Self-Efficacy Beliefs,Classroom Management,and the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline

In this article, we focus on connections between and among teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, classroom management practices, and the cradle to prison pipeline. Drawing from Bandura’s (1986) theorization of self-efficacy, we discuss how teachers’ beliefs shape their classroom management practices and how these beliefs and practices can be essential sites to understanding and decreasing disparate outcomes in disciplinary referral patterns among practicing teachers. We emphasize the importance of building teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and sense of efficacy to inform their classroom management practices/decisions. In particular, we focus on three sites of learning that, we argue, are essential to building teachers’ sense of efficacy in the classroom: learning about and building powerful and sustainable relationships with students; learning about and developing an understanding of outside of school contexts that students experience; and recognizing and appropriately responding to traumatic experiences of students.     

Teachers’ professional beliefs about their roles and the pupils’ roles in the school

In recent decades, many educational reforms have been implemented that aim to effect a change in teachers’ and pupils’ roles by promoting meaningful learning. Yet, little is known about how teachers perceive these roles as a part of their professional belief system. In this study, 68 Finnish comprehensive school teachers were interviewed. The data were content analysed. The results showed that teachers recognised the importance of facilitating pupils’ active role in learning, but still mostly considered pupils as passive in school practices. Moreover, teachers perceived pupils as active educational participants most often outside the classroom, in informal school settings. Correspondingly, teachers described themselves primarily as knowledge transmitters in pupils’ learning. In their professional community, teachers perceived themselves mostly as reproducers of knowledge instead of facilitators of learning. There was also variation between the teachers as well as within a single teacher’s beliefs.     

Teacher self-assessment of evidence-based classroom practices: preliminary findings across primary,intermediate and secondary level teachers

The limited implementation of evidence-based classroom practices and ways to provide effective professional development to address this challenge remain enduring concerns in education. Despite these concerns, there exists a well-established research literature on evidence-based practices for effective classroom management and instructional practices. One identified area of need is research investigating the extent that different classroom practices are more or less important across school and grade levels. The current study examined results from 612 general education teachers across school levels (323 primary, 208 intermediate, 81 secondary) who completed an on-line self-assessment of their use of evidence-based classroom practices. Statistical analysis found significant differences in teachers’ self-reported use of several evidence-based classroom practices across school levels (primary, intermediate, secondary). Implications are presented for using teacher self-assessment to inform professional development in schools.     

Gendered views of managing discipline in school and classroom

The current study explored male and female principals’ views of classroom and discipline management from a gender perspective. Based on semi‐structured interviews with 16 primary school principals from Israel, the study points to gendered views of school discipline, in that certain perspectives to prevent or handle discipline problems in school were indicated either by the male principals or by the female principals. Likewise, there are differences between men and women in principalship regarding the idealized role of the principal in managing school discipline and the essential aims of effective school discipline. Several research implications for the research on gender in educational administration are suggested.     

The Effects of a School‐wide Behaviour Management Programme on Teachers’ Use of Encouragement in the Classroom

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a whole school behaviour management programme on teachers’ use of encouragement in the classroom. Given that the performance of the school has become an important dependent variable in school effects research, it follows that interventions which address behaviour management and the improvement of academic performance, have also taken on a school‐wide focus or orientation. In Australia, where this study was conducted, there has been an increased interest in the use of school‐wide behaviour management and discipline programmes, which are characterized by their focus on improving teachers’ classroom management skills. In the present study randomly selected teachers from schools involved in a school‐wide behaviour management programme participated in an experimental evaluation of the effects of the programme. Continuous data collection indicated that the majority of teachers made increases in their use of encouragement over the course of the intervention. However, observations conducted during a follow‐up phase revealed reductions in levels of encouragement following the withdrawal of the intervention.     

The relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and classroom discipline management

One of the fundamental problems of educational systems in many countries is related to classroom discipline. This reflects one of the worst problems faced by teachers. Classroom discipline management strategies play an effective role in creating positive teacher‐student relationships. One of the factors that influence behavior management in a classroom is emotional intelligence. Therefore, this study analyzing how teachers emotional intelligence influences the management of discipline in a classroom and the relationship between gender, academic formation, and service time of teachers with their emotional intelligence. Its sample comprises 559 basic and secondary school teachers. An Emotional Competence Questionnaire, a Scale of Teacher Efficacy in Classroom Management, and a personal and professional data inquiry have been used as instruments. Results show that teachers who have more capacity to deal with emotion demonstrate a greater management of discipline in the classroom. Most of the relationships in the model are statistically significant.     

To click or not to click: Effectiveness of rating classroom behaviors on academic achievement with tablets

Due to the time constraint and lack of concise contextualized classroom behavior indicators, current typical primary school classroom behavior management practices are ad-hoc and lack historical data support. To circumvent these problems, we designed a tablet-based classroom behavior management system (CBMS) for a primary school setting. The CBMS aids teachers in establishing concise and consistent behavioral expectations based on teaching experience and expertise, thus allowing them to conveniently provide timely feedback on pupils’ performance and log ratings on a daily basis. We conducted a 1.5 years field study in a primary school Chinese course in East China, in which 124 pupils in the first grade and four Chinese teachers participated. The analysis of recorded data indicates that teachers’ daily behavioral ratings are positively correlated with their pupils’ academic achievements. The behavior rating strategy and indicators in CBMS can act as a substitute in promoting pupil's academic achievements. Our proposed system shows the feasibility and potential of handheld computer-based assessment strategy in implementing cost-effective classroom organization practices for low grade-level primary school pupils.     

Reducing students’ ‘absent presenteeism’ and mobile misbehaviour in class: an empirical study of teacher perspectives and practices

ABSTRACT

Advances in information technology and communication through new social media platforms have enormous benefits in many contexts, including education. At the same time, self-distractive use of technology – or ‘absent presenteeism’ – can have negative effects in the classroom. The main research question of this study is the relationship between organisational leadership, enforcement of discipline and self-distractive use of technology in the secondary school setting. The finding indicated that the permissive style of discipline appeared to be the most effective at reducing self-distractive mobile phone use. However, a more authoritative style of discipline, short teacher tenure and the principal’s transformational leadership style contributed to high self-distractive mobile phone use. The authors rely on empirical data collected in Israeli public high schools from two independent sources: 144 teachers and 591 students, which yielded 4440 teacher-student events. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of the school setting characterised by rapid changes in technology.     

智慧课堂环境下提升高中思政课程的教学有效性

信息技术的发展不仅带来了教学方式的变革,更激励着教师运用新的教育理念。为了更好地培育高中生政治学科的必备品质、关键能力与正确的价值观,高中思政课教师要充分发挥教学技术与教学主体的智慧,在智慧课堂环境下打造智能、高效的思政课堂,从而为学生的自主学习创设一个良好的氛围。基于此,本文着眼于智慧课堂环境,积极探索提升高中思政教学有效性的策略。     

Predicting violence from school misbehavior: Promises and perils

This article considers the issue of predicting violence committed by students on school campuses through the use of school discipline indices such as office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions. The existing research on incidents of school discipline markers is reviewed as well as sources of variation due to student characteristics and classroom or school‐wide practices. Challenges in making accurate predictions about future behavior at school are outlined. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Emergent Gender Roles Within Tween Popular Culture: Perspectives From Mexican American Students in a Fifth-Grade Classroom

This study examines fifth-grade Mexican American students’ beliefs about emergent gender roles. We used participant-observation methodology to conduct research on six focal-student participants selected from the general fifth-grade population at an elementary school located in the Southwestern United States. Collected data included focal-student interviews, classroom observations, and survey responses. We included an account of gender differences unique to students of Mexican descent. At school, students selected personal reading texts through their gender group norms. Although students claimed to have equitable views of various professions, they also revealed contradictory behavior about gender roles. Student influences included popular toys, media and literature targeted for young adolescent consumers. Further, teachers at the school remained unaware and mostly unconcerned about students’ emerging gender beliefs. Results indicate how students inscribed gender norms learned from home cultural practices. This study should be of interest to teachers concerned about critical literacy classroom applications which can raise awareness about the complexity of tween popular culture and emergent gender beliefs.     

Time and space: undergraduate Mexican physics in motion

This is an ethnographic study of the trajectories and itineraries of undergraduate physics students at a Mexican university. In this work learning is understood as being able to move oneself and, other things (cultural tools), through the space–time networks of a discipline (Nespor in Knowledge in motion: space, time and curriculum in undergraduate physics and management. Routledge Farmer, London, 1994). The potential of this socio-cultural perspective allows an analysis of how students are connected through extended spaces and times with an international core discipline as well as with cultural features related to local networks of power and construction. Through an example, I show that, from an actor-network-theory (Latour in Science in action. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1987), that in order to understand the complexities of undergraduate physics processes of learning you have to break classroom walls and take into account students’ movements through complex spatial and temporal traces of the discipline of physics. Mexican professors do not give classes following one textbook but in a moment-to-moment open dynamism tending to include undergraduate students as actors in classroom events extending the teaching space–time of the classroom to the disciplinary research work of physics. I also find that Mexican undergraduate students show initiative and display some autonomy and power in the construction of their itineraries as they are encouraged to examine a variety of sources including contemporary research articles, unsolved physics problems, and even to participate in several physicists’ spaces, as for example being speakers at the national congresses of physics. Their itineraries also open up new spaces of cultural and social practices, creating more extensive networks beyond those associated with a discipline. Some economic, historical and cultural contextual features of this school of sciences are analyzed in order to help understanding the particular way students are encouraged to develop their autonomy.     

Elementary teachers' perceptions regarding school behavior problems: Implications for school psychological services

The study focuses upon teachers' perceptions of school behavior problems and preferred classroom management actions. Two hundred elementary school teachers were evaluated with a questionnaire comprising assessment of causal attributions and goal‐directed behavior on the part of the teachers, when dealing with classroom misbehavior problems. Internal student‐related attributions were those most frequently adopted by the teachers, even though teachers' explanations varied significantly across school problems. Misbehavior‐related attributions were significantly associated with teachers' preferred practices. Our results support the application of psychological principles to educational practice through an understanding of teachers' discipline‐related theories. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Discipline orientations of pre‐service teachers before and after student teaching

This study examined the classroom discipline orientations of pre‐service elementary teachers both before and after the student teaching experience. Prior to beginning and immediately after completing their full‐time student teaching experience, pre‐service teachers (N = 220) from three southeastern universities in the USA completed a discipline belief instrument which identified their preferred model of classroom discipline. The results showed that the student teaching experience significantly increased beginning teachers’ preferences toward a more assertive discipline model (Rules and Consequences) and decreased their preferences toward the humanistic discipline model (Relationship–Listening). These results demonstrate that the student teaching experience may be creating a dissonance in prior knowledge and beliefs, and experiences of pre‐service teachers in classrooms. The results of the study suggest that teacher education programs can help pre‐service teachers transition more smoothly into classroom teaching by providing a school–university partnership as well as more lessons and advice on handling specific classroom management situations.     

Parenting styles and bullying. The mediating role of parental psychological aggression and physical punishment

Studies concerning parenting styles and disciplinary practices have shown a relationship between both factors and bullying involvement in adolescence. The scarce available evidence suggests that abusive disciplinary practices increase teenagers’ vulnerability to abuse in school or the likelihood of them becoming abusers of their peers in the same context. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the indirect effect of parenting styles in adolescents’ bullying involvement through disciplinary practices, although a relationship between parenting styles and disciplinary practices has been shown. The aim of this research was to determine the mediating role of punitive parental discipline (physical punishment and psychological aggression) between the dimensions of parents’ parenting styles and their children's involvement in bullying victimization and aggression. We used a sample comprising 2060 Spanish high school students (47.9% girls; mean age = 14.34). Structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data. The results confirmed the mediating role of parental discipline between the parenting practices analyzed and students’ aggression and victimization. Significant gender-related differences were found for aggression involvement, where boys were for the most part linked to psychological aggression disciplinary practices and girls to physical punishment. Victimization directly correlated with parental psychological aggression discipline behavior across both sexes. In conclusion, the results seem to suggest that non-democratic parenting styles favor the use of punitive discipline, which increases the risk of adolescents’ bullying involvement. Therefore, intervention programs must involve parents to make them aware about the important role they play in this process and to improve their parenting styles.     

Concept-guided development of technology in ‘traditional’ and ‘innovative’ schools: quantitative and qualitative differences in technology integration

The integration of technology into the classroom remains a challenge for those involved. A concept-guided approach to the development of technology has been suggested as a way of meeting this challenge. This multiple case study was performed in the context of a project in which five elementary schools in The Netherlands with a school concept that was labeled as either ‘traditional’ or ‘innovative’ developed and realized up to four technology-supported learning arrangements in line with their schools’ educational concepts. Through embedded case studies, including analysis of the learning arrangements and focus group interviews with the teachers involved, we found that in general the developed technology use became integrated in the teachers’ classroom practices at all schools to a similar extent. Some differences were found between the schools, but hardly any were found between the school types. Both practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Does the use of migrant languages in German primary schools transform language orders? Findings from ethnographic classroom investigations

ABSTRACT

Migration-related multilingualism is a core issue of academic discussion regarding educational inequality in German schools. While existing studies have analysed the discrimination against children’s languages from linguistic minorities in school, this paper focuses on social practices in a primary school that seeks to recognise and value multilingualism. The aim of this article is to investigate the extent to which the inclusion of migration-related multilingualism can transform language orders in school and classroom. For this purpose, we examined linguistic practices on the micro-level of the classroom based on lesson protocols. The observed practices indicate that the inclusion of the children’s languages is meant both as a means of valuing and acknowledging the children’s multilingualism and as part of comprehensive language teaching and learning. The question as to the scope of individual schools for overcoming monolingual ideologies within the structural context of the national educational system and dominant societal discourses remains, however.     

Resisting punitive school discipline: perspectives and practices of exemplary urban elementary teachers

Drawing on the literature related to classroom management, and culturally relevant critical teacher care, and effective teaching for students of color, this paper uses interview and observation data to explore the perspectives and practices of two exemplary fifth-grade teachers who refuse to rely on punitive discipline with their students of color. Findings revealed that the teachers did not view students’ behavior as challenging – they viewed behavior simply as one of the many areas they believed it was their responsibility to teach. Their instructional practices focused on coaching students to reach their potential and liberating them from barriers that limit their access to successful life paths. The study helps both researchers and practitioners reflect on the concept that discipline assumes and provides portraits of teacher practice central to dismantling the school-to-prison-pipeline.     

Middle School Science Teachers’ Confidence and Pedagogical Practice of New Literacies

Due to the rapid advancements of information and communication technologies (ICTs), educational researchers argue that multimodal and new literacies should become common practices in schools. As new ICTs emerge and evolve, students need the new literacies skills and practices to successfully participate fully in the civic life of a global community. Are teachers prepared to integrate ICTs in the classroom to develop students’ new literacies skills? The purpose of this study is to suggest a new literacies framework that guides ICTs integration and supports scientific inquiry, as well as investigate middle school teachers’ confidence to practice new literacies in science classrooms. The study adopted mixed-methodology design, surveyed 32 middle school science teachers’ ICTs and new literacies skills, and randomly observed 15 teachers’ new literacies practices in the classrooms. The results revealed that even though teachers have high confidence in using ICTs, the meaningful technology integration and new literacies practices were scarcely observed in their classroom practices.     

A teacher competence development programme for supporting students’ reflection skills

The Teachers of Promise study has followed the work histories of 57 primary and secondary teachers who had been identified at the beginning of their third year of teaching as having the potential to make a significant contribution to the profession. Using data from surveys and interviews, this paper reports on what sustained or inhibited their initial commitment to and enthusiasm for ‘making a difference’, six years later, both in the classroom and in broader school leadership roles. Satisfaction with their day-to-day experiences in their schools was a particularly strong driver of teachers’ career decisions over time. Thirty-four teachers responded to survey items that were used to identify three different groups of teachers: a group of 10 primary school teachers with the highest levels of job satisfaction who were ‘fulfilling their promise’; a group of 21 primary and secondary teachers who were ‘persevering and coping’; and three teachers who were ‘detached and disengaged’. The group with the highest levels of job satisfaction taught in primary schools where they felt respected and valued, and supported to develop their teaching and leadership expertise. School leadership practices and school cultures in the other two groups diminished teachers’ overall job satisfaction and contribution to collective knowledge building in their schools. Almost all of the teachers had retained their commitment to students, to their current schools and to teaching as a career, including those with lower levels of satisfaction. Although these teachers reported ‘collegial’ relationships with their peers, individualistic school cultures, most often in secondary schools, impacted on their opportunities to learn with and from their colleagues. Few secondary school teachers felt appreciated, and included in school decision-making or had found it possible to combine high standards of classroom teaching with management responsibilities. The study indicates that while most promising teachers were still satisfied with teaching after nine years, relatively few were in schools where they were able to make the impact that had been predicted for them early in their careers.