Teachers' task demands,students' test expectations,and actual test content

Background: Previous studies on instructional importance show that individual students and their teachers differ in the topics that they consider important in the context of an upcoming teacher‐made test. Aims: This study aimed to examine whether such differences between students' test expectations and teachers' intended task demands can be explained by the actual test content. Samples: Participants were history teachers (N=19) and their 11th‐grade students (N=388). Method: Teachers and students rated the importance of text sections that would be tested in the near future. By means of multilevel analysis, ratings were compared with the occurrence of sections in the tests. Results: Although teachers considered a majority of sections as important and tested only a minority of the sections, their tests still included sections rated as unimportant. The number of such discrepancies, however, was relatively small. Sections the teachers rated important had a much higher probability of being included in the test than sections rated unimportant. For students, a similar but lower degree of correspondence between ratings and test content was found. Interestingly, for sections that teachers considered important, students more often gave a higher rating when these sections appeared in the test than when they did not. The same holds for sections that teachers considered unimportant. Conclusions: For both teachers and students there is a limited correspondence between perceived task demands and test content. Furthermore, students' perceptions of task demands show a compensation for some of the differences between their teachers' intended task demands and the test demands.     

教师集体效能和自我效能对工作压力影响作用的调节--多水平分析研究

通过对28所小学1299名教师的调查结果,作者主要对教师集体效能和自我效能对工作压力与教师工作满意度、内在动机及离职倾向之间关系的调节作用进行了分析。多层分析结果表明：(1)教师工作压力与教师工作满意度和内在动机的关系受教师自我效能高低的调节,教师自我效能高的教师．工作压力所带来的负面影响较小;在考虑了教师自我效能的调节作用后,教师工作压力对教师工作满意度、内在动机和离职倾向的影响存在显著的学校水平的差异。(2)学校水平背景特征一教师集体效能对教师工作压力与内在工作动机和离职倾向之间的关系有显著的调节作用,在集体效能高的学校中的教师,工作压力的负面影响较弱。     

Effects of group membership and identification on categorization and subtyping in memory

A meta-analysis (N=229) was performed to test effects of group membership and identification on the use of (sub)categories across five of our own experiments. In each experiment a name matching paradigm was used to investigate the extent to which (sub)categories were used to organize social information in memory. Four subcategories (male students, female students, male teachers, female teachers) were available to categorize the stimulus persons, as a result of crossing sex and academic status. Comparing findings over studies yielded (a) a strong tendency to use subtypes to organize social information in memory; (b) no support for the prediction of stronger subtyping of ingroup members than of outgroup members; (c) support for the prediction that subjects high on identification with own-sex group would use subtypes within gender categories to a lesser extent than subjects low on identification with own-sex. (d) In addition, it appeared that sex and academic status were used as independent overall categorizations as well, although superordinate categorization effects were caused for a large part (75–87 per cent) by name-confusions within subcategories, which suggests a preference for the use of subtypes over superordinate categories. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Non-Indian Therapist Working with American Indian Clients

Abstract

The lack of success non-Indian therapists have had in working with American Indian clients has perpetuated a repetitive cycle of poor mental health services with this population. Although we cannot change the historic distrust that exists, we can begin to understand cultural differences and how they can impact treatment to obtain positive results. Acknowledgment of these differences can promote trust, a core ingredient that must be established between the client and therapist. This paper offers guidelines to assist the non-Indian therapist in working with the American Indian client.     

Social decision making mediates the association between anger and externalising problems in Chinese adolescents

The goal of this study was to test the mediating effect of social decision making in the relations of anger and anger control to externalising and internalising problems. A sample of 174 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 15.36 years) completed self‐reports of trait anger, anger control, externalising problems, internalising problems and social decision making, which was operationalized as situational judgement reflecting an individual's ability to interact effectively with parents, teachers and peers. Findings indicated that adolescents' trait anger and anger control were positively related to both externalising and internalising problems. In addition, path analysis revealed that social decision making mediated the relationship between trait anger, anger control and externalising problems. Findings on the mediating effect will be discussed by referencing appraisal tendency theory and response evaluation and decision.     

Deviance and a generalized disposition toward internality: An attributional approach

Two studies were carried out to test the hypothesis, derived from attribution theory, that adolescents might acquire an identity and mediating beliefs about reality (internal locus of control) by deviating from norms when they perceived adults to be powerful. In line with this expectation, the major study found that students rated by teachers as "deviant," but not those rated as "conformant," showed greater internality in beliefs about man (control ideology), p = .024, under conditions of high power. Despite the following limitations or exceptions, attribution theory seemed to best explain the predicted effect: (1) the effect for beliefs about control was nonsignificantly weaker for females then males, perhaps because of different meanings of deviance for males and females and female socialization for conformity rather than independence; (2) in the major study the effect was absent for questions dealing with respondents' personal feelings of control ("self-attributions"); and (3) in both studies there was a tendency for deviant females to show more personal externality (relative to conformers) when perceived power was high.     

Remembering more nouns than verbs in lists of foreign-language words as an indicator of syntactic phonetic symbolism.

In lists with words from languages not known to the subjects (students of the University of Essen, Germany, and in one experiment Polish teachers in North Poland), nouns were remembered more often than verbs, and the effect was not dependent on the length of the words. The effect was clearer with languages with a strong (Swahili) or medium (Hungarian, Turkish) tendency to marcation and less with languages with a tendency for weak marcation (Japanese). We interpreted this effect as influenced by syntactic phonetic symbolism, assuming there is a phonologic and prosodic difference between nouns and verbs.     

New measure o f perceived motorcompetence for children ages 4 to 6 years

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a test for the assessment of perceived motor competence in young children ages 4 to 6 years old. The structure of the Children's Perception of Motor Competence Scale was analyzed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with 495 children between 4 and 6 years of age. A second-order model was selected and consisted of one scale of Perceived General Motor Competence and two subscales, Perceived Gross Motor Competence and Perceived Fine Motor Competence. The number of items was 22. This test showed acceptable internal reliability: global scale (alpha = .81), Perceived Gross Motor Competence (alpha = .80), and Perceived Fine Motor Competence (alpha = .65). Children manifested accuracy in the assessment of the competence. Perceived motor competence was related to actual motor competence as measured by the Movement ABC Test and by an observational scale used by Physical Education teachers. There were no sex differences. The Children's Perception of Motor Competence Scale could be considered an interesting assessment test for identifying current self-perceptions of motor competence in young children.     

Assessing the Connection between Students’ Justice Experience and Attitudes Toward Academic Cheating in Higher Education New Learning Environments

The present study is aimed at comprehensively assess tendency to neutralize (justify) academic cheating as a function of individual experience of teachers’ just behavior and new learning environments (NLE), while considering the Belief in a Just World (BJW) as a personal resource that has the potential to enhance those experiences. Data were collected from a sample of 193 second-year undergraduate college students. Path analysis main results showed that students who evaluated their teachers’ behavior toward them personally as just, held more positive evaluation of the learning environment, and were less inclined toward academic cheating neutralization. Personal BJW was partly associated with the perceived NLE, this connection was primarily mediated by the experience of teacher justice. Moreover, students’ evaluation of their teachers’ just behavior was a stronger negative predictor of academic cheating neutralization than perceived forms of NLE. Interpretation of these results, applications and implications for future research are discussed.     

The Tyranny of Numbers: Does Group Size Affect Petition Signing?

Conformity research proposes that an individual's tendency to conform increases linearly as a function of group size, reaches an early plateau, and remains stable thereafter, An experiment was performed to test the generality of this notion to a common group pressure situation: petition-signing. Results revealed no meaningful relationships whatever between the percent of subjects who signed and the number of previous signatures (0 through 8), the forcefulness of the solicitor's approach, and subject's sex. A female petitioner did receive more signatures than a male, however. Results were interpreted as supporting the validity of petitions as indicators of public sentiment.     

Responses of boys and girls to a behaviorally focused school attitude questionnaire

In response to the Teacher Approval-Disapproval Scale (TADS), elementary school boys report receiving more personal disapproval and less personal approval from their teachers than do elementary school girls, but boys and girls do not differ in reporting how frequently their teachers distribute approvals and disapprovals to the whole class. Boys' attitudes toward being in the classroom are more negative than girls', but there is also a tendency for boys to perceive the whole class's attitude as being more negative than do girls. These results suggest that sex differences in school attitude are at least partially determined by differential teacher behavior toward boys and girls.     

Job strain and rumination about work issues during leisure time: A diary study

Previous research has suggested that high job strain (high demand, low control at work) is associated with an inability to “unwind” physiologically after work. It was speculated that one mechanism related to the “unwinding process” is an individual's ability to “cognitively switch-off” about work related issues after work. This hypothesis was tested in a diary study of primary and secondary school teachers who were asked to keep an hourly record of their work-related thoughts over a workday evening between 17.00 hrs and 21.00 hrs. As expected both groups demonstrated a degree of unwinding and disengagement from work issues over the evening. High strain (n = 34) teachers however took longer to unwind and ruminated more about work-related issues, relative to low job strain (n = 35) teachers. High job strain teachers also reported they had less personal control over what they were doing in the evening. Across the evening all individuals reported higher ruminative thoughts about work issues when alone than when with family and friends, but high strain teachers reported more ruminative cognitions when watching television and with family and friends than low strain teachers. The results could not be explained by work patterns as there was no difference in the number of hours worked in the evening between the two groups. It is argued that one reason why high job strain teachers failed to successfully unwind after work is that they ruminated more about work issues, than did low job strain teachers.     

小学教师集体效能及其对自我效能功能的调节

通过对28所小学1299名教师的问卷调查,作者主要探讨了教师集体效能在解释学校间教师心理特征各方面差异时的重要性,及其对自我效能预测功能的调节作用。多层分析结果表明,（1）教师自我效能对教师心理特征各方面的表现有显著的预测作用,这一预测作用存在学校间的差异;（2）教师集体效能高的学校,教师的工作满意度、内在动机、工作投入、同事关系满意度平均较高,离职倾向较低;（3）教师集体效能对自我效能与工作满意度等心理特征各方面的关系有显著调节作用,集体效能高的学校,自我效能对教师心理特征诸方面表现的预测力较强     

Strategy use in question-answering: Memory strength and task constraints on fan effects

The time taken to recognize a studied fact increases as a function of the number of other previously studied facts sharing concepts with the test fact. The phenomenon, known as the “fan effect,” has been shown to disappear and sometimes even reverse itself when the set of facts are thematically related. The shift from interference toward facilitation occurs only when subjects can use a plausibility-like strategy. In this experiment, subjects learned variously sized sets of rehted facts about fictitious people. Subjects were asked to make either recognition judgments (“Did you study this fact?”) or consistency judgments (“Is this fact consistent with what you studied7”). Subjects made these judgments both the day the material was acquired and 2 days later. The research reported here supports the hypothesis that, with delay, there is a shift in tendency toward more use of the plausibility strategy, away from the careful strategy of searching for an exact match that produces the fan effect. The plausibility strategy produced either a speedup with greater fan or an increase in error rates when the strategy was inappropriate. Plausibility effects were larger at a delay, in both reaction time and error patterns, regardless of whether subjects were asked to make consistency judgments or recognition judgments. Also as predicted, response times became faster as the tendency to adopt the plausibility strategy without first trying direct retrieval increased.     

大学生社会支持对乐观倾向的影响:心理弹性与心理一致感的中介作用

研究旨在了解大学生社会支持、乐观倾向、心理弹性和心理一致感的基本情况及其相互关系,探讨心理弹性和心理一致感在社会支持与乐观倾向之间的中介作用,并对大学生乐观倾向的影响机制进行深入分析。研究使用大学生社会支持量表、心理一致感量表、心理弹性量表和乐观倾向量表对上海市某高校2979名大学生进行调查。研究结果表明:(1)大学生社会支持、心理弹性与心理一致感和乐观倾向的总体状况良好,处于正向积极水平。社会支持、心理弹性与心理一致感和乐观倾向均存在显著的性别差异,女生情况好于男生。(2)大学生乐观倾向与社会支持、心理弹性、心理一致感之间均存在显著正相关(r=.31-.50)。(3)社会支持对乐观倾向有直接预测作用,心理弹性和心理一致感的中介效应显著,模型拟合程度良好(χ2/df=36.80,p.001,NFI=.98,CFI=.98,IFI=.98)。研究为揭示社会支持与乐观倾向背后可能的原因与作用机制提供了理论支持。     

Assessing occupational stress, strain, and coping for North American teachers in Kuwait

In this study, differences in levels of occupational stress and strain experienced by North American local (n=24) and expatriate (n=43) teachers working in Kuwait were investigated by married (n=34) and single status (n=31) and by male (n=30) and female (n=47) sex. All teachers self-administered the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised. No differences appeared among measures of stress or strain between male and female teachers or between married and single teachers. However, locally hired teachers reported higher role insufficiency and interpersonal strain than expatriate teachers. Some significant differences in coping styles also appeared between these groups. None of the measures used revealed any significant correlations between age and years of service.     

Separation-individuation in late adolescence: an investigation of gender and ethnic differences

Gender and ethnic differences in separation-individuation were assessed in a sample of 125 male and 175 female undergraduates (M age = 19.56, SD = 1.29) self-identified as White, African American, Hispanic, or Asian. Measures used included a demographic questionnaire and the Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence (SITA; J. B. Levine, C. J. Green, & T. Millon, 1986; J. B. Levine & S. Saintogne, 1993). Except for results showing a greater tendency among the men to shun dependent ties and a superior capacity for forming close peer attachments among the women, separation-individuation development tended to be indistinguishable between the genders. Additional findings suggest that (a) Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans are more concerned with engulfment fears and needs for nurturance than Whites are; (b) Asians are more apt to shun dependent ties than Whites are; and (c) compared with Whites, African Americans anticipate rejection more and are less adept at forming close attachments with teachers.     

The paradox of promoting creativity in the Asian classroom: an empirical investigation

To shed light on the paradox of promoting creativity in the Asian classroom, the authors conducted 3 studies. The 1st study found that novice teachers classified student behaviors as desirable but uncreative (DBU) versus creative but undesirable (CBU). The 2nd study found that conservative-autocratic teachers were more likely to encourage DBU behaviors in class, whereas liberal-democratic teachers were more likely to encourage CBU behaviors in class. The 3rd study found that cultural individualism-collectivism had a positive impact on liberal-democratic teaching attitude but a negative impact on conservative-autocratic teaching attitude. In turn, liberal-democratic teaching attitude had a positive impact on the tendency to promote CBU behaviors, whereas conservative-autocratic teaching attitude had a positive impact on the tendency to promote DBU behaviors.     

Suicidality Among Adolescent Alberta Indians

A high rate of suicide attempts and suicide ideation characterized a sample of 229 grade 7 to 9 adolescents resident on seven reserves in central Alberta. The prevalence of suicidality for these adolescent Indians was very similar to rates reported for Navajo youth and for 8th- and 10th-grade American non-Indian students. Comparison of Indian and non-Indian suicidality risk factors showed somewhat elevated levels of family disruption and psychological problems among Indian adolescents. Compared to Canadian nonadolescents, substance abuse levels were high, and conditions necessary to modeling were virtually omnipresent. Suicide ideation was significantly elevated for Indian adolescents with low psychological well-being, no father in the home, and a prior suicide in the household. Controlling for age, risk factors for suicide attempts were heavy alcohol use, no father in the home, sleeping problems, and low psychological well-being. The high rates of adolescent Native suicide imply that a much higher proportion of their suicide attempts succeed. Targeted, community-based counselling and educational programs are needed to address these problems.     

Factor analysis and the index of clustering

The initial problem of factor analysis is described as a search for clustering of the test vectors. Curves are developed which give a visual picture of the clustering tendency, and an index of clustering is derived which provides a simple estimate for the number of factors.Based, in part, on a paper Matrix Approximation Criteria read at the District meeting of the Psychometric Society, Chicago, April 3, 1937. The author wishes to acknowledge suggestions gained in conversations with Dr. A. S. Householder and Mr. Clyde Coombs, of the University of Chicago.