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This volume focuses on resilience in educational contexts which has emerged as an important field of research, with recent investigation into resilience of school students teachers, and post-secondary students and staff. The book integrates theoretically diverse viewpoints and research advancing relevant theory. It furthermore presents interventions which aim enhancing resilience in the educational context. The interplay between more basic research and actual practice in the classroom, university or workplace enriches relevant theory and research. Each chapter includes an explanation of how resilience is conceptualized in the research and the methods used to examine resilience. The chapters also provide a description of the context in which the research was conducted and how particular aspects of context influence the resilience process. Innovative approaches to exploring resilience are highlighted as well as directions for future research.

OBJECTIVES: Riociguat is approved for pulmonary arterial hypertension and has antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effects in animal models of tissue fibrosis. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of riociguat in patients with early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) at high risk of skin fibrosis progression. METHODS: In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase IIb trial, adults with dcSSc of <18 months' duration and a modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) 10-22 units received riociguat 0.5 mg to 2.5 mg orally three times daily (n=60) or placebo (n=61). The primary endpoint was change in mRSS from baseline to week 52. RESULTS: At week 52, change from baseline in mRSS units was -2.09±5.66 (n=57) with riociguat and -0.77±8.24 (n=52) with placebo (difference of least squares means -2.34 (95% CI -4.99 to 0.30; p=0.08)). In patients with interstitial lung disease, forced vital capacity declined by 2.7% with riociguat and 7.6% with placebo. At week 14, average Raynaud's condition score had improved ≥50% in 19 (41.3%)/46 patients with riociguat and 13 (26.0%)/50 patients with placebo. Safety assessments showed no new signals with riociguat and no treatment-related deaths. CONCLUSIONS: Riociguat did not significantly benefit mRSS versus placebo at the predefined p<0.05. Secondary and exploratory analyses showed potential efficacy signals that should be tested in further trials. Riociguat was well tolerated.

In the past decades, schools have become more autonomous and open learning environments. It therefore seems increasingly important for educational research to also consider contextual influences by including autonomous learning settings in its investigations. Studying the positive activating emotion of pride seems useful to learn more about the effects of this schooling as pride results from exactly those aspects promoted by autonomous learning: Self-evaluation, reflection, self-responsibility and attribution. Moreover, pride becomes relevant for a deeper understanding of students’ learning and achievement as pride promotes the desire to repeat already performed achievements in the future. Regarding the growing support of individual learning in schools, the present study investigates objects of pride of students attending a school that promotes autonomous, non-competitive, individualized and cooperative learning. Students of this school plan their timetables and learning process individually and document it in learning logbooks in which they furthermore can state once a week what they are proud of. In total, 1063 pride statements from 134 students were collected from the learning logbooks. A complementary study, collecting students’ pride statements detached from the learning logbooks, identified 254 pride statements. Results show that the pride focus of students at the examined school is learning-oriented. The findings indicate that the specific learning setting of the examined school provides specific school-based pride triggers and thus promotes the learning-oriented pride focus of the students. This paper shall serve as a basis for further research on students’ pride and objects of pride and its potential effects on motivation, achievement and school life.

This article presents the validation of the Multidimensional Teachers’ Resilience Scale (MTRS) for Portuguese teachers and proposes a hierarchical model to represent teachers’ resilience. Participants were 334 Portuguese teachers from elementary to secondary school who responded to the MTRS and a global measure of teachers’ resilience. Confirmatory factor analysis provided acceptable fit for a 13-item solution distributed by four factors. Results support the hierarchical structure of teachers’ resilience. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, and correlation analysis between the MTRS global score and the global measure of teachers’ resilience suggest that the MTRS is a valid and reliable instrument to assess teachers’ resilience.

University teachers work in a highly complex environment, meeting the multiple and sometimes competing demands of striving for high quality teaching and research. While a growing body of research focuses on the relevance of schoolteachers’ sense of responsibility and its outcomes for teaching and student learning, teacher responsibility has been neglected in research with university teachers. This research, consisting of two consecutive qualitative and quantitative studies, sets out to explore university teachers’ sense of responsibility for teaching at different stages of their career and in different academic contexts. Participants were 199 German and 80 Australian university teachers. Results of quantitative data analysis show that all university teachers most strongly feel responsible for their teaching and relationships with students. The focus of university teachers’ sense of responsibility on teaching was also shown in the qualitative data. Differences between the samples of the two studies, however, appeared with regard to further objects of responsibility. Cluster analyses, including the frequencies of statements, revealed three types of university teachers in each study: teaching - and student - oriented university teachers in both studies, achievement - oriented teachers in the German/Swiss, and administrative - oriented university teachers in the Australian sample. Implications for university teachers’ work contexts and training are discussed.

This chapter explores the plotlines of resilience as narrated by three early career teachers (ECTs) in rural schools and the deliberation process they undertook in response to their key challenges. Regular online reflections about their transition into rural teaching were collected through www.goingok.org, a digital tool (see Gibson A, Willis J, Morrison C, Crosswell L, Not losing the plot: creating, collecting and curating qualitative data through a web-based application. In The Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) 2013 Conference, July 2013, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD. (Unpublished), 2013). Drawing on a transactional-ecological theory of resilience, the qualitative analysis was informed by current literature (see Day C, Gu Q, Resilient teachers, resilient schools: Building and sustaining quality in testing times. Routledge, Oxon, 2014; Mansfield CF, Beltman S, Broadley T, Weatherby-Fell N. Teach Teach Educ 54:77–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.016, 2016) that highlights the dynamic and ongoing process of interaction between the contextual and personal factors. The analysis was also informed by Archer’s (2000) theories of social realism that enables the interplay between the personal powers of humans to act (PEPs), the affordances and constraints of the structural-material (SEPs) and cultural-discursive systems (CEPs). Rather than focusing solely on the capacities of individual ECTs, or structural and cultural conditions, together the transactional-ecological theories of resilience and Archer’s theoretical concepts enable a more nuanced analysis of the transition experiences for these rural ECTs. The data suggest the ECTs relied heavily on their available personal resources (PEPs) to maintain their resilience; however in doing so, they experienced strong fluctuations as they navigated the constant uncertainty inherent in the first year of teaching as well as the tensions of settling into a small rural community. Further

Teacher resilience is a key factor to understand how teachers effectively cope with the strains and stresses of their profession. In this chapter, we are presenting results from a survey study, in four different countries (Germany, Malta, Ireland and Portugal), on pre-service teacher resilience which was part of the project ENTREE (ENhancing Teacher REsilience in Europe). The main goals were to examine the relationships between a global dimension of resilience and its related dimensions and to test the communalities and differences in these relationships amongst the four different countries. Participants were 764 pre-service teachers from Germany, Ireland, Malta and Portugal who answered to a questionnaire including perceptions of individual (e.g. teacher efficacy, commitment, personal life, rumination) and social/contextual (e.g. school support, social context) factors, as well as a global evaluation of resilience. Results showed that self-efficacy appears as one of the key factors related to resilience. Furthermore, differences in the relationships between the variables were found according to each country, suggesting that resilience is influenced by the context in which teachers live and work.

Self-reflection is a crucial element of enhancing personal resilience. The TRSR (Teacher Resilience Self-Reflection) tool is an instrument that can be used by teachers to identify protective and risk factors related to their professional resilience. It is a web-based instrument, with scales adapted, developed and validated for this specific application which reflect the factors that contribute to teacher resilience as outlined in the theoretical framework discussed in this chapter. The TRSR gives users specific individual feedback regarding which aspects of resilience could be enhanced online or in face-to-face workshops. It also gives trainers information regarding their learning group so that they can tailor the workshops to the specific needs of their participants. This chapter gives an overview of the theoretical framework and the TRSR which serves to guide the reflection process. In addition, it details how to use the TRSR and it discusses its educational potential.

Researchers in the field of educational sciences have realised the necessity to understand and enhance resilience in educational settings in order to improve the quality of life for all persons involved in educational processes and consequently improve learning processes. Various definitions and conceptualisations of resilience exist (e.g., on teachers or college students); however, despite evidence of alarming high dropout rates and occupational stress in some apprentice occupations, a dearth of research exists with regard to their resilience. This chapter aims to contribute to resilience research by first presenting, based on appraisal theory, a generic process model of resilience, which is influenced by internal and external resources. This process is embedded in a context model, as context and resilience processes are interrelated, further creating specific resilience processes. The generic model is applied to the German vocational education context using a specific case from research in a vocational setting.

There is an agreement in all chapters of this volume that resilience is not given. Resilience should not be understood as something someone has or does not have but as a toolbox an individual brings to a specific situation, more specifically, a box of tools and resources that helps a person to solve a problem.

Although teacher resilience research has blossomed in the last 5–10 years, the resilience of schoolteachers and principals has been the main focus of research. There is little research exploring the resilience of university teachers. This chapter presents findings from an exploratory study regarding university teacher resilience. Participants were 26 university teachers, 17 from Germany and 9 from Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the challenges, coping strategies and work-related emotions of participants and how they view resilience in the context of their work. Findings revealed challenges such as heavy workload, interpersonal relationships, time management and finding the right balance between teaching and research activities. Strategies include social support, time management and consciously maintaining a healthy work-life balance. The findings are discussed in light of a model of university teacher resilience, which is adapted to take into account specific aspects of university work.

Teacher resilience is regarded as a complex, multidimensional, dynamic construct. Enhancing teacher resilience can potentially increase teacher commitment, yet interventions to build resilience in pre-service programmes are scarce. This chapter examines the effectiveness of the BRiTE (Building Resilience in Teacher Education) online modules to develop pre-service teachers’ capacity for resilience in Australia. The modules are briefly described. Perceptions of 146 final year pre-service teachers were gathered regarding resilience, self-efficacy, commitment and coping before completing the BRiTE modules and their final professional experience school placement. Both pre- and post-school placement measures were completed by 49 participants. To determine the impact of using the modules, matched data sets were divided with “users” (n = 32) scoring significantly higher scores than “non-users” (n = 17) on five post-placement survey scales. Despite some limitations, there was an indication that using the online modules assisted pre-service teachers develop their capacity for resilience. Adapting the modules for use with in-service teachers and other professionals is an avenue for future research. This study has significance, given the importance of teacher professional resilience, and suggests that interventions developed for pre-service contexts can make a difference.

This chapter presents the development of an early years and primary school curriculum for the promotion of resilience in schools in Europe called RESCUR. The curriculum is developed on the basis of the current social, economic and technological needs and challenges and seeks to develop in learners the requisite competences needed to overcome such challenges in their lives to achieve academic success and social and emotional wellbeing as young citizens. It takes a developmental, inclusive and culturally-responsive perspective, with activities reflecting the diversity of learners, particularly vulnerable children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. The first part of the chapter discusses the conceptual framework underpinning the curriculum and the content areas of the activities. The second part describes the findings of the pilot implementation carried out in Italy that involved 84 teachers from kindergarten up to secondary school with a total of 738 students

Teacher resilience is regarded as a complex, multidimensional, dynamic construct. Enhancing teacher resilience can potentially increase teacher commitment yet interventions to build resilience in pre-service programs are scarce. This chapter examines the effectiveness of the BRiTE (Building Resilience in Teacher Education) online modules to develop pre-service teachers’ capacity for resilience in Australia. The modules are briefly described. Perceptions of 146 final year pre-service teachers were gathered regarding resilience, self-efficacy, commitment and coping before completing the BRiTE modules and their final Professional Experience school placement. Both pre- and post-school placement measures were completed by 49 participants. To determine the impact of using the modules, matched data sets were divided with ‘users’ (n=32) scoring significantly higher scores than ‘non-users’ (n=17) on five post-placement survey scales. Despite some limitations, there was an indication that using the online modules assisted pre-service teachers develop their capacity for resilience. Adapting the modules for use with in-service teachers and other professional is an avenue for future research. This study has significance, given the importance of teacher professional resilience and suggests that interventions developed for pre-service contexts can make a difference.

Science education research has recommended cooperative inquiry based science in the primary science context for more than two decades but after more than 20 years, student achievement in science has not substantially improved. This study, through direct observation and analysis, investigated content-related student interactions in an authentic inquiry based primary science class setting. Thirty-one upper primary students were videotaped working in cooperative inquiry based science activities. Cooperative talk and negotiation of the science content was analysed to identify any high-level group interactions. The data show that while all groups have incidences of high-level content-related group interactions, the frequency and duration of these interactions were limited. No specific pattern of preceding events was identified and no episodes of high-level content-related group interactions were immediately preceded by the teacher’s interactions with the groups. This in situ study demonstrated that even without any kind of scaffolding, specific skills in knowing how to implement cooperative inquiry based science, high-level content-related group interactions did occur very briefly. Support for teachers to develop their knowledge and skills in facilitating cooperative inquiry based science learning is warranted to ensure that high-level content-related group interactions and the associated conceptual learning are not left to chance in science classrooms.

Due to the important motivational implications of an individual’s sense of responsibility, this paper studies the interplay of 271 secondary school students’ and 101 of their parents’ responsibility ascriptions for student learning and their relations to student motivation and achievement. Three dimensions of responsibility were identified; responsibility for the learning process, student achievement and establishing a supportive social network. Students’ sense of personal responsibility was related to their ascriptions of responsibility to parents and teachers and their own subject-specific motivation and school achievement. All of these were found related to parents’ responsibility judgements and expectancies. These findings underscore the importance of the school context for fostering students’, teachers’ and parents’ sense of responsibility for ensuring students’ academic success.

While schoolteacher motivation has become a significant area in educational research, teachers in higher education have been left somewhat disregarded. This exploratory study focuses on early career university teachers’ motivation, specifically on their personal goals. The results show that most participants emphasise their research and qualification rather than their teaching. Focusing on their goals as a teacher, four areas of teaching goals emerge: self-directed, content-directed, teaching-directed and student-directed teaching goals. Based on these, three groups of teachers with different goal profiles were identified: instruction-oriented, student-oriented, and ego-oriented early career university teachers. The study could not confirm any differences between these groups and their self-perceived teacher responsibility or self-efficacy but there were significant differences between the groups in the areas in which early career university teachers teach and in the length of time they have been teaching.

This paper examines how distinct trajectories of change in students’ general views of group work over the duration of one single group assignment could be explained by multidimensional aspects of their experience and the overall instructional context. Science (336) and Education (377) students involved in a semester-long group assignment completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of their assignment. Individual and group level analyses provided evidence of change in general views of group work for over half of students and one third of the groups. Students’ multidimensional experience of their group assignment was investigated in terms of its cognitive, motivational, affect, interpersonal, management, and assessment aspects. Change in general views of group work could be explained by different aspects, which varied depending on the overall instructional context and whether change was toward more positive or more negative views. Overall, the findings highlight the significance of affect in students’ experience of group work and the influence of enabling or inhibiting features of instructional contexts. The criticality of distinguishing between different experiential aspects of group work and examining the nature of students’ experience in relation to the characteristics of the instructional context was demonstrated. Understanding what triggers change in students’ general views of group work is important as these views are expected to have a major impact on the quality of subsequent engagement in group activities.

Students’ learning goals demonstrate much stronger variety than traditional goal orientation models for classroom learning assume, especially when the educational context allows so. In this empirical study we will investigate the richness of students’ goal orientation in a collaborative learning context. We do so with the help of a goal setting framework that is based on a two-facet approach distinguishing multiple contents (performance, learning, well-being) and goal directions (varying degrees of self vs social direction). To investigate the role of different goal constellations, goal setting and learning performance data of first year students (n = 2,636) in a problem-based, collaborative learning program, and evaluation data of problem-based tutorial groups (#groups = 206) are combined into a multilevel model. Each tutorial group functions in two different educational settings: one directed at open-ended, group problems, the other at closed, individual problems. Educational context appears indeed to have a crucial role in the relationship between students’ goal setting at the one side, and students’ performance and group functioning on the other side.

This article examines the extent to which group heterogeneity and homogeneity in personal goals for a collaborative learning activity influences individuals' appraisals of that activity. This research addresses the lack of empirical work on the significance of personal content goals in collaborative learning contexts. A framework that takes into account the social dimension of such settings formed the conceptual basis of an empirical study carried out with 313 university students. The results show that while group homogeneity in high- and low-level goals led to expected appraisals and reflections, group heterogeneity led to appraisals that were as positive as those found in groups dominated by members with high-level goals. Implications for educational practice are discussed.

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Teacher motivation is an important field of research, especially in countries where teacher retention and quality have become prominent concerns. This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the stage appropriate goals for teaching of graduating teacher education students. Generated from empirical data and grounded in established literature (Ford, 1992; Ford & Nichols, 1987) the framework shows that both within-person and person-environment consequences inform goals for teaching. This framework makes a unique contribution to the field of teacher motivation, providing a tool to explore the content of teachers’ goals, thus providing further insights into teacher motivation.

There is an alarming rate of attrition among early career teachers, both in Australia and internationally, with 25-40 per cent of early career teachers leaving the profession in their first five years. Investigations of teacher attrition have largely focused on stress and burnout. However, more recent perspectives have considered how teacher resiliency influences retention. This project draws on the experiences of early career teachers and pre-service teacher education students to identify key characteristics of resilient teachers, and gain a deeper understanding of how, and in what contexts, resilience develops. These understandings will form the basis of an effective practice framework for the redesign of the teacher education curriculum. Key deliverables of the project include development of a resiliency framework for initial teacher education, development of an instrument to measure constructs associated with teacher resiliency, and an interactive website to promote resiliency among pre-service teachers and early career teachers.

In teaching science, small group work is often recommended and frequently used. In this study, we asked 130 students about their personal goals and views (appraisals) of small group work in science. We found significant relationships between students' personal goals and their views of doing science in small groups. We discuss the practical implications of our findings for teaching primary science and offer questions that teachers may find useful in identifying students' views of small group work. We also describe how relationships between students' appraisals and goals may have implications for how teachers assign members to small groups in teaching science.

Goal theory perspectives on motivation are at the forefront of research regarding adolescents' motivation in learning contexts, focusing on the purposes (both academic and social) individuals perceive for engaging in achievement related behaviour. Much research however, has focused on early adolescence, meaning there is limited research regarding late adolescence or the relevance of particular goals as students mature. This study examines the achievement and social goals of secondary school students at early and late adolescence, using quantitative and qualitative data to explore differences in goals and goal relationships at each age level. Participants were 128 junior (ages 12-13) and 67 senior (ages 15-17) students from two metropolitan secondary schools in Western Australia. Results showed that junior students scored higher than senior students on all achievement goals and relationship goals, yet there were no significant differences between the groups for status and responsibility goals. In addition, mastery, relationship and responsibility goals were related for junior, but not for senior students. Implications for future research are discussed.

This paper presents a systematic review of literature related to teacher resilience. The review underpins a larger research project that aims to enhance the resilience of early career teachers by embedding evidence-based practice within the pre-service teacher education programs of two Australian universities. One aim of the paper is to identify constructs and consequent research methods to inform the development of a questionnaire for use with pre-service and early career teachers, and guide the nature of strategies implemented in the universities involved. There is concern internationally with the high attrition rates of early career teachers. Numerous studies have examined factors such as workloads and behavior management difficulties that contribute to teacher stress and burnout. More recently researchers have looked towards teacher resilience as a more positive way of addressing this problem. Definitions of resilience include the ability to “bounce back” after experiencing difficult events. It is the capacity to deal constructively with challenges and the ability to maintain social and emotional wellbeing in the face of difficult events. A shift in thinking from attrition to resilience offers the potential for more effective interventions to occur. A search of databases such as ERIC and ProQuest revealed over 250 journal articles and conference papers linked to key words such as ‘resilience’, ‘teachers’ and ‘burn out’ published between 2000 and 2009. Papers selected for systematic review are those most relevant to teacher resilience and are summarized according to key criteria such as conceptualizations of resilience, research methods used, key empirical findings, and issues raised. For example, one important issue arising from the literature is the relationship between teacher retention and teacher resilience. The assumption is that if new teachers develop greater resilience, they will be less likely to leave the profession. At the same time, however, there is

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This study examines the roles other people play in individuals’ decisions to enter into teacher education. Elements of social cognitive and situated theoretical approaches to motivation are combined, using a newly developed instrument. Participants were 303 Australian and German teacher education students. They indicated other people who had helped or hindered them in their journey to become teachers. The findings reveal the important role played by immediate family and the significance of personal and emotional support across both national contexts. Strengths and limitations of the methodology and directions for future research are discussed.