A Feminised Profession: women in the teaching profession

The education profession in Germany is presented as a feminised profession. This is defined and qualified, showing what sort of schools women are employed in and why there is a difference between women's opportunities in certain school types. An analysis is presented as to why women were allowed to enter the education profession when they did, linking women's employment opportunities and national shortages. The prejudice still existing against women's professional status within the employment sector is questioned. The paper shows how the education profession in Germany has been feminised and how the feminisation of a profession affects its pay and social prestige.     

Film Production

Mollie Gregory, Making Films Your Business (New York: Schocken Books, 1979 -- paper/$14.95 hardcover)

Sheldon Thomberg, Making Money Making Movies: The Independent Movie-makers Handbook (New York: New Viewpoints/Vision Books, 1980 -- $9.95).

Donn Delson, A Dictionary of Marketing and Related Terms in the Motion Picture Industry (Write Bradson Press, 120 Longfellow Street, Thosand Oaks, California 91360 -- $7.95 paper).

Milton Lustig, Music Editing for Motion Pictures (New York: Hastings House, 1980 -- $15.95)

Fred B. Basten, Glorious Technicolor: The Movies Magic Rainbow (South Brunswick, A.S. Barnes, 1980 -- $30.00).

Al Taylor and Sue Roy, Making a Monster (New York: Crown Publishers, 1980 -- $14.95).     

Students’ motivation in biology lessons—can student autonomy reduce the gender gap?

When it comes to biology lessons in Germany, girls generally exhibit higher levels of self-determined motivation than boys. Previous research suggests that fostering student autonomy could be a way to effectively address this gender gap. To investigate gender-related effects in biology education, a sample of 303 sixth-grade students (M_age = 11.31 years, SD_age = 0.58 years) participated in a 3-h teaching unit on harvest mice that was taught in either an autonomy-supportive or controlling manner. The results revealed a significant effect of the treatment on self-determined motivation, with the effect being stronger for the boys. In the treatment with controlling teaching behavior, gender-related differences in self-determined motivation became apparent. In contrast, the gender gap was mainly smaller in the treatment with autonomy-supportive teaching behavior. Thus, the results suggest that satisfying the need for autonomy appears to be an effective means to help bridge the gender gap in biology lessons.

     

The effects of autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching behaviour in biology lessons with primary and secondary experiences on students’ intrinsic motivation and flow-experience

Self-Determination Theory and Flow Theory propose that perceived autonomy fosters the positive qualities of motivation and flow-experience. Autonomy-support can help to maintain students’ motivation in very interesting learning activities and may lead to an increase in the positive qualities of motivation in less interesting learning activities. This paper investigates whether autonomy-supportive or controlling teaching behaviour influence students’ motivation and flow-experience in biology class. In study 1, 158 students of grade six worked on the adaptations of Harvest Mice (Micromys minutus) with living animals. The 153 sixth graders of study 2 dealt with the same content but instead worked with short films on laptops. Previous studies have shown that students perceive film sequences as less interesting than working with living animals. Students’ intrinsic motivation and flow-experience were measured at the end of the first and the third lesson. In study 1, autonomy-supportive teaching behaviour led to significant differences in students’ intrinsic motivation and flow-experience when compared to controlling teaching behaviour. In study 2, motivation and flow-experience were not always in line with theory. The positive effects of autonomy-supportive and the non-beneficial effects of the controlling teaching behaviour seem to be dependent on the interestingness of the teaching material.