A Correlational Study of Teacher Efficacy and Culturally Responsive Teaching Techniques in a Southeastern Urban School District

This study investigated the level of personal and general teacher efficacy of teachers from three high schools within a southeastern urban school district. Additional research questions focused on correlational relationships between teacher efficacy and culturally responsive teaching, instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management as measured by the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES), Culturally Responsive Teaching Techniques (CRTT) Scale, and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES). This study was conducted in a large urban school district located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States; three of the five high schools in the district participated. The CRTT Scale and TSES were combined to create a 29-item instrument to examine culturally responsive teaching, instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management. Personal and general teacher efficacy were explored using the TES. This study found that cultural teaching is a dimension of teacher efficacy. Survey data were analyzed to determine the impact of teaching efficacy on culturally responsive teaching. Significant relationships were found between teacher efficacy and culturally responsive teaching, instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management. Teacher efficacy and culturally responsive teaching are positively related; the finding supports studies that indicate teachers who possess high levels of efficacy are more likely to use higher levels of culturally responsive pedagogy which has a positive impact on student engagement and achievement

Genomic Designing for Climate-Smart Tomato

Tomato is the first vegetable consumed in the world. It is grown in very different conditions and areas, mainly in field for processing tomatoes while fresh-market tomatoes are often produced in greenhouses. Tomato faces many environmental stresses, both biotic and abiotic. Today many new genomic resources are available allowing an acceleration of the genetic progress. In this chapter, we will first present the main challenges to breed climate-smart tomatoes. The breeding objectives relative to productivity, fruit quality, and adaptation to environmental stresses will be presented with a special focus on how climate change is impacting these objectives. In the second part, the genetic and genomic resources available will be presented. Then, traditional and molecular breeding techniques will be discussed. A special focus will then be presented on ecophysiological modeling, which could constitute an important strategy to define new ideotypes adapted to breeding objectives. Finally, we will illustrate how new biotechnological tools are implemented and could be used to breed climate-smart tomatoes