PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

School environment affects teacher expectations of their students

2014-11-03
(Press-News.org) The school environment in which teachers work is related to their expectations of students, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Montreal. "It is known that low teacher expectations are negatively associated with student achievement and school effectiveness. While we know that expectations are primarily determined by the specific characteristics of teachers, we have shown that the school environment also plays a determining role," says lead author of the study, Marie-Christine Brault, a post-doctoral researcher at the university's Institut de recherche en santé publique de l'Université de Montréal (IRSPUM).

To measure the impact of school environment in determining these expectations, the researchers conducted a multilevel analysis using data from 2,666 teachers in 71 secondary schools in Quebec. The data came from the evaluation of the implementation of New Approaches, New Strategy Intervention Strategy, implemented between 2002 and 2008 by Québec's ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS). The data were collected by Michel Janosz, also of the IRSPUM, through the Socio-Educational Environment Questionnaire, that looked specifically at the characteristics of the school environment. From these data, the researchers were able to distinguish between two levels of variables, belonging to either the teacher (perception of "school climate", gender, age, courses taught) or the school: its academic, socio-economic, and ethnic composition, and the way the entire school community perceived the "school climate." The "school climate" reflects school priorities in terms of learning, good education and academic success of students, and promotion of a stimulating and graduation-oriented environment.

The socioeconomic and ethnic composition of students in the school, as well as the school academic composition defined by student drop-out rates, academic delays, poor student scores on logical reasoning scales, and the number of students designated as being in difficulty according to criteria set by the Ministry of Education, all play a role in determining expectations. However school academic composition is the most influential. "Between the students' backgrounds and the school's academic composition, the latter seems to play the most influential role in determining expectations. These finding only confirm the importance of prior student achievement in teacher expectations," says Brault. "It should be noted, however, that the schools in our sample were fairly homogenous socioeconomically and that few of them had a high rate of students from ethnic minorities." The findings also show that school climate, whether perceived by teachers or by the entire school population (students, teachers, administration), is critical. A positive school climate is associated positively with teacher expectations. Finally, the results indicate that school composition also indirectly affects expectations: academic difficulties and ethnic background of students influence school climate and therefore, indirectly, teacher expectations.

"Our study confirms the important role of the school environment in determining teacher expectations, which are essential for effective education. To promote positive expectations among teachers, a better understanding of what determines these expectations would seem essential. This is the main purpose of our study. To this end, our findings suggest that by intervening in the educational climate of schools, in particular, by ensuring that all teachers are committed to the success of their students, and by enhancing the value placed by the school community on academic effort and learning, teacher expectations can improve," Brault explained.

INFORMATION:

The article Effects of school composition and school climate on teacher expectations of students: A multilevel analysis was published in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education on September 19, 2014 (online publication). The study was conducted by Marie-Christine Brault in collaboration with Michel Janosz and Isabelle Archambault. All three are researchers with the Groupe de recherche sur les environnements scolaires (GRES), affiliated with Institut de recherche en santé publique de l'Université de Montréal. The University of Montreal is officially known as Université de Montréal.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Beliefs about the soul and afterlife that we acquire as children stick with us

2014-11-03
What we believed as children about the soul and the afterlife shapes what we believe as adults – regardless of what we say we believe now, according to a new Rutgers study. "My starting point was, assuming that people have these automatic – that is, implicit or ingrained – beliefs about the soul and afterlife, how can we measure those implicit beliefs?," said Stephanie Anglin, a doctoral student in psychology in Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences. Her research, "On the Nature of Implicit Soul Beliefs: When the Past Weighs More Than the Present," ...

Women with bipolar disorder at 50 percent greater risk of delivering preterm babies

2014-11-03
TORONTO, ON, Nov. 3, 2014 — Women who have been previously hospitalized for bipolar disorder are nearly twice as likely to have premature babies compared to women without a history of mental illness, according to a new study by researchers at Women's College Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The study, published today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shows pregnant women with bipolar disorder are at greater risk of having premature babies and other serious complications. While the study did not examine the ...

Wrangling data flood to manage the health of streams

Wrangling data flood to manage the health of streams
2014-11-03
Today's natural resource manager tending to the health of a stream in Louisiana needs to look upstream. Way upstream - like Montana. Michigan State University (MSU) scientists have invented a way to more easily manage the extensive nature of streams. There are 2.6 million stream reaches in the contiguous United States that are intricately interconnected. It's impossible to address the health of one reach without knowing what's happening upstream. Science, wielding geographic information systems, has obliged with data on geology, climate, pollution and land use. But ...

Obesity a liability in cancer immunotherapy

Obesity a liability in cancer immunotherapy
2014-11-03
Packing on the pounds may lead to dangerous inflammation in response to anti-cancer treatment, according to a study by William Murphy and colleages at UC Davis. The study, published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that overweight mice develop lethal inflammation in response to certain anti-cancer therapies, suggesting a possible link between body weight and adverse side effects in cancer patients treated with similar protocols. Cancer treatment has been revolutionized by new approaches aimed at stimulating the body's own immune system to fight off tumor ...

On the throne with the flu

On the throne with the flu
2014-11-03
Flu infection has long-ranging effects beyond the lung that can wreak havoc in the gut and cause a dreaded symptom, diarrhea, according to a study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Gastrointestinal symptoms are often seen with flu infection, but because the virus only grows in lung cells, it's unclear how intestinal symptoms develop. Researchers in China now show that flu infection in mice prompts responding immune cells in the lung to alter their homing receptors, causing them to migrate to the gut. Once there, they produce the antiviral mediator IFN-γ, ...

Immunotherapy for cancer toxic with obesity

2014-11-03
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Immunotherapy that can be effective against tumors in young, thin mice can be lethal to obese ones, a new study by UC Davis researchers has found. The findings, published online today in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest a possible link between body fat and the risk of toxicity from some types of immunotherapy. The study comes at a time of great excitement about immunotherapy drugs, which are being developed and used increasingly against cancer, particularly in melanoma and kidney and prostate cancers. Immunotherapies use immune ...

Western retailers in China boost Chinese manufacturing supremacy

Western retailers in China boost Chinese manufacturing supremacy
2014-11-03
When western retailers like Walmart and Tesco move into China, Chinese manufacturing gets a boost, shows a new study by the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business. "Many assume Western retailers act as gateways for western goods into Chinese markets, helping to resolve trade imbalances tipped in favour of China's powerhouse manufacturing sector," says lead author Keith Head, HSBC Professor in Asian Commerce at Sauder. "But it appears that multinational retailers are actually enhancing the export capabilities of Chinese suppliers." After 1995, when ...

The effects of poor eating habits persist even after diet is improved

2014-11-03
Almost everyone knows that improving your eating habits will most likely improve your health. What most people may not know, however, is that the effects of poor eating habits persist long after dietary habits are improved. In a new report appearing in the November 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, scientists use mice to show that even after successful treatment of atherosclerosis (including lowering of blood cholesterol and a change in dietary habits) the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle still affect the way the immune system functions. This change in function ...

Diet affects pesticide resistance in honey bees

Diet affects pesticide resistance in honey bees
2014-11-03
Feeding honey bees a natural diet of pollen makes them significantly more resistant to pesticides than feeding them an artificial diet, according to a team of researchers, who also found that pesticide exposure causes changes in expression of genes that are sensitive to diet and nutrition. "Honey bees are exposed to hundreds of pesticides, while they are foraging on flowers and also when beekeepers apply chemicals to control bee pests," said Christina Grozinger, professor of entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research, Penn State. "Our study demonstrates ...

Countries with poor marine safety records linked to oil spill vessels

2014-11-03
More than half of ships involved in the 100 largest oil spills of the past three decades were registered in states that consistently fail to comply with international safety and environmental standards, UBC researchers have determined. The research also found one-third of the current global oil tanker fleet are flying the flags of states with poor marine safety records—what they term "flags of non-compliance." "Vessels flying flags of non-compliance create more problems than the rest of the global fleet," observes Rashid Sumaila, co-author of the study and director ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Checking the quality of materials just got easier with a new AI tool

Does hiding author names make science fairer?

Fatal Attraction: Electric charge connects jumping worm to aerial prey

Rice physicists probe quark‑gluon plasma temperatures, helping paint more detailed picture of big bang

Cellular railroad switches: how brain cells route supplies to build memories

Breast cancer startup founded by WashU Medicine researchers acquired by Lunit

Breakthrough brain implant from NYU Abu Dhabi enables safer, more precise drug delivery

Combining non-invasive brain stimulation and robotic rehabilitation improves motor recovery in mouse stroke model

Chickening out – why some birds fear novelty

Gene Brown, MD, RPh, announced as President of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and its Foundation

Study links wind-blown dust from receding Salton Sea to reduced lung function in area children

Multidisciplinary study finds estrogen could aid in therapies for progressive multiple sclerosis

Final day of scientific sessions reveals critical insights for clinical practice at AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting and OTO EXPO

Social adversity and triple-negative breast cancer incidence among black women

Rapid vs standard induction to injectable extended-release buprenorphine

Galvanizing blood vessel cells to expand for organ transplantation

Common hospice medications linked to higher risk of death in people with dementia

SNU researchers develop innovative heating and cooling technology using ‘a single material’ to stay cool in summer and warm in winter without electricity

SNU researchers outline a roadmap for next-generation 2D semiconductor 'gate stack' technology

The fundamental traditional Chinese medicine constitution theory serves as a crucial basis for the development and application of food and medicine homology products

Outfoxed: New research reveals Australia’s rapid red fox invasion

SwRI’s Dr. Chris Thomas named AIAA Associate Fellow

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) funding for research on academic advising experiences of Division I Black/African American student-athletes at minority serving institutions

Johri developing artificial intelligence literacy among undergraduate engineering and technology students

Boston Children’s receives a $35 million donation to accelerate development of therapeutic options for children with brain disorders through the Rosamund Stone Zander and Hansjoerg Wyss Translational

Quantum crystals offer a blueprint for the future of computing and chemistry

Looking beyond speech recognition to evaluate cochlear implants

Tracking infectious disease spread via commuting pattern data

Underweight children cost the NHS as much per child as children with obesity, Oxford study finds.

Wetland plant-fungus combo cleans up ‘forever chemicals’ in a pilot study

[Press-News.org] School environment affects teacher expectations of their students