Identifying personal characteristics associated with teachers' stress is a longstanding research goal with important implications for practice. The present work revisits the effects of individual ...characteristics in terms of neuroticism, classroom management self-efficacy, and cognitive (reasoning) abilities on stress using virtual reality (VR). Relying on a sample of 56 German pre-service teachers (M
= 22.73, SD
= 4.93; 50.9% females), we capitalized on a VR classroom environment that allowed the integration of experimental control and authentic teaching situations, where pre-service teachers responded to the disruptive behaviors of the student avatars. We focused on stress responses in terms of psychological stress (self-reported stress) assessed after the VR session, and physiological stress (heart rate) assessed during the VR session. A total of 30 (26) participants was assigned to a condition with higher (lower) levels of disruptive student behavior, referred to as higher and lower complexity condition, respectively. Results from linear mixed-effects models revealed that neuroticism positively predicted psychological and physiological stress responses in pre-service teachers, whereas classroom management self-efficacy and cognitive (reasoning) abilities were not significantly related to stress responses. Level of complexity and the interaction between complexity and individual characteristics did not have an effect. This study underlines the value of VR as a tool for psychological research and contributes to existing knowledge on teacher characteristics and stress.
This study investigates the relationship between teacher quality and teachers’ engagement in professional development (PD) activities using data on 229 German secondary school mathematics teachers. ...We assessed different aspects of teacher quality (e.g. professional knowledge, instructional quality) using a variety of measures, including standardised tests of teachers’ content knowledge, to determine what characteristics are associated with high participation in PD. The results show that teachers with higher scores for teacher quality variables take part in more content-focused PD than teachers with lower scores for these variables. This suggests that teacher learning may be subject to a Matthew effect, whereby more proficient teachers benefit more from PD than less proficient teachers.
Ally Kateusz es profesora de historia eclesiástica en la Universidad de Missouri e investigadora del controversial Winjgaards Institute for Catholic Research. Se ha especializado en el arte cristiano ...en la antigüedad y medievo temprano. Esta obra, su segundo libro, está dividida en ocho capítulos. Algunos consisten en artículos previamente publicados que han sido revisados y ampliados. Su tesis central radica en afirmar que María de Nazareth fue considerada una líder eclesiástica y litúrgica en el cristianismo primitivo, lo cual se ve reflejado en representaciones artísticas y literarias de la época. Ella también aborda las inevitables implicancias que la percepción de la figura de María, como líder, tuvo en el rol de la mujer en el cristianismo primitivo, específicamente en funciones de liderazgo, enseñanza y evangelización.
This study introduces the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) Monitor, an 18-item instrument designed to assess the quality of formal learning opportunities (e.g. courses, workshops), for ...in-service teachers across all grade levels of general education. By evaluating these opportunities across four critical dimensions—clarity and structure, cognitive activation, collaboration, practical relevance—the TPD Monitor provides a comprehensive framework for assessing the effectiveness of professional development programs. Developed and validated with data from 2314 in-service teachers actively teaching in primary, secondary, special education, and vocational schools, each participating in one of 173 distinct TPD courses, this instrument is supported by multi-level confirmatory factor analysis that confirmed its structure, offering robust evidence of its validity and reliability. Furthermore, measurement invariance was achieved, allowing for meaningful comparisons between subgroups. The TPD Monitor is a valuable and practical tool enabling TPD providers to design effective courses and allowing to monitor and improve the quality of TPD programs.
•Introduction of the TPD Monitor - a tool for assessing the quality of teacher PD.•The TPD Monitor covers four dimensions: clarity & structure, cognitive activation, collaboration and practical relevance.•Rigorous psychometric analysis indicates satisfactory results for validity and reliability.•Based on participant ratings, the TPD Monitor offers a quick application for different PD contexts.
We assessed teacher educators’ task perception and investigated its relationship with components of their professional identity and their teaching practice. Using data from 145 teacher educators, two ...different task perceptions were found: transmitters and facilitators. Teacher educators who were categorized as facilitator tend to demonstrate higher levels of self-efficacy, job satisfaction, constructivist beliefs about teaching and learning and use more effective teaching strategies. The findings demonstrate that teaching practices of teacher educators are rooted in their professional identity.
•One of the first quantitative studies on teacher educators’ professional identity.•Valid and empirically reliable measurement of teacher educators’ task perception.•We distinguish between teacher educators as facilitators and transmitters.•Facilitators demonstrate increased self-efficacy.•Teacher educators’ task perception is related to the quality of teacher training.
We developed a new survey instrument to investigate teacher educators’ motives for entering the profession and examined the associations between motives and job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion ...in both teachers and teacher educators. Using data from 145 teacher educators instructing in-service teachers, we identified four motives: career aspirations, social contribution, escaping routines, and coincidence. While escaping routines represents a ‘push’ factor associated with emotional exhaustion in teachers, career aspirations represent a ‘pull’ factor associated with job satisfaction in teacher educators. The instrument can be used as a self-assessment tool for the recruitment of teacher educators.
•One of the first quantitative studies on teacher educators’ motives.•Valid and empirically reliable measurement of teacher educators’ motives.•Motives are career aspirations, social contribution, escaping routines, coincidence.•Career aspirations is the most important motive for becoming a teacher educator.
Student teachers often struggle to keep track of everything that is happening in the classroom, and particularly to notice and respond when students cause disruptions. The complexity of the classroom ...environment is a potential contributing factor that has not been empirically tested. In this experimental study, we utilized a virtual reality (VR) classroom to examine whether classroom complexity affects the likelihood of student teachers noticing disruptions and how they react after noticing. Classroom complexity was operationalized as the number of disruptions and the existence of overlapping disruptions (multidimensionality) as well as the existence of parallel teaching tasks (simultaneity). Results showed that student teachers (n = 50) were less likely to notice the scripted disruptions, and also less likely to respond to the disruptions in a comprehensive and effortful manner when facing greater complexity. These results may have implications for both teacher training and the design of VR for training or research purpose. This study contributes to the field from two aspects: 1) it revealed how features of the classroom environment can affect student teachers’ noticing of and reaction to disruptions; and 2) it extends the functionality of the VR environment—from a teacher training tool to a testbed of fundamental classroom processes that are difficult to manipulate in real-life.
•Student teachers taught in a virtual reality (VR) classroom varied in complexity.•The complexity was manipulated by numbers of disruptions and type of teaching task.•Participants were less likely to notice disruptions when facing greater complexity.•Reactions to disruptions were also less comprehensive when facing greater complexity.
Teachers frequently express stress associated with teaching in large classrooms. Despite the time-honored tradition in teacher stress research of treating class size as a job-related stressor, the ...underlying premise that class size directly impacts teachers’ stress reactions remains untested. In this randomized controlled experiment targeted at preservice teachers, we utilized a standardized virtual reality (VR) classroom to examine whether class size (number of student avatars) directly affected physiological (heart rate) or psychological (subjective rating) stress reactions among 65 preservice teachers. Results from linear mixed-effects modeling (LMM) showed that class size significantly predicted both their physiological and psychological stress reactions in the simulated environment: Average heart rate and subjective stress ratings were both significantly higher in the large class size condition. Further investigations into the causes of this association has been proposed. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the effects of classroom features on preservice teachers’ emotional experiences and well-being.
•Preservice teachers taught in a virtual reality (VR) classroom.•Class size was experimentally manipulated in the VR classroom.•Classes varied in size between 10 and 30 student avatars.•Teacher's stress was measured by heart rate and subjective ratings.•Heart rates and subjective ratings of stress were higher in the large class.
Video is a widely used medium in teacher training for situating student teachers in classroom scenarios. Although the emerging technology of virtual reality (VR) provides similar, and arguably more ...powerful, capabilities for immersing teachers in lifelike situations, its benefits and risks relative to video formats have received little attention in the research to date. The current study used a randomized pretest–posttest experimental design to examine the influence of a video‐ versus VR‐based task on changing situational interest and self‐efficacy in classroom management. Results from 49 student teachers revealed that the VR simulation led to higher increments in self‐reported triggered interest and self‐efficacy in classroom management, but also invoked higher extraneous cognitive load than a video viewing task. We discussed the implications of these results for pre‐service teacher education and the design of VR environments for professional training purposes.
Practitioner notes
What is already known about this topic
Video is a popular teacher training medium given its ability to display classroom situations.
Virtual reality (VR) also immerses users in lifelike situations and has gained popularity in recent years.
Situational interest and self‐efficacy in classroom management is vital for student teachers' professional development.
What this paper adds
VR outperforms video in promoting student teachers' triggered interest in classroom management.
Student teachers felt more efficacious in classroom management after participating in VR.
VR also invoked higher extraneous cognitive load than the video.
Implications for practice and/or policy
VR provides an authentic teacher training environment for classroom management.
The design of the VR training environment needs to ensure a low extraneous cognitive load.
PDF
