Students' Perception of School Violence and Math Achievement in Middle Schools of Southern Italy

This study aims at both investigating bullying episodes occurring at school across different grades (from 6 to 8) and evaluating whether educational achievement in math can be predicted on the ground of students' perception of school violence. The sample was composed of 11,064 students coming from middle schools of Southern Italy. Standardized tests were submitted to measure students' performance in mathematics. Background questionnaires were used to assess students' perception of school violence in relation to some bullying episodes occurring in the last month. Students' perception of school violence, which tends to decrease from Grade 6 to 8, can be considered a valid predictor of their math performance, also controlling for both individual and family background, school context, and geographical characteristics.     

Building Relationships through a Digital Branch Library: Finding the Community in Community College Library Websites

This study evaluates whether or not community college libraries have in place the characteristics necessary to develop digital branch libraries to meet the expanding and changing needs of their publics. Using Hon and Grunig’s (1999) relationship building criteria as a framework, 98 community college library websites were analyzed to determine if they can be considered digital branch libraries (King, 2009). Digital branches go beyond offering mere functionality to embody relational aspects that are critical to the success of service-based organizations. That is, they provide at least the same level of services as their brick and mortar counterparts through real staff, real collection, real building, and real community. Findings indicate that while aspects of all of King’s criteria were present, representation was inconsistent and often weak; further, the emphasis was on functional features, suggesting a need for greater relationship building practices in order to engage with their publics. Collective results are discussed, and recommendations for improvement and areas of future research are offered.     

Inquiry-Based Field Experiences: Transforming Early Childhood Teacher Candidates’ Effectiveness

Contemporary teacher preparation programs are challenged to provide transformational learning experiences that enhance the development of highly effective teachers. This mixed-methods case study explored the influence of inquiry-based field experiences as a pedagogical approach to teacher preparation. Four teacher candidates participated in a 15-week practicum hosted by four community-based early childhood classrooms. Research methods included peer discussions, self-assessments, coaching sessions facilitated by the instructor/researcher, and a survey. Triangulated content analysis indicated that inquiry-based field experiences positively contributed to the participants’ (a) understanding and application of core knowledge, (b) consciousness of teacher–child interactions, (c) appreciation of co-inquiry learning, and (d) utilization of reflective learning. Inquiry-based field experiences also positively contributed to the participants’ professional intentionality and discernment.     

Reflection on their first five years of teaching: understanding staying and impact power

Teacher turnover in urban schools is occurring at a breakneck pace; thus, it is important for us to understand the characteristics of teachers who stay and succeed in these settings. In order to address this need, this study examines the preparation and induction experiences of teachers who completed a Transition to Teaching – a funded urban apprenticeship program. Three research questions guided the study: (1) How do participants describe the characteristics that influence their five-year retention? (2) How do participants describe their success as teachers? and (3) How do participants describe the professional support they received in their preparation program and during the subsequent four years after completing the program? Quantitative and qualitative data via interviews, focus group, and an examination of teachers’ district performance scores were utilized, as a means of understanding teachers’ staying and impact power. Staying power refers to the ability to endure or last within challenging contexts by possessing strength enough to persevere. Impact power refers to their ability to influence student learning. Four assertions describe the factors influencing developing teachers who stay and have impact as they teach in challenging urban schools, suggesting that these teachers possess a strong work ethic, seek specific resources to improve pedagogy, have the knowledge and skills necessary to differentiate instruction, and seek teacher leadership opportunities in their schools. This study suggests several implications for teacher educators, educational leaders, administrators, and researchers working with new teachers in urban schools or with populations that are predominantly children of color.     

Preservice teachers perspectives and experiences teaching personal and social responsibility

ABSTRACT

Background: Pedagogical models have become an established component of physical education over the past several decades. One such model, the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model, has gained momentum in practice and research, though little is known regarding its use in preservice teacher training. The model follows a flexible format focused on teaching life skills (e.g. leadership) that can be applied in all lived ecologies. Occupational socialization theory provides insight into the pretraining and teacher education experiences of preservice teachers that shape their understanding and practice of physical education and associated pedagogical models.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of a sequence of methods courses and early field experiences on U.S. preservice teachers’ understanding and implementation of the teaching personal and social responsibility model with youth from a community affected by poverty.

Method: This study took on a phenomenological and social constructivist approach. Ten preservice teachers (9 males, 1 female) took part in the study. The participants were an average age of 22.10 years old (SD?=?4.38) and seven identified as White and three as Black. Each participant was enrolled in methods and early field experience coursework that provided scaffolded training in primary education in a community affected by poverty. Preservice teachers team-taught groups of 10–15 children twice a week along with one day committed to on-campus reflection. Data collection included autobiographical essays, critical incident reports, reflective journals, non-participatory observations and field notes, and semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed deductively through the lens of occupational socialization theory, and inductively as theory divergent trends were sought. Open and axial coding was completed with member checking throughout, resulting in a final set of themes and subthemes.

Findings: The preservice teachers initially struggled to connect with their students due to conflicting backgrounds, but the teaching personal and social responsibility model guided the relationship-building process. As the model was continuously utilized, more empathy and care were shown towards the children. Preservice teachers felt there was a lack of progression in positive behaviors but were able to empower youth and felt that the model was culturally relevant. Overtime, the students began to appreciate the affective domain despite the challenge of working in a community affected by poverty through frustration towards the larger system limiting any potential progress was present.

Conclusions: Subjective theories transitioned to include relationship building and life skills learning, likely because of the extended field experience and faculty support. The preservice teachers desire to connect with and teach the students well displays the connection between models-based practice and positive relationships. Preservice teachers’ knowledge of their students was limited as it was based on secondhand knowledge of youth, teacher educators, and school staff. Evidence indicates some cultural responsiveness development though there were also elements of a deficit model due to white privilege and class differences. Further work explicitly integrating a culturally relevant approach and social justice in teacher education programming should occur.     

Integration of knowledge management and collaborative learning by technical supported communication processes

To date the development of technical systems to support learning either in schools and universities (CSCL-systems), or in companies (knowledge-management systems) have largely developed separately concurrent, with no or little mutual exchange of experience. The approach presented here seeks to combine the strengths of both lines of development in order that both benefits from each others advantages achieve advantages for each development. Detailed requirements engineering is presented regarding, three research fields: communication theory; learning processes; and a study in companies. The requirements collected led to a sophisticated concept of annotations where annotations serve as communicative contributions, and (segmented) material is used as context. The combination and distinction between communicative contributions, and the material itself is a suitable approach for integrating the advantages of CSCL-systems (communication support) and knowledge management systems (support of content storage). These requirements are combined in a software system, KOLUMBUS, presented with its key features. To gather experience with KOLUMBUS and to convey potential for further improvement, two case studies were conducted. The main results, advantages and further potentials derived from these two case studies are described in this paper. The paper concludes with design recommendations for similar technical systems, as well as organizational hints for CSCL-groups (in schools or universities as well as in companies).