A teacher-report measure of children's task-avoidant behavior: A validation study of the Behavioral Strategy Rating Scale

This study aims to validate a teacher-report measure of children's task-avoidant behavior, namely the Behavioral Strategy Rating Scale (BSRS), in a sample of 352 Finnish children. In each of the four waves from Kindergarten to Grade 2, teachers rated children's task-avoidant behavior using the BSRS, children completed reading and mathematics tests, and trained testers rated children's task-avoidant and social-dependent behavior after the test situation. Mothers also rated children's task-avoidant behavior in the last two waves. The results showed that a two-factor model including one factor representing task avoidance and one method factor accounting for wording effects among the negatively phrased items fitted the data best. The scale demonstrated strict measurement invariance across all four waves and satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Teacher-reported task avoidance was negatively associated with performance in reading and mathematics. The results suggest that the BSRS is a reliable, valid, and developmentally suitable instrument.     

完善人才培养体系,服务农村基础教育——安徽省农村中小学美术教育现状及师范生顶岗实习研究

结合目前师范院校教育实习的现状和安徽省农村中小学美术课程教学的实际情况,提出在安徽省以农村中小学美术学科作为试点,探讨这一制度实施的理论基础、关键环节。建立高师院校、城市示范中小学校美术教学见习基地、农村中小学实习基地三方协作的师范生实习指导形式,提高人才培养的质量,促进城乡教育均衡发展。     

Validation of the elementary social behaviour assessment: teacher ratings of students’ social skills adapted to Norwegian,grades 1–6

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Elementary Social Behaviour Assessment (ESBA), a teacher-report measure of students’ social skills and academic engagement adapted for use in Norwegian schools. At two times, 8 weeks apart, 151 teachers rated 793 students in Grades 1–6 on the ESBA and the Social Skills Rating System Teacher’s form (SSRS-T). Exploratory factor analysis with the first assessment suggested one or possibly two factors. Confirmatory factor analysis with the second assessment confirmed the one- or two-factor models but did not offer strong evidence for one over the other. The ESBA demonstrated good to excellent reliability. Strong concurrent and predictive correlations with the SSRS-T established criterion validity. The school and teacher levels explained only a limited amount of the total variance in ESBA scores, suggesting that teachers rate students quite similarly. The Norwegian-adapted ESBA paralleled the reliability and validity evidence from US samples.     

贵州高等师范院校汉语言文学专业学生培养模式现状剖析

现行高等师范院校汉语言文学专业学生培养模式,不适应21世纪基础教育课程改革语文教师专业化的要求,具体表现为在学生培养模式上对学生职前语文教师专业化培养目标认识不到位;追求综合性、宽就业,淡化了师范性,大大削弱了学生职前语文教师专业化培养;同时,传统课程设置与结构也不适应学生职前语文教师专业化培养。     

Empowerment and relationships: A classroom model to enhance student motivation

This project focused on the goal of establishing a classroom model of motivation in which the source of student motivation is based on internal mechanisms or structures, along with the establishment of greater self-regulatory opportunities for students, and which results in greater student empowerment and motivation. One-hundred current elementary and secondary teachers and 100 university preservice teacher education students completed a 40-item Likert-type questionnaire that focused on four classroom dimensions of affirmation, rejection, student empowerment and teacher control. The results of this project suggested that, although veteran and preservice teachers agreed on the need for teacher control in the classroom, there was less agreement about their perceptions of the need to create a classroom environment of positive affirmation and student empowerment. Implications for future research and the need for creating an affirming, empowering, motivational classroom environment are discussed in light of the limitations for teachers and schools to encourage these constructs associated with recent federal legislative policies.     

阿坝师专体育专科课程设置改革探索

通过文献资料、专家访谈及对阿坝州文体局相关领导问卷调查等方法,探讨新时期体育系专科培养目标、培养规格以及课程体系的改革。     

基层电大教师专业发展:问题及化解

现代远程开放教育以新型的教育模式对电大教师提出了更新、更高的要求,但目前基层电大在教师专业发展问题上,不管是学校层面,还是教师自身层面,都存在不容忽视的问题,必须采取针对性措施进行有效的化解,使基层电大教师在专业知识和能力上得到全面提升,以承担起现代远程开放教育新的教育模式所赋予的全新角色和全新任务。     

Teacher Judgments of Student Reading and Math Skills: Associations With Child- and Classroom-Related Factors

The purpose of the study was to examine whether students’ linguistic skills and task-avoidant behavior (i.e., the child-related factors) and the mean level of academic skills (reading comprehension and math) of classmates (i.e., the class-related factor) are associated with teacher judgments of children’s reading comprehension and math skills. The participants were third-grade Estonian-speaking students (n?=?656; age 9?11 years) and their classroom teachers (n?=?51). The results of the structural equation modeling path analyses indicated that teachers tend to judge students showing higher academic and linguistic skills and lower avoidance behavior as higher on the reading comprehension and math skills. In contrast, the classmates’ higher academic skill level was related to lower judgments of individual children’s reading comprehension and math skills by teachers.     

The Professional Education of Teachers

Teachers, unlike their counterparts in other professions such as doctors and lawyers, lack professional control over their profession. This paper examines how this has come about in the United Kingdom by identifying the problems in seeing teaching as a profession and explains why the professional development of teachers should be a central concern of universities. Many parallels can be drawn with problems highlighted in this paper and those encountered elsewhere.