Sex, grade-level and stream differences in learning environment and attitudes to science in Singapore primary schools

Learning environment research provides a well-established approach for describing and understanding what goes on in classrooms and has attracted considerable interest in Singapore. This article reports the first study of science classroom environments in Singapore primary schools. Ten scales from the What Is Happening In this Class?, Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and Test Of Science Related Attitudes were administered to 1,081 students in 55 classes. Factor and reliability analyses provided strong support for this widely-applicable questionnaire for assessing Involvement, Teacher Support, Investigation, Task Orientation, Cooperation, Personal Relevance, Uncertainty, Student Negotiation, Attitude to Inquiry and Enjoyment of Science Lessons among Singaporean primary-school students. Statistically significant findings of small magnitude emerged for sex differences, grade-level differences, stream differences, the stream–by–sex interaction and the grade–by–stream interaction

Psychosocial Environment of Science Laboratory Classrooms in Canadian Schools and Universities

The Science Laboratory Environment Inventory assesses students’ or teachers’ perceptions of five dimensions of actual or preferred classroom environment, namely, Student Cohesiveness, Open-Endedness, Integration, Rule Clarity, and Material Environment. The instrument was field-tested in Canada, Australia, the United States, England, Israel, and Nigeria, both in secondary and in post- secondary institutions. Various analyses attested to each scale’s internal consist- ency, reliability, discriminant validity, factorial validity, predictive validity, and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classes. The instrument is equally valid for use in its actual and preferred versions, for senior secondary school and university laboratory classes, for the individual or the class mean as the unit of analysis, and for each of the six countries. Le Science Laboratory Environment Inventory évalue les perceptions des étu- diants ou des enseignants ayant trait à cinq facettes de la salle de cours, à savoir la cohésion des étudiants, l’ouverture, l’intégration, la clarté du règlement et l’environnement physique. L’instrument a été utilisé au secondaire et au post- secondaire au Canada, en Australie, aux États-Unis, en Angleterre, en Israël et au Nigeria. Diverses analyses attestent la cohérence interne, la fidélité, la validité discriminante, la validité factorielle et la validité prédictive de chaque échelle comme son pouvoir de différencier les perceptions des étudiants dans diverses classes. La validité de l’instrument a également été établie dans ses versions présente et préférée, pour une utilisation dans les dernières années du secondaire et les cours de laboratoire à l’université, pour la moyenne par individu ou par classe comme unité d’analyse et pour chacun de ses six pays.

Using the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction in the Professional Development of Teachers.

For some time in Australia, the Schools Council of the National Board of Employment, Education. and Training has been concerned with issues concerning the quality of teaching as evidenced through its reports on Teacher Quality: An Issues Paper (1989) and Australia\u27s Teachers: An Agenda for the Next Decade (1990). These reports and others highlight the need for teachers to examine continually what they do in their classrooms. Most recently, teacher quality and the need for continued professional development of teachers has been the subject of a ministerial statement (Beazley, 1993). This report notes how the impact of, and responsibility for, effective implementation of change in curriculum and teaching practice falls mainly on teachers. This article assists teachers because it focuses on a technique which teachers can use for examining what is occurring in their own classrooms

Doctoral supervision in virtual spaces: A review of research of web-based tools to develop collaborative supervision

Supervision of doctoral students needs to be improved to increase completion rates, reduce attrition rates (estimated to be at 25% or more) and improve quality of research. The current literature review aimed to explore the contribution that technology can make to higher degree research supervision. The articles selected included empirical studies that sought to improve supervision through the use of technology. The literature search focused on technology, supervision and pedagogical supervision, and supervisor–supervisee relationships. Eighteen empirical articles, including Web 2.0 settings, were examined in relation to whether web-based tools could influence the training of doctoral students, be effective in supporting students, and reduce the breakdowns in supervisory relationships. With a few exceptions, these studies showed that Web 2.0 tools enabled greater dialogue and interaction between the student and supervisor rather than a passive viewing of content. They created virtual spaces that combined technology and pedagogy into a process where research projects could be developed in a more collegial and collaborative way. It appeared that combining technology with pedagogy translated into more innovative ways to undertake supervision, particularly participatory supervision. The need for digital pedagogies that facilitate multidimensional changes in higher degree supervision was identified for future research

Influence of Teacher Support and Personal Relevance on Academic Self-Efficacy and Enjoyment of Mathematics Lessons: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of two psychosocial features of the classroom environment (teacher support and personal relevance) on college students’ academic self-efficacy and enjoyment of mathematics lessons. Data collected from 352 mathematics students attending three higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates were used to validate the questionnaires and to investigate the hypothesized relationships. Structural equation modeling analysis suggests that teacher support and personal relevance are influential predictors of enjoyment of mathematics lessons and academic self-efficacy

Changes in Beginning Teachers\u27 Attitudes Towards Individualised Teaching Approaches During the First Year of Teaching

It is generally acknowledged that the beginning months of teaching can be a formidable and even painful ordeal for many teachers. For this reason, the beginning teacher has been the focus in a number of key studies conducted recently in various countries. The recent Auchmuty Report has recommended that teacher education research should include Iongitudinal studies of the socialisation of teachers, covering ... the early years of teaching, with particular reference to the acquisition of professional attitudes and values. The present research is consistent with this recommendation because it represents one of the few existing studies of specific pedagogical attitudes among beginning teachers

Application for a Change Agent Strategy in Dissemination of an Australian Innovation

Several excellent reviews of the general education change and innovation literature exist and this literature indicates that a widely adopted strategy for planned development and dissemination of curriculum innovations has been the Research, Development and Diffusion (RD&D) model. This empirical-rational strategy involves the initial development of teacher-proof curriculum packages followed by mass dissemination which assumes that teachers\u27 adaptation and translation problems have been largely anticipated and accommodated. The RD&D strategy, however, has recently provoked increasing skepticism because teachers and schools often have failed to adopt new curriculum materials, to implement them in ways envisaged by the developers, or to continue their use for a sustained period. These problems have led to the conclusion that the manner in which an innovation is introduced is as important to its effectiveness as the qualities of the innovation itself

Use Of Student Perceptions In Facilitating Improvement In Classroom Environment

Probably the best known and most widely used technique for studying teaching in order to improve it is classroom interaction analysis (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974; Peterson & Walberg, 1979). The coding ot classroom communication (usually verbal) according to category schemes has been used extensively and successfully in preservice and inservice education as a way of making teachers aware of and subsequently improving their own teaching. Used for this purpose, interaction analysis has provided teachers with a method of obtaining specific feedback on their classroom practice and a firm basis for reflection, discussion, and improvement related to their teaching. As an alternative to interaction analysis, student perceptions of their classroom environment can provide teachers with feedback on their teaching as a basis for guiding improvements in classrooms. Despite the potential usefulness of student perceptions for this purpose, surprisingly little attention has been given to exploring how educators might use feedback based on environment assessments to facilitate nvironmental change. The purpose of this paper is to describe a study in which information about students\u27 classroom environment perceptions were used successfully as a basis for guiding improvements in the environment of a particular classroom. Prior to reporting the study itself, attention in the following sections is focussed briefly on (1) related literature, (2) classroom environment research, and (3) the instrument used in the present work to assess student perceptions of classroom environment (namely, the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire)

The Effect of Littermate Weight on Survival, Weight Gain, and Suckling Behavior of Low-Birth-Weight Piglets in Cross-Fostered Litters

Objective: To determine whether low-birth-weight piglets show better survival, weight gain, and suckling behavior when grouped with other small piglets by cross-fostering. Methods: We manipulated the number and size of foster littermates for low-birth-weight piglets in 31 small (eight or nine piglets) and 22 large (11 or 12 piglets) litters. Experimental litters were composed of four to six piglets of lowest birth weight and either four to six slightly heavier or four to six much heavier piglets from two combined litters. Results: Low-birth-weight piglets raised with much heavier littermates had somewhat lower survival rates, but showed no tendency towards lower weight gains or less successful suckling behavior than low-birth-weight piglets raised with slightly heavier littermates. The somewhat higher survival rate of low-birth-weight piglets raised with slightly heavier littermates was largely offset by more deaths in the foster littermates, so there was no overall reduction in total losses. Low-birth-weight piglets fought more when raised with slightly heavier piglets than with much heavier piglets, and they missed more nursing episodes and had smaller weight gains than littermates, regardless of littermate weight. Implications: Cross-fostering low-birth-weight pigs into litters with other small pigs, compared to fostering into litters with high-birth-weight pigs, slightly improved their survival, but did not affect their weight gain or ability to suckle successfully, nor overall litter survival, even in litters as large as 11 or 12 piglets. Cross-fostering low-birth-weight pigs to litters of similar birth weight increased the level of fighting