Novice teachers' perspectives on mentoring: The case of the Estonian induction year

This study explores Estonian novice teachers' perspectives on relationships with mentors and experiences of mentoring and mentors' tasks during their first year of teaching. The induction year with mentoring as one of the support structures was introduced into Estonian teacher education a few years ago. Experiences indicate that this is a valuable support, but there are areas of mentoring that need to be developed. The data are based on thematic interviews with sixteen novice teachers in the second half of their first year of teaching, i.e. the induction year. A content analysis revealed that the novice teachers experienced support for personal development and professional knowledge development, feedback, collegiality, reciprocity of the relationship, mentor availability and mutual trust as components of the mentor–mentee relationship. The study identified undeveloped potential in mentoring related to three main areas: 1) facilitation of reflection, 2) mentor training, and 3) integration of mentoring into the school community as a whole. The last area also includes matters pertaining to socialization and school leadership.     

Child-perceived teacher emotional support,its relations with teaching practices,and task persistence

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study examined relations between child-reported teacher emotional support, teaching practices, and children’s task-persistent learning...     

Siblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts

It is a common assumption that economically disadvantaged and ethnic‐minority families are unlikely to share similar educational aims, beliefs and values to those of teachers. Such families are assumed to participate in very different home literacy practices from those of the school and children’s early reading difficulties have been attributed to such cultural differences. However, such dissonance is not always found. This paper explores the reciprocity of beliefs and literacy practices between two schools and their respective communities in London’s East End. The literacy practices, both in school and out of school, of Bangladeshi British and Anglo‐British primary school children were monitored and play activities between siblings recorded and analysed. The results showed older siblings reflecting the values of both community and school as they blended practices from each domain in their play with their younger brothers and sisters.     

“An inescapable network of mutuality”: Building Relationships of Solidarity in a First Grade Classroom

This case study of a first grade teacher enacting a social action curriculum is based on the understanding that schools can be sites where even young children can work toward the common good. This paper examines the way a first grade teacher (Paula Rogovin Rogovin, P. 2004. Why can't you behave? The teacher's guide to creative classroom management, K-3, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.  [Google Scholar]) and her students built solidarity with a community member and in turn adopted a new social concern as their own. We identify, detail, and analyze the building of ties of solidarity as a practice enacted within a social action curriculum.     

Retaining non‐traditional students: lessons learnt from Pasifika students in New Zealand

As New Zealand tertiary education has undergone extensive review processes, debate has centred not only on the need to extend the participation rates of groups previously under‐represented, but also how to retain these under‐represented groups once they are recruited into tertiary programmes. This paper draws on a large‐scale study of the factors that influence successful completion of tertiary qualifications for Pasifika students. Using a diverse range of data sources throughout New Zealand, the study identified a range of factors that impede retention, as well as positive factors that help increase retention. Its findings support the contention that the capacity of educational facilities to retain students is a function of the interface between student and institution, and the institution and the community.     

The effectiveness of Nurture Groups: preliminary research findings

Interest in Nurture Groups continues to grow. As Rebecca Doyle's article in the previous issue of this journal demonstrated, practitioners are enthusiastically exploring nurture-based practice as one approach to the inclusion of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. In this article, Paul Cooper, Professor of Education at the University of Leicester, Ray Arnold and Eve Boyd, both researchers with the Nurture Groups project, provide a report on their research to date. This interim report raises some important questions for policy makers and practitioners as well as indicating ways forward into further enquiry.     

International co-operation in educational research

In the first part of the essay the authors discuss certain issues of international co-operation in educational research: objectives of co-operation; the ideal of universalism; language and culture differences; the organization of co-operation. The discussion draws upon the results of the authors' extensive literature reviews and of their inquiries among researchers, research directors and research financing agencies in several countries. The second part presents the authors' recommendations regarding the future development of international co-operation in educational research, pointing out that its development as a viable scientific discipline is a prerequisite for its successful utilization as an instrument of educational policy-making. It is suggested that three areas of co-operation be given the highest priority in the near future:

-retrieval and dissemination of information relevant to educational research;

-development of research methods and techniques and the training of researchers; and

-critical analysis and synthesis of research results with the aim of producing new, more reliable knowledge.

It is emphasized that the organisation needed in order to establish the proposed co-operation must both have strong support from national governments and enjoy considerable freedom in its implementation of a given policy of co-operation.     

Evaluating the efficacy of a teacher-guided comprehension-oriented learning strategy intervention among students in Grade 4

This study examined the effects of a teacher-led learning-strategy intervention program on fourth-grade students’ reported use and perceived effectiveness of rehearsal and comprehension-oriented learning strategies. During 18 program units, teachers taught about learning and various learning strategies, including visualisation, elaboration and categorisation. Strategies were practised in math, language and science classes. Participants were comprised of 82 fourth-grade students in the intervention group and 387 fourth-grade students in the control group. Students’ reported use and perceived effectiveness of learning strategies were assessed before and at least 4 months after intervention using a web-based word-memorisation task and associated reflection questions. The intervention group tended to use more comprehension-oriented learning strategies in post-tests, and the intervention group also showed an increase in perceived effectiveness of comprehension-oriented learning strategies. Still, rehearsal was evaluated as the most effective strategy in both the control group and the intervention group. Explanations for these findings and possible future directions are discussed.