Editorial

Welcome back to the AJE!

As usual, our articles cover a wide range of topics, this time from teacher self-efficacy and the teaching of critical thinking skills to a literature review on student misbehaviour and the experiences of Aboriginal boarding students.

In the first article in this issue, Seung-Hwan Ham, Ibrahim Duyar and Sedat Gumus report results from a hierarchical level model (HLM) analysis of data from the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) in Australia, Malaysia, South Korea and Turkey to examine the construct of teacher self-efficacy and its related factors. They identify positive effects on teacher self-efficacy in schools where both principals and teachers rate the principal’s leadership higher in terms of focussing on school goals, fostering instructional improvement and updating knowledge. Incongruence in ratings on these issues between principals and teachers, however, has a negative effect on teacher self-efficacy. These findings illustrate two points. Firstly, they highlight the value of rating the same aspect – here leadership – from different perspectives, namely principals and teachers. Secondly, results showed that teachers have higher self-efficacy in schools where the teachers’ view of school leadership aligns with the principal’s view.

Whether critical thinking skills are developed more effectively when taught as a separate subject or when integrated across various subject areas is the focus of an article by David Cole, Jacqueline Ullman, Susanne Gannon and Paul Rooney. In this article, the authors compare first-year university students who had taken the Theory of Knowledge (ToK) – a subject aimed at developing critical thinking skills as part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) – with students who had not participated in the IB. Results show that students who have taken ToK have higher tertiary entrance scores, higher academic self concepts and higher anticipated university outcomes, suggesting benefits from having been taught critical thinking skills in a separate subject.

In their article, Peer mentors as a transition strategy at University: why mentoring needs to have boundaries, Sandra Egege and Salah Kutieleh find that while peer mentoring has been used widely to assist students’ transition into university – the term and consequently the role of peer mentors has not been well defined. For example, it is unclear whether mentors are to act mainly as role models or to provide support, and, if the latter, whether this support should focus primarily on academic requirements, social and emotional aspects or logistical aspects. This lack of agreed definition and conceptualisation, then, makes it difficult to compare the effectiveness of different programs in order to identify models of best practice in student peer mentoring.

In their article, ‘Are you being your best?’ Why students behave responsibly, Rochelle Fogelgarn and Ramon (Rom) Lewis explore reasons for primary school children behaving in ways that ensure they get on with each other, with their teachers and with their learning. The study finds that many students often behave responsibly to avoid punishment or disapproval and would act differently if these external constraints were removed. In addition, some students are motivated to act responsibly to protect both their own learning and that of others. Even fewer, but still a noticeable number of students, behave responsibly because they feel ‘it’s the right thing to do’ or because they want to be ‘true to themselves’. The authors argue that the development of responsible behaviour for its own sake – that is being your best – rather than motivated by external constraints – that is doing your best – can be assisted by pro-social approaches to classroom management.

Less than desirable student behaviour is the focus of an article by Michael Crawshaw who has undertaken a review of literature published between 1983 and 2013 to identify what teachers perceive as the most serious and most frequent misbehaviours of secondary school students. He finds that talking out of turn or chatting as well as inattention or daydreaming are the most frequently occurring misbehaviours. Vandalism and stealing are considered more serious but far less frequently occurring student misbehaviours. This pattern of seriousness and frequency applies across the countries in the review and over the 30-year period.

From interviews with staff about the experiences of Aboriginal boarding students at four boarding schools in Western Australia, David Mander, Lynne Cohen and Julie Pooley identify three topics. The first topic area is Aboriginal disadvantage. The second revolves around academic and social factors related to boarding while the third includes relationships of staff with students, parents as well as between the schools and communities. The importance of ‘knowing’ Indigenous students, including their languages, families, upbringing, communities, individual learning, assessment and communication styles for successful boarding experiences is mirrored in the book entitled Teaching Indigenous Students: Cultural awareness and classroom strategies for improving learning outcomes by Thelma Perso and Colleen Hayward. In their review of this book, Jacynta Krakouer and Troy Meston point to practical ways in which teachers can develop and build on this knowledge when teaching Indigenous students.

As this is the last issue of the AJE in 2015, the editorial team would like to wish our authors, reviewers and readers a peaceful festive season and all the best for 2016.