An examination of US first-year teachers’ risk for occupational stress: associations with professional preparation and occupational health

Previous research has demonstrated associations between teacher stress and occupational burnout, but few studies have attempted to operationalize a central tenet of most stress theories, namely that teachers’ appraisals of their classroom demands vis-à-vis their classroom resources is a central driver of vulnerability to stress. The research is particularly silent on risk for stress among the most vulnerable workers in the education sector – first-year teachers. The current study, utilizing data from the US National Center for Education Statistics Beginning Teachers Longitudinal study, sought to replicate prior research, conducted with more experienced US teachers, demonstrating that perceptions of classroom demands and resources can be used to classify new teachers according to their risk for stress. In an extension to previous analyses, the current study also examined the association between first-year teachers’ risk for stress and professional preparation. Results from this study aligned with previous findings, teachers classified at risk for stress reported more burnout symptoms (d = 1.48) and less classroom control (d = .62). Teacher education characteristics and exposure to first-year support programming were also found to be associated with first-year teachers’ risk for stress classification. Findings have implications for how US teacher education potentially shapes first-year teachers’ appraisal of their working conditions and corresponding risk for stress.     

“I’m Going to Israel and All I Need to Pack Is My Imagination”: Pretend Trips to Israel in Jewish Early Childhood Education

ABSTRACT

This article examines the practice of pretend Israel trips in Jewish early childhood education. Jewish early childhood educators who work in markedly different preschool settings, and who have differing beliefs about Israel and Israel education, nonetheless converge on a practice of pretend trips to Israel that remains remarkably stable across settings. This article examines how and why these pretend trips have become part of the “grammar” of Jewish early childhood education, illuminating a practice that is simultaneously beloved and unsatisfying for Jewish early childhood educators who care about early childhood education and Israel education.     

Video Telecommunications for distance education: A field survey of systems in US public education,industry and the military

A field survey was conducted of a representative sample of 13 US educational video telecommunications (VTC) sites in public education, industry, and the military. The majority of educational/training networks use one‐way video with two‐way audio, although the use of two‐way video is increasing. Some systems regularly establish communication with others as ‘open networks’, and others are closed systems. There appears to be a trend for VTC systems to expand in the form of VTC consortia. Poor quality audio is a problem shared by many VTC systems.     

L’Intégration de Nouvelles Connaissances: Entre Arithmétique et Algèbre

This study analyses students integration of new knowledge in the domain of elementary algebra, which is based on arithmetics, but differs from it in a number of ways. Subjects aged between 11 and 16 years were presented with a task which consisted in evaluating equivalence of either numerical or algebraic isomorphic expressions. The results indicate that the context plays an important role in determining the choice of a strategy of comparison. In evaluating algebric expressions, students use formal rules. The observed errors derive from over-generalisation of prototypical rules and their conditions of application. In the case of numerical expressions, the dominant strategies are re-writing procedures: these may or may not be followed by quantitative evaluations of the resulting expressions. Errors are less frequent, but our analyses show that the semantics of the procedures are not always well understood. In sum, students posses a fair amount of knowledge of various kinds, but this knowledge is not well integrated or interrelated. Hence their knowledge base is not very stable and can easily become deformed.     

Using learning environments to create meaningful work for co-op students

For students in cooperative education (co-op) programs, meaningful work is a critical aspect of participation and a key component of program success. However, studies have not explored how meaningful work can be created for co-op students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between co-op students’ perceptions of a learning environment, perceived relatedness of the work experience (to their potential careers and to their academic studies), and self-reported meaningfulness of work. Data were collected from undergraduate co-op students in a Canadian university immediately following a co-op work term. Results from testing a parallel mediation model showed that both forms of relatedness partially mediated the influence of learning environments on self-reported meaningfulness. These findings offer insight into the ways in which work terms can be designed to enhance co-op students’ work experiences.     

What price presentation? The effects of typographic variables on essay grades

The marks awarded to 130 second‐year undergraduate word‐processed essays were assessed in relation to their use of different typographic features. By and large most of these features had little effect on the essay grades. However, essays printed in 12‐point type gained significantly higher marks (mean = 56.8) than essays printed in 10‐point type (mean = 52.7), and essays using a combination of popular features (Times Roman, 12‐point, double‐spaced unjustified text, and a line‐space to denote new paragraphs) gained significantly higher marks (mean = 59.6) than those using other combinations (mean = 55.8).     

Bringing the Science of Team Training to School-Based Teams

Teams are ubiquitous in schools in the 21st Century; yet training for effective teaming within these settings has lagged behind. The authors of this article developed 5 modules, grounded in the science of team training and adapted from an evidence-based curriculum used in medical settings called TeamSTEPPS®, to prepare instructional and administrative personnel for teamwork and to enhance their teamwork skills. The resulting 5 modules, available for download on the American Psychological Association website, are collectively called Teach Teamwork and include: Introduction to Teams and Teamwork, Communication, Mutual Support, Situation Monitoring, and Leadership. In this article, the modules and supplemental materials are described, along with recommendations for implementation.     

Varying effects of subgoal labeled expository text in programming,chemistry, and statistics

Originally intended as a replication study, this study discusses differences in problem solving performance among different domains caused by the same instructional intervention. The learning sciences acknowledges similarities in the learners’ cognitive architecture that allow interventions to apply across domains, but it also argues that each domain has characteristics that might affect how interventions impact learning. The present study uses an instructional design technique that had previously improved learners’ problem solving performance in programming: subgoal labeled expository text and subgoal labeled worked examples. It intended to replicate this effect for solving problems in statistics and chemistry. However, each of the experiments in the three domains had a different pattern of results for problem solving performance. While the subgoal labeled worked example consistently improved performance, the subgoal labeled expository text, which interacted with subgoal labeled worked examples in programming, had an additive effect with subgoal labeled worked examples in chemistry and no effect in statistics. Differences in patterns of results are believed to be due to complexity of the content to be learned, especially in terms of mapping problem solving procedures to solving problems, and the familiarity of tools used to solve problems in the domain. Subgoal labeled expository text was effective only when students learned more complex content and used unfamiliar problem solving tools.     

Does shame influence nonsuicidal self-injury among college students? An investigation into the role of shame,negative urgency,and brooding

College students experience high levels of life stress that put them at increased risk for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). It is important to understand which vulnerabilities put students most at risk, in order to inform treatment in college counseling centers. This study investigated the joint contributions of specific vulnerabilities to lifetime history and frequency of NSSI among a sample of undergraduates (50% reported a history of NSSI). Results showed shame-proneness was uniquely associated with NSSI frequency beyond other negative emotions. Negative urgency and brooding exacerbated this effect. This study provides insights into the contributions of specific vulnerabilities to NSSI and implications for practice.     

The Canadian State of Mind: Coverage of Men and Women Athletes in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Prime Time Broadcast of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games

The following study represents the first attempt in to empirically analyze the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s (CBC) prime time Olympic broadcast to determine if there were significant trends based on the sex of the athlete. All 72 hours of the CBC’s 2014 prime time Winter Olympic broadcast were analyzed. When excluding mixed-pair competitions, men received 60.4 percent of the airtime. Men received 61.2 percent of the mentions and comprised 65 percent of the top 20 most-mentioned athletes list. Sportscaster dialogues surrounding the attributions of success and failure of athletes, as well as depictions of physicality and personality, contained some divergences based on the sex of an athlete. Men were more likely to be depicted as succeeding because of athletic ability and intelligence while women were more likely to have their successes attributed to experience. Additionally, men were more likely to have their failures attributed to lack of intelligence. In the areas of personality/physicality, women athletes were more likely to receive comments about their size/parts of the body while men were more likely to receive comments in the areas of outgoing/extroversion and emotions.