Vol 5 Issue 2

Editorial

 

  1. Teaching Behaviour and Well-Being in Students: Development and Concurrent Validity of an Instrument to Measure Student-Reported Teaching Behaviour
    Patrick Pössel, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Jill L. Adelson, Annie C. Bjerg, Don T. Wooldridge and Stephanie Winkeljohn Black
    pp. 5 - 30
    Teaching behavior has important implications for students’ emotional well-being.  Multiple models suggest students’ perceptions of teaching behaviors are more critical than other measures for predicting well-being, yet student-report instruments that measure concrete and specific teaching behavior are limited.  The purpose of the present studies is to develop an instrument to assess students’ perceptions of concrete and specific teaching behavior and to test which teaching behavior is associated students’ well-being.  Construct validity and internal consistency for the 37-item Teaching Behavior Questionnaire (TBQ-S), composed of instructional, negative teaching, socio-emotional, and organizational behavior were examined using data from two independent samples (Study 1: n = 703; Study 2: n = 822).  The factor structure was stable across both samples and internal consistencies ranged from .77 to .97.  Results indicated student-ratings of teaching behavior were associated with positive and negative affect in students.

  2. Infusing Social Emotional Learning into the Teacher Education Curriculum
    Badiyyah Waajid, Pamela W. Garner and Julie E. Owen
    pp. 31 - 48
    Research supports the importance of policies and interventions to infuse social emotional curricula in schools. The role of teachers in supporting young children’s social and emotional readiness for classroom learning has been recognized, but instruction in children’s well-being and social emotional competence is a low priority in teacher preparation programs. In this study we, used qualitative methods to examine whether we could successfully infuse an undergraduate curriculum and instructional course with social emotional learning content. The article reports on this effort, and considered the following questions:   How can courses infused with SEL content impact prospective teachers’ views on the overall role of emotions in the classroom?  What is the influence of the course on preservice teachers’ conceptions of SEL and its association with children’s classroom learning and behavior? How can teacher preparation programs encourage prospective teachers to consider children’s social emotional skills once they enter the classroom as teachers? At course end, the 15 enrolled students responded to predetermined questions as part of a self-reflection assignment. Using grounded theory methods, three themes were identified from participants’ reflections, including the connection between SEL and academic learning, shifting from teacher- to student-centered pedagogy, and the desire for continued learning related to SEL. An in-depth examination of these themes revealed that SEL concepts can be successfully infused in an undergraduate course on curriculum and instruction. Implications for teacher training are discussed and future avenues for research are presented.

  3. The Beck Initiative: Training School-Based Mental Health Staff in Cognitive Therapy
    Torrey A. Creed, Shari Jager-Hyman, Kristin Pontoski, Betsy Feinberg, Zachary Rosenberg, Arthur Evans, Matthew O. Hurford and Aaron T. Beck
    pp. 49 - 66
    A growing literature supports cognitive therapy (CT) as an efficacious treatment for youth struggling with emotional or behavioral problems. Recently, work in this area has extended the dissemination of CT to school-based settings. The current study has two aims: 1) to examine the development of therapists’ knowledge and skills in CT, an evidence-based approach to promoting student well-being, and 2) to examine patterns of narrative feedback provided to therapists participating in the program. As expected, school therapists trained in CT demonstrated significant gains in their knowledge of CT theory and in their demonstration of CT skills, with the majority of therapists surpassing the accepted threshold of competency in CT. In addition, an examination of feedback content suggested that narrative feedback provided to therapists most frequently consisted of positive feedback and instructions for future sessions. Suggestions for future research regarding dissemination of CT are discussed in light of increasing broad access to evidence based practices.

  4. Preventing adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing symptoms: Effects of the Penn Resiliency Program
    J. J. Cutuli, Jane E. Gillham, Tara M. Chaplin, Karen J. Reivich, Martin E. P. Seligman, Robert J. Gallop, Rachel M. Abenavoli and Derek R. Freres
    pp. 67 - 79
    This study reports secondary outcome analyses from a past study of the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP), a cognitive-behavioral depression prevention program for middle-school aged children. Middle school students (N = 697) were randomly assigned to PRP, PEP (an alternate intervention), or control conditions. Gillham et al., (2007) reported analyses examining PRP’s effects on average and clinical levels of depression symptoms. We examine PRP’s effects on parent-, teacher-, and self-reports of adolescents’ externalizing and broader internalizing (depression/anxiety, somatic complaints, and social withdrawal) symptoms over three years of follow-up. Relative to no intervention control, PRP reduced parent-reports of adolescents’ internalizing symptoms beginning at the first assessment after the intervention and persisting for most of the follow-up assessments. PRP also reduced parent-reported conduct problems relative to no-intervention. There was no evidence that the PRP program produced an effect on teacher- or self-report of adolescents’ symptoms. Overall, PRP did not reduce symptoms relative to the alternate intervention, although there is a suggestion of a delayed effect for conduct problems. These findings are discussed with attention to developmental trajectories and the importance of interventions that address common risk factors for diverse forms of negative outcomes.

    Book Reviews

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https://www.um.edu.mt/ijee/previousissues/vol5issue2/