What college chemistry instructors and high school chemistry teachers perceive as important for incoming college students

Professors of college chemistry were asked to rank various examples of traditional chemistry knowledge and skills as to their importance for incoming students to possess. A pilot study revealed that the items—all selected from one edition of the American Chemical Society-National Science Teachers Association (ACS-NSTA) Chemistry Achievement Examination—represented attributes viewed as relatively unimportant. The professors then identified 29 personal traits they considered more important for incoming students to possess. Subsequently, these items, knowledge, skill, and personal attributes, were included in a three-part assessment instrument. The instrument was administered to 69 college chemistry professors selected at random and to 37 high school chemistry teachers. The results reveal that the college professors universally identified student personal attributes as significantly more important for incoming students to possess over specific knowledge and skills included in the ACS-NSTA Achievement Examination. Chemistry professors do not find items commonly used to assess success in high school chemistry as important attributes for incoming students to possess. Conversely, high school chemistry teachers regard the knowledge and skill items to be more important for college preparation than personal attributes.     

What makes a successful transition to school? Views of Australian parents and teachers

This paper reports a survey of 355 parents and 166 teachers of young children starting school in New South Wales, Australia. Parents and teachers were asked to rate a list of 20 items in answer to the question 'How important are the following for deciding whether a child has had a successful first two terms of school?' The results are presented in relation to individual items as well as broad categories, with comparisons between the perceptions of teachers and parents. Overall, teachers placed most emphasis on the areas of children's adjustment to the school context and their dispositions or feelings about being at school. Less emphasis was attributed to areas such as knowledge. Parents were more likely than teachers to focus on knowledge, as well as children's dispositions. Implications are drawn for collaborative interaction between parents and teachers as children start school.     

A Comparison of Special,General and Support Teachers’ Controllability and Stability Attributions for Children’s Difficulties in Learning

The study aimed to explore teachers’ attributions for learner difficulties in their schoolwork. In order to explore their attributions of controllability and stability, three groups of teachers, general mainstream class teachers (N = 39), mainstream learning support teachers (N = 35), and special school teachers (N = 25) were asked to rate vignettes about children’s difficulties. The results showed that the two groups of teachers working in the mainstream settings viewed learners with identified support needs as having less control over their performance than those with no specific support needs, while special school teachers viewed both learner groups similarly. Similar findings were found for teacher attributions of controllability in high‐ and low‐ability learners. Stability attributions across all conditions showed that special school teachers viewed children’s difficulties as more amenable to change than did the two groups of mainstream teachers. The implications of these findings for inclusion in mainstream schools are discussed.     

From the Editors: Math Achievement and Early Childhood Teacher Preparation

The researchers conducting this study investigated the relationship between early childhood teachers' educational levels and their beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate practices by examining the differences between lead teachers and teacher assistants in publicly funded prekindergarten classrooms. For this purpose, the researchers analyzed self-reported teachers' beliefs using analysis of variance and examined 26 individual items. Findings of this study suggest that lead teachers endorsed developmentally appropriate practices more strongly than did teacher assistants. Teacher assistants were more likely than lead teachers to agree with developmentally inappropriate practices. Despite the significant differences between the two groups of teachers, it is important to note that there was a general tendency for both lead teachers and teacher assistants to endorse developmentally appropriate practices. Thus, although there appears to be a link between teachers' educational levels and teacher beliefs, teachers' educational levels alone may not be sufficient for understanding their beliefs and practices in the classroom. Implications for practice and future research in teacher education are also discussed.     

Consultant Verbal Control and Consultee Perceptions

High verbal control is a way of exercising interpersonal power and may be an important influence on consultation process and outcome. In this study, two groups of public school teachers were shown videotapes depicting either high or low levels of consultant verbal control. Dependent measures included a consultation-acceptance rating, a behavioroid measure assessing consultee commitment to future consultation meetings, and a thought-listing technique soliciting covert cognitive responses occurring while the teachers viewed the consultation exchanges. Results indicated that the verbal control manipulation produced differences in teachers' perceptions of the consultant's level of verbal control. After viewing the vignettes, 16% of the teachers expressed willingness to commit to future consultation. However, there was no apparent detrimental effect of high consultant verbal control: Of those teachers willing to commit, differences between high and low control were not significant. Post hoc analysis of acceptance scale items indicated that participants thought the consultee learned more about the problem discussed during the consultation under the high consultant verbal control condition. Advantages and limitations of high consultant verbal control as a consultation process variable are discussed, and recommendations for future consultation research are offered.     

Perceptions of Botswana primary teacher educators on selected teaching skills

This study investigates the levels of confidence of several categories of educators in some selected teaching skills. The educator categories comprise of primary school teachers, tutors at the Primary Colleges of Education, education officers and unqualified teachers in the colleges' catchment areas. The results are based on a questionnaire survey involving 504 educators. The educators are seen to influence to some extent the outcomes of the preservice training of teachers at the Primary Colleges in Botswana. The findings firstly suggest that about one-third of the respondents are not at all satisfied with teaching. The majority of education officers and principals of schools are the ones satisfied with their jobs. These differences among educator categories are statistically significant. Secondly, the analysis by location, rank and experience of the educators shows several trends. The analysis by location shows that educators in the urban setting are more confident in the selected skills than those from the rural areas. However, these differences are constant but not significant. The results by rank suggest the education officer respondents as being the most confident group. The college tutors and primary school teachers are more confident than the last category of unqualified teachers. The Pearson chi-square values for the analysis by rank suggest that these differences are significant. The results consistently show that longer experience in years does not lead to higher levels of confidence. The findings are also consistent in showing that there is a drop in levels of confidence with experience of twenty-six years and more. The paper discusses the implications of these results for professional skills training within the primary college catchment areas.     

Developing an audiovisual notebook as a self‐learning tool in histology: Perceptions of teachers and students

Videos can be used as didactic tools for self‐learning under several circumstances, including those cases in which students are responsible for the development of this resource as an audiovisual notebook. We compared students' and teachers' perceptions regarding the main features that an audiovisual notebook should include. Four questionnaires with items about information, images, text and music, and filmmaking were used to investigate students' (n = 115) and teachers' perceptions (n = 28) regarding the development of a video focused on a histological technique. The results show that both students and teachers significantly prioritize informative components, images and filmmaking more than text and music. The scores were significantly higher for teachers than for students for all four components analyzed. The highest scores were given to items related to practical and medically oriented elements, and the lowest values were given to theoretical and complementary elements. For most items, there were no differences between genders. A strong positive correlation was found between the scores given to each item by teachers and students. These results show that both students' and teachers' perceptions tend to coincide for most items, and suggest that audiovisual notebooks developed by students would emphasize the same items as those perceived by teachers to be the most relevant. Further, these findings suggest that the use of video as an audiovisual learning notebook would not only preserve the curricular objectives but would also offer the advantages of self‐learning processes. Anat Sci Educ 7: 209–218. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Categories of Environmental Print: All Logos are Not Created Equal

The purpose of this research was to investigate whether different kinds of environmental print logos were known more frequently by young children than other kinds. Sixty-one 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were assessed on 20 full-context color pictures of environmental print logos. These 20 logos were divided into three categories: community (signs prevalent in the local community; e.g., McDonald’s, Kroger), household (items found in many American homes: e.g., Doritos, Crest), and child (items associated with children rather than adults; e.g., Toy Story 2, Lego). Chi-squares were run to determine whether, as hypothesized, the child logos would be better known than the community and household logos within: (1) the whole sample, (2) each of the three age groups, and (3) both genders. As expected, child logos were the best known by all age groups and both boys and girls. However, the differences between the three categories were not significant for the 3-year-olds. This paper concludes with advice to teachers of young children on how to use child related environmental print logos in their classrooms.     

The development and validation of a framework for teaching competencies in higher education

In higher education, approaches to teaching are becoming more student-centred, which demands different teaching competencies. Therefore, it is necessary to have an adequate framework of teaching competencies that can be used for evaluation purposes. The weaknesses of the existing frameworks are that they do not pay attention to the person as teacher, they are too narrowly defined, they are not validated and they are not adjusted to modern approaches to teaching. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a framework of teaching competencies in higher education. A framework for teaching competencies was therefore constructed containing the following domains: The Person as Teacher, Expert on Content Knowledge, Facilitator of Learning Processes, Organiser and Scholar/Lifelong Learner. The framework was validated using a Delphi method. Educational experts (N = 63) were asked: ``How important are the following teaching competencies in each domain for an experienced teacher in higher education?'' A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the adequacy of the domains. After two rounds, the shift in ratings was minimal, so the results were considered stable. The response rate was 82%. From the original list with 134 items, 30 items were omitted because many experts failed to respond to them. The experts reached consensus on 61 out of the resulting 104 items (59%). A confirmatory factor analysis on the three best scoring items in each domain confirmed the model. A framework of teaching competencies was developed and validated that can be used as a starting point for teacher evaluation in higher education.     

Surveying digital competencies of university students and professors in Ukraine for fully online collaborative learning

Collaborative-constructivist online learning appears well aligned with Ukraine’s post-revolutionary aspirations for globalised and transformed higher education. This study explores digital competencies of students and professors at Kyiv National Economic University, Ukraine, to probe readiness for fully online collaborative learning. The General Technology Competency and Use profile tool was completed by 244 participants to measure digital experience and confidence across four categories of human–computer activity. To assess readiness, reported levels of competencies were related to the three dimensions of successful collaborative learning described by the Community of Inquiry model. Despite some key differences between students and teachers, general findings include moderate-to-low levels of self-reported technical, social and informational competency, accompanied by consistently low levels of epistemological competency. These findings suggest that neither students nor teachers are adequately prepared for achieving high levels of social, cognitive and teaching presence in a fully online learning environment. It is recommended that digital-competency development become an educational priority.     

Market conditions,productivity, and promotion among university faculty

This paper contrasts the performance levels and promotion experiences of 371 faculty members under three different market conditions reflecting the supply and demand for university faculty (buyer's market, seller's market, and stable market). The central questions examined are, What is the effect of market conditions upon (1) the length of time it takes for promotion; (2) the promotion rate; (3) the productivity of assistant and associate professors before each promotion; and (4) the productivity of full professors after attaining that rank? Findings are most consistent with a market model indicating that faculty promoted during a buyer's market remain in rank longer before being promoted and exhibit a greater rate of productivity than faculty promoted during other market conditions. There is also support for the elite model in that the impact of “tight” market conditions on productivity is greatest for faculty below the rank of full professor.     

The generic nature of pedagogical content knowledge among college professors

There is a growing body of research on teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), yet most of it has focused on subject-matter-bounded (specific) PCK and involves teachers in the general classroom (elementary and secondary grades). This study explorers the kinds of interpretative frameworks that university professors use in constructing and implementing PCK. The basic purpose of this study was to better understand the “generic” nature of PCK among exceptional university-level teachers. It analyzes generic PCK in professors across several fields (biology, business, education, kinesiology, music, nursing, special education, and speech communication). Data were obtained from phenomenological interviews with 10 university professors, all of them experienced teachers and recognized by their peers and administrators as eminent. The results emerged from qualitative analysis of the data, and indicate that these professors not only construct and use generic PCK in very similar ways but also that they apply generic PCK in ways that reflect Rubin's (1989) notion of “pedagogical intelligence” and Porter and Brophy's (1988) insights on good teaching. Five generic PCK components emerged: knowledge about (a) the subject matter, (b) the students, (c) numerous instructional strategies, (d) the teaching context, and (e) one's teaching purposes. In addition, the results problematize the traditional “scholar-teacher” dichotomy in higher education.     

地方性本科大学教师生存状态--年龄、工龄、学历状况的调查:以某大学为例

教师的年龄,是反映教师生理阶段是处于青年期、中年期还是走向老年期的一个重要指标;工龄或教龄,是反映教师生存中,从事其教学、专业工作长短的一个指标,它也可以从一个侧面反映出教师的专业素质;教师的文化学历,反映了教师生存中,从事教学与专业工作的文化基础和文化起点,是教师生存压力大与小最重要的学术背景条件。调查表明:(1)各层次教师的平均年龄趋向合理,如教师的平均年龄为35岁,其中,教授52.5岁,副教授43.5岁,讲师35.7岁,助教27.2岁,见习教师23.2岁。但美中不足的是见习教师的年龄偏轻;(2)各级职务的教师中,都有一批很长工龄的教师,反映出部分教师晋职困难,如教授,最短工龄为19年;副教授,最长工龄为38年;讲师,最长工龄为36年;助教,最长工龄为21年。以上情况反映出:越是晋升更高一级的职务就越困难;(3)高学历教师在加速增长,但目前总的比例不高。     

Adult Basic Education Teacher Competencies: Implications for Community Colleges

Abstract

This study examines previous studies concerned with Adult Basic Education (ABE) teacher competencies to corroborate their findings and to discuss the competencies in relation to their implications for ABE teacher training where the community college is the agency responsible for the administration of ABE programs.

Adult Basic Education teachers and administrators in five New England states were asked to rate 17 areas of teacher competency as derived from Mocker (1974). Five exploratory hypotheses of no difference between the two groups were postulated and analyzed using t tests. A sixth hypothesis of no difference in ranking of the competencies was also postulated and analyzed via the Spearman Rho.

No significant differences were revealed in analysis, thus supporting Mocker's findings. Implications of the findings for training community college teachers of ABE are then discussed in the context of relating training objectives to validated competencies.     

The role of private speech in the transition from collaborative to independent task performance in young children

This study was designed to examine the following central Vygotskian hypotheses about the functions of preschool children's private speech: (1) that private speech facilitates the transition from collaborative to independent task performance, and (2) that children's use of private speech is conducive to task success. Age-related changes in children's use of private speech were also examined. Forty preschoolers, ranging in age from three to five, completed a selective attention task with scaffolded assistance given from an experimenter when needed. In an effort to overcome several methodological limitations found in previous research, a new microgenetic method of analyzing speech-performance relations based on assigning task items to discrete categories reflecting six possible co-occurrences between private speech (item-relevant speech, item-irrelevant speech, silence) and performance (success, failure) was introduced. Results were that (1) item-relevant speech was used more often during successful than during failed items while the opposite was true for item-irrelevant speech; (2) children were more likely to use private speech on successful items after scaffolding than they were on similar items not following scaffolding; (3) after scaffolding, children were more likely to succeed on the next item if they talked to themselves than if they were silent; and (4) hypothesized curvilinear, age-related patterns in children's item-relevant private speech and silence were found, however, only when analyzing speech during successful items. Implications of this research for preschool teachers and parents are discussed.     

Students’ Preference for Field Dependence‐Independence Teacher Characteristics

The study explored whether FI students would rank certain FI teachers’ characteristics as more important for success than would FD students. Similarly, it was examined whether FD students would rank certain FD teacher characteristics as more important for successful teaching than would FI students. The subjects consisted of 50 female teachers (25 FD and 25 FI) and their 844 5‐year‐old classroom children (422 females and 422 males) attending an all day early childhood program. The teachers and children were administered the appropriate form of the Embedded Figures Test to characterise them as more FD or FI. Students rated FDI teacher characteristics. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) for the students’ preference for the FDI teacher characteristics was found to be significant by the Wilks’ Lambda Critierion. Significant univariate F ratios are discussed. Significant interactions were found for: (1) the teachers’ cognitive style and sex (p<0.01); (2) the teachers’ cognitive style, sex, and the FDI teacher characteristics (p<0.001); (3) the teachers’ cognitive style and the FDI teacher characteristics (p<0.001).     

Measuring Value Consensus Among Teachers in Respect of Special Educational Needs

Previous educational research has argued that consensus upon values and goals among teachers within a school is a necessary condition for the successful development of provision for pupils with special educational needs. This paper describes a study designed to investigate this assertion empirically. Questionnaires were administered to a crosssection of teachers in five English secondary schools which belonged to a consortium dedicated to the development of special educational needs provision. On each of four different dimensions, teachers were asked to rank five alternatives in order of importance. The strength of consensus in the sample as a whole, and within each school, was measured using Kendall's coefficient of concordance (W). A novel clustering technique was then applied, which succeeded in identifying groups of teachers who shared a stronger consensus than obtained in the whole sample or within each school. The findings suggest that other factors, such as the teacher's position in the school, amount of teaching experience, gender and type of subject taught, may be more important in the production of consensus than which school a teacher belongs to.