Secondary school teachers' attitudes towards and beliefs about ability grouping

Background: Internationally and historically considerable research has been undertaken regarding the attitudes of secondary school teachers towards different types of ability grouping. There has been no recent research taking account of the changing educational context in the UK. Aims: This paper aims to explore secondary school teachers' attitudes and beliefs about ability grouping taking account of school type, gender, experience and qualifications. Sample: The sample comprised over 1,500 teachers from 45 schools divided into three groups based on their ability grouping practices in years 7‐9 (the students were aged 11‐14). The sample included all the lower school teachers of mathematics, science and English and a random sample of teachers from other subjects in each school. Methods: Teachers responded to a questionnaire which explored their attitudes towards ability grouping through the use of rating scales and open‐ended questions. Results: The findings showed that the teachers' beliefs broadly reflected research findings on the actual effects of ability grouping, although there were significant differences relating to the type of school they taught in and the subject that they taught. Separate analysis of school types showed that length of time teaching, individual school differences and teacher qualifications were also significant predictors of attitudes. Conclusions: Teachers' beliefs about ability grouping are influenced by the type of groupings adopted in the school where they work, the subject that they teach, their experience and qualifications. As pedagogical practices are known to be influenced by beliefs these findings have important implications for teacher training.     

Changing teachers' beliefs regarding autonomy support and structure: The role of experienced psychological need satisfaction in teacher training

ObjectivesGrounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study examined whether physical education (PE) teachers' psychological need satisfaction experienced during continuous professional development (CPD) on need-supportive teaching predicted changes in their effectiveness and feasibility beliefs regarding the proposed teaching approach, as well as their intentions to apply this approach and subsequent changes in their self-reported in-class behaviors.MethodsPrior to the training, a sample of 80 PE teachers (57.5% men, Mage = 42.70 ± 10.15 years) reported on their effectiveness and feasibility beliefs regarding autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching strategies and their in-class application of these strategies. Immediately following the training, these beliefs were assessed again and participants reported on their psychological need satisfaction experienced during the training and their intentions to apply the proposed strategies. Finally, two weeks after the training, participants' self-reported in-class application of the teaching strategies was measured for the second time.ResultsPsychological need satisfaction experienced during the training related to a change in effectiveness and feasibility beliefs regarding autonomy support and structure, and to teachers' intentions to apply the proposed strategies as reported immediately after receiving the training. In addition, teachers' intentions related to a change in their self-reported in-class application of structuring, but not autonomy-supportive, teaching strategies.ConclusionsExperiences of psychological need satisfaction during CPD can help to increase the likelihood that teachers become more convinced about the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed change and can produce greater intentions toward change, which may relate to actual (albeit) self-reported behavior change.     

Aspiring parents' and teachers' academic beliefs about young children

This study is an attempt to determine whether (a) the gender of a young child would elicit differential academic beliefs from individuals who aspire to become parents and teachers; and (b) male and female individuals who aspire to become parents and teachers have differential academic beliefs about young children. Data from 108 university students who intended to become parents and teachers showed that the gender of a young child elicited differential academic beliefs, and that male and female aspiring parents and teachers tended to have different academic beliefs about young children. The findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between stereotyped socialization practices and differential achievement between the two genders. Implications of the findings for education are noted.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Educational Research Association in Chicago, Illinois, October 1988. The helpful comments of a review editor are most gratefully acknowledged.     

Scottish secondary school teachers' attitudes towards, and conceptualisations of, counselling

This paper presents the findings of two independent questionnaire studies that examined Scottish secondary schools teachers' attitudes towards, and conceptualisation of, school counselling. Seventy-one teachers in a first study, and 33 teachers in a second study, responded to a range of qualitative and quantitative response-format questions that were designed to elicit their feelings and attitudes towards school counselling, and their notions of what counselling was. Results from the two studies confirm previous findings in this area, suggesting that teachers are generally positive in their attitudes towards counselling; valuing, in particular, the independence and expertise of the counsellor. A small minority of teachers, however, were found to hold strongly negative views towards counselling. Teachers also expressed concerns that students might abuse the counselling service, and that the service might not fully integrate with existing guidance arrangements provided by teachers in schools. The study also found that a high proportion of teachers conceptualised counselling in terms of advice-giving.     

Guidance in Hong Kong schools: Students' and teachers' beliefs

The perceptions which students and teachers in Hong Kong have of school guidance were investigated, with specific reference to the match and mismatch in their respective views. A survey of 2,045 secondary students and 267 teachers revealed that students and teachers held similar beliefs about school guidance, demonstrating convergence rather than divergence in perceptions. The results showed assent by both groups to proactive and developmental guidance, with some reservations about remedial guidance. Both groups affirmed the role of teachers in individual guidance and its helpfulness, and teacher participation in guidance as a means of school improvement of guidance. Divergence in views was mainly in the magnitude of agreement. Moscovici's theory of social representations is employed to explain the findings. Implications of the findings for the concept and development of guidance are discussed.     

Six-year-olds' contradictory judgments about knowledge and beliefs

By around the age of 4 years, children acknowledge that people can have false beliefs about the world. Six-year-olds are still inclined, however, to confuse their own knowledge with that of more ignorant others. In a recent paper, Hulme, Mitchell and Wood offer a novel explanation for six-year-olds' tendency to make such errors when asked to choose a picture to put in a story character's thought bubble.     

AIDS and condom-related knowledge,beliefs, and behaviors in Mexican migrant laborers

A survey of 87 Mexican migrants (55 males and 32 females) who have lived and worked in the US since 1982 assessed AIDS and condom-related knowledge, beliefs, and sexual practices. Although respondents were highly knowledgeable about major modes of HIV transmission, one-third to one-half believed that HIV could be contracted from mosquito bites, public bathrooms, kissing, and the HIV test. Only 15% knew someone with AIDS. Ever-use of condoms was reported by 70.9% of men and 41.9% of women. Of the 68 subjects who had been sexually active in the year preceding the survey, 20 reported two or more partners. Among sexually active respondents, 16.2% always used condoms with their primary partner, while 43.0% used condoms consistently with occasional partners. 48.9% of men and 57.1% of women never used condoms with their primary partner; with casual partners, these rates were 30.8% and 44.4%, respectively. Worry about contracting AIDS, self-rated on a scale from 1 (very often) to 4 (never), averaged 2.84, with higher worry scores among those 18-31 years of age and with multiple partners. Respondents did not anticipate negative consequences of condom use (e.g., reduced sexual pleasure), but females expressed concern that carrying condoms would cause them to be viewed as promiscuous.     

Public awareness and knowledge of stuttering in Rio de Janeiro

This study reports the results of an investigation of public awareness and knowledge of stuttering in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A total number of 606 street recruited respondents answered questions on various aspects of stuttering, including prevalence, onset, gender distribution, occurrence in different cultures, cause, treatment, intelligence, and hereditariness. The questionnaire used was a Portuguese version of the one by [Van Borsel, J., Verniers, I. & Bouvry, S. (1999). Public awareness of stuttering. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 51, 124–132]. Although, stuttering is a disorder which is known to a majority of the participants, knowledge appears to be limited for certain aspects. Knowledge also differs among subgroups of participants according to gender, age and educational level. Comparison of the results of the current study with similar studies conducted in Belgium and in Shanghai, China shows several similarities but also some differences.

Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) discuss public awareness and knowledge of stuttering in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; (2) discuss the differences in knowledge according to gender, age and educational level and; (3) discuss similarities and differences with comparable studies run in Belgium and Shanghai, China.     

Reading ability and disfluency in stuttering and nonstuttering elementary school children

This study was aimed at comparing the reading abilities of elementary school children who stutter with their nonstuttering peers. Forty-four stuttering children from four grade levels were matched with a group of normally fluent controls on the basis of age, sex, and grade level. Reading ability was assessed by means of three Dutch standardized tests yielding a total of six scores. Disfluency scores during oral reading were also obtained for each subject. Results indicated significant differences between the two groups on reading rate and reading errors, but not on reading comprehension. Analysis of reading errors did not show qualitative differences among subjects: stuttering and nonstuttering children made the same kinds of reading errors. Similarly, the two groups did not differ with respect to performances at different grade levels. Among both groups of subjects performances became better with increasing grade on four of the six measures. Correlational analyses indicated that the measures of reading ability used in this study were significantly associated with frequency of disfluency for the nonstuttering children. In contrast, no significant relationship was found between reading ability and disfluency in the stuttering group, except for reading rate. Results are discussed with respect to the possible interaction between verbal performance and linguistic competence in reading ability measures, particularly for the stuttering child.     

Coaches' expectations and beliefs regarding benefits of youth sport participation

Although many have investigated why children participate in sport, little is known about what adults expect children to gain from participation. The present purpose was to examine coaches' expectations of what children should gain from participation in sport and the extent to which coaches believe that these expectations are actually fulfilled. Participants included 109 youth sport coaches who completed a survey packet consisting of a demographic information questionnaire and the Ohio Sport Satisfaction Index. Analysis indicated coaches ranked the variables of having fun, learning life skills, being part of a team, developing confidence, and the excitement of competition as the most important outcomes for the youth they coach. Generally, coaches believe that their expectations are being fulfilled. Coaches' sex and years of coaching were not significantly related to any of the criterion variables in the present study.     

Vocational maturity of Arab and American high school students

The vocational maturity of Arab and American ninth- and eleventh-grade students were compared. Arab students were found to have lower maturity scores than American students. Eleventh graders of both nationalities were more vocationally mature than ninth graders. The possibility that the overall difference found between Arab and American students can be attributed to cultural differences was supported by the response trend of discriminating items as revealed by an item analysis.     

Middle-class adults'' knowledge of referral sources for problems of vision, dentition, reading, stuttering, and articulation

A survey of 40 middle-class adults representing four age groups 10 yrs apart was conducted to determine to whom they would refer children with problems involving vision, dentition, reading, stuttering, and articulation. Results indicate that the adults were well informed with respect to referral sources for treatment of vision and dentition but inconsistencies were noted in choosing referral sources for reading, articulation, and especially stuttering. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Arab and Jewish elementary school students' perceptions of fear and school violence: Understanding the influence of school context

This inquiry explores variables that predict elementary school stsudents' fear of attending school due to school violence and their overall judgments of school violence as a problem. Using a nationally representative sample (Israel) of 5,472 elementary‐school‐aged children, this study tested the hypotheses that: (a) young students' personal fear of attending school due to violence, and (b) students' assessment of a school violence problem, are best understood as separate conceptual constructs. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed theoretical model for the sample as a whole and separately for across gender and for Arab and Jewish students. Student fear of attending school due to violence was related directly to experiences of personal victimization on school grounds by students and teachers. Children's judgments of their schools' overall violence problem were influenced directly by the school climate, risky peer‐group behaviours, and personal victimization. The findings provide evidence that the proposed theoretical model applies across gender groups and for both Arab and Jewish students. Implications for policy, theory, and future research are highlighted.     

Motivational beliefs,cognitive engagement,and achievement in language and mathematics in elementary school children

The contextual differences in the patterns of relations among various motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive components of self‐regulated learning and performance in two key curriculum subject areas, language and mathematics, were examined in a sample of 263 Greek primary school children of fifth‐ and sixth‐grade classrooms. Age and gender differences were also investigated. Students were asked to complete the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990 ), which comprised five factors: (a) Self‐efficacy, (b) Intrinsic Value, (c) Test Anxiety, (d) Cognitive Strategy Use, and (e) Self‐regulation Strategies. They responded to the statements of the questionnaire on a 7‐point Likert scale in terms of their behaviour in mathematics and language classes, respectively. Moreover, their teachers were asked to evaluate each of their students' academic achievement in Greek language and mathematics on a 1‐ to 20‐point comparative scale in relation to the rest of the class. The results of the study indicated very few differences in the pattern of relations among self‐regulated components within and across the two subject areas and at the same time revealed a context‐specific character of self‐regulated components at a mean level differences. Further, the current study (a) confirmed the mediatory role of strategies in the motivation‐performance relation, (b) stressed the differential role of cognitive and regulatory strategies in predicting performance in subject areas that differ in their structural characteristics of the content, and (c) pointed out the key motivational role of self‐efficacy. In fact, self‐efficacy proved the most significant predictor not only of performance but of cognitive and regulatory strategy use as well. Gender differences in motivation and strategy use were not reported, while motivation was found to vary mainly with age. The usefulness of these findings for promoting greater clarity among motivational and metacognitive frameworks and ideas for future research are discussed.     

The FAD-Plus: measuring lay beliefs regarding free will and related constructs

We describe the development of FAD-Plus, a 27-item measure of lay beliefs in free will and 3 closely related constructs: scientific determinism, fatalistic determinism, and unpredictability. Previously published measures included only a subset of these variables and tended to assume an a priori pattern of relations among these 4 beliefs. In Study 1, exploratory factor analyses suggested relatively independent factors. This independence was sustained in Study 2, using a confirmatory analysis. Each of the 4 subscales (Free Will, Scientific Determinism, Fatalistic Determinism, and Unpredictability) showed acceptable internal consistencies. Study 2 also mapped out associations with the Big Five personality traits and showed that believing in free will is not synonymous with having an internal locus of control. Study 3 replicated the instrument's structure and subscale reliabilities in a community sample. Preliminary applications are described.     

Feedlot veterinarians' moral and instrumental beliefs regarding antimicrobial use in feedlot cattle

This cross‐sectional survey research study examined the role moral beliefs play in predicting behavioural beliefs and attitudes and the role that subjective norms play in predicting moral beliefs. Using a self‐administered questionnaire, one hundred and three feedlot veterinarians completed measures of behavioural beliefs, referent others, perceived constraints and moral beliefs regarding recommendations to use antimicrobials in four situations (i.e. acutely sick cattle, chronically sick cattle, at‐risk cattle and high‐risk cattle). Regression analysis and F‐tests indicate moral beliefs as contributing significant increases in R² to models predicting behavioural beliefs regarding antimicrobial use in each situation. In addition, subjective norms contribute a significant increase in R² in models predicting moral beliefs in each of the four situations. The results indicate the effects of moral beliefs on behavioural beliefs are somewhat contingent on the condition; that is the level of risk associated with treating cattle with antimicrobials, the level of risk of not doing so, and the effectiveness of the antimicrobial in situations such as acute illness or being at‐risk of illness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.