Preservice teachers’ self efficacy and knowledge of emotional and behavioural disorders

This research examined preservice teachers’ knowledge of emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) and their sense of efficacy. The participants included a convenience sample of 230 undergraduate general education and special education preservice teachers enrolled in teacher education classes. The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 51 with a mean age of 23.37 years (SD = 6.8 years). The Teacher Self Efficacy Scale (TSES) (long form) and Knowledge of Emotional and Behavioural Disorders questionnaire were administered. The participants had higher efficacy in instructional strategies, classroom management, and instructional abilities than in student engagement. There was no significant correlation between field experience, additional coursework, and familiarity with a child with EBD and the preservice teachers’ knowledge of EBD or self efficacy. This information is relevant to teacher programme coordinators indicating that further efforts should be made to increase preservice teachers’ knowledge of EBD, and to provide strategies for identifying and working with students with EBD in classrooms.     

“You're going to want to find out which and prove it”: collective argumentation in a mathematics classroom

One of the proposals of the North American educational reform movement is that teachers should stress scientific argumentation more than the manipulation of symbols and algorithms in their mathematics instruction. The aim of this article is to apply some theoretical concepts, drawn from the fields of sociolinguistics and rhetoric, to the analysis of argumentation in a lesson conducted in an urban middle school classroom. Our analysis focuses on the implementation of the classroom teacher's instructional goals during a lesson on area measurement. As a result of our analyses, we found that she achieved her instructional goals of being nondirective in her teaching and getting students actively involved in arguing about mathematical concepts. The teacher was able to orchestrate discussion by recruiting attention and participation from her class, aligning students with argumentative positions through reported speech, highlighting positions through repetition, and pointing out important aspects of their arguments through expansion. In addition, we also found that her students differed in the way they framed the mathematical content of the lesson in terms of the facts or grounds, algorithms or warrants, premises or backings, as well as solutions or claims. Their arguments also varied in terms of explicitness and ability to integrate their classmates' arguments. In conclusion, we feel that discourse analysis, based on sociolinguistic and rhetorical theoretical frameworks, can be a valuable tool for the evaluation of educational reform in mathematics.     

A survey of ethical decision making among practicing school psychologists

This study investigated a sample of practicing school psychologists' preferred resolutions to a series of ethical dilemmas and their primary reason(s) for arriving at these resolutions. Results indicated a general lack of consistency in both actions taken to resolve ethical dilemmas and reasons chosen to support such actions, regardless of respondents' sex, years of experience, self-reported hours of ethics training, frequency of encountering similar problems, perceived seriousness of the problem, or confidence in decision making. The results are discussed in light of similar findings from other areas of professional psychology and their implications for better preservice training in ethical decision making.     

Use of the Argyris Case Method to Develop Consulting Skills

Consulting skills can be developed and improved through the use of a unique case format and method of case analysis. The format and methodology, developed by Argyris, is based in his theory of action. Argyris argues that consultants function out of two theories, one which they espouse and another which actually guides their words and actions, their theory-in-use. A consultant's theory-in-use is often tacit and thus unavailable for self-examination or correction. The analysis is conducted in a small group using a case which the consultant has constructed from an actual dialogue he or she has had with a client. The dialogue provides the means to examine possible contradictions between the consultant's theory-in-use and the espoused theory. In addition the analysis provides insight into inferences the consultant makes about the client's words and actions which may be incorrect.