Joseph Falzon

Stress and Job Satisfaction among Primary School Teachers in Malta

A questionnaire survey was conducted on 844 primary school teachers in Maltese state schools to investigate the prevalence of stress and the level of job satisfaction. Three out of every 10 teachers rated their job as very/extremely stressful. Length of teaching experience and age‐group taught were found to be moderators of teacher stress. The great majority of respondents (75.5%) were fairly/very satisfied with teaching. Sex and age‐group taught proved to be moderators of job satisfaction. The results revealed significant negative correlations between self‐reported teacher stress and job satisfaction, and between teacher stress and intention to take up a teaching career a second time.

Primary School Teachers’ Perception of Pupils’ Undesirable Behaviours

Summary This paper reports on a questionnaire survey of teachers’ attitudes towards 16 selected undesirable behaviours carried out in all of the 79 state primary schools in Malta and Gozo. The responses of the 844 participants showed that stealing, cruelty/bullying and rudeness/impertinence are perceived as the three most serious behaviours in pupils. Significant boy/girl differences in the seriousness of behaviour were observed in 14 of the behaviours as rated by the total teacher sample, in 9 of the behaviours as rated by male teachers, and in 14 of the behaviours as rated by female teachers. The greatest boy/girl differences in the ratings of the behaviours was that for untidy in personal appearance as perceived by male teachers. Teacher‐sex was also found to be a significant moderator of the teachers’ attitude towards seven of the behaviours.

Birth Date and Sex Effects on the Scholastic Attainment of Primary Schoolchildren: a cross‐sectional study

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of pupil age as a major cause of the birth date effect in scholastic performance. Sex differences in performance were also investigated. A sample of 4123 pupils in Grades III, IV and V was selected from 12 state primary schools in Malta. Since in this educational setting there is only one intake of pupils per scholastic year it ensured that all children within any given year group would have received the same length of formal schooling. Analyses based on a data set consisting of scores in Maltese, English and mathematics derived from the national end‐of‐year examinations showed a strong and consistent age effect in all three attainment measures at each of the three grade levels: the ‘oldest’ pupils performed better in Maltese, English and mathematics ‐than the ‘youngest’ pupils. Results also showed that girls consistently outperformed boys in the three school subjects.

Coping actions used by Maltese primary school teachers

Summary This paper is part of a larger study dealing with various aspects of occupational stress among teachers. It seeb to identify the coping actions most frequently used by Maltese primary school teachers and how these actions relate to several subgroups; preference in the use of direct‐action and palliative strategies was also investigated in terms of the whole sample and the various subgroups. The study took the form of a questionnaire survey involving 844 primary school teachers from all state schools in the Maltese Islands. The results indicated that, of the ten listed coping actions, the three most frequently used were: (1) try to relax after work; (2) try to avoid confrontations; and (3) try to nip potential sources of stress in the bud. Teacher sex, length of teaching experience, age‐group taught and ability stream proved significant moderators of some of the coping actions. Significant differences in the use of direct‐action and palliative techniques were revealed in the age‐group taught and te...

Streaming in Maltese primary schools

This article examines some of the effects of streaming in the primary school. Sex and age differences in stream placement and in stream transfer rate are investigated. The past three decades have seen the widespread introduction of mixed-ability classes in practically all European countries. In fact, very few countries still retain some form of officially imposed streaming practice before the age of eleven. Malta is one of those few European countries where the streaming of primary school pupils on the basis of attainment is practised on a national scale. As a result of the current schooling situation in Malta and in view of the dearth of empirical studies (during the last two decades) about the dynamics and effects of streaming, the present authors and a group of their B.Ed. (Hons) students! have embarked on a number of empirical studies. The purpose of these studies was to investigate some of the determinants and effects of the nationally based practice of streaming primary school children on the basis of performance in school subjects. This article proposes a synopsis of the major findings concerning age and sex differences in stream transfer.

Age And Sex Differences in Performance in an 11-Plus Selective Examination.

Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate age and sex differences in performance in an 11‐plus selective examination. The sample was made up of 3460 pupils who were born in 1981 and who had sat the examination for the first time. Results based on a data set consisting of raw scores in Maltese, English, mathematics, social studies and religious knowledge showed a strong and consistent age effect in all five attainment measures: performance decreased with age from the ‘oldest’ pupils to the youngest’. In regard to sex differences, girls outperformed boys in Maltese, English and religion, with differences being most marked in the two languages. The performance of the two sexes in mathematics and social studies was very similar, with the boys’ performance being slightly, but not significantly, better. These age and sex effects were also evident in the proportions of pupils who passed or failed the examination. Older pupils tended to be more successful than younger pupils, and girls were more likely to ...

Why Do Some Consumers Prefer Organic Food? A Discourse Analytical Perspective

In an attempt to better understand the main motives behind organic food consumption, this study explores the consumer discourses of organic food. In all, 35 in-depth interviews were conducted, from which three major discourses were identified. These discourses were named primitivist, retro, and racialist. The data suggest that these Romantic discourses play on images of a supposedly glorious and innocent past. Consequently, consumers using these three discourses were more likely to prefer organic food, as they had a tendency to construct this type of food as more natural, authentic, and real. In this sense, Romantic discourses seem to offer more resonant themes for consumers than contemporary modern science can ever provide.

British tourism demand elasticities in Mediterranean countries

We use the almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model developed by Deaton and Muellbauer (1980) to estimate tourism demand elasticities for a number of Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Turkey) in relation to tourists originating from the United Kingdom during the period 1963 to 2009. Using the restrictions imposed by theory, we find that the model is able to explain developments in market shares reasonably well, despite the large and at times sudden changes in market shares over the sample period. Our share estimates indicate that while Spain and Portugal managed to keep a stable market share over time, Malta and especially Italy lost market share to Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. Overall, we observe that Italy and Spain have the lowest own-price elasticities, whereas Greece, Portugal, Spain and Turkey are expenditure inelastic holiday destinations. We also improve over the traditional treatment of the AIDS model in the literature by studying the stability of the estimated elasticities over time using recursive estimates. The results indicate that some elasticities are indeed time varying and highlight the potential pitfalls of assuming fixed and stable elasticities over a long period, as is customary in the tourism literature.

A VAR Approach to the Analysis of the Relationship between Oil Prices and Industry Equity Returns

Oil-related issues repeatedly dominate international news and economic policy discussions, especially as the price of this commodity escalates. Episodes occur with apparent regularity which create supply and demand uncertainty in the oil market, and as a consequence tend to affect its price. The major events since 1970s can be tentatively summarized as the formation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), major conflicts in oil-exporting regions, and the recent emergence of accelerated growth in developing economies.

Comparing alternative house price indices: evidence from asking prices in Malta

Purpose - The paper aims to describe, construct, and compare alternative price indices for real estate in Malta over the period 1980-2010. Design/methodology/approach - The paper utilises the technique of hedonic regression analysis to construct four hedonic price indices. One of the constructed indices is based the unconstrained hedonic methodology. Two other indices are variants of the constrained hedonic technique, while the fourth consists of an imputed hedonic index. The hedonic indices are then compared to other 12 conventional indices, namely the Laspeyres, Paasche and Fisher indices (constant weight and chain linked) that are constructed by utilizing the mean and median house prices pertaining to 14 different types of houses. Findings - All indices are found to move closely together, growing between six and seven times between 1980 and 2010. The average annual compound growth rate of the 16 indices was found to be 6.5126 percent. The paper also shows how the estimated hedonic coefficients can be used to construct regional price indices for different combinations of housing characteristics. Originality/value - The paper builds on previous work related to house prices in Malta. Its main contribution is the construction of hedonic indices that are based on advertised prices that span over a relatively long period of 31 years, together with the construction of constant weight and chain linked Laspeyres, Paasche and Fisher indices.