Using a sample of 384 Finnish teachers, in this study we explored how teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education, self-efficacy, and collective efficacy in behaviour management affect their ...behaviours in teaching appropriate behaviours to students, and how teachers' attitudes, self-efficacy, and collective efficacy mediate the effect of background variables on teacher behaviour. The results revealed that teachers’ self-efficacy and collective efficacy significantly predicted their behaviour. The number of students with attention or behavioural problems has an indirect negative effect on teacher behaviour, mediated by teacher self-efficacy.
•The study investigated teachers’ beliefs and behaviours.•Teacher behaviour was predicted by self-efficacy and collective efficacy.•The number of behaviourally challenged students influenced teacher behaviour via self-efficacy.
Discussing controversial issues is an important means to support secondary school students' democratic citizenship. Using questionnaires, we investigated how students' (N = 284) willingness to ...participate in such discussions is associated with their safety perceptions (identity threat, classroom opinion climate, teacher interpersonal behavior) and personality traits (extraversion). We used the controversial Dutch tradition of Black Pete as a case. Exploratory network analysis showed that students’ willingness to participate increased when they experienced identity threat. Our findings suggest that teachers can encourage student participation in discussions about controversial issues by creating a safe classroom environment.
•Students differed in whether they opposed or supported the controversial tradition of Black Pete.•Higher perceived identity threat went together with a higher willingness to participate in a controversial issue discussion.•With more agentic and more communal teacher behavior, students’ personal characteristics, such as extraversion and identity threat, were less predictive of students’ willingness to participate.•Students said they were more willing to participate in a controversial issue discussion in classrooms with higher teacher communion and agency.•We conclude that teachers can help to encourage student participation during controversial issue discussions by creating a safe classroom environment.
High-stakes testing is changing what it means to be a 'good teacher' in the contemporary school. This paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's ideas on the control society and dividuation in the context of ...National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing in Australia to suggest that the database generates new understandings of the 'good teacher'. Media reports are used to look at how teachers are responding to the high-stakes database through manipulating the data. This article argues that manipulating the data is a regrettable, but logical, response to manifestations of teaching where only the data counts.
In recent years, a number of controversies related to climate change, racism and Black Lives Matter, and gender and sexual diversity have characterised public debate in Australia about politically ...charged content in schools. This paper explores one jurisdiction's "Controversial Issues in Schools" policy through three broad areas of discussion. We begin by analysing the current social and political context in Australia at both a state and national level to consider how debates around controversial issues in schools have been utilised to exploit both existing and emerging cultural divisions. We then examine some of the philosophical claims central to the "Controversial Issues in Schools" policy before considering a single case of teacher deliberation in relation to the policy. The paper argues that the policy does little to support teachers in bringing up controversial issues in the classroom particularly given the ways teacher conduct in relation to controversial issues is treated in public discourse. Engaging with controversial issues as a matter of teacher conduct fails to acknowledge the epistemic, ethical, and political nature of controversial issues and teachers' deliberation in relation to such concerns and constructs teacher conduct as a central concern.
To deepen the understanding of the long-term impact of study abroad, this qualitative, exploratory study examines the self-reported relationship between study abroad and professional teacher ...behaviour. Findings illustrate an enduring impact of study abroad on personal and professional development of the interviewed teachers, even after twenty years of teaching experience. This suggests that the impact of study abroad may continue throughout a teacher's career. The applicability of the outcomes, however, is dependent on the primary school as working environment. Influential factors such as high workload and beginning teachers' dilemmas lead to fewer opportunities to utilise the study abroad experience.
•Teachers perceive an enduring impact of study abroad (SA) on professional behaviour.•SA learning outcomes for teachers are mostly related to skills and attitudes.•SA effects cannot be studied without considering the context in which they could be applied.•Primary schools as working environment influence the application of the learning outcomes of SA.
Interpersonal teacher behaviour refers to the teacher–student interactions in the classroom. One way to measure these interactions is through the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), which is ...based on the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behaviour (MITB). This study examined the structure of the Chinese version of the QTI (C-QTI) among a convenience sample of 612 secondary-school students in Hong Kong, using Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) to cross-validate a previous study of primary students utilizing the same approach. Results indicated that the C-QTI fits the MITB circumplex structure in terms of the scale order in a circular structure. The SSA map yielded six sectors: leadership-understanding, helpful/friendly, student responsibility/freedom, uncertain, dissatisfied-admonishing and strict. The two merged sectors demonstrate students’ inability to distinguish between their distinct behaviours. Eight items appeared in a sector different from their original MITB location, which could be attributed to the meanings attached to the different behaviours in the Chinese cultural context of Hong Kong or to the items’ lack of clarity. Comparison of secondary and primary students indicated similarities in scale and item location. However, secondary students were better able to distinguish between the different behaviours, reflecting the possible effect of their developmental level. The study highlights the need to construct contextually-relevant items and examine their existence and clarity as reflected by students’ perceptions. It also suggests the utility of SSA as a useful approach to study interpersonal teacher behaviour and facilitate the QTI adaptation process.
Abstract In recent years, an increasing drumbeat around emotion research in ELT has brought to the fore an appreciation of teacher psychology and the emotional underpinnings of the teacher–student ...relationship. This study explores how students report their teacher’s classroom behavior and how those observations lead learners to make broader impressions about the teacher’s mental state. As part of a larger study, 129 adult EFL students took a web survey about their teacher’s classroom behavior, perceived overall happiness, and their perceived wellbeing. Results revealed that teacher behavior was strongly correlated with perceived teacher wellbeing and happiness, meaning that based on how teachers behave in the classroom, students make far-reaching assumptions about their wellbeing beyond the classroom. Due to the phenomenon of emotional contagion, when students think their teachers are happy, they may also feel more positive emotions in the classroom. Suggestions for teachers are discussed, such as strategies for making the best of challenging situations and promoting healthy student relationships as a means to promote teacher and learner wellbeing. Suggestions for potential institutional changes are also made.
This study reports on a Professional Development Program (PDP) designed to raise teachers' subject-specific language awareness (TSLA) as a relevant and specific element of their practical knowledge ...and improve their language integrated teaching behaviour. The design of the PDP was based on the interconnected model of teacher professional growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and video-stimulated interviews. The PDP resulted in change in both teachers' subject-specific language awareness and related teaching behaviour. Teachers' sense of responsibility to address students' language learning appeared to be relevant for teachers' change of behaviour.
•The PDP successfully changed teachers' practical knowledge and teaching behaviour.•Teachers became more aware about addressing subject-specific language while teaching.•More teachers used strategies to stimulate students' productive language use.•The relation between change in teachers' practical knowledge and behaviour is complex.
Student–teacher interpersonal relationships contribute significantly to the academic trajectory and achievement of children and adolescents. The Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) is one of ...the most widely applied measures for assessing students' perceptions about the teachers’ interpersonal behaviour. QTI comprises eight subscales that are assumed to follow a circumplex model. Prior studies on QTI’s psychometric properties are inconclusive and report mixed findings. The purpose of this study was to examine the applicability of QTI in the Greek cultural context, by testing its circumplex structure and levels of reliability. QTI was administered to 1669 secondary education students, from 85 different classrooms. A cross-validation approach and a variety of statistical techniques were employed. Subscales’ internal consistency and their ability to discriminate among classes were satisfactory. Exploratory statistical techniques provided initial support of the circular pattern. Application of a specifically designed package for testing the circumplex structure of an instrument, showed that a model in which the eight QTI subscales are placed on the circumference of a circle with equal distances form the centre was tenable. However, the assumption of equal distances was not confirmed. Deviation from the theoretical position of the subscales was mainly due to students’ difficulty to discriminate teachers’ proximity behaviour, a finding reported in various studies and across different cultural contexts. Suggestions for improving the psychometric properties of the QTI are discussed.
Abstract
Although several longitudinal studies have confirmed that need-supportive teacher behaviour shapes intrinsic motivation in school, longitudinal studies on its role for intrinsic reading ...motivation are lacking. To fill in this gap, this study investigated whether changes in selected aspects of student-perceived teacher need-supportive behaviour in German lessons predicted changes in intrinsic reading motivation. We also investigated how student intrinsic reading motivation and perceived teacher need-supportive behaviour changed over the course of lower secondary school. To this end, we used data of 7634 German students gathered between Grades 5 and 9 as part of the German National Educational Panel Study, five measurement occasions in total. The analyses, which involved univariate latent change score and change–change models, revealed decreases in perceived teacher need-supportive behaviour and intrinsic motivation between Grades 5 and 9. Moreover, the decreases in perceived teacher need-supportive behaviour in German lessons predicted decreases in intrinsic reading motivation. The study provides first evidence of longitudinal relationships between perceived teacher behaviour and intrinsic reading motivation. It also suggests that adjusting the classroom learning environment to student needs may contribute to alleviating the decrease in intrinsic reading motivation observed in multiple studies.
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