A Path to Teacher Happiness? A Sense of Meaning Affects Teacher–Student Relationships,Which Affect Job Satisfaction

Meaningful work and meaningful relationships at work have been highlighted for their potential desirable consequences for employees and organizations. The present research focuses on teaching, as a potentially meaningful occupation, and suggests that teachers’ sense of meaning at work affects teacher–student relationships, which in turn affect teachers’ job satisfaction. This hypothesized path is examined in two complementary studies. In Study 1, 312 teachers completed self-report measures of their sense of meaning at work, perceived relationships with students, and job satisfaction. Results, based on structural equation modeling analysis, showed a good fit of the data to the theoretical model. In Study 2, 120 teachers completed daily measures of their sense of meaning at work, relationships with students, and job satisfaction. Results, based on HLM analyses, confirmed daily effects of teachers’ sense of meaning on teacher–student relationships, and daily effects of perceived teacher–student relationships on teachers’ job satisfaction. These findings point to a potential path through which teachers’ sense of meaning at work may affect work outcomes and attitudes. The theoretical and practical implications for the effects of meaningfulness and relationships at work for researchers, educators, and organizations are discussed.     

Study of Spiritual Intelligence and Adjustment Among Arts and Science College Students

A study to evaluate the relationship between the spiritual intelligence and adjustment among the college students was conducted on a sample of 250 students in six various colleges of Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu, India. Gender, religion, community, major subject, educational qualification of father and mother, student locality, college type, father and mother’s occupation and monthly family income (n = 11 variables) were chosen for the study. Test of significance for spiritual intelligence and adjustment was studied and found them nonsignificant except student locality, found to be significant. Two valid and reliable instruments were used to assess student’s spiritual intelligence and adjustment. Correlation and Chi-square analysis using structural equation model were used to analyze these data. Correlation analysis showed significant relationship between the variables among the college students (n = 250). Chi-square analysis of association between adjustments of college students showed that most variables are nonsignificant unlike father’s educational qualification and mother’s occupation. The results disclosed the significant positive relationship with spiritual intelligence and adjustment among adolescents.     

Investigative versus realistic Holland types and adjustment in theoretical engineering majors

This study tested the sensitivity of J. L. Holland's (Making vocational choices: A theory of careers, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) congruence method for predicting differential outcomes in the case of subtle person-environment congruence differences. This question is relevant to engineering programs, where students with adjacent Holland orientations of Investigative (I) and Realistic (R) aspire to complete theoretically oriented engineering majors, such as electrical and mechanical engineering. It was hypothesized that high congruence (e.g., I-type student in I-type engineering major) compared to moderately high congruence (e.g., R-type in I-type major) would result in more positive educational outcomes. A preliminary analysis verified that subgroups of I- and R-type students possessed similar scores on measures of general and math aptitude. Results on both outcome measures favored the high student-curriculum congruence hypothesis. I- compared to R-type subjects demonstrated greater persistence in their initial engineering major over a 2-year period and attained higher grades. Persistence findings replicated across two separate classes of entering students, but academic performance differences were not as consistent.     

影响中学生自我价值感形成的诸因素研究

本研究采用<青少年学生自我价值感量表>对重点中学一所、普通中学一所和职业中学一所共774名学生进行调查,问卷的表头加入年级、学习成绩、家庭经济、居住环境等10多项需要了解的学生生活环境类型,测验结果发现学习和年级因素对价值感影响最大,作用非常显著,在初二和高三年级,价值感发展最快.学习成绩越好,价值感越高.其次是家庭居住环境、家庭经济状况、父母职业、家庭结构等因素.家庭居住环境是学校居住区最有利于学生价值感的发展,家庭经济状况是经济一般的学生价值感最好,其次是富裕家庭的,贫困的最差.父母职业是教师最高,其次是军人、干部、医生等.家庭结构是健全的发展最好,其次是离异的,再次是分居的,最差的是死亡的.     

Medical Student Burnout: Interdisciplinary Exploration and Analysis

Burnout—a stress-related syndrome characterized by exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of accomplishment—is a common phenomenon among medical students with significant potential consequences for student health, professionalism, and patient care. This essay proposes that the epidemic of medical student burnout can be attributed to a technocratic paradigm that fails to value medical students as persons with human needs and limitations. After briefly reviewing the literature on medical student burnout, the author uses two theories to elucidate potential causes: unsatisfactory aspects of the learning environment and a feeling one’s efforts are meaningless or irrelevant. Cultural factors also facilitate burnout in medical students immersed in a clinical environment that cultivates excessive detachment from patient and self, impairing self-care, damaging a sense of self, and impeding the development of a mature, well-integrated professional identity. The ethical implications of medical student burnout are also addressed. Finally, this paper suggests possible preventive and remediative strategies such as optimizing the learning environment as well as narrative approaches that promise enhancement of both individual and institutional well-being.     

An Occupational Therapy Support Service for University Students With Asperger's Syndrome (AS)

Students with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) face challenges, within third-level education, related to the person, environment, and occupation. This study describes an occupational therapy (OT) service that aims to enhance the interplay between the person (i.e., the student) and his/her occupation within a given context (i.e., college environment). A chart review and Student Satisfaction Survey was used to identify the demographics, concerns, and goals of the students using it. It was found that goals and concerns shift according to students' stage in college and recommends that services employ a student-centered, flexible approach responsive to the particular concerns of these students.     

Moderating factors explaining stress reactions: comparing chronic-without-acute-stress and chronic-with-acute-stress situations

The author compared patterns of moderating factors explaining stress reactions during 2 states: chronic-without-acute-stress and chronic-with-acute-stress. She hypothesized that personal dispositions would contribute more to understanding stress reactions during a prolonged stress state than during an acute state. The participants were Israeli Jewish adolescents living in West Bank settlements during the prolonged (chronic-without-acute-stress) state of the intifada (the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation) and during the chronic-with-acute-stress state, immediately after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. The author examined 5 variables as moderating factors--trait anxiety, sense of coherence, cognitive appraisal of the political situation, family sense of coherence, and sense of community--and measured 2 stress reactions--state anxiety and psychological distress. Data were collected from 266 8th-grade students during the chronic-without-acute-stress state and 448 students at the same grade level at the chronic-with-acute-stress state. The overall magnitude of variance explanation was different at each state: The author found a relatively high explained variance of state anxiety and psychological distress in the chronic-without-acute-stress situation but not in the chronic-with-acute stress state. These data support the value of developing a model that would recognize the different types of stress situations for moderating the effects of stress.     

Psychological Sense of Community Among Treatment Analogue Group Members1

The present study investigated the construct of psychological sense of community among individuals in a treatment analogue context. Specifically, sense of community among group members was examined as a function of three variables which have received extensive attention in the experimental social psychology literature and are central characteristics of many treatment settings: (a) perceived similarity with others in a group, (b) perceived freedom of choice in selecting a group, and (c) salience of membership in a category or group. As hypothesized, a main effect was found for valence of perceived similarity, with greater sense of community among those with a positive as contrasted to a negative shared characteristic. The hypothesized main effect for perceived freedom of choice received partial support, with greater sense of community among individuals high in perceived choice. The hypothesized salience by perceived similarity interaction also received partial support. In the high choice condition, high salience decreased sense of community among respondents sharing a negative attribute.     

The moderating effects of occupation,age, and urbanization on the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction

A considerable body of research has accumulated concerning the strength of the relationship between job and life satisfaction. However, very few studies have examined the possible moderating effects of other variables. The present study, using a sample of 911 heads of households, examined the moderating effects of seven variables related to occupation, age, and urbanization. As hypothesized, education and income positively, and strongly, moderated the job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationship. Self-employment (vs non-self-employment) also had a significant impact; occupation, though, had only a modest effect. Age and job longevity exhibited strong, curvilinear effects. Urbanization did not attenuate the relationship. In view of national work force trends toward increased education, professionalization, income, and age, the relationship between job and life satisfaction will likely become stronger and more relevant over time.     

The Counselor and the Curriculum

The counselor is involved in the curriculum structure of high school because of the amount of time he spends in educational planning with students. His record of participation in curriculum change has been poor. Educational counseling has consisted of adjusting the student to the curriculum that exists, rather than working for curriculum change that can benefit all levels of students. Curriculum resources should be thought of in a broad sense of not only formal courses and units but also extracurricular activities both in and out of school. The counselor is stationed at the crossroads of student and community needs. What is he doing to help integrate these needs through continual curriculum revision?     

The Association between Home Environment and Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents in Hangzhou City,China

To investigate the influence of the home environment, defined as family socioeconomic status (SES) (parent education level, household income), student resource-mediated SES (access to nutritional resources and cognitively stimulating experiences), reading ability, and difficulty with homework on quality of life in children and adolescents residing in urban and suburban areas in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China. This study included 3200 Grade 3–6 students from 8 elementary schools in Hangzhou City. Assessments included questionnaires that evaluated student quality of life, family SES, resource-mediated SES (dietary behavior and the home literacy environment), reading ability, and difficulty with homework. The effects of the home environment on student quality of life were analyzed by univariate analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. Overall, 80.6% of students had a medium or better quality of life. Young age (Grade 3 or 4), female sex, household income of 10000–15000 RMB, high breakfast consumption, daily intake of fruit, a balanced diet, and good reading habits were positively correlated with student quality of life (P?<?0.05), while overuse of electronic devices was negatively correlated with quality of life (P?<?0.05). Dietary behaviors, home literacy environment, and student reading ability and difficulty with homework directly affected quality of life. Family SES indirectly affected student quality of life. Children and adolescents in China should have access to good nutrition and cognitively stimulating experiences to enhance their well-being and provide them with social and academic advantages.

     

Misconceptions and realities about teaching online

This article is intended to guide online course developers and teachers. A brief review of the literature on the misconceptions of beginning online teachers reveals that most accept the notion that putting one’s lecture notes online produces effective learning, or that technology will make education more convenient and cost-effective for all concerned. Effective online learning requires a high level of responsibility for learning on the part of students and a reduction of the teacher-student power differential. This, in turn, has major implications for faculty and course development, student selection criteria, the cost of instruction, and the outcomes of education. Effective online teaching focuses on processes of learning rather than outcomes, and is consistent with modern principles of learning that emphasize focusing on issues of high interest to learners, teaching students to use skills of active and effective learning, providing prompt feedback, and enabling students to establish learning goals and employ alternative paths to achieving those goals. Multiple ways of operationalizing these goals online are presented. Tips are offered concerning selection of students who are capable of benefiting from the online experience, developing curriculum that is user-friendly, using resources that stimulate good writing and critical thinking, and limiting class size to a manageable number.     

Psychological Sense of University Membership: An Adaptation Study of the PSSM Scale for Turkish University Students

The Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM) is a widely used instrument to assess the sense of belonging to a school among adolescents. Despite its widespread use in middle and high school students, to date no particular adaptation study has been conducted for its use among university students. For this reason, the present study conducted an adaptation of the PSSM scale for these students. Five hundred and nine students at a Turkish university voluntarily participated in the study, and the PSSM Scale's factor structure was examined by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, identifying three factors representing the students' sense of university membership with acceptable internal consistencies: acceptance by faculty members (.70), belonging (.75), and acceptance by students (.76). The internal consistency of the 18-item scale was calculated as .84. As hypothesized, the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale was also tested. The self-report sense of belonging and degree of satisfaction with the university were positively correlated with the three dimensions of the scale. Also, the scores regarding the students' intention to drop out of university along with loneliness were negatively correlated with all the dimension of the PSSM scale.     

Student self-selection for specializations in engineering

The general hypothesis that students self-selecting themselves for different occupational fields differ in relevant values and interests was tested for specializations within engineering. Industrial engineers were found to be different in work values and in their image of their subfield from students of other engineering specializations. The study concludes that in terms of type of student selecting engineering, the profession cannot be treated as an undifferentiated entity. It is suggested that in future research engineering students may be regarded as relatively homogenous with respect to work values only if their area of specialization is duly considered.     

Moral reasoning development and graduate education

The Defining Issues Test (DIT) of moral reasoning development was administered to 20 advanced and 20 first-year graduate students, plus 40 college graduates matched to the graduate groups on sex, age, and verbal ability. A two-way ANOVA design was used to infer whether graduate education, selection, maturation, or a combination of these effects is (are) associated with group differences on the DIT. Results suggest that differences found between the graduate students and college graduates can be accounted for by a combination of maturational and selection effects, contrary to the hypothesized effects of formal education.     

Creating classrooms that students experience as communities

Although prior research has shown sense of community in schools to be related to many positive student characteristics, effective interventions that can create or enhance this sense have not been demonstrated. In this paper we describe a comprehensive elementary school program, implemented by teachers, that was successful in creating a sense of community in the classrooms, as perceived by students. The program was implemented in three elementary schools in a suburban school district; three additional schools in the same district served as a comparison group. The program, which emphasized cooperative learning, the importance of democratic and prosocial values, student autonomy and self-direction, and a child-centered approach to teaching and classroom management, was experienced by a cohort of students from kindergarten through Grade 4, and by a subset of that cohort through Grade 6. Sense of community was assessed—by questionnaire—in Grades 4, 5, and 6; various student outcomes were assessed via questionnaire and interview. Results indicated that the program was successful in heightening students’ sense of community, and that the sense of community—by itself and in combination with program status—related positively to a number of student outcomes. There was also suggestive evidence that students who experienced their classroom as a community attempted to abide by its norms and values, and that the authority structure of the classroom was an important determinant of students’ experience of community and of some of its observed effects. The project described in this paper was supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the International Symposium on Research on Effective and Responsible Teaching, Fribourg, Switzerland, September 1990. A brief, nontechnical summary of the findings described here was included in Solomon, Watson, Battistich, Schaps, and Delucchi, 1992. In addition to the authors, significant contributions to this work were made by numerous others, including Carole Cooper, Stefan Dasho, Jane Deer, Sylvia Kendzior, Allison Rickard, Wendy Ritchie, Marc Rosenberg, Judith Solomon, Carole Stone, Margaret Tauber, and Pat Tuck.     

Do organizational conditions influence teacher implementation of effective classroom management practices: Findings from a randomized trial

Although there is a growing evidence base about effective classroom management practices, teacher implementation of these practices varies due to a number of factors. A school's organizational health is one aspect of the broader social environment that has been hypothesized to influence implementation of interventions. Yet, empirical evidence is limited on whether organizational contexts can influence teacher implementation of effective interventions and subsequently, classroom environments and student outcomes. In the present study, teachers in an urban school district were randomly assigned to receive training in the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management program (IY TCM), a classroom management intervention. We examined how teacher perceptions of their school environment moderated intervention effects for previously established treatment outcomes – implementation of effective classroom methods, students' social behaviors, emotional regulation, and social competence. Results showed that treatment effects on teacher implementation and student outcomes were moderated by teachers' sense of affiliation to their school. Specifically, main effects on implementation of effective classroom management strategies were only observed among teachers whose perceptions of initial teacher affiliation was low or average; whereas main effects on student outcomes were only found for teachers with initial high levels of affiliation.     

Conversational Learning: A Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Preaching

An increasing number of female students populate preaching classes in seminaries and theological schools across the United States. Based on the analysis of female students' needs and demands in preaching courses, I propose a pedagogy for conversational learning to teach homiletics. My own teaching experience and the knowledge gained through conversations with other feminist educators and homileticians are major resources upon which the principles and strategies of conversational learning are drawn. The ultimate goal for conversational learning is to enable “transformative learning” through which students transform their sense of identity, worldviews, values, ways of thinking, and enhance their unique voices in the pulpit. For this purpose, conversational learning employs student‐centered, group‐oriented, and inductive approaches in an egalitarian learning environment. Conversational learning is an on‐going process of learning preaching in a collaborative way.     

Impaired ranking of semantic attributes in dementia

The present work explored the loss of semantic attributes that is said to occur in dementia. In the first two experiments, subjects had to select attributes that went with concepts like airplane and church. The finding that demented subjects maintained high levels of accuracy when selecting attributes suggested that the semantic content of their concepts was relatively well preserved. The organization of the content was explored in a third experiment by having subjects order attributes according to their relative importance in defining concepts. While demented subjects performed better than chance, they did not rank attributes as well as healthy aged subjects, suggesting a disruption in organization whereby the importance of central attributes is reduced. The hypothesized disruption in organization is viewed in relation to the learning and memory deficit that is the hallmark of the dementias.     

A behavioral program for disruptive junior high school students: Results and follow-up

The 5-year annual and 4-year follow-up results of a collaborative community mental health center-junior high school program for disruptive students are presented. The program is a comprehensive, behavioral, in-school, regular education project characterized by a token economy, parent contracting, major subjects taught in the morning, small class enrollment, small group and individualized instruction, an early release from school contingency option and frequent parent-school communications. Annual controlled outcome results revealed that the program led to significant and consistent reductions in expulsions, suspensions, and grade failure, and variable, often significant, gains in attendance and achievement. Follow-up findings indicated that former program students in senior high school achieved a significantly higher entry rate, greater attendance, better classroom conduct, and a lower frequency of withdrawal from school.One second cohort student had been advanced a grade and was thus added to the original first cohort of 14 students.