Increased interest in teacher cognition has led to new ways of explorating teachers' thoughts and beliefs. The study described here combines elements of two previous studies to make comparisons among similes and simile categories and approaches to classroom teaching. The purpose of the study was to determine the relation between support for…

Recently, psychologists have investigated self-efficacy as it relates to teaching and learning. This study used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM)--a powerful new technique for assessing multilevel data--to examine the effects on self-efficacy of a school-wide effort to value task-mastery and learning over relative ability and competition. The…

Many preservice teachers confront their own lack of confidence and actual mathematics phobia for the first time in their math procedures classes. This study was designed to explore the application of a confluent education intervention, a model based on the premise that all learning is accompanied by an affective as well as a cognitive component,…

This paper presents results of a study that examined the effect of different levels of autonomy upon intrinsic goal orientation, task value, self-efficacy, test anxiety, use of metacognitive strategies, and performance in the college classroom. Study participants were 365 college students from 4 institutions in 10 classrooms: 3 biology (n=162); 3…

This study evaluated journals of the classroom experiences of 35 student teachers at Mississippi State University--Meridian Campus, employing both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The journals were assigned as a means of gaining a perspective of the student teachers' planning and implementation of lessons, their approach to discipline, their…

The strategies examinees employ when making item difficulty level choices in self-adapted computerized testing were investigated. Subjects were 148 college students (88 females and 60 males) in an introductory statistics course. The primary instrument was a self-adapted computerized algebra test used to measure student readiness for the statistics…

One important line of inquiry in educational psychology involves the study of change of individuals' cognitive-motivational processes. The conjunctive use of longitudinal data with latent growth curve modeling procedures has, for example, allowed researchers to identify initial levels and to trace trajectories of theoretical variables such as…

This study looked at teachers in their 2nd-4th years of teaching to compare their professional activities with what current studies indicate are teacher leadership behaviors and characteristics. The study sought to determine whether the University of Southern California's teacher preparation program taught the professional skills that elementary…

This study investigated the relationship between several components of teacher burnout and various professional factors. Professional factors included professional qualifications, teaching level, professional growth, professional commitment, and role efficacy. Components of teacher burnout included development of negative attitudes toward students…

This study tested the factorial validity of the Teacher Interpersonal Self-Efficacy Scale, which measures teachers' self-efficacy beliefs regarding the interpersonal domain of their functioning. The scale includes three subscales to assess teacher perceived self-efficacy in (1) managing student behavior in the classroom, (2) eliciting support from…

This study examined academic success, intrinsic motivation, and student perceptions as indicators of engagement in a multi-ethnic sample of secondary school students. A particular interest was in examining differences in student perceptions across middle and high school, and another focus was examining students' perceptions of the school's concern…

Educational researchers have employed various self-efficacy instruments in a wide spectrum of disciplines and academic settings. However, self-efficacy measures specific to the online environment have not been developed yet. This paper provides a brief history of the online environment and discusses the development and validation of an instrument…

Work process change is a popular approach to performance improvement in contemporary organizations. Variables that serve as leading indicators of employee performance when process changes take place include employee learning, self-efficacy beliefs, learning transfer climate, and goal commitment. Two critical concerns exist when implementing…

This research investigated the impact of combining two approaches to inservice teacher education (action research and train the trainer) on teacher attitudes and practices. The inservice developed assessment approaches aligned with cooperative learning instructional approaches. Teachers were introduced to a model of collaborative assessment aimed…

This paper reports on a longitudinal case study of an elementary teacher during her transition from preservice to inservice teaching. Bandura's (1995) concept of self-efficacy belief is used as a framework for presenting the findings of the study. The subject's experiences in science teaching provided information about her competency as a teacher,…