Enthusiasm vs. experience in mentoring: a comparison of turkish novice and experienced teachers in fulfilling supervisory roles

his study investigates how trainee teachers perceive their supervising teachers’ supervisory competency. Through a questionnaire that was specifically developed for this study and which contained open-ended questions, student teacher candidates were asked to comment on their supervising teachers’ competency in preparation for supervision, instructional planning and reflection, and collegial supervision and effective mentoring. Data for this study was gathered from 690 student teachers who were in their last year in college pursuing a teaching credential. The results indicated that the student teachers rated their supervising teachers’ competency in supervision as poor to partially competent. Although there is no significant relation found between the gender and fulfillment of supervisory duties, the main significant finding was between supervising teachers’ experience in teaching and completion of the supervisory role. The results showed that the younger or less experienced supervising teachers demonstrated better supervisory skills. Furthermore, our results indicated that although experience is important, it should not be the only criterion for selecting supervising teachers for supervisory duty.     

Teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior: Examining the boundary between in-role behavior and extra-role behavior from the perspective of teachers,principals and parents

This study examined how different stakeholders in school (principals, teachers, parents) conceptualize teachers' role breadth, i.e., whether they define given behaviors commonly assumed to be OCBs as in-role or extra-role behaviors. Drawing on a survey of 29 principals, 245 teachers and 345 parents, the results showed that principals and teachers defined more teachers' OCBs in general and toward the school as in-role behaviors than parents did; parents defined more teachers' OCBs toward the student as in-role behaviors than teachers did. A wide variety of possible school interventions is indicated, each with the potential for far broader improvements in school effectiveness.     

Examining the supervision of mathematics student teachers through analysis of conference communications

Student teaching is often a capstone experience in the preparation of mathematics teachers. Thus, it is essential to better understand key aspects of the experience. We conducted a qualitative study of post-lesson conferences led by supervisors (classroom cooperating teachers and a university supervisor) working with mathematics student teachers. Analysis of conference communications revealed differences in the types and content of communications in conferences led by the cooperating teachers and by the university supervisor. Cooperating teachers tended toward evaluative supervision that lacked a focus on the mathematics of the lessons while the university supervisor tended toward educative supervision, guiding student teachers to reflect on and learn from their own classroom experiences including the mathematics of their lessons. Differences are discussed, and suggestions concerning the supervision of student teachers are made along with recommendations for further research.     

高校教学督导应凸显人性化

传统的高校教学督导是一种"行政监督式"的教学督导,存在诸多非人性化的做法,阻碍着教学督导真正发挥其应有的作用和功能,因此应树立人性化教学督导理念,关心教师的成长和发展,为他们的专业发展和教学能力的提高提供帮助和服务。在具体的实践中应落实教学督导方式的人性化:监督为辅,指导为主;注重交流与沟通,提高督导效能;建立教学督导信息库以促进教师专业发展;等等。     

Taking a Second Look: Expert and Novice Differences when Observing the Same Classroom Teaching Segment a Second Time

Expert and beginning principals viewed a classroom teaching episode of a seventh grade mathematics classroom for teacher supervision purposes. After the first viewing participants were asked questions about classroom management and instruction, about the skills of the teacher, and about recommendations they would make for improvement. After a second viewing, similar questions were asked. Differences between groups were found in their understanding of classroom teaching and their abilities to evaluate and make recommendations for the improvement of teaching. This study indicates that important differences will occur in the supervision experience for teachers depending on whether an expert or novice principal supervises them. Findings from this study have implications for the development of preservice and inservice training programs and induction experiences for new principals.     

Classroom observation as an instrument for school development: School principals’ perspectives on its relevance and problems

Classroom observation can have diagnostic, evaluative and counseling purposes and can be regarded as a traditional instrument for the processes that are planned for school development. However, the evaluative character of classroom observation can also be interpreted as a controlling measure and therefore, lead to stress and fear in the observed individuals. This might bring about resistance against the feedback which results from classroom observation. In order to be able to focus on the useful aspects and the benefits of classroom observation, it is important to understand which factors make the instruments of classroom observation credible and reliable for the teachers who are being observed. It is central to our current topic to understand the specific criticism concerning the area of teaching and learning within a school inspection and to work out the factors which contribute to the credibility of classroom observations on one hand, and the factors which reduce it on the other hand. For this purpose, we analyzed the statements of fifty school principals on classroom observation taken from overall interviews concerning the expectations of those principals towards school inspections in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The results clearly indicate that classroom observation is a critical process for teachers. Not being able to observe the classroom credibly can have several negative effects. Therefore, this research concentrates on ways that can improve the credibility of classroom observation.     

制约农村幼儿教师发展的因素与解决对策

发展农村学前教育提高教师队伍素质是关键。农村幼儿教师存在一些问题,比如师资队伍不稳定,流动性大;学历层次低,专业化程度差;工作压力大,职业倦怠现象严重。出现这些问题既有农村学前教育政策的原因,有师资培训和园长的原因。因此政府要出台政策加强对农村幼儿教师和园长的监督和管理,加强对教师的继续教育来促进农村幼儿教师发展。     

The school staff's perception of their ability to teach special educational needs pupils in inclusive settings in Finland

Recent studies have suggested that the professional training received by general educators does not adequately prepare them to properly implement inclusion-based practices. The idea of inclusion in practice has not significantly changed the situation of teaching pupils with special educational needs (SENs) in mainstream classes. This study's primary intent is to examine the factors that identify the school staff's ability to meet the needs of SEN pupils in their daily teaching situations. A total of 187 elementary school teachers, principals and teaching assistants in a Finnish city completed a structured questionnaire that used a self-evaluation method. Two components were generalised according to answers concerning the respondents’ confidence in and knowledge of teaching SEN pupils. The results indicate that teachers’ qualifications constitute the main reason affecting their ability in this area. Pedagogical and practical knowledge, as well as collaborative skills in teaching SEN pupils, is focused on special educators. These findings reveal the need for additional and in-service training and more effective cooperation between special and general education to share the knowledge of teaching SEN pupils in practice.     

A comparison of teacher and principal perception of an outstanding science teacher

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of agreement or disagreement between principals and teachers when using established criteria to measure the effectiveness of a science teacher. To obtain this information, 28 principals and 81 science teachers were randomly selected to complete an instrument for their perceptions of an outstanding science teacher. The respondents involved in this study were employed in the English-speaking high schools in the Province of Québec, Canada. The questionaire was constructed from a model based on the theoretical framework of previous research in science education and instructional theories. The data collected from the two populations were tested using the arithmetic mean, Pearson chi-square and cross tabulation using the Lambda & Gamma tests to determine the strength or form of the association between the two variables (position and perception). Results indicated that the high school principals and science teachers agree on the relative importance for most of the evaluative criteria. From such results it was possible to construct a profile of the attributes of an outstanding science teacher, and also, to make recommendations to school board officials, school principals, science teachers, and researchers in the field of education.     

BEGINNING PREKINDERGARTEN AND KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES: SUPPORTS AND BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICES

This study explores the beliefs and practices of nine beginning prekindergarten and kindergarten public school teachers and identified the sources of supports and barriers to their teaching. The teachers were graduates from one university's early childhood education program. Data were gathered using surveys, observations, and interviews. Overall, teachers professed to believe in and to use developmentally appropriate practices; they were also observed using more developmentally appropriate practices than developmentally inappropriate practices. Teachers reported a variety of sources of support and barriers to their teaching. Sources that were both supports and barriers were administration, co‐workers, curriculum requirements, parents, resources, and other. Sources reported only as supports were previous experiences, self, and continued education. Sources of barriers were class composition and school duties. In addition, teachers provided information about their teacher education program and on their expectations about teaching. The teachers suggested that teacher education programs needed to provide more field experiences and courses on classroom management. Some of the expectations the teachers had about teaching were unrealistic.     

Pilot evaluation of the Whole Inclusive School Empowerment (WISE) project in kindergartens in Hong Kong: A mixed method approach

This pilot study used a quasiexperimental design to evaluate the Whole Inclusive School Empowerment (WISE) project providing educational psychology services to kindergartens to support students with diverse learning needs. There were eight intervention kindergartens that received WISE educational psychology services and eight control kindergartens without the service. The intervention kindergartens were provided with a 0.125 educational psychologist and 0.7 teacher coordinator. In January and June 2017, teachers in intervention and control kindergartens completed questionnaires assessing student behavior, school readiness, and their own teaching efficacy. Focus group sessions involving teachers and school principals were conducted in July 2017. The results indicated a greater improvement in prosocial behavior and school readiness in intervention kindergartens compared with control kindergartens. Teachers and principals reported that they were better equipped in supporting diverse learning needs. The results provided initial evidence supporting the effectiveness of educational psychology services for kindergartens in improving student outcomes.     

教学督导的基本作用及督导方法

教学督导有利于弥补学校教学管理中存在的缺陷及不足,有利于提高改进教学质量、促进教育方针与教育目标的贯彻执行,有助于学校作出发展决策.依据不同的考察对象、不同的评估检查内容,可采用不同的督导方法,如组织学生评教、督导员随堂听课、抽查学生学习情况等.督导过程要讲求规范,与教学改革相结合,并有计划、有重点地实施.     

An examination of selected dimensions of national school principals’ concerns for school administrative issues

Summary

Determining the purposes and intentions of administrative behaviour has remained problematic despite intensive research on the work behaviour of administrators. The various research methods do however provide a wealth of data on activities, locations and with whom administrators interact. This data provides a means to determine the administrative attention to different issues. Research on National School principals’ work behaviour shows that principals devote over one‐third of their activities to administrative issues, another third to pupil‐related issues and under one‐fifth to curricular and instructional issues. Fewer than one‐in‐five of the latter were with teachers. Meetings were the common means for attending to each of the three main issue areas. A major proportion of the remaining attention to pupil‐related issues was through supervision and to curricular and instructional issues through teaching. While the majority of principals’ attention was self‐initiated, a significant proportion was scheduled especially for supervision and teaching. Principals need to examine their patterns of administrative attention to see if it accords with their stated goals and values. The need for the provision of certain administrative skills would seem necessary if the patterns emerging from this research are not what principals’ perceive as their pattern of attention.     

Award-winning university teachers' concepts of teaching

Twelve recipients of awards for excellence in teaching at The University of Sydney provided interview responses to a series of questions designed to tap their conceptual repertoires regarding teaching effectiveness and the evaluation of teaching. Their responses were compared to those of two groups of novice university teachers from the same university. The award-winners were found to have more complex and flexible concepts of teaching effectiveness, to use a wider range of criteria in evaluating their teaching and to rely more on personal feelings, the evaluative judgements of others and longer term student learnings than the novices. They were also more inclined to adopt systematic, formal procedures for obtaining feedback and to use it in changing their teaching than the novices.     

Barriers to implementing classroom management and behavior support plans: An exploratory investigation

Teachers are responsible for delivering classroom‐management plans and behavior support plans; however, many struggle to implement them consistently. Low levels of treatment integrity may be the result of various implementation barriers. No study has been conducted to examine teachers’ experience of these barriers within the context of specific interventions. This exploratory study involves the analysis of barriers reported during implementation planning by 33 teachers responsible for delivering classroom‐management plans or behavior support plans. Teachers most frequently indicate struggling to respond to problem behaviors and manage competing responsibilities. Strategies suggested to ameliorate barriers most frequently include re‐teaching the intervention and scheduling implementation.     

Instructional Leadership in Compulsory Schools in Iceland and the Role of School Principals

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a study of instructional leadership in 20 Icelandic compulsory schools. More specifically, the perceptions of staff concerning supervision of instruction, and the views of principals regarding their role as supervisors of instructional development. Data was collected with questionnaires from staff and interviews with principals. The approach was based on a mixed-methods design. The findings indicate that supervision of instruction differs between the schools. Principals provide for little direct supervision of teachers, however, they provide considerable indirect supervision. The supervision of instruction suggests that collegial supervisory emphasis is considerable in most of the schools. The collegial model, however, emphasizes systematic collection of data on what happens in classrooms, an important element that is largely neglected in the Icelandic schools.     

Toward a further understanding of teachers’ reports of early teacher–child relationships: Examining the roles of behavior appraisals and attributions

This study examined teachers’ reports of early teacher–child relationships by focusing on their assessments of the severity and the causes of children's social behaviors. Eighty-one kindergarten teachers filled out questionnaires about socially inhibited, hyperactive, and average children (n = 237) selected from their own classes. Multilevel analyses indicated that teachers reported less close and more dependent relationships for the inhibited and hyperactive versus the average children, and more conflictual relationships for the hyperactive versus the average children. These differences were largely mediated by teachers’ perceptions of children's personal behavior problems. In addition, we found that the teachers’ control attributions for children's social behaviors increased the link between children's perceived (personal and social) problems and relationship closeness. Results further support the idea that teachers’ relationship reports are personal, evaluative accounts rather than objective measures of teacher–child interactions.     

Assessing instructional leadership from two mindsets in China: power distance as a moderator

The past decade has witnessed growing interest in the study of the perceptual differences between principals and teachers, and a number of inconsistent results have been documented. This study examined differences between principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of principal instructional leadership and tested the hypothesis that power distance (PD) moderates the differences between the two parties. Based on survey data collected from 132 Chinese principals and 1708 teachers, the results revealed no significant differences in the total and dimensional levels of instructional leadership; however, PD moderated the perceptual differences. Specifically, when the principals reported a low PD, their self-ratings of their instructional leadership were higher than the teachers’ ratings, and conversely, when the principals reported a high PD, their self-ratings were lower than the teachers’ evaluations. However, the result was contrary to the hypothesis when PD was reported by teachers. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

园长视角中的学前教育专业课程设置——以深圳、珠海两市幼儿园为例

近来通过对深圳、珠海两市483所幼儿园进行问卷调查发现:当前幼儿园教师流动性比较大,幼儿园希望学前教育专业的课程更加具有应用性,希望教师具备完成日常教育教学工作的技能。园长希望教师尊重幼儿,制订适合幼儿的教学计划并进行灵活调整,在教学活动中能够充分发挥幼儿学习的主动性。     

Kenyan Secondary Teachers’ and Principals’ Perspectives and Strategies on Teaching and Learning with Large Classes

The reality that teachers in developing countries teach large, and even overcrowded classes, is daunting and one that may not go away any time soon. Class size in Kenyan public secondary schools is generally 40–59 students per class. This article reports initial findings on teachers’ and principals’ perspectives related to large classes. We used questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation data to examine teachers’ and principals’ perspectives regarding their capacities to teach and manage large classes; what challenges large class sizes present; and what additional supports teachers and principals perceive to be necessary. Both teachers and principals reported that the current class size has a negative impact on teaching and learning. Additionally, both teachers and principals cited a need for more support in the form of (a) professional development; (b) workload reduction; and (c) increased resources. These areas of support could help to mediate the effects of large class size, including an almost sole reliance on lecturing with little teacher-to-student and studentto-student interaction.