Teacher anxiety,teacher effectiveness,and student anxiety

The relationships between teacher anxiety while teaching, student anxiety, and student perceptions of teaching effectiveness were examined. The teachers were 19 nurse educators and the students were 72 student nurses in Sydney, Australia. The teachers taught a lesson selected at random and completed a state anxiety questionnaire before the lesson began and, again, after the lesson in terms of how they felt while teaching. After the lesson, the students completed an assessment of the teacher's effectiveness and a questionnaire to record the anxiety levels experienced while being taught. Teacher A-State while teaching was found to be closely related to student perceptions about lesson organization, teacher affect, and teacher confidence. Teacher A-State while teaching was also found to be significantly related to the level of A-State experienced by the students while being taught.     

Actual and perceived teacher clarity - relations to student achievement in science

College students (N = 41) were randomly assigned to one of two groups defined by the teacher's clarity in the lesson, i.e., high-clarity versus low-clarity presentation on genetics. After the lesson the subjects completed a test on the contents of the lesson and then rated the lesson presentation. Students in the high-clarity group achieved more (although not significantly) than students in the low-clarity group. Students perceived the high-clarity lesson as significantly clearer than the low-clarity lesson. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research on teacher clarity.     

Year-long teacher professional development on fifth grade student science outcomes

ABSTRACT

We first examined the effects of a year-long professional development (PD) programme for elementary science teachers on fifth grade student performance on state-mandated science achievement tests of students from a treatment and a comparison group of teachers in the 2009–2010 academic year. Then, we investigated the longer-term impacts by comparing the 2010–2011 student test results of the teachers one year after receiving treatment in 2009–2010 with the students of teachers who received treatment during 2010–2011. Test scores were analysed using a propensity score matching method to examine the relationship between the PD and student achievement. Results showed that even though the treatment teachers were out of the classroom 20% of the school year to attend the PD, there was no difference between their students’ science achievement scores and those of the comparison teachers who were in the classroom every day. This is an important finding because many principals and parents are reluctant to provide teachers with release time for PD. We also determined that students of teachers one year after participating in the PD significantly (p?<?0.001) with a medium effect size (η²?=?.088) outperformed students of teachers who had just completed the programme. This suggests that it takes time for teachers to implement new teaching strategies and that to observe the impact of an intervention programme, it may be important to expand the timeframe of the programme evaluation.     

Impacts of professional development in classroom assessment on teacher and student outcomes

The authors describe an impact study of Classroom Assessment for Student Learning (CASL), a widely used professional development program in classroom and formative assessment. Researchers randomly assigned 67 elementary schools to receive CASL materials or continue with regularly scheduled professional development. Teachers in CASL schools formed learning teams, trained with CASL materials, and implemented CASL in their classrooms under real-world conditions and without any involvement of, or requirements from, the researchers. Analysis of all schools and 9,596 students failed to yield statistically significant impacts of CASL on student mathematics achievement as measured by the statewide test. Impact analyses with 231 teachers yielded statistically significant positive impacts of CASL on teacher knowledge of assessment and the frequency of student involvement in classroom assessment. No statistically significant impacts were found on teachers' assessment practice. CASL implementation fidelity was below the CASL developer recommendations. Findings suggest potential of CASL for improving teacher outcomes.     

Speechlessness,anxiety, and confusion in a teacher education student group

The aim of the study was to explore the tensions, as experienced by student teachers, in a teacher education program that is based on psychodynamic theory. Previous research shows that students have had orientation problems in innovative university studies because it involves students having to take steps toward their discomfort zone. It was therefore considered important to study the mismatch or match of the training model and student experiences. The data were gathered through student interviews. The data analysis utilized a case study methodology and proceeded from thematic network analysis toward a deeper interpretation of the data. The analysis shows students struggle to understand the meaning and practices of psychodynamic-oriented pedagogy. The analysis also shows that students were unable and unwilling to share their learning experiences with students outside the new program. This can be understood as a tension between different conceptual understandings of learning.     

Effects of teacher professional learning activities on student achievement growth

The authors examined the effects of six types of teacher professional learning activities on student achievement growth over 4 years using statewide longitudinal survey data collected from 467 middle school mathematics teachers in 91 schools merged with 11,192 middle school students' mathematics scores in a standardized assessment in Missouri. The data showed that teacher-centered collaborative activities to learn about mathematics teaching and learning (teacher collaboration and informal communication) seem to be more effective in improving student mathematics achievement than learning activities that do not necessarily involve such teacher-centered collaborative opportunities (professional development programs, university courses, individual learning activities). Teacher-driven research activities through professional conference presentation and participation were also found to be associated with student achievement growth in mathematics. The districts and schools may benefit from investing their professional development funds and resources in facilitating teacher-centered collaborative and research-based learning activities in order to improve student learning.     

Test anxiety and learned helplessness is moderated by student perceptions of teacher motivational support

The aim of the present study was to examine the interplay between test anxiety (i.e. worry and emotionality) and learned helplessness in a sample of adolescents (N = 845, aged 13–17 years) in secondary schools in Germany. In accordance with the buffering hypothesis, it was hypothesised that the detrimental association between both components of text anxiety and helplessness in school would be buffered by students’ perception of their teachers as positive motivators (TPM). TPM refers to student motivation within the academic context, which results from their perception of teacher support. Interesting differences between the two components of test anxiety were identified: emotionality was positively associated with helplessness in school, whereas worry was negatively associated. Using latent moderated structural equations (LMS), the findings revealed that TPM functions as a moderator in the interplay between emotionality and learned helplessness. Despite these results, TPM did not operate as a buffer between emotionality and learned helplessness since helplessness in school was the highest when students perceived some degree of TPM. These findings make a case for implementing specific psychological interventions within the school context in order to prevent helplessness in school.     

Teacher behaviour and student outcomes: Suggestions for research on teacher training and professional development

The study reported here examines whether teaching skills included in the dynamic model of educational effectiveness can be grouped into types of teacher behaviour and whether these types are related with different student outcome measures. The data stem from a study which was conducted in order to test the validity of the dynamic model. Results reveal that teaching skills can be grouped into five types of teacher behaviour which are discerned in a distinctive way and move gradually from skills associated with direct teaching to more advanced skills concerned with new teaching approaches and differentiation of teaching. Teachers exercising more advanced types of behaviour have better student outcomes. Suggestions for research on teacher education and professional development are drawn.     

A longitudinal study on the stability over time of school and teacher effects on student outcomes

This paper reviews educational effectiveness theory, concentrating on the time stability of the teacher and school effect. The contribution of longitudinal studies investigating the long‐term effect of schools and teachers to modelling educational effectiveness is discussed. Findings of a longitudinal study on the progress of students (N=1681) in mathematics during their first four years at the primary school are presented. Results of this study reveal that traditional approaches of measuring educational effectiveness tend to overestimate the short‐term effects of teachers and student background factors and underestimate the long‐term effects of teachers and schools. Implications of findings for the theory of educational effectiveness and especially for the concepts of teacher and school effects and their stability are drawn. Finally, suggestions for establishing evaluation mechanisms to improve practice are provided.     

Observational,student, and teacher perspectives on interpersonal teacher behavior: Shared and unique associations with teacher and student emotions

Teachers’ interpersonal behavior in class is important for teacher and student emotions. Often the same rater (either teacher or students) is used to assess both perceptions of teacher behavior and emotions, which makes it vulnerable to common-method bias. Including other perspectives on teacher behavior has been proposed as a solution, but it is unclear to what extent different perspectives are correlated and how to separate their shared and unique variance in explaining emotions. Behavior of 80 teachers was rated from three perspectives (observers, students, and teachers) in terms of Agency (i.e., social influence) and Communion (i.e., friendliness). The three perspectives overlapped more strongly for teacher agency than for communion. Especially for students, teacher communion was a stronger predictor of emotions than agency. Our innovative statistical approach showed that the strong association between ratings of teacher behavior and emotions of the same rater are unlikely to result from common-method bias only.     

A Dynamic Integrated Approach to teacher professional development: Impact and sustainability of the effects on improving teacher behaviour and student outcomes

This paper reports the results of an experimental study investigating the impact and the one-year sustainability of the effects of the Dynamic Integrated Approach (DIA) to teacher professional development. Teaching skills of the participating teachers and their student achievement in mathematics were measured at the beginning and at the end of the interventions. The DIA had an impact on improving teaching skills and student achievement. A follow-up measurement of teaching skills, one year after the end of the interventions, revealed no further improvement or declination. Implications are drawn and suggestions for further research are provided.     

Connecting teacher and student motivation: Student-perceived teacher need-supportive practices and student need satisfaction

According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), teacher motivation affects student motivation indirectly via teaching practices that support the satisfaction of students’ basic psychological needs, but studies have not shown evidence of this entire sequence. We tested the complete model: teacher motivation (autonomous, controlled, and amotivation) → perceived need-supportive practices (autonomy support, structure, and involvement) → student need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) → student motivation (autonomous, controlled, and amotivation) → student academic achievement. South Korean 5th and 6th graders (N = 697) and their 35 teachers participated in this study. A multi-level structural equation model showed evidence supporting: 1) a positive link between teacher and student autonomous motivation, and, 2) its mediation by student perceived need-supportive practices and student autonomy and competence. We discussed further conceptual and empirical consideration with the results..     

Effects of the learning cycle upon student and classroom teacher performance

A great deal of research has been done regarding science in-service education and the conclusion can be drawn that positive results were generally achieved in workshop-participant attitude and implementation of instructional approaches into the classroom. One of the most important effects of an in-service workshop is upon the students of the teachers participating in an in-service program, but rarely, if ever, is this parameter assessed in the in-service evaluation design. This study investigated the relationships among (1) teacher's attitudes and implementation of in-service workshop developed science materials (learning cycles) and (2) elementary school student's conservation reasoning and language used to describe properties of objects. Data were gathered from over 100 students from grades K-5 and 16 teachers who had participated in an in-service program. A representative comparison group of students and teachers was selected which generally matched the teachers participating in the in-service workshop except for one variable–-the comparison group taught science traditionally, that is, by exposition. Data from the research indicated that the teachers involved in the science in-service workshop implemented the workshop-developed learning cycles into their science classes. Significantly greater gains in conservation reasoning and language usage occurred with the students of the teachers participating in the science in-service workshop as compared to students in the exposition classrooms.     

The foreign student as a student teacher

Cultural differences appeared to establish a communications barrier between this teacher and her student teacher. Perhaps Mrs. Bloom's experiences will be helpful to other supervisors who work with foreign student teachers.