SAGE Journal Articles
Abstract
Does teacher education influence what teachers feel prepared to do when they enter the classroom? Are there differences in teachers' experiences of classroom teaching when they enter through different programs and pathways? This study examines data from a 1998 survey of nearly 3000 beginning teachers in New York City regarding their views of their preparation for teaching, their beliefs and practice, and their plans to remain in teaching. The findings indicate that teachers who were prepared in teacher education programs felt significantly better prepared across most dimensions of teaching than those who entered teaching through alternative programs or without preparation. Teachers' views of their preparation varied across individual programs, with some programs graduating teachers who felt markedly better prepared. Finally, the extent to which teachers felt well prepared when they entered teaching was significantly correlated with their sense of teaching efficacy, their sense of responsibility for student learning, and their plans to remain in teaching.
Abstract
This study examines the contributions of career-related barrier and social support perceptions, barrier-related coping beliefs, and career decision-making self-efficacy beliefs to the prediction of career indecision in three racial/ethnic groups of college women. Results indicate that although there are no racial/ethnic differences across scores on most of the key measures, African American women perceive significantly greater career barriers than do either White or Hispanic women. Separate within-racial/ethnic group regressions of career indecision scores indicate that the full model collectively accounted for substantial amounts of criterion variance (range of R2 = .31 to .47), although the pattern of predictor contributions varies somewhat across the three groups.
Abstract
A structural model of the drivers of online education is proposed and tested. The findings help to identify the interrelated nature of the lectures delivered via technology outside of the traditional classroom, the importance of mentoring, the need to develop course structure, the changing roles for instructors and students, and the importance of designing and delivering course content on the enhancement of the online learning experience. The results support an integrated, building-block approach for developing successful online programs and courses.
Abstract
The article examines the effects of principals' leadership style (transformational or transactional), principals' decision-making strategy (autocratic versus participative), and teachers' occupation perceptions on teacher satisfaction from the job. More specifically, it attempts to find out how much of the variation in teachers' job satisfaction can be attributed to their perceptions of their occupation, as compared to their perceptions about their principals' leadership style and decision-making strategy. A quantitative questionnaire using Likert-type scales was administered to 930 teachers in Israeli schools, of whom 745 responded. Path analysis was used to explain teacher job satisfaction by the exogenous variables. The most salient finding was that teachers' occupation perceptions strongly affected their satisfaction. Principals' transformational leadership affected teachers' satisfaction both directly and indirectly through their occupation perceptions. Implications of the study are discussed in relation to supervisors and principals, as well as to policy makers at the government level.