Frontline Learning Research (E-Journal - EARLI, European Association for Research on Learning)
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256 research outputs found
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Measuring Teacher Engagement: Development of the Engaged Teachers Scale (ETS)
Full text linkThe goal of this study was to create and validate a brief multi-dimension scale of teacher engagement—the Engaged Teachers Scale (ETS)—that reflects the particular characteristics of teachers’ work in schools. We collected data from four separate samples of teachers (total N = 823), and followed five steps in developing and validating the ETS. The result of our five steps of analysis was a 16-item, 4-factor scale of teacher engagement that shows evidence of reliability, validity, and usability for further research. The four factors of the ETS consist of: cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, social engagement: students, and social engagement: colleagues. The ETS was found to correlate positively with a frequently used work engagement measure (the UWES) and to be positively related to, but empirically distinct, from a measure of teachers’ self-efficacy. Our key contribution to the measurement of teacher engagement is the novel inclusion of social engagement with students as a key component of overall engagement at work for teachers. We propose that social engagement should be considered in future iterations of work engagement measures in a range of settings
Case study on teachers’ contribution to children’s participation in Finnish preschool classrooms during structured learning sessions
Full text linkThe main aim of this study was to identify different teaching practices and explore the types of opportunities that they provide for children’s participation in four different Finnish preschool classrooms for 6-year olds during structured learning sessions. Observational data of four preschool teachers were analyzed according to the principles of qualitative content analysis. Three themes of teachers’ practices were identified, which described the key practices through which teachers influence children’s participation, namely, through discussion and conversations; by referring to shared rules and managing the classroom; and through demonstrating pedagogical sensitivity and understanding towards children’s active participation. Further, each teacher was observed implementing these practices in a unique combination in their classrooms, thus, creating different opportunities for participation. The four teachers showed a constructive, enabling, reserved or restrictive/unbalanced stance towards children’s participation. The results of this study highlight the importance of teachers’ pedagogically sensitive attitude as the key to children’s participation. Given that the advantages of participation to learning and development are well established, the results also point to a need to evaluate the prevailing pedagogy and practices more closely from the perspective of participation
Meanings are acquired from experiencing differences against a background of sameness, rather than from experiencing sameness against a background of difference: Putting a conjecture to the test by embedding it in a pedagogical tool
Full text linkIn helping learners to make a novel meaning their own, such as when helping children to understand what a word means or teaching students a new concept in school, we frequently point to examples that share the aimed-at meaning but differ otherwise. This type of approach rests on the assumption that novel meanings can be acquired through the experience of sameness against a background of difference. This paper argues that this assumption is unfounded and that the opposite is the case: we make novel meanings our own through the experience of differences against a background of sameness. We put this conjecture to the test in an experimental study by embedding it in a computer game and the results support the conjecture
Investigating and stimulating primary teachers’ attitudes towards science: A large-scale research project
No full textAttention to the attitudes of primary teachers towards science is of fundamental importance to research on primary science education. The current article describes a large-scale research project that aims to overcome three main shortcomings in attitude research, i.e. lack of a strong theoretical concept of attitude, methodological flaws in attitude research, and ineffective interventions. The research project included (a) the development of a new theoretical framework for teachers’ attitudes towards (teaching) science, (b) a new validated survey instrument (the DAS) to measure the different underlying components of primary teachers’ attitudes toward teaching science, and (c) an in-service professional development training course based on the previously developed theoretical framework. The framework of attitude consists of three dimensions: cognitive beliefs, affect, and perceived control, each consisting of several subcomponents. By means of the survey instrument we investigated the effects of the attitude focussed training course. The course aimed to improve attitude by creating awareness about teachers’ own attitudes, stimulating their scientific attitudes and curiosity, and training inquiry and thinking skills. The course refrained from providing recipe-like example lessons, materials, or methods. Using a pre-post, experimental-control design we showed that the course significantly improved the affective and perceived control dimension of attitude. Teachers enjoyed teaching science more, showed increased self-efficacy, and felt less dependent on external factors. This project shows that genuine attitude improvements of primary teachers can be accomplished by attitude focussed professional development
Beyond Evidence-Based Belief Formation: How Normative Ideas Have Constrained Conceptual Change Research
Full text linkThe cognitive sciences, including psychology and education, have their roots in antiquity. In the historically early disciplines like logic and philosophy, the purpose of inquiry was normative. Logic sought to formalize valid inferences, and the various branches of philosophy sought to identify true and certain knowledge. Normative principles are irrelevant for descriptive, empirical sciences like psychology. Normative concepts have nevertheless strongly influenced cognitive research in general and conceptual change research in particular. Studies of conceptual change often ask why students do not abandon their misconceptions when presented with falsifying evidence. But there is little reason to believe that people evolved to conform to normative principles of belief management and conceptual change. When we put the normative traditions aside, we can consider a broader range of hypotheses about conceptual change. As an illustration, the pragmatist focus on action and habits is articulated into a psychological theory that claims that cognitive utility, not the probability of truth, is the key variable that determines belief revision and conceptual change