Teachers’ reasoning about school violence: The role of gender and location

This inquiry uses a Cognitive Developmental Domain theory framework to examine how male and female teachers balance different moral and non-moral components when reasoning about hypothetical school fights. The potential impact of teachers’ attributions towards the gender of the intervening teacher and fighting students, and the location of the fight were examined. This investigation found that male middle school teachers expressed more conflict than female middle school teachers when reasoning about whether the gender of the intervening teacher or the fighting student impacted a teacher’s response. When asked to reason about a hypothetical fight, female middle school teachers were more conflicted than female elementary school teachers, particularly when the location of the fight was manipulated. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

School bullying and students’ sense of safety in school: the moderating role of school climate

European Journal of Psychology of Education - One of the negative consequences of bullying in schools is its adverse effect on students’ sense of safety. Previous studies yielded mixed...     

The role of classroom characteristics for students’ motivation and career exploration

This study focused on students enrolled in obligatory vocational education courses in German secondary schools that aim to support students’ career exploration. The study examined the relations between student-perceived classroom characteristics (support for autonomy, competence and relatedness), students’ intrinsic motivation and their career exploration (self- and environmental exploration). Data were analysed from 1780 seventh- to tenth-graders (boys: 54.2%) from 13 German secondary schools. The structural equation modelling results revealed that student-perceived support for autonomy, competence and relatedness in class was significantly positively related to their intrinsic motivation and self-exploration. Student-perceived support for competence was significantly positively related to environment exploration. Student-perceived relatedness in class was significantly positively related to their achievement. Intrinsic motivation was significantly positively related to self- and environment exploration and achievement. The results showed that the paths within the tested model varied for boys and girls. Findings are discussed in relation to their implications for career preparation in school, as well as related to gendered motivational processes.     

Teachers’ views of their school climate and its relationship with teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction

The purpose of this study, in part, was to confirm the factor structure of the School-Level Environment Questionnaire, which assesses six school climate factors that can be considered important for improving schools. The study also tested a research model of the relationships between the school climate, teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The participants included 781 Western Australian high-school teachers in 29 schools. When the data were analysed by means of structural equation modelling, teacher self-efficacy and teacher job satisfaction were both related to school climate dimensions and there was also a relationship between teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. These results provide practical information for improving school climate and suggest that it is worthwhile for school principals to consider factors within the school climate and how they might be enhanced.     

Teachers’ and teacher educators’ lives: the role of emotion

This paper reports research which focuses on ways of enhancing understandings by teachers of the key role that emotions play in their personal professional growth. It combines the narrative, autobiographical accounts of teachers attending part-time masters degree programmes in England (Continuing Professional Development and School Improvement) and Northern Ireland (Personal and Social Development) with an interrogation of the underlying values which affect the practices of their tutors. It reveals the effects of powerful and often unacknowledged interaction between personal biography and professional and social contexts upon teachers in schools and higher education.     

Teachers’ perceptions of school climate as an indicator of their beliefs of effective teaching

The ability to express oneself clearly in both a mother tongue and a foreign language is a foundation principle of the new national curriculum in Estonia. Therefore, research was conducted to determine whether there was a possible relationship between English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of effective teaching and the contextual evaluation of the school. The aim of this article is to describe the relationship between the perceptions of school climate and effective teaching among EFL teachers. The study revealed that EFL teachers’ perceptions of the school climate correlate to some extent with their perceptions of effective teaching practices, with some differences between teachers of Estonian-language schools compared with those of Russian-language schools. The research also highlighted that senior management should place more emphasis on creating a cooperative school climate for developing a learner-centred teaching approach as one of the foundation principles of the new national curriculum.     

Teachers’ and school administrators’ attitudes and beliefs of teacher evaluation: a preliminary investigation of high poverty school districts

This study examined attitudes and beliefs regarding teacher evaluation of teachers and their school administrators in the state of New Jersey, USA. The sample included 33 school administrators and 583 Pre-K through 12th grade teachers from four high-poverty urban school districts (22 schools). Participant attitudes and beliefs were assessed using the Teacher Evaluation Experience Scale (TEES; Reddy et al. in Educational Assessment, 21(2), 120–134, 2016). TEES is a multi-informant assessment designed to measure teachers’ and school administrators’ experiences with teacher evaluation through five scales (i.e., total and subscales of system, feedback, process, and motivation to change) and six open-ended questions. Based on the qualitative analyses, teachers identified collaborative communication and evaluation feedback as the most helpful aspects of their evaluation process. Based on the quantitative analyses, however, their average ratings did not exceed neutral on any of the four subscales. Overall findings suggest that school administrators’ experiences with teacher evaluation are more favorable than teachers’ experiences. Moderate correlations are found between participant characteristics and TEES scales. Implications for teacher evaluation are presented.     

Teachers’ perceptions of school connectedness and risk-taking in adolescence

School connectedness has been shown to be an important protective factor in adolescent development, which is associated with reduced risk-taking behavior. Interventions to increase students’ connectedness to school commonly incorporate aspects of teacher training. To date, however, research on connectedness has largely been based on student survey data, with no reported research addressing teachers’ perceptions of students’ connectedness and its association with student behavior. This research attempted to address this gap in the literature through in-depth interviews with 14 school teachers and staff from two Australian high schools. Findings showed that teachers perceived students’ connectedness to be important in regard to reducing problem behavior, and discussed aspects of connectedness, including fairness and discipline, feeling valued, belonging and having teacher support, and being successfully engaged in school, as being particularly important. This research enables the development of school-based intervention programs that are based on both student- and teacher-focused research.     

The transition from primary to secondary school: Teachers’ perspectives

The transition from primary school to secondary school has long been recognised as one of the most challenging times in a young adolescent students’ education, particularly in regard to their academic achievement. Research evidence from the last 30 years has identified a consistent pattern in students’ academic achievement across transition, suggesting that student achievement stalls or even declines in the first year of secondary school. The focus of this research was to identify teachers’ perceptions of the best practices to prepare students for a successful transition to secondary school. The findings were based on 12 one-on-one interviews with primary (Year 6) and secondary (Year 7) teachers. Teachers’ responses were analysed qualitatively through a process of thematic analysis. Findings from the research identified three key methods which primary and secondary school teachers believed were essential for facilitating successful transition experiences for students: curriculum continuity and awareness, communication between primary and secondary schools, and adequate teacher support.     

Opening Teachers’ Minds to Philosophy: The crucial role of teacher education

Abstract

Why has the ‘Philosophy for Children’ movement failed to make significant educational inroads in Australia, given the commitment and ongoing efforts of philosophers and educators alike who have worked hard in recent decades to bring philosophy to our schools? In this article we single out one factor as having particular importance, namely, that, on the whole, teachers consider philosophical inquiry to be futile. We argue that the explanation rests with teachers’ underlying epistemological beliefs and that openness to philosophy depends upon teachers being disposed to engage in the practices of reason-giving and reason evaluation, being aware of the epistemic value of such practices and, concomitantly, having highly developed reasoning skills. Drawing on both anecdotal evidence and wide-ranging research from within cognitive psychology, we go on to make a case for change within teacher education programmes.     

The apprenticeship of observation in career contexts: a typology for the role of modeling in teachers’ career paths

This article extends the literature on teachers’ career paths by attending to the experiences of educators when they were students in secondary classrooms. Grounded in the perspective that biography is central to teaching, we investigate undergraduate pre-service teachers’ educational experiences, views on teaching and learning, and professional plans. We draw upon life history interviews with 40 prospective teachers at three institutions across Pennsylvania, USA. We find that past educational experiences are intricately connected with career choice, intended professional path, and pedagogical focus. This paper identifies and discusses three forms of modeling – disciplinary, mentoring, and empowering – which influence pre-service teachers in powerful and enduring ways. These forms of modeling expand our understanding of teachers’ career intentions and apply the apprenticeship of observation to planned career paths.     

The role of relevance in future teachers’ utility value and interest toward technology

Seeing the relevance of tasks for future use is important for developing value and interest in them. We employed a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design using a mixed-methods approach to examine if reflecting on the relevance of technology to future teaching practices influences elementary and secondary preservice teachers’ utility value and interest toward technology integration. The findings from 111 preservice teachers revealed that reflecting on the connections of technology to future teaching increased their maintained interest in technology integration regardless of their situational interest levels. Reflections also helped them recognize technology-supported classroom management strategies in their current implementations. Differences observed between elementary and secondary preservice teachers highlighted a need for helping secondary preservice teachers develop higher interest and deeper understanding of utility values of technologies for future practices. Results also underscored the importance of emphasizing various benefits of technology regarding collaboration, assessment, and self-paced learning—utility values that were minimally observed in the study.     

The influences of school climate and teacher compensation on teachers’ turnover intention in China

This study employed survey research to investigate the differential relationships between dimensions of teachers’ job satisfaction (e.g. salary) and their turnover intention, after controlling for demographic variables (e.g. school location). Five hundred and ten teachers from a northeastern city of China participated. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that (a) teachers were more likely to stay in teaching profession if they worked in urban schools, always wanted to become a teacher or had a realistic view of teaching before they began their career training and (b) a negative relationship existed between teachers’ compensation and their turnover intention. This study offered some implications for Chinese educational policy-makers and practitioners regarding how to remain qualified teachers.     

The role of affective teacher-student relationships in adolescents’ school engagement and achievement trajectories

This longitudinal study investigated the role of teacher-student closeness and conflict in adolescents' school engagement trajectories, and how school engagement dimensions predict achievement trajectories. A sample of 5,382 adolescents (M_age.wave1 = 13.06, SD = 0.51; 49.6% boys) were followed from Grade 7 to 9. Yearly measures included student reports on school engagement dimensions, teacher reports on closeness and conflict, and standardized tests for math achievement. Latent growth models revealed that closeness positively and conflict negatively predicted students' school engagement. Furthermore, adolescents' behavioral and emotional engagement, and disaffection in particular, played an important role in predicting achievement within the same schoolyear. Moreover, increases in behavioral disaffection and emotional engagement aligned with reduced and steeper increases in achievement between Grade 7 and 9, respectively. In general, this study underscores the importance of adolescents’ affective teacher-student relationships for their engagement in school, and the role of school engagement in predicting achievement.     

Teachers’ and school leaders’ perceptions of commercialisation in Australian public schools

This paper explores teachers’ and school leaders’ perceptions of commercialisation in Australian public schools, reporting on findings from an open-ended survey question from an exploratory study that sought to investigate teacher and school leader perceptions and experiences of commercialisation. Commercialisation, for the purposes of this paper, is understood as the creation, marketing and sale of education goods and services to schools by for-profit providers and often includes (but is not limited to) the provision of curriculum content, assessment services, data infrastructures, digital learning, remedial instruction, professional development and school administration support. Our account highlights that commercialisation is prevalent in the day-to-day practice of Australian public schools. The perceptions of teachers and leaders suggest that commercialisation is complex, with both affordances and challenges. Respondents acknowledged that aspects of commercialisation are necessary for successfully running schools and classrooms in the 21st century, but also noted that there is a fine line beyond which these seemingly innocuous services become perilous. Concerns focused on how particular services are leading to the deprofessionalisation of teachers as they have less autonomy over what to teach and how to teach it. Moreover, teachers and school leaders reported being perturbed by the idea that commercial providers and services might work to replace teachers in the future. Drawing on these data we argue that growing commercialisation in Australian public schools clearly requires an ethical debate that schools, education professionals, policy makers and interested publics are yet to have.     

The effects of principals’ perceived instructional and distributed leadership practices on their perceptions of school climate

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which leadership styles predict school climate, in order to identify whether a relationship exists between principals’ perceived practices of instructional and distributed leadership and their perceptions of school climate (mutual respect and school delinquency), controlling for a net of principal and school characteristics. This research was conducted on a principal data-set from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), which was administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Several linear regression models with and without the country controlled dummy variables were conducted, respectively. Results indicated that principals’ perceived distributed and instructional leadership practices are significant predictors of staff mutual respect in the school. Nevertheless, such leadership styles did not appear as important factors for school delinquency and violence. School size and socio-economic status turned out to be the two most important factors predicting school safety. These results add nuance to the findings of previous studies that principals’ emphasis on instructional practice and sharing leadership can play a significant role in promoting the trust, collegiality and respect among staff. However, more than such leadership styles may be needed for creating a safe and orderly school environment.     

The relationship between school’s organizational climate and teacher’s job satisfaction: Malaysian experience

The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between school organizational climate and teachers’ job satisfaction. A quantitative survey method was applied, and three broadly hypothesized relationships were tested with a sample of 245 teachers from six government secondary schools in district of Penampang, Sabah, Malaysia. The instrument used in this study was the modified version for combination of two questionnaires: Organizational Climate Index and the Teachers’ Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. The findings indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between school organizational climate and teachers’ job satisfaction. The teachers in this study were found to be fairly satisfied with their job, with the responsibility factor as the biggest contributor to job satisfaction. This study found that there is no significant difference in levels of job satisfaction between the teachers’ gender (male and female). Based on the years of service in their current school, there was a statically significant difference in the level of job satisfaction among the teachers. These findings revealed that the secondary schools in Sabah have a positive and open climate, with the professional teachers’ behaviour factor as the biggest contributor. The results of this study indicate the necessity to provide positive organizational climate and up keeping teachers’ job satisfaction by policy makers and principals with hope in enhancing the quality of schools in Malaysia.     

Teachers’, school staff’s and parents’ efficacy beliefs as determinants of attitudes toward school

Self- and collective efficacy beliefs were examined as correlates of attitudes toward school of teachers, school staff, and parents. 726 teachers, 387 staff members, and 1994 parents from 18 junior high schools in Milan and Rome, Italy, were administered questionnaires assessing self-efficacy beliefs, perceptions about colleagues’ bahavior, collective efficacy beliefs, affective commitment and job satisfaction of teachers and school staff and parents satisfaction with school. Path analyses corroborated a conceptual model in which self- and collective efficacy beliefs represent, respectively, the distal and proximal determinants of affective commitment and job satisfaction for teachers and staff and of satisfaction with school for parents. Perceptions that teachers, staff and parents hold about the behavior of their colleagues largely mediated the links between self- and collective efficacy beliefs. collective efficacy beliefs, in turn, largely mediated the influence that self-efficacy beliefs and perceptions of school constituencies’ behaviors exert on attitudes toward school of teachers, staff and parents.     

Teachers’ capacity for organizational learning: the effects of school culture and context

This paper investigates how key elements of school culture are associated with teachers’ capacity to find and act on new information. We analyzed survey data from 3,579 teachers located in 117 schools which were a randomly selected sample from 9 states in the US. We found that school cultural components such as academic press, student support, and trust and respect among teachers promote teachers’ capacity for organizational learning. We also found that the role of teacher professional culture in molding the capacity for organizational learning is critical. In terms of school contexts, we identified that school level (elementary, middle, and high school) was associated with teachers’ capacity for organizational learning in 2 different ways. First, as the school level increases, the capacity for organizational learning tends to decrease. Second, as school level increases, the positive relation between reflective dialogue and teachers’ capacity for organizational learning is weakened. Implications of these results are discussed.