Relations of Early Childhood Education Teachers’ Depressive Symptoms,Job-Related Stress,and Professional Motivation to Beliefs About Children and Teaching Practices

Research Findings: This study used teacher questionnaires to investigate the relationships of early childhood education teachers’ depressive symptoms, professional motivation, and job-related stress to their beliefs about children and teaching practices. Teachers (N = 207) were recruited from early childhood education programs in the southern United States. Path analyses showed that teachers who exhibited fewer depressive symptoms were more likely to have a career orientation to their jobs and indicated feeling less job-related stress. Teachers with a career orientation to their jobs were also more likely to have child-centered beliefs and endorse developmentally appropriate teaching practices. Teachers’ job-related stress, however, was not related to beliefs about children or teaching practices. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that teachers’ psychological and job-related well-being are linked to their beliefs about children and teaching practice in early childhood education. It is therefore important to provide support systems and preventive programs for teachers to enhance their well-being.     

Group work and the learning of critical thinking in the Hong Kong secondary liberal studies curriculum

This article reports the findings of a one-year longitudinal study that investigated the impact of group work on the development of students’ critical thinking in Hong Kong secondary schools. It explores whether the participation of teachers in a group-based teaching intervention adapted from an earlier study conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) facilitated students’ use of critical arguments in Liberal Studies lessons. In addition to examining students’ critical thinking skills through test performance and the use of reasoned justifications in written class-work, the article also discusses the applicability to the Hong Kong context of the programme on which the intervention was based. In general, the results of the study indicate that group work is more effective than whole-class instruction in developing students’ critical-thinking skills and that students make better progress in ‘teacher-supported’ than ‘student self-directed’ group work.     

Reconceptualising advocacy: creating inclusive education in US universal pre-kindergarten

This narrative inquiry concerns preschool education in the USA. It describes and analyses the barriers and possibilities for inclusion/exclusion that educators and parents of young children in a West Virginian community believe that it poses. The researchers present a case study designed to examine the context of inclusive education as revealed in 15 educators’ and parents’ narratives and observations of universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) practice. Due to semi-market-based orientations, new UPK structures, and perceptions of acceptable roles for parents and educators, possibilities for advocacy, and inclusive education often went unrealised. Based on these data, the researchers offer suggestions for how teacher education might be further developed to reconceptualise advocacy as inclusive education created in part through a praxis orientation and deliberative relationships between homes and schools.     

Do reductions in class size raise students’ test scores? Evidence from population variation in Minnesota's elementary schools

Many U.S. states and cities spend substantial funds to reduce class size, especially in elementary (primary) school. Estimating the impact of class size on learning is complicated, since children in small and large classes differ in many observed and unobserved ways. This paper uses a method of Hoxby (2000) to assess the impact of class size on the test scores of grade 3 and 5 students in Minnesota. The method exploits random variation in class size due to random variation in births in school and district catchment areas. The results show that reducing class size increases mathematics and reading test scores in Minnesota. Yet these impacts are very small; a decrease of ten students would increase test scores by only 0.04–0.05 standard deviations (of the distribution of test scores). Thus class size reductions are unlikely to lead to sizeable increases in student learning.     

The nature of counselling: An investigation of counselling activity inselected countries

The purpose of this study was to investigatecounselling as a process. It was conducted toexplore whether counselling is available invarious countries, even if it is known byanother name. This study examined the kinds ofhelp available to people with specificdifficulties. It sought to discern whether theways of helping include activities that mightbe thought of as counselling. As a way todiscover what forms of help might be availableto people in a given country, a series ofstressful incidents confronting one family ofaverage income living in a large town weredeveloped into a questionnaire format. Theseincidents were designed to stimulate thinkingand focus attention on possible help-givingsources. Data were collected from sources infifteen countries through interviews atinternational counselling conferences and withselected embassy officials in Washington, D.C.Interviews were also conducted in the UnitedKingdom, the United States, Costa Rica, andMalaysia. In addition, questionnaires were sentto experts knowledgeable about social welfareissues in a number of countries. The findingsfrom this investigation suggest thatcounselling as an activity or a process may betaking place under different names in differentcultures.