The complexity and challenges of higher education (HE) in recent times have been widely discussed in HE literature, as have concomitant demands on university teachers and their professional learning needs. Much attention has been paid to new academics in these conversations, but less so to international PhD and post-doctoral researchers, who are…

This is a reflective essay on my own experience while learning and teaching in multicultural classroom in higher education in the UK. It emphasizes the indispensable relationship between the two fields of teaching--learning and communication processes in such heterogeneous environment. The essay focuses on how, in such context, teachers are key…

The advent of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has been altering the Higher Education landscape in recent years. This kind of courses are penetrating in an increasing number of universities, the majority of which do not seem to have intentions to stop offering them in the short term. Such courses are generating new educational scenarios to…

The paper considers teacher self-confidence, which emerged as a theme within a wider study into the influences upon new academics' development as teachers over time. Three interviews took place, over a two-year period, with 11 new teachers from a range of higher education institutions and discipline areas. The first phase of analysis was the…

Background: This paper compares the findings from a recent, large-scale UK-wide survey of primary teachers' confidence in teaching science with the results of a seminal report carried out 10 years ago by Wynne Harlen in Scotland. Recent reports from across the UK have indicated there are still serious concerns relating to primary teachers'…

Explored the effect of a teaching orientation for international teaching assistants (ITAs) on their teaching self-confidence. Surveys of ITAs before and after attending a 4-day orientation to teaching designed to improve interactive teaching skills suggested a positive effect of the orientation on their perceived level of self-confidence about…

A 12-item Self-Confidence in Teaching Scale was completed by 1,176 students entering a teacher preparation program and 861 teacher candidates completing their final semester. For the total sample, gender subsamples, and "entry"/"exit" subsamples, principal axis factor analyses yielded only one factor with an eigenvalue greater…

Two major Washington, DC medical training facilities conducted a project to train residents in clinical teaching skills. Residents receiving training were comparatively more confident as teachers, received more positive feedback on their teaching, and were judged by faculty, students, and peers as more effective. (Author/MSE)

Before practice teaching, 174 student teachers completed four self-esteem/self-concept measures. Their cooperating teachers rated their student teaching performance. Subjects with low self-esteem experienced more psychosomatic symptoms, more emotional stress, more days of absence, and were rated lower on general teaching competence, staff…

A study of 112 tenure-track university faculty found that maturity of personal and professional goals and self-assurance about personal competence correlated positively with better teaching evaluations and more numerous and comfortable advising relationships. The latter was also related positively to realistic self-appraisal. (Author/MSE)

Results of a survey of new and experienced part-time faculty at Britain's Open University concerning their attitudes toward learning teaching skills on the job give insights into the teachers' self-confidence and attitudes about their work. (MSE)

Brock University's (Ontario) Faculty of Education developed and conducted two pilot programs that extended teacher education over 2 academic years. This paper reports the results of a study that followed graduate teachers of the extended preparation program into their first professional year. The study explored participants' perceptions of their…

Articles on teaching effectiveness for foreign teaching assistants (TAs) are presented. Topics include: adapting to the U.S. academic environment, understanding the role of the TA and gaining confidence, anticipating undergraduates' expectations, improving communication skills, and teaching laboratory classes and recitation classes. Titles and…

This study examined whether a sequence of graduate field experiences integrated throughout a teacher training program would result in differentiated responses of competence and self-confidence. Participants were graduate students in a traditional preservice program (group 1) and those in a more accelerated program combining fieldwork with evening…

This study examined the professional self-perceptions and self-esteem of Hong Kong student teachers, investigating the impact of teaching practice. Participants were student teachers in their first or third year of full-time, 3-year courses at 1 of the 4 colleges of education in Hong Kong. A total of 424 student teachers completed a questionnaire…