Teachers’ emotional labour,discrete emotions,and classroom management self-efficacy

Extending research on teachers’ emotions beyond general educational contexts and Western samples, we examined how teachers’ emotions correlated with their emotional labour strategies and classroom management self-efficacy with an East-Asian sample in an English teaching context (127 Korean English teachers). Surface acting (emotional expressions modification) correlated positively with anxiety and frustration, whereas deep acting (internal feelings modification) correlated positively with enjoyment and pride and negatively with anxiety. Enjoyment and anger correlated positively and frustration negatively with classroom management self-efficacy. Enjoyment and frustration were documented as mediators in the relationship between emotional labour strategies and classroom management self-efficacy. The results suggest that deep acting is linked to experiencing positive emotions, which in turn is positively related to classroom management self-efficacy, whereas surface acting is linked to experiencing negative emotions, which in turn relates negatively to classroom management self-efficacy. Theoretical and educational implications will be further discussed.     

Interacting with People who have Severe Communication Problems: Ethical considerations

People who have severe speech and communication problems have difficulties making themselves heard both in everyday communications and society at large. In spite of the positive results which have followed the development of non-vocal intervention strategies, this group of people is at risk for being left out of the social common and being alienated. It is important to realise that one cannot do in the technical what one cannot do in the ethical. Unless both social interaction and intervention with people who have severe communication impairments are based on ethical reflection, the moral standards that are applied to this group may be lower than for other people. True communicative interaction depends on the acceptance that the other partner has something of value to communicate, even if the means for expressive communication are limited and the messages are vague and difficult to understand. A moral requirement for autonomy, that is, an equal footing or right to expression, places an ethical imperative on the more competent communication partner to strive to overcome the asymmetrical relationship and help the disabled person create authentic messages. Ethics is awareness based on the reflection on moral phenomena, grounded in the norms and values of the society and typically the result of discourse and co-constructive reflection, in the form of everyday discussions as well as of public philosophical scrutiny. Communication is a vehicle of reflection and discourse may be regarded as joined reflection. Thus, time for discourse in professional work may be a prerequisite for ethical practice.     

The link: Addressing the problems of higher education through the core curriculum

Three major national reports on the status of American Higher Education have surfaced seven distinct problems common to many colleges and universities. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College anticipated these problems in 1981 and has undertaken to address them through the development of a sixty-hour, developmentally arranged general studies sequence entitledThe Link. The success ofThe Link illustrates that the core curriculum can be an effective medium for dealing with these problems when approached by faculty in a spirit of innovation and cooperation.     

Strategic Assistance in Toddler Disputes: II. Sequences and Patterns of Teachers' Message Strategies

Adopting the view that peer conflict is a zone of proximal development in which adults may provide strategic assistance in negotiating interactional opposition, this study analyzed message strategies used by 13 teachers in the course of intervening in 135 toddler disputes. Spontaneous oppositional episodes precipitating teacher intervention were transcribed and analyzed with lag sequential techniques. The teachers used one of three message strategies to begin processing the toddlers' disputes: (a) summon disputants' attention (CALL); (b) physical restraint or removal of objects (STOP); or (c) ask the disputing toddlers to identify the problem (ASK). Each strategy was associated with certain act-to-act sequences suggesting unique patterns for terminating peer opposition. The predominant pattern began with STOP, in which teachers exercised high control over the intervention and adjudicated its outcome. Dispute negotiation failed to develop, however, from the CALL entry strategy. The process of negotiating peer opposition was more information-based and child-involving when teachers intervened with an ASK strategy, but this strategy was used in only 10.4% of the episodes. Findings are considered relative to evaluating day-to- day teacher practices and refining curriculum models for dealing with toddler disputes in the classroom.     

Using the Millon College Counseling Inventory to Assess Student Mental Health Needs

Students visiting college counseling centers experience a broad range of complex and sometimes severe concerns that are often not adequately addressed by existing clinical measures. In response, the Millon College Counseling Inventory (MCCI; T. Millon, S. N. Strack, C. Millon, & S. Grossman, 2006) was specifically designed for use with contemporary college populations. The authors introduce the MCCI, briefly explain its development, discuss its utility for everyday use in counseling centers, and offer a fictional case illustration.     

Preservice preparation of teachers of the deaf in the twenty-first century: a case study of Griffith University, Australia

The provision of educational services to students who are deaf or hard of hearing in the compulsory school years in Australia has seen a shift from exclusive, isolated settings in the 1970s to an inclusive approach personalized to cater to the diversity of those students requiring educational support. Universities that undertake specific programs to train teachers of the deaf need to respond proactively to ensure that graduates are able to provide services in all types of school environments. The present study concerns the evaluation of preservice teachers of the deaf by their university, by their teacher mentors, and through their own assessment of the skills required to be a teacher of the deaf. The study's overall conclusion is that programs for preservice teachers of the deaf can produce high-quality graduates and that graduates undertake postgraduate study after some years of teaching.     

Predicting continued use of online teacher professional development and the influence of social presence and sociability

This study examined how a well‐established Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) could predict teachers' intentions to continue using e‐learning for professional development based on perceived ease of use and usefulness. Although studies have shown social interactions are important to teachers, no study has analyzed the mediating influence of social presence and sociability within e‐learning professional development. Therefore, the original TAM was expanded to encompass user perceptions of social presence and sociability. Structural equation modeling was used to measure the mediating affects on their intention to continue using e‐learning for their professional development. The results indicate that the expanded hypothesized model was a good predictor of continuance intention. Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and social presence were found to be significant determinants of teachers' intent to continue using e‐learning to meet their future professional development needs. The results have implications for educational leaders, designers and facilitators who want to promote teacher online professional development and embed e‐learning conditions that will be readily embraced by classroom teachers.     

Beyond the Humanism/Posthumanism Debate: The Educational Implications of Said's Critical,Humane Praxis

The late Edward Said sought to place critique and, indeed, self‐critique at the heart of humanism. While the posthuman critiques surrounding the (im)possibility of humanism in postmodern times tend to focus on human autonomy, rationality, and essentialism, Stephen Chatelier here explores the idea that Said's writing on humanism could help us shift the focus from issues of ontology towards those of practice. Such a move, he argues, prioritizes the ethico‐political aspect of human engagement. Rather than making an attempt to defend Enlightenment or Eurocentric forms of humanism, Chatelier probes two distinct possibilities that arise from Said's democratic humanism. First, he considers to what extent a construction of humanism as practice can enable us to see critical posthumanism as a form of Saidian humanism. Second, he explores how (post)humanist discourse might continue to be of use in precipitating thinking among educators about ethico‐political imperatives of education in an era shaped by complex cultural and political relations and a dominant neoliberal rationality.