Factors Influencing Preservice Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Addressing Cultural and Linguistic Needs of Diverse Learners

Abstract

How preservice teachers perceive their readiness to work with diverse learners can indicate their future success in the classroom. Using self-efficacy theory as a conceptual base, this study examined what factors contribute to preservice teachers’ self-efficacy level in addressing English Learners’ (ELs) cultural and linguistic needs, while adopting a multi-method design. Data sources included a self-efficacy survey of a group of preservice teachers, written rationales for their self-efficacy ratings, and suggestions for improving their self-efficacy. Data analyses revealed that the preservice teachers lacked self-efficacy in communicating with ELs while showing high self-efficacy in employing different learning modalities. In addition, direct exposure through field and/or life experiences and curriculum emphasis were identified as key factors. Findings further illuminate the preservice teachers’ incongruent understandings of mainstream school culture versus ELs’ cultures, the role of culture in academic versus social and emotional domains, and lack of interconnectedness between academic excellence and cultural competency.     

PDA power at the bedside

George Washington University's Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library was investigating adding PDA resources to the collection when a medical education grant was received. Funds were used for a pilot project to compare PDA use by third-year medical students (MSIII), fourth-year medical students (MSIV), second-year physician assistant (PAII) students, and residents in the clinical setting. The PDA Committee evaluated various titles by the following criteria: both Palm and PocketPC operating systems compatibility, ease of use, depth of information, product cost, and a wide target audience. Griffith's 5 Minute Clinical Consult by Skyscape was selected. Library registration was required to receive the software and PDA downloading instructions. A short, Web-based questionnaire was developed to evaluate the product's use in the clinical setting. A low response rate of 74 questionnaires (23% of participants) was received and analyzed in March 2004. As additional funding becomes available, PDA software will be seriously considered as additions to the collection.     

Communicating openness in deliberation

Normative and practical accounts of deliberative democracy cite open-mindedness as a key feature of good deliberation. Yet scholars have often focused on attitude change or self-report measures to empirically demonstrate openness. This paper draws on grounded practical theory to understand openness as a discursive stance in public deliberation. Openness is used to address four practical problems encountered in deliberation: disagreement, opinion formation, dysfunctional community problem-solving, and deliberative sense making. Indicating openness and expressing attitude change are different discursive practices. Expecting participants to refrain from forming opinions before deliberation may be naïve. Instead, participants’ eagerness to make sense of deliberation by invoking shared understanding and openness should be used to develop meta-consensus.     

Children’s attitudes toward small computers: a preliminary study

While it has been established that children have positive attitudes toward the use of computers when used in computer-assisted instruction, little is known about children’s attitudes toward small“home” or“personal” computers. Results of this study indicate that children have multidimensional attitudes toward small computers, their interaction with these computers, and ease of use.     

Collaborating with colleagues for the sake of academic and professional development in higher education

Abstract

This research examines how faculty members in higher education collaborate with colleagues, their collaborative professional work, the nature of these collaborations, and the benefits they get from it. Research findings show that collaborations are perceived as one of the important components of academic and professional development. The findings indicate issues about the characteristics and nature of collaborations as well as about colleagues with whom faculty members prefer to collaborate, the ways in which they collaborate, the advantages of collaborations, and the important role that academic leaders and institutions play in encouraging collaborations.     

Is peer review an appropriate form of assessment in a MOOC? Student participation and performance in formative peer review

Many aspects of higher education must be reconceptualised for massive open online courses (MOOCs). Formative and summative assessment of qualitative work in particular requires novel approaches to cope with the numbers involved. Peer review has been proposed as one solution, and has been widely adopted by major MOOC providers, but there is currently little evidence about whether it is appropriate or under what conditions. Here, we examine student participation, performance and opinions of a peer review task in a biomedical science MOOC. We evaluate data from approximately 200 student topic summaries and 300 qualitative peer reviews of those summaries, and compare these to student demographic data (gender, age, employment status, education, national language) and to performance in multiple choice tests. We show that higher performance in the written topic summary correlated with both higher participation in the peer review task and with writing higher quality peer reviews. Qualitative analysis of student comments revealed that student opinion on the usefulness of the peer review task was mixed: some strongly believed it benefitted their learning, while others did not find it useful or did not participate. We suggest instructional design strategies to improve student participation and increase learning gain from peer review in the MOOC context.     

The Asian broadcasting union

Little is known in the United States of the various regional broadcasting associations. Even such basic volumes as Emery's National and International Systems of Broadcasting cover the major organizations—European Broadcasting Union, International Radio and Television Organization (OIRT), URTNA (Africa), Inter‐American Broadcast Association, and Asian Broadcasting Union (ABU)—in fewer than a dozen pages. The Journal of Broadcasting only has published materials on the first two of these. As global broadcasting over domestic channels becomes a satellite‐borne reality, this lack of information is bound to become more and more embarrassing.