Teaching motivations,characteristics and professional growth: results from the Great Expectations (GE) programme in the United States

This present study sought to explore reasons given by K-12 teachers about their motivation to remain in teaching, their motivation for engaging in professional development, and characteristics of their teaching. Participants (N = 151) were public teachers of different grade levels from the USA enrolled in a one-week professional development training. Respondents’ ratings on reasons for continuing teaching revealed that four key-specific factors were the main influences for continuing to teach, namely intrinsic reasons, extrinsic reasons, job perception, and extended reasons. Further analysis indicated that their reasons for teaching were correlated with specific incentives for attending the professional development training, with teachers’ instructional beliefs, and with professional development programme outcomes. Study results are discussed in relationship with teaching motivation and implications for teachers’ professional growth.     

Infant Temperament: Stability by Age,Gender, Birth Order,Term Status,and Socioeconomic Status

Two complementary studies focused on stability of infant temperament across the 1st year and considered infant age, gender, birth order, term status, and socioeconomic status (SES) as moderators. Study 1 consisted of 73 mothers of firstborn term girls and boys queried at 2, 5, and 13 months of age. Study 2 consisted of 335 mothers of infants of different gender, birth order, term status, and SES queried at 6 and 12 months. Consistent positive and negative affectivity factors emerged at all time points across both studies. Infant temperament proved stable and robust across gender, birth order, term status, and SES. Stability coefficients for temperament factors and scales were medium to large for shorter (< 9 months) interassessment intervals and small to medium for longer (> 10 months) intervals.     

Internal structure of virtual communications in communities of inquiry in higher education: Phases,evolution and participants' satisfaction

This study investigates the phases of development of synchronous and asynchronous virtual communication produced in a community of inquiry (CoI) by analyzing the internal structure of each intervention in the forum and each chat session to determine the evolution of their social, cognitive and teaching character. It also analyzes the participating higher education students' satisfaction with the activities, with the professors' actions, and with themselves. We use a mixed methodology that includes content analysis of the virtual communications by crossing two categorization systems: (1) type of communication according to the model adopted from Garrison, Anderson and Archer (social, cognitive and teaching presence) and (2) phases in the evolution of the communication (initiation, proposal, development, opinion/closing and good‐byes). The data are relevant to the students' satisfaction and grades earned. The results suggest differences in the quantity and content of the communication in each phase and an evolution from social to cognitive elements, ending with social contributions. The students are satisfied with the virtual communications related to both the activities and the professors and evaluate themselves positively.     

Teachers’ views on risk factors for problematic school absenteeism in Swedish primary school students

In the present online survey, 158 teachers in regular and special education teaching in grades six to nine were asked to rate the importance of probable reasons for problematic school absenteeism. On average, the teachers estimated that among their students, 19 students had presented with problematic school absenteeism over the last five years. Teachers viewed school absenteeism as a multifactorial problem. Family factors were considered to contribute most and low mood or depression were rated as one of the five most contributing factors. Teachers in special education viewed school factors as more influential than teachers in mainstream education did (t₁₅₆ = ?3.94, p < 0.05). The current findings stress the importance of collaboration between the school, parents and the student to be able to address all factors that may lead to problematic school absenteeism.     

Navigating across academic contexts: Campo and Angolan students in a Brazilian university

This paper draws on the Academic Literacies approach to examine tutor/student relations in the production of academic texts. We address issues associated with learning to write in such contexts, through exploring the perspectives of two groups of non-traditional students as they reflect on their experiences in navigating educational contexts in a Brazilian public university. The term non-traditional is used here to refer to students from social groups whose previous generation had no, or very limited, access to university. In order to explore the “hidden features” of the contextualized nature of academic writing, we present two cases: students from Angola and from Campo, both groups not traditionally represented in Brazilian universities. We explored the development of writing in academic contexts by examining tensions identified by these students and their tutors/teachers as they engaged with academic literacies.     

Conquest or Reconquest? Students’ Conceptions of Nation Embedded in a Historical Narrative

This article focuses on university students’ understanding of the concept of nation. First an analysis of this concept from a historiographical point of view is presented. This allows for distinguishing between different conceptions of the nation related to 3 main approaches: the romantic, the modernist, and the ethnosymbolic approaches. Based on this analysis and also taking into account present research about history education and the construction of national identities, 5 different dimensions of the concept are presented: (a) historical subject, (b) identification, (c) territory, (d) legitimate claim, and (e) general concept scheme. Qualitative individual interviews were carried out with 31 Spanish college students about a Spanish foundational historical narrative, embedding the concept of nation, called the Reconquest (711 ad–1495 ad). Results indicated that although students showed tensions in their narratives, romantic conceptions dominated most of them. Possible reasons for the existence of these views are analyzed in terms of how the concept of nation is presented in and out of school. Also, implications for teaching and learning this concept are discussed, looking at learning strategies that could improve the understanding of this concept through its 5 analyzed dimensions.