Self-efficacy in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in Australian Schools

Participating in a research-oriented teacher education program, 20 university graduates from China were invited to teach Chinese as a foreign language in western Sydney schools and conducted teacher research for one and half years. By analysing their research on their own teaching through a qualitative approach, this study attempted to identify the factors that influenced their self-efficacy in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in an English-speaking school system. Influential factors identified in this research include teacher factors, student factors and contextual factors. Findings of this research have implications for foreign language teacher education

Person-environment fit: Does it matter for tourism students’ career outcomes in an era of crisis?

This study aims to examine the relationship of personal interest (P), the environment (E) (i.e., pandemic, social unrest, international disputes) and P-E fit, with the five selected career-related outcomes (i.e., intent to join tourism industry, lifelong commitment, leadership self-efficacy, resilience, and anxiety). Structural equation modelling was used to analyse 380 data from tourism students in Hong Kong higher education institutions. The results show that P strongly predict Intent, Lifelong, Leadership self-efficacy, and Resilience, while E strongly predicted Anxiety. Tourism educators and employers should facilitate a healthy match of P and E to attract new employees to the industry

Career choice of tourism students in a triple-whammy crisis

Hong Kong hospitality and tourism industry has been battered by the triple whammy of social unrest, Sino-US trade war and COVID-19 pandemic in recent years. To understand how vulnerable tourism students may be in terms of career shock when facing the three major challenges, 407 tourism students in Hong Kong were surveyed. Structural equation modelling found a positive correlation between affect (an intrinsic, motivating factor) and extraneous events (an extrinsic, demotivating factor), indicating that motivation and demotivating factors may co-exist. Affect was more positively correlated with three career choice outcomes (intent to join the industry, desire for a lifelong career, and resilience in face of unfavourable circumstances) than was Extraneous. In face of career shock arising from extraneous events, tourism students still tend to have a strong intent to join the workforce, take it as a lifelong career, and remain resilient despite the hardship. However, the career shock was a greater concern for those in hotel-related disciplines and for students aged over 20 than younger ones. The findings offer an empirical basis to guide policy makers, academia and the industry in strategy formulation to ensure sustainable quality and manpower supply in the post-crisis future

The Impact of Professional Development and Indigenous Education Officers on Australian Teachers’ Indigenous Teaching and Learning

The study investigated the impact of professional development (PD) in Indigenous teaching on teachers’ psychological and behavioural aspects, and Indigenous students’ learning engagement. Adopting a multiple-indicator-multiple-indicator-cause model, frequency of PD was found to have positive paths to teachers’ self-concept in Indigenous teaching and all the teaching strategies, but had a non-significant path to students’ learning, suggesting the more frequently teachers are involved in PD in Indigenous teaching, the higher self-concept they had in teaching Indigenous children and the more frequently they adopted Indigenous teaching strategies. The availability of Aboriginal Education Officers (AEOs), however, had a significant and negative path on learning engagement. That is, Indigenous students’ were perceived to be less engaged in learning with AEOs present in the school. An interaction effect was also found between PD and AEOs, indicating that the effectiveness of AEOs in Indigenous students’ learning may depend on whether teachers actively attend PD programs

Teachers' self-concept and valuing of learning: Relations with teaching approaches and beliefs about students

One’s self-concept and value perceptions can significantly influence one’s behaviors and beliefs. Australian teachers from urban and rural areas of the state of New South Wales were asked to respond to survey items on two predictors (teacher self-concept, valuing of learning) and 3 outcomes (2 immediate: student-centered and teacher-centered teaching; 1 long-term: beliefs in ability constraints). Confirmatory factor analysis established the five latent factors. Structural equation modeling found significant paths from teacher self-concept to both student-centered and teacher-centered approaches but not beliefs about student ability. The positive path from valuing of learning to student-centered teaching was statistically significant but the path to teacher-centered teaching was not. The significant path from valuing of learning to beliefs about student ability was negative indicating that teachers who value student learning were less likely to believe in ability constraints. The significant influences of teacher self-concept and valuing of learning on short-term and long-term outcomes have significant implications for teacher education. Teacher preparation programs should enhance self-concept together with teaching skills and facilitate an advocacy for students’ learning rather than the teacher’s teaching

Mastery goal, value and self-concept: what do they predict?

Background: Students’ motivation is known to influence academic outcomes. However, there is a paucity of research showing the relative influences of motivational factors on short-term and long-term outcomes. Purpose: The study investigates the relative influences of motivational factors – mastery goal orientation, value of schooling, and academic self-concepts (perceived competence in and affect to schoolwork) on four outcomes – rule acceptance, identity, general self-efficacy and achievement. Sample: Students in grades 3 to 6 from six primary schools in the Sydney were surveyed (N = 979). The ages of the participants varied from 8 to 13 years (mean = 9.78). Design and methods: Students completed a questionnaire and literacy and numeracy achievement tests. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the paths from four predictors to four outcomes. Results: Whereas all four predictors were positively associated with all four outcomes, students’ mastery goal had stronger positive influences on self-efficacy and identity. Value, perceived competence and affect were found to influence outcomes in different ways – positive influences were found for value on achievement, rule-acceptance, and identity; for perceived competence on achievement and efficacy; and for affect on rule-acceptance and identity. Conclusion: Mastery goal had stronger influences on long-term outcomes while other predictors are stronger for short-term outcomes. To facilitate short-term and long-term outcomes, all four motivational factors need attention

The development of a multi-dimensional measure of cyber bullying

Whilst literature on traditional bullying continues to grow, a paucity of research exists regarding its newest form: cyber bullying. The present study consisted of a sample of Australian secondary students (N = 803) and aimed to identify the underlying structure of cyber bullying. A previously validated measure of traditional bullying, the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument - Bully and Target (APRI-BT; Parada, 2000), was extended to include cyber bully and target behaviours. Reliability analyses and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) demonstrated that the newly extended measure of traditional and cyber bullying behaviours was psychometrically sound. It was concluded that the current investigation provided a firm understanding of the nature and structure of cyber bullying, thus forming a sound base from which to conduct future bullying research. Moreover, potential limitations of the present investigation, and implications for theory, research, and practice were discussed

Coarsening Dynamics of a One-Dimensional Driven Cahn-Hilliard System

We study the one-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard equation with an additional driving term representing, say, the effect of gravity. We find that the driving field $E$ has an asymmetric effect on the solution for a single stationary domain wall (or `kink'), the direction of the field determining whether the analytic solutions found by Leung [J.Stat.Phys.{\bf 61}, 345 (1990)] are unique. The dynamics of a kink-antikink pair (`bubble') is then studied. The behaviour of a bubble is dependent on the relative sizes of a characteristic length scale $E^{-1}$, where $E$ is the driving field, and the separation, $L$, of the interfaces. For $EL \gg 1$ the velocities of the interfaces are negligible, while in the opposite limit a travelling-wave solution is found with a velocity $v \propto E/L$. For this latter case ($EL \ll 1$) a set of reduced equations, describing the evolution of the domain lengths, is obtained for a system with a large number of interfaces, and implies a characteristic length scale growing as $(Et)^{1/2}$. Numerical results for the domain-size distribution and structure factor confirm this behavior, and show that the system exhibits dynamical scaling from very early times.Comment: 20 pages, revtex, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The role of self-concept in medical education

Much research has acknowledged the importance of self-concept for adolescents’ academic behaviour, motivation, and aspiration, but little is known about the role of self-concept that underpins the motivation and aspiration of higher education students in a specialised field such as medical education. This article draws upon a programme of research over the last three years examining the psychosocial determinants of success for educating home-grown doctors for regional communities. Interviews conducted with Australian medical students found that self-concept is a dynamic and multidimensional phenomenon that emerges through social activity, and plays a crucial role in shaping their motivation and aspirations. For these students in a specialised field in higher education, self-concept not only influences their study performance, but also forms part of their personal and career development. Because of the significant interaction between the self and the social environment, the development of self-concept through a holistic and systemic facilitation of essential psychosocial drivers of success is essential in higher education