Teaching Styles and Occupational Stress among Chinese University Faculty Members

The primary aim of this research is to investigate the predictive power of occupational stress for teaching style among university faculty members. A sample of 144 faculty members from a large university in the People’s Republic of China rated themselves on three ability scales and responded to the Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory and to four scales from the Occupational Stress Inventory‐Revised (role overload, role insufficiency, psychological strain, and rational/cognitive coping). Satisfactory reliability and validity data were obtained for the Chinese version of the four occupational stress scales. After self‐rated abilities were taken into account, occupational stress remained a significant predictor of teaching style. A stronger feeling of role overload and more frequent use of a rational/cognitive coping strategy were conducive to employing both creativity‐generating and conservative teaching styles; a stronger feeling of role insufficiency and psychological strain had a negative impact on the use of creative‐generating teaching styles. The implications of this research for both university faculty members and university administrators are discussed.     

Personality traits and occupational stress among Chinese academics

The primary objective of this study was to examine the predictive power of personality traits for occupational stress among Chinese university academics. Two hundred and forty-six participants responded to the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised. Results indicated that the strongest predictor for occupational stress is neuroticism, with those higher on neuroticism being more vulnerable to role overload and psychological strain. An equally important predictor is conscientiousness, with academics higher on conscientiousness reporting more frequent use of adaptive coping strategy and less susceptible to the feeling of role insufficiency. Extraversion and openness contributed modestly to occupational stress, while agreeableness was the least important factor in occupational stress. Implications of these findings are discussed concerning faculty members and university senior managers.     

Preferences for teaching styles matter in academic achievement: scientific and practical implications

The two primary objectives of this study were: to identify the preferred teaching styles of secondary‐school students and to compare these preferences with those of university students from past research; and to examine the contributions of students’ preferred teaching styles to their academic achievement. A sample of 298 students from a Catholic boys’ school completed the Preferred Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory and the Self‐rated Ability Scale. Participants’ achievements in 12 school subjects were obtained. Results indicated great similarities between the preferred teaching styles of the present sample and those of university students in previous studies. Achievement scores in all 12 subjects were predicted by students’ preferred teaching styles beyond their self‐rated abilities. Some of these predictive relationships were domain‐specific, while others were not. The findings’ scientific and practical implications are discussed.     

How teachers’ attitudes affect their approaches to teaching international students

There is empirical evidence that teachers’ intentions concerning what students should learn, teachers’ beliefs about teaching and teachers’ conceptions of, and approaches to, teaching within a specific context are closely related to the resulting quality of teaching. Following this line of reasoning, I argue in this paper that despite extensive research about good practice teaching international students, it is still unclear what constitutes good practice within this specific context. This research uses empirical data to determine how teachers may improve their understanding of, and adapt their teaching to, diverse groups of international students to meet emergent demands. A sample of 20 academics teaching international students in a medium‐sized regional Australian university participated in the study by responding to the widely used Approaches to Teaching Inventory. Results show that in this sample teachers tend to adapt their teaching approaches to match the context and, to some extent, slightly tend towards a knowledge transmission, teacher‐focused approach to teaching. An understanding of this may be used to implement staff development programmes for teaching practices that promote a student‐focused approach to teaching to encourage knowledge creation and conceptual change when teaching international students.     

‘Teach as you preach’: the effects of student‐centred versus lecture‐based teaching on student teachers’ approaches to teaching

This study investigates the effects of teaching and learning environments on student teachers’ approaches to teaching and compares a lecture‐based setting to a student‐activating teaching environment, in which self‐discovery learning by means of authentic tasks is central. Data collection (N = 852) was obtained by a pre‐test/post‐test design including the Approaches to Teaching Inventory. Though student teachers’ approaches changed significantly, the direction is only consistent with the assumption that the student‐activating experiences push students towards conceptual change/student‐focused approaches; however, not away from information transmission/teacher‐focused teaching. In fact, students’ approaches to teaching at the start of the experiment are important predictors of their scores after they followed the course on child development under both conditions. Moreover, student teachers’ changes in approaches to teaching tend to be affected by variables such as performance, academic self‐esteem, perceived workload and students’ changes in approaches to learning: variables that operate in distinct ways for diverse categories of approaches and work differently in both settings. In addition, the willingness of students to teach in the way they have been taught is not as straightforward as might be expected. Although several students became convinced of the use of the teaching methods in the experiment for their own practice, the majority of students demonstrate reflective practices, make critical judgements, formulate terms or suggest amendments to the teaching methods before simply adopting them for their own future pupils.     

A Framework for Re‐thinking Learning in Science from Recent Cognitive Science Perspectives

Recent accounts by cognitive scientists of factors affecting cognition imply the need to reconsider current dominant conceptual theories about science learning. These new accounts emphasize the role of context, embodied practices, and narrative‐based representation rather than learners’ cognitive constructs. In this paper we analyse data from a longitudinal study of primary school children’s learning to outline a framework based on these contemporary accounts and to delineate key points of difference from conceptual change perspectives. The findings suggest this framework provides strong theoretical and practical insights into how children learn and the key role of representational negotiation in this learning. We argue that the nature and process of conceptual change can be re‐interpreted in terms of the development of students’ representational resources.     

The influence of students’ cognitive and motivational variables in respect of cognitive conflict and conceptual change

In this study, the relationships among students’ cognitive/motivational variables, cognitive conflict, and conceptual change were investigated. Subjects were 159 seventh graders in Korea. Tests regarding logical thinking ability, field dependence/independence (FDI), meaningful learning approach, failure tolerance, mastery goal orientation, and self‐efficacy were administered to examine students’ cognitive/motivational characteristics. A preconception test and a test of responses to discrepant event were also conducted to examine the degree of students’ cognitive conflict induced by a discrepant event. Computer‐assisted instruction, designed to change an undifferentiated weight‐density concept into a scientific density concept, was then provided to students as a conceptual change intervention. A conception test was administered as a post‐test. The results indicated that FDI was the only statistically significant variable correlated with the degree of cognitive conflict. A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that logical thinking ability, FDI, and failure tolerance were statistically significant predictors of the conception test scores. Educational implications are discussed.     

The same yet different? Teaching quality differs across a teacher’s classes,but teachers with higher knowledge make teaching quality more similar

Teachers usually teach different classes. We examined the extent to which teaching quality varied across a teacher’s classes and the extent to which it was influenced by a teacher’s knowledge. We applied three-level models (levels: student, class, and teacher) to our data on 210 beginning teachers. Students from up to five classes per teacher rated the teaching quality with regard to cognitive activation, student support, classroom disturbances, and monitoring. We found that teaching quality varied substantially across a teacher’s classes. Furthermore, teachers with higher pedagogical/psychological knowledge exhibited higher teaching quality and, to some extent, lower variability in teaching quality across their classes. Thus, teachers’ pedagogical/psychological knowledge seems to be important for achieving high average teaching quality and for adopting to different classroom contexts. As a substantial proportion of the variance across a teacher’s classes cannot be explained by teachers’ knowledge, we discuss the need for research on other influencing factors.     

Student-focused approaches to teaching in relation to context and teacher characteristics

The purpose of this paper is to gain more insight into the relationship between teachers’ approaches to teaching on the one hand, and the characteristics of context and teacher demographics on the other. Data were collected from 50 teaching staff at the University of Antwerp and from three sources: a Dutch translation of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI), information given by the participants, and information obtained through the personnel department of the university. Only the conceptual change/student-focused scale of the ATI had good reliability and was used for further analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no relationship between teachers’ approaches to teaching and the context variables of expert level of students, teaching discipline and the number of students in the classroom. Neither was a relationship found between the teachers’ conceptual change/student-focused approach and the teacher characteristics of gender, academic status, teaching experience, age and intention to participate in teacher training. Several interpretations of these data and perspectives for further research are discussed.     

Do thinking styles contribute to metacognition beyond self‐rated abilities?

The principal objective of this study was to explore the predictive power of thinking styles for metacognition when self‐rated abilities were taken into account. As a preliminary step, the study examined the psychometric properties of the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI). Four hundred and twenty‐four university students from mainland China responded to the MAI, the Thinking Styles Inventory‐Revised II, and the Self‐Rated Ability Scale. The study ascertained the reliability and validity of the MAI. More importantly, results suggested that three creativity‐generating styles (hierarchical, liberal and legislative) and the executive style predicted metacognition beyond self‐rated abilities. Practical significance of the main research finding was discussed for university faculty members, students and university senior managers.     

大学化学实验教学中学生心理素质培养

从社会发展对人才的要求出发，提出了大学化学实验教学应重视大学生的心理素质培养，探讨了大学化学实验在培养学生良好心理素质中的作用以及教学策略。     

Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education students

The coping strategies used by students play a key role in their psychological well-being. This study examines the relationship between coping strategies and psychological well-being in a sample of 98 undergraduates aged between 19 and 42 years. Coping strategies were evaluated by means of the CRI-A (Moos, 1993), while psychological well-being was assessed using the BSI (Derogatis and Spencer, 1982). The results show a relationship between coping style and psychological well-being. Approach coping strategies as problem solving in teacher education students had a beneficial effect on symptoms of depression, phobic anxiety and overall level of psychological distress. In contrast, cognitive avoidance coping are associated with greater presence of psychological symptoms indicating distress. And behavioural avoidance strategies (search for alternative rewards and emotional discharge) were associated with negative psychological well-being. Coping strategies may help to reduce psychological distress in university students. Specifically, approach-oriented coping is associated with positive scores for psychological well-being, and avoidant emotion-focused coping—above all, behavioural avoidant coping—may be a strong predictor of psychological distress.     

贫困大学毕业生就业心理实证研究——以河南三所高校为例

通过对河南省三所高校大学毕业生的问卷调查和访谈,了解比较贫困大学毕业生和非贫困生在就业认知、就业压力、就业行为等方面的特点,分析家庭期望、认知因素、应对方式、社会支持对他们就业心理状态的影响,最后提出加强贫困大学生心理教育和就业指导的原则、建议和意见。     

The cost of going the extra mile: the relationship between teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior,role stressors,and strain with the buffering effect of job autonomy

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is defined as performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which a task is conducted. Teachers’ OCB can be directed toward particular individuals (OCBI) and/or toward the organization (OCBO). Despite their beneficial impact on school, these could entail personal costs for the teacher. The present study argues that OCB contributes to teachers’ strain through the mediating impact of role overload, role ambiguity, and role conflict, while job autonomy buffers it. The structural equation modeling results from a sample of 483 Israeli teachers and their principals confirmed the main hypotheses for OCBO. Role overload and role ambiguity fully mediated the relation of OCBO to teachers’ strain; the relation of OCBO to role stressors was significant for teachers with low job autonomy, but was non-significant for teachers with high job autonomy. This study opens an exploration of the positive and the negative consequences of OCB for teacher and school.     

Exploring the Impact of Varying Degrees of Cognitive Conflict in the Generation of both Subject and Pedagogical Knowledge as Primary Trainee Teachers Learn about Shadow Formation

Primary teacher preparation courses to need support students in developing not only science content knowledge, but also pedagogical knowledge appropriate to the effective translation and representation of subject matter for learners in classrooms. In the case of the generalist primary trainee, this constitutes a considerable challenge. This study explored how a group of 13 primary trainees developed subject and pedagogical knowledge during university‐based training as they investigated shadow production in a variety of contexts using cognitive conflict as a strategy for promoting conceptual change. By using a metacognitive approach, students analysed their own learning in response to increasing depth of conflict within a series of shadow investigations. The results indicate that the depth of conflict perceived by the learners in this study was instrumental in inducing conceptual change and generating pedagogical insight within the domain of light.     

教师教学多变,学生才能认真多学——大学心理学教学经验谈

心理学在大学里是一门应用性很强的公共课,为提高当代大学生的心理健康水平,强化自身的心理素质,实现大学生心理素质结构的优化。心理学教学方法有必要进行一场彻底地改革,改变静态模式教学效果欠佳的局面,创建有利于学生动态参与的教学环境,激发学生的学习积极性,培养其学习兴趣。在此笔者谈一些多年的教学感受。     

Toward an explanation of conceptual change

In this paper, an alternative ‘explanation’ of conceptual change is offered. It is argued that the problem of explaining conceptual stability and change can be divided into three parts; accounting for conceptual change entails specifying some factors affecting each of the following: old conceptions’ persistence, new conceptions’ acquisition, and cognitive restructuring. Some factors affecting each sub‐problem are discussed, and the literature is reviewed to support the significance of these factors.     

Static Versus Dynamic Disposition: The Role of GeoGebra in Representing Polynomial-Rational Inequalities and Exponential-Logarithmic Functions

This study investigates prospective secondary mathematics teachers’ visual representations of polynomial and rational inequalities, and graphs of exponential and logarithmic functions with GeoGebra Dynamic Software. Five prospective teachers in a university in the United States participated in this research study, which was situated within a framework of productive disposition and visual representations in pre-calculus. The main result was that the role of GeoGebra as a cognitive tool fostered the research participants’ productive disposition, despite recurrent mismatches between the algebraic and visualized formalisms. Moreover, participants exhibiting dynamic productive disposition seemed to understand and make better sense of the conceptual underpinnings of the mathematical content they explored in contrast to those embracing static productive disposition.