Teachers’ understanding of school connectedness : implications for the development and implementation of school based injury prevention strategies

Aim: Worldwide, injury is the leading cause of death and disability for young people. Injuries among young people are commonly associated with risk taking behaviour, including violence and transport risks, which often occur in the context of alcohol use. The school environment has been identified as having a significant role in shaping adolescent behaviour. In particular, school connectedness, the degree to which adolescents feel that they belong and are accepted at school, has been shown to be an important protective factor. Strategies for increasing school connectedness may therefore be effective in reducing risk taking and associated injury. Prior to developing connectedness strategies, it is important to understand the perspectives of those in the school regarding the construct and how it is realised in the school context. The aim of this research was to understand teachers’ perspectives of school connectedness, the strategies they employ to connect with students, and their perceptions of school connectedness as a strategy for risk taking and injury prevention. Method: In depth interviews of approximately 45 minutes duration were conducted with 13 Health and PE teachers and support staff from 2 high schools in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Additionally, 6 focus group workshop discussions were held with 35 Education department employees (5-6 per group), including teachers from 15 Southeast Queensland high schools. Results: Participants were found to place strong importance on the development of connectedness among students, including those at risk for problem behaviour. Strategies used to promote connectedness included building trust, taking an interest in each student and being available to talk to, and finding something positive for students to succeed at. Teachers identified strategies as being related to decreased risk taking behavior. Teacher training on school connectedness was perceived as an important and useful inclusion in a school based injury prevention program. Conclusions: The established link between increased school connectedness and decreased problem behaviour has implications for school based strategies designed to decrease adolescent risk taking behaviour and associated injury. Targeting school connectedness as a point of intervention, in conjunction with individual attitude and behaviour change programs, may be an effective injury prevention strategy.

Pre-service teacher education and the development of middle school teacher identity : an exploratory study

This research study investigated the factors that influenced the development of teacher identity in a small cohort of mature-aged graduate pre-service teachers over the course of a one-year Graduate Diploma program (Middle Years). It sought to illuminate the social and relational dynamics of these pre-service teachers’ experiences as they began new ways of being and learning during a newly introduced one-year Graduate Diploma program. A relational-ontological perspective underpinned the relational-cultural framework that was applied in a workshop program as an integral part of this research. A relational-ontological perspective suggests that the development of teacher identity is to be construed more as an ontological process than an epistemological one. Its focus is more on questions surrounding the person and their ‘becoming’ a teacher than about the knowledge they have or will come to have. Hence, drawing on work by researchers such as Alsup (2006), Gilligan, (1982), Isaacs, (2007), Miller (1976), Noddings, (2005), Stout (2001), and Taylor, (1989), teacher identity was defined as an individual pre-service teacher’s unique sense of self as a teacher that included his or her beliefs about teaching and learning (Alsup, 2006; Stout, 2001; Walkington, 2005). Case-study was the preferred methodology within which this research project was framed, and narrative research was used as a method to document the way teacher identity was shaped and negotiated in discursive environments such as teacher education programs, prior experiences, classroom settings and the practicum. The data that was collected included student narratives, student email written reflections, and focus group dialogue. The narrative approach applied in this research context provided the depth of data needed to understand the nature of the mature-aged pre-service teachers’ emerging teacher identities and experiences in the graduate diploma program. Findings indicated that most of the mature-aged graduate pre-service teachers came in to the one-year graduate diploma program with a strong sense of personal and professional selves and well-established reasons why they had chosen to teach Middle Years. Their choice of program involved an expectation of support and welcome to a middle-school community and culture. Two critical issues that emerged from the pre-service teachers’ narratives were the importance they placed on the human support including the affirmation of themselves and their emerging teacher identities. Evidence from this study suggests that the lack of recognition of preservice teachers’ personal and professional selves during the graduate diploma program inhibited the development of a positive middle-school teacher identity. However, a workshop program developed for the participants in this research and addressing a range of practical concerns to beginning teachers offered them a space where they felt both a sense of belonging to a community and where their thoughts and beliefs were recognized and valued. Thus, the workshops provided participants with the positive social and relational dynamics necessary to support them in their developing teacher identities. The overall findings of this research study strongly indicate a need for a relational support structure based on a relational-ontological perspective to be built into the overall course structure of Graduate Pre-service Diplomas in Education to support the development of teacher identity. Such a support structure acknowledges that the pre-service teacher’s learning and formation is socially embedded, relational, and a continual, lifelong process.

Visual arts, technology and education : how can teaching and learning in high school visual arts classrooms be enriched by the use of computer technology?

Whilst a variety of studies has appeared over the last decade addressing the gap between the potential promised by computers and the reality experienced in the classroom by teachers and students, few have specifically addressed the situation as it pertains to the visual arts classroom. The aim of this study was to explore the reality of the classroom use of computers for three visual arts highschool teachers and determine how computer technology might enrich visual arts teaching and learning. An action research approach was employed to enable the researcher to understand the situation from the teachers' points of view while contributing to their professional practice. The wider social context surrounding this study is characterised by an increase in visual communications brought about by rapid advances in computer technology. The powerful combination of visual imagery and computer technology is illustrated by continuing developments in the print, film and television industries. In particular, the recent growth of interactive multimedia epitomises this combination and is significant to this study as it represents a new form of publishing of great interest to educators and artists alike. In this social context, visual arts education has a significant role to play. By cultivating a critical awareness of the implications of technology use and promoting a creative approach to the application of computer technology within the visual arts, visual arts education is in a position to provide an essential service to students who will leave high school to participate in a visual information age as both consumers and producers.

Mentoring experiences as professional development for leaders in environmental education : the cascade of influence

Environmental education is a field which has only come of age since the late nineteen sixties. While its content and practice have been widely debated and researched, its leadership has been minimally studied and, therefore, is only partially understood. The role of mentoring in the development of leaders has been alluded to, but has attracted scant research. Therefore, this study explores the importance of mentoring during the personal and professional development of leaders in environmental education. Four major research questions were investigated. Firstly, have leaders been men to red during their involvement with environmental education? Secondly, when and how has that mentoring taken place? Thirdly, what was the personal and professional effectiveness of the mentoring relationship? Fourthly, is there any continuation of the mentoring process which might be appropriate for professional development within the field of environmental education? Leaders were solicited from a broad field of environmental educators including teachers, administrators, academics, natural resource personnel, business and community persons. They had to be recognized as active leaders across several environmental education networks. The research elicited qualitative and quantitative survey data from fifty seven persons in Queensland, Australia and Colorado, USA. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted with selected leaders who had nominated their mentors. This led to a further thirteen 'linked interviews' with some of the mentors' mentors and new mentorees. The interview data is presented as four cases reflecting pairs, triads, chains and webs of relationships- a major finding of the research process. The analysis of the data from the interviews and the surveys was conducted according to a grounded theory approach and was facilitated by NUD.IST, a computer program for non-numerical text analysis. The findings of the study revealed many variations on the classical mentoring patterns found in the literature. Gender and age were not seen as mportant factors, as there were examples of contemporaries in age, older men to younger women, older women to younger men, and women to women. Personal compatibility, professional respect and philosophical congruence were critical. Mentoring was initiated from early, mid and late career stages with the average length of the relationship being fourteen years. There was seldom an example of the mentoree using the mentor for hierarchical career climbing, although frequent career changes were made. However, leadership actions were found to increase after the intervention of a mentoring relationship. Three major categories of informal mentoring were revealed - perceived,acknowledged and deliberate. Further analysis led to the evolution of the core concept, a 'cascade of influence'. The major finding of this study was that this sample of leaders, mentors and new mentorees moved from the perception of having been mentored to the acknowledgment of these relationships and an affirmation of their efficacy for both personal and professional growth. Hence, the participants were more likely to continue future mentoring, not as a serendipitous happening, but through a deliberate choice. Heightened awareness and more frequent 'cascading' of mentoring have positive implications for the professional development of future leaders in environmental education in both formal and informal settings. Effective mentoring in environmental education does not seek to create 'clones' of the mentors, but rather to foster the development of autonomous mentorees who share a philosophical grounding. It is a deliberate invitation to 'join the clan'.

Fiji pre-service primary teachers' understanding of physical science : a cultural perspective

Science and technology are promoted as major contributors to national development. Consequently, improved science education has been placed high on the agenda of tasks to be tackled in many developing countries, although progress has often been limited. In fact there have been claims that the enormous investment in teaching science in developing countries has basically failed, with many reports of how efforts to teach science in developing countries often result in rote learning of strange concepts, mere copying of factual information, and a general lack of understanding on the part of local students. These generalisations can be applied to science education in Fiji. Muralidhar (1989) has described a situation in which upper primary and middle school students in Fiji were given little opportunity to engage in practical work; an extremely didactic form of teacher exposition was the predominant method of instruction during science lessons. He concluded that amongst other things, teachers' limited understanding, particularly of aspects of physical science, resulted in their rigid adherence to the text book or the omission of certain activities or topics. Although many of the problems associated with science education in developing countries have been documented, few attempts have been made to understand how non-Western students might better learn science. This study addresses the issue of Fiji pre-service primary teachers' understanding of a key aspect of physical science, namely, matter and how it changes, and their responses to learning experiences based on a constructivist epistemology. Initial interviews were used to probe pre-service primary teachers' understanding of this domain of science. The data were analysed to identify students' alternative and scientific conceptions. These conceptions were then used to construct Concept Profile Inventories (CPI) which allowed for qualitative comparison of the concepts of the two ethnic groups who took part in the study. This phase of the study also provided some insight into the interaction of scientific information and traditional beliefs in non-Western societies. A quantitative comparison of the groups' conceptions was conducted using a Science Concept Survey instrument developed from the CPis. These data provided considerable insight into the aspects of matter where the pre-service teachers' understanding was particularly weak. On the basis of these preliminary findings, a six-week teaching program aimed at improving the students' understanding of matter was implemented in an experimental design with a group of students. The intervention involved elements of pedagogy such as the use of analogies and concept maps which were novel to most of those who took part. At the conclusion of the teaching programme, the learning outcomes of the experimental group were compared with those of a control group taught in a more traditional manner. These outcomes were assessed quantitatively by means of pre- and post-tests and a delayed post-test, and qualitatively using an interview protocol. The students' views on the various teaching strategies used with the experimental group were also sought. The findings indicate that in the domain of matter little variation exists in the alternative conceptions held by Fijian and Indian students suggesting that cultural influences may be minimal in their construction. Furthermore, the teaching strategies implemented with the experimental group of students, although largely derived from Western research, showed considerable promise in the context of Fiji, where they appeared to be effective in improving the understanding of students from different cultural backgrounds. These outcomes may be of significance to those involved in teacher education and curriculum development in other developing countries.