Family and nonfamily support in relation to burnout and work engagement among Italian teachers

Italy had traditionally been considered a family‐oriented culture where support from relatives is primary. The major purpose of this study was to clarify the benefits of social support inside and outside the family for schoolteachers in Italy, focusing on the teacher burnout and work engagement. Findings indicated that the family was by far the most significant source of support. School colleagues who felt close to each other resembled each other in terms of burnout and work engagement. Difficult interactions with colleagues were associated with burnout more extensively at later stages of the teaching career; supervisor support was linked with burnout at an early stage.     

An Evaluation of a Teaching Intervention to Promote Students’ Ability to Use Multiple Levels of Representation When Describing and Explaining Chemical Reactions

Students are generally known to memorise and regurgitate chemical equations without sufficient understanding of the changes that occur at the particulate level. In addition, they often fail to recognise the significance of the symbols and formulas that are used to represent chemical reactions. This article describes an evaluation of the ability of 65 Grade 9 students (15–16 years old) from a Singapore secondary school to describe and explain seven types of chemical reactions using macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic representations. The study was conducted over nine months using a supplementary teaching program with particular emphasis on the use of multiple levels of representation to describe and explain chemical reactions. Students’ proficiency in the use of multiple levels of representation was assessed at the end of the course using a two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic instrument that was previously developed by the authors. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the instructional program, the instrument was also administered to another group of 76 students who were not involved in the supplementary instructional program. The efficacy of the program was evident from the significantly improved scores on the diagnostic instrument of the former group of students. In addition, several student conceptions in the use of multiple levels of representation were identified that could assist teachers in their planning and implementation of classroom instruction.