Sog Yee Mok

Self-regulation―comprising behavioral and emotional regulation and cognitive processes (i.e., executive functions)―is pivotal for children’s social development and achievement. Parents, especially mothers, can promote children’s self-regulation, however, relevant parental interventions are scarce. Moreover, showing appropriate self-regulation strategies in different contexts can be challenging for collectivistic-oriented immigrant children living in individualistic-oriented countries. This study developed and investigated a pilot intervention for collectivistic-oriented immigrant mothers and their children, aged 5–11 years, living in Switzerland, aiming to improve the children’s self-regulation and executive functions. Fifteen mothers (11 Turkish, 2 Albanian, 1 Spanish-Portuguese-German, and 1 Portuguese; M _Age = 36.92, SD _Age = 3.10) and 20 children ( M _Age = 7.15; SD _Age = 1.84) participated in the pilot intervention. The intervention lasted 6 weeks and consisted of 3 training sessions for mothers and 3 self-learning phases with translated learning materials (videos and exercises) for mothers and their children. In a pre- and post-test, the mothers rated their children’s executive functions and behavioral self-regulation. The mothers also rated their domain-specific self-efficacy in supporting children’s self-regulation based on the intervention content. In addition, we assessed the acceptability of the pilot intervention based on interviews with 7 mothers. The participants strongly adhered to the intervention and reported an overall high level of acceptance. We found a significant increase in the mothers’ domain-specific self-efficacy regarding self-regulation. Furthermore, we found positive and significant pre-post changes in most children’s executive functions but not in behavioral self-regulation.

During the early stages of the teaching profession, pre-service and beginning teachers often participate in individual support activities intended to develop their teacher self-efficacy. These individual support activities (modeling, feedback on lesson plans or lessons, and reflection) are provided as part of an intervention by a mentor, cooperating teacher, instructor, or supervisor. We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the effectiveness of these interventions and the individual support activities for pre-service and beginning teachers’ self-efficacy. We found a medium-sized overall effect of interventions on teacher self-efficacy based on 28 studies (49 effect sizes) in our meta-analysis. Providing feedback on lesson plans amplified the intervention effect (large effect). However, this moderator effect slightly missed the significance level of .05. The moderator effect of providing feedback on lesson plans was stable after controlling for mastery experiences and methodological moderator variables. Implications for future interventions regarding teacher self-efficacy for early career teachers are discussed.

This article shows that enabling teachers to integrate comparing solution strategies into their teaching fosters student flexibility in algebra. We designed two professional development (PD) programs that either focused exclusively on comparing solution strategies, or additionally introduced the accountable talk approach to guiding productive classroom discussions. The effects of both PD programs were investigated in an experimental field study (N = 39 teachers, 739 students). In both experimental groups, student posttest gains in strategy flexibility and procedural knowledge were greater than in the control group. The accountable talk group also increased conceptual knowledge. Significant effects in strategy flexibility were still observed 2.5 months later. We discuss recommendations for PD programs to foster flexibility in algebra using comparing.

Comparing solution methods fosters strategy flexibility in equation solving. Productive classroom discourse such as Accountable Talk (AT) orchestrated by teachers can improve students’ justifications during classroom discussions and achievement. Do students’ subject matter justifications during classroom discourse mediate the effect of teachers’ professional development programs (PDs) focused on comparing and AT on students’ mathematics achievement? We investigated whether two PDs (comparing or comparing+AT) compared to a control group increased the number of student justifications, and whether this affected mathematics achievement (strategy flexibility, procedural and conceptual knowledge). The study (739 9th and 10th grade students in 39 classes) had an experimental pre-post control group design. Both PDs significantly increased student justifications compared to the control group. The results of our multilevel path models showed significant small mediation effects in the comparing+AT group on procedural and conceptual knowledge. No mediation effects were found in the comparing group.

The utility value of an academic task can affect university students’ learning behavior and career choices. For collectivistic-oriented students, learning and career goals also matter to their families. Following expectancy-value theory, we assumed that families’ achievement-related expectations would affect collectivistic-oriented students’ utility value. We conducted a survey study with 154 international university students in Germany. We found a significant mediation effect of students’ distal utility value of their university coursework on the relationship between students’ collectivism, learning goal orientation, and motivation to follow family-oriented distal career goals, respectively. Practical implications for career counselors and university teachers are discussed.

During the practicum, pre-service teachers (PSTs) practice instructional skills such as lesson planning and clarity of instruction. Different approaches to assisting PSTs with coaching, mentoring, or supervision have been developed to improve PSTs’ instructional skills. We conducted a meta-analysis based on quasi-experimental and experimental studies. The results showed a small and significant overall effect of coaching, mentoring, or supervision on instructional skills (d = .41). Cooperating teachers’ or supervisors’ cognitive modeling (i.e., making cognitive processes explicit and demonstrating teaching-related practices) of lesson planning and teaching practices was a significant moderator (d = .90). Implications for initial teacher education are discussed.