Impact of religion on Turkish prospective early childhood teachers’ judgments of fact

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of religion on prospective early childhood teachers’ judgments of fact and reasoning. Six hundred and sixteen prospective early childhood teachers from seven different cities and universities in Turkey participated in the study. Participants read the religious story of ‘King Solomon and the Ant’ and responded to the following questions: (1) Can Solomon converse with ants? (2) If yes, why, or no, why not? Please explain your answer with one sentence. Findings revealed that 520 of the participants (84%) responded to the first question affirmatively and 96 (16%) of the participants responded negatively. Among positive responders, 494 (80%) provided religious reasoning, while 83 (13.5%) laid out natural reasoning; 29 (4.7%) resorted to literary reasoning; and 10 (1.6%) offered uninformative explanations for their responses. Analysis revealed that participants’ responses did not differ by their class level at the university. Recommendations are provided for the relevance of these findings for teacher education.     

Relating early childhood teachers’ working conditions and well-being to their turnover intentions

High turnover rates of early care and education teachers reduce the quality of education; unsatisfied teachers, suffering from stress or emotional exhaustion, are less equipped to promote children’s development and more likely to leave the classroom. We used data from a national survey of US early childhood educators (n?=?1129) to examine associations between teachers’ working conditions, well-being, and motivation with professional commitment and turnover intentions to move, leave, or remain. Multiple regression analyses revealed that more intrinsically motivated teachers were more likely to report intentions to move over leave, emotionally exhausted teachers were more likely to report intentions to leave, and lower teacher-reported working conditions predicted intentions to move or leave the field over staying. The results suggest that teachers’ well-being and perceived working conditions relate with their intentions to remain at their job or within the field and to their commitment to the profession.     

Hong Kong pre-service early childhood teachers’ attitudes towards parental involvement and the role of their family relationship quality

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ attitudes towards parental involvement play an important role in the ways they approach children’s families. This study examined Hong Kong pre-service early childhood teachers’ attitudes towards different types of parental involvement strategies and investigated whether these attitudes were related to the quality of relationships within their own family. Data were collected from 163 Hong Kong pre-service early childhood teachers via questionnaire. Results showed that engaging families in school decisions was perceived as the least important and feasible. The pre-service teachers also felt least confident in implementing it. There were, however, discrepancies in the perceived levels of importance, feasibility and confidence towards other types of parental involvement strategies. The levels of cohesion and expressiveness in pre-service teachers’ own families were positively related to their attitudes towards some types of parental involvement strategies. These findings suggest that teacher educators should take pre-service teachers’ family experiences into consideration when preparing them to work with children’s families.     

An exploration of the relationships between elementary school teachers’ humor styles and their emotional labor

Teaching requires emotional labor. Humor is a promising but under-explored means of coping with such labor. A questionnaire was administered to 302 primary teachers to assess three kinds of emotional labor (surface, deep, and genuine acting) and four humor styles: two adaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating). Affiliative and self-enhancing humor were positively correlated with emotional labor, whereas aggressive and self-defeating humor were negatively correlated with such labor. These results can help raise awareness of teaching’s emotional demands, and encourage teacher-training and professional-development programs to showcase appropriate ways, including humor, of coping with workplace emotions.     

Swedish technology teachers’ attitudes to their subject and its teaching

Background: From previous research among science teachers it is known that teachers’ attitudes to their subjects affect important aspects of their teaching, including their confidence and the amount of time they spend teaching the subject. In contrast, less is known about technology teachers’ attitudes.

Purpose: Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate Swedish technology teachers’ attitudes toward their subject, and how these attitudes may be related to background variables.

Sample: Technology teachers in Swedish compulsory schools (n = 1153) responded to a questionnaire about teachers’ attitudes, experiences, and background.

Methods: Exploratory factor analysis was used to inwvestigate attitude dimensions of the questionnaire. Groupings of teachers based on attitudes were identified through cluster analysis, and multinomial logistic regression was performed to investigate the role of teachers’ background variables as predictors for cluster belonging.

Results: Four attitudinal dimensions were identified in the questionnaire, corresponding to distinct components of attitudes. Three teacher clusters were identified among the respondents characterized by positive, negative, and mixed attitudes toward the subject of technology and its teaching, respectively. The most influential predictors of cluster membership were to be qualified for teaching technology, having participated in in-service-training, teaching at a school with a proper overall teaching plan for the subject of technology and teaching at a school with a defined number of teaching hours for the subject.

Conclusions: The results suggest that efforts to increase technology teachers’ qualifications and establishing a fixed number of teaching hours and an overall teaching plan for the subject of technology may yield more positive attitudes among teachers toward technology teaching. In turn, this could improve the status of the subject as well as students’ learning.     

Understanding teachers’ motivation for and commitment to teaching: profiles of Chinese early career,early childhood teachers

ABSTRACT

To better understand the reasons underlying attrition and the teacher shortage, and to develop ways to attract and retain high-quality teachers in early childhood education, it is necessary to explore teacher motivation and commitment to teaching. Although previous research has investigated various aspects of teacher motivation and commitment to teaching, little attention has been paid to this in the context of early childhood teachers, especially early career teachers. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 12 early career, early childhood teachers in mainland China, this study aims to examine early career early childhood teachers’ motivation to teach and commitment to teaching in the Chinese context. Four distinct types of early career, early childhood educators were identified: committed passionate, committed compromiser, undecided, and uncommitted. Each of these had unique motives for teaching and different levels of commitment to kindergarten teaching in mainland China. The four types of early career early childhood teachers identified in this study demonstrate the diversity and complexity of teaching motivation and commitment to teaching in the field of early childhood education. The findings from this study can provide implications for policy-makers and teacher educators to enhance novice teachers’ motivation and commitment to teaching in the early childhood context.     

The contributions of relationships with parents and teachers to Turkish children’s antisocial behaviour

The present study examined the concurrent contributions of parent–child and teacher–child relationship quality to Turkish children’s antisocial behaviour, with a specific focus on the moderating role of teacher–child relationships (closeness and conflict) on parent–child relationships when predicting antisocial behaviour. Participants were 94 children (56 boys) with mean age of 7.05 years (SD = .88) enrolled in 24 classrooms from five elementary schools in a suburban school district in Turkey. Mothers reported on their relationship with children and teachers reported on their relationships with children as well as children’s antisocial behaviour. SAS PROC MIXED was used to test hierarchical regression models of children nested within classrooms. Results showed that teacher–child conflict moderated the association between parent–child conflict and children’s antisocial behaviour. Such that, higher parent–child conflict was related to higher levels of antisocial behaviour at the context of higher levels of teacher–child conflict. In addition, teacher–child closeness also moderated the association between parent–child conflict and children’s antisocial behaviour. Such that when teacher–child closeness was at average or high levels, lower levels of parent–child conflict was related to lower levels of antisocial behaviour. Teacher–child conflict was positively associated with children’s antisocial behaviour. Limitations and future directions of the current study are discussed.     

Relational analysis of prospective teachers’ emotions about teaching,emotional styles,and professional plans about teaching

The present study examined the mediating roles of prospective teachers’ emotional styles in the relationships between their emotions about teaching and professional plans about teaching. A total of 684 prospective teachers, majoring in computer education and instructional technology teaching, mathematics teaching, preschool teaching, special education teaching, and English language teaching, voluntarily participated in the study. Correlation and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted in order to examine the mediating roles of emotional styles. Results showed that the prospective teachers expected to experience enjoyment more than anger and anxiety regarding their future teaching. Results also showed that the prospective teachers’ attention style and social intuition style played significant mediating roles in the relationships between their emotions about teaching (i.e. enjoyment and anger) and professional plans about teaching (i.e. planned effort and professional development aspirations). Overall results of the study suggest that PTs’ emotions about teaching should be taken into account together with their emotional styles in order to understand their teaching-related future plans more comprehensively and accurately. Implications for teacher education and directions for future studies were also discussed in the present study.     

Are effective teachers like good parents? Teaching styles and student adjustment in early adolescence

This study examined the utility of parent socialization models for understanding teachers' influence on student adjustment in middle school. Teachers were assessed with respect to their modeling of motivation and to Baumrind's parenting dimensions of control, maturity demands, democratic communication, and nurturance. Student adjustment was defined in terms of their social and academic goals and interest in class, classroom behavior, and academic performance. Based on information from 452 sixth graders from two suburban middle schools, results of multiple regressions indicated that the five teaching dimensions explained significant amounts of variance in student motivation, social behavior, and achievement. High expectations (maturity demands) was a consistent positive predictor of students' goals and interests, and negative feedback (lack of nurturance) was the most consistent negative predictor of academic performance and social behavior. The role of motivation in mediating relations between teaching dimensions and social behavior and academic achievement also was examined; evidence for mediation was not found. Relations of teaching dimensions to student outcomes were the same for African American and European American students, and for boys and girls. The implications of parent socialization models for understanding effective teaching are discussed.     

ICT and play in preschool: early childhood teachers’ beliefs and confidence

This study investigated early childhood teachers’ beliefs about information and communications technology (ICT) and play in preschool, as well as their confidence in integrating ICT in the classroom. A 28-item questionnaire was compiled and administered to 190 early childhood teachers in Greece. Although ICT play (which can provide learning opportunities) has largely replaced traditional childhood play, in Greece, there is inadequate integration of ICT in early childhood education. In this study, two factors were extracted: ‘playing with ICT as an effective mode of learning and developing children's technological competence’ and ‘ICT use as free play’. The fewer the years of teaching experience and the higher the teachers’ computer self-efficacy, the stronger was the view that ICT play is not just free play. Teachers’ beliefs and confidence affect their classroom practices and, consequently, the children's learning. Viewing ICT as a mode of learning that should be embedded in the curriculum is expected to lead to ICT integration in a teacher's daily practices. The implications for in-service teacher training are therefore discussed.     

Exploring early childhood preservice teachers’ mathematics anxiety and mathematics efficacy beliefs

Early childhood preservice teachers participated in a qualitative multiple case study to explore and examine the effectiveness of reform-based constructivist methods used in a mathematics methods course to change their mathematics anxiety, mathematics self-efficacy, and mathematics teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Findings indicated that instructor’s use of a variety of reform-based strategies to teach and model concepts were effective in reducing their mathematics anxiety and improving their mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs. Based on these findings, it is recommended that mathematics methods course instructors use reform-based constructivist methods in their courses as outlined by the NCTM’s (2014) principles. Teacher educators must also consider carefully their attitudes and disposition toward mathematics along with the type of classroom and learning environment they establish in mathematics methods courses. They must emphasize conceptual understanding during mathematics methods courses, understand the connection between preservice teachers’ mathematics anxiety and mathematics efficacy beliefs, and integrate field experiences as well as peer teaching opportunities into mathematics methods courses.     

The relationship between the level of bullying in primary schools and children’s views of their teachers’ attitudes to pupil behaviour

It is known that the incidence of bullying reported by primary school children varies greatly between schools. It has also been shown that schools in which staff express a greater level of concern with managing the problem generally experience lower levels of bullying. This study examines the children’s, rather than the teachers’, views about the level of care and attention which the teachers pay to issues relating to behaviour and the social organisation of their school. It is shown that the children’s views are a good indicator of the frequency of bullying that will be found in that school.     

Approaches to teaching in thematic work: early childhood teachers’ integration of mathematics and art

Thematic work that integrates different knowledge areas is considered suitable for developing young children’s knowledge and skills in early childhood education. This paper reports evidence from a survey of early childhood teachers’ work with mathematics and art integrated in thematic work. In this study, we aim to explore how teachers perceive mathematics learning and teaching integrated with art. Data for analysis were collected from a questionnaire answered by 27 early childhood teachers from Finland and Sweden. Influenced by a sociocultural theoretical framework, the analysis concerns the teachers’ expressed goals for learning and their strategies for achieving these goals. The analysis reveals qualitatively different approaches to the learning goals addressed by the teachers – process-oriented, product-oriented, development-oriented and providing awareness – which, respectively, seem to generate different meanings of mathematical learning integrated with art. This study offers an overview of teachers’ approaches to teaching mathematics and art in thematic work, and of how different approaches may influence what mathematical meaning is offered to children to explore.     

University academics’ experience of research and its relationship to their experience of teaching

There has been a growing research debate over the relations between university teaching and research. This paper contributes to that debate by describing the variation in the way university academics’ experience research, then linking that empirical evidence with previous work to explicate the relations between variation in research, teaching, and understanding of the subject matter being taught. Previous investigations have shown that conceptual change/student-focussed approaches to teaching are associated with clear articulation of the important aspects of the subject matter being taught, how those aspects relate to each other, and how the teacher situates their understanding of the subject matter in the field as a whole. However, teachers who were unable to explain their understanding of their subject matter in these ways were more likely to experience their teaching as a process of information transfer from a teacher-focussed perspective. Since the characteristics of the first type of understanding subject matter resemble processes underlying the experience of active researchers, these findings seemed to justify a more intensive search for evidence of the link between effective university teaching and research. Interviews have been conducted with 37 university teachers who had strong publication and grant success records and who were teaching and researching in similar topic areas. They represent a range of disciplines and universities, and from both the UK and Australia. The study methods and results are described and we conclude that qualitative variation in the experience of research is related (a) moderately to experience of teaching and (b) strongly to experience of understanding the subject matter.

The relationship between Turkish pre-service ICT teachers’ educational philosophies and occupational anxieties

This study examines Turkish pre-service Information and Communication Technologies teachers’ educational philosophies and occupational anxieties. A total of 800 pre-service teachers participated in the study. Results showed that the predominant educational philosophies among the participants were the existentialism, progressivism, reconstructionism, and perennialism, respectively. Essentialism was the least preferred educational philosophy. In addition, the majority of pre-service teachers expressed a strong belief in both existentialism (95.6%) and progressivism (95.5%). The participants reported low levels of occupational anxiety. Pearson correlations showed very weak or no relationship between the educational philosophies and occupational anxieties. Implications are discussed.     

A quantitative investigation of prospective teachers’ hopes and their motivational forces

The present study aimed to investigate the diverse aspects of prospective teachers’ dispositional hopes, teaching-specific hopes, and their sources, as well as to explore whether these would significantly predict their preparation for the teaching profession. A total of 851 prospective teachers voluntarily participated in the study. A series of confirmatory factor analyses, multiple regression analyses, and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to answer the research questions appropriately. The results showed that prospective teachers’ dispositional hopes can be examined based on four factors (i.e. active hope, passive hope, internal sources, and external sources), whereas their teaching-specific hopes can be examined based on seven factors (i.e. student motivation, student development, student achievement, teaching, relationships with students, internal sources, and external sources). The results also demonstrated that the teaching-specific hopes in relation to student development, relationships with students, teaching, and their external sources significantly motivated prospective teachers to be involved in a number of activities related to teaching during teacher education.     

Mothers’ and fathers’ well-being, parenting styles, and their children’s cognitive and behavioural strategies at primary school

One-hundred and five 6- to 7-year-old children were given a test measuring their helplessness, failure expectations, task-irrelevant behaviour, lack of persistence and search for social support in a classroom setting in order to examine the impact of parental well-being and parenting styles on the children’s cognitive and behavioural strategies at school. Both parents were also asked to fill in scales measuring their depression, parenting stress and parenting styles. The results revealed that maternal depressive symptomatology was associated with their children’s use of maladaptive strategies, whereas paternal depression was not. Moreover, maternal authoritative parenting styles and authoritarian control, seemed to decrease their children’s use of maladaptive strategies. On the other hand, the more parenting stress reported by the fathers, the more their children showed the use of maladaptive strategies.     

The little emperor: Chinese parents’ assessment of their own,their partner’s and their only child’s intelligence

This study set out to examine whether Chinese parents, more than people from other nations, over-estimate the intelligence of their son (little emperor) compared to their daughter. In this study, 155 pairs of married couples from mainland China estimated their own, their partner’s and their only child’s overall intelligence and 13 “multiple intelligences.” They also completed a short measure of the Big Five personality traits. Replicating previous studies, fathers rated themselves higher than mothers for almost all types of intelligence. Results revealed, however, no parental sex differences in the estimates of children’s multiple intelligences. Both parents attributed higher overall, verbal, and musical intelligence, but lower existential intelligence to their child than to themselves. Multiple regressions indicated that estimates of verbal, logical–mathematical, spatial and intrapersonal intelligence were the best predictors of estimates of overall intelligence. Participants’ openness and neuroticism were significant predictors of self-rated intelligence. The results were interpreted in relation to specific Chinese social and cultural influences, though there seemed to be no “little emperor” effect.     

Mobile devices in early childhood education: teachers’ views on benefits and barriers

Mobile devices and, in particular, tablets have become increasingly popular in young children’s lives; however, there is limited empirical evidence regarding early childhood teachers’ perceptions on mobile technology-learning in early years. This study investigated teachers’ views on mobile devices’ usage in early childhood education classrooms, focusing on their perceived benefits, barriers and their concerns. A questionnaire with open ended questions was completed by 30 early childhood education teachers, in Greece. The primary perceived benefits regarded the facilitation of the educational process, the interactive learning environment and the support of children’s learning and development. Major perceived barriers were related to the lack of (or limited) resources/equipment, the limited teacher training opportunities and lack of funding, while key concerns regarded the constraint of hands-on experiences, children’s concentration, and cyber safety issues. Implications for pre-service and in-service teacher training, educational policy and practice, as well as links between home and school are discussed.