Cinders in Snow? Indigenous Teacher Identities in Formation

The identity work engaged in by Indigenous teachers1 1. We use the term ‘Indigenous’ here to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working in Australian schools, although most of our informants to date are from Victoria, NSW and Queensland, who do not use the term ‘Indigenous’ when identifying themselves and their communities, preferring ‘Aboriginal’, ‘Koori’ or ‘Murri’.. View all notes in school settings is highlighted in a study of Australian Indigenous teachers. The construction of identity in home and community relationships intersects with and can counteract the take up of a preferred identity in the workplace. In this paper we analyse data from interviews with Indigenous teachers, exploring the interplay between culture and identity. We foreground the binary nature of racial assignment in schools, demonstrate how this offers contradictory constructions of identity for Indigenous teachers, and note the effects of history, culture and location in the process of forming a teaching ‘self’.     

Understanding outcome-based education changes in teacher education: evaluation of a new instrument with preliminary findings

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a current initiative in Hong Kong universities, with widespread backing by governments and standards bodies. However, study of students’ perceptions of OBE and validation of understanding these perceptions are lacking. This paper reports on the validation of an OBE-specific instrument and resulting preliminary findings. Instrument responses (n = 89) were analysed using Rasch and exploratory/confirmatory factor analyses. Both approaches identified two dimensions (i.e. evaluation and comparison). Challenges and modifications to the instrument items and their relationships to constructs are discussed. Preliminary findings suggest students did not perceive significant differences between OBE and traditionally organised courses. Lack of explicit discussion of OBE with the students may have denied students the ability to make fully informed evaluations of OBE innovations. Implications for instrument validation and evaluation of initiatives in an OBE context are discussed as is the broader issue of transparency in teacher education curriculum design and implementation.     

Competence in Science — enhancing the self image of students

This paper reviews the role of mentors in developing the self‐image of pre‐service science teachers on a post graduate programme.     

School Organization and Persistent School Absenteeism: An Introduction to a Complex Problem

This article is concerned with the development of provision for pupils in a comprehensive school with special educational needs. Its main focus is on the organization and administration changes which were undertaken in connection with the recommendations of the Warnock Report, the 1981 Education Act and the development of knowledge and expertise within the school in helping such pupils.

It concentrates on five aspects: the communication of information about those pupils within the school, the curriculum available to them in the upper school, the deployment of staff, the name of the department to best fit its changing role in the school and the issues which need to be taken into account in monitoring those developments.     

Factors influencing early adolescents’ mathematics achievement: High-quality teaching rather than relationships

This study used data from the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning project, which involved data on the academic performance of more than 90,000 New Zealand students in six subjects (i.e. reading, writing and mathematics in two languages). Two sub-samples of this dataset were included for detailed re-analysis to test the general applicability of the Australian model of Quality of School Life (Ainley et al. 1986) in the New Zealand context. The first sample comprised 336 year 8 students from elementary schools and the second sample consisted of 272 year 10 students from high schools. Furthermore, two structural equation models were developed and tested, expressing relationships between students’ quality of school life perceptions, students’ attitudes to mathematics, and their effects on mathematics achievement. The quality of school life questionnaires scales [Ainley and Bourke, in Res Pap Educ 7(2):107–128, 1992] were used as indicators of students’ perceptions regarding learning, teachers and peer relationships. The model proposed that perceived quality of school life would affect students’ attitudes of liking and confidence in mathematics, which would in turn affect their academic performance. After controlling for other variables in the model, students’ perception about their self-efficacy to learn mathematics was more directly related to outcomes than to perceptions of teacher quality or peer involvement. Data analyses revealed no apparent relationships of these factors to mathematics achievement. Moreover, results for both samples led to the conclusion that the perceived quality of learning is connected with ‘confidence in’ and ‘liking mathematics’, which in turn predict students’ mathematics achievement.     

The influences of guiding cues on motor skill autonomy in rats

How does the effectiveness of guiding cues influence the development of motor skill autonomy? We utilized two sets of guiding cues (lights vs. reversed-lights conditions) that differed in their effectiveness to control a left–right leverpress sequence in rats. We separately measured the development of stimulus control by panel lights on guiding-cues trials and the development of stimulus control by practice cues on no-cue probe trials within the same sessions. Accuracy in the presence of the guiding cues was acquired faster in the lights condition than in the reversed-lights condition, but subjects in the reversed-lights condition were more able to complete the skill autonomously than those in the lights condition. Throughout acquisition, control by guiding cues and practice cues developed at the same rate in the reversed-lights condition, but control by practice cues (autonomy) developed at a slower rate than did control by guiding cues in the lights condition. At the end of training, subjects that had been exposed to the reversed-lights condition displayed higher levels of autonomy than did those exposed to the lights condition. The less effective guiding cue (reversed-lights) produced greater levels of autonomy than did the more effective cue (lights), even though control by this guiding cue developed more slowly. Thus, guiding your child by the hand too much may reduce his or her ability to complete the task independently. We discuss the similarity to prompt dependence in children with learning disabilities and transfer of stimulus control.     

Tongan secondary students’ conceptions of schooling in New Zealand relative to their academic achievement

This study examines the relationship between Tongan students’ attitudes and beliefs towards their school experiences and their academic achievement on the high-stakes National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) assessments in English and mathematics. Data were obtained from using previously published self-reported inventories on a sample of Tongan senior students in New Zealand secondary schools. Confirmatory factor analysis of students’ conceptions found good fit measurement models for each domain (teaching, learning, and assessment). Structural equation modelling was used to identify the effect of the various beliefs upon students’ total score in each subject and upon internal and externally assessed performance. It was noted that different beliefs became statistically significant predictors of performance, depending on the subject and type of assessment. Nonetheless, all three constructs played some role in at least one subject. A small-to-moderate proportion of variance in NCEA performance could be attributed to student beliefs, suggesting that efforts to help students adopt adaptive beliefs will have beneficial consequences for those students.