Science knowledge and efficacy beliefs among preservice elementary teachers: A follow-up study

Slightly over two years ago aspects of knowledge and efficacy beliefs among preservice elementary teachers regarding science education were examined. Those results indicated a low level of science knowledge and a marked lack of confidence toward teaching science among prospective teachers. In the interim suggestions from that study have resulted in an increase in the number of required science courses that have been implemented in the teacher education program. The current, follow-up, study, found no increase in science content knowledge but did identify positive changes in efficacy beliefs. The results are discussed relative to Locus of Control theory.     

A contingency management day program for adolescents excluded from public school

This contingency management adolescent school program integrated vocational training with academic instruction. The students, who were unserved by public education because of emotional handicaps, were afforded an individual treatment program by the staff of the day program. They demonstrated significant gains in educational skills and exhibited an exceedingly low dropout rate, inasmuch as 95% either continued in the program beyond their first year or reentered public school.     

Canadian and Japanese teachers' conceptions of critical thinking: a comparative study

Canadian and Japanese secondary teachers' conceptions of critical thinking were compared and contrasted. Significant cross‐cultural differences were found. While Canadian teachers tended to relate critical thinking to the cognitive domain, Japanese teachers emphasized the affective domain. The quantitative data, effectively reduced through factor analysis, showed a clear distinction and significant difference between Canadian and Japanese teachers on four of the five factors—Canadian teachers viewed critical thinking through Cognitive Strategizing and Relevance, while Japanese teachers favoured Conscientious Judgements and Intellectual Engagement. However, through further qualitative analysis, critical thinking was found to be a tacit and implicit teaching practice supported by most teachers surveyed, irrespective of gender, age, teaching experience, subject area and, most importantly, the cultures from which they came.     

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming as Longitudinal Predictors of Reading in Five Alphabetic Orthographies with Varying Degrees of Consistency

ABSTRACT

Although phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) are confirmed as early predictors of reading in a large number of orthographies, it is as yet unclear whether the predictive patterns are universal or language specific. This was examined in a longitudinal study across Grades 1 and 2 with 1,120 children acquiring one of five alphabetic orthographies with different degrees of orthographic complexity (English, French, German, Dutch, and Greek). Path analyses revealed that a universal model could not be confirmed. When we specified the best-fitting model separately for each language, RAN was a consistent predictor of reading fluency in all orthographies, whereas the association between PA and reading was complex and mostly interactive. We conclude that RAN taps into a language-universal cognitive mechanism that is involved in reading alphabetic orthographies (independent of complexity), whereas the PA–reading relationship depends on many factors like task characteristics, developmental status, and orthographic complexity.     

Behaviour support in secondary schools

Student voice and pupil empowerment projects are common in many mainstream schools. However, such initiatives are more challenging to implement in provision for students experiencing (social), emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). As a consequence, they are less frequently attempted. This article reports one such attempt at an SEBD special school, where a student research group was formed to evaluate the school's behaviour policy. The students' views remind professionals of the need for consistency, positive relationships and communication underpinning behaviour management strategies. The article also reflects on a number of issues to consider when implementing such projects in special education contexts.     

Exploring students’ strategies in area conservation geometrical tasks

The aim of this study is to investigate the strategies employed by advanced high school and university students working on six tasks concerning comparison and conservation of area. Special care has been taken in the test design so that the problems could be dealt with using a variety of solution methods. Written responses and in-depth interviews with 21 12th graders and university students of mathematics provided the empirical data. The results show that the majority of the participants either did not prefer or had difficulties employing adequately formal reasoning. Visualization factors seem to exert considerable influence. Moreover, many students confuse congruence with area equivalence.     

Using the history of mathematics to induce changes in preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes: insights from evaluating a teacher education program

Scholars and teacher educators alike agree that teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward mathematics are key informants of teachers’ instructional approaches. Therefore, it has become clear that, in addition to enriching preservice teachers’ (PSTs) knowledge, teacher education programs should also create opportunities for prospective teachers to develop productive beliefs and attitudes toward teaching and learning mathematics. This study explored the effectiveness of a mathematics preparatory program based on the history of mathematics that aimed at enhancing PSTs’ epistemological and efficacy beliefs and their attitudes toward mathematics. Using data from a questionnaire administered four times, the study traced the development of 94 PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes over a period of 2 years. The analysis of these data showed changes in certain dimensions of the PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes; however, other dimensions were found to change in the opposite direction to that expected. Differences were also found in the development of the PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes according to their mathematical background. The data yielded from semi-structured follow-up interviews conducted with a convenience sample of PSTs largely corroborated the quantitative data and helped explain some of these changes. We discuss the effectiveness of the program considered herein and draw implications for the design of teacher education programs grounded in the history of mathematics.

Leadership Styles in the Top Greek Media Companies: Leading People with a Mixed Style

Media companies are different from manufactures and other commercial organizations. They have both measurable economic goals and nonmeasurable social responsibilities. Leading these companies is a difficult task. The main issue is that an appropriate leadership style for media people must balance business and political goals. In this study, semi-structured interviews were used to collect data about Greek media leaders. The research explores and identifies the leadership style of CEOs heading the top media companies in Greece. These findings indicate that media leaders use a mixed leadership style involving both transformational and transactional styles in order to anticipate the peculiar external and internal media environment.     

Reading fluency: implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities

The current investigation explored the diagnostic utility of reading fluency measures in the identification of children with reading disabilities. Participants were 50 children referred to a university-based clinic because of suspected reading problems and/or a prior diagnosis of dyslexia, where children completed a battery of standardized intellectual, reading achievement, and processing measures. Within this clinical sample, a group of children were identified that exhibited specific deficits in their reading fluency skills with concurrent deficits in rapid naming speed and reading comprehension. This group of children would not have been identified as having a reading disability according to assessment of single word reading skills alone, suggesting that it is essential to assess reading fluency in addition to word reading because failure to do so may result in the under-identification of children with reading disabilities.