Measuring general and specific stress causes and stress responses among beginning secondary school teachers in the Netherlands

The main aim of this study was to adjust the Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work (QEEW) in order to measure stress causes and stress responses of beginning secondary school teachers in the Netherlands. First, the suitability of the original QEEW stress scales for use in the beginning teachers (BTs) context was investigated using a sample of 356 beginning teachers from 52 different secondary school locations in the Netherlands. Confirmatory Factor Analyses, Principal Component Analyses and Mokken scaling item reduction was applied to create high concise and precise scales. Hereafter, based on the teacher stress literature, additional teacher specific stress items were added, resulting in the adjusted version of the measure, the Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work – Beginning Teachers (QEEW-BT, study 1). To cross-validate the results and to examine the internal consistency and validity of the adjusted instrument a different sample of 143 beginning teachers from 61 different secondary school locations in the Netherlands was used (study 2). The present findings provide adequate support that the QEEW-BT is a reliable and valid instrument to measure stress causes and responses for beginning secondary school teachers in the Netherlands.     

Learning the words AND knowing the concepts: an in‐depth study of one expert teacher's use of language as a cultural tool to support inquiry

This research explored the practices of one science teacher, expert in her field, as she worked to enact science discourse that incorporated language in naturalistic and rigorous ways. Difficulties in mastering the language of science contribute to troubling and persistent achievement gaps across demographic and gender groups. Science learning is based in discourse, with knowledge built by asking questions, exploring, revising views and asking new questions. But all too often students are not able to participate fully in these opportunities for discourse that is engaging and exploration due to the difficulty of science language. Qualitative analysis of this teacher's use of science discourse to establish clear links between essential science language and concepts and pre/post analysis of a science language assessment reveal important ways that teachers and researchers can work together to design and deliver instruction and assessment that supports students' mastery of sophisticated language and concepts. Results have implications for theory regarding science discourse; language learning, and conceptual development; and provide a model for teacher–researcher partnerships exploring important problems of teaching practice.     

Instructional redesign: Developing learning communities in academia

Traditionally, learning is provided in a unidirectional manner from instructor to learner. This practice can be limiting to all individuals involved in the learning process. To develop quality instructional materials, the learning team can participate in instructional design and development (ID) as partners. This article discusses a proposed learning community to be created during the process of course redesign. Human performance technology and ID professionals who use learning community practices can improve their designs by including all relevant stakeholders.