Literacy and Identity Investment in Secondary Drama Courses: Using narrative inquiry to investigate teacher perceptions of the affordances of secondary Drama courses in Ontario

This study investigated the teacher perceptions in regard to the literacy learning and identity investment opportunities within their own Drama classrooms in Ontario. This study also addresses the challenges that were present within Drama classes when teachers tried to celebrate and incorporate cultural, linguistic, and semiotic diversity. The theoretical tools of the study include theories on multiliteracies and identity investment. Data presented in this paper emerged from semi-structured interviews with five teacher participants. Findings of this study show that teachers perceived that their Drama classes offered a variety of multimodal opportunities for literacy and identity investment. These opportunities did not isolate literacy or identity opportunities; rather often a single opportunity offered students a chance to engage in both literacy learning and identity investment simultaneously. This study offers suggestions regarding teacher training and on-going professional development for Drama teachers to further promote literacy and identity opportunities within Ontario secondary Drama courses

Moral Emotion Expectancies and Moral Behavior in Adolescence

In the present research we extended previous studies examining moral emotion expectancies in childhood to investigate the relationship between moral emotion expectancies and moral behavior in adolescence. A secondary goal was to explore the relationships among moral emotion expectancies, the moral self, and moral action. Two hundred and thirty-five adolescents in grades 7, 9, 11, and first year university completed a structured interview assessing moral emotion expectancies in various situations in which a moral norm is either regarded or disregarded. Participants distributed up to 10 plastic chips on nine emotional expressions to indicate how they expected to feel in each moral situation and also provided an overall emotion rating for each scenario that averaged across all the specific emotions they anticipated. A written questionnaire measured self-reported prosocial and antisocial behavior by asking participants how often they engaged in a list of activities in the past year. The questionnaire also included a measure of self-centrality of moral values to the individuals’ identity. Self-evaluative moral emotion expectancies were shown to have associations with antisocial and prosocial behavior, but it was the overall emotion ratings that were most closely associated with behavior. Thus, moral emotions do not appear to stand out against other, more basic emotions when predicting moral action. These overall ratings were associated with self-reported levels of antisocial behavior while moral self scores were better predictors of self-reported prosocial behavior. Additionally, the relationship between emotion expectancies and antisocial behavior was also found to be moderated by age, with emotion expectancies becoming more predictive of self-reported antisocial action with age

Investigating a Professional Development School Model of Teacher Education in Canada

We examined the effectiveness of a professional development school model of teacher education in Canada. Teacher education candidates responded positively to program features related to sustained participation and collaboration in school communities throughout the year. Their efficacy beliefs about developing professional knowledge were most strongly related to the school component of the program. This highlights the importance of careful selection and preparation of associate teachers where teacher candidates are placed in only one school. Nous avons fait l’examen de l’efficacité d’un modèle de développement professionnel de formation des enseignants en milieu scolaire au Canada. Les candidats enseignants ont réagi positivement aux dimensions du programme relatives à une participation soutenue et à la collaboration au sein des communautés scolaires tout au long de l’année. Leurs convictions relativement au développement efficace d’un savoir professionnel étaient fortement liées à la dimension scolaire du programme. Cette conclusion souligne l’importance de sélectionner et de préparer avec soin les maîtres associés lorsque les candidats à l’enseignement sont assignés à un seul établissement

Exploring the Relationship Between Self-Regulated Learning and Reflection in Teacher Education

Literature on teacher learning has shown links between being a self-regulated learner, reflecting effectively on one’s own practice, and being described as an “adaptive expert”. For instance, the metacognitive skills needed for effective reflection on teaching practice are seen as critically important to developing adaptive expertise in the context of the highly complex classroom environment. Similarly, self-regulated learning is often defined, at least in part, in terms of using metacognitive skill to adapt one’s approach to complex learning situations or problems. Although there is rich literature on reflective practice in teacher education, less is known about measuring teachers’ self-regulated learning or the relationship between self-regulated learning and teacher reflections. This research examines reflective practice and self-regulated learning through pre-service teachers’ written reflections. The study makes a novel adaptation of a rubric designed to evaluate teacher education candidates’ reflections to measure self-regulated learning. Findings suggest that the rubric could also be useful in understanding the self-regulated practices of teacher education candidates

Positively versus negatively charged moral emotion expectancies in adolescence: The role of situational context and the developing moral self

The study analyses adolescents\u27 positively charged versus negatively charged moral emotion expectancies. Two hundred and five students (M = 14.83 years, SD = 2.21) participated in an interview depicting various situations in which a moral norm was either regarded or transgressed. Emotion expectancies were assessed for specific emotions (pride, guilt) as well as for overall strength and valence. In addition, self-importance of moral values was measured by a questionnaire. Results revealed that positively charged emotion expectancies were more pronounced in contexts of prosocial action than in the context of moral transgressions, whereas the opposite was true for negatively charged emotions. At the same time, expectations of guilt and pride were substantially related to the self-importance of moral values

Measuring mathematical resilience : an application of the construct of resilience to the study of mathematics

To meet the challenge of accelerating demands for quantitative literacy in the work force, improvements are needed in mathematics education. Student skill must be increased at all ability levels while also reducing the achievement gap across gender, racial and ethnic groups to increase their participation in advanced mathematics coursework and representation in mathematics related careers (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). Research has shown that affective traits such as motivation and attitude are linked to increased likelihood of taking advanced mathematics courses (Ma, 2006) and are significant predictors of improved cognitive activity and achievement (Buff, Reusser, Rakoczy,& Pauli, 2011; Ethington & Wolfe, 1986). In addition, males generally score more favorably than females on affective variables related to mathematics achievement and persistence (McGraw, Lubienski, & Strutchens, 2006; Sherman & Fennema, 1977; Wilkins and Ma, 2003). Although psychological resilience has been researched extensively (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000; Luthar, 2007) the study of mathematical resilience, defined as a positive adaptive stance to mathematics which allows students to continue learning despite adversity, represents a new approach (Johnston-Wilder & Lee, 2010; Rivera & Waxman, 2011). Math anxiety looks at maladaptive response to learning mathematics and is well-studied (Hembree, 1990; Richardson & Suinn, 1977; Tobias, 1978). In contrast, resilience incorporates factors associated with optimal functioning. Although mathematical resilience has been identified as important for success (Johnston-Wilder & Lee, 2010; Rivera & Waxman, 2011), little consensus exists around its definition and no measures of resilience have been rigorously developed and/or validated. Rivera & Waxman (2011) identified the use of teacher nomination of resilient students as a limitation of their study, further motivating development of an instrument. This presentation will report on efforts to develop and validate an instrument measuring mathematical resilience. Ultimately, the measure will aid in developing and testing models that gauge the role of mathematical resilience in student achievement and persistence in advanced coursework. These models can be used to develop interventions to improve mathematical resilience, achievement, and quantitative literacy (Johnston-Wilder & Lee, 2010)

Mediating effect of program loyalty on the relationships between value perception and relationship investment on customer loyalty

This research examined the mediating effect of program loyalty on the relationships betweenvalue perception and relationship investment on customer loyalty in the context of a servicesretailer. We found that program loyalty mediates the relationship between the predictorvariables and customer loyalty, suggesting that implementing loyalty programs is useful forencouraging customer loyalty. Our results also empirically support the positive relationship between the value perception of a loyalty program and customer loyalty