Education Commons^™

Weaving The Threads Between: Collaborative Auto-Ethnographic Reflections On Experiences Of Migrant Learning And Teaching In Australia, Paul Throssell Dr, Jinjin Lu Dr

The Qualitative Report

This article aims to use the two authors’ life experience, as English teachers, and university academics in the U.K., China and Australia, to improve an understanding how life trajectories can assist exploration of cultural difference and changes. Our experiences can be utilized as a means of understanding how responses to change and cultural differences can be influenced. Using a collaborative auto-ethnography research method offers readers opportunities to engage with the text through encountering the cultural nuances in these transitional journeys. The analysis is undertaken through the theoretical lens of transformational learning, cultural identity, and space. This paper will be of …

Promoting Student Reflection Through Reflective Writing Tasks, Elena Taylor

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Reflection is a necessary component of learning. Through reflective assignments and tasks, students are given opportunities to evaluate their learning and analyze strategies they use while acquiring and applying course material. Reflections also help students assess and think deeply about the information presented in class and thus better retain it. Through reflecting on their learning, students are also given the opportunity to formulate goals for future improvement. Reflective tasks can be implemented in any classroom, and writing is a powerful tool to do that. This article describes several writing tasks that …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 7, Issue 1, Spring 2023

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Spring 2023 issue (Volume 7, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

The Spring 2023 issue presents research and guidance on topics related to student self-reflection, participatory learning, and returning to the in-person learning following the COVID-19 pandemic. The first article takes a critical approach to understanding pedagogy with adult learners by involving students in the creation of course syllabi as a way to challenge ideologies related the roles of instructor and students. The second article blends research and narrative to explore how the experiences of …

The Criticality Of Teacher Educator Wellbeing: Reflecting Through Arts-Based Methods, Kristina Turner, Georgina M. Barton Dr, Susanne Garvis, Ellen Larsen

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher educators face many challenges related to workload and government-mandated reforms in Initial Teacher Education programs. Evidence suggests that COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges as universities must become more cost-effective and improve research outcomes and impact, often resulting in heavier workloads. While these challenges may be faced in other disciplines, teacher educator wellbeing, stress and burnout is an under-researched field, and little is known about if and how teacher educators maintain their wellbeing during times of uncertainty. This collaborative autoethnographic study applied an arts-based research method to explore the wellbeing challenges faced by four Australian teacher educators through the lens …

Teacher Agency As A Route To Adaptive Expertise: Relational, Informed, And Reflective Action, Jennifer Sharples Reichenberg

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This case study of two fourth-grade teachers explored teachers’ literacy instructional practices and perceptions of their professional agency during the hybrid synchronous teaching of the COVID-19 pandemic. In anticipation of the challenges of hybrid synchronous instruction, these teachers combined their classes to co-teach 39 students. Analysis of observation and interview data showed that the co-teachers acted as adaptive experts. They reflected on challenges such as maintaining students’ focus, developing rapport, and gaining active participation. Their collaborative reflection informed adaptations to increase students’ access to learning by employing multiple modalities, developing community, and enacting inclusive practices. Teachers also supported students’ agency …

Variations On A Writing Methods Course: Two English Educators Across Four Decades, Amber Jensen, Deborah Dean

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article draws on the intersecting autoethnographies of two writing methods instructors over the course of nearly 40 years as undergraduate students, secondary English teachers, and English educators to map the evolution of the undergraduate writing methods course at Brigham Young University (BYU). It identifies five foundational principles that have shaped the course curriculum, learning activities, and assessment, integrating artifacts and student examples to demonstrate the way they enact these principles with the preservice teachers in their classes. The authors conclude by identifying revisions and future directions for the course in its coming years.

Fostering And Maintaining Relationships: Teacher Education During Covid-19, Jessica Vanvalkenburgh, Aaron R. Gierhart

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

This article expounds how our pedagogical practices have changed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these effects others have contended with in the education community. The authors share pedagogical strategies they have found to be effective in terms of building and supporting relationships with teacher candidates. They suggest using digitally-mediated teaching and learning strategies, staying connected with students, and badge-based assessment and feedback approaches to build and support relationships with students; examples of the instructional design and implementation strategies are described. The authors propose that when looking forward, teachers at any level may benefit from providing students …

Qualitative Coding As A Pedagogy For Fostering Professional Dispositions And Reflexivity, Kristina M. Valtierra, Lesley N. Siegel

The Qualitative Report

Many fields require practitioners to develop the dispositions, reflection, and reflexivity skills to navigate complex professional demands. Yet, there are limited methods for fostering these skills. Given that the act of qualitative coding is both iterative and reflexive, this paper shares an innovative approach to teaching students how to apply coding to their own reflective writing. We feature our process of teaching preservice teachers our self-coding method and lessons learned along the way from engaging 100 teacher candidates in the practice. Over four years, across three different higher education settings, graduate and undergraduate teacher candidates alike demonstrated insightful reflections about …

Video-Based Discussions About Literacy Pedagogy: Face-To-Face Versus Online Formats, Poonam Arya, Tanya Christ, Ming Ming Chiu

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study evaluated the similarities and differences in 50 preservice teachers’ (PTs’) literacy pedagogy learning outcomes when they engaged in videobased discussions that were both face-to-face (F2F) synchronous and online asynchronous. Across PTs’ response sheets, 396 idea units were collected and coded to identify their reports of learning about literacy pedagogy and application of this learning to their subsequent literacy instruction. Multivariate, multilevel, cross-classification logit regressions were used to compare outcomes across formats. Findings include that PTs reported learning similar total numbers of ideas across both video-based discussion formats but reported applying significantly more ideas from learning in the F2F …

Applying Rerum Novarum Towards The Academic Service-Learning (Asl) Reflection Process For Promoting Ethical Leadership In Post-Secondary Students, Henry J. Davis

Journal of Catholic Education

Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum is considered one of the first major works to introduce Catholic social thought on a global level. A key message undergirding Rerum is the concept of supporting the needs of others, leading to empowerment and self-sufficiency. The purpose of this study was to create a list of reflection prompts informed by Rerum for post-secondary students to consider and apply towards their academic service-learning experiences. Through qualitative analysis, three main themes related to Rerum’s key message were identified: (a) opportunity to obtain resources; (b) intrinsic right to continual resources; and, (c) communal support of families …

The Show Must Go On: Challenges, Questions, And Pedagogical Pivots In Response To Covid-19, Patrick S. De Walt

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

On March 18, 2020, many universities and university systems had or were in their initial stages of transitioning to virtual teaching as a result of COVID-19. This transition had varied effects on all aspects of the university community. This paper explores this transition through the teaching experiences of a tenure-track professor during the pandemic. The examination of six sections of a capstone undergraduate course over the course of three semesters was conducted. Through self-reflection, many of the challenges faced shifting from face-to-face to a virtual environment were discussed. Among some of the challenges and limitations experienced when teaching nontraditional and/or …

Through The Eyes Of The Mentor: Understanding The Adolescent Developing Reader, Joanna C. Weaver, Cynthia D. Bertelsen, Timothy Murnen, Jessica N. Glanz

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

While some teacher candidates may believe reading instruction is the responsibility of English teachers, providing teacher candidates across all content areas with opportunities to develop skills working with developing readers may impact this misconception. Since some teacher candidates have limited experience, confidence, and/or reading strategies to instruct developing readers, this study examines the individual experiences of reading mentors at a midwestern university and the effect of their experience on developing readers. This mentoring experience revealed an impact both for the teacher candidates and developing readers. This opportunity proved to be rewarding while providing a glimpse of the reality of working …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 5, Issue 1, Spring 2021

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Spring 2021 issue (Volume 5, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Pre-Service Teacher Reflection And Feedback Using An Online Video Platform During Professional Experience, Michael Cavanagh

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper presents the results of a pilot study in which 11 triads comprising a pre-service teacher, a supervising teacher and a university supervisor used a video platform for pre-service teacher self-reflection and for the provision of feedback. Pre-service teachers made video recordings of one lesson each week during a four-week professional experience placement. They annotated the videos using time-stamped comments and shared them with their supervisors who added comments to provide feedback. The annotations were investigated through questionnaires and interviews that were analysed for their depth of reflection and participants’ views about the video reflection process. Results indicate that …

Brain Science And Parent-School Relationships In A Title 1 Elementary School In Massachusetts: A Basic Qualitative Study, Arij Rached, Simone Elias, Linda Wilson-Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

Bandura's (1977) social cognitive theory contends that people think, learn, and perform based upon a sum of personal (e.g., beliefs, emotions, behaviors), social (home-school relationships), and environmental (school culture). Also, research has already determined that collaboration between home and school leads to better children's social-emotional learning (SEL) (August, Anderson, & Bloomquist, 1992; Cooper & Redfern, 2016; Grant & Ray, 2018). Thus, a basic qualitative research tradition was used to better understand elementary public-school parents' perceptions of the impact of parent-school relationships on children SEL development in a Title 1 school in Massachusetts (MA). Thru the lenses of brain science, a …

Fa 2020 About This Issue: The Power In Slowing Down

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Whether it be videotaping, guided classroom conversations, lecture-based, or written, feedback is the backbone of educational excellence. We use it to mentor beginning undergraduates, writers, readers, explorers, and experimenters. And, if we are thoughtful, feedback becomes a loop by which we slow down learning, we engage reading, writing and exploring, and we collaborate our way to becoming better.

Inquiry And Counter-Witnessing In Covid-19, Erica R. Hamilton, Deborah Vriend Van Duinen, Gretchen Rumohr

Michigan Reading Journal

This essay focuses on the use of inquiry and counter-witnessing as a means of understanding our teaching identities, vulnerability, and productivity in the era of COVID-19. Based on our experiences as teacher educators at three separate institutions of higher education, we have come to value counter-telling and validating. As we share in this essay, working in COVID-19 has taught us, once again, that we must find, and model, courage and self-acceptance. In our teaching and administrative roles, we – along with other educators – can learn to speak our truths and experiences bravely. We hope that in so doing, others …

Influencing Professional Practice Through Academic Service Learning (As-L):, Sharryn Larsen Walker, Anne Katz Ph.D.

Literacy Practice and Research

Findings related to the reflections of pre-service teachers in Family Literacy Events (FLE) as an Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) project are detailed. Pre-service teachers in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest were provided opportunities to bridge theory with practice and apply research-based approaches in community settings. Teacher candidates provided parents with language and literacy strategies and resources to assist them in creating high-quality home learning experiences. The teacher candidates’ reflections are categorized by basic tenets of AS-L, specifically Awareness, Engagement, Practice, Integration, and Reflection. Speculation as to how their reflections were affected by the prompts of their essays are discussed.

Fab Fridays: Fostering Elementary Teacher Candidate Preparation Through Informal Stem Events, Jennifer R. Meadows, Jane Baker, Stephanie Wendt

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

Informal STEM learning opportunities offered outside of the structured school day have been gaining popularity in today’s STEM-oriented culture. These are venues where children and their families gather to engage and explore in science, technology, engineering, and math —together. For a number of years, faculty from the College of Education at Tennessee Tech University have been promoting these events for the local community, free of charge, to encourage and foster a love for STEM Education. Methods professors recognize these events as golden opportunities for teacher candidates enrolled to learn about STEM content while aiding in the development of their pedagogy. …

Ma Tefl Students' Reflection On A Practicum Course: A Qualitative Study, Mohammed Farrah

The Qualitative Report

This study is qualitative in nature and is designed to analyze the experiences and perceptions of a group of MA students regarding an MA TEFL practicum course at Hebron University during the second semester of the academic year 2015/2016 and whether their experience improved their flair to convey educational practices to better serve students. The study was steered by experiential learning theory. The participants learned from their experiences, reflected on practical activities during the practicum course and contributed to a better understanding of the integration process between theory and practice. Three research questions addressed MA students’ experiences during the practicum …

Pre-Service Teachers' Implicit Bias: Impacts Of Confrontation, Reflection, And Discussion, Katherine E. Batchelor, Kendra Dewater, Kennedy Thompson

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Abstract: Although there is much research regarding implicit bias in numerous fields, such as criminal justice, psychology, and health, little research has examined pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs regarding implicit biases they carry, especially when it comes to race. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to fill the gap in qualitative research regarding how pre-service teachers address, confront, and talk about biases. We begin by defining implicit bias. Next, we situate our research within sociocultural theory with an emphasis on critical literacy practices. Then, we share our findings, which centered on the course environment, students’ reactions to their results …

Implementing An E-Portfolio To Foster Students' Ability For (Self)-Reflection: Lessons Learned And Issues Still To Be Addressed, Gernot Dreisiebner, Ph.D., Peter Slepcevic-Zach, Ph.D.

International Journal for Business Education

The purpose of this paper is to review the role of software within an ePortfolio (ePF) initiative for students of a five-semester master’s program for Business Education and Development. The didactical aim of the ePF initiative presented is to enhance students’ ability for (self-)reflection. An accompanying study of the implementation process allows for evaluating the impact of the ePF initiative as well as for the evaluation of its implementation. At six points of time students fill in questionnaires regarding their self-perception of their own competences and their rating of the side conditions of the implementation, leading to 1,925 questionnaires up …

The Use Of Blog Activities To Promote Reflection In An Elt Practicum, Esra Bener, Senem Yıldız

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Informed by the theories of critical reflection and community of practice, this study aimed to explore the integration of blogs to promote reflection among eighteen pre-service English language teachers registered in a practicum course at a public university in Turkey. Fourteen blog activities were designed and implemented to guide the reflective process of student teachers. Data were collected through archival documents of participants’ blog entries, two focus group interviews and two surveys. A total of 457 entries were analysed in terms of depth of reflection and the analysis revealed evidence of medium or high level reflection in most (61%) of …

Reflective Documentation As A Movement Potential: Two Digital Platforms Building A Professional Learning Community, John Taylor, Defne Erdur

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Creating dance and training dancers is a collaborative and co-creative process, and teaching has a central role in the co-creative artistic processes. Yet dance teachers, whether free-lance or working in an institution, often develop and maintain their physical teaching practice in isolation. Additionally, because of the ephemeral nature of dance and the relational nature of dance education, these practices usually do not end up being recorded or documented as a body of knowledge. In the face of such a reality the online database IDOCDE.net provides a platform for the development and maintenance of an inclusive professional learning community through a …

Encouraging Teacher Candidates To Cultivate Habits Of Reflection, Amanda Wall

Becoming: Journal of the Georgia Association for Middle Level Education

The conceptual framework for the College of Education at Georgia Southern University is: Reflective Practitioners for a Diverse World. Three of the five Middle Level Teacher Preparation Standards from the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE, 2012) also specify reflection as a habit. Standard 5 on Middle Level Professional Roles, for example, states: “Middle level teacher candidates understand, reflect on, and are successful in their unique roles as middle level professionals.” In order for teacher candidates to become reflective, they need multiple opportunities to engage in reflection.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 1, Issue 2, Usu Center For Innovative Design And Instruction

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Volume 1, Issue 2 of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence, a publication of Utah State University focused on providing a forum for instructors in higher education to share best practices and ideas related to effective teaching.

The Impacts Of Preservice Action Research In A Rural Teaching Residency, Ann K. Schulte

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Preliminary data was collected as part of the program assessment of a yearlong teaching residency program in rural California where preservice teachers conducted action research as the culminating activity for a Masters degree. Focus groups and survey data from program graduates were analyzed and compared to findings from the research literature. Themes from the data indicate that the residency program prepared graduates to feel confident about their ability to reflect on their teaching and to collaborate with other professionals. Graduates report that having conducted action research in their preservice program had many benefits to their experiences as a teacher of …

Narrative Inquiry: A Dynamic Relationship Between Culture, Language And Education, Esther Yim Mei Chan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Human development is a cultural process, and language serves as a cultural tool is closely related to virtually all the cognitive changes. The author addresses issues of language in education, and suggests that changing the medium of instruction should not be understood as purely a pedagogical decision. The connection between culture and language is examined for understanding why Hong Kong Chinese learners are stereotyped as passive learners. Through exploring personal experience with a student teacher, the author exemplifies how narrative inquiry is found to be a pragmatic approach to support teachers to become reflective thinkers. This study argues that narrative …

Video-Mediated Microteaching – A Stimulus For Reflection And Teacher Growth, Stella Kourieos

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Numerous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of video as an effective means of reflective practice in pre-service Teacher Education. However, only few studies have explored pre-service teachers’ own perceptions in this regard in the field of ELT and none of these was related to primary level. To address this gap, multiple forms of qualitative data were triangulated. Participants were found to consider the use of video combined with guided reflection and peer dialogue to have a great potential in helping them form links between theory and practice and bring a heightened awareness of their teaching practices, especially in …

Unravelling Power And Privilege In The Academy: A Personal Account, Timothy Mossman

International Journal of Christianity and English Language Teaching

This article explores the author’s privileged identities as a White, male researcher and English language educator in the context of relevant critical literature. I aim to understand how my privileged identities granted by race, gender, societal placement, and language interact with my identity as an evangelical Christian and how these identities impact my research and practice in working with multilingual transnational youth in a Canadian university setting. Highlighting the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research and its potential impact on both researcher and student identities, I probe my acquired identities (unearned societal placement) and ascribed identities (spiritual gifts, passions, abilities, …