Taiwan Elementary Teachers’ Views of Science Teaching Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectations

This paper presents the results of a case study involving 282 Taiwanese elementary science teachers at the elementary level. These teachers provided responses to the science efficacy instrument (STEBI-A) and also provided personal data regarding how their years of general (YTE) and science (YTS) teaching experience may have influenced student achievement in science. Researchers used two multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to investigate the interaction and influence of YTE and YTS upon the personal science teaching efficacy (PSTE) and science teaching outcome expectations (STOE) of these teachers. The results advocate the position that the years of general teaching experience of elementary science teachers in Taiwan have a significantly greater impact upon their personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectations than years of teaching science. This evidence calls into question whether Bandura and Tschannen-Moran’s view of teacher efficacy as both context and subject matter specific at the elementary level can be applied to Taiwan elementary teachers who teach science. The results of this study should benefit educators and policy-makers with respect to future elementary teacher education throughout Taiwan and other developing nations. An erratum to this article can be found at     

From Verona to Ramallah: Living in a State of Emergency

I have spent much of the last two years working in a school in Ramallah, Palestine, supporting new teachers of English. I worked in the classroom, in partnership, sharing the planning and teaching of lessons. This essay is about exploring what happens to texts in a specific classroom context, about how a particularly English text, Romeo and Juliet, was interrogated and remade by young people in a class I taught with Victoria, a young American in her first year of teaching, and about how the study of this fictive text enabled them to explore fundamental questions of identity and difference. Victoria and I, foreigners in Palestine, taught English and shared a common language with the students. This, and the technology available to us, might seem to promise easy communication but this is an illusion, for these things cannot transcend the differences between us – differences that are part of the human condition and have to be acknowledged and embraced if there is to be any meaningful dialogue between us. The essay is therefore also an exploration of the possibilities for communication between us, largely through the literature we read and about the insights we provide for each other in the course of our talk and activities about the text.     

Reading ability and short-term memory: The role of phonological processing

The aim of the current study was to further explore the connection between verbal short-term recall and phonological processing for two purposes: (a) To investigate the basis of short-term memory deficits for children with reading disability, and (b) To further explore the origin of developmental verbal memory span increases.Using a variety of memory and phonological tasks, reading group comparisons were conducted testing third-grade good readers and poor readers, and developmental changes were studied with pre-kindergarten, first-grade and third-grade children. The main finding was that a strong relationship was observed between efficiency of phonological processes and capacity of verbal memory supporting the hypothesis that reducing phonological processing requirements in verbal short-term memory increases available resources for storage. No such relationship was found between phonological processing and nonverbal memory. This conclusion was supported by two findings: (a) The verbal short-term memory deficits in poor readers significantly correspond with less accurate phonological processing, and (b) Developmental increases in verbal STM are accompanied by more accurate and rapid execution of phonological tasks.     

A curriculum and instruction synthesis model for teachers of the severely handicapped

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented growth in curriculum and instructional advances for severely handicapped learners. For many teachers and service providers the literature tends to be confusing, contradictory and disorganized; to complement the growth in curriculum and instructional variables, a model is needed for organizing this expanding body of information. This paper presents one such model by categorizing educational advances into: a) what‐to‐teach variables (goal selection); b) instructional variables; and c) curriculum modification.     

A Burning Desire for Social Justice

The relationship between personal prayer and perceived purpose in life is explored among two samples of twelve‐to‐fifteen‐year‐olds. The first sample comprises 914 males and 726 females who never attend church. The second sample comprises 232 males and 437 females who attend church most weeks. The data demonstrate a significant positive relationship between frequency of personal prayer and perceived purpose in life among both groups.     

Education for Older Adults with Early-Stage Dementia: Health Promotion for the Mind,Body, and Spirit

Later life learning (LLL) has a profound beneficial effect on older adults; therefore, it is important to assess older adults' learning needs. A representative random sample of 1,867 soon-to-be older adults (between 45 and 59 years of age) were assessed for their interest in formal learning after their retirement or when they become 60 years old. We examined their preferences for courses and identified the socioeconomic and health-related characteristics related to their planned participation in formal LLL. About 38% of these respondents expressed an interest in formal learning after retirement; the most popular three content courses included computers, interest classes, and physical exercise. Those who did not plan to commit themselves to formal LLL indicated "no interest" and "lack of time" as the most frequently reported reasons for not wanting to participate in LLL. Moreover, we found that LLL was positively related to socioeconomic indicators including education, income, and retirement protection; whereas those who received financial support from adult children or from the government (in the form of welfare) were less likely to express interest in formal LLL.     

No Quick Fixes: Problems in the Development of A-level Students’ Writing (and Learning)

Over the past 15 years, there has been a range of standards-driven educational interventions in England: focused particularly on students’ writing, they have been targeted at particular students, short-term and based on the assumption that identifiable, quantifiable inputs would produce pre-identified, measurable outputs. This article explores one such intervention, aimed at students in Year 13 who were seen as having difficulty with academic writing. It looks closely at the work of one student, and raises questions about the effects of high-stakes testing upon pedagogy in schools and the damaging impact that this has upon student learning.     

Training phonological awareness: A study with inner-city kindergarten children

A small-scale, longitudinal, phonological awareness training study with inner-city kindergarten children was conducted in four classrooms. The central goals of the study were the creation and evaluation of a phonological awareness training program and a preliminary look at the consequence of that training on basic phonological processes. Assessment of phonological awareness and basic phonological processes was carried out in the fall of the kindergarten year, and again in the spring following an 18 week training program which incorporated both auditory and articulatory techniques for fostering metaphonological development. Follow-up evaluation of promotion to first grade and of reading achievement took place a year later. The children in the two experimental classes receiving training had significantly greater gains in phonological awareness at the end of kindergarten, were significantly more likely to be promoted to first grade rather than to pre-one, and had a trend toward better reading skills in first grade than did the smaller group of children promoted to first grade from the control classes. In addition, there were some indications that development of phonological awareness was accompanied by changes in the underlying phonological system as well. Here we focus on the rationale and implementation of our training program and discuss the implications of the findings for a potential large-scale study.     

The impact of ability group placement decisions on the equality of educational opportunity in desegregated elementary schools

The academic placement decisions of school personnel in desegregated elementary schools is assessed. Placement decisions involving labeling, classifying, and differential assignment policies are often related to the student's racial background. Students are often misclassified and misplaced because of inappropriate evaluation procedures and arbitrary decisions made by school personnel. Such assignment policies have led to high levels of classroom and program resegregation once districts and school buildings have been desegregated.Differential placement, often referred to as ability grouping, must be discontinued as it is currently practiced. Low teacher expectations, differential curricula, and low student achievement are often associated with differential placement decisions in desegregated elementary schools.