Female High School Teachers Research Articles

An Evaluation of the Iranian Junior High School English Textbooks

With the advent of communicative language teaching, textbook evaluation has received a considerable attention over the last two decades. However, only a few studies have been conducted on the evaluation of newly- developed textbooks for junior high schools in Iran; therefore, this paper aimed to evaluate the Iranian junior high school new textbook Prospect and its old version Right Path to English1 (RPE1) in order to find out to what extent these textbooks are based on communicative purposes based on teachers' perceptions. To do so, One hundred male and female English junior high school teachers ranging from 2 to 30 years of teaching experience took part in this study. The textbooks were analyzed based on Razmjoo (2010) questionnaire including 41-items which includes six criteria, namely language components, task, activities, exercises, language skills, teacher's manual, general consideration and critical discourse analysis features. The findings of the research revealed that Prospect1 followed the communicative language teaching approach and fulfills students' needs. Conversely, the old version did not follow communicative language teaching approach because speaking and listening skills are neglected. In the light of the results gained, some practical implications are presented might be of use to the teachers, syllabus designers and materials developers.

Towards a Pedagogy for the Application of Empathy in Culturally Diverse Classrooms

Empathy is theorized to improve the teaching effectiveness of teachers in urban and multicultural classroom settings. However, the field has few models useful for training and preparing teachers to cultivate empathy as a professional disposition. This study examines the academic, behavioral, and social/relational interactions of four White female high school teachers with their Black male students. Findings suggest that empathy, as a professional disposition applied by teachers to negotiate interactions with students, requires two phases of implementation. Phase 1 is the acquisition of new knowledge. Phase 2 is the strategic negotiation of that knowledge and interpretation of student feedback to make the necessary pedagogic adjustments in subsequent student–teacher interactions. Implications for teacher education and professional development are discussed.

“We’ve Got to Stick to the Curriculum, Right?” An Exploration of Female High School Physical Educators’ Beliefs about Competition in Their Classes

In order to examine physical educators’ personal beliefs about competition, seven female high school teachers took part in individual interviews. Participants discussed their personal beliefs concerning competition, and what they thought their female students believed about competition. Further, they described their pedagogical decision-making in light of these beliefs. Themes emerging from the interviews indicated these teachers believed competition meant experiences that demanded intensity, focus, best performance, skill, and winning. They also believed that students understood competition only to mean winning or losing. Wide variations in skill competency led teachers to highlight participation and fun and downplay competition in class. These pedagogical responses and their implications for physical education teacher educators, student teachers, and practicing physical educators are discussed.

Effects of Labels and Personal Contact on Teachers' Attitudes Toward Students With Special Needs

This study examined the effects of labeling and personal contact on teachers' attitudes toward low-achieving students. Seventy-two female high school teachers participated in the study. One half of the teachers (n = 36) had contact with low-achieving students who were attending special classes in which they were preparing for the matriculation exams, whereas the other one half had no contact with these students. Teachers' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral attitudes toward either a hypothetical "student in a special class" or a hypothetical "low-achieving student in a regular class" were evaluated by semantic differential scales. A multivariate repeated measures analysis of variance yielded a nonsignificant main effect for group membership (i.e., teachers with vs. without contact), a significant main effect of attitude target (i.e., students who attended regular vs. special classes), and a significant interaction effect. Post hoc comparisons revealed that (a) teachers without contact expressed more positive cognitive and emotional attitudes toward students in special classes than toward students in regular classes; (b) teachers with contact did not express different attitudes toward the 2 target groups of students; (c) teachers without contact expressed more positive cognitive, behavioral, and emotional attitudes toward students in special classes than did the teachers with contact; and (d) the 2 groups of teachers did not differ in their attitudes toward the regular class students. The results indicated that the label of the special class had a positive effect on teachers' attitudes, but that contact had a negative effect.

Stress Coping Behavior and Its Related Factors by Gender Differences in School Teachers: Especially Awareness of Duties, Type A Behavior, and Depression.

Focusing attention on gender differences in stress and stress coping behavior in school teachers, attempts were made to clarify their relationship to awareness of duties, the Type A behavior and depression which presents problems with respect to adaptation to their duties. Twelve elementary and 12 junior high schools in Okinawa Prefecture were selected at random, and was performed in 331 teachers (128 male and 203 female) who answered all questions listed in the coping inventory for stressful situations (CISS). 1) Task-oriented coping showed a significant positive correlation with age in both male and female. It was higher in married persons than in unmarried persons in both male and female, and was highest in married male. Emotion-oriented coping was significantly higher in female than in male and also in female elementary school teachers than female junior high school teachers. Avoidance-oriented coping was significant higher in female than in male, and showed a significant negative correlation with age regardless of gender. It was higher in unmarried female, class teachers, and female in good health. 2) The factors of busyness and disharmony related to awareness of duties were significantly higher in female. 3) Multiple regression analysis by sex was performed using factors showing a significant correlation with coping behavior as independent variables and each coping behavior as dependent variables. On each coping behavior, it may be related to some factors in both male and female, while it is shown by the results stress-coping behavior shows gender differences. The results of the present study suggest it is necessary to cope with health problems in teachers in consideration of their gender differences and that social support strategies, including those at workplace, are important to prevent or solve mental and physical health problems.

Teacher Perspectives on the Role of Exercise as a Management Tool in Physical Education

This study explored the perspectives of two experienced female high school teachers regarding their use of exercise as a management tool. The participants were specifically chosen to embody one of two positions: exercise was an appropriate and frequent strategy for managing student misbehavior, or an inappropriate and unused strategy. A qualitative approach was adopted, and multiple forms of data were obtained and analyzed thematically. Two concepts on the nature of the sport participation experience were adapted to frame teacher perspectives on the use of exercise to manage student misbehavior. It is suggested that both participants integrated their prior sport experiences into an evolving life structure and subsequently constructed a management style that was consistent with that structure. Prior experiences involving power and performance sports helped to rationalize the use of exercise to manage student misbehavior. In contrast, prior experiences associated with pleasure and participation sports influenced the belief that exercise was an inappropriate strategy for managing student misbehavior.

Burnout and stress, depression and self-esteem of teachers.

33 teachers from one institutional school setting and 59 teachers from three north central school districts volunteered to complete and return Beck's Depression Scale, the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory--Adult Form, Stress Profile for Teachers, and the Staff Burnout Scale for Mental Health Professionals. Analysis of variance (2 x 2) for teaching level (grade and high school) by sex showed those teaching regular classrooms is grade school experienced less burnout and stress than did high school teachers. There was no sex difference. In the institutional setting there was a significant difference on burnout scores between men and women who taught high school; their scores were higher than those of the male grade school teachers. Burnout lie scores were also significantly higher for female high school teachers than for both male and female grade school teachers. Scores on stress were significantly higher for male high school teachers than for both female high school teachers and male grade school teachers.

TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR: A CROSS‐CULTURAL STUDY BETWEEN GERMANY AND SOUTH KOREA

Summary. This study provides a comparison of teachers' perceptions of problem behaviour in a European and an Asian culture. A total of 246 female and male junior high school teachers in Munich (Germany) and in Seoul (South Korea) rated 106 items concerning possible problem behaviour of boys or girls. Principal‐component‐analysis identified three patterns of perceived problem behaviour: (1) dissocial‐aggressive behaviour, (2) withdrawal behaviour, and (3) nonconformist behaviour. Dissocial‐aggressive behaviour is rated as serious in both cultures, but in Germany more so than in South Korea. Withdrawal behaviour is perceived as less serious in both cultures. A remarkable difference is noted in the ratings of non‐conformist behaviour. German teachers find no problem here, while Korean teachers rate these behaviours as problematic. Gender influences, of either the sex of teacher or of student, could not be identified.

Sex-Typed Occupational Roles and Self-Image among Teachers

Specific levels within the teaching profession are stereotypically perceived to be sex-typed. To investigate the effects of cross-sex occupational choices on self-image, 60 teachers were given a modified version of the Bern Sex Role Inventory. Analysis of scores on Bern's scale showed male preschool teachers less masculine and more feminine than male high school teachers, and female high school teachers more masculine and less feminine than female preschool teachers.

Jobs, gender, and self‐efficacy in multiple contexts

This paper focuses on the social psychological correlates of being in an occupation that is sex‐typed against one's own gender‐i.e., cross‐sex incumbency in sex‐typed occupations. Male and female high school teachers and university professors are compared in terms of global self‐esteem as well as in three context‐specific dimensions of self‐efficacy. While no differences in global self‐esteem were revealed, a number of significant differences did emerge in comparisons of self‐efficacy in specific contexts. Our data reveal no uniform effects of cross‐sex incumbency. Male high school teachers, however, did exhibit signs of decreased occupational self‐efficacy, perhaps as a result of the previous female domination of that occupation. Female professors, on the other hand, reported high levels of self‐efficacy on all dimensions. The paper concludes with two hypotheses for further empirical examination, and suggests tht self‐esteem be conceptualized as a multidimensional construct.

Negative and positive life experience among men and women in selected occupations, symptom awareness and visits to the doctor

The research reported in this paper had two major aims: firstly, to investigate the distribution of negative and positive life experience among men and women in selected occupations, in an Australian context; secondly, to examine the relationship between quality of life experience and symptom awareness as well as the relationship between both of these and medical help-seeking. Negative life experience was assumed to exist in case of discrepancies between a person's “need-values” (seen as a mixture of cultural values, psychological need-dispositions and “basic human needs”) and their subjectively perceived attainment. Positive life experience was taken to mean high degrees of “need-value” satisfaction. Questionnaires were completed by 799 subjects including male and female highschool teachers, factory and clerical workers, and men in managerial and other higher level positions in industry. Lack of need-value attainment (or the predominance of negative over positive experiences) was lowest among the men in these latter groups. Semiskilled women were in the most disadvantaged position and others occupied the middle range. Teachers ranked second to semiskilled women in terms of negative experience in their work situation, but they were more favorably placed with regard to “life-in-general”. Among both men and women, quality of life experience was significantly related to symptom awareness and to medical help-seeking, though help-seeking was more strongly related to symptom awareness than to life experience scores. Women as a group had high symptom levels more frequently than men with comparable life experience measures, and they sought medical help more often than men when life experience and symptom scores were held constant, an observation which may be attributed to sex role learning. Symptom and help-seeking levels continued to vary in the expected direction when controlling for occupation, though not always significantly. At the same time, some tendencies were group-specific and should be explored further.

Effects of Uniforms on Perceptions of Pictures of Athletes

Four pairs of pictures of female athletes in or out of uniform were rated on a 7-point scale by 271 female high school students and 26 female high school teachers on the dimensions of professionalism, team spirit, coordination, natural ability, over-all ability and muscular strength. Athletes were rated more favorably when dressed in uniforms by both groups on all dimensions, although several of the comparisons failed to reach statistical significance. The strongest effects were found for the variables of total score, over-all ability, professionalism and team spirit; the weakest effects were for coordination, muscular strength and natural ability.