wrote three successive versions of an argumentative synthesis. They received feedback from peers and the teacher for each of these versions. The quality of the final text, suggestions for change provided by the teacher and student reviewers on 196 drafts and the evolution of the texts during the review process were analysed. Results indicated differences regarding the type of comments and the impact on the final text, identified certain aspects of collaborative review that predicted the quality of the final text and showed the existence of different writer and reviewer profiles that had a differential impact on the quality of the final text.     

斯威齐模型下排污权交易买方垄断理论分析

依据排污权交易的内涵和特点,归纳排污权交易买方市场的寡头垄断特征,进而分析了交易量和交易价格的特点,得出排污权交易价格具有价格刚性、排污权交易数量(排污时间长短)将保持稳定的结论,最后提出相应的政策性建议。     

Adapting Levels 1 and 2 of Kirkpatrick’s model of training evaluation to examine the effectiveness of a tertiary-level writing course

This study adapts Levels 1 and 2 of Kirkpatrick’s model of training evaluation to evaluate learning outcomes of an English as a second language (ESL) paragraph writing course offered by a major Asian university. The study uses a combination of surveys and writing tests administered at the beginning and end of the course. The survey evaluated changes in students’ perception of their skills, attitude, and knowledge (SAK), and the writing tests measured their writing ability. Rasch measurement was applied to examine the psychometric validity of the instruments. The measured abilities were successively subjected to path modeling to evaluate Levels 1 and 2 of the model. The students reported that the module was enjoyable and useful. In addition, their self-perceived level of skills and knowledge developed across time alongside their writing scores but their attitude remained unchanged. Limitations of Kirkpatrick’s model as well as lack of solid frameworks for evaluating educational effectiveness in applied linguistics are discussed.     

Corpus-based Study on the use of \"really\" in Chinese Students’ Writing

This corpus-based study aims to explore if the high frequently used word \"really\" is at a risk of overused,underused or misused in the writing of Chinese learners.Then draw attention on English learning and teaching and raise learners’ awareness of the structural and collocation complexity of words.     

Early writing development: kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about emergent writing in Qatari preschool settings

Writing often begins during the very early years of childhood; however, some children first learn writing when they begin attending school. Teachers’ beliefs about early writing development can influence when and how children learn to write. The purpose of this study was to determine kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about the development of children’s emergent writing in Qatari preschool settings. A 30-item questionnaire was completed by 93 kindergarten teachers with a range of qualifications, years of teaching experience, areas of specialisation, and preschool teaching level. They were selected from private and government-funded schools in Doha. The questionnaire consisted of four components: mechanisms of writing, concepts of writing, conventions of writing, and composing. The questionnaire responses indicated that teachers hold positive beliefs regarding most emergent writing components, with concepts of writing receiving the highest mean score, followed by mechanisms of writing. The results also revealed statistically significant differences among teachers due to a number of study variables. Based on these findings, the researchers offered a number of suggestions and recommendations aimed at promoting children’s emergent writing in Qatari preschool settings and similar contexts.     

卷取机EPC控制系统数学模型的确定及其动态特性

本文利用控制理论中的传递函数方法建立了EPC控制系统的动态数学模型,为研究该系统的动态品质提供了理论依据。同时,根据现场的测试情况,对该数学模型进行了验证和分析,其结果是可行的。     

Promoting pro‐environmental behaviour: collection of used batteries by secondary school pupils

This research is based on Kollmuss and Agyeman’s mode, and aims to determine if the prerequisites for pro‐environmental behaviour, such as the collection of used batteries at school, are ethical, cognitive and environmental. A questionnaire/opinionnaire was given to 102, 14–17‐year‐olds to gather data on: (1) their current recycling habits, (2) their environmental values, (3) their level of knowledge about the harmful effect of used batteries on the environment, (4) their attitude towards collecting used batteries, (5) their attachment to the neighbourhood, (6) their perceived behavioural control and finally (7) their intention to act. The number of used batteries brought by each school child was recorded over a four‐month period. Results show that young people’s behaviour of collecting used batteries can be predicted by ethical (pro‐environmental values), affective (neighbourhood attachment) and cognitive (perceived behavioural control) variables (R ² = .38; p > .01).     

The impact of resilience on L2 learners’ motivated behaviour and proficiency in L2 learning

This exploratory study focused on the factors that constitute second language (L2) learners’ resilience, and how these factors are related to L2 learning by investigating what relation resilience may have to motivated behaviour and proficiency in English learning. A total of 1620 secondary school learners of English participated in a questionnaire survey. By analysing the quantitative data, five resilience factors were extracted: perceived happiness, empathy, sociability, persistence, and self-regulation. Confirmative factor analysis using AMOS proved that these five factors are distinctive constructs. Among the factors, persistence was identified to play the most influential role in L2 learning. Persistence showed the highest correlations with, and the strongest explanatory power for, motivated behaviour and English proficiency. It is suggested that resilience can be further explored as an individual differences factor in L2 learning, which is involved in L2 learning process and outcomes.     

Teachers’ resilience and well-being: a role for educational psychology

The retention and resilience of teachers are subject to many influences. Children’s behaviour is often cited as a major source of stress for teachers and a challenge to their resilience. We suggest that an understanding of teachers’ attributions and efficacy beliefs may provide the foundations for work to support teachers. We outline findings from research that has examined teachers’ attributions for the causes of children’s misbehaviour, teachers’ beliefs in their efficacy as classroom managers of children’s behaviour as well as how, in principle, such beliefs may be supported and enhanced. We also relate these findings to those associated with educational and developmental outcomes for children. We conclude with some illustrative evidence of ways (involving consultation and other interventions) that applied psychologists have contributed to the professional well-being and resilience of teachers.     

Stability and Consistency in Secondary Schools’ Effects on Students’ GCSE Outcomes over Three Years∗

This paper reports the results of a UK study investigating the issue of differential school effectiveness. The size of overall school effects versus departmental differences in effects on 16 year old students’ General Certificate in Secondary Education performance are examined, as well as the internal (within school) consistency of departmental effects across six GCSE subject outcomes and the stability of school and departmental effects across three GCSE cohorts (1990‐1992). A value added approach is adopted, controlling for selected student intake measures (such as attainment at secondary transfer). The findings of multilevel analyses suggest that very few schools perform both consistently (across subjects) and with stability (over time). The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the publication and interpretation of schools’ examination results as well as the use of school and departmental effectiveness measures for school self‐evaluation.

     

Students’ writing ‘in transition’ from A-levels to university: how assessment drives students’ understandings,practices and discourses

The lament that ‘students can’t write’ remains loud and defiant, even after years of research pointing to the myriad factors that make students’ writing challenging, particularly when they move into university. This paper reports on a longitudinal, ethnographic study which explored students’ writing ‘in transition’, from A-levels to university in the UK, through the critical lens offered by the academic literacies conceptual framing. This paper offers critical analysis of the ways that students, teachers and institutions position writing at A-level and university, exploring the assumptions and beliefs that underpin their understandings and practices using Ivani?’s framework of discourses of writing. The analysis proposes that the centrality of assessment in the treatment of language at both levels creates an ‘assessment discourse of writing’, which originates in school, and becomes a defining and restrictive frame for students’ writing as they move into higher education. The analysis further suggests that assessment is the principal cause for the students’ challenges with adapting to the writing requirements of university. Moreover, assessment is used as a metalanguage for discussing writing at A-levels, and can become an unhelpful ‘anchor of continuance’ for students as they move into university.     

CET-4作文的五大题型及其写作模式

CET-4作文可能给出题目,或规定情景,或给出段落首句要求续写,或给出关键词要求写成短文,或要求看图作文。考生要想在规定的时间内,争取在短文写作中得高分,就应对CET-4的作文题型有所了解并掌握一定的写作模式。本文主要谈谈有关CET-4作文的五大题型即观点对比型、问题解决型、说明原因型、利弊分析型、哲理论证型及其各自的写作模式。     

高校英语专业写作：教师、教材与教法——基于学习者角度

从学习者角度出发对广西民族大学06级与07级英语专业学生进行的问卷调查,从教材、教师、题目体裁、反馈方式以及授课方式等方面研究目前英语专业写作课的开设情况及其效用。调查结果表明：学生对于自身及教师的认识与写作课实际做法具有明显偏差;目前英语专业写作课普遍存在拘泥于课本或不能充分利用课本、中国教师与外国教师合作不够、题目或死板或随意、评改简单不当、教法单调呆板等现象;中国教师与外国教师联手、指定课本与课外内容结合、题目精挑细选、评改恰当灵活、教法高效多样等做法较受学生欢迎。     

An Essay is Being Written: Between Aggression and ‘Just Words’

If education tends to be viewed as an antidote to social violence, this paper turns to Freud’s study of the ‘beating fantasy’ to consider the fictional representation of psychical aggression in scenes of schooling and being schooled. It is argued that such representations both express and fend off libidinal passions at the heart of student/teacher relationships, and language itself. Drawing on clinical examples and a controversial piece of student writing, I suggest that the teacher’s greatest emotional challenge will be to read with an eye for the unspoken communication of forbidden desire held in written iterations of Freud’s ‘beating fantasy’, without acting on her own.