Reading Intervention in Middle and High Schools: Implementation Fidelity,Teacher Efficacy,and Student Achievement

This study investigated teachers’ efficacy and implementation in the context of a supplemental intervention for struggling adolescent readers. It examined teachers’ efficacy at the start of their intervention training and investigated relationships among teachers’ efficacy, implementation, and students’ reading progress. The efficacy and implementation of 9 sixth-grade teachers and 11 ninth-grade teachers were compared, and student achievement gains were explored. Sixth-grade teachers had higher levels of efficacy, while ninth-grade teachers had higher levels of implementation. Findings indicated teacher efficacy was positively related to students’ reading comprehension and overall reading achievement. Implementation was positively related to students’ growth in vocabulary.     

The Instructional Challenges of Student Plagiarism

The focus of this article is university teachers’ and students’ views of plagiarism, plagiarism detection, and the use of plagiarism detection software as learning support. The data were collected from teachers and students who participated in a pilot project to test plagiarism detection software at a major university in Finland. The data were analysed through factor analysis, T-tests and inductive content analysis. Three distinct reasons for plagiarism were identified: intentional, unintentional and contextual. The teachers did not utilise plagiarism detection to support student learning to any great extent. We discuss the pedagogical implications and suggest that the contextual reasons for plagiarism require focus primarily on study strategies, whereas the intentional reasons require profound discussion about attitudes and conceptions of good learning and university-level study habits.     

Teacher efficacy and pupil behaviour: The structure of teachers’ individual and collective beliefs and their relationship with numbers of pupils excluded from school

Background. Previous work has yielded knowledge of teachers’ attributions for children's behaviour. Other studies have helped to develop understanding of teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Little work has been undertaken to examine teachers’ efficacy beliefs with regard to classroom behaviour. Aims. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between teachers’ individual and collective beliefs about their efficacy with children's behaviour and whether these beliefs were associated with the use of exclusion as a sanction. Sample. A total of 197 teachers from 31 primary and nursery schools in the North East of England participated. Methods. Participants responded to questionnaires to assess their individual and collective efficacy beliefs. Demographic and school level data were also collected. Results. Factor analysis indicated that teachers’ individual efficacy beliefs were best represented by three factors: ‘Classroom Management’, ‘Children's Engagement’, ‘Instructional Strategies’ that corresponded well to previous findings. Analysis of collective efficacy beliefs showed a similar structure that differed from previous findings. Individual efficacy was not associated with numbers of children excluded. One factor ‘Addressing External Influences’ in the collective beliefs was negatively correlated with numbers of children excluded and appeared to mitigate the deleterious effects associated with socio-economic deprivation. Conclusions. This study adds weight to the importance of understanding and supporting teachers’ beliefs in their collective efficacy. In particular, this study underlines the need for strategies that will endorse and develop teachers’ beliefs in their ability to manage children's behaviour successfully.     

Student to Student Support Teams for Special Services Delivery

Student to student support teams can be used to provide special services in schools. These teams, which have potential as a viable intervention approach for the 1990s, provide unique but beneficial challen~es for special services practitioners and administrators. In this aitde, issues pertinent to implementation of student to student support teams are discussed.     

Does nationality matter? The impact of stereotypical expectations on student teachers’ judgments

In Germany, Turkish students are overrepresented on lowest school tracks. Research has provided evidence that stereotypical expectations can color judgments. We experimentally investigated whether student information that strongly confirmed or disconfirmed Turkish stereotypical expectations led to student teachers’ judgments that were biased against nationality. Furthermore, we explored whether judging an expectation-confirming or expectation-disconfirming Turkish student resulted in changes in stereotypical beliefs. Results showed that student teachers’ judgments were biased against nationality when it came to an expectation-confirming student and that the expectation-disconfirming student could change stereotypical beliefs into slightly more positive ones. Results are discussed with regard to their theoretical relevance as well as to their importance for teacher education.     

Teacher beliefs,teacher characteristics,and school contextual factors: What are the relationships?

Background. There is a plethora of research around student beliefs and their contribution to student outcomes. However, there is less research in relation to teacher beliefs. Teacher factors are important to consider since beliefs mould thoughts and resultant instructional behaviours that, in turn, can contribute to student outcomes. Aims. The purpose of this research was to explore relationships between the teacher characteristics of gender and teaching experience, school contextual variables (socio‐economic level of school and class level), and three teacher socio‐psychological variables: class level teacher expectations, teacher efficacy, and teacher goal orientation. Sample. The participants were 68 male and female teachers with varying experience, from schools in a variety of socio‐economic areas and from rural and urban locations within New Zealand. Method. Teachers completed a questionnaire containing items related to teacher efficacy and goal orientation in reading. They also completed a teacher expectation survey. Reading achievement data were collected on students. Interrelationships were explored between teacher socio‐psychological beliefs and the teacher and school factors included in the study. Results. Mastery‐oriented beliefs predicted teacher efficacy for student engagement and classroom management. The socio‐economic level of the school and teacher gender predicted teacher efficacy for engagement, classroom management, instructional strategies, and a mastery goal orientation. Being male predicted a performance goal orientation. Conclusions. Teacher beliefs, teacher characteristics, and school contextual variables can result in differences in teacher instructional practices and differing classroom climates. Further investigation of these variables is important since differences in teachers contribute to differences in student outcomes.     

The Indirect Effect of Teachers’ Creative Mindsets on Teaching Creativity

Understanding how teachers’ implicit beliefs promote and inhibit students’ creativity has important implications for fostering creativity in the classroom. This study investigated whether the effect of teachers’ fixed creative mindset on their self‐efficacy for teaching creativity was mediated by their perceptions of students’ potential and the degree to which this indirect effect varied by level of growth creative mindset. A sample of educators (N = 119) completed an online survey containing questions regarding creative mindsets, perceptions of students’ potential, self‐efficacy for teaching creativity, and a set of relevant covariates. A moderated mediation analysis indicated that the more teachers believed creativity to be innate, the less teachers tended to perceive every student to possess creative potential. Consequently, teachers’ confidence in their ability to teach for creativity was diminished. Results from the corresponding tests of simple indirect effects indicated that this negative indirect effect of a fixed creative mindset was lessened by teachers’ growth creative mindset. Taken together, the findings suggest the likely significant role of teachers’ fixed and growth creative mindsets for fostering creativity in classroom.     

Teacher Efficacy In the Context of Teaching Low Achieving Students

This paper focused on the efficacy of Singapore teachers who teach low achieving adolescent students. Three dimensions of self-reported teacher efficacy—instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement—were examined in relation to teacher attributes and the teacher–student relationship. Data were obtained from the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (Teaching and Teacher Education 17:783–805, 2001) and the Teacher–Student Relationship Scale Ang (The Journal of Experimental Education 74:55–73, 2005). Significant differences between novice teachers and experienced teachers emerged in teacher efficacy beliefs in relation to instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement. Conflict in teacher–student relationship was found to predict teacher efficacy for teachers of low achieving students. Implications for teachers’ professional development were discussed.     

What teacher factors influence their attributions for children's difficulties in learning?

Background Identifying the factors that influence teacher beliefs about teaching children with learning difficulties is important for the success of inclusive education. This study explores the relationship between teachers' role, self‐efficacy, attitudes towards disabled people, teaching experience and training, on teachers' attributions for children's difficulties in learning. Method One hundred and eighteen primary school teachers (44 general mainstream, 33 mainstream learning support, and 41 special education teachers) completed the short form of the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale, the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP), and a revised version of the Teacher Attribution Scale. Results Regression analysis found that teachers' role influenced stability and controllability attributions. However, for stability attributions the effect was not sustained when examined in the context of the other factors of teaching efficacy, experience, training, and attitudes towards disability. What emerged as important instead was strong feelings of sympathy towards disabled people which predicted stable attributions about learning difficulties. Experience of teaching children with additional support needs and teaching efficacy positively predicted external locus of causality attributions. Surprisingly, training was not found to have an impact on attributions. A mixed MANOVA found that mainstream teachers' controllability attributions were influenced by whether or not the child had identified learning support needs. Conclusions Teacher efficacy, experience of teaching students with support needs, attitudes towards disabled people, and teachers' role all impact on teacher attributions, but no relationship with training was found. Implications for teacher training and development, and for student achievement and student self‐perception are discussed.     

Investigating Links from Teacher Knowledge,to Classroom Practice,to Student Learning in the Instructional System of the Middle-School Mathematics Classroom

Using data collected in 125 seventh-grade and 56 eighth-grade Texas classrooms in the context of the “Scaling Up SimCalc” research project in 2005–07, we examined relationships between teachers’ mathematics knowledge, teachers’ classroom decision making, and student achievement outcomes on topics of rate, proportionality, and linear function—three important and cognitively demanding prealgebra topics. We found that teachers’ mathematical knowledge was correlated with student achievement in only one study out of three. We also found a lack of correlations between teachers’ mathematical knowledge and critical aspects of instructional decision making. Curriculum and other learning resources (e.g., technology, student–student interactions) are clearly important factors for student learning in addition to, and in interaction with, teachers’ mathematical knowledge. Our results suggest that mathematics knowledge for teaching may have a nonlinear relationship with student learning, that those effects may be heavily mediated by other instructional factors, and that short-term content knowledge gains in teacher workshops may not persist in classroom instruction. We discuss a need in the field for richer models of how “mathematical knowledge for teaching” works in the context of complete instructional systems.     

Teacher Beliefs and Responses Toward Student Misbehavior: Influence of Cognitive Skill Deficits

This study aimed to examine whether having knowledge of student cognitive skill deficits changes teacher beliefs and responses in regard to classroom misbehavior. Teachers (N = 272) were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition. Although teachers in both conditions read the same vignette describing a student's misbehavior, the experimental group also reviewed information about the student's cognitive skill deficits. Teachers provided with cognitive skill deficit information were, on average, less likely to believe the student had control over the misbehavior, suggesting perceptions of unintentionality. Furthermore, they were significantly more likely to indicate positive emotional responses. Results suggest that school psychologists may consider sharing cognitive skill deficits information with teachers who are working with students displaying challenging behavior.     

Student responses to a reflexive course evaluation

Simple surveys are the predominant tool for course evaluations in most universities, but their validity has been questioned. They have been criticized for being a ritual way of complying with administrative regulations rather than a way of improving educational quality. Moreover, there is often a focus on student satisfaction, where the complexity of learning processes and the development of learner identities are lost. As an alternative approach, a qualitative course evaluation was tested that consisted of a single question: What could have been done in this course in order to better support your learning? Twenty-one second-year psychology students completed the evaluation at the end of a course. They provided rich answers describing learning activities and communication, and they described both teachers and students as agents. Going beyond merely reporting possible improvements, the students saw their learning processes in a context of academic demands and social mechanisms. It is argued that qualitative course evaluations can provide information about students’ understanding of their own learning that is difficult to uncover in a traditional survey. It is concluded that qualitative course evaluations would support the development of a student learner identity and help create a role for students as co-producers of knowledge.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Teacher Efficacy Scale for prospective teachers

Background. Research on teacher self‐efficacy has revealed substantive problems concerning the validity of instruments used to measure teacher self‐efficacy beliefs. Although claims about the influence of teachers' self‐efficacy beliefs on student achievement, success with curriculum innovation, and so on, may be true statements, one cannot make those claims on the basis of that body of evidence if the instruments are not valid measures of teachers' self‐efficacy beliefs. Aims. The purpose of this investigation is to employ the use of modern confirmatory factor‐analytic techniques to investigate the validity of the hypothesized dimensions of the Teacher Efficacy Scale ( Gibson & Dembo, 1984 ; Woolfolk & Hoy, 1990 ). Sample. Participants for this investigation were 387 prospective teachers recruited from a university located in the south‐western region of the UA. Participants for Study 2 were 131 prospective elementary teachers recruited from the same university as in Study 1. Results. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedure was used to evaluate the goodness‐of‐fit for two theoretical models of the TES items. The proposed two‐ and three‐factor models of teacher self‐efficacy for prospective teachers were rejected. A re‐specified three‐factor model of the TES was then derived from theoretical and empirical considerations. The re‐specified model hypothesized three dimensions: self‐efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and external locus‐of‐causality. In Study 2, the re‐specified three‐factor measurement model was evaluated in a new sample. Results of the CFA procedure indicated satisfactory fit of the re‐specified model to the data; however, the results were not consistent with predictions derived from social learning theory. Conclusions. The results of this study call into question the use of the TES and the interpretation of a large body of literature purporting to study the relationship of teachers' self‐efficacy beliefs to important educational outcomes.     

The Evaluation of Student Counselling: A Review of the Literature 1962-86

A critical review of studies examining the efficacy of student counselling is presented, together with suggestions for how the design of such research might be improved. Complementary investigations of client and employer attitudes towards and expectations of student counselling services are also described. The need to evaluate student counselling in the face of economic cutbacks is discussed.     

Differences in Beliefs About Psychological Services in the Relationship Between Sociorace and One's Social Network

The roles of previous psychological service use and social network variables in beliefs about psychological services were examined with 184 college students. Having friends and family members who used psychological services, being female, and having used psychological services positively related with beliefs about psychological services. Socioracial differences in the effects of previous use of psychological services and social network variables on students’ beliefs about psychological services were found. Suggestions for ways counselors can provide support to students are discussed.     

Latino parents’ science beliefs and support of high school students’ motivational beliefs: Do the relations vary across gender and familism values?

Based on the Eccles’ expectancy-value theory, the objectives of this study were (1) to examine the longitudinal relations between Latino parents’ science beliefs, parents’ science support, and high school students’ science motivational beliefs, and (2) to test whether these relations varied by familism values and adolescent gender. Multi-informant longitudinal survey data were collected from 104 Latino parents and adolescents during 9th and 10th grade. Parents’ perceptions of their adolescents’ science ability and value of science in 9th grade predicted higher parent science support at home in 10th grade if they were parents of boys. In contrast, these relations were not statistically significant for parents of daughters. Parent support in 9th grade predicted higher adolescent motivational beliefs one year later. This work provides evidence that parent support is important for high school student success in this understudied population.     

An Analysis of Student Privacy Rights in the Use of Plagiarism Detection Systems

Plagiarism detection services are a powerful tool to help encourage academic integrity. Adoption of these services has proven to be controversial due to ethical concerns about students’ rights. Central to these concerns is the fact that most such systems make permanent archives of student work to be re-used in plagiarism detection. This computerization and automation of plagiarism detection is changing the relationships of trust and responsibility between students, educators, educational institutions, and private corporations. Educators must respect student privacy rights when implementing such systems. Student work is personal information, not the property of the educator or institution. The student has the right to be fully informed about how plagiarism detection works, and the fact that their work will be permanently archived as a result. Furthermore, plagiarism detection should not be used if the permanent archiving of a student’s work may expose him or her to future harm.     

教师集体效能理论及其应用

教师集体效能是教师效能在集体水平上的扩展,是教师对其作为一个整体的、能够组织和实施影响学生行为过程的能力知觉和信念,它以知觉到的平均数作为其集体效能测量的整合分数。教师集体效能在学生的学业成就、有效学校的特性以及教师的心理与行为的改变中有着重要的应用。但与教师个体效能相比,教师集体效能的研究在整体上还存在着明显的不足     

Changes in student teachers' agency beliefs during a teacher education year,and relationships with observed classroom quality,and day‐to‐day experiences

Background Conceptualizations of teachers' agency beliefs converge around domains of support and instruction. Aim We investigated changes in student teachers' agency beliefs during a 1 year teacher education course, and related these to observed classroom quality and day‐to‐day experiences in partnership schools during the practicum. Samples Out of a sample of 66 student teachers who had responded to at least two out of four times to a questionnaire (18 men 48 women; mean age 26.4 years), 30 were observed during teaching, and 20 completed a 4‐day short form diary. Methods Confirmatory factor analysis validated two agency belief constructs. Multi‐level models for change investigated individual differences in change over time. Multi‐level path models related observation and diary responses to agency beliefs. Results Supportive agency belief was high and stable across time. Instructional agency belief increased over time, suggesting a beneficial effect of teacher education. This increase was predicted by observed classroom quality (emotional support and student engagement) and daily positive affect and agency beliefs. Conclusions Teacher education is successful in creating a context in which student teachers' supportive agency beliefs can be maintained and instructional agency beliefs can increase during the course.