Investigation of preservice elementary teachers' thinking about science

It is not uncommon to find media reports on the failures of science education, nor uncommon to hear prestigious scientists publicly lament the rise of antiscience attitudes. Given the position elementary teachers have in influencing children, antiscience sentiment among them would be a significant concern. Hence, this article reports on an investigation in which preservice elementary teachers responded to the Thinking about Science survey instrument. This newly developed instrument addresses the broadrelationship of science to nine important areas of society and culture and is intended to reveal the extent of views being consistent with or disagreeing with a commonly held worldview of science portrayed in the media and in popular science and science education literature. Results indicate that elementary teachers discriminate with respect to different aspects of culture and science but they are not antiscience. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 1016–1031, 2002     

谈初中新数学与教师的角色

新课程要求教师更新教育观念,转变态度,立足实际。教师要在数学教育教学中创新教法,讲究策略。实现学习方式多样化,教师角色多重化,教学过程活动化,学生评价多元化。     

Elementary school teachers' beliefs about and perceptions of elementary school science,science reading,science textbooks,and supportive instructional factors

This article is a report of elementary school teachers' beliefs about and uses of text material in science. Survey results from 522 K-8 teachers from 299 schools in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were analyzed along three dimensions: teacher attitudes toward teaching of reading in science; teacher beliefs and understanding about models of reading, factors influencing science reading and reading skills; and teacher use of various teaching strategies. Results suggest that teachers do not see reading science as different from any other narrative material. And though most agreed to the importance of having students do activities to support and enhance the use of text material, responses suggest that covering topics is still a concern for most elementary teachers.     

The cognitive assessment course: Two decades later

Given significant changes to legislation, practice, research, and instrumentation, the purpose of this study was to examine the course on cognitive assessment in school psychology programs and to describe the (a) structure, (b) instructional strategies, (c) content, and (d) interpretative strategies taught to school psychology graduate students. One hundred and twenty-seven instructors were surveyed, and results suggest that over the last 20 years support for teaching cognitive assessment has decreased while the content and instructional strategies have remained largely the same. Results of this study also indicate that the interpretation strategies taught to rely heavily on Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory and related interpretive frameworks (e.g., cross-battery assessment). Additionally, instructors are placing greater emphasis on multicultural sensitivity/culturally and linguistically diverse assessment than in previous decades. Implications for future research, training, and practice are discussed.     

城乡结合部初中英语教师职业倦怠的调查与分析

通过对安徽省21所城乡结合部中学初中英语教师的问卷调查统计发现:这些教师在情绪衰竭、低成就感、去个性化方面存在较为严重的职业倦怠倾向。主要原因,一是社会认同的偏差;二是受约与客观条件的制约与影响;三是缺乏主观上的关注与支持。建议从建立灵活多变的教学评价体系,改善办学条件、加大扶持力度和加强师资队伍建设、提高教学质量三个方面进行修正或改善。     

Evaluating prospective elementary teachers' understanding of science and mathematics in a model preservice program

Two cohorts of students preparing to become elementary teachers participated in a model program in science and mathematics. These students were compared to other students taking similar courses on their conceptual understandings of science and mathematics, their investigative proficiencies, and their beliefs about effective methods of teaching these subjects. Instruments included newly developed tests of understanding, existing standardized achievement tests, and instruments devised for the evaluation to elicit conceptions of appropriate ways to teach science and mathematics to elementary children. Results from individual courses indicated that students participating in the model program developed more thorough understandings and more reform-minded beliefs related to teaching science and mathematics. Issues associated with the assessment and evaluation of innovative programs in science and mathematics are discussed, and recommendations for teacher preparation are offered.     

Effects of transition from elementary school to junior high school on early adolescents' self-esteem and perceived competence

Early adolescents' self-esteem and perceived competence in the cognitive, social, and physical domains were examined across the transition from elementary school to junior high school. Self-esteem and perceived social and physical competence were either stable or increased for most children. Cognitive competence was unchanged. It was concluded that, in general, early adolescents' perceptions of self-esteem and competence are not adversely affected by the transition.     

Educational goals of teachers in heterogeneous and homogeneous classes in elementary and junior high school

Teachers (N = 108) of low-achieving homogeneous, high-achieving homogeneous, and academically heterogeneous classes in nine elementary schools and 10 junior high schools in Israel were interviewed to determine their allegiance to academic, personal, and social goals for students. In contrast to results of American research, the academic goal dominated for teachers in all settings. Only for teachers of heterogeneous classes in elementary school was a tendency towards balance in goal orientations apparent. Several explanations for the results are discussed.     

Beginning teachers' perceptions of school human resource practices

Human resource (HR) management is defined as the sum of activities employed by an organization to attract, develop, and retain people with the appropriate knowledge and skills for effectively and efficiently achieving organizational goals. An understanding of the HR practices in schools is important, as the assembly of a team of qualified and committed teachers, directly or indirectly, affects the quality of instruction in general and in particular in Hong Kong, where a high wastage rate of new teachers has been recorded. The literature has emphasized the importance of each HR element in school and yet not much work has been done that attempts to link the various HR elements together, even though the complementarities and interdependencies among these practices have been acknowledged. The present study aims to provide a general picture of the HR practices in schools from the perspective of beginning teachers, using a quantitative methodology. In addition, the link between these practices and the beginning teachers' commitment was also examined. The findings confirm the complexity and diversity of HR practices in Hong Kong schools and suggest that the practices in the areas of Training and Development and Working Conditions warrant special attention as they are linked to the affective commitment of new teachers to schools.     

How memories of school inform preservice teachers' feared and desired selves as teachers

Elementary preservice teachers (N = 69) were asked to write about their memories of elementary school and reflect on the meaning of those memories in combination with course material. Based on the theory-driven thematic analysis, students reported memories that worked to create their desired and/or feared teacher self. Some students recognized a conflict between their memories and the effective teaching practices learned in the course, and only a few were able to negotiate their past memories with current practices and describe a plan of action. Findings elucidate the power of memories as preservice teachers prepare for the classroom.     

Academic self-concept and teachers' perceptions of normal,mentally retarded,and learning disabled elementary students

The self-concepts of educable mentally impaired, learning disabled, and nonhandicapped children were assessed using the Student Self-Evaluation (SSE), Teacher Evaluation Scale (TES), and How I See Myself (HISM) test. A Groups × Age × Sex analysis of covariance, with IQ effects statistically controlled, was computed for each measure. On the SSE, the groups were significantly different, with nonhandicapped students having better self-concepts than learning disabled students, and learning disabled students having better self-concepts than educable mentally impaired students. Teacher estimates of self-concept (TES) indicated that nonhandicapped students have better self-concepts than have handicapped students. For the HISM scores, there was a Group × Sex interaction, but no significant main effects; there was no consistent pattern to the interactions. The results suggest that handicapped children, as a group, have a lower self-concept than have nonhandicapped children. Implications for educational programming and future research are offered.     

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.     

The development of mathematical competence in Flemish preservice elementary school teachers

A large-scale longitudinal study was conducted in which the elementary mathematical knowledge and skills of a large group of Flemish preservice elementary school teachers from 15 different institutes was assessed by means of a paper-and-pencil test that was administered both at the beginning and at the end of their 3-year training. The 30-items test covered the new standards for mathematics in the elementary school curriculum in Flanders. The test was divided in six subsets differing in terms of the curricular subdomain and of the cognitive operations being addressed by the item. The results confirmed the frequently heard concern that at the beginning of their training preservice elementary school teachers have rather weak mathematical competencies. At the end of their 3-year training, the overall test performance had become substantially better, although there were still reasons to be seriously concerned about the readiness of some student teachers to teach mathematics to elementary school children. A number of more specific comparisons helped to identify the relative role of two different factors—selection and instruction—in student teachers’ gain from pretest to posttest. Besides documenting the development of elementary mathematical competence in preservice elementary school teachers, the study also resulted in an instrument for (self-) assessment of elementary school mathematical competence. This instrument is now being used in many institutes for elementary school teacher training in Flanders.     

Impacts of contextual and explicit instruction on preservice elementary teachers' understandings of the nature of science

This mixed‐methods investigation compared the relative impacts of instructional approach and context of nature of science instruction on preservice elementary teachers' understandings. The sample consisted of 75 preservice teachers enrolled in four sections of an elementary science methods course. Independent variables included instructional approach to teaching nature of science (implicit vs. explicit) and the context of nature of science instruction (as a stand‐alone topic vs. situated within instruction about global climate change and global warming). These treatments were randomly applied to the four class sections along a 2 × 2 matrix, permitting the comparison of outcomes for each independent variable separately and in combination to those of a control group. Data collection spanned the semester‐long course and included written responses to pre‐ and post‐treatment administrations of the VNOS‐B, semi‐structured interviews, and a variety of classroom artifacts. Qualitative methods were used to analyze the data with the goal of constructing profiles of participants' understandings of the nature of science and of global climate change /global warming (GCC/GW). These profiles were compared across treatments using non‐parametric statistics to assess the relative effectiveness of the four instructional approaches. Results indicated that preservice teachers who experienced explicit instruction about the nature of science made statistically significant gains in their views of nature of science regardless of whether the nature of science instruction was situated within the context of GCC/GW or as a stand‐alone topic. Further, the participants who experienced explicit nature of science instruction as a stand‐alone topic were able to apply their understandings of nature of science appropriately to novel situations and issues. We address the implications of these results for teaching the nature of science in teacher preparation courses. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 414–436, 2011     

High school teachers' perceptions of cyberbullying prevention and intervention strategies

Recent meta‐analyses indicate that bully prevention programs produce minimal change in student behavior. This study examined 66 high school teachers' perceptions regarding the effect of cyberbullying on students, which intervening strategies teachers would use when dealing with cyberbullying, and which prevention strategies would assist in preventing cyberbullying. Almost one fourth of teachers indicated cyberbullying does not have long‐lasting negative effects and that cyberbullying “prepares students for life.” Fewer than half of teachers favored implementing a formal cyberbully prevention program. Teachers perceived the following strategies as most helpful in addressing cyberbullying: increasing parental involvement, warning students about consequences for cyberbullying, and increasing consequences for cyberbullying. School administrators should consider teachers' perceptions before implementing prevention programs that target cyberbullying. Additionally, strategies should consider fostering greater teacher buy‐in, thus improving intervention fidelity and creating a unified effort focused on decreasing student cyberbullying. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Four case studies,six years later: Developing system thinking skills in junior high school and sustaining them over time

This study examines the process by which system thinking perceptions develop within the context of a water cycle curriculum. Four junior high school students undergoing an especially designed inquiry‐based intervention were closely observed before, during, immediately after, and 6 years after completing a year long systems‐based learning program. The employed research tools included observations, semi‐structured interviews, and a number of “concept viewing” tools (drawings, concept maps, and repertory grids). Out of the data, four distinct “stories,” each presenting a different way of constructing hydro system mental models, are described. The paper's main conclusion is that students develop their systems mental models and remember the learned material based on learning patterns that tend to remain unchanged over time. Consequently, in order to facilitate efficient and lasting construction of students' system models, learning experiences should harness these, and especially the meta‐cognitive learning pattern, which holds special significance for constructing systems. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1253–1280, 2010     

Student achievement and elementary teachers’ perceptions of school climate

Teachers’ perceptions of school climate in 59 elementary schools were assessed using a modified version of the School-Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ). Using structural equation modelling, a statistically significant, positive relationship was found between school mean teachers’ perceptions of school climate and school mean student achievement. A second model showed that school and community context variables mediated that relationship. In schools in high socioeconomic status (SES) communities, the influence of school climate on student achievement was stronger than it was for schools in lower SES communities. Recommendations for further examination of the relationships are also made.