Why do long‐serving teachers stay in the teaching profession? Analysing the motivations of teachers with 10 or more years’ experience in England

This paper examines the reasons why long‐serving teachers remain in the teaching profession. Interest in teacher retention has grown in recent years, both in the UK and internationally, due to concerns over teacher shortage. However, most research on retention has focused on why teachers leave; this paper aims to fill the gap in our understanding of the positive reasons why long‐serving teachers stay in the profession, and how these reasons change over time. We define ‘long‐serving teachers’ as teachers who have taught for 10 years and more. We draw on a subset of data from an existing, broader study (Menzies et al., 2015 ) on why teachers enter and stay in the profession. In this paper, we draw on questionnaire findings from over 900 teachers with 0 to over 30 years’ teaching experience, and interviews with 14 long‐serving teachers, to understand why long‐serving teachers enter and, more importantly for our purposes, stay in teaching. We find that teachers’ motivational patterns are highly complex and influenced by school‐level and policy contexts. Nonetheless, two prominent retention factors are identified: teachers’ perceived professional mastery and altruistic reasons. Perceived professional mastery is particularly important due to its mutually reinforcing analytic relationships with other reasons. We find that teachers’ identification with intrinsic, altruistic and perceived professional mastery reasons become stronger with years of experience, but in some cases, paradoxically, so does their identification with extrinsic reasons. From our evidence, we suggest policy implications for enhancing the retention of long‐serving teachers.     

Using iPad tablets for self‐modeling with preschoolers: Videos versus photos

As technology becomes more accessible and acceptable in the preschool setting, teachers need effective strategies of incorporating it to address challenging behaviors. A nonconcurrent delayed multiple baseline design in combination with an alternating treatment design was utilized to investigate the effects of using iPad tablets to display video self‐modeling and activity photos for three preschoolers during circle time. During baseline, all three children demonstrated low levels of engagement and high levels of off‐task behavior compared to peers. The intervention phase consisted of alternating between showing the child the self‐video and photos prior to circle time. A child preference phase was conducted whereby each child self‐selected the video or photo prior to circle time. For all three children both videos and photos led to increased engagement and decreased off‐task behaviors. During the child preference phase, all three children selected the video most frequently. Social validity data demonstrated teacher and child preference for the video self‐modeling condition.     

Using 21st century video prompting technology to facilitate the independence of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Barriers in acquiring, maintaining, and generalizing daily living skills are factors that contribute to discrepancies in independent living outcomes among transition age youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Acquisition and generalization of daily living skills empowers transition age youth and young adults with disabilities to meet their own needs with minimal reliance on others. Infusing the use of technology as a self‐prompting device facilitates the acquisition of tasks that may not be otherwise attainable. In this study, self‐directed video prompting on an iPad with the My Pictures Talk application was used to help young adults with IDD in a postsecondary program acquire daily living skills in a single subject, multiple probe across subjects design. The effects of the intervention on generalization to tasks that were one, two, and three components different were also assessed. Results demonstrated a functional relationship between the introduction of the intervention and improvement in skill performance.     

Self‐efficacy of prospective Austrian and German primary school teachers regarding the implementation of inclusive education

This study examined the psychometric properties of the German version of the Teacher Inclusive Education Self‐Efficacy Scale (TIESES). Five hundred and nineteen teacher education students from Austria and 765 teacher education students from Germany participated in the study. Results of a multiple‐group confirmatory factor analysis (for the two countries) confirmed a single factor structure of the scale with partial scalar measurement invariance. Regression analysis showed that self‐efficacy when implementing inclusive education was explained by the motivation to deal with inclusive education during their studies, previous experience with inclusive education in internships, study interest and the country in which the students went to university.     

A Fresh Theoretical Perspective on Practice‐Led Research

Practice‐led research in art and design has now come of age and can take its place alongside other forms of research at the academic ‘high table’. It no longer needs to be treated with ‘special consideration’ as a new form of intellectual enquiry. The research craft developed by those involved in practice‐led research admits them to a broader community of practice engaged in questioning the conceptual basis of how we perceive and make sense of the world around us. The objective/subjective divide that preoccupied an earlier generation of academics has eventually been replaced by a more nuanced epistemological framework able to embrace PhDs that include non‐textual artefacts as part of their exposition. An increasing number of academic institutions around the world have taken up the debate and now participate in practice‐led research programmes. However, for early‐career researchers in these fields there are still many hurdles to overcome, some of which are unique to this form of endeavour, as we outline. This article has been developed from a series of seminars and workshops presented by the authors to early‐career practice‐led researchers as part of their Project Dialogue programme which seeks greater engagement between the arts and sciences.     

An Autoethnographical Study of Culture,Power, Identity and Art Education in Post‐Colonial South Korea

This article reflects my experiences of learning art in the 1970s and 1980s and my teaching career in school art education in twenty‐first century South Korea. This autobiographical reflection shows how I have struggled with my identity as an art teacher in the post‐colonial context of Western influences on Korean society since World War II. There has been greater tension and a greater struggle for different values, practices and identities when new values and practices have been introduced into the particular socio‐cultural context of South Korea. My struggles with particular kinds of pedagogic identity valued within the rapidly changing political, economic and cultural context of Western influences on Korean art education demonstrate the hidden structural mechanism of the relationship between culture, power and identity in the post‐colonial world of globalisation. This study as an autoethnographical research provides critical insights into how identities are produced by pedagogic discourses and practices of art education that are constructed through the specific systems of practice and language which transmit and regulate such identities and values.     

Development of a didactical training concept for peer tutors in gross anatomy

Even though peer tutors are often used in gross anatomy courses, research in the field is rather a subject of the last two decades. This is especially true about the didactical challenges these types of peer tutors experience during their tutorials and about how they are prepared for the task. The aim of the presented study was to learn about the training needs of the tutors, and to subsequently design, implement, and evaluate a didactical training concept. A qualitative design was chosen to examine how tutors can best be prepared for tutorials of gross anatomy. To do so, focus group interviews were conducted. The data were analyzed and grouped into various concepts, using semi‐structured interview questions as guidance. It was found that peer tutors are in need of training in the following aspects: Dealing with students who are experiencing difficulties during or as a result of dissection, dealing with group dynamics, that is, at the dissection table, keeping students motivated, time management, and staying confident as a tutor. In order to be regarded as useful and relevant in the eyes of tutors, a preparatory training course should include all these aspects in addition to general didactical training elements. Training needs of peer tutors of gross anatomy go beyond the content of standardized didactical curricula; therefore, tutors should be prepared with a curriculum that is specifically geared toward the many challenges associated with teaching gross anatomy to first year medical students which are already so well documented in the research literature. Anat Sci Educ 10: 495–502. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Videobased lesson analysis: Effective science PD for teacher and student learning

The Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis (STeLLA) project is a videobased analysis‐of‐practice PD program aimed at improving teacher and student learning at the upper elementary level. The PD program developed and utilized two “lenses,” a Science Content Storyline Lens and a Student Thinking Lens, to help teachers analyze science teaching and learning and to improve teaching practices in this year‐long program. Participants included 48 teachers (n = 32 experimental, n = 16 control) and 1,490 students. The STeLLA program significantly improved teachers' science content knowledge and their ability to analyze science teaching. Notably, the STeLLA teachers further increased their classroom use of science teaching strategies associated with both lenses while their students increased their science content knowledge. Multi‐level HLM analyses linked higher average gains in student learning with teachers' science content knowledge, teachers' pedagogical content knowledge about student thinking, and teaching practices aimed at improving the coherence of the science content storyline. This paper highlights the importance of the science content storyline in the STeLLA program and discusses its potential significance in science teaching and professional development more broadly. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 48: 117–148, 2011     

A framework for scaffolding students' assessment of the credibility of evidence

Assessing the credibility of evidence in complex, socio‐scientific problems is of paramount importance. However, there is little discussion in the science education literature on this topic and on how students can be supported in developing such skills. In this article, we describe an instructional design framework, which we call the Credibility Assessment Framework, to scaffold high school students' collaborative construction of evidence‐based decisions and their assessment of the credibility of evidence. The framework was employed for the design of a web‐based reflective inquiry environment on a socio‐scientific issue, and was enacted with 11th grade students. The article describes the components of the Credibility Assessment Framework and provides the details and results of an empirical study illustrating this framework in practice. The results are presented in the form of a case study of how 11th grade students investigated and evaluated scientific data relating to the cultivation of genetically modified plants. Multiple kinds of data were collected, including pre‐ and post‐tests of students' conceptual understanding and their skills in assessing the credibility of evidence, and videotapes of students' collaborative inquiry sessions. The analysis of the pre‐ and post‐tests on students' conceptual understanding of Biotechnology and their skills in assessing the credibility of evidence revealed statistically significant learning gains. Students' work in task‐related artifacts and the analysis of two groups' videotaped discussions showed that students became sensitive to credibility criteria, questioned the sources of data and correctly identified sources of low, moderate, and high credibility. Implications for designers and educators regarding the application of this framework are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 711–744, 2011     

The disaster of the ‘self‐managing school’ – genesis,trajectory, undisclosed agenda,and effects

Sometimes an educational idea is inexplicably adopted around the world with remarkable speed and consistency and in the absence of a proper evidence base or with little regard or respect for teachers, students or learning. This paper examines what has arguably been the most contentious and virulent educational reform of the past half‐century. Variously labelled, in what amounts to the self‐managing school, what this reform has done is virtually dismantle public education and privatise it without public debate or proper scrutiny. This paper considers the alleged claims by the enthusiastic proponents and examines what has subsequently transpired, particularly in respect of the most disadvantaged students and the broader mission of improved learning.