Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs as determinants of job satisfaction and students' academic achievement: A study at the school level

Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs were examined as determinants of their job satisfaction and students' academic achievement. Over 2000 teachers in 75 Italian junior high schools were administered self-report questionnaires to assess self-efficacy beliefs and their job satisfaction Students' average final grades at the end of junior high school were collected in two subsequent scholastic years. Structural equation modeling analyses corroborated a conceptual model in which teachers' personal efficacy beliefs affected their job satisfaction and students' academic achievement, controlling for previous levels of achievement.     

民族精神在师范院校中的弘扬与培育

党的十六大报告指出,民族精神是一个民族赖以生存和发展的精神支柱。高等师范院校作为国民教育的重要组成部分,在弘扬与培育民族精神中必然扮演着特殊的角色。新形势下准确把握民族精神的内涵,明确弘扬与培育民族精神的历史意义,积极探索其在师范院校中弘扬与培育的有效途径是一项十分紧迫而重大的任务。     

Cambridge's Collegiate Crisis: King Henry VIII and the Suppression of Colleges, 1546

Abstract

This article examines in detail the University of Cambridge's robust response to the threat of suppression from the time of the promulgation of the Chantries Act at Christmas 1545 until the foundation of Trinity College the following Christmas. Particular attention is paid to chronology. The university lobbied influential friends and alumni at court to ensure its continued existence. King Henry VIII's dissolution of religious foundations from 1535, and the infamous ‘Valor Ecclesiasticus,’ the great survey of their assets that preceded it, had cast a large shadow over the university and its endowments. Even if established for secular scholars rather than clergy, the colleges were nonetheless religious foundations, and were regarded as such for the purposes of taxation and during the visitation of the universities in 1535. When the king began surveying colleges and collegiate churches in late 1545 with a view to their suppression, for eight anxious weeks the university's existence was genuinely called into question, calling for a university survival strategy.     

When increasing liking for a communicator decreases opinion change: An attribution analysis of attractiveness

Fifty-six female subjects were asked to discuss, through passing notes, a personal injury case with a partner. Liking for the partner was manipulated by informing subjects either that their partner was very cold and penurious (low attractiveness), or was very warm and generous (high attractiveness). During the discussions, the partners' notes were replaced by notes that argued for either a very low or a very high amount of compensation. Though the general rule is that influence should mirror liking, attribution theory (Kelley, 1967) leads to the expectation that in this setting the persuasiveness of the liked versus the disliked partner should depend on the amount of compensation advocated, with low compensation arguments being more persuasive when believed to be given by the liked partner, but high compensation arguments more influential when believed to be given by the disliked partner. The results supported attribution theory. Implications for the way attractiveness has been conceptualized in the social psychology literature are discussed.     

Partnerships with Psychiatry and Other Clinical Disciplines: A Key to Psychology's Success in U.S. Medical Schools

This paper describes the growth of psychology in medical schools and the distribution of psychologists across medical school departments. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and American Psychological Association (APA) use different data collection approaches that reflect their different missions. AAMC focuses solely on medical school faculty, whereas APA tries to reach all psychologists working in academic health centers (AHCs). The number of psychologists in medical school settings has increased, largely due to their research expertise; but psychologists also contribute through teaching and clinical service. Psychologists hold appointments in wide variety of medical school departments, which has been a key factor in their success. Through partnership and interdisciplinary collaboration with a wide range of academic physicians, psychologists have gained increased support, become valued members of the AHC and medical school communities, and can rise to leadership positions in medical schools.     

The relation between teachers' math talk and the acquisition of number sense within kindergarten classrooms

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between teachers' math talk and the acquisition of number sense within kindergarten classrooms. The mathematical language input provided by 35 kindergarten teachers was examined with 9 different input categories. The results of this study indicate that the role of each of these math talk categories is not as straightforward as was hypothesized. Although significant positive relations were found for math talk categories such as cardinality and conventional nominatives, the relations between the categories' calculation and number symbols and children's score on specific number sense tasks were negative. Moreover, a large diversity in math talk was negatively related to kindergartners' number sense acquisition. These results suggest that teachers should be careful and selective with the amount of math talk that they offer to young children.     

Conflict of interest policies in science and medical journals: Editorial practices and author disclosures

This study examines the extent to which scientific and biomedical journals have adopted conflict of interest (COI) policies for authors, and whether the adoption and content of such policies leads to the publishing of authors’ financial interest disclosure statements by such journals. In particular, it reports the results of a survey of journal editors about their practices regarding COI disclosures. About 16 percent of 1396 highly ranked scientific and biomedical journals had COI policies in effect during 1997. Less than 1 percent of the articles published during that year in the journals with COI policies contained any disclosures of author personal financial interests while nearly 66 percent of the journals had zero disclosures of author personal financial interests. Nearly three fourths of journal editors surveyed usually publish author disclosure statements suggesting that low rates of personal financial disclosures are either a result of low rates of author financial interest in the subject matter of their publications or poor compliance by authors to the journals’ COI policies.     

A validation of the Worker Trait Groups in the DOT

An empirical validation of the 114 Worker Trait Groups (WTG) of the Third Edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) was performed by comparing the factor structure of the worker trait components of the 114 WTG's with the factor structure of a random sample of 800 of the 4000 jobs used as the basis for the DOT, Third Edition. Six factors were compared and cosines between .8997 and .9657 obtained on the matched factors, thus providing a measure of empirical validity for the 114 WTG's based on the worker trait components.     

Teachers' conflict management styles: The role of attachment styles and classroom management efficacy

Constructive conflict management strategies are important in maintaining a positive classroom environment yet little is known about interpersonal or school variables associated with teachers' use of such strategies with students. Teachers high in self-reported classroom management efficacy (CMEFF) and security of attachment (low on avoidance, anxiety) were predicted to endorse use of positive classroom management strategies (e.g., integrating, compromising) more than insecure teachers and those low in CMEFF. Teachers (N = 283) from eleven schools (seven elementary), largely female and white, responded to a questionnaire in their boxes (29.4% response rate). School and teacher demographic variables were included in a multivariate regression after preliminary analysis suggested that ignoring the multilevel structure of the data made little difference in results; school variances were small compared with teacher variances. CMEFF and years teaching had positive, significant effects on use of integrating and compromising strategies, while avoidance had negative effects on both and anxiety on integrating strategies. Implications for teacher development are discussed.