Teacher self-efficacy as a long-term predictor of instructional quality in the classroom

In this longitudinal study, we examined teachers’ self-efficacy as a long-term predictor of their mastery goal orientation and three dimensions of instructional quality: supportive classroom climate, effective classroom management, and cognitive activation. Mastery goal orientation was also analyzed as a predictor of instructional quality. Teachers’ optimism, engagement, and strain were assessed to gain information about the construct validity of the scales on self-efficacy and mastery goal orientation. We analyzed the self-report data of 203 German in-service teachers who participated in all of three time points of assessment (the years 2001, 2008, and 2011). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the assumed three-dimensionality of instructional quality. Teacher self-efficacy was found to be relatively stable and to be a long-term predictor of instructional quality as indicated by the results of latent variable modeling. Moreover, instructional quality is predicted by mastery goal orientation, which in turn is regressed on self-efficacy. As supported also by bias-corrected bootstrapping, mastery goal orientation partially mediated the relationship between classroom climate and self-efficacy. Results and an outlook for future research are discussed.     

Context-us association as a determinant of long-term habituation in the crabChasmagnathus

An opaque screen moving overhead elicits an escape response in the crabChasmagnathus that habituates for a long period after just a few presentations. A series of experiments was performed to determine whether the crab’s long-term habituation (LTH) is mediated by an association between contextual cues and the eliciting stimulus.Chasmagnathus failed to exhibit LTH when a visual cue in the experimental environment was changed between training and testing. In addition, long-term exposure to the context in the absence of the eliciting stimulus impaired LTH, both when the exposure preceded the habituation training (latent inhibition) and when the exposure came after the training (extinction). Long exposure to the context alone prior to training also produced a decrease in responsiveness to the eliciting stimulus, which confirmed previous results. However, both effects of long exposure were only manifested when the crabs spent a period of time between exposure and testing out of the experimental context. The results of this paper are interpreted as supporting the view thatChasmagnathus LTH can be understood largely by Wagner’s associative theory of habituation.     

Promoting Independent Interactions Between Preschoolers with Autism and Their Nondisabled Peers: An Analysis of Self-Monitoring

This study examined the effects of self-monitoring on the activity engagement and social interaction of three preschoolers with autism. Each child participated in daily play activities with one nondisabled peer and received little adult direction during an initial baseline phase. Two intervention procedures were then implemented in an alternating fashion during a second condition. The first procedure required an adult to prompt the children to exchange social overtures. The adult also moved beads to record completed exchanges and provided a small post session reward to each child if they accomplished a criterion number of exchanges. During the second monitoring procedure the children moved their own beads while the adult provided fewer prompts and gave a post session reward. The child monitoring procedure was then implemented without prompts during a final follow-up phase. A combined alternating treatment and multiple baseline design were used to examine the effects of each experimental condition. Although all three children exhibited high levels of active engagement during baseline, most of their responses occurred in a solitary fashion. The adult and child monitoring procedures produced equal increases in children's engagement with nondisabled peers during the alternating intervention phase. The child monitoring procedure also maintained children's independent interactions during the follow-up condition. Supplemental observations in follow-up also indicated that children exchanged a wide range of different overtures and exhibited varying levels of consistency in their self monitoring.     

Promoting versatility in mentor teachers’ use of supervisory skills

Mentor teachers need a versatile supervisory skills repertoire. Besides taking the prevalent role of daily advisor and instructor, mentor teachers should also be able to stimulate reflection in student teachers. Video recordings of 60 mentoring dialogues were analysed, both before and after a mentor teacher training aimed at developing the encourager role. Mentor teachers’ repertoires of supervisory skills were found to consist of an average of seven supervisory skills. After training, a shift was observed in the frequencies and duration with which supervisory skills were used. Although considerable inter-individual variability existed between mentor teachers, training positively affected the use of supervisory skills for stimulating reflection in student teachers.