Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: An international comparison using the FIT-Choice scale

Motivations for preservice teachers' choice of teaching as a career were investigated using the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale (FIT-Choice scale; Watt & Richardson, 2007). This scale was initially developed and validated in the Australian context; our study applied it across international samples from Australia, the United States, Germany, and Norway. Support for strong factorial invariance implied the scale functioned similarly, and could fruitfully be employed in different contexts. Sample comparisons revealed that motivations for teaching were more similar than they were different across these samples; whereas, perceptions about the teaching profession tended to reflect country differences.     

Fostering Second Graders' Scientific Explanations: A Beginning Elementary Teacher's Knowledge,Beliefs, and Practice

Teaching science as explanation is fundamental to reform efforts but is challenging for teachers—especially new elementary teachers, for whom the complexities of teaching are compounded by high demands and little classroom experience. Despite these challenges, few studies have characterized the knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices that support or hinder teachers from engaging their students in building explanations. To address this gap, this study describes the understandings, purposes, goals, practices, and struggles of one third-year elementary teacher with regard to fostering students' explanation construction. Analyses showed that the teacher had multiple understandings of scientific explanations, believed that fostering students' explanations was important for both teachers and students, and enacted instructional practices that provided opportunities for students to develop explanations. However, she did not consistently take up explanation as a goal in her practice, in part because she did not see explanation construction as a strategy for facilitating the development of students' content knowledge or as an educational goal in its own right. These findings inform the field's understanding of teacher knowledge and practice with regard to one crucial scientific practice and have implications for research on teachers and inquiry-oriented science teaching, science teacher education, and curriculum materials development.     

Factors associated with changes in prestige of university departments

Four models of possible predictors of changes in prestige for university departments are advanced and tested using multiple regression. Changes in prestige are measured using a residual change score derived from the ratings of departments in various disciplines collected by American Council of Education in 1964 and 1969. The models are tested using data collected from 1,164 faculty in 80 university departments in 1968, and from published sources for that same year. Results indicate that a resource model is the best predictor for sociology, and that a research productivity model and an organizational model were good predictors of reputational change for political science and chemistry. For physics, only one organizational variable was an important predictor. The fourth model tested involved reputation of faculty within the department, and this model yielded the fewest significant results. A composite predictive equation was then used, retaining variables that had emerged as significant in earlier analyses. Results again exhibited large differences across scientific fields, suggesting that there is no single set of factors that can reliably predict improvement or decline in prestige across all disciplines.     

Role Balance and Depression Among College Students: The Moderating Influence of Adult Attachment Orientations

This study examined interrelationships among role balance perceptions, adult attachment orientations, and depression within an ethnically diverse, mixed‐gender sample of college students. Adult attachment orientations—and particularly attachment avoidance—significantly interacted with students' role balance levels to predict their depression scores. Implications and recommendations for college counseling centers are also discussed.     

When Children Treat Condemnation as a Signal: The Costs and Benefits of Condemnation

Condemnation is ubiquitous in the social world and adults treat condemnation as a costly signal. We explore when children begin to treat condemnation as a signal by presenting 4- to 9-year-old children (N = 435) with stories involving a condemner of stealing and a noncondemner. Children were asked to predict who would be more likely to steal as well as who should be punished more harshly for stealing. In five studies, we found that 7- to 9-year-old children treat condemnation as a signal—thinking that a condemner is less likely to steal and should be punished more harshly if caught hypocritically stealing later. We discuss the implications of these results for children’s emerging understanding of signaling and moral condemnation.     

The Politics of Standards and the Education of Teachers

A number of industrialized countries around the world are in the process of creating new directions for education, focused on elementary and secondary schools and the preparation of teachers in universities. Those directions, it has been suggested, will enhance not only the education of children and adolescents, but will lead to expansive improvements in people's social and economic well-being and will advance our technological capacities. Teacher educators and K-12 teachers are now in the midst of coming to grips with a new approach to the education of prospective and veteran teachers. While I am not sanguine about earlier attempts to improve the quality of teacher education programs, I also believe the current emphasis on national standards for P-12 teachers and university faculty in the United States and elsewhere must be challenged and critiqued. Standards Based Teacher Education (SBTE) relies on a set of ideas and commitments that needs to be both understood and critiqued. The SBTE process has approved sets of aligned external standards that encompass specific kinds of performances, outcomes and dispositions, and are linked to accreditation requirements. The process of teaching in this system is based on a technical-rational approach to teaching, and largely ignores social, political, and philosophical understandings. The present paper provides an analysis of SBTE and its shortcomings, as well as suggesting an alternative vision for the preparation of teachers.     

The Stuff of Legend,or Unpacking Cultural Baggage? Introducing First-year English Literature and Humanities Students to Foundational Literary Texts

This article explores teaching and learning perspectives in relation to a first-year English Literature module on foundational literary texts and considers the value of certain assessment modes. The essay discusses methodological and pedagogical questions and argues that the module provides a contextual platform from which first-year students are able to appreciate issues of cultural and textual transmission. The article concludes that the material and the assessment format contribute to furthering an undergraduate research agenda and provides students with the opportunity to reflect on their own learning.