Hong Kong Student Teachers' Personal Construction Of Teaching Efficacy

This study employed the repertory grid technique to investigate how a sample of 27 student teachers in Hong Kong developed a personal sense of teaching efficacy. The analysis indicated that the third year students' perceptions were more homogenous than were those of the first year students. The results also indicated that teaching efficacy was viewed in terms of the dimensions of concern for instructional participation and learning needs of pupils, communication and relationships with pupils, academic knowledge and teaching skills, lesson preparation, management of class discipline, teaching success, teaching commitment, and a sense of self-confidence. Experiences of teaching practice, electives, pupils, and teaching practice supervisors (Electives) were the major sources for the development of a sense of teaching efficacy. Implications of how those aspects of teacher training can be more effective in engendering a sense of efficacy in the student teachers are discussed.     

Introduction to the Articles on Consultation

The seven articles that follow address facets of the same thing: consultation as a comprehensive model of service delivery for local authority education psychology services (EPSs). This introduction offers a commentary on the similar and different features of this collection, including their conceptual frameworks and theoretical perspectives, and at the same time, offers a view on the relation between these accounts and earlier ones.     

Designing for performance,part 2: Selecting your performance technologies

Strategic plans and performance objectives define the results to be accomplished, but selecting a suitable set of performance technologies for your organizations requires more than just knowing the intended benefits. The systematic procedures described in the article will guide you through practical processes and valuable tools for identifying potential performance technologies, evaluating alternatives, and developing a system of performance‐focused activities that accomplish desired results.     

Trends and Issues in Distance Education: International Perspectives, 2nd Edition

Good books on broad topics are hard to find. The second edition of Trends and Issues in Distance Education does a great job of meeting this challenge by offering chapters on far‐reaching international trends that can have practical influence on the decisions that readers must make at the local level. From e‐learning in manufacturing companies in Malaysia to various models for supporting learners who are at a distance, the book is a valuable resource for when performance issues lead you beyond the boundaries of the traditional training classroom. Trends and Issues in Distance Education: International Perspectives, 2nd ed. (2012; ISBN: 978‐1‐61735‐828‐9) is published by Information Age Publishing (paperback).     

Diagnostic Utility of the Bannatyne WISC‐III Pattern

Regrouping Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children‐Third Edition (WISC‐III) subtests into Bannatyne's spatial, conceptual, and sequential patterns has been thought by many to identify children with learning disabilities (LD). This study investigated the prevalence and diagnostic utility of WISC‐III Bannatyne patterns by comparing 1,302 children with LD to 2,158 children in the WISC‐III normative sample. Further analysis was conducted on a subsample of students with specific reading disabilities. Results indicated that the presence of the Bannatyne WISC‐III pattern would not lead to decisions that are useful in differentiating children with LD from children without LD. For example, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, measured by the area under the curve (AUC), indicated that the Bannatyne WISC‐III pattern exhibited low diagnostic utility (AUC = 0.54–0.55). Due to its inaccuracy, use of the Bannatyne WISC‐III pattern is not recommended.     

The Approaches to Learning of Australian Tertiary Students: A Replication

The learning processes of Australian tertiary students were examined in a longitudinal study which replicated that of Watkins and Hattie (1985). In accord with the earlier study, older students and Arts students were more likely to adopt deeper level approaches to learning. In addition it was once again those who most utilised surface level strategies, who disliked their learning environment and/or who had “pathological” learning problems who tended to perform least favourably in their first year courses. However, unlike the earlier study, it appeared that students who remained at ANU to complete their course did tend to change to less superficial learning strategies.     

Bathrooms without Borders: Transgender Students Argue Separate is not Equal

Title IX guidelines governing equal access to collide with state legislation around gender identity and multiple use bathrooms and changing facilities. This policy review of literature argues for a stronger voice from Washington, protecting the rights of all students to feel safe using private spaces at school. The many court rulings offer a fair perspective upon which to act. State laws are inconsistent and at times challenge the Constitutional limits on individual rights.     

Is the Asian Learner a Rote Learner? A Malaysian Perspective

Responses to the Learning Process Questionnaire (Biggs, 1992) of three hundred one 14- to 15-year-old Malaysian students were compared both to those of three hundred one older peers and to those of like-age samples of Australian and Hong Kong junior high school students reported by Biggs (1992). The Malaysian (and the Hong Kong) students tended to report deeper level learning motivation and strategies than the Australians. This supported earlier research questioning the "Asian learner as a rote learner" stereotype. The older Malaysians and the females were more likely to report utilizing superficial learning strategies. Further research using culture as a unit of analysis will be necessary to determine whether these findings are due to significant differences in cultural dimensions such as individualism-collectivism and masculinity-femininity.     

Student evaluations of university teaching: A cross-cultural perspective

The applicability paradigm developed by Marsh (1981) was used to investigate the validity of a U.S.-developed model of teaching effectiveness and two related questionnaires at campuses in six different countries representing very different cultural, economic, and philosophical traditions. The data supported the reliability, appropriateness, and to some extent the convergent and discriminant validity of the instruments. Similar patterns of item salience and differentiation between “good” and “poor” lecturers were also identified. Thus, the results generally supported the cross-cultural validity of these two instruments and their underlying model of teaching. This research was supported by funding from the Committee on Research and Conference Grants, University of Hong Kong.