Predicting teachers' intentions to implement school-based assessment using the theory of planned behaviour

The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to explore the Hong Kong teachers' intentions to implement school-based assessment (SBA) and the predictors of those intentions. A total of 280 teachers from Hong Kong secondary schools who had been involved in SBA were surveyed. Rasch-calibrated teacher measures were calculated for each of the 6 variables – affective and instrumental attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, knowledge, and intention – regarding SBA. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that instrumental attitude and self-efficacy made significant contributions to predicting intentions to implement SBA. These 2 predictors explained 55.2% of the variance in intentions. The other 3 variables, that is, affective attitude, subject norm, and knowledge, did not have significant predictive power on the formation of intentions to implement SBA. Possible explanations and implications of the findings are discussed.     

A theory of planned behaviour-based analysis of TIMSS 2011 to determine factors influencing inquiry teaching practices in high-performing countries

ABSTRACT

Given the abundance of literature describing the strong relationship between inquiry-based teaching and student achievement, more should be known about the factors impacting science teachers’ classroom inquiry implementation. This study utilises the theory of planned behaviour to propose and validate a causal model of inquiry-based teaching through analysing data relating to high-performing countries retrieved from the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study assessments. Data analysis was completed through structural equation modelling using a polychoric correlation matrix for data input and diagonally weighted least squares estimation. Adequate fit of the full model to the empirical data was realised. The model demonstrates that the extent the teachers participated in academic collaborations was positively related to their occupational satisfaction, confidence in teaching inquiry, and classroom inquiry practices. Furthermore, the teachers’ confidence with implementing inquiry was positively related to their classroom inquiry implementation and occupational satisfaction. However, perceived student-generated constraints demonstrated a negative relationship with the teachers’ confidence with implementing inquiry and occupational satisfaction. Implications from this study include supporting teachers through promoting collaborative opportunities that facilitate inquiry-based practices and occupational satisfaction.     

Academic dishonesty among Hong Kong secondary school students: application of theory of planned behaviour

The theory of planned behaviour was used to examine academic dishonesty among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Participants were 386 students in Forms 1–3 (Grades 7–9). Attitudes toward cheating, perceived behavioural control, and moral obligation were positively related to the intention to cheat, but only the subjective norm against cheating was significantly related to self-reported cheating behaviour. The subjective norm was both a predictor of self-reported cheating and a moderator of the relationship between the intention to cheat and self-reported cheating: the intention predicted the behaviour only when the subjective norm against cheating was perceived to be weak.     

Inclusive education: pre-service teachers' reflexive learning on diversity and their challenging role

Today people from a wide range of socio-cultural backgrounds are entering the teaching profession. The changing profile of pre-service teachers prompted inquiry into personal and professional influences in understanding diversity and inclusive practices. Two teacher educators collaborated across Australian universities to explore reflexive practices in preparing pre-service teachers for their complex teaching roles in the twenty-first century. Modes of delivery were an on-campus Inclusive Education unit with situated learning opportunities in community settings and a fully online Inclusive Education unit. Findings revealed that reflexive learning was a key mediating strategy in expanding the participants' consciousness. Participants engaged in confronting assumptions, raising awareness of diverse learning needs and critiquing social justice principles and equity issues. By creating a supportive learning environment, teacher educators were able to shift pre-service teachers from mere acceptance of diversity to a commitment to ethical decision-making and quality inclusive education.     

Using the theory of planned behaviour framework to understand Tasmanian dairy farmer engagement with extension activities to inform future delivery

Purpose: To identify and understand factors influencing farmers’ decisions to engage with extension activities. To understand farmer segments and how these factors vary in order to develop recommendations for future extension delivery.

Methodology: Qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 Tasmanian dairy farmers. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) framework was used to identify and explore factors influencing farmer engagement intentions and behaviour.

Findings: There was a negative effect of social influence on experienced farmers’ intention to re-engage with extension, due to the belief extension activities were targeted to less experienced, younger farmers. Perceived control factors limiting engagement included lack of confidence about existing knowledge, resulting in farmers perceiving extension activities as confronting.

Practical implications: Key factors influencing intention to engage and continued engagement with extension were identified. These findings will inform future design and targeting of extension activities to improve initial and continued engagement. Subsequent recommendations are presented.

Theoretical implications: Previous TPB studies on adoption as an outcome of extension have typically focused on quantifying adoption predictions, rather than exploring how social factors interact and influence intentions and behaviours. This paper demonstrates how the TPB can be qualitatively applied to better understand farmer decision making, in this instance with respect to their initial and continued engagement with extension.

Originality/value: This paper demonstrates how the TPB can provide an evidence-based framework to qualitatively explore farmer intentions and behaviour. This approach has led to new insights into farmer decision making that will inform improvements in future extension development.     

Inclusive education: teacher perspectives from Malaysia

This paper reports on a survey of views of inclusive education expressed by nearly 300 Malaysian primary school teachers involved in remedial literacy and numeracy education under the country's Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Overall, the views expressed were positive towards the principle of inclusion. However, despite common professional development on special educational needs, these teachers lacked a common consensus about the benefits of inclusion; they expressed concern about the lack of teacher skills in this area; and they articulated a negative view of children with disabilities and their families. The paper concludes that further professional development is required to address these shortcomings, and that, given the lack of sufficient teacher educators in this area, it seems likely that the government's aim of implementing inclusive education remains a distant goal.     

Inclusive special education: development of a new theory for the education of children with special educational needs and disabilities

Inclusive education and special education are based on different philosophies and provide alternative views of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities. They are increasingly regarded as diametrically opposed in their approaches. This article presents a theory of inclusive special education that comprises a synthesis of the philosophy, values and practices of inclusive education with the interventions, strategies and procedures of special education. Development of inclusive special education aims to provide a vision and guidelines for policies, procedures and teaching strategies that will facilitate the provision of effective education for all children with special educational needs and disabilities.     

Inclusive education complexly defined for teacher preparation: the significance and uses of error

Research in the implementation of inclusive education in international contexts shows that progress in the Global South appears to lag behind nations in the North. In this paper, I investigate this phenomenon not by associating it with regional cultural and socioeconomic resource limitations, but by reconsidering the assumptions within inclusive education scholarship itself. Drawing on the theory of disability as complex embodiment [Siebers, T. (2008). Disability Theory. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press], I examine the sufficiency of the social model of disability as a foundational basis for teacher preparation for inclusive education in any sociocultural context. I argue for a post-positivist realist theorising of teacher preparation for inclusive education that, through an understanding of error, can imbricate the diversity of historically specific material contexts around the world. To illustrate the affordances of this theory, I examine two dilemmas in a Southern and Northern context, respectively, and generate implications that have transnational significance for inclusive education.     

Students working online for group projects: a test of an extended theory of planned behaviour model

This study examined an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model that specified factors affecting students’ intentions to collaborate online for group work. Past behaviour, past experience and actual behavioural control were incorporated in the extended TPB model. The mediating roles of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control were also examined. Data were collected from primary and secondary students in Hong Kong (N = 957). The partial least square approach to structural equation modelling was used to analyse the a priori hypothesised model. In general, the model fitted the data very well and the major relationships were found to be significant. The results indicated that past experience and actual behavioural control played individual roles in the model. Theoretical and practical implications are considered in this study.     

Implicitly measuring attitudes towards inclusive education: a new attitude test based on single-target implicit associations

Recent research on attitudes towards inclusion uses almost exclusively explicit measures such as questionnaires. Unfortunately, explicit attitude measures are biased by social desirability, particularly when the attitude object is ‘sensible’, as with inclusive education. Implicit attitude measures are less prone to social desirability, but research on implicit attitudes towards inclusive education is scarce. Thus, we introduce a new attitude measure based on the Single-Target Implicit Association Test (ST-IAT). In our study, 163 teacher students took the new implicit attitude test and completed questionnaires on their explicit attitudes towards inclusive education and persons with disabilities and a comprehensive scale on socially desirable responding. The results support the psychometric quality of our ‘Inclusion ST-IAT’. The implicit and explicit attitude measures are correlated but empirically distinct. Furthermore, the social desirability scores were associated with explicit but not with implicit attitudes towards inclusion, i.e. our measure of attitudes towards inclusion (a sensible topic) was not biased by social desirability. We propose that implicit measures should be used to reduce the influence of social desirability in inclusive education research. To encourage replications, we outline important research questions and provide the source code of our ST-IAT, which is open and free to use.     

Early childhood teachers' understanding of inclusive education and associated practices: reflections from Greece

This paper focuses on Greek regular and special preschool teachers' understanding of inclusion; their views about the engagement of children with disabilities in typical day routines/activities; and their preferred strategies for facilitating children's engagement in classroom activities. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 77 teachers (45 regular and 32 special educators) drawn from 47 preschool mainstream settings in Greece. The analysis revealed that teachers hold conflicting and restrictive beliefs about inclusive education. Further, the teachers' accounts indicated that most of the children with disabilities were experiencing significant difficulties in their engagement during free-play as well as structured/semi-structured activities. Lastly, teachers identified a range of strategies that they deployed for promoting children's involvement in classroom activities. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to shift away from a narrow individualistic-deficit assumption of disability towards a socio-constructivist conceptualisation of ‘diversity’ and the establishment of genuinely inclusive school cultures.     

全纳教育文献综述（1989-2013年）

全纳教育的根源在欧洲,发端于美国,以西方文艺复兴和启蒙运动时期追求的自由和平等价值观为思想基础.目前,全纳教育在中国的发展仍处于摸索阶段,需要借鉴国外全纳教育的研究成果和成功经验,尽管我国全纳教育的理论研究逐年增加,但仅限于全纳教育理念的起源与发展、全纳教育的定义等领域,鲜有行为实践研究.因此,文章对国内外全纳教育相关研究进行较为全面的归纳总结,获取有益于我国全纳教育发展的重要启示.     

论全纳教育与教师素质

目前要彻底实现全纳教育还存在许多困难 ,其中最关键的制约因素就是教师素质问题 ,因此实施全纳教育应着重做好三个方面的工作 :(1)要求教师形成全纳教育的态度、价值和期望 ;(2 )要求教师树立民主的教育观 ;(3)在现阶段教师首先应具备教育特殊儿童的知识、技能和情感基础。     

Inclusive education in Georgia: current trends and challenges

This article presents the first comprehensive study of the Georgian inclusive education system launched nationwide in 2006. An internationally recognised tool, the ‘Pathway to Inclusion – Barometer of Inclusive Education’, was applied within the country to highlight the current position of inclusive education in Georgia. The collected data were analysed against results from other countries. The comparison shows that Georgia has made progress towards inclusion; however, considerable work is still required to address drawbacks in policy and its implementation. The development of a monitoring system is advised as an effective means of advancement towards increased inclusion in the education system.     

Inclusive education reform in Queensland: implications for policy and practice

In Queensland, Australia, the school system is being reformed to be more ‘inclusive’. However, the enthusiasm for ‘inclusive education’ in Queensland seems to be waning amongst practitioners, and the ‘confusion, frustration, guilt and exhaustion’ that has emerged with teachers and support practitioners in the UK is emerging amongst support practitioners and teachers in Queensland. This paper argues that this is happening because inclusive education reforms that intend to provide an equitable education for all students regardless of cultural, physical, social/emotional and behavioural differences are being introduced, but these policies, procedures and structures continue to label, isolate and segregate students within schools in the way in which segregated special education facilities did in the past. Also, new policies and structures are being introduced without practitioners having the time and support to examine critically the underlying assumptions about disability, difference and inclusion that underpin their practices. These reforms need to be reviewed in terms of their effectiveness in achieving their ‘inclusive’ goals, i.e. in terms of the impacts that these reforms are having on the students themselves, and on the educational practitioners who support the students.     

The garbage gospel: Using the theory of planned behavior to explain the role of religious institutions in affecting pro-environmental behavior among ethnic minorities

This study used Azjen's Theory of Planned Behavior to examine how pro-recycling and pro-environmental messaging delivered by religious leaders affects stated recycling behavior among ethnic minorities. Using data collected from 12 religious institutions in three Ontario, Canada, communities, a promotion and education program was developed to: (1) increase awareness about existing waste management programs in the region; (2) describe what materials should be recycled; (3) highlight the importance of recycling (to the individual, to the community, and to the environment; and (4) make a direct appeal asking households to participate in their region's recycling programs. Post implementation of the P&E campaign, respondents indicated a statistically significant increase in positive attitudes toward recycling, moral norms, levels of perceived behavioral control, and awareness of recycling consequences. Perceived behavioral control, situational factors, attitudes, and moral norms were found to be the most significant predictors of recycling intention. Community leaders were demonstrably more successful in affecting positive change in stated recycling behavior among minorities relative to previous municipal promotion and education efforts.     

Teaching Practice of Physical Education Teachers for Students with Special Needs: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

This study examines the teaching behavior of physical education (PE) teachers in teaching students with special needs and the factors that determine their teaching behaviour. An extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was utilised as the theoretical framework. Three secondary and two high school PE teachers participated in the study. Data collection consisted of systematic and non-participant observations of teaching behaviour of PE teachers, as well as semi-structured interviews on the factors that determine their behaviours. Results revealed that four of five participants interacted more verbally and less physically with students with special needs. Peer partners were used to enhance the learning of students with special needs. Only two teachers modified their instruction and equipment for students with special needs. Sometimes, teachers excluded this group of students from cooperative activities. Extended TPB components, including attitude, moral norm, affective beliefs, social norm, and perceived behaviour control, were identified to determine the intention of PE teachers to teach students with special needs and their inclusive teaching practice. The study has important implications for policy and practice of inclusive PE.     

多元智能理论及其对我国职业教育的启示

多元智能理论是20世纪90年代以来西方最有影响力的教育心理学理论。本在分析该理论并借鉴其思想内涵的基础上，对我国职业教育的发展提出了新的构想。