Motivational Factors and Predictors for Attending a Continuing Education Program for Older Adults

The objectives were to describe the stated motives of participants who enrolled in a program at the Open University for the Elderly (UnATI, in Portuguese), identify correlations between the stated motives and sociodemographic data, and find a set of predictors related to the listed motives. A total of 306 middle-aged and elderly adults aged 50 or older were surveyed through a sociodemographic questionnaire and a five-item scale to check their motives to enroll in the program. The following motivational factors were identified, in order of importance: enhancing general knowledge, investing in personal development, increasing social interaction, learning more in order to help others, and employing one's free time profitably. Age and years of schooling combined were strong predictors of participants seeking new knowledge. Being single and not retired was correlated with the motive Investing in Personal Development. Having attended elementary school only and being married was closely correlated to the motive Increasing Social Interaction. Employing One's Free Time Profitably was associated with single or widowed individuals with family income between 3.1 and 4.0 times the minimum wage. As for Learning More in Order to Help Others, no predictors were found for this motive. It was found that participants seek to satisfy a desire to learn/ know more, to be up-to-date, to exercise their rights as citizens, and to play an active role in society. Our data suggest that these are the assumptions that drive middle-aged and elderly adults to look for various types of educational programs.     

Los saberes docentes en el trabajo cotidiano de los maestros

Resumen

En el artículo se concibe a la docencia como un trabajo sustentado en los saberes que los maestros se apropian y generan en la resolution cotidiana de la enseñanza. Se presenta un análisis etnográfico de una clase de primer grado de primaria, donde los saberes docentes identificados son: cómo organizar al grupo, cómo involucrar a los niños en la actividad, cómo tomar en cuenta las intervenciones de los niños, cómo promover y cómo sostener la actividad individual. El interés del trabajo es contribuir al estudio de los saberes docentes que los maestros generan y se apropian en el ejercicio cotidiano de la enseñanza y que han sido escasamente abordados en la investigación sobre la docencia.     

Multilevel Interaction Models and their Use in the Analysis of Large‐scale School Effectiveness Studies

In the present paper we discuss the merits of a general multilevel approach to model analysis of large scale school effectiveness studies.

We briefly review previous research framework which have been used in school effectiveness research and examine critically the assumptions on which they were based and the methodological implications of these assumptions. The general interaction models presented in this paper provide an answer to many of these critiques. Findings from different types of modeling supported the claim that the modeling of school effectiveness studies must be both multilevel and interactive. Achievement is found to be dependent in a very sensitive, non‐additive way, on the particular combination of pupil's home background, his or her general ability, teaching style and other teacher characteristics, the class and the school context in which the pupil learns. Comparisons between parsimonious main effect models with parsimonious interactive ones show that although the explanatory power of interaction models might be slightly smaller, the use of interaction models causes changes in the specification of the models that cannot be ignored.     

Improving preservice chemistry teachers’ content knowledge through intervention activities

ABSTRACT

The effect of intervention activities on the chemistry content knowledge of 92 preservice chemistry teachers (PSCT) was examined via a pre and post true/false with confidence level test focusing on ionisation energy values and the use of a common alternative conception (AC). Data were collected from three cohorts of PSCT each engaged in a one year full-time university-based teacher education programme. Comparison of pre-and post-test responses and discrimination differences between responses for each PSCT were used to identify the use of the AC and hence the efficacy of the intervention activities. Interviews with 14 of these PSCT allowed triangulation of the data. Findings suggest that the activities allow 71% of PSCT to identify this AC as non-scientific or become more confident in doing so. Interview data indicate that this rejection of this AC is sustained for 9 of the 11 PSCT whose test data indicated improvement. These data have implications for teacher education such that 2 hour intervention sessions can offer the opportunity for PSCT to develop their subject matter knowledge. As the accurate application of electrostatic concepts to electrons has wider application to bonding, these interventions offer PSCT more accurate chemical subject knowledge resources to draw on in their teaching.