The purpose of this research was to investigate the extent to which self-efficacy acts as a mediating variable between the learning environment and achievement. Seven year 5 classes (N = 179 students aged 9 to 10 years) were allocated randomly to cooperative, competitive or individualistic environments for twice-weekly social studies lessons, changing environments after five weeks. Data collected on self-efficacy and achievement in weeks 5 and 10 indicated that co-operative environments led to higher self-efficacy and achievement as well as more appropriate behaviour. The performance of particular tasks under competition appears to be enhanced when students have previously worked co-operatively, but may be difficult to sustain as self-efficacy and behaviour standards decline.
BackgroundAustralian show people traverse extensive coastal and inland circuits in eastern and northern Australia, bringing the delights of 'sideshow alley' to annual agricultural shows. The show people's mobility for most of the school year makes it difficult for their school-age children to attend 'regular' schools predicated on assumptions of fixed residence. This situation requires innovative approaches to educational provision if show children are not to be rendered vulnerable and at educational risk.
IntroductionThe recognised foremost thinkers and writers whose ideas have inspired work on conceptualising dialogical pedagogy are the Brazilian educational theorist Paulo Freire and the Russian philosopher of language Mikhail Bakhtin. While the conceptual bases of these writers shared some significant features and could be used in tandem to frame an interrogation of supervisor-student dialogue at the postgraduate level, each has a substantively distinctive take on the concept that warrants dedicated consideration before combining the approaches of both thinkers to the subject. This article represents the second paper in this trilogy, the first being an application of a Bakhtinian approach to dialogical pedagogy to the study of postgraduate supervisory practices (Danaher et al. 2006).
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