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This study investigates the relationship between teacher quality and teachers’ engagement in professional development (PD) activities using data on 229 German secondary school mathematics teachers. We assessed different aspects of teacher quality (e.g. professional knowledge, instructional quality) using a variety of measures, including standardised tests of teachers’ content knowledge, to determine what characteristics are associated with high participation in PD. The results show that teachers with higher scores for teacher quality variables take part in more content-focused PD than teachers with lower scores for these variables. This suggests that teacher learning may be subject to a Matthew effect, whereby more proficient teachers benefit more from PD than less proficient teachers.
Video-based reflection in teacher education: comparing virtual reality and real classroom videos
(2022)
While previous studies have examined the use of real-world classroom videos to support the development of student teachers' reflective skills, there has been little research to date on the use of virtual reality (VR) videos in teacher education to provide opportunities for authentic reflec-tion.
This mixed-methods study investigated changes in reflection-related self-efficacy and dif-ferences in written reflection processes using a quasi-experimental design with two types of reflection stimuli.
One group of 46 student teachers used a VR-based video to reflect on in-struction while another group of 23 student teachers used a real classroom video.
We found an increase in reflection-related self-efficacy over time among participants in the VR group only. We also found that VR videos triggered similar reflection processes to real classroom videos.
This study shows, for the first time, that video-based reflection on VR classroom videos produced comparable results to reflection on real classroom videos. This indicates that VR can be used successfully in teacher education and that it offers a useful learning tool for teacher education programs.
Quality of mathematics education has gained significant attention in educational politics and among educators as mathematics advances the foundations of analytical thinking necessary to excel in today’s knowledge-based economy. Recent research on instructional quality has focused on students’ development of competencies. Competency-based instruction is believed to be an effective approach to instruction as it is closely aligned to educational standards. We use data from the National Assessment Study 2012 in Germany and apply the theory of planned behavior to determine what motivates mathematics teachers (n = 1660) to take a competency-based approach to instruction. Results indicate that competencies outlined in the educational standards are a tangible element of current mathematics instruction. Within the framework of this study, we identified teachers’ perceived behavior control as the strongest determinant of taking a competency-based approach to instruction. We conclude that advancement of competency-based instruction depends on teachers’ beliefs about their professional resources.
We assessed teacher educators? task perception and investigated its relationship with components of their professional identity and their teaching practice. Using data from 145 teacher educators, two different task perceptions were found: transmitters and facilitators. Teacher educators who were categorized as facilitator tend to demonstrate higher levels of self-efficacy, job satisfaction, constructivist beliefs about teaching and learning and use more effective teaching strategies. The findings demonstrate that teaching practices of teacher educators are rooted in their professional identity. ? 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
In this study, we investigated retention intention and job satisfaction of 238 first-year alternatively certified (AC) teachers. Drawing on Organizational Socialization Theory, we tested the hypothesis that AC teacher extraversion and perceived school support are positively related to the two variables and mediated by self-efficacy. To test our hypothesis, we applied structural equation modeling. Our results demonstrate that extraversion and perceived social support are positively related to retention intentions and job satisfaction. In addition, self-efficacy serves as a mediator. The findings could help school administrators to better understand how to support and retain AC teachers and thus address teacher shortages.
The present study examines how historical changes in the U.S. socioeconomic environment in the 20th century may have affected core assumptions of the "American Dream." Specifically, the authors examined whether such changes modulated the extent to which adolescents' intelligence (IQ), their grade point average (GPA), and their parents' socioeconomic status (SES) could predict key life outcomes in adulthood about 20 years later. The data stemmed from two representative U.S. birth cohorts of 15- and 16-year-olds who were born in the early 1960s (N = 3,040) and 1980s (N = 3,524) and who participated in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY). Cohort differences were analyzed with respect to differences in average relations by means of multiple and logistic regression and for specific points in each outcome distribution by means of quantile regressions. In both cohorts, IQ, GPA, and parental SES predicted important educational, occupational, and health-related life-outcomes about 20 years later. Across historical time, the predictive utility of adolescent IQ and parental SES remained stable for the most part. Yet, the combined effects of social-ecological and socioeconomic changes may have increased the predictive utility (that is, the regression weights) of adolescent GPA for educational, occupational, and health outcomes over time for individuals who were born in the 1980s. Theoretical implications concerning adult development, aging, and late life inequality are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record.
This study investigates alternatively certified (AC) teachers' motives for teaching, their well-being, and their intention to stay in the profession.
We conducted multivariate covariance analyses using a largescale dataset of 446 traditionally certified (TC) teachers and 143 AC teachers at secondary schools in Germany. Findings show that AC teachers reported more frequently than TC teachers that they chose teaching due to social influences and because of more time for their family. Furthermore, AC teachers report significantly higher enthusiasm for teaching.
No differences were found regarding emotional exhaustion or the intention to stay in the profession.
We developed a new survey instrument to investigate teacher educators? motives for entering the profession and examined the associations between motives and job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in both teachers and teacher educators. Using data from 145 teacher educators instructing in-service teachers, we identified four motives: career aspirations, social contribution, escaping routines, and coincidence. While escaping routines represents a ?push? factor associated with emotional exhaustion in teachers, career aspirations represent a ?pull? factor associated with job satisfaction in teacher educators. The instrument can be used as a self-assessment tool for the recruitment of teacher educators. ? 2021 The Authors.
This study explores various measures of the ethnic makeup in a classroom and their relationship with student outcomes. We examine whether measures of ethnic diversity are related to achievement (mathematics, reading) and feeling of belonging with one’s peers over and above commonly investigated composition characteristics. Multilevel analyses were based on data from a representative sample of 18,762 elementary school students in 903 classrooms. The proportion of minority students and diversity measures showed negative associations with student outcomes in separate models. Including diversity measures and the proportion of minority students, diversity of minority students mostly lost its significance. However, the results suggest that diversity measures may provide additional information over and above other classroom characteristics for some student outcomes. The various measures of diversity led to comparable results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
Video is a widely used medium in teacher training for situating student teachers in classroom scenarios. Although the emerging technology of virtual reality (VR) provides similar, and arguably more powerful, capabilities for immersing teachers in lifelike situations, its benefits and risks relative to video formats have received little attention in the research to date. The current study used a randomized pretest-posttest experimental design to examine the influence of a video- versus VR-based task on changing situational interest and self-efficacy in classroom management. Results from 49 student teachers revealed that the VR simulation led to higher increments in self-reported triggered interest and self-efficacy in classroom management, but also invoked higher extraneous cognitive load than a video viewing task. We discussed the implications of these results for pre-service teacher education and the design of VR environments for professional training purposes. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Video is a popular teacher training medium given its ability to display classroom situations. Virtual reality (VR) also immerses users in lifelike situations and has gained popularity in recent years. Situational interest and self-efficacy in classroom management is vital for student teachers' professional development. What this paper adds VR outperforms video in promoting student teachers' triggered interest in classroom management. Student teachers felt more efficacious in classroom management after participating in VR. VR also invoked higher extraneous cognitive load than the video. Implications for practice and/or policy VR provides an authentic teacher training environment for classroom management. The design of the VR training environment needs to ensure a low extraneous cognitive load.
Student teachers often struggle to keep track of everything that is happening in the classroom, and particularly to notice and respond when students cause disruptions. The complexity of the classroom environment is a potential contributing factor that has not been empirically tested. In this experimental study, we utilized a virtual reality (VR) classroom to examine whether classroom complexity affects the likelihood of student teachers noticing disruptions and how they react after noticing. Classroom complexity was operationalized as the number of disruptions and the existence of overlapping disruptions (multidimensionality) as well as the existence of parallel teaching tasks (simultaneity). Results showed that student teachers (n = 50) were less likely to notice the scripted disruptions, and also less likely to respond to the disruptions in a comprehensive and effortful manner when facing greater complexity. These results may have implications for both teacher training and the design of VR for training or research purpose. This study contributes to the field from two aspects: 1) it revealed how features of the classroom environment can affect student teachers' noticing of and reaction to disruptions; and 2) it extends the functionality of the VR environment-from a teacher training tool to a testbed of fundamental classroom processes that are difficult to manipulate in real-life.
Teachers frequently express stress associated with teaching in large classrooms. Despite the timehonored tradition in teacher stress research of treating class size as a job-related stressor, the underlying premise that class size directly impacts teachers' stress reactions remains untested. In this randomized controlled experiment targeted at preservice teachers, we utilized a standardized virtual reality (VR) classroom to examine whether class size (number of student avatars) directly affected physiological (heart rate) or psychological (subjective rating) stress reactions among 65 preservice teachers. Results from linear mixed-effects modeling (LMM) showed that class size significantly predicted both their physiological and psychological stress reactions in the simulated environment: Average heart rate and subjective stress ratings were both significantly higher in the large class size condition. Further investigations into the causes of this association has been proposed. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the effects of classroom features on preservice teachers' emotional experiences and well-being.
Change in test-taking motivation and its relationship to test performance in low-stakes assessments
(2017)
Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of low-stakes assessments (i.e., assessments without direct consequences for the test-takers) are being used to evaluate the quality of educational systems. Internationally, research has shown that low-stakes test results can be biased due to students’ low test-taking motivation and that students’ effort levels can vary throughout a testing session involving both cognitive and noncognitive tests. Thus, it is possible that students’ motivation varies throughout a single cognitive test and in turn affects test performance. This study examines the change in test-taking motivation within a 2-h cognitive low-stakes test and its association with test performance. Based on expectancy-value theory, we assessed three components of test-taking motivation (expectancy for success, value, and effort) and investigated its change. Using data from a large-scale student achievement study of German ninth-graders, we employed second-order latent growth modeling and structural equation modeling to predict test performance in mathematics. On average, students’ effort and perceived value of the test decreased, whereas expectancy for success remained stable. Overall, initial test-taking motivation was a better predictor of test performance than change in motivation. Only the variability of change in the expectancy component was positively related to test performance. The theoretical and practical implications for test practitioners are discussed.
Wages and wage dynamics directly affect individuals' and families' daily lives. In this article, we show how major theoretical branches of research on wages and inequality-that is, cumulative advantage (CA), human capital theory, and the lifespan perspective-can be integrated into a coherent statistical framework and analyzed with multilevel dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM). This opens up a new way to empirically investigate the mechanisms that drive growing inequality over time. We demonstrate the new approach by making use of longitudinal, representative U.S. data (NLSY-79). Analyses revealed fundamental between-person differences in both initial wages and autoregressive wage growth rates across the lifespan. Only 0.5% of the sample experienced a "strict" CA and unbounded wage growth, whereas most individuals revealed logarithmic wage growth over time. Adolescent intelligence and adult educational levels explained substantial heterogeneity in both parameters. We discuss how DSEM may help researchers study CA processes and related developmental dynamics, and we highlight the extensions and limitations of the DSEM framework.