Gender differences in teachers’ perceptions of students’ temperament,educational competence,and teachability

Background. Student's temperament plays a significant role in teacher's perception of the student's learning style, educational competence (EC), and teachability. Hence, temperament contributes to student's academic achievement and teacher's subjective ratings of school grades. However, little is known about the effect of gender and teacher's age on this association. Aims. We examined the effect of teacher's and student's gender and teacher's age on teacher‐perceived temperament, EC, and teachability, and whether there is significant same gender or different gender association between teachers and students in this relationship. Sample. The participants were population‐based sample of 3,212 Finnish adolescents (M= 15.1 years) and 221 subject teachers. Methods. Temperament was assessed with Temperament Assessment Battery for Children – Revised and Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey batteries and EC with three subscales covering Cognitive ability, Motivation, and Maturity. Data were analyzed with multi‐level modelling. Results. Teachers perceived boys’ temperament and EC more negatively than girls’. However, the differences between boys and girls were not as large when perceived by male teachers, as they were when perceived by female teachers. Males perceived boys more positively and more capable in EC and teachability than females. They were also stricter regarding their perceptions of girls’ traits. With increasing age, males perceived boys’ inhibition as higher and mood lower. Generally, the older the teacher, the more mature he/she perceived the student. Conclusions. Teachers’ ratings varied systematically by their gender and age, and by students’ gender. This bias may have an effect on school grades and needs be taken into consideration in teacher education.     

REMEDIATION OF MUTUALLY AVERSIVE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN A PROBLEM STUDENT AND FOUR TEACHERS BY TRAINING THE STUDENT IN REINFORCEMENT TECHNIQUES

This study tested the effect of a social reinforcement training procedure for a problem student on the verbal and nonverbal approval and disapproval of four of the student's teachers. A design incorporating aspects of a multiple baseline within an extended reversal design (ABABA) was employed. Data were taken on the four teachers' approval and disapproval of a student regarded as a major discipline problem and the target student's approval and disapproval of the four teachers during baseline 1, experimental condition 1, baseline 2, experimental condition 2, and a postcheck or baseline 3 condition six weeks after experimental condition 2. Results showed that increased student approval and decreased disapproval were attributable to training procedures. The increased student approval increased three of the four teachers' approval and decreased the disapproval of all four teachers. Six weeks after experimental condition 2, both approval and disapproval by three of the four teachers and the student and disapproval by all four teachers and the student remained changed over baseline conditions. Student and teacher approval and disapproval were highly correlated at statistically significant levels.     

Situational and Individual Determinants of Teachers' Reported Use of Behavior Alteration Techniques

Tying together principles applicable to compliance-gaining from both interpersonal and instructional communication theory and research, this investigation focused on situational and individual difference determinants of teachers’ strategy selection in the classroom. Specifically, this study required teachers to focus on student misbehavior scenarios that reflected the situational determinants of misbehavior type (active/passive) and intensity (moderate/severe). Results indicated that teachers’ compliance-gaining message selection was influenced substantially by misbehavior type, and to a lesser extent, misbehavior intensity. Assessments of teachers’ and students’ gender confirmed stereotypic differences for male and female teachers’ reported technique use, but no student gender effect was obtained. These findings are compared with those obtained with prospective teachers (Plax, Kearney, & Tucker, 1986). Results are discussed in terms of cognitive scheme development for classroom management.     

Geographical Concomitants of Negro Criminal Intelligence

This study attempts to demonstrate the relationship between teachers’ personal early experiences of attachment with their parents and their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to a hypothetical student's request to speak with them, expressed in short or detailed form. A similar procedure has been used by Perrine and Steele King for students, and now has been used for teachers. For this purpose, self-report questionnaires were administered to a sample of 395 female teachers. The results showed a significant relationship between parental bonding experiences and behavioral and emotional, but not cognitive, reactions to an hypothetical student's request. The optimal parenting group reported more positive emotional and behavioral reactions, while the affectionate control group reported more negative emotional reactions to the hypothetical student's request than the other groups. These results offer useful implications to be utilized in teachers’ training programs.     

Les effets directs et indirects des stéréotypes sociaux sur une décision d'orientation scolaire

Middle-school teachers had to make decisions about the academic tracking of ninth-grade students whose social class (upper-middle vs. underprivileged) was experimentally induced. Stereotypical information about the student's family background was given either directly or indirectly. The results showed that a student from a well-off home was more often oriented towards a college-prep curriculum than a student from an underprivileged home, and symmetrically, an underprivileged student was more often oriented towards vocational school than a well-off student. However, these decisional differences were only observed when the stereotypical information about the student's social class was given indirectly, i.e. in such a way that the subject was unaware of its impact.     

Diagnostic models for procedural bugs in basic mathematical skills

A new diagnostic modeling system for automatically synthesizing a deep-structure model of a student's misconceptions or bugs in his basic mathematical skills provides a mechanism for explaining why a student is making a mistake as opposed to simply identifying the mistake. This report is divided into four sections: The first provides examples of the problems that must be handled by a diagnostic model. It then introduces procedural networks as a general framework for representing the knowledge underlying a skill. The challenge in designing this representation is to find one that facilitates the discovery of misconceptions or bugs existing in a particular student's encoding of this knowledge. The second section discusses some of the pedagogical issues that have emerged from the use of diagnostic models within an instructional system. This discussion is framed in the context of a computer-based tutoring/gaming system developed to teach students and student teachers how to diagnose bugs strategically as well as how to provide a better understanding of the underlying structure of arithmetic skills. The third section describes our uses of an executable network as a tool for automatically diagnosing student behavior, for automatically generating “diagnostic” tests, and for judging the diagnostic quality of a given exam. Included in this section is a discussion of the success of this system in diagnosing 1300 school students from a data base of 20.000 test items. The last section discusses future research directions.     

The effects of a videotape feedback system on classroom teacher behavior

Teachers in eight matched schools, four experimental and four control, were videotaped to examine the effects of a staff development program utilizing knowledge of objectives and immediate videotape feedback to modify the behavior of classroom teachers. Playback teachers improved cognitive behaviors but not affective behaviors more than controls. Concomitants of teacher success in the program were also investigated. Characteristics contributing to positive behavioral changes were dissatisfaction with perceived effectiveness, teaching experience, recency of latest degree, teacher attitude toward students, and student achievement.     

How homeroom teachers cope with high demands: Effect of prolonging working hours on emotional exhaustion

This study applied the job demands–resources (JD–R) model to examine antecedents and processes leading to emotional exhaustion in homeroom teachers. We hypothesized that the demands imposed by student misbehavior, conflicts with parents, and workload would relate positively with emotional exhaustion and that prolonging working hours as a coping behavior would mediate these effects. The cross-sectional study involved self-reported questionnaire-based data of 560 homeroom teachers in Switzerland. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that workload (β = 0.43), conflicts with parents (β = 0.25), and student misbehavior (β = 0.23) were positively related to emotional exhaustion and that prolonging working hours partially mediated the effect of workload on emotional exhaustion (β = 0.21). Conflicts with parents and student misbehavior only related to emotional exhaustion directly, and not indirectly. We discuss these findings in light of the JD–R model, teacher education, and teachers' health promotion.     

ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' BELIEFS ABOUT READING AND KNOWLEDGE OF READING CONTENT: RELATIONSHIPS TO DECISION ABOUT READING OUTCOMES

Relationships between elementary teachers' beliefs about reading, knowledge of basic reading content, and decisions about the importance of students' reading behavior in relation to grade level were examined. Significant correlation coefficients were found for (1) knowledge of reading and reading behavior outcomes focusing on discrimination of sounds represented by consonants and consonant clusters and (2) student‐centered reading beliefs and reading behavior outcomes associated with making conclusions and drawing inferences about stories read. Significant negative correlations were noted for (1) knowledge of reading and outcomes dealing with comprehension of explicitly stated meaning and details in reading passages and (2) student‐centered reading beliefs and all reading outcomes focusing on basic decoding skills and literal comprehension of story information. The best predictor of teachers' identification of important reading behavior outcomes was knowledge of reading content. Reading behavior outcomes differed significantly between primary and intermediate level teachers for recognition of sounds represented by vowels; intermediate teachers gave these higher rankings than did primary teachers. The results indicate that beliefs about reading influence elementary teachers' decisions about the importance of reading outcomes typically taught in the elementary grades. Teachers who hold student‐centered reading beliefs are not likely to value instruction that focuses on decoding.     

Working Alliance as a Moderator of the Impact of Mentoring Relationships Among Academically At‐Risk Students

This study examined the role of the working alliance between teacher mentors and student protégés on protégés' academic functioning. High‐risk students (n = 25) participated in an educational program involving a major mentoring component (experimental group) and were matched on academic records, gender, and study program with 25 students who did not participate (control group). Students in the experimental group who agreed with their mentors that their working alliance was productive (i.e., agreement on goals, positive bonding) were more likely than were other mentored students and students in the control group to improve their academic competence, participation in class, tendency to seek help from teachers, and academic perseverance. Results are discussed in line with relationship‐based processes operating in mentoring relationships.     

Non-communicated judgements of,versus feedback on,students’ essays: Is feedback inflation larger for students with a migration background?

When providing feedback, teachers are concerned not only with the simple transmission of information, but also with motivational and interpersonal dynamics. To mitigate these concerns, teachers may inflate feedback by reducing negative or increasing positive content. The resulting difference between initial judgments and feedback may be even more drastic for ethnic minority students: In non-communicated judgments, negative stereotypes may result in more negative judgments, whereas in feedback, concerns about being or appearing prejudiced may inflate feedback towards ethnic minority students. These hypotheses were tested in a sample of 132 German teacher students in a 2 (between subjects: feedback vs. non-communicated judgment)?×?2 (within subjects: target student's migration background: Turkish vs. none) design in which participants read supposed student essays and provided their written impressions to the research team or the supposed student. Findings revealed that teacher students’ feedback was more positive than their non-communicated judgments on a multitude of dimensions. Contrary to expectations, these effects were not stronger when the student had a Turkish migration background. Instead, teacher students rated the essay of the student with a Turkish migration background more favorably both in the judgment and feedback conditions. Our results suggest that teachers adapt their initial judgments when giving feedback to account for interpersonal or motivational dynamics. Moreover, ethnic minority students may be especially likely to receive overly positive feedback. While the motivational/interpersonal dynamics may warrant some inflation in feedback, negative consequences of overly positive feedback, for which ethnic minority students may be especially vulnerable, are discussed.

     

Fostering Creativity in the Classroom: Effects of Teachers' Epistemological Beliefs,Motivation, and Goal Orientation

The relationships of teachers' epistemological beliefs, motivation, and goal orientation to their instructional practices that foster student creativity were examined. Teachers' perceived instructional practices that facilitate the development of multiple perspectives in problem solving, transfer, task commitment, creative skill use, and collaboration were measured as indicators of their effort to foster creative thinking in students. Participants were 178 elementary‐school teachers of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐graders. Teachers' learning goal orientation was the most significant teacher attribute that demonstrated significant impacts on all five creativity‐fostering instructional practices. Teachers with sophisticated beliefs about knowledge and with high intrinsic motivation for creative work also reported supporting student creativity through some of their instructional practices. However, teachers' motivation for challenging work, beliefs about learning, or performance goals did not significantly predict most of the creativity‐fostering instructional practices. Educational implications of the current findings are offered.     

Les processus de coping et leur association avec l’auto-efficacité perçue chez des enseignants de suisse romande : résultats d’une étude préliminaire

Within the Swiss context of the present study, important on-going school reforms lead to new challenges and constraints for teachers. Thus, it is legitimate to question how teachers can deal with the difficulties inherent to their profession. The aim of the study was to explore the coping responses of 86 teachers (women = 70; men = 16; mean age = 38.9 ± 12.0), and to assess the possible relationships between those responses and teaching self-efficacy. Self-report questionnaires were administered between June 2016 and February 2017, with a return rate of 37.5%. Participants completed two questionnaires: the Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC) assessing five coping responses (solving problem, social support approbation, avoidance, positive reevaluation and self-blamed), and the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) measuring three dimensions of teachers’ self-efficacy (for classroom management, instructional strategies and student engagement). The most frequent coping responses were social support approbation and solving problem. Positive reevaluation seemed to be used as an intermediate coping response for both women and men. Women were more likely to seek social support than men in order to deal with difficulties, whereas men did not report the use of specific process. Participants reported high levels of teaching self-efficacy, without significant difference between women and men. Moreover, teachers with high level of self-efficacy for classroom management and instructional strategies were less likely to use self-blamed and avoidance coping responses. Teachers with high level of self-efficacy for student engagement were also less likely to use self-blamed coping responses. Partial correlations with sex, age and years of experience as control variables were performed, and no variation was found. The findings of the present study demonstrate that social support approbation and solving problem are coping responses commonly used in our sample of teachers. The high levels of teaching self-efficacy and the lack of significant correlation between this variable, social support approbation and solving problem coping responses question us about the protective role of self-efficacy. It could be considered as a coping response, helping to appropriately overcome the difficulties linked to the teaching profession. Due to the important school reforms in Switzerland, pre-service teachers need resources and tools to deal with these new challenges. Further studies are necessary in order to better understand relationships between coping responses and teaching self-efficacy, and their potential protective or damaging effects.     

Students' Perceptions of Class Management and Reports of Their Own Misbehavior

This study examines relationships between students' perceptions of class management and their self-reported misbehavior. Findings are based on a national representative sample of 3834 students from 227 classes in grades 6 and 9 who were attending Norwegian schools. Students' perceptions of class management accounted for significant amounts of variance in self-reported misbehavior. Perceived class management was more strongly associated with off-task orientation and opposition toward teachers than with bullying. Explained variance in misbehavior was markedly higher on the individual than on the class level. Student misbehavior seems only moderately related to general differences in the class management a class encounters. The relatively high variance in off-task orientation and opposition toward teachers accounted for by perceived class management at the individual student level might indicate that the extent of such misbehaviors is more closely linked to how teachers adapt management to particular students or to how students are favored by teachers. Perceived emotional support from teachers showed the strongest positive associations with desired student behavior.     

Current Trends in Education in Russia: Preliminary Outcomes Indicative of Students' Cognitive Development

Using a sample school population (N = 333) in Voronezh, Russia, this study investigated the comparative effect of two different types of Russian public schooling—traditional and innovative—on students' analytical, creative, and practical abilities. These abilities were assessed through (1) ratings by parents and teachers and (2) student performances on tests and other evaluative exercises, as well as student self-reports. The study found that innovative schools appear to do a better job of developing students' cognitive abilities (analytical, creative, and practical) than do more traditional institutions; in particular, the innovative schools significantly enhanced students' creative abilities. This study begins to illuminate the impact of massive societal change, and accompanying educational responses, on the cognitive development of Russian youth.