Debra K. Meyer

The Classroom Environment and Students' Reports of Avoidance Strategies in Mathematics: A Multimethod Study.

The relation between the learning environment (e.g., students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structure and teachers’ instructional discourse) and students’ reported use of avoidance strategies (selfhandicapping, avoidance of help seeking) and preference to avoid novelty in mathematics was examined. Quantitative analyses indicated that students’ reports of avoidance behaviors varied significantly among classrooms. A perceived emphasis on mastery goals in the classroom was positively related to lower reports of avoidance. Qualitative analyses revealed that teachers in high-mastery/low-avoidance and low-mastery/high-avoidance classrooms used distinctively different patterns of instructional and motivational discourse. High incidence of motivational support was uniquely characteristic of high-mastery/ low-avoidance classrooms, suggesting that mastery goals may include an affective component. Implications of the results for both theory and practice are discussed.

Studying and Understanding the Instructional Contexts of Classrooms: Using our Past to Forge our Future

The video survey is a promising new approach for studying classrooms and teaching across cultures. Drawing from experience in working with two cross-cultural video surveys, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and its follow-up study (TIMSS-R), this article presents some of the challenges of studying classrooms across cultures and some of the ways that the video survey can deal with these challenges. The article begins by identifying some of the issues in cross-cultural research and classroom surveys that led to the creation of the video survey. Examples from the TIMSS and the TIMSS-R video studies are then used to illustrate some benefits and limitations of video surveys and to share some of the lessons that were learned about studying classrooms across cultures.

Chapter 14 – Scaffolding Emotions in Classrooms

Publisher Summary The idea of scaffolding emotions is not new, although the focus on supporting emotions and using emotions to support other classroom goals is novel. Within instructional interactions, scaffolding is identified as temporary teacher support to achieve two interrelated goals—to provide support only as necessary, and to move from a position of shared responsibility to one in which the student takes ownership. It is this balance between teacher support and student autonomy that has linked the scaffolding metaphor to Vygotskys theoretical construct of “zone of proximal development,” defined as an interpersonal space within which a teacher provides support as needed while negotiating the gradual transfer of responsibility to students. Achieving the multiple goals of scaffolding during whole-class instruction, providing assistance only as needed, and increasing independence, means inviting students to take risks publicly. Moreover, classroom-level scaffolding requires a broad context of trust and support for every students well-being.

Understanding Young Adolescents' Optimal Experiences in Academic Settings.

Cognitive, motivational, and affective characteristics define classroom contexts, yet flow theory (e.g., M. Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) is 1 of only a few theoretical perspectives that interrelate these characteristics. The authors adapted constructs and methods from flow theory to examine the motivational, cognitive, and affective quality of experience in elementary mathematics classrooms. Students completed experience-sampling forms following 12 class sessions, measuring all 3 aspects. Results indicated that although flow theory explains some patterns of experience, others were counter to it. In particular, individual affect was influenced by the interaction of challenge and skill. However, social affect and efficacy are more impacted by perceived skill than by challenge, and the importance of the experience is more strongly informed by the challenge.

Entering the Emotional Practices of Teaching

I discuss teaching as emotional practice and how that practice is tied to teacher identities. My focus in this chapter is on the first stage of professional induction – the student-teaching experience and how teachers communicate emotions. In other words, I explore the question: what emotions are “appropriate,” and when should they be expressed? I argue that it not unusual for college supervisors and cooperating teachers to empathize with student teachers’ emotions, but assume their emotions can be adjusted with reason or easily ignored. Attempts to separate emotions from or to join them with teaching practice have implications for teacher identity and development. Through a synthesis of these related bodies of literature with examples from my own research on student teachers’ emotional experiences, I examine some of the possible trajectories for new teachers as they enter the emotional practice of teaching.

Teachers' Beliefs about Student Learning and Motivation

In this chapter we focus on teachers’ beliefs about student learning and motivation and their manifestation in classroom instruction. Teachers’ beliefs appear to reflect longstanding attitudes, “common sense,” and their experiences in education rather than research-based knowledge about learning and motivation. Because teachers’ beliefs play a significant role in shaping their instructional behaviors, and thus what students learn, it is important to examine their characteristics, their content, and their expression. Specifically, we address three questions about teachers’ beliefs and student learning and motivation: (a) What are beliefs and how do they develop? (b) What beliefs do teachers appear to hold about student learning and motivation? and (c) How do teachers’ beliefs and instruction change? We illustrate some of these relationships with examples from our research on motivation and learning in mathematics classrooms. Therefore, we have chosen to focus mostly on practicing, as opposed to preservice, teachers. We conclude the chapter by emphasizing the importance of investigating the contexts of teacher beliefs, which are essential for understanding how beliefs develop, the congruencies between beliefs and practice, and the arduous process of belief change.