Primary Teachers’ Literacy and Attitudes on Education for Sustainable Development

This paper reports on research concerning Greek in-service Primary teachers’ perceptions about environmental issues and attitudes towards Education for Sustainable Development. A questionnaire with multiple-choice and open-ended questions was used in order to gain more comprehensive understanding of their thoughts. The analysis of data revealed that teachers hold misunderstandings or misconceptions of the conceptual meaning of the terms “sustainability” and “renewable source of energy”. Furthermore, the implementation rate of environmental programs in schools is relatively low considering teachers’ interest in the issues. This is due to lack of familiarity with new methodological approaches which promote environmental matters. By taking into account these research findings, possible implications arising from supporting teachers to implement environmental programs in schools are discussed and suggestions for overcoming the outlined difficulties are made.     

Short and long term effects of a teacher-training workshop in medical school

The effect of a teacher-training workshop in a medical school was studied. The change in instructional behavior was judged by the amount and kind of students' verbal activities during regular lessons and by the cognitive level of the teacher-student encounters. One hundred and sixty-one lessons of 60 teachers were observed in a period up to 500 days after the four-day workshop. The results indicate a considerable increase in both parameters following the training. The new level of performance was sustained for the activity parameter along the entire follow-up period. The cognitive level moderately declined after about 200 days. After 500 days the instructional behavior still was significantly different from that before the workshop. The implications for teacher-training and reinforcement interventions are discussed.     

The mediating role of social environmental factors in the associations between attachment styles and basic needs satisfaction

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the mediating role of social factors on the associations between attachment styles and basic psychological needs satisfaction within two relational contexts. Athletes (N = 215) completed a multi-section questionnaire pertaining to attachment styles, basic needs satisfied within the coaching and the parental relational context, and such social factors as social support, interpersonal conflict, autonomy and controlling behaviours. Bootstrap mediation analysis revealed that the association between avoidant attachment style and basic needs satisfaction with the coach was mediated by social support and autonomy-related behaviours from the coach. The association between avoidant attachment style and basic needs satisfaction with the parent on the other hand was mediated by all social factors investigated. Finally, the association between anxious attachment style and basic needs satisfaction from the parent was mediated by conflict and controlling behaviours. Overall, the findings of the current study suggest that social factors play an important role in explaining the associations between attachment styles and basic needs satisfaction within two central relational contexts athletes operate in, and thus should be targeted in future interventions.     

民间的力量

古龙在他的小说里总结出七种形而上的武器：笑、自信心、诚实．仇恨．友情、决心、爱。如果用这些指标在休斯敦的“姚老大”身上求证的话。除了仇恨。火箭的11号在其他方面已无可挑剔。在NBA这坛酱缸里。科比的好勇斗狠是一种，“石佛”邓肯的波澜不惊又是一种，若干场比赛。当他们的眼里喷射出“仇恨”的火焰时。我们已经知道胜利的天平该向谁倾斜了。即便是阴沟里翻船。也让人觉得轰轰烈烈。反观“MM”领衔的火箭队。麦蒂相对散漫的比赛态度和脆弱的心理承受能力一直是评论家诟病的对象；姚明稍微坚韧一点．但也是咬紧腮帮子苦苦支撑的形象。说到底。火箭队的侵略性和杀伤力还显得乏善可陈。因此往往给对手留下逆转的缝隙。     

Supporting Early Childhood Teachers to Promote Children’s Social Competence: Components for Best Professional Development Practices

There is a growing recognition that young children’s social competence is critical because it is positively associated with their school readiness and academic success. However, professional development (PD) opportunities for early childhood teachers to enhance their roles in promoting young children’s social competence are limited. In this article, five key components of best PD on social competence for early childhood teachers are recommended. These include (1) identifying PD content based on participants’ contextual needs; (2) sequencing PD aligned with the positive behavior support framework; (3) providing opportunities for participants to receive feedback on their implementation; (4) guiding participants to reflect on their own practices; and (5) embracing socio-cultural perspectives throughout the PD.     

No Child Misunderstood: Enhancing Early Childhood Teachers’ Multicultural Responsiveness to the Social Competence of Diverse Children

As a result of rapid demographic changes in our society, more children from diverse racial/cultural backgrounds join our early childhood classrooms. The majority of early childhood teachers, on the other hand, are middle-class and of European-decent. This paper provides early childhood teachers with both theoretical and practical understandings about multicultural responsiveness, in order to understand and promote social competence of young children from diverse backgrounds. To accomplish this end, readers will be guided to consider actual classroom based examples and questions throughout the paper. First, the concept of social competence will be revisited from sociocultural perspectives. Next, we discuss advocacy for social competence of diverse children through the main themes of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Finally, we recommend several strategies to support teachers’ professional growth and development for multicultural responsiveness.     

Identifying attrition risk based on the first year experience

Using data collected from a recent national survey of Australian first-year students, this paper defines and validates four scales – belonging, feeling supported, intellectual engagement and workload stress – to measure the student experience of university. These scales provide insights into the university experience for both groups and individual students, to assist institutions in supporting and managing successful outcomes for their students. These data highlight the particular importance of a sense of belonging and mitigating workload stress to addressing attrition risk. Many traditional equity groups were found to only differ significantly from ‘traditional’ students on the stress scale. However, these groups potentially contain enormous individual variation, and even the average experiences of these groups reveal that complexity in the engagement, motivation and sense of belonging of students from equity backgrounds. Importantly, the scales presented in this paper can easily be used by practitioners, researchers and institutions to identify risk of attrition at an individual level based on attitudinal factors rather than background or behavioural factors. This may inform university strategy and practice to enhance the student experience and increase retention across the sector.