Education Commons^™

Opening The Classroom Door - A Survey Of Middle Grades Teachers Who Mentor Preservice Teachers— Lessons From Clinical Partnerships And Implications For Practice, Steven L. Turner, Carie C. Greene

Middle Grades Review

Mentor teachers that participate in school-university clinical experiences have a unique opportunity to support preservice middle grades teachers’ development and improve the schooling of young adolescents. This article investigates an early clinical experience and presents data from a survey of 38 middle school teachers who served as mentor teachers. Findings address how middle grades teachers view their role as mentors, their perceptions of the clinical experience as a collaborative learning partnership, and concludes with suggestions to improve clinical experiences for preservice middle grades teacher candidates.

Paul's Dilemma: Is This A Polyhedron?, Bethany Noblitt, Shelly Harkness

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Teachers play the believing game when they honor students’ mathematical thinking, even when it means they must suspend their own mathematical thinking momentarily. The study reported here tells the story of what happened in a university mathematics classroom when one student did not think that a particular figure satisfied the definition of a polyhedron and the instructor chose to play the believing game. The result was a very rich discussion, where both students and the authors grappled with their own mathematical understanding. One author served as the instructor of the course and the other author was an observer, taking field …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Perception Of Their Educational Preparation, Ahmed Khalid, Samir J. Dukmak, Fawzi - Fayez Ishtaiwa Dweikat

International Journal for Research in Education

Abstract:

This study aimed at investigating pre-service teachers’ views of their educational preparation taking into consideration six study domains, namely: planning and preparation for instruction, classroom environment, professional responsibility, teaching skills, time allotted for learning different subjects, and time allotted for learning certain skills in the program. The differences among the six domains and pre-service teachers’ demographic information such as gender, pre-service teachers’ study majors, and the school level they were prepared to teach (Basic vs. Secondary) were investigated. Additionally, the study examined the extent to which the six study domains predicted the pre-service teachers’ teaching skills. Findings of …

Learning To Facilitate Highly Interactive Literary Discussions To Engage Students As Thinkers, Cheryl L. Rosaen, Amber Meyer, Stephanie Strachan, Jessica Meier

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Helping novices learn to facilitate interactive whole-class discussions is an important “high-leverage practice” for becoming an effective teacher due to its strong potential to increase students’ learning opportunities. A semester-long classroom-based assignment in a senior-level elementary literacy methods course supported preservice teachers in developing the practice of leading one text-based interactive literary discussion, along with learning to establish norms and routines for discussions, and to analyze instruction for the purpose of improving it. Analysis of 83 preservice teachers’ written work investigated their learning during the beginning stages of developing the complex practice of leading discussions. We propose a learning trajectory …

Exploring Models Of Team Teaching In Initial Foreign/Second Language Teacher Education: A Study In Situated Collaboration, Malba Barahona

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The demonstrable potential of team teaching as a productive mechanism for developing collaborative teacher learning is now broadly understood in the field of teacher education. However, there is less evidence of the use of such collaborative teaching as a means of strengthening initial foreign/second language teacher education. This paper reports on the findings of a multiple case study in Chile that explored team teaching in a foreign language teacher education program. The study is illuminated through the lens of cultural historical activity theory framework (CHAT) and draws on the analysis of semi-structured interviews, work shadowing observations and reflections. The outcomes …

From Swan To Ugly Duckling? Mentoring Dynamics And Preservice Teachers’ Readiness To Teach, Mahsa Izadinia

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study focuses on two preservice teachers who experienced significantly different mentoring relationships in their two placements during a one-year teaching degree in a university in Western Australia. Data were collected through three rounds of semi-structured interviews, reflective journals and classroom observations. The findings indicated that mentor teachers’ mentoring styles considerably informed the preservice teachers’ perceptions of themselves as teachers and facilitated or inhibited their professional development. Implications for practice include teacher education programs invest more time and rigour in selecting and preparing mentors for their crucial role.