Development and initial validation of a questionnaire to assess the reading beliefs of undergraduate students: the Cuestionario de Creencias sobre la Lectura

The aim of this research was to develop a new questionnaire for exploring the reading beliefs of undergraduate students, because the only currently available instrument has conceptual and methodological limitations. The paper describes the process of developing the instrument and presents a range of psychometric data obtained from a sample of 558 Spanish undergraduates who were in the first or final year of a degree programme in psychology, language and literature or engineering. The results provide evidence of the psychometric quality of items and reveal a dual structure of two and six factors, both obtained through exploratory and/or confirmatory factor analyses. Adequate reliability based on internal consistency of the factors was also demonstrated. As a measure of criterion validity, differences in reading beliefs by gender, academic year and knowledge area were also explored. The findings support the psychometric adequacy of this new instrument developed through an exploratory piece of research. Overall, the process of constructing the instrument and the results from this study provide a framework for research and intervention, in addition to presenting a tool that both researchers and teaching staff could use in the context of reading and reading comprehension.     

Using Narrative Therapy to Assist College‐Age Latino Immigrants

Latinos represent a large percentage of the immigrant population currently entering the United States. These immigrants may face mental health issues related to their immigration and acculturation experiences, leading to a need for counseling. The authors introduce narrative therapy as an appropriate treatment modality for college‐age Latino students.     

Sharing meanings in the music classroom

This work explores the study of interaction through discourse as a means for analysing and understanding the process of teaching and learning music. Over the course of a didactic sequence, we assess classroom conversations dealing with the analysis of a music score constituted as the reference for the process of creating a joint music composition. The group is made up of a teacher and second-year elementary pupils (aged 9–10 years) at a music school. Eight categories of discourse are identified that help to understand the strategies used to construct shared musical meanings. This knowledge is important for practitioners when reflecting on the teaching-learning process. It is also useful for teacher training.     

Teacher education and the choice to enter the teaching profession: A prospective study

This two-wave survey study aimed at testing a hypothetical model of teacher education graduates’ decisions about whether or not to take a teaching position upon graduation. The model focuses on the relationship between teacher education and graduates’ choice on job entrance. Using path analysis and logistic regression, this model was tested in a sample of student teachers (n = 436), subsequently graduates (n = 251) of teacher training for secondary education. The results validate the relationship between teacher education variables and nearly graduates’ intention to enter the teaching profession. Furthermore, this intention proves an imperative predictor of graduates’ actual entrance.