A Study of Professionalism of Secondary School Teachers
A professional teacher needs to be confident without being arrogant. Nobody can expect to have all the answers, so if a student asks a weird doubt, the professional teacher should be able to admit defeat but offer to find out more for the student and they must carry that promise out. Proper preparation is another crucial requirement of professionalism. When the teacher enters the classroom s/he should have all the required materials and the lesson plan ready.  The researcher has pursued a study on such professionalism of teachers, as to how a teacher is aware towards his / her professional ethics, and how such awareness can bring results in the rewards and achievements of students. The study was conducted on 1044 teachers of secondary schools in Saurashtra Region Comprising of 11 districts of Gujarat. The study was conducted using a self-constructed scale “Secondary School Teachers Professionalism Scale”. The variables under study were Nature of Job, Qualification, Professional Qualification, Family Background, and Education Board. The method of research was descriptive survey research. The tool comprised of ten components viz. Time Keeping, Content Mastery, Contemporary Knowledge, Communication with Students, Communication with Colleagues, Delivery Mechanism, Pro-Activeness and Follow up, Parents Counseling and Students Counseling. The findings of research are, Nature of Job as a variable affect the Contemporary Knowledge and Physical Appearance of the Teachers. The Qualification of Teachers affected the Time Keeping, Contemporary Knowledge, Communication with Students, Communication with Colleagues, Pro Activeness and Followup, Parents Counseling and Students Counseling. The Professional Qualification affected the Students Counseling of Teachers. The Family Background affected the Parents Counseling of Teachers. The Education Board affected the Time Keeping, Content Mastery, Contemporary Knowledge, Delivery Mechanism, Parents Counseling and Students Counseling. Schools and Educational institutes can use the tool to measure the professionalism of teachers and can device training programmes to enhance professionalism for relevant components. The findings highlights key components where Other Board teachers are score better in professionalism and the same can used to device training programme for Gujarat Board teachers to improve for such key components. Over all, the research will help the teacher in general to measure the professionalism of self and motivate development of professionalism.
Understanding the Child in the mediated World: Perspectives on Studying Childhood
In a media saturated world, children are continuously engaging with an intertextual transmedia context. In this environment, they are exposed to an array of knowledge sources which puts them at par with the unsupervised knowledge sources of the adults. Thus in this environment, where the child stands at the same level as an adult in relation to exposure to mediated knowledge, the question thus arises, on who is the child and how they are being viewed. This paper deals with the following question, what is childhood and further delineates perspectives that help us approach the concept of childhood.
Colleagues as Change Agents: How Department Networks and Opinion Leaders Influence Teaching at a Single Research University
This study investigates colleague–colleague relationships within life sciences departments and how they may promote teaching reform. The authors found that discipline-based education researchers are perceived as promoting changes among colleagues in views about teaching and teaching practices. Other faculty may also be leveraged to support change.