Challenging teacher education: a series of invited papers for the asia-pacific journal of teacher education

Change Processes and Strategies at the Local Level

The Influence of Experience on the Beginning Teacher

Teachers' Sense of Efficacy: An Important Factor in School Improvement

The primary reference employed in this paper is to view schools as social organizations. Such a perspective calls attention to the structure of the social relations in the school as well as to norms, values, and other orientations shared by school personnel. The present study builds upon earlier research in which pupil control was seen as a central feature of the organizational life of schools.2 A major concern was the socialization of teachers with regard to pupil control ideology. It was hypothesized that as teachers were absorbed into the teacher subculture their pupil control ideology would become more custodial. Cross-sectional data confirmed the prediction that more experienced teachers would be more custodial than less experienced teachers.3 Subsequent longitudinal data on a sample of beginning teachers also showed a significant increase in the custodialism of pupil control ideology both after the student teaching experience and again after the first year of teaching.4 The purpose of this inquiry is to reexamine the pupil control ideology of the same sample of beginning teachers as they acquired their second year of teaching experience. Before the empirical phase of this investigation is reported, it seems appropriate to review the conceptual framework and rationale from which the major hypothesis was developed.

Stage 1: Survival During Stage 1, which may last throughout the first full year of teaching, the teacher's main concern is whether she can survive. This preoccupation with survival may be expressed in questions the teacher asks: "Can I get through the day in one piece? Without losing a child? Can I make it until the end of the week? Until the next vacation? Can I really do this kind of work day after day? Will I be accepted by my colleagues?" Such questions are well expressed in Ryan's enlightening collection of accounts of first-year teaching experiences (3).

? 1978 by The University of Chicago. 0013-5984/78/7803-0010$00.88 Pupils who fall behind their classmates academically fall further behind each year they remain in school (1). Part of the explanation for their continuing failure to keep pace with other pupils may lie in the fact that they spend less time on academic tasks than other pupils. The reason for such self-defeating behavior may be the desire to maintain self-esteem. If a pupil expends less effort on schoolwork than the average pupil, any resulting failure may be easier to accept. Pupils who try but fail may conclude that they do not have the ability to succeed. Pupils' involvement in tasks would seem to be a necessary condition for school achievement. If pupils are to master material, they must engage in it and react to it-read, make response. Indeed there are data to suggest that achievement is related to time for learning and opportunity to learn (2, 3). Similarly, there are data to suggest that learning is also positively related to low rates of time lost because of poor management of classrooms, for example, lengthy transitions (4). The major purpose of the present study was to find out whether pupil involvement was different for high, middle, and low achievers. Also, we wanted to find out whether pupils generally were more involved in some subjects than in others and whether certain types of classroom activities were associated with higher or with lower levels of pupil involvement. We selected two different types of schools to find out whether pupils' characteristics affect involvement. School 1

The Elementary School Journal Volume 81, Number 1 ? 1980 by The University of Chicago 0013-5984/81/8101-0008$0o1.00 In colleges and universities across the country, prospective and practicing teachers and administrators take courses on planning-curriculum-planning and instructional planning. During the courses, teachers and administrators usually study an objectives-first model of curriculumplanning. This model has four steps. Planners are expected to 1. Formulate objectives 2. Choose appropriate learning activities

An Experimental Study of Effective Teaching in First-Grade Reading Groups

The Elementary School Journal Volume 83, Number 2 ? 1982 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 001 3-5984183/8302-0009$01o.00 Teachers approach their instructional tasks with a variety of perspectives and strategies that emphasize certain aspects of teaching and deemphasize others. For example, some teachers teach language skills using organized games, while other teachers teach the same skills by direct instruction. Teachers adopt different approaches to the same subject matter partly because their teaching situations differ. Their students may have different learning problems or their classrooms may have varied resources and facilities. Even in the

With the release of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 results in late 2004, Finland became the focus of international admiration. Soon after the study’s release, scholars, journalists, and government officials from around the world flocked to the small Nordic nation in search of the “secret” of its educational accomplishment (Asahi News 2002). While Finland enjoyed international acclaim, Japan—the former exemplar of educational excellence—was in the midst of serious soul-searching about its own educational system. The Japanese “academic achievement crisis debate” (gakuryoku teika ronsō) erupted in the late 1990s, generating a national moral panic over declining academic performance (see Takayama 2007). The PISA 2003 results were released at the peak of this controversy, and Japan’s “drop” in ranking in some areas from PISA 2000 to PISA 2003 led many observers to believe that the suspected scholastic crisis had been confirmed (see Takayama 2008c). In the aftermath of the PISA shock, Japanese journalists, scholars, and government officials followed the international trend, traveling to Finland in search of the Finnish secret (Fujita 2005). Meanwhile, various Japanese professional educational associations invited Finnish education scholars and former and incumbent ministers of education to learn from the world’s best education system (Asahi News 2005b; Tanaka 2005b; Kitagawa 2006 In addition, many individuals, organizations, and publishers were quick to capitalize on the “Finnish boom” (Watanabe 2005, 12). Tatsuo Kitagawa, formerly of the Japanese embassy in Helsinki and presently the chairperson of the Finnish Method Promotion Association (Finrando Mesoddo Fukyū Kyōkai) translated a series of literacy textbooks used in Finnish schools, selling more than 100,000 copies (Yomiuri News 2007b). Kitagawa and other experts

Perhaps the most vigorous movement in administration in recent years has been directed toward the development of a comprehensive theory capable of generating both hypotheses for guiding research and principles for guiding practice. Despite many specific advances in special areas, such as hospital administration, public administration, business administraton, and educational administration, there still is no general conceptual framework for systematizing and interrelating our knowledge within and among these areas. It is still impossible to speak of administration in terms that would be acceptable to, or for that matter even readily understandable by, students and practitioners in the several special fields. This failure to conceptualize administration on a general theoretical level has been a major obstacle to the development of administration as a rigorous discipline, and the elaboration of theory is accordingly receiving increased attention both in "research" and "applied" administrative settings. The purpose of the present paper is twofold: (a) to describe a socio-psychological theory of social behavior having broad application to the area of administration and (b) to illustrate the application of the theory to major issues in administration. The four major issues considered here are: the problem of institutional and individual conflict; the problem of staff effectiveness, efficiency, and satis-

School Reform: The District Policy Implications of the Effective Schools Literature

This paper presents comparative research which examines issues in teaching Indigenous primary school students in Australia and the USA. It portrays the dilemmas for teachers and students when the curriculum is dominated by a monocultural, Eurocentric ethos. It then describes schools that have moved towards an alternative curriculum. In discussing postcolonial challenges for teacher educators and education policy makers arising out of these issues, the paper continues the debate about postcolonial approaches to cross-cultural and anti-racist education for Indigenous children in their community contexts. It argues that elements for significant educational change exist in both countries, and discusses how these changes need to be expanded and systematised to achieve a culturally powerful curriculum in Indigenous schools.

The Politics and Economics of Comparison

The Elementary School Journal Volume 86, Number S O 1986 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0013-5984/86/8603-0002$01.00 Teachers have strong opinions about parent involvement. Some believe that they can be effective only if they obtain parental assistance on learning activities at home. Others believe that their professional status is in jeopardy if parents are involved in activities that are typically the teachers' responsibilities. The different philosophies and beliefs of teachers reflect the two main, opposing theories of school and family relations. One perspective emphasizes the inherent incompatibility, competition, and conflict between families and schools and supports the separation of the two institutions (Parsons, 1959; Waller, 1932; Weber, 1947). It assumes that school bureaucracies and family organizations are directed, respectively, by educators and parents, who can best fulfill their different goals, roles, and responsibilities independently. Thus, these distinct goals are achieved most efficiently and effectively when teachers maintain their professional, general standards and judgments about the children in their classrooms and when parents maintain their personal, particularistic standards and judgments about their children at home.