Promoting VET teachers’ individual and social learning activities: the empowering and purposeful role of transformational leadership, interdependence, and self-efficacy

Background This study explores the interaction between organizational and psychological factors that play a role in professional teacher learning. More specifically, how teachers’ engagement in learning activities (e.g. keeping up to data, self-reflection, and experimenting, respectively, asking for feedback and information sharing) is influenced by the organizational factors transformational leadership and perceived interdependence, and the psychological factor self-efficacy. Methods The study is conducted in the context of Vocational Education and Training (VET) colleges in the Netherlands, using a survey among 447 VET teachers working in 66 teams. Results Results showed that self-efficacy and task interdependence directly, and positively, influence a variety of learning activities. Task interdependence influenced self-efficacy positively. Goal interdependence influenced self-efficacy positively, but from the learning activities it only affected information sharing and social reflection positively. From the transformational leadership practices vision building positively affected goal interdependence, and consideration and stimulation positively affected task interdependence. Conclusions In general, two configurations for the facilitation of teacher learning were found: one that empowers individual teachers to acquire new knowledge, and another that helps teachers to focus on shared goals and binds them to social learning. Teachers’ engagement in learning activities, and consequently VET colleges’ change capacities, is optimally facilitated by empowerment and purpose

The Joint Influence of Intra- and Inter-Team Learning Processes on Team Performance: A Constructive or Destructive Combination?

In order for teams to build a shared conception of their task, team learning is crucial. Benefits of intra-team learning have been demonstrated in numerous studies. However, teams do not operate in a vacuum, and interact with their environment to execute their tasks. Our knowledge of the added value of inter-team learning (team learning with external parties) is limited. Do both types of team learning compete over limited resources, or do they form a synergistic combination? We aim to shed light on the interplay between intra- and inter-team learning in relation to team performance, by including adaptive and transformative sub-processes of intra-team learning. A quantitative field study was conducted among 108 university teacher teams. The joint influence of intra- and inter-team learning as well as structural (task interdependence) and cultural (team efficacy) team characteristics on self-perceived and externally rated team performance were explored in a path model. The results showed that adaptive intra-team learning positively influenced self-perceived team performance, while transformative intra-team learning positively influenced externally rated team performance. Moreover, intra-team and inter-team learning were found to be both a constructive and a destructive combination. Adaptive intra-team learning combined with inter-team learning led to increased team performance, while transformative intra-team learning combined with inter-team learning hurt team performance. The findings demonstrate the importance of distinguishing between both the scope (intra- vs. inter-team) and the level (adaptive vs. transformative) of team learning in understanding team performance

Students' evaluations of native and non-native teachers in higher education

Student evaluations of teachers (SETs) are often used to evaluate teachers' performance in higher education. However, several factors unrelated to performance can lead to biased SETs. The present experimental research was designed to examine whether native or non-native teachers could be evaluated differently by students in higher education. In two studies, students were presented with short vignettes of either a native or non-native teacher. Subsequently, explicit evaluations and implicit associations of the teacher and the assignments of the teacher were registered. Additionally, participants' implicit in-group favouritism was assessed to examine whether possible differences in evaluations depend on implicit biases. Both explicit evaluations and implicit associations did not significantly differ depending on whether the teacher was native or non-native, and no significant effect of implicit in-group bias was found. Possible theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Pre-service teachers' academic judgments of overweight students

Item does not contain fulltextOverweight children in schools can become victims of stereotyping and discrimination from both peers and teachers. Research on stereotypical expectations and impression and judgment formation has suggested that teachers might rely on their negative stereotypical expectations when judging students. In the present study, we experimentally investigated whether pre-service academic subject teachers' judgments about students were biased through stereotypical expectations about students’ weights. Pre-service teachers were presented with a case report of an overweight- and a normal-weight student, and judged their academic performance and social skills. Results demonstrated that the overweight student was judged as performing better compared to his normal-weight counterpart academically while perceived social skills did not differ. Response latencies suggest that these findings relate to pre-service teachers’ positive stereotypical beliefs about overweight students. These findings inspire to further investigate this surprising positivity bias and develop trainings for pre-service students to overcome other stereotypical expectations, which should ideally lead to evaluations based solely on actual academic performance and not stereotypical expectations, whether they are positive or negative.17 p

Menselijke vorm is niet noodzakelijk: Hoe perspectief nemen en waargenomen intentionaliteit leiden tot actie co-representaties van objecten

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Recurrence quantification analysis as a methodological innovation for school improvement research

School improvement and educational change can be facilitated by learning through reflection, as this allows teachers to discover ways to develop and adapt to change. Higher levels of engagement in reflection have been found to be beneficial, but it is unclear from which everyday routine in engagement in reflection higher levels arise, and thus whether occasions to make knowledge explicit should be organized with a certain constancy. In this study, we therefore used a conceptualization of teacher learning through reflection as a situated and dynamic process in which available environmental information, learning activities, and professional practices are interconnected, and co-develop. Seventeen Dutch Vocational Education and Training teachers participated over a period of 5 months. We explored the use of daily and monthly logs as measurement instruments and Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) as the analysis technique applied to the time-series generated from the daily logs. The findings indicated that teachers who make information from their working environment explicit more are also able to make new insights explicit more. The routine with which teachers make information explicit was found to be mostly unrelated to making new insights explicit. To reach their levels of engagement in reflection, some teachers organized opportunities to reflect with determined intervals, others seemed to recognize those opportunities as the working environment provided them, and some used a combination thereof. Moreover, the use of daily and monthly logs seemed to fit better to some participants than others. Only sometimes does organizing constancy in engagement in reflection seem to relate to the levels thereof. This study provides an example of how logs and RQA can be adopted to tap into professional learning as a dynamic and situated process in support of school improvement and educational change

Fostering teacher learning in VET colleges: Do leadership and teamwork matter?

This study explores teacher learning in Vocational Education and Training colleges, combining organizational and psychological factors, such as transformational leadership, teamwork, and self-efficacy. 447 teachers participated in a survey study. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test 7 hypotheses derived from previous research. The results show that transformational leadership has direct and indirect effects on teacher learning as mediated by teamwork processes. Moreover, the impact of teamwork processes on teacher learning was mediated by self-efficacy. The study contributes to research on workplace learning by giving insight into the role organizational and psychological factors play in stimulating teacher learnin

Self-persuasion in media messages: Reducing alcohol consumption among students with open-ended questions

Item does not contain fulltextSelf-persuasion (self-generation of arguments) is often a more effective influence technique than direct persuasion (providing arguments). However, the application of this technique in health media communications has received limited attention. In two experiments, it was examined whether self-persuasion can be successfully applied to antialcohol media communications by framing the message as an open-ended question. In Experiment 1 (N = 131) cognitive reactions to antialcohol posters framed either as open-ended questions or statements were examined. In Experiment 2 (N = 122) the effectiveness of this framing to reduce actual alcohol consumption was tested. Experiment 1 demonstrated that exposure to an antialcohol poster framed as an open-ended question resulted in more self-generated arguments for drinking less alcohol and more favorable message evaluations than framing the same message as a statement. Experiment 2 showed that the self-persuasion poster did not affect the choice to consume alcohol but did reduce alcohol consumption for individuals who chose to drink any alcohol, compared with a direct persuasion poster or no intervention. Together, the results demonstrated the potential of self-persuasion in persuasive media messages for interventions aimed at alcohol consumption reduction specifically and for health communication in general.11 p