EFFECTIVE TEACHING PRACTICES

Before the cognitive shift in educational psychology research on teaching practices that bring about the desired learning outcomes on the part of the students was dominated by the process-product research program. The findings of this confirmative research approach show that an effective lesson may consist of five sections: (a) homework should be discussed and the material covered recently should be repeated; (b) new material should be presented and explained, using structuring, step-by-step presentation, redundant explanation, frequent progress checks by means of questioning and responding appropriately to students’ questions; (c) students’ opportunity to practice under the supervision of the teacher who provides feedback and corrective teaching; (d) independent work on the part of students, including homework, prepared by the teacher and spread out over the course of the lesson is conducive to achieving the desired learning outcomes; (e) material should be repeated and tested frequently. To prevent that, through the dominance of cognitive psychology, available and applicable knowledge achieved in behavioristic research may be forced into the background, or indeed may be forgotten, a plea is made for devoting greater care to organizing knowledge into theories

BURNOUT AMONG DUTCH REFORMED PASTORS

research articleThe present study examined the degree of burnout among Dutch reformed pastors and aspects that may be conducive to the onset of burnout. They were asked to report how difficult they found their tasks and what options they had to alleviate the pressure of work they experienced. Compared with other human service professionals the results show that pastors have relatively high scores on emotional exhaustion and relatively low scores on depersonalization. Pastors have relatively low scores on personal accomplishment. Those who say they are experiencing severe pressure of work appear to have high scores on the three burnout dimensions. Role ambiguity and lack of social support appear to intensify reported feelings of burnout. This article concludes by discussing some of the pastor's own suggestions as to how to relieve work pressure

REFLECTION IN RUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

The present article explores the theoretical underpinnings upon which Russian psychologists base their analysis of reflection. The intention is to arrive at a clearer understanding of their research aims and research methods, and to explore the relevance of their research to educational practice. The discussion is largely restricted to those studies which are significant for education and educational psychology. The reader will no doubt notice that most of the sources cited in the article date form the 1970s and 1980s. That is because after 1990, scarcely any articles on the subject in question appeared in the most authoritative journals (such as Voprosy Psichologii), with the exception of a publication by Slobodcikov and Cukerman (1990)

Leerpotentieel als graadmeter van de intelligentie

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Werkdruk, zingeving en burn-out bij predikanten in orthodox-gereformeerde kerken

research articleIn deze studie is bij drie kleinere orthodox gereformeerde kerkgenootschappen onderzoek gedaan naar burn-outverschijnselen onder predikanten in relatie tot werkdruk en existentiële zingeving. Van de 480 aangeschreven predikanten stuurden 280 een ingevuld formulier terug. Daarin waren opgenomen een itemlijst over werkdruk, de Existentieschaal over zingeving, ontwikkeld door leerlingen van V.E. Frankl, en de Utrechtse Burnoutschaal, aangepast voor predikanten. De respondenten bleken gemiddeld hoger te scoren op werkdruk en op alle drie dimensies van burn-out dan collega’s uit andere kerkgenootschappen in eerdere onderzoeken. De scores op werkdruk en op burn-out correleerden vrij hoog tot hoog met de scores op existentiële zingeving, in die zin dat hogere scores op de zingevingdimensies samenhingen met lagere scores op ervaren werkdruk en burn-out. De conclusie was, dat (gebrek aan) existentiële zingeving een belangrijke determinant van burn-out is, die tot op heden ten onrechte is verwaarloosd. In de preventie kan existentiële zingeving een zinvol en bruikbaar aanknopingspunt zijn voor gezondheidspsychologische interventies. Ten slotte zijn enkele aanbevelingen gedaan voor verder onderzoek

Constructive thinking and burnout among secondary school teachers

research articleThe present study investigated the relationship between Epstein’s (1998, Constructive thinking: The key to emotional intelligence. London: Praeger publisher.) components of constructive thinking and burnout as experienced by a sample of Dutch secondary school teachers. A postal questionnaire was sent to teachers from randomly selected secondary schools. The response rate was 54.1% (N = 433). Four components of constructive thinking significantly contributed to the explained variance in emotional exhaustion (17%), depersonalization (21%), and personal accomplishment (20%). The results of the study suggest that secondary school teachers’ maladaptive thinking processes prevent them from rational thinking during their work, which significantly contributes to the onset of burnout. Burnout intervention programs for teachers are likely to be more effective when the participator’s maladaptive thinking system is taken into consideration. This stems from the idea that personality factors are a probably easier point of departure to tackle burnout symptoms than organizational factors