Effect of Teachers' Self Efficacy and Instructional Strategies on Students' Engagement at Secondary School Level

The concept of self-efficacy was developed initially by Albert Bandura and has been defined as the personal belief that one can perform appropriately and effectively to attain specific goals related to any field. Self efficacy is a self-system that controls all our activities, including appropriate professional knowledge and skills.Teachers' self-efficacy is the belief that teachers have about their abilities and skills as educators. Both on an individualized and collective scale, teachers' efficacy is one of the strongest predictors of student engagement. This study explored the effect of teachers' self-efficacy and instructional strategies on students' engagement at the secondary school level in Punjab. So, the teachers with relatively higher self-efficacy would have extraordinary ability to engage students with the material, pedagogical practice, and control of the classroom environment. The study followed the causal-comparative research design that attempted to find relationships between independent and dependent variables. The researcher developed the questionnaire by herself, consisting of 60 items in total. The questionnaire sample comprised 1250 secondary school teachers from Punjab. Quantitative data on teachers' self efficacy was determined by computing the means of the TSES items. In addition to descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression were used. This study may be helpful in future studies and teacher educators to understand teachers' sense of efficacy beliefs, which influence the teaching behaviors of the teachers in the classroom and students' engagement.

Kajian Teologis Kegagalan Pendangan Umum Yang Mengusung Yohanes Pembaptis Sebagai Mesias

Jesus asked his disciples, saying, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Matt. 16:13, Mark. 8:27), then John the Baptist was the top answer, followed by Elijah, Jeremiah. This study uses a biblical study of the meaning of the whom do men say (general opinion) by using a qualitative writing method that is studied by biblical exegesis supported by various sources related to this research. Here it is found that public opinion greatly influences one's personal belief and confession of their faith in Jesus Christ. There is a meaning behind the rejection of Jesus' messiahship by carrying the popular John the Baptist figure. Perhaps if he announced himself as the Messiah, and waged a rebellion against the Roman empire which was colonizing Israelit at that time, it would be inconceivable if that happened. Researchers found the answer that the importance of personal spiritual experience closely with God between times when the truth became unpopular. By adhering to the Word of God, the Church of God can stand firm which is built on a solid rock foundation (Petra), namely Jesus Himself.

Validation of the General and Personal Belief in a Just World scales in Iran and Their Relations to Perceived Threat of Kin Favoritism

People possess a pre-conscious need to believe in the existence of justice in the world. This belief in a just world (BJW) is usually measured with self-report scales. Dalbert et al. (1987) and Dalbert (1999) have developed the general belief in a just world (GBJW) and personal belief in a just world (PBJW) scales as psychometrically robust measures of just-world beliefs. We conducted three studies to demonstrate the validity of the Persian versions of belief in a just world scales and the importance of distinguishing between GBJW and PBJW. First, we confirmed the factor structure. reliability, convergent validity (self-esteem, life satisfaction, and religiosity), and divergent validity (big five personalityfactors and dark triad traits) of GBJW and PBJW using Iranian participants (N1 = 454). Second, the associations of GBJW and PBJW with perceived threat of unjust behavior directed to self or others were assessed using two scenario-based studies (N2 = 81, N3 = 71) in the context of kin favoritism. While GBJW negatively predicted perceived threat of kin favoritism directed to others, PBJW was a negative predictor of perceived threat of kin favoritism directed to self. Consistent with theoretical assumptions, perceived likelihood of punishment mediated these associations. In addition to providing further evidence for the differentiation between GBJW and PBJW, the findings of Study 2 and 3 also support the idea of an optimistic bias towards self by showing that people perceived less threat of kin favoritism when others, rather than themselves, were potential victims of injustice.

A social norms approach intervention to address misperceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs amongst UK parents

Anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs among parents can reduce vaccination intentions. Parents’ beliefs in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are also related to their perceptions of other parents’ conspiracy beliefs. Further, research has shown that parents hold misperceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy belief norms: UK parents over-estimate the anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs of other parents. The present study tested the effectiveness of a Social Norms Approach intervention, which corrects misperceptions using normative feedback, to reduce UK parents’ anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and increase vaccination intentions. At baseline, 202 UK parents of young children reported their personal belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, future intentions to vaccinate, and their perceptions of other UK parents’ beliefs and intentions. Participants were then randomly assigned to a normative feedback condition (n = 89) or an assessment-only control condition (n = 113). The normative feedback compared participants’ personal anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and perceptions of other UK parents’ beliefs with actual normative belief levels. Parents receiving the normative feedback showed significantly reduced personal belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs at immediate post-test. As hypothesised, changes in normative perceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs mediated the effect of the intervention. The intervention, did not directly increase vaccination intentions, however mediation analysis showed that the normative feedback increased perceptions of other parents’ vaccination intentions, which in turn increased personal vaccination intentions. No significant effects remained after a six-week follow-up. The current research demonstrates the potential utility of Social Norms Approach interventions for correcting misperceptions and reducing anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs among UK parents. Further research could explore utilising a top-up intervention to maintain the efficacy.

High class filtering facepiece (FFP) are fundamental and effective in protection of emergency health care workers: an observational cohort study in a German community

Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly contagious airborne virus inducing pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This is most relevant for medical staff working under harmful conditions in emergencies often dealing with patients and an undefined SARS-CoV-2 status. We aimed to measure the effect of high-class filtering facepieces (FFP) in emergency medical service (EMS) staff by analyzing seroprevalence and history of positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for SARS-CoV-2. Method This observational cohort study included workers in EMS, who were compared with hospital staff (HS) and staff, which was not directly involved in patient care (NPC). All direct patient contacts of EMS workers were protected by FFP2/N95 (filtering face piece protection class 2/non-oil-based particulates filter efficiency 95%) masks, whereas HS was protected by FFP2/N95 exclusively when a patient had a proven or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection. NPC was not protected by higher FFP. The seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was analyzed by immunoassay by end of 12/2020 together with the history of a positive PCR. In addition, a self-assessment was performed regarding the quantity of SARS-CoV-2 positive contacts, about flu symptoms and personal belief of previous COVID-19 infections. Results The period in which contact to SARS-CoV-2 positive patients has been possible was 10 months (March to December 2020)—with 54,681 patient contacts documented for EMS—either emergencies (n = 33,241) or transportation services (n = 21,440). Seven hundred-thirty (n = 730) participants were included into the study (n = EMS: 325, HS: 322 and NPC: 83). The analysis of the survey showed that the exposure to patients with an unknown and consecutive positive SARS-CoV-2 result was significantly higher for EMS when compared to HS (EMS 55% vs. HS 30%, p = 0.01). The incidence of a SARS-CoV-2 infection in our cohort was 1.2% (EMS), 2.2% (HS) and 2.4% (NPC) within the three groups (ns) and lowest in EMS. Furthermore, the belief of previous COVID-19 was significant higher in EMS (19% vs. 10%), Conclusion The consistent use of FFP2/N95 in EMS is able to prevent work-related SARS-CoV-2 infections in emergency situations. The significance of physical airway protection in exposed medical staff is still relevant especially under the aspect of new viral variants and unclear effectiveness of new vaccines. Graphical Abstract

Bayesian regions of evidence (for normal distributions)

Bayesian data analysis allows a researcher to assess whether a claim about an effect (e.g. effect > 0, effect > Δ, |effect| < Δ)) is justified given the data and a prior distribution, expressing her or his personal belief before seeing the data. However, the recipients of the analysis might use different priors, so it remains unclear whether they would share the claim. "Reverse Bayes" analysis and the "sufficiently sceptical prior" address this problem by asking how strongly one may believe in the absence of an effect in order to be convinced otherwise by the data. A method called "Region of Evidence" is presented that takes this idea and extends it for any normal prior (and a normally distributed estimate). It visualises all the priors that, if they had been used, would support the claim, including those that favour a positive or negative effect. Since the method depends only on an estimate and its standard error, it can be easily applied to previously published results. The paper describes the method and its implementation in a new Stata command called arevi, which can be freely used and modified.

Belief in a Just World and Moral Personality as Mediating Roles Between Parenting Emotional Warmth and Internet Altruistic Behavior

This study explores the influence of parental emotional warmth (PEW) on college students’ Internet altruistic behavior (IAB), and the mediating roles of personal belief in a just world (PBJW) and positive moral personality traits (PMPT). A total of 893 college students were assessed using questionnaires. Results: (1) PEW, PBJW, PMPT, and IAB are positively correlated with each other; (2) PEW can directly predict the IAB of college students; and (3) PEW can indirectly predict IAB through the mediating effect of PMPT and PBJW-PMPT. PBJW and PMPT account for 22.79% of the total influence of PEW on IAB.

Using Shattered Assumption Theory to Understand How Cyberbullying Victimization is Linked With Perceived Control Among Chinese College Students

Perceived control (PC) is considered as one of the most basic psychological needs of human beings, and it is also an important index to measure individual mental health. Previous studies have shown that negative life experience is an important risk factor for predicting PC. With the prevalence of cyberbullying among college students, this study explored how cybervictimization (CV) was related to the PC, mediated through the personal belief in a just world (PBJW). Besides, this study examined the moderating role of interpersonal forgiveness (IF) in the direct relationship between CV and PC and the indirect connection through PBJW. It was expected that CV would negatively predict the PC, and the PBJW would mediate this relationship. The direct and indirect effects were stronger in individuals with low IF than those with high IF. In this study, 837 Chinese college students were invited to conduct an online survey using a convenient sampling method. Participants were asked to complete the measurement of CV, PBJW, IF, and PC. After controlling gender and age, the results revealed that CV could directly and negatively predict college students’ PC and indirectly predict the PC through the mediation of PBJW. Additionally, IF moderated the effect of CV on PBJW and PC. Unlike what we expected, the effect of CV on PBJW was stronger for low IF individuals than those with high IF, while the effect of CV on PC was stronger for high IF individuals than those with low IF. The unexpected orientation and other results were discussed.

The Effect of Cultural Trust on Cooperation in Two Behavioral Experiments

Trust is an important factor for cooperation in social dilemmas because of uncertainty and free-riding fears. Many contemporary social problems are characterized by uncertainty because they depend on the cooperation of thousands to resolve. Social trust as a personal belief is necessary but not sufficient for cooperation under these conditions. In contemporary social dilemmas, the trust-cooperation relationship likely depends on cultural trust: what people believe most other people believe about the trustworthiness of people in general. I test this theory in two experimental studies. In the first, cultural trust has an effect on cooperation independent of participants’ first-order social trust. In the second, I find that if participants learn that others expect them to not believe information on the trustfulness of most other people, they will behave more or less cooperatively, depending on whether the information indicates most others’ trust is high or low. I end with a discussion of the implications my findings have for addressing social dilemmas in an era of declining social trust.