Prospective physical sciences teachers' willingness to engage in learning communities

Teachers' professional development is a lifelong learning process that should start with teaching practice, is best developed from experience and can be promoted by socio‐professional interactions. Thus, a learning community of teachers might be a valuable environment for continuing professional development. This paper reports research carried out with 46 prospective physical sciences teachers about to graduate from a Portuguese university. The study aims at investigating their willingness to engage in learning communities. The majority of the participants stated that they would like to engage in a learning community. Therefore, actions must be taken in order to foster learning communities, including newly formed teachers.

Le développement professionnel des enseignants est un processus que doit débuter par un stage, d'avantage réalisable grâce à l'expérience acquise et qui peut être promu par les interactions sociales. Une communauté d'apprentissage peut être un milieu viable et concret afin de permettre le développement continu des enseignants. Cet article présente une recherche réalisée auprès de 46 futurs professeurs en Physique et Chimie, qui étaient sur le point d'achever leur programme de formation initial au sein d'une université Portugaise. L'objectif de cette recherche est d'étudier les intentions des futurs enseignants souhaitant ou non participer à des communautés d'apprentissage. Il en résulte que la majorité des participants a manifesté le souhait de se joindre à de tels groupes d'apprentissage. Par conséquent, il faudrait réunir les conditions nécessaires visant la création de communautés d'apprentissage qui incluraient les nouveaux enseignants.

El desarrollo profesional de los profesores es un proceso que transcurre a lo largo de la vida, pero que, a pesar de ser iniciado en un contexto de practicum, este se ve favorecido por la práctica y facilitado por las interacciones socio‐profesionales. Así, una comunidad de profesores puede ser una ambiente favorable al desarrollo profesional continuo de los mismos. Este artículo presenta una investigación realizada con 46 futuros profesores de Física y Química del último curso de licenciatura en una universidad Portuguesa. El objetivo del estudio fue investigar el interés de esos futuros profesores en participar en comunidades de aprendizaje. La mayoría de los sujetos afirmó que le gustaría participar en estas comunidades de aprendizaje y también señalaron algunas características que esas comunidades deberían tener. En este contexto, parece importante crear condiciones que hagan posible el funcionamiento de estas comunidades que incluyan profesores recién formados.

Die berufliche Entwicklung von Lehrern beginnt mit einen Praktikum und wird vervollständigt durch Erfahrung und soziale Wechselwirkung. Eine Lerngemeinschaft kann eine gute Umgebung sein für die berufliche Weiterentwicklung von Lehrern. Dieser Artikel präsentiert eine Forschung mit 46 zukünftigen Physik‐ und Chemielehrern, welche ein erstes Ausbildungsprogramm an einer portugiesischen Universität beendeten. Das Ziel dieser Forschung ist die Untersuchung des Interesses dieser zukünftigen Lehrer an der Teilnahme an Lerngemeinschaften. Die Mehrzahl der Teilnehmer auesserten den Wunsch solchen Lerngemeinschaften beizutreten. Folglich sollten die notwendigen Bedingungen für die Bildung von Lerngemeinschaften geschaffen werden, welche zukünftige Lehrer aufnehmen.     

A Comparison of Latent Growth Models for Constructs Measured by Multiple Items

A multiple testing approach is outlined that can be used to examine the assumption of underlying normal variables in latent variable models with categorical indicators. The method is based on an application of the increasingly popular Benjamini–Hochberg multiple testing procedure, and is readily applicable with widely circulated software. The discussed method is especially useful for ascertaining this assumption that is very often made in research based on structural equation modeling using models containing discrete outcomes. The described approach is illustrated with numerical data.     

Teachers’ role in curriculum design in Portuguese schools

Teachers’ role in curriculum design is a broad question that inspires political educational reforms among European countries, a trend that even extends to higher education politics. The perspective on teachers’ role in curriculum, both at the level of the policies and of the practices, shapes recent educational reforms in Portugal. These are the concerns underlying our research that intends to substantiate school teachers’ involvement in curriculum development as it is experienced by them, and while comparing their views to the roles they are attributed in the political and academic dominant discourses. To reach teachers’ perceptions, we distributed questionnaires which were completed by 214 teachers in primary and secondary schools. We could conclude that the enactment of a professional identity on the basis of teacher assumption of their role as real curriculum designers is still far from being achieved.     

Do Students Effectively Regulate Their Use of Self-Testing as a Function of Item Difficulty?

Educational Psychology Review - Retrieval practice is beneficial for both easy-to-learn and difficult-to-learn materials, but scant research has examined students’ use of self-testing for...     

Do the Youth Olympic Games promote Olympism? Analysing a mission (im)possible from a local youth perspective

On the basis of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), we assess if and how the youth in the communities of the YOG host cities have been influenced concerning their perception of the Olympic values (OV) and the Olympic movement (OM). Special attention of the study is paid to the analysis of intervention mechanisms which the local youth underwent (e.g. attending the YOG on-site, participating in school programmes). Our study was conducted among 1004 adolescents living in the host region three years after the Innsbruck 2012 YOG had been staged. Our analyses extend the corresponding literature by (1) showing that the YOG and the involvement of the local youth in such an event have the power of creating an interest in the OM and its events, but do not have the power to influence the young citizens’ perception of the OV significantly; (2) illustrating that the perception adolescents have of the OV depend mainly on their socio-demographic background, their a priori interest in sports events, social capital (norms, institutional trust) and the extent to which the youngsters follow the event in the different media; and (3) corroborating the hypothesis that intervention programmes (e.g. school programmes) for promoting (Olympic) values and ideals should not be single, obligatory and isolated activities. We conclude that it is not surprising that the International Olympic Committee has reformulated the goals for the YOG in the Olympic Agenda 2020, as some goals relating to the promotion of the OV might have been a mission impossible.     

Rethinking the learning of ＂culture＂： A Chinese inquiry

While China has certainly taken a great stride in English teaching and learning since its open policy about 30 years ago, there＇s no denying the fact that a lot of concomitant problems occur during its development. This paper explores into two of the hot issues nowadays, and presents the author＇s own experiences in two strikingly different classrooms in China and the United States, and hence some reflections on how to be rational in utilizing multi-media aids as well as research on basic theories.     

Children’s Home Numeracy Environment Predicts Growth of their Early Mathematical Skills in Kindergarten

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between children’s early mathematics and their home numeracy environment (HNE). Chilean children from families who varied widely in socioeconomic status were assessed at the beginning and end of prekindergarten in 2016 (N = 419, M_age = 4:7 [years:months]), and at the end of kindergarten in 2017 (N = 368, M_age = 5:10). Children whose parents provided frequent operational numeracy activities (e.g., learning simple sums) at prekindergarten showed better arithmetic performance and growth in nonsymbolic and symbolic number comparison at the end of kindergarten. Parents’ knowledge of number-related games predicted children’s arithmetic skills and growth in nonsymbolic number comparison. These findings underscore the persistent relations between the HNE and the development of children’s mathematical skills.