TEACHING AND LEARNING IN MULTIGRADE CLASSROOMS: WHAT TEACHERS SAY
Catherine Mulryan-Kyne
St Patrick’s College, Dublin
This paper presents the results of an exploratory study which examined the perceptions and beliefs of 75 teachers regarding four-grade multigrade classes in two-teacher schools. The study investigated the degree to which positive and negative perceptions of the multigrade setting which had been identified in research elsewhere were common in the Irish context. Findings were similar to those of previous studies for the most part. However, Irish teachers identified considerably more positive features of multigrade teaching.
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A SURVEY OF MATHEMATICS TEACHERS IN IRELAND
Judith Cosgrove, Gerry Shiel, Elizabeth Oldham, and Nick Sofroniou
Educational Research Centre, St Patrick’s College, Dublin
Teachers of mathematics (n=856) in schools participating in PISA 2003 were administered a questionnaire which asked them about their qualifications and teaching experience, instructional emphasis placed on aspects of Junior Certificate mathematics and PISA mathematics, their general attitudes towards mathematics and calculator usage, and usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Results indicate that over 90% of teachers held a Higher Diploma in Education, but that almost 28% studied degree courses which did not include mathematics as a major component. The incidence of ICT usage, by both teachers and students, during mathematics classes is low. Although teachers’ reports of instructional activities suggest a low emphasis on transfer of mathematical knowledge to real-life situations, there is tentative evidence, when teachers’ responses are compared with those in TIMSS 1995, of a slight decrease in the belief that mathematics is primarily an abstract subject. Teachers’ reports of the emphasis given to aspects of the Junior Certificate mathematics syllabus indicate that assessment objectives that are assessed in the Junior Certificate Examination receive higher instructional emphasis than objectives which are not assessed. Some of the areas receiving low emphasis would appear to be important for success in a more literacy-based, contextualized assessment of mathematics such as PISA.
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LECTURERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF MATURE STUDENTS IN INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY
Marie Kelly
While lecturers in Institutes of Technology have traditionally designed courses, and employed teaching approaches and strategies and methods of assessment for students who are 18 years of age and have just completed the Leaving Certificate, they are now having to cater for increasing numbers of mature students whose approaches to learning and pedagogical needs are quite distinct from the mainstream student. A study in Institutes of Technology, using semi-structured interviews, was undertaken to ascertain the level of understanding and insight lecturers have of mature students and how their pedagogical approach may have been extended to include them in the learning environment. While respondents revealed a high level of awareness of the needs of mature students, reflecting many of the theories and approaches expounded by educational theorists, the growing number of such students in mainstream classes was found to have presented many unprecedented challenges for which little or no provision had been made in terms of staff development.
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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIOECONOMIC CONTEXT, GENDER, AND ACHIEVEMENT
Nick Sofroniou, Peter Archer, and Susan Weir
Educational Research Centre, St Patrick’s College, Dublin
The purpose of the study described in this paper was to investigate the existence of a social context effect, that is, the hypothesis that student achievement is negatively affected by the presence of increasing densities of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The study used achievement data extracted from national assessments of reading in 1998 and Mathematics in 1999 at primary level, and junior Certificate Examination (JCE) results in English and Mathematics in 1998. Primary-level results were converted to scale scores, and JCE grades to ‚Äòperformance scores’. The presence or absence of a family medical card was used as a measure of student socioeconomic background. In multilevel models, the contribution of student- and school-level variables to achievement was evaluated while adjusting for the effect of other variables. For each of the datasets, substantial relationships were found between individual achievement and the percentage of students in the school from families which held a medical card, over and above the relationship between achievement and family possession of a medical card. When all three variables (whether the student’s family had a medical card, student gender, and the percentage of students in the school from families with a medical card) are included, the models explain between 41.2% and 58.8% of the between-school variance components (comprising 17% and 25-27% of the total variance in achievement scores sat primary and post-primary levels respectively). The fitted values from the models generated from all three datasets suggest that the achievement measures decline in a continual and linear manner as the percentage of students in the school from families holding medical cards increases. The steeper slopes for boys for primary level Mathematics, and for both English and Mathematics at post-primary level, suggest that the impact of social context is greater for boys than for girls. Implications for school-level policies designed to mitigate the effects of disadvantage (particularly those related to the selection of schools for targeted resource allocation) are discussed.
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A STUDY OF FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE JOB SATISFACTION OF BEGINNING TEACHERS
Mark Morgan and Michael O’Leary
St Patrick’s College, Dublin
Factors associated with teacher satisfaction among beginning teachers are investigated in a survey of 468 former students of a teacher education college who had spent between 6 and 18 months in the classroom. The survey identified school support, perceived self-efficacy, and curricular competence as important factors. Pre-entry characteristics, including quality of degree were not. Neither was the grade level at which teachers were teaching. Teachers in smaller schools expressed higher levels of satisfaction. Teachers in schools serving disadvantaged communities did not differ from teachers in other schools in their reported level of satisfaction. However, the patterns of association with satisfaction differed in schools serving students in disadvantaged locations and in schools in other locations.
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