Reconceptualizing the Sources of Teaching Self-Efficacy: a Critical Review of Emerging Literature

Teachers’ efficacy beliefs are thought to influence not only their motivation and performance but also the achievement of their students. Scholars have therefore turned their attention toward the sources underlying these important teacher beliefs. This review seeks to evaluate the ways in which researchers have measured and conceptualized the sources of teaching self-efficacy across 82 empirical studies. Specifically, it aims to identify what can be inferred from these studies and what important questions still remain about the origins of teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Results indicate that a number of methodological shortcomings in the literature have prevented a clear understanding of how teachers develop a sense of efficacy. Nonetheless, insights gleaned from existing research help to refine, and to expand, theoretical understandings of the sources of self-efficacy and their influence in the unique context of teaching. Implications for future research and practice are addressed.     

Improving near‐peer teaching quality in anatomy by educating teaching assistants: An example from Sweden

Peer‐assisted learning has gained momentum in a variety of disciplines, including medical education. In Gothenburg, Sweden, medical students who have finished their compulsory anatomy courses have the option of working as teaching assistants (TAs). Teaching assistants provide small group teaching sessions as a complement to lectures given by faculty. Previously, TAs were left to handle the role as junior teachers by themselves, but since 2011, a continuation course in anatomy has been developed with the aim of providing the TAs better anatomy knowledge and guidance for teaching. The course was designed to comprise 7.5 ECTS credits (equivalent to 5 weeks of full‐time studies), and today all TAs are required to take this course before undertaking their own teaching responsibilities. This study aims to compare course evaluations of TA teaching before and after the introduction of the anatomy continuation course, in order to understand how students perceived teaching performed by self‐learned versus trained TAs. The results of this study demonstrate that there was a trend towards better teaching performed by trained TAs. The variability in rankings decreased significantly after the introduction of the continuation course. This was mainly due to an improvement among the TAs with the lowest levels of performance. In addition to comparing student rankings, TAs were interviewed regarding their experiences and perceptions within the continuation course. The course was generally positively regarded. The TAs described a sense of cohesion and appreciation since the institute invested in a course dedicated specifically for them. Anat Sci Educ 11: 403–409. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Survey of HIV/AIDS Clients in Botswana: Reactions to Supportive Counselling

A survey of HIV/AIDS clients in Botswana, Africa, all of whom were receiving supportive counselling, was conducted. A total of 328 volunteer clients from randomly selected sites completed the survey related to client perceptions of counselling helpfulness, outlook on life, satisfaction with goal setting in counselling, experience of social stigma, and acceptance by family and others. Overall, clients were very positive concerning the benefits received from counselling, their relationship with their counsellor, the goal setting process, their family/friends support system and their present quality of life. The majority of clients did, however, indicate some level of feeling stigmatized by being HIV-positive. Additional major findings indicated that clients with family incomes of less than 10 K pula per year (around US$1 k) were less positive about their counselling and related experiences than were those with higher levels of family income, with the exception of social stigma where lower family income was associated with less perceived social stigma. Clients reporting counselling sessions lasting more than 15 min were generally more positive in their reactions to counselling and related experiences than were clients reporting sessions typically lasting 15 min or less. A discussion of the findings, along with recommendations for areas needing further study and attention, is provided.     

Contextualiser la place du français et du malgache dans le système éducatif du Madagascar: une perspective historique

Abstract

Avant la colonisation de Madagascar par la France en 1896, la plupart des enfants malgaches scolarisés avaient fréquenté des écoles dirigées par des missions protestantes. La langue d’enseignement était la langue malgache, une langue écrite, développée avec l’aide de missionnaires britanniques à partir de 1820. Elle était celle du groupe clanico-politique dominant. La colonisation imposa la langue française. Le pouvoir colonial avait considéré la langue comme un instrument important dans la politique d’assimilation et la création d’élites qui pourraient servir son projet. Mais l’administration coloniale dans les pays colonisés influençait fortement l’exécution de la politique éducative. Madagascar est d’ailleurs un cas pertinent dans ce sens à cause de l’existence et le statut de la langue écrite Malgache. La politique assimilatrice dominante n’a pas empêché des désaccords au sein de l’administration coloniale sur la place de la langue malgache dans l’éducation. L’argument majeur était que cette langue renforcera le groupe ethnique Merina et alimentera davantage le nationalisme malgache au détriment de l’assimilation. Depuis l’Indépendance en 1960, la politique linguistique a évolué selon les régimes politiques. Les perspectives théoriques dans le domaine de la “literacy” (des aptitudes à lire et à écrire vu comme une pratique sociale) décrivent celle-ci comme une pratique sociale et un instrument de pouvoir. Sa diffusion générale a été associée avec un développement démocratique, mais aussi avec l’oppression. L’article montre comment la politique des langues d’enseignement à Madagascar s’est basée sur des arguments politique et pédagogique dans des contextes différents.     

Becoming a physician: The influence of the undergraduate experience

This study employed a national sample of college students who initially aspired to be, or later became, physicians to determine the influence of precollege characteristics, college origins, and the academic and social experience of college on the likelihood of becoming a physician. Estimates of a 14-variable causal model indicated that the major direct effects on attainment were attributable to college characteristics and the academic experience of college. Net of other causes, the selectivity/prestige of the undergraduate institution attended, collegiate academic achievement, and majoring in the physical or life sciences each had significant direct effects on becoming a physician. The direct positive influence of college quality, however, was partially counterbalanced by its negative indirect effect. Moreover, the greatest advantage in attending an elite institution accrued to those students with relatively high levels of academic performance. As academic performance declined, so did the positive effect of college quality. The effects of precollege characteristics on becoming a physician were largely indirect, mediated by the student's college experience. Net of other factors, women were no less likely than men to become physicians, but being female had a significant negative indirect effect. Conversely, secondary school achievement did not directly influence attainment but did have a large positive indirect influence.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, San Diego, February, 1987.     

The effects of early sexual abuse on adult risky sexual behaviors among persons with severe mental illness

OBJECTIVE: There were two aims: first, to examine the relationship between prior sexual abuse and three types of adult risky sexual behaviors [(1) ever traded sex for drugs or money, (2) had unprotected sex in the past 6 months, and (3) frequency of unprotected sex in the past 6 months] among persons with severe mental illness (SMI), and second, to examine the potential mediating effects of adult rape, substance use, and PTSD. METHOD: Using a pooled sample of individuals with SMI (N=609), logistic and negative binomial regression analyses were used to investigate the impact of prior sexual abuse on these adult risky sexual behaviors. RESULTS: Childhood sexual abuse was associated with having ever traded sex for money and having engaged in unprotected sex in the past 6 months. However, childhood sexual abuse was inversely associated with the number of times males had unprotected sex in the past 6 months. Results differed between males and females and the impact of potential mediators also varied by gender and type of outcome studied. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a complex link between childhood sexual abuse and adult risky sexual behaviors in persons with SMI. Clinical assessments of child abuse sequelae should include a variety of indicators and parameters of adult risky sexual behavior, as persons with SMI are at an increased risk of engaging in high-risk sexual behaviors and tend to have a higher exposure to childhood sexual abuse than does the general population.     

Are working memory deficits in readers with learning disabilities hard to change?

This study investigated whether changes in the working memory (WM) performance of readers with learning disabilities (LD) is related to a general or domain-specific system. The study compared readers with LD, chronologically age-matched (CA-M), and reading level-matched (RL-M) children's WM performance for phonological, visual-spatial, and semantic information under initial (no probes or cues), gain (cues that bring performance to an asymptotic level), and maintenance (asymptotic conditions without cues) conditions. The main findings indicated that (a) CA-M children were superior in performance to readers with LD across initial, gain, and maintenance conditions, (b) readers with LD showed less change (as reflected in effect size scores, slopes for the quadratic curve) on both visual-spatial and verbal (phonological and semantic) WM tasks across gain and maintenance conditions than the CA-matched children, and (c) the performance of readers with LD was superior to the RL-M children's performance on initial conditions, but inferior on gain and maintenance conditions. Taken together, the results suggest that a general system moderated the changes in retrieval of phonological, visual-spatial, and semantic information in readers with LD.     

Measurement invariance and validity of a brief questionnaire on reading motivation in elementary students

In order to initiate more research on the role of reading motivation during the initial stages of learning to comprehend texts, we developed the Reading Motivation Questionnaire for Elementary Students (RMQ‐E). The sample comprised 1497 elementary students in Grades 1–3. By means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, three factors were determined: Curiosity, involvement and competition. The three‐factor structure of the RMQ‐E was found to be invariant across grade levels (scalar invariance) and across female and male students (strict invariance). As was anticipated, students in higher grades and male students were lower in curiosity and involvement than students in lower grades and female students. Whereas competitive reading motivation did not differ across grade levels, it was higher for boys than for girls. Moreover, the contributions of involvement and competition to reading amount and reading competence were in accordance with the hypotheses. The predictive validity of curiosity, however, was not confirmed.