Students' ratings of teaching effectiveness: a laughing matter?

Gump in 2004 identified a positive significant relationship between awareness of daily class objectives and ratings of the instructor's overall teaching effectiveness. The idea that rating of teaching effectiveness can be related to other non-teaching related attributes of the lecturer was further examined. Correlations based on ratings of teaching effectiveness from 453 undergraduate students (M=21 yr., SD= 5.5; 73% women) showed that another nonteaching related variable, namely, how funny the instructor was perceived, was significantly related to indicators of teaching effectiveness.     

Avoiding misinterpretations of Piaget and Vygotsky: Mathematical teaching without learning,learning without teaching,or helpful learning-path teaching?

This article provides an overview of some perspectives about special issues in classroom mathematical teaching and learning that have stemmed from the huge explosion of research in children's mathematical thinking stimulated by Piaget. It concentrates on issues that are particularly important for less-advanced learners and for those who might be having special difficulties in learning mathematics. A major goal of the article is to develop a framework for understanding what effective mathematics teaching and learning is, because doing so is so important for struggling students and for research about them. Piaget's research had a fundamental influence on the on-going tension between understanding and fluency in the classroom, supporting efforts toward increasing understanding. But in some countries, misinterpretations of Piaget led to practices that are counterproductive for children, especially struggling learners. Such misinterpretations are identified and a more balanced approach that also draws on Vygotsky is described—a learning-path developmentally-appropriate learning/teaching approach.     

Own and perceived parental religiosity and the quality of the parent–child relationship

This aim of this study was to investigate the association between perceived parental religiosity and the quality of the parent–child relationship. Eighty-nine adolescent boys and girls completed the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ) and the Parent–Child Relationship Survey (PCRS). The results showed that the girls had a better relationship with their mothers than with their fathers, while the boys tended to view their relationships with their father and mother of equal quality. It was also found that greater perceived religiosity of both the fathers and mothers was associated with a better parent–child relationship.     

The Effects of Negative Managerial Feedback on Student Motivation: Implications for Gender Differences in Teacher–Student Relations

Research suggests that boys receive more negative teacher feedback concerning failure to follow directions, whereas girls receive more positive feedback concerning compliance (e.g., J. Brophy, 1985; K. B. Hoyenga & K. T. Hoyenga, 1993). In this study, 5th and 6th graders (79.8% Caucasian, 9.2% Hispanic, 6.1% Asian, 2.2% Pacific Islander, and 1.8% African, predominantly lower middle class) were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 5 feedback patterns. All students received positive competence-related feedback. Relative to the other conditions, the typical “male” feedback pattern decreased students' activity interest, perceived competence, and liking for the teacher. Students receiving typical “male” feedback reported less willingness to work with the teacher again; however, they did not report less willingness to work on the activity either alone or with a friend.     

Conceptual and measurement issues of the complementarity dimension of the coach–athlete relationship across cultures

ObjectivesGrounded in the 3Cs model of the coach–athlete relationship, this multi-study outlined the development of two scales that measure coaches' dominant behaviors and athletes' submissive behaviors.Method & resultsIn study 1, a pool of items was generated based on relevant literatures and interviews. The item pool was then assessed by an expert panel including academics, athletes and coaches. In Study 2 and Study 3, construct and criterion validity, as wells as internal reliability of the refined items were tested with a sample of elite coaches and athletes. Analyses revealed that Coach Dominant Behavior Scale (CDB-S) and Athlete Submissive Behavior Scale (ASB-S) possessed sound psychometric properties. In Study 4, the measurement invariance of the 10-item ASB-S was assessed across gender and five countries: Britain, China, Greece, Spain, and Sweden. Results supported the full structural invariance of the ASB-S.ConclusionOverall, the items of both CDB-S and ASB-S were found to be psychometrically sound. The discussion highlights the contributions these findings make on both conceptual and measurement levels as well as the opportunities it opens up for research with practical relevance.     

Evaluating teaching and students’ learning of academic research ethics

A team of philosophers and scientists at Dartmouth College worked for three years to create, train faculty and pilot test an adequate and exportable class in research methods for graduate students of science and engineering. Developing and testing methods for evaluating students’ progress in learning research ethics were part of the project goals. Failure of methods tried in the first year led to the refinement of methods for the second year. These were used successfully in the pilot course and in one university setting external to Dartmouth. The process of development and justification for the final methods are discussed here.     

Teacher–child relationship,child withdrawal and aggression in the development of peer victimization

The study examined pre-kindergarten teacher–child relationship as a predictor of peer victimization up to first grade, assessed whether this role moderated risks from children's social withdrawal and/or aggression. Participants were 377 Australian children from 12 schools. Parent ratings of victimization in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade were used, as well as prekindergarten self-ratings of parenting. Teacher-ratings of conflict and closeness, child aggression and social withdrawal were collected in pre-kindergarten. Two-part growth curve analyses conjointly modeled the likelihood of being victimized and severity of victimization. Teacher–child conflict in prekindergarten predicted the likelihood of concurrent and first grade victimization; closeness in prekindergarten was protective of more severe victimization over time. Conflict also moderated the relationship between social withdrawal and growth in severity of victimization. Discussion focuses on elucidating the ‘invisible hand’ of the teacher in peer dynamics, and on interventions for reducing conflict and promoting closeness in the classroom.     

Actor–partner interdependence of humility and relationship quality among couples transitioning to parenthood

The transition to parenthood is a challenging experience that often strains relationships, but perceiving one’s partner as humble (actor relational humility) and being perceived by one’s partner as humble (partner relational humility) were hypothesized to benefit couples during this transition. Married couples (N = 69) were tracked from the third trimester of pregnancy through 21 months postpartum. Husbands and wives provided ratings of relational humility and dyadic adjustment. Actor–partner interdependence models tested actor and partner effects of relational humility on dyadic adjustment across the transition. Although couples declined in dyadic adjustment over the transition at the same rate regardless of relational humility (counter to Hypothesis 2), those higher in relational humility reported greater dyadic adjustment at each time point during the transition (consistent with Hypothesis 1). These findings support the benefits of relational humility to relationship quality, and we call for further research into humility’s benefits during times of relationship transition.     

Habit as moderator of the intention–physical activity relationship in older adults: a longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examined whether habit strength moderates the intention–physical activity (PA) relationship in older adults, within the framework of the attitude–social influences–efficacy (ASE) model and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A total of 1836 older adults (M _age?=?62.95?years, SD _age?=?8.17) completed a questionnaire on social cognitive constructs and PA habit strength at baseline, and six?months later a measure of PA. Three PA habit groups (i.e. low, medium and high) were composed, based on tertiles of the mean index score. Multi-group structural equation modelling analyses showed that intention significantly determined PA behaviour only in participants with a low or medium habit strength towards PA. This result suggests that PA is not intentional at high levels of habit strength and demonstrates the usefulness of incorporating habit in the ASE and TPB models. Results also showed that about half of the participants with a strong PA habit did not meet the recommended PA level. As strong habits may prevent intentional behavioural change and may hinder the receptiveness and openness for informational PA change strategies, additional intervention strategies, such as awareness raising and the use of implementation intentions, are needed for strongly habitual, but insufficiently active older adults.     

Organizational social context and psychopathology of youth in residential care: The intervening role of youth–caregiver relationship quality

Drawing on an ecological approach with multiple informants, this study investigated the mediating role of youth–caregiver relationship quality in associations between different features of residential care settings' organizational social context and youth's psychopathology. Participants were 378 youth aged between 12 and 25 years old, and 54 caregivers aged between 24 and 57 years old, from 29 generalist residential youth care settings in Portugal. Given the hierarchical structure of data, analyses were performed using multilevel modeling. Results revealed that organizational social contexts characterized by higher levels of engagement, stress, and centralization, as perceived by the caregivers, were associated with lower levels of youth's externalizing problems (e.g., aggressive behavior and delinquency), reported by the caregivers, via better youth–caregiver relationship quality, perceived by the youth in care. These findings highlight the relevance of creating an organizational social context in residential care settings that supports caregivers in establishing high-quality relationships with the youth in care, thereby promoting their mental health. This study contributes to the clarification of conflicting findings in previous studies of this field, by offering further empirical investigation of these issues.     

Stimulus–classification and stimulus–action associations: Effects of repetition learning and durability

It has been shown that acquired stimulus–response bindings result from at least two types of associations from the stimulus to the task (stimulus–task or stimulus–classification; S–C) and from the stimulus to the motor response (stimulus–response or stimulus–action; S–A). These types of associations have been shown to independently affect behaviour. This finding suggests that they are processed in different pathways or different parts of a pathway at the neural level. Here we test a hypothesis that such associations may be differentially affected by repetition learning and that such effects may be detected by measuring their durability against overwriting. We show that both S–C and S–A associations are in fact strengthened when learning is boosted by increasing repetitions of the primes. However, the results further suggest that associations between stimuli and actions have less durable effects on behaviour and that the durability of S–C and S–A associations is independent of repetition learning. This is an important finding for the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of associative learning and particularly raises the question of which processes may affect flexibility of learning.