The roots of gender inequity in technical areas

This article describes a study of the academic self-concepts, attributions and achievements of male and female Asian American and Caucasian students who won Westinghouse Awards in 1984 and 1985. The results of the study showed that fewer Caucasian female recipients anticipated college majors in the technical areas. Furthermore, this group of females scored lower on both parts of the SAT, scored lower on all of the self-concept scales, and also scored lower on both attribution scales. In contrast, the Asian females optimized courses for the gifted and specialized research courses to distance themselves from the American females in almost all areas. The author linked these ethnic, gender differences to underlying psychological and sociological forces that are responsible for the self-concept and attribution differences. It is these forces that must be altered for Caucasian females to rectify the gender inequalities that exist in the technical areas.     

Teacher Evaluation in Cyprus: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues Arising from Teacher and School Effectiveness Research

A critical analysis of policy on teacher evaluation in Cyprus identifies some weaknesses in current practice. It is argued that findings from teacher and school effectiveness studies could be a foundation upon which a more valid teacher evaluation system in Cyprus could be built. It is further argued that limitations in teacher and school effectiveness studies conducted discretely suggest that joint teacher/school effectiveness research should be conducted. Two complementary approaches to improving teacher evaluation in Cyprus are explored. The first is focused on the use of research findings and methodology to improve the existing policy. The second is to complement such an improved system with a school-based self-evaluation approach. Finally, the potential of a self-evaluation approach for locating some power and control over defining effectiveness in the schools and teachers, rather than exclusively in the government is discussed.     

Axiology,the Subject and the Chair

Research in Science Education - This article addresses two gaps in the literature related to science department chairs: the axiological relationship between the chair and science, the subject, and...     

Research into the environment of science laboratory classes in australian schools

Existing instruments for assessing student or teacher perceptions of characteristics of actual or preferred classroom psychosocial environment are unsuitable for one of the most important settings in science teaching, namely, the science laboratory class. Consequently, the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), was designed to assess student or teacher perceptions of seven scales:Teacher Supportiveness, Student Cohesiveness, Open-Endedness, Integration, Organization, Rule Clarity andMaterial Environment. An important feature of the design of the study was that the new instrument was field tested simultaneously in six countries: Australia, USA, Canada, England, Nigeria and Israel. This paper is based on a sample of 4643 students in 225 individual laboratory classes, together with the teachers of most of these classes. Preliminary analyses were used to shed light on various important research questions including the differences between Actual and Preferred environments, gender differences in perceptions of Actual and Preferred environment, the relationship between the science laboratory environment and attitude towards science laboratory work, differences between school and university laboratory classes, differences between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the same laboratory classes, and differences between laboratory classes in different science subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Biology). Specializations: Science education, educational evaluation. Specializations: Curriculum, science education, science laboratory teaching. Specializations: Learning environments, science education, educational evaluation, curriculum.     

The effects of self-regulated learning training on community college students’ metacognition and achievement in developmental math courses

The effects of training in self-regulation on metacognition and math achievement were investigated. The participants were 116 community college students enrolled in developmental math courses. Students enrolled in 16 classrooms were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. Participants in the treatment group completed four self-regulated learning (SRL) exercises based on Zimmerman’s (2002) cyclical model. The exercises were completed weekly and repeated for a total of 3 weeks. During the last week of class, participants completed a final exam to measure math achievement as well as the metacognitive self-regulation and time/study environment management scales on the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire ([MSLQ], Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991). There were significant differences between the two groups, indicating that training in SRL improved math achievement and metacognitive skills assessed on both MSLQ scales. The findings suggested that training in SRL improves math achievement, metacognitive self-regulation and time/study environmental management skills of students enrolled in developmental math courses.     

Teachers’ agency,efficacy, engagement,and emotional resilience during policy innovation implementation

This multiple case study investigated 143 teachers’ responses to focus group questions about their experiences with the simultaneous implementation of three disruptive innovations as part of the U.S. Race-to-the-Top (RTTT) agenda: the Common Core Learning Standards, data-driven instruction, and annual professional performance reviews. We asked: How do teachers describe their experiences implementing these three RTTT innovations? How do teachers describe supports for their adaptation to these innovations? And, for each of these questions, and since the study purposefully included schools with above-predicted student outcomes (i.e. odds-beaters) as well as a comparison set of typically performing schools, we inquired: In what ways do odds-beating school teachers’ experiences differ from their peers in typically performing schools? Guided by an emergent framework that emphasizes the relationships among teacher agency, engagement, efficacy, and emotional resilience and how these vary in different school contexts, findings suggest that district office innovation leadership and resource allocations, school leadership structures and strategies, and collaborative teams and communities of practice vary and relate to teachers’ experiences of innovation implementation. This study advances an empirically-grounded and theoretically rich framework for investigation of teachers’ performance adaptation during policy innovation implementation and suggests implications for future research, policy, and practice.     

Developing a postgraduate work-based curriculum using an Intervention Mapping Approach

Advanced practitioner skill development has become an important focus in health service delivery as increasingly complex consumer needs, practice environments and national professional registration requirements impact on professional work practices. Increasingly, work-based or workplace learning experiences are being seen as an effective means for maintaining skill currency across working lives. Currently there is limited literature on pedagogical practices to support the educational and training requirements associated with development across a person's working life. This paper reports on an example of how an intervention mapping framework was used to guide the development, implementation and evaluation of a work-based praxis course for students in an interprofessional, online postgraduate mental health programme. The intervention mapping framework provided a stepped process to guide decision-making and allowed the incorporation of theory and evidence into the course design. This approach provided a stepped process to guide decision-making and allowed the incorporation of theory and evidence into the course design. While the use of the intervention mapping framework is often used within health promotion arenas, particularly for the effective design of health promotion educational programmes, it is argued that this framework can be utilised effectively when developing curriculum for use within higher education programmes.     

Deaf children's spelling: does it show sensitivity to phonology?

A written pictures to spelling task was given to two groups of children, 17 deaf children from signing schools (average age = 10.7) and 20 hearing children learning English as a second language (ESL, average age = 10.4). The stimuli were equally divided according to frequency, phonological regularity, and orthographic regularity. We predicted that the deaf group would not differ from the ESL group in the pattern of their responses across word classes, categorized in terms of the effect of frequency and phonological and orthographic regularity. Results showed that broadly this was the case, but more detailed analysis showed that the approach of the two groups was different. More specifically, the deaf children appeared to be sensitive to, but not aware of, phonology in their spelling, whereas the ESL group showed awareness of, as well as sensitivity to, phonology in their spelling.