Beliefs Of School Teachers Research Articles

Knowledge and Attitudes of School Teachers on Vaccination in Greece.

Few studies have assessed attitudes and beliefs of school teachers on vaccination. Our cross-sectional questionnaire-based prospective survey aims to explore vaccination coverage and relevant knowledge of school teachers in Greece. Out of the 217 respondents, 93% believe that vaccines offer protection but only 69.7% were completely vaccinated as per adults' National Immunization Schedule. In multivariate analysis, female gender, being a parent, beliefs that vaccination should be mandatory and imposing penalties to vaccine refusals are the main factors that account for teachers' “behavioral” variability towards vaccination. Strengthening the training of school teachers in health promotion should become a priority in the era of the highly anticipated vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).

An Analysis of Elementary School Teacher's Beliefs about Visual Attention and Gaze Distributions in Real Science Classes

An Analysis of Elementary School Teacher's Beliefs about Visual Attention and Gaze Distributions in Real Science Classes

FACTORS THAT PREVENT PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS FROM UTILIZING COMPUTERS AND OTHER NEW TECHNOLOGICAL MEANS IN THEIR WORKPLACE: THE CASE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE PREFECTURE OF MAGNESIA, GREECE

In order to understand and to promote the educational integration and utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), teachers need to be investigated in-depth, as substantial determinants of the educational process, and research interest ought to be concentrated on the factors that are inhibitory to their decisions concerning the pedagogical employment of ICT. Therefore, the present paper examines three interrelated factors that prevent primary school teachers from making use of computers and of other new technological means in their workplace. Through qualitative methodology and individual structured interviews, seven (7) teachers from public primary schools of equal number, in the prefecture of Magnesia, Greece, report a) the main problems encountered in the educational use of computers, b) their beliefs about the pedagogical value of the utilization of computers in the teaching process, and c) the “official policy” of their school of service regarding the usage of computers in instructional practice. According to the findings of this study, among others, a) the quantitatively and qualitatively inadequate or insufficient school infrastructure and technical support are ascertained, whilst highlighting b) the positive learning outcomes of the said use of computers, along with schoolteacher beliefs in favor of their confined employment. Finally, c) a range of existing school policy is observed, including the formal or informal encouragement of the voluntary use of computers, or the absence of corresponding guidelines. Overall, despite their limitations, the abovementioned results can be applied to pre-service and in-service teacher training, and in the formulation of the associated educational policy, taking into account the available national financial resources.

Teachers’ perception of epilepsy in Nigeria: a community-based study

The social problems encountered by schoolchildren with epilepsy as a result of negative attitudes and beliefs are enormous. Varying reports on teachers’ perception of epilepsy abound. Furthermore previous research has shown that urbanization and differences in socio-cultural environments could also influence teachers’ perception of epilepsy. A few studies have explored the knowledge, attitude and beliefs of schoolteachers towards epilepsy in urban schools in Nigeria. This study was undertaken to examine teachers’ perception of epilepsy in the rural communities with regards to knowledge, attitude and beliefs. A cross-sectional survey, using a self-administered questionnaire, was carried out among rural community primary and secondary schoolteachers in schools randomly selected from three local government areas in Enugu. One hundred and twenty five teachers correctly completed their questionnaires. Despite a fairly high level of education of the teachers, the mean overall score for correct response for knowledge was 59.2%. A majority of the teachers had negative attitudes and beliefs. None had received any form of health education on epilepsy. The level of education significantly affected various aspects of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. This study concluded that paucity of good knowledge of epilepsy probably resulted in negative attitude and beliefs despite the teachers’ high level of education.

Conceptions and Beliefs About “Good Teaching”: An integration of contrasting research areas

Previous research on conceptions of teaching comes from three distinct areas. The first is based on interviews with students and staff in higher education, the second involves the investigation of the conceptions and beliefs of schoolteachers, while the third derives from more general consideration of the nature of conceptions themselves. The empirical study reported here drew on these differing research areas to distinguish between beliefs and conceptions about good teaching and to explore their possible origins. The data came from student teachers, but the findings contribute to current thinking about conceptions of teaching in higher education. Bringing the empirical findings together with the three areas of previous research enables a more complete concept map to be drawn to summarise what may underlie the notion of “good teaching”.

Inconsistency Between a Beginning Elementary School Teacher's Mathematics Beliefs and Teaching Practice

This study investigates relationships between a beginning elementary school teacher's beliefs and mathematics teaching practices. A proposed model of relationships between beliefs and practice provided a conceptual framework for the examination of factors that influence beliefs, practice, and the level of inconsistency between them. Data were gathered over 10 months through audiotaped interviews, observations, document analysis, and a beliefs survey. Analyses included the categorization and comparison of beliefs and practice and the development of a revised model of relationships between beliefs and practice. Findings indicate that this teacher's beliefs and practice were not wholly consistent. Rather, her practice was more closely related to her beliefs about mathematics content than to her beliefs about mathematics pedagogy. Her beliefs about mathematics content were highly influenced by her own experiences as a student and her beliefs about mathematics pedagogy were primarily influenced by her own teaching practice. However, the extent to which her teacher preparation program influenced either her beliefs or practice was limited.