Abstracts - Earli

The results indicate that, after student background and proficiency in literacy and numeracy aretaken into account, attitudes to school have a substantial influence on students’ intentions tocomplete high school and those intentions effect their actual completion. The effects of attitudes toschool on students’ intentions towards and participation in university education follow a similarpattern. Moreover, most student background characteristics such as socioeconomic status influenceparticipation through the mediating influence of educational intentions rather than directly. Thepaper concludes that attitudes to school influence subsequent participation through the mediatinginfluence of intentions. Achievement in reading and mathematics influence participation directlyand through the mediating influence of intentions. Attitudes to school are relatively independent ofboth proficiency in literacy and numeracy and student background. Therefore the nurturing offavourable attitudes to school provides an important avenue for influencing participation throughschool and to education beyond school.Teacher expectations, student achievement and perceptions of student attitudesChristine Rubie-Davies, University of Auckland, New ZealandSome teachers have been identified as having high or low expectations for all students in theirclassrooms. High expectation teachers have been shown to have differing pedagogical practicesand beliefs to those of low expectation teachers. Students with high expectation teachers makemuch greater reading progress than do their counterparts and their self-perceptions move in thedirection of their teachers’ expectations. The current study explored how high and low expectationteachers view their students’ attitudes to schooling. Results were analysed in relation to teachers’expectations and students’ achievement. For high expectation teachers the relationships betweentheir expectations, student achievement and their perceptions of student attitudes were allsignificant and positive. The pattern for low expectation teachers was quite different. The findingsare discussed in terms of the theoretical significance of the research and implications foreducational practitioners."On the yellow brick road" - making the educational knowledge taught in teacher-trainingrelevant knowledgeSarit Segal, Levinsky College of Education, IsraelIrit Nassie, Levinsky College of Education, IsraelNaomi Perchik, Levinsky College of Education, IsraelGalit Carmeli, Levinsky College of Education, IsraelThe study investigated the impact of an innovative first-year teacher-training college curriculumon the students’ perceptions of teaching and learning. The essence of the program is self-study inpeer groups mentored and supervised by senior college staff. Learning is organized aroundquestions, with the aim being not to find the one correct answer but to raise and explore fertilequestions which are not clear-cut but evoke doubt and where many and even contradictory answersare possible. In other words the program design is oriented on process not solutions. It compelstrainee teachers to intellectually and methodologically confront the problems set by the content ofeducation’s core disciplines, these disciplines being taught as general introductory first-yearcourses, in an interdisciplinary framework. Data were gathered by means of a structured statementquestionnaire devised specially for this evaluation and completed by students at the start and endof the program. Statistically significant differences were found between the two measurementtimes on all indicators relating to perceptions of teaching-learning. After the program fewerstudents held to the traditional conception of teaching (as ‘delivery’) and more to the notion oflearning as self-created knowledge.– 742 –