Education Commons^™

“Fitting Into The Teaching Profession”: Supervising Teachers’ Judgements During The Practicum, Lynn Sheridan, Sharon K. Tindall-Ford

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study explores supervising teachers’ judgements about pre-service teachers during a practicum experience. Making judgements is a complex, subjective process with judgements being conscious and intuitive, influenced by individual beliefs, contextual expectations and personal learning biographies. This research draws on Social Judgement Theory to guide the analysis of data collected from interviews with experienced supervising teachers. Analysis indicated that the supervisors placed most emphasis on ‘personal qualities’ of pre-service teachers. This has implications for the selection of candidates for teaching, the importance of non-academic capabilities in teaching and the development of pre-service teachers’ personal qualities within initial teacher education programs.

‘Aboriginal Learning Style’ And Culturally Responsive Schooling: Entangled, Entangling, And The Possibilities Of Getting Disentangled, Greg Vass

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Arising from the author’s experiences as a high school teacher, and now teacher educator and education researcher, this article is motivated by concerns to do with ‘good’ schooling practices in connection with Indigenous education in Australia. More specifically, the paper critically considers the enduring and worrying influences of ‘Aboriginal learning style theory’, alongside considering the possibilities of culturally responsive approaches. While interest in culturally responsive schooling is growing, the argument put forward here is that concomitant with these efforts, more attention needs to be invested into teasing out how and why this approach differs from learning styles in significant ways, …

Learning The Words: Supervising Teachers And The Language Of Impact In An Initial Teacher Education Programme, Peter D. Brett, Noleine Fitzallen, Sue Kilpatrick, Chad Morrison, Bronwyn Reynolds, John Kertesz, Megan Quentin-Baxter, Casey Mainsbridge

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The language of “impact” has been foregrounded in the recent lexicon of Australian initial teacher education (ITE). How teacher education programmes and supervising teachers identify and assess the impact of pre-service teachers’ work with learners across a professional placement is a pressing issue for ITE providers. This paper reports on qualitative analysis of the language of supervising teachers’ summative assessments of pre-service teachers’ final-year professional experience placements in relation to impact. Analysis of written comments that addressed the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers Graduate Standards revealed that the language of impact is still emerging within the discourse of supervising teachers. …

Perceived Attributes Of Music Teaching Effectiveness Among Kindergarten Teachers: Role Of Personality, Yau-Ho Paul Wong, Wing-Chi Margaret Lau

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: Musical activity has been found to be beneficial to young children’s all-round development in kindergartens. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between kindergarten teachers’ perceived attributes of music teaching effectiveness and personality. Eighty-eight in-service kindergarten teachers rated themselves using a set of Attributes of Music Teaching Effectiveness (AMTE) and the sensing-intuitive dimension of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Results showed that 75% (66 of 88) and 25% (22 of 88) of the teachers were sensing types and intuitive types, respectively. The former prefers a directive approach in music teaching to children, whereas the latter …

An Application Of The Solo Taxonomy To Classify Strategies Used By Pre-Service Teachers To Solve “One Question Problems”, Joanne C. Caniglia, Michelle Meadows

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: The purpose of this article is to report on the strategies of secondary mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs) as they solved conceptually rich problems. Using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes by Biggs and C (1982) (SOLO) Taxonomy, 15 PSTs’ solutions (in groups of 3 or 4) were analyzed by a panel of three mathematics educators. In addition, the authors studied questions posed by PSTs during their student teaching experiences through video analysis. Questions were then categorized using Crespo’s criteria of problem posing. Results showed a significant majority of the problems posed were procedural while PSTs own problem solutions showed …

Lines Of School-University Partnership: Perception, Sensation And Meshwork Reshaping Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences, Narelle Lemon, Anat Wilson, Catherine Oxworth, Agli Zavros-Orr, Bryan Wood

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

School-university partnerships are complex, entangled and layered. As renewal of initial teacher education is at the forefront, understanding how we approach partnerships is imperative. This paper draws on reflective narratives of a school leader and initial teacher education staff involved in setting up a school-university partnership program. We identify the use of ‘meshworks’, that is complex and layered weaving of ideas or lines (Ingold, 2011; 2015; 2017) – specifically the lines of ‘partnership’, ‘partnership understanding’, ‘involvement’, ‘supporting pre-service teachers’, ‘noticing of pre-service teachers’, and ‘impact’. The analysis of the findings illuminate benefits from co-design and vision, while demonstrating how a …

Learning Outcome Literacy: The Case Of Five Elementary Mathematics Teachers, Dilsad Güven Akdeni̇z, Ziya Argün

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: Learning outcome (LO) literacy is conceptualized as a necessary skill for planning teaching and learning activities effectively. The skill has two main components: understanding and interpreting learning outcomes. The current study aimed to identify learning outcome literacy of elementary mathematics teachers with regard to this conceptualization. It is a case study based on the qualitative design. Participants were 5 mathematics teachers working at different elementary (5^th - 8^th grade) schools in Turkey. Observations and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection based on 10 learning outcomes selected from algebra and number learning domains in local mathematics curriculum. …

Rethinking Teacher Education For Classroom Behaviour Management: Investigation Of An Alternative Model Using An Online Professional Experience In An Australian University., Angela Page, Marguerite Jones

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper responds to the theory-practice divide regarding classroom behaviour management in teacher education. Qualitative interviews and surveys were used to investigate whether an alternative model using an online professional experience could improve perceptions of teacher education students’ beliefs, knowledge, perceived skills and confidence in classroom management. Teacher education students participated in an innovative Master of Teaching course designed to integrate ecological classroom management theory, video observation, and critical reflection in an online professional experience (practicum). Results indicated that participants, upon completion of the course, reported improvements in their beliefs, knowledge, perceived skills and confidence in classroom management. Additionally, in …

Early Childhood Hass Matters: An Investigation Of Early Childhood Staff And Their Transition To The New Western Australian Humanities And Social Sciences Curriculum In 2017, Jane Loxton

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Changes to education policies and the creation of new curricula in Western Australia (WA), such as the new WA Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) Curriculum in 2017, may place external pressure on teachers as they transition from existing to new curricula. The aim of this interpretivist study was to investigate the transition to the new WA HASS Curriculum in 2017. The experiences and perspectives of the school leaders and teachers in Pre-primary, Year One and Year Two (PP to Y2) in two Perth metropolitan independent schools was explored. The preparation undertaken by the early childhood teachers and leaders, and the …

Teacher Identity Construction In A Tesol Graduate Certificate Of Education In Western Australia, Arman Abednia

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research project explored the potential of a second language teacher education course for fostering teacher identity negotiation. It was found that classroom conversations provided a rich space for teacher identity negotiation; however, no substantial changes were observed in most aspects of their identities during the course, except for a growth in a few teachers’ selfconfidence. The implications are that conducting teacher education in an interactive manner is highly beneficial, but deeper engagement with practice of teaching is recommended. These insights should facilitate positive outcomes for teacher education programs.

A Study On The Impact Of A Music Looping Technology Intervention Upon Pre-Service Generalist Teachers’ Self-Efficacy To Teach Music In Primary Schools, John Nathan Heyworth

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In Australia, in the current climate of economic rationalism in which there has been an increasing emphasis on literacy and numeracy, funding for specialised subjects like music has been reducing. As a result, generalist classroom teachers are being given more responsibility for delivering effective music education in primary schools. However, the time dedicated to training pre-service teachers in music education in tertiary institutions has diminished. Further, time constraints involved in building pre-service knowledge and skills in teaching music may impact many pre-service teachers’ beliefs about their ability to teach music.

Within these constraints, digital technology may provide a key to …