Class- and subject teachers' self-efficacy and emotional stability and students' perceptions of the teacher-student relationship, classroom management, and classroom disruptions

BACKGROUND

Teacher self-efficacy and emotional stability are considered crucial resources for coping with classroom demands. We examined how class and subject teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and emotional stability are related to teachers' and students' perceptions of the teacher-student relationship, classroom management, and classroom disruptions.

METHODS

In a sample of eighty-two swiss german 5th and 6th grade classes, 1290 students, their class teacher (N = 82), and a selected subject teacher (N = 82) filled out a questionnaire assessing classroom disruptions, teacher-student relationships, and classroom management. In a first step, we conducted t-tests on whether class teachers and subject teachers differ in their self-efficacy beliefs and emotional stability. In a second step, we explored by correlation analyses the relations between teacher self-efficacy in classroom management and emotional stability and the teachers' and students' perceptions of classroom disruptions, teacher-student relationships, and classroom management. In a third step, we examined by stepwise multiple regression analyses to what extent psychological variables predict teacher perceptions after controlling for students' ratings, representing rather "objective" classroom features.

RESULTS

In class teachers, high self-rated emotional stability and self-efficacy are associated with a more positive appraisal of teacher-student relationships and classroom management skills (compared with student ratings). By contrast, in subject teachers, high self-efficacy beliefs are associated with a more favorable perception of classroom disruptions, teacher-student relationships, and classroom management, from both the teachers' and students' perspectives.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the present study show a distinctive pattern for class teachers and subject teachers. In class teachers, high self-rated emotional stability and self-efficacy are associated with a more positive evaluation (compared to student ratings) of the teacher-student relationship and classroom management skills but not teacher perceptions of student misbehavior. On the contrary, subject teachers' firm self-efficacy beliefs are associated with more favorable perceptions of classroom characteristics, both from the teachers' and students' perspectives.

Unterrichtsstörungen aus Lehrer- und Schülersicht

Zusammenfassung. Unterrichtsstörungen belasten sowohl Lehrpersonen als auch Schülerinnen und Schüler. Gleichzeitig ist davon auszugehen, dass Lehrpersonen und Lernende Störungen anders wahrnehmen. Mit einem Fragebogen wurden Unterrichtsstörungen, Beziehung und Klassenführung an 83 Klassen mehrperspektivisch aus Sicht der Klassenlehrperson (N = 83), einer ausgewählten Fachlehrperson (N = 83) und der Schülerinnen und Schüler (N = 1290) erfasst. Die Daten wurden in einem Multitrait-Multimethod-Design ausgewertet. Die Ergebnisse weisen auf eine sehr hohe Reliabilität der aggregierten Schülerurteile hin. In der Einschätzung dreier Formen von Unterrichtsstörungen korrelierten die Schülerurteile im Durchschnitt zu .44 mit der Einschätzung der Klassenlehrperson und zu .54 mit der Einschätzung der Fachlehrperson. In der Einschätzung ihrer Beziehung stimmten die Lehrpersonen und Schülerinnen und Schüler nur schwach (.38 und .23), bzw. für Klassenführung (.09 und -.07) gar nicht überein. Lehrpersonen und Lernende erleben den Unterricht aus einer rollenspezifischen Subjektivität jeweils anders. Für Lehrpersonen ist es entscheidend, auch die Perspektive der Schülerinnen und Schüler einzunehmen und eigene Anteile an Störungen kritisch zu reflektieren.

Evolutionary origin of cryptomonad microalgae: two novel chloroplast/cytosol-specific GAPDH genes as potential markers of ancestral endosymbiont and host cell components

Cryptomonads are complex microalgae which share characteristics of chromophytes (chlorophyll c, extra pair of membranes surrounding the plastids) and rhodophytes (phycobiliproteins). Unlike chromophytes, however, they contain a small nucleus-like organelle, the nucleomorph, in the periplastidial space between the inner and outer plastid membrane pairs. These cellular characteristics led to the suggestion that cryptomonads may have originated via a eukaryote-eukaryote endosymbiosis between a phagotrophic host cell and a unicellular red alga, a hypothesis supported by rRNA phylogenies. Here we characterized cDNAs of the nuclear genes encoding chloroplast and cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases (GAPDH) from the two cryptomonads Pyrenomonas salina and Guillardia theta. Our results suggest that in cryptomonads the classic Calvin cycle GAPDH enzyme of cyanobacterial origin, GapAB, is absent and functionally replaced by a photosynthetic GapC enzyme of proteobacterial descent, GapC1. The derived GapC1 precursor contains a typical signal/transit peptide of complex structure and sequence signatures diagnostic for dual cosubstrate specificity with NADP and NAD. In addition to this novel GapC1 gene a cytosol-specific GapC2 gene of glycolytic function has been found in both cryptomonads showing conspicuous sequence similarities to animal GAPDH. The present findings support the hypothesis that the host cell component of cryptomonads may be derived from a phototrophic rather than a organotrophic cell which lost its primary plastid after receiving a secondary one. Hence, cellular compartments of endosymbiotic origin may have been lost or replaced several times in eukaryote cell evolution, while the corresponding endosymbiotic genes (e.g., GapC1) were retained, thereby increasing the chimeric potential of the nuclear genome.