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Self-efficacious teachers are critical in the development of students' positive attitudes towards science and scientific literacy yet to date little attention has been given to studies of experienced teachers of primary science and development of their self-efficacy (SE) beliefs. The aim of this study was to explore how two experienced teachers of primary science built their SE beliefs and outcome expectancy. Bandura's (1977) SE framework provided the conceptual lens to understand participants' experiences and beliefs. Findings suggest that teachers' SE beliefs had developed over time, creating a foundation for a strong expectancy outcome. Each of the sources of influence made a significant contribution to their beliefs about their science teaching capability and the value of science. Seemingly, their strong outcome expectancy enabled them to be persistent and resilient, overcoming challenges as they arose. We argue that a strong expectancy outcome is necessary to ensure SE does not weaken over time.

Concern has been raised globally that a lack of interest by teachers towards teaching science has a negative impact on the children they teach. While attention has been paid to the teacher as a contributing factor to students' attitudes, less has been written about the attitudes of teachers. To bridge this gap, the current study examines six Year 8 teachers' attitudes towards teaching science in a New Zealand intermediate school. Biographical data was gathered and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted that explored the teachers' attitudes. van Aalderen-Smeets et al.'s (2012) framework, which takes a multidimensional view of attitudes, is used as a lens to examine the attitudes of the participants in the current study. In general, the participants had a positive attitude towards teaching science. The dimensions contributing to their positivity or negativity are discussed. Implications for supporting teachers to teach science through professional learning and development opportunities in order to create positive attitudes to teach science are proposed.

Purpose: Understanding the experiences of people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) using activity monitors in daily life could support the utilisation of technology within healthcare to increase physical activity and support self-management. This qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of people with COPD using activity monitors at home in everyday life. Methods: Semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interviews were conducted with seven people with COPD between August 2018 and June 2020. Participants had all used an activity monitor within the last year (Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple Watch). Interviews were analysed in-depth using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: Four themes, developed using IPA, highlight participants' engagement with activity monitors and integrating them into their lives: (1) Motivational features to monitor activity, (2) Importance of setting achievable goals, (3) Developing knowledge and awareness, and (4) Integration into everyday life for self-management. Conclusion: Activity monitors were perceived to be beneficial and useful to people with COPD, not just for monitoring their activity, but also helping to self-manage their condition. Activity monitors may be a useful tool within rehabilitation and healthcare services for COPD. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: Activity monitors were beneficial for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to monitor their physical activity and support self-management of their COPD. People with COPD could see and make sense of their activity levels, set activity goals and increase their motivation from the objectively monitored activity. Activity monitors can help to support individual goal setting and facilitate ownership, but support is needed to set achievable and realistic goals. Healthcare practitioners need to be aware of the potential negative effects of using activity monitors on mental or physical health and wellbeing and support people with COPD to manage pressure and expectations of meeting their goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postgraduate study provides teachers with opportunities to become critical consumers of research as well as generators of their own knowledge, enabling them to fulfil the mandate of teaching being a research informed and evidenced based profession (Robinson, 2003). This article pays attention to 18 practicing teachers' reasons for undertaking a master's degree and the type of workplace support offered during their enrolment. Findings suggest that teachers' reasons for undertaking academic study were very much tied to their perceptions of what it means to be a teacher and how teaching and learning can be improved. As such teachers' professional identity seemed to reflect the discourse of teaching as a complex and professional activity. Such an identity seemed contradictory to those of many of their workplace colleagues and senior managers who provided the teachers with subtle messages regarding the importance and value of study and research to teachers' professional practice.

If feedback is to be framed as purposeful dialogue then both students and teachers have significant roles to play. Students must be willing and able to provide feedback to teachers not only about their learning needs but also about the teaching they experience. In turn, teachers must create the conditions that support active student learning and disclosure. It is against this backdrop that the current interpretive, qualitative research was carried out. Set within the final year of secondary schooling in New Zealand (Year 13) this paper draws on data generated from two semi-structured, focus group interviews. It provides insights into 14 students' perspectives about the role feedback plays in the enhancement of their learning, the kinds of experiences and interactions needed to support their disclosure of learning needs and the dispositions teachers need to exhibit to create a trustful, mutually respectful environment.

Teachers need an understanding of the nature of science (NOS) to enable them to incorporate NOS into their teaching of science. The current study examines the usefulness of a strategy for challenging or changing teachers' understandings of NOS. The teachers who participated in this study were 10 initial teacher education chemistry students and six experienced teachers from secondary and primary schools who were introduced to an explicit and reflective activity, a dramatic reading about a historical scientific development. Concept maps were used before and after the activity to assess teachers' knowledge of NOS. The participants also took part in a focus group interview to establish whether they perceived the activity as useful in developing their own understanding of NOS. Initial analysis led us to ask another group, comprising seven initial teacher education chemistry students, to take part in a modified study. These participants not only completed the same tasks as the previous participants but also completed a written reflection commenting on whether the activity and focus group discussion enhanced their understanding of NOS. Both Lederman et al.'s ("Journal of Research in Science Teaching," 39(6), 497-521, 2002) concepts of NOS and notions of "naive" and "informed" understandings of NOS and Hay's ("Studies in Higher Education," 32(1), 39-57, 2007) notions of "surface" and "deep" learning were used as frameworks to examine the participants' specific understandings of NOS and the depth of their learning. The ways in which participants' understandings of NOS were broadened or changed by taking part in the dramatic reading are presented. The impact of the data-gathering tools on the participants' professional learning is also discussed.

Students need support to complete research masters degrees. Many of the studies aimed at enhancing the student experience to date have tended to focus on structural aspects of the degree, the academic needs of the students or the qualities of the supervisor. Few studies focus on the support needed to complete research masters degrees and even fewer consider the affective needs of the students. Semi-structured focus group interviews, analysis of the participants' academic transcripts--including thesis examination reports--and a content analysis of postgraduate coursework comprised the dataset for this qualitative pilot study. Using Bandura's theory of self efficacy (1977), the subjective experience of mature age teacher practitioners undertaking a Masters of Education degree was explored. Teachers' efficacy and outcome expectations were found to be influential in regard to enrolment in and completion of a masters degree. This initial foray into the emotional world of the student uncovers aspects that help us to understand more deeply the nature of the research masters students' journey through gaining a degree. As a result, this may help students to understand their journey and help university supervisors to support students through to successful completion of a masters degree.

Data were gathered from 95 Year 10 students in a New Zealand secondary school to explore how the indicators of scientific literacy are expressed in student responses. These students completed an activity based around the two contexts of lighting and health. A matrix, which incorporated descriptive indicators, was developed to analyse the student responses and revealed levels of expression of scientific literacy. Use of this matrix enabled a fine-grained analysis of both group and individual student expressions of scientific literacy. It was found that students' express scientific literacy in complex ways and that they can exhibit multiple levels simultaneously, both within and between contexts.

The aim of this study was to identify the outcomes expected and assessed by those providing service dogs to children with developmental disabilities. Seventeen registered service dog providers were invited to complete a mixed methods online survey. Five providers, who prepared dogs to work with a wide range of conditions and behaviours, mainly Asperger's syndrome, autism and communication disorders, completed the survey. All five participants reported that they expected to see positive changes as a consequence of the service dog placement, in both the recipient child and their family, including improvements in attention span and language skills, as well as increased familial cohesion. Survey responses indicated that not all desired outcomes were routinely assessed. The range of assessments used were interviews, intake conversations, pre-placement questionnaires, child social dairies filled in by parents, follow up surveys after placement, and child observation by parents. No specifically named valid and reliable clinical or research measures were referred to, showing an emphasis on assessments from parents and service dog providers. It is not clear whether pre-intervention assessments are repeated systematically at follow-up, which could show robust intervention effects. There is scope for professionals in developmental disability to work with service dog providers to improve the evidence base in this field.

There has been little research into the work environments of teachers at the subject department level. Understanding and investigating the work environment at this level could provide insight into the type of work environment that might lead teachers to remain in the teaching profession. This article reports the development, validation and use of a work environment instrument at the subject department level. The department-level environment questionnaire (DLEQ) was developed using the school-level environment questionnaire as the parent instrument. Both Actual and Preferred Forms of the DLEQ were used. Early-career secondary school science teachers' perceptions of the actual and preferred science department environment in New Zealand were sought. In addition, interviews with 17 % of the participants were conducted in order to find out why the teachers answered the questionnaire in the way that they did. The findings highlight the needs of this particular group of teachers. Future research opportunities for further instrument development and use of the instrument are suggested.

We position teaching as a complex, creative profession and have an expectation that practicum should support the reflexive, possibility-thinking and risk-taking creative endeavours of the beginning teacher. This paper reports on a series of studies that explored shared understandings and effectiveness of relationships and roles of practicum partners. Although we found there is considerable good intent within the practicum, the situation has been shown to be less than ideal for all members of the partnership. Rather than providing solutions to this situation, we raise issues for teacher educators to consider carefully in relation to practicum relationships. (Contains 1 figure.)

In this edited interview, psychologists Eric Greene and Nisha Gupta converse with psychologist and filmmaker Dr. Gillian Scott-Ward about her documentary film Back to Natural (2019), which explores the psychological and emotional experience of the intersection of hair, politics, and identity in Black communities. This documentary is a powerful, thought-provoking call for healing that takes a grassroots approach to exploring the globalized policing of natural Black hair. The film offers a journey of discovery and enlightenment while celebrating Black history and natural styles that are taking the world by storm. In this conversation, Gillian shares her own experiences of critical consciousness about natural hair while working as a clinical psychologist, which led to this film, her insights into the intergenerational trauma, resiliency, and healing of African descendants as exemplified in the natural hair movement, and her experiences using her film as a tool for human rights discrimination cases and implicit bias training as a psychologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to identify the outcomes expected and assessed by those providing service dogs to children with developmental disabilities. Seventeen registered service dog providers were invited to complete a mixed methods online survey. Five providers, who prepared dogs to work with a wide range of conditions and behaviours, mainly Asperger's syndrome, autism and communication disorders, completed the survey. All five participants reported that they expected to see positive changes as a consequence of the service dog placement, in both the recipient child and their family, including improvements in attention span and language skills, as well as increased familial cohesion. Survey responses indicated that not all desired outcomes were routinely assessed. The range of assessments used were interviews, intake conversations, pre-placement questionnaires, child social dairies filled in by parents, follow up surveys after placement, and child observation by parents. No specifically named valid and reliable clinical or research measures were referred to, showing an emphasis on assessments from parents and service dog providers. It is not clear whether pre-intervention assessments are repeated systematically at follow-up, which could show robust intervention effects. There is scope for professionals in developmental disability to work with service dog providers to improve the evidence base in this field. Keywords Assistance Dogs * Service providers * Outcome measures * Developmental disability, Introduction The number of children diagnosed with developmental disabilities, such as autism or global delay, has increased (Fombonne et al. 2006). Recent research has shown that the responsibility of care [...]

Fundamental frequency techniques are used to analyze the series-parallel resonant converter under heavy load conditions, both with a continuous, but distorted parallel capacitor voltage waveform, and with a discontinuous capacitor voltage waveform. The analysis is validated with results from an experimental prototype. The application of the technique to the parallel-loaded L-C resonant converter is also considered. Index Terms--Converter, dc-dc converters, parallel capacitor, series-parallel, voltage waveform.

Introduction: Developmental coordination disorder is a common disorder of childhood. Little is known about adolescence, however, and research typically reflects professionals' and parents' perspectives. This study explored how life is experienced by teenagers with developmental coordination disorder from their own contemporaneous perspective. Methods: The study was guided by the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis and a reference group of older teenagers with developmental coordination disorder. A total of 16 interviews were carried out with nine teenagers aged 13–15 years over a 2-year period, offering the opportunity to examine changes in their experience over time. Accounts were subjected to a systematic process of ideographic, inductive and interpretative analysis. Findings: Themes revealed were: 'Doing everything the hard way'; 'I didn't want to be seen as anyone different'; 'I'm an intelligent person but I can't even write'; 'Right help, right time' and 'Making sense of the diagnosis'. Self-efficacy was a strong recurring theme, influencing participants' motivation for and participation in daily activities, and affecting teenagers' sense of resilience, agency, ambition and identity. This article describes the development of a conceptual framework illustrating patterns and connections that occurred across the study themes. The conceptual framework is offered as a novel means of illustrating the complex interaction of factors representing the lived experience of teenagers with developmental coordination disorder. Conclusion: This study furthers understanding of developmental coordination disorder in adolescence. The conceptual framework is firmly grounded in teenagers' experience and illustrates the complex interaction of factors influencing teenagers' lives. The study suggests avenues for intervention and research, and highlights the need for interventions that build teenagers' self-efficacy to promote positive futures for teenagers with developmental coordination disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]