Synthesising affect and cognition in teaching and learning

Teachers often approach teaching with an energy and enthusiasm to inspire their students with their skills and knowledge. However, when faced with students who are not fully engaged in their learning, teachers sometimes find it difficult and frustrating to communicate the subject knowledge. This paper looks at the importance of teachers reflecting regularly on their teaching with thoughts not just about the communication of subject knowledge, but combining this with the emotions and affective experiences of themselves and their students. We interviewed 11 new secondary science teachers about their first 3 years of teaching and in particular, questions were directed at their relationships in school, communication with students, the ideal lesson and reflection. Our findings revealed that teachers who were most successful when faced with adversities in the classroom, were those who appreciated that, as well as communicating subject knowledge, there is also a need for affective communication with the student. Many of the teachers we spoke to emphasised the importance of establishing a rapport with their students, and especially when they were disengaged and disinterested in learning. The data highlight the importance of conceptualising teaching and learning as encompassing both affect and cognition in order to have a balanced and healthy view of teaching, learning, the student and the school.

There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul. Arnold Bennett (1867–1931)

Creativity and Cooperation in the Elementary Music Classroom*

The author examines attitudes towards, and the effects of focus on, creativity and cooperation in the elementary music classroom. First, elementary music teachers were interviewed regarding their values towards creativity and cooperation. Then, a curriculum was field tested that utilized cooperative learning and emphasized activities designed to encourage creative thinking and problem solving. A pretreatment-posttreatment study, with experimental and control group, was conducted to measure actual changes in student levels of creativity and attitudes towards cooperation. A follow-up of creativity measures was conducted four years later. Results indicate that elementary music teachers can adapt cooperative learning models to their teaching and can, short-term, influence students' levels of creativity and attitudes towards cooperation. Implications and opportunities for social-psychological creativity research and classroom educators are discussed. In 1983, Goodlad observed that, in general, there was a “gap between the rhetoric of individual flexibility, originality, and creativity … and the cultivation of these [things] in our schools” (p. 241) and that schools provided students with little opportunity to develop “satisfying relations with others based on respect, trust, cooperation, and caring” (p. 240). Goodlad encouraged teachers in the arts to provide opportunities for creative problem solving and to “boldly demonstrate the potentiality for doing through the arts what cannot be done readily through the other fields” (p. 238). His appeal to arts teachers is reminiscent of Maslow (1968):     

Group Creativity Training for Children: Lessons Learned from Two Award‐Winning Teams

The development of group creativity can be challenging for both young students and their teachers. This study examined the processes and learning outcomes of group creativity training from the perspectives of elementary school students and teachers while identifying critical factors that contributed to the success of the training. Data were collected from two Korean elementary school teams that won the gold (1st) and a special medal at the 2011 Destination Imagination global competition. Both individual and group interviews were carried out with 13 students and two teachers to investigate their perspectives of group creativity training. The analysis of the interview data revealed three major factors and subthemes: group dynamics (conflict and play), individual characteristics of the students (personality and motivation), and teachers’ roles (training strategies, training style, and commitment). In addition, a semi‐longitudinal survey conducted a year after the interviews examined nine skill or competency domains (self‐management, creativity, leadership, interpersonal relationship, patience, cooperation, information processing, communication, and presentation) to evaluate effects of the group creativity training on student learning. Synthesizing the analyses, we addressed the following three topics that arose from the discussions: the Safe Nest Effect, teachers’ training style, and multiple learning experiences derived from group creativity training.     

The Writing Process: Three First Grade Teachers and Their Students Reflect on What was Learned

The purpose of this study was to describe what three first grade teachers and their students in a Midwestern school learned when engaged in the writing process. The teachers and their students were observed for one year while engaged in the writing process via a workshop environment. Different data sources were collected over time, i.e., individual interviews (teacher and student), student writing samples and anecdotal observational notes. From an analysis of the data, three categories emerged that described what the teachers and students learned: (a) First grade children can and do want to write; (b) Learning is a messy process that takes time; and (c) Empowerment is important for all. This study supported what is known about the importance of professional development that allows for individual learning over time. The teachers had time to reflect on their learning in a collaborative teaching environment. Their successes greatly affected the students' interest and engagement in their writing programs.     

情感教学心理学研究

为纪念中国心理学会诞辰90周年,应中国心理学会教育心理学分会邀请,特撰文反映卢家楣及其团队在情感教学心理学方面的研究概况。内容分以情感教学应用为导向的基础性研究和以情感教学理念为导向的应用性研究两部分。前者包括教学中的情感现象、教学中的情感作用、教学中的情绪调控、教学中的学习苦乐属性、教学中的情知基本矛盾等方面的相应研究;后者包括情感教学理念、情感教学现状、情感教学原则、情感教学策略、情感教学模式、情感教学目标和评价以及为基础教育服务等方面的相应研究。     

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.     

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.     

Measurement of Creative Teaching in Mathematics Class

The current study serves two main purposes: (1) proposing a framework suggesting several conditions that mathematics teachers should establish to increase student creativity, and (2) developing and validating a scale based on the framework, aimed at measuring to what extent mathematics teachers establish a learning environment for their students to foster creativity. The analysis benefited from Sternberg’s Investment Theory of Creativity and Cropley’s framework in addition to other studies on creativity when developing the scale. The participants consisted of two groups of mathematics teachers. Data from the first group (n = 423) were used for exploratory factor analysis. The second group (n = 410) were used for confirmatory factor analysis. Based on results of the exploratory factor analysis, 5 items were removed from the scale. Results of confirmatory factor analysis supported the construct validity of the trimmed scale. Based on these results, there is evidence that the scale can be employed confidently to measure different dimensions of creativity-fostering behaviors of mathematics teachers.     

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.     

Reconstructing Christian Ethics: Exploring Constructivist Practices for Teaching Christian Ethics in the Masters of Divinity Curriculum

This article reflects on an effort to incorporate constructivist pedagogies (learner‐centered, inquiry‐guided, problem‐based models of teaching) into an introductory class on Christian Ethics in an M.Div. curriculum. Although some students preferred more traditional pedagogies, the majority found that constructivist pedagogies better accommodated different life experiences, diverse learning styles, and other features of the M.Div. curriculum. Further, a qualitative assessment of one student exercise indicates that constructivist pedagogies have benefits over traditional pedagogies. Specifically, students' work on a learning‐group research project displayed creativity, depth, and breadth not found in individual research papers. Nonetheless, lukewarm student feedback also demonstrated the need to consider wider factors when attempting such innovations.     

Declarative knowledge and professional vision in teacher education: Effect of courses in teaching and learning

Background. Teachers’ professional vision includes the ability to apply general pedagogical knowledge about components of effective teaching and learning to reason about significant features of classroom practice. It requires teachers to (a) describe, (b) explain, and (c) predict classroom situations. Although the acquisition of underling knowledge can be considered as a key element of university‐based teacher education programmes, to date, there has been little empirical research on teacher candidates’ development of professional vision. Aims. This study aims to improve understanding of how different university‐based courses in teaching and learning impact the development of professional vision. Sample. Participants were teacher candidates (N= 53) attending the same teacher education programme at a German university. They were enrolled in one of three different compulsory courses in teaching and learning, lasting one semester. Methods. In a pre‐test–post‐test design, participants’ declarative knowledge about teaching and learning was measured with a test, professional vision with the online tool Observer. Analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance were conducted. Results. Teacher candidates in all three courses showed significant gains both in declarative knowledge and professional vision. Patterns of results differed depending on the course attended. A video‐based course with a focus on effective teaching resulted in highest gains in prediction of the consequences of observed events for student learning processes, which is the highest level of knowledge transfer. Conclusion. The development of professional vision is a strongly knowledge‐guided process. In line with their content and aims, university‐based courses can enhance teaching‐relevant knowledge for teacher candidates.     

Creative Justice? The Relationship between Prospective Teachers' Prior Schooling Experiences and Perceived Importance of Promoting Student Creativity

Prospective teachers (N = 117) enrolled in an introductory educational psychology course completed questions measuring their perceptions of past schooling experiences, current views regarding the importance of promoting student creativity, and their perceived ability to promote creativity. Statistically significant differences were found between the low importance and high importance groups. Prospective teachers who viewed promoting creativity of students as highly important were significantly less likely to indicate that they enjoyed school. In addition, prospective teachers in the high importance group indicated significantly lower levels of experiencing belongingness (relatedness) and significantly lower self‐judgments of their past ability to be successful in school (competence). Judgments regarding the choices afforded in school (autonomy) were mixed, but favored prospective teachers who placed less importance on promoting student creativity. Finally, prospective teachers who viewed promoting student creativity as highly important were significantly more likely to indicate that they had the ability to promote student creativity. A creative‐justice hypothesis was derived from these results. This hypothesis posits that individuals committed to promoting creativity are driven by their own past experiences with creativity diminishing environments. These individuals then seek out opportunities to transform the experiences of new inhabitants in similar environments.     

高校多媒体教学环境下的教-学-学习绩效关系的建模与分析

本文是在先前建立的多媒体教学环境下教师授课、学生学习和学习绩效的3个因素结构模型基础上,采用路径建模技术,建立了多媒体教学环境下教一学一学习绩效关系模型。基于对该路径模型的分析,获得如下结论：（1）多媒体教学中影响因素的主导作用是沿着学习者认知加工过程中的信息流而展开的;（2）对于学生在课堂中的信息加工,影响最大的因素是教师授课时对学生的能力培养,影响为其次的因素是教师的授课技术;（3）课件的良好界面信息设计对学生的知识掌握起重要作用;（4）诸如授课速度过快、信息量过大等多媒体教学中的易现问题会增加学生的外在认知负荷而降低学习效果;（5）在多媒体教学中,教师与学生都要注意学生学习风格来更好地进行教学或学习。     

回合式教学法的有效学习：来自自闭症儿童职前教师的证据

使用异步培训技术自主学习循证教育干预方法,或可帮助自闭症儿童职前教师应对新时代自闭症儿童融合教育高质量发展带来的挑战。采用3个实验探究了自闭症儿童职前教师在3种学习材料呈现方式下对回合式教学法的自主学习效果。结果发现,学习材料呈现方式对自闭症儿童职前教师自主学习回合式教学法的效果有显著影响：“字幕+画面+声音解说”组成的视听双通道材料——真实教学视频下的学习效果最好,“文本+图像”组成的PPT材料比同属视觉单通道材料的Word文本更有优势。结果表明,无论是在知识层面的学习(实验1、2和3),还是在实操层面的忠诚度提升(实验3),学习内容以视听双通道方式呈现时,自闭症儿童职前教师的自主学习效果最好。     

Beyond Empirical Adequacy: Learning Progressions as Models and Their Value for Teachers

As scientific models of student thinking, learning progressions (LPs) have been evaluated in terms of one important, but limited, criterion: fit to empirical data. We argue that LPs are not empirically adequate, largely because they rely on problematic assumptions of theory-like coherence in students’ thinking. Through an empirical investigation of physics teachers’ interactions with an LP-based score report, we investigate 2 other criteria of good models: utility and generativity. When interacting with LP-based materials, teachers often adopted finer-grained perspectives (in contrast to the levels-based perspective of the LP itself) and used these finer-grained perspectives to formulate more specific, actionable instructional ideas than when they reasoned in terms of LP levels. However, although teachers did not use the LP-based materials in ways envisioned by LP researchers, the teachers’ interactions with the score reports embodied how philosophers envision the fruitful use of good models of dynamic, complex systems. In particular, teachers took a skeptical, inquiring stance toward the LP, using it as an oversimplified starting place for generating and testing hypotheses about student thinking and using concepts from the model in ways that moved beyond the knowledge available in the LP. Thus, despite—and perhaps even because of—their empirical inadequacy, LPs have the potential to serve teachers as productive models in ways not envisioned by LP researchers: as tools for knowledge generation.     

关于小学教师对学生课堂参与的内隐观的研究

本研究通过课堂观察和结构化访谈,从三个侧面,即：教师判断学生参与的标准、对学生参与特点的描述、对参与功能的界定,考察了49名小学教师对学生课堂参与的内隐认识。研究表明,教师：1)重视师生交往中学生的参与,忽视学生与同学间的交往和学生独立活动时的表现;2)最关注学生在行动上的参与,其次是学生思维的投入,对学生情绪的投入是比较忽视的;3)特别注重参与促进学生认知能力发展的功能。     

How Much Does Creative Teaching Enhance Elementary School Students' Achievement?

This study examined the relationship between creative teaching and elementary students' achievement gains. Forty‐eight upper elementary school teachers' classroom instruction was observed and evaluated over the course of 8 different lessons throughout the year. For each teacher, during each lesson, both a creative teaching frequency score and a quality score were derived. These scores were then used as predictor variables in a structural equation model to determine the magnitude of the relationship between creative teaching and classroom achievement gains in reading, language, and mathematics. Our results demonstrated that (a) the majority of teachers do not implement any teaching strategies that foster student creativity; (b) teachers who elicit student creativity turn out students that make substantial achievement gains; and (c) classrooms with high proportions of minority and low‐performing students receive significantly less creative teaching.     

Creative Self-Efficacy: Correlates in Middle and Secondary Students

ABSTRACT: This study examined correlates of creative self-efficacy (i.e., self-judgments of creative ability) in middle and secondary students (N = 1,322). Results indicate that students' mastery- and performance-approach beliefs and teacher feedback on creative ability were positively related to students' creative self-efficacy. Creative self-efficacy was also linked to student reports of their teachers not listening to them and sometimes feeling that their teachers had given up on them. Students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to hold more positive beliefs about their academic abilities in all subject areas and were significantly more likely to indicate that they planned to attend college than students with lower levels of creative self-efficacy. Finally, students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to report higher levels of participation in after-school academics and after- school group activities. Implications for creativity research and practice are discussed.