Occupational Well‐being among Aging Teachers in Finland

This article presents an examination of occupational well‐being among teachers in Finland who are over 45‐years of age (n = 1012). Occupational well‐being was described by affective (job anxiety and depression, burnout), behavioral (job competence and aspiration) and health (psychosomatic Symptoms and work ability) components. The structure of well‐being turned out to be two‐dimensional, consisting of affect‐health and behavior dimensions. The level of well‐being among aging teachers was quite high, although 36% of the teachers had Problems of well‐being related to both ajfect‐health and behavior. However, according to the work ability index, only 4% of the 45‐49‐year‐old and 12% of the 55‐59‐year‐old teachers were classified as having poor work ability. Of the demographic variables examined (sex, age, subject and teaching level) the most Variation in occupational well‐being was produced by subject and teaching level. The level of well‐being was lowest among vocational subject teachers in vocational schools and highest among Special dass teachers in comprehensive schools. Attention should thus be directed to the work Situation of vocational teachers, in particular.     

Cognitive Preferences in Agriculture of Middle‐School Students and their Teachers‡

Summaries

English

A special cognitive‐preference inventory dealing with agriculture was developed, validated and administered to 943 middle‐school students and their teachers. This is the first reported study of cognitive preferences of 7th and 8th grade (12 to 13 year‐old) students. The inventory was found to be a valid and reliable measure of cognitive preferences related to agricultural topics studied in Israeli schools.

Preference for application (A) was found to be negatively correlated in different students with either recall (R) or principles (P) or critical questioning (Q).

Studying the ‘new’ agriculture compared with the ‘old’, resulted in a lower preference for R and a higher preference for A. Female students had, on the average, a higher preference for R and P while males tended to prefer A and Q. Children whose fathers were simple workers had the highest preference for R while children whose fathers were academics had the lowest preference for R. Teachers, when compared with their students, had a much higher preference for P and a much lower preference for R. A close correspondence was found between reported emphasis in classroom tests and the cognitive‐preference modes of teachers.

     

Attribution of Perceived Academic Results and Relations with Self‐esteem in Senior High School Students

The question of what makes a text easy or difficult to comprehend is answered on the basis of an empirical investigation, which draws especially on theories related to text and memory linguistics. Easy and difficult texts, verified empirically, were analyzed on micro‐ and macro‐levels. Certain aspects of syntax, lexicon and information structure were first studied. These were followed by text‐level analyses related to the narrative and structural organization and the propositional structure of the texts. The article gives an account of the parameters that were most clearly associated with level of text comprehension. The results are also discussed in the light of the possible implications for language in the Swedish‐medium instructional materials in Finland.     

Teachers’ Sickness Absence in Primary Schools,School Climate and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy

Training programmes may compromise governors' ability to offer an authentic lay’ input. The article reports the views of governors interviewed about their perceptions of the need for a degree of expert status. It is tentatively suggested that training courses may be contributing both to a sense of inadequacy and to the tendency to become ‘incorporated’ into an institutionalised role. Some models of governor training are considered in relation to their possible effects.     

Perceived Socio‐Economic Status and Social Inclusion in School: Interactions of Disadvantages

This paper is based on a study of 7,372 students in grades 5–10 (aged 11–16) in a representative sample of Norwegian compulsory schools. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between students' reported socio‐economic status (SES) and their perceived social inclusion (SI) in school in the whole sample. We also considered separately a sub‐sample of students with additional social background disadvantages, i.e. children taken into public care and placed in a foster home or children's home, those whose parents have alcohol‐ or drug‐related problems, or students who are refugees and belonging to ethnic minority groups. For the sample as a whole, results showed a weak but significant relationship between SES and SI. In the disadvantaged sample, this relationship is stronger. These results suggest that additional social background disadvantages intensify the effects of SES on perceived social inclusion in school.     

The Effective Teacher’s Characteristics as Perceived by Students

Tertiary Education and Management - Students (N = 1,883) from 10 European countries answered a web questionnaire pertaining to three dimensions of what they expect and what they experience from...     

The Assessment of Student Teachers’ Academic and Professional Knowledge in School‐Based Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to scrutinize the assessment of teacher knowledge in a school‐based course at one Swedish pre‐service teacher education program. In a general education school‐based course, teacher educators visited the student teachers at their school placements and met them and their school mentors in student‐teaching conferences to assess their teacher knowledge. The findings primarily show that the assessment procedures are influenced by teacher educators’ organization of the school visits and conferences. Secondly, the organization of the school visits and conferences influences who the potential and actual assessors at the conferences can be and are. Thirdly, the assessed student teacher knowledge at the conferences is described as procedural knowledge in a knowledge‐in‐practice perspective, almost exclusively in the area of relational, emotional, and caring learning objectives and aspects of teaching activities. Fourthly, the findings show that propositional knowledge in a knowledge‐for‐practice perspective is hardly mentioned or assessed.     

Work‐to‐School Mentoring: Childcare Center Directors and Teachers’ Return to School

As supervisors of preschool teachers, childcare center directors are well‐situated to mentor their staff to pursue higher education. Telephone interviews with 78 directors examined their role as mentors in encouraging preschool teachers to take college classes. Educational mentoring was shown to be distinct from career mentoring. Logistic regressions showed that the director’s educational mentoring of teachers and teachers’ aides was associated with greater college attendance, whereas career mentoring was related to less attendance. Furthermore, the director’s confidence staff members’ ability to complete an Associate’s degree promoted college enrollment. Finally, some directors appeared to be transformational leaders who created an education‐friendly climate for their entire staffs. These findings suggest that the workplace is an under‐researched, critical context for work‐to‐school mentoring.     

Teachers’ Ratings,Sex, and SCAT as Predictors of Rank in High School Class

Data from 561 high-school seniors were analyzed using multiple linear regression to determine the independent contribution of each variable to the criterion of rank in class (R). Significant F ratioswere obtained for SCAT V and Q, teachers’ ratings of Accuracy (ACCU), Effort and Industry (E-I), and Reliability and Responsibility (R-R). R-R and ACCU, but not E-I, were found to be significant preditors of SCAT V and SCAT Q. Females were significantly higher than males on R, ACCU, E-I, and R-R and lower on SCAT Q. The data were interpreted as supporting the effectiveness of teachers’ ratings in predicting academic performance in high school. Females’ superior performance on teacher ratings was interpreted as evidence that females conformed more than males to teachers’ expectations.     

Middle School Science Teachers’ Discursive Purposes and Talk Moves in Supporting Students’ Experiments

Science & Education - The paper reports qualitative findings from a study about how science teachers enacted discursive purposes and talk moves to support the students’ experiments....     

An Exploratory Study of Teachers’ and Students’ Use of Multi‐modal Representations of Concepts in Primary Science

As part of a long‐term research study to enhance science learning, this paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at identifying initial beliefs and practices of a group of teachers and students (Years 4–6) in Australia when the students engaged with multiple representations of the same science concepts. There is growing recognition in science education research that students need to understand and link different representational modes, such as graphic and verbal modes, in learning to think and act scientifically. This exploratory study used a multi‐site case‐study approach employing qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings indicated that while teachers used various modes to engage students and assess learning, they were not systematic in their focus on student integration and translation across modes. The study found that various factors affected students’ understanding of different modes, and that students who recognised relationships between modes demonstrated better conceptual understandings than students who lacked this knowledge.     

A Longitudinal Study of Physics Students’ Conceptions of Force in Pre-service Training for High School Teachers

Do physics students in pre-service training to be high-school teachers hold the accepted scientific views that will eventually allow them to plan and implement instructional strategies, which, in turn, will lead their future students to achieve a scientific concept of feree? The results of a longitudinal study dealing with this issue will be discussed in this paper. The most important findings of this study can be summarised as follows. Physics students in pre-service training for high school teachers: (1) mostly do not succeed in abandoning their Aristotelian ‘impetus’ misconception; (2) have difficulties in recognising reaction as a force; (3) are rather ambivalent when referring to the necessity of the forces to be balanced in static situations; (4) hold, to a great extent, the concept that an initial force exerted on an object keeps it going and gradually lessens--the ‘fading-away’ concept; (5) hold, to a great extent, the concept that a force (inertia), resisting a push, acts on moving objects; (6) tend to return in 4th year in college to intuitive views of force, rather than holding the accepted scientific concept.     

Science Teachers’ Perceived Benefits of an Out‐of‐school Enrichment Programme: Identity needs and university affordances

Science enrichment programmes housed outside traditional school settings offer unique opportunities to access and use authentic scientific tools and practices, especially for urban students whose school science experiences often lack resources. Yet opportunities to access these tools and practices are realized only when science teachers value them sufficiently to take advantage of them. This study examines how eight urban secondary science teachers evaluated a specific out‐of‐school science enrichment programme—a one‐year partnership with a local university science outreach centre, which culminated in a half‐day laboratory experience for their students. Teachers’ perceptions were captured through interviews and surveys. Findings indicate that these teachers came to identify and value many of the potential benefits for out‐of‐school enrichment programmes reported in the literature as well as some additional ones. The teachers’ also showed a shift over time with respect to their perceptions of the value of the out‐of‐school experience, moving from an initial focus on increasing test scores toward a greater appreciation for its impact on students’ motivation and identity development. The study offers insight into secondary science students’ and teachers’ identity needs, and what universities can offer to address them.     

Students’ Experiences of Meaningful Situations in School

This paper focuses on school situations students experienced as meaningful and how these experiences can guide educational improvement. Participants included 15 students in grade 3 from a Swedish school. In this qualitative study, the data consisted of drawings, multimodal productions, interviews, and field notes. The analysis resulted in four themes: Having the opportunity to learn in different spaces; Being free and able to participate; Experiencing caring and sharing, and Recognizing one’s own growth and achievement. The findings suggest that situations students find meaningful involve aspects of both learning and wellbeing. The practical implication for these results is that student-generated qualitative data can help indicate needs for educational improvement.     

Teachers and Students’ Conceptions of Computer-Based Models in the Context of High School Chemistry: Elicitations at the Pre-intervention Stage

This study examined teachers’ and students’ initial conceptions of computer-based models—Flash and NetLogo models—and documented how teachers and students reconciled notions of multiple representations featuring macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic representations prior to actual intervention in eight high school chemistry classrooms. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 32 students and 6 teachers. Findings revealed an interplay of complex factors that functioned as opportunities and obstacles in the implementation of technologies in science classrooms. Students revealed preferences for the Flash models as opposed to the open-ended NetLogo models. Altogether, due to lack of content and modeling background knowledge, students experienced difficulties articulating coherent and blended understandings of multiple representations. Concurrently, while the aesthetic and interactive features of the models were of great value, they did not sustain students’ initial curiosity and opportunities to improve understandings about chemistry phenomena. Most teachers recognized direct alignment of the Flash model with their existing curriculum; however, the benefits were relegated to existing procedural and passive classroom practices. The findings have implications for pedagogical approaches that address the implementation of computer-based models, function of models, models as multiple representations and the role of background knowledge and cognitive load, and the role of teacher vision and classroom practices.     

Teachers as collaborative learners in clinical supervision: a state‐of‐the‐art review 1

While there is an abundance of rhetoric in the educational literature that exhorts teachers to be more critical and reflective of their teaching, that same body of literature is desperately short on practical advice. This paper specifically addresses a tried and tested process of peer or colleague consultation as a way of enabling teachers to develop the kind of collaborative relationship conducive to interclass visitation, observation and discussion. Accordingly, ‘clinical supervision’ is proposed as a framework within which teachers can begin the difficult task of uncovering the layers of meaning in their teaching, by engaging in ‘frequent, continuous and increasingly concrete and precise talk about their teaching.’