Student teachers’ beliefs about the teacher’s role in inclusive education

The main aim of this research is to examine the basic features of student teachers’ professional beliefs about the teacher’s role in relation to teaching mainstream pupils and pupils with developmental disabilities. The starting assumption of this analysis is that teacher professional development is largely dependent upon teachers’ beliefs about various facets of their professional work. These concepts strongly influence the way that teachers teach and the way that they develop as teachers. The participants in the research are 314 student teachers at the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb who are being prepared to teach in lower grades of primary school. The beliefs were explored using a metaphor technique derived from cognitive theory of metaphor. The differences between beliefs about the perceived teacher role in general, and the perceived teacher role in the education of pupils with developmental disabilities were analysed. The results indicate that the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching mainstream pupils is of the teacher as a transmitter of knowledge, while the findings regarding the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching pupils with developmental difficulties appeared to be self-cantered orientation. No differences were found between student teachers at different study levels. The findings are discussed in the light of the curriculum of initial teacher education.     

Empowering learners with personalised learning approaches? Agency,equity and transparency in the context of learning analytics

Abstract

The emergence of personalised data technologies such as learning analytics is framed as a solution to manage the needs of higher education student populations that are growing ever more diverse and larger in size. However, the current approach to learning analytics presents tensions between increasing student agency in making learning-related decisions and ‘datafying’ students in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting data. This article presents a study that explores staff and student experience of agency, equity and transparency in existing data practices and expectations towards learning analytics in a UK university. The results show a number of intertwined factors that have contributed to the tensions between enhancing a learner’s control of their studies and, at the same time, diminishing their autonomy as an active agent in the process of learning analytics. This article argues that learner empowerment should not be automatically assumed to have taken place as part of the adoption of learning analytics. Instead, the interwoven power relationships in a complex educational system and the interactions between humans and machines need to be taken into consideration when presenting learning analytics as an equitable process to enhance student agency and educational equity.     

Emotional Behavior Problems,Parent Emotion Socialization,and Gender as Determinants of Teacher–Child Closeness

Research Findings: Drawing from a diverse community sample of 89 children, ages 4–6, their primary caregivers and teachers, this study examined the interplay of child emotional behavior problems, parent emotion socialization practices, and gender in predicting teacher-child closeness. Teachers reported on perceptions of closeness with children. Parents and teachers reported on children’s emotional behavior problems, as indexed by overanxious behavior, overt, and relational aggression. Regression models revealed that higher relational aggression related to closer teacher-child relationships for all children of parents who employed minimization as an emotion socialization practice. Similarly, higher overt aggression related to closer teacher-child relationships for girls who experienced parent minimization. An analogous pattern of results emerged, such that lower parent emotional support buffered girls against the negative effects of higher relational aggression on teacher-child closeness, whereas higher parent emotional support related to lower levels of closeness for these girls. These findings contradict prior research linking supportive emotion socialization practices (e.g., empathy, comforting) to socioemotional competence and unsupportive practices (e.g., minimization, punishment) to poor school adjustment. Practice or Policy: Findings have implications for improving children’s classroom experience by identifying parent emotion socialization and gender as contexts for understanding child emotional behavior problems in relation to teacher-child closeness.     

Using a Group‐Centered Approach to Observe Interactions in Early Childhood Education

This study examined the value of using a group‐centered approach to evaluate process quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Is observed support of group processes a different aspect of classroom quality, and does it predict children's collaborative play in ECEC in the Netherlands? In two play situations, 37 teachers and 120 two‐ to four‐year‐old children were observed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Toddler and two new measures. In a two‐level structural equation model, teachers’ support of group processes was positively related to the CLASS domains and to children's collaborative play, over and above the effect of children's cognitive ability and social competence. These findings suggest that ECEC quality evaluation could be enriched by adding group‐centered indicators of classroom quality.     

The influence of experience on pre-service and novice teachers – the Croatian perspective

This paper researches students’ and teacher trainees’ personal experience of student-centred teaching during their education in grades 1–4 of primary school. The questionnaire comprised 45 statements and was completed by 403 primary school teacher trainees and 535 students (future teachers) at Faculties of Teacher Education in Croatia. The research results show that students do not have sufficient prior experience that they could use as inspiration in their future teaching practice and that in the course of their education they were mainly exposed to traditional approach to teaching. The majority of teacher trainees are aware of the importance of student-centred teaching although they cannot fully give up the control of students and educational process. This research opens up the issue of a paradigm change within the teaching system and education in Croatia as well as the issue of changes within education and professional development of teachers.     

6- and 8-year-olds’ performance evaluations: Do they differ between self and unknown others?

The current study investigated kindergarteners and second graders’ ability to monitor and evaluate their own and a virtual peer’s performance in a paired-associate learning task. Participants provided confidence judgments (CJs) for their own responses and performance-based judgments (judgments provided after receiving feedback on their performance) for both their own and a virtual peer’s responses. For the performance-based judgments, children were confronted with their own or the peer’s answer as well as the correct answer. Additionally, participants were asked to credit their own and the peer’s correct and incorrect answers while facing feedback. Results indicate an age-related progression in metacognitive monitoring skills, with second graders differentiating more strongly in their confidence judgments between correct and incorrect responses compared to kindergarteners. Regarding performance-based judgments, children of both age groups provided higher judgments for correctly compared to incorrectly recognized items as well as for their own responses in comparison to the responses of the unknown child. Similarly, when crediting, participants of both age groups gave more credits for correct recognition than for incorrect recognition and for their own responses than for the peer’s responses. The significant interaction between age group and recognition accuracy for the crediting shows that second graders gave more credits for correctly recognized items while kindergarteners gave more credits for incorrect answers than the older children – primarily for their own incorrect answers. In conclusion, the study provides new insights into 6- and 8-year-olds’ evaluations of their own and an unknown child’s performance in a paired-associate learning task by showing that children of both age groups generally judged and credited responses in their own favor. These results add to our understanding of biases in children’s performance evaluations, including metacognitive judgments and judgments provided after receiving feedback.     

Family risk factors and prevalence of dissociative symptoms among homeless and runaway youth

OBJECTIVE: To examine family risk factors associated with dissociative symptoms among homeless and runaway youth. METHOD: Three hundred and twenty-eight homeless and runaway youth were interviewed using a systematic sampling strategy in metropolitan Seattle. Homeless young people were interviewed on the streets and in shelters by outreach workers in youth service agencies. RESULTS: The current study revealed widespread prevalence of dissociative symptoms among these young people. Multivariate analyses revealed that sexual abuse, physical abuse, and family mental health problems were all positively associated with dissociative symptoms. No gender differences were found for any of the models. CONCLUSIONS: Dissociative behavior is widespread among these youth and may pose a serious mental health concern. Some young people experience numerous stressors, and with few resources and little support available, many may invoke maladaptive strategies such as dissociative behavior to handle such situations, which may in turn be detrimental to their mental health. Unless youth are provided with programs and intervention, the cycle of abuse that they have experienced at home is likely to continue on the street.