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Full-Text Articles in Education
E-Learning Pedagogy In The Primary School Classroom: The Mcdonaldization Of Education, Matthew Etherington
E-Learning Pedagogy In The Primary School Classroom: The Mcdonaldization Of Education, Matthew Etherington
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This paper begins as an initial rejoinder to the ideas expressed by Ross (2000) in The Promise and Perils of E-Learning: A critical look at the new technology. In his article, Ross supports the traditional practices of pedagogy at the primary school level—face-to-face pedagogy— and then critiques what he describes as a ‘fetishisation’ of technological pedagogy—a fetishisation seen in the increase of E-learning pedagogy at the primary school level. The ideas expressed in this article gain their structure and momentum from Ross’s (2000) arguments against E-learning and extends a more cautious approach to the widespread belief in the success of …
Mentors’ Views About Developing Effective English Teaching Practices, Peter Hudson, Jan Millwater
Mentors’ Views About Developing Effective English Teaching Practices, Peter Hudson, Jan Millwater
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Effective mentoring in English is considered paramount to a preservice teacher’s development. What are mentors’ views about developing effective English teaching practices in their mentees? This study used quantitative data (survey) and qualitative data (questionnaire) on 24 mentors’ perceptions of mentoring second-year preservice teachers for teaching English and, in particular, the teaching of writing. Quantitative data measured mentors’ perceptions of their attributes and practices across five factors for mentoring (i.e., Personal Attributes, System Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling, and Feedback) with 67% or more of these mentors (n=24) agreeing or strongly agreeing they provided all of the advocated attributes and practices …
Valli’S Typology Of Reflection And The Analysis Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflective Journals, Mark A. Minott
Valli’S Typology Of Reflection And The Analysis Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflective Journals, Mark A. Minott
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Participants were teachers in a new postgraduate diploma in education programme in the Cayman Islands. The aim of the study was two-fold. Firstly, to determine (through an analysis of the participants’ reflective journals) the types of reflection in which they engaged and secondly, to evaluate Valli’s (1997) typology of reflection as a tool for analyzing reflective journals. The results of the study showed that a modified version of Valli’s typology aided in determining (from reflective journals) the types of reflection in which the participants engaged as well as actions to be taken. For example, while participants did engage in reflection-in-action …
Turkish Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs About Mathematics Teaching., Nihat Boz
Turkish Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs About Mathematics Teaching., Nihat Boz
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The purpose of this study was to ascertain the beliefs of mathematics teacher trainees about their chosen profession before they began their service. Specific topics included instructional approaches, the role of the teacher, interaction among students, and interaction between teacher and students during class. Data were collected by use of an open-ended questionnaire administered to 46 pre-service mathematics teachers. Most of the participants in the study held non-traditional beliefs about mathematics teaching. This finding has several implications for teacher education.
Student Motivation: Premise, Effective Practice And Policy, Stuart Levy, Holly Campbell
Student Motivation: Premise, Effective Practice And Policy, Stuart Levy, Holly Campbell
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The purpose of this article is to outline how motivation of first year university students can be enhanced through effective pedagogic practices and to discuss policy level decisions that impact upon the cultivation of student motivation. It reports on practices within a specific first year unit, Understanding University Learning, which successfully incorporates teaching and learning strategies to enhance academic motivation.
Strategies In Values Education: Horse Or Cart?, Laurie Brady
Strategies In Values Education: Horse Or Cart?, Laurie Brady
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This article describes briefly the growing emphasis in Australia on values education as evidenced by the Australian Government’s National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (2005), and the responses of the respective States and Territories. Arguing that the major approaches to the teaching of values (the trait approach often taught through moral biography; values clarification; the cognitive developmental approach taught typically by discussion of moral dilemmas; and role playing) are markedly different in theory and practice, and that the National Framework is not prescriptive about the nature of teaching, the author suggests that the strategies embedded in the approaches, …
Making The Implicit Explicit: Values And Morals In Queensland Teacher Education, Amanda Mergler
Making The Implicit Explicit: Values And Morals In Queensland Teacher Education, Amanda Mergler
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Since the mid-1990s, the role of the teacher has expanded to include overseeing and intervening in the moral development of students. In Australia, this expectation of teachers was generated largely by the national coalition government, and has been continued by the Labor government. As a result, it is essential that pre-service teacher education courses skill pre-service teachers in appropriate ways to educate students about values and morals. Additionally, education degrees must provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to analyse and reflect on their own values and morals. Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers (Queensland College of Teachers, 2006) takes the view that …
Excellent Teachers’ Thinking Model : Implications For Effective Teaching, Sahandri G. Hamzah, Hapidah Mohamad, Mohammad R. Ghorbani
Excellent Teachers’ Thinking Model : Implications For Effective Teaching, Sahandri G. Hamzah, Hapidah Mohamad, Mohammad R. Ghorbani
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This study aimed to suggest an Excellent Teacher Thinking Model that has the potential to be utilized in the development of excellent teachers. Interaction survey method using survey questions, observation, document review and interview was conducted in this study. One hundred and five excellent teachers were selected randomly as research respondents. Two sets of instrument constructed and used in this study were Teachers’ Thinking questionnaire and Teachers’ Teaching Performance observation form. Cronbach Alpha reliability value was between 0.73-0.92 for every component in each division. Multiple regression analysis (stepwise) was used to answer the research questions. R square value (R2 = …
Changing Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes For Teaching In Rural Schools., Peter Hudson, Sue Hudson
Changing Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes For Teaching In Rural Schools., Peter Hudson, Sue Hudson
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Australia continues to face teaching shortages in rural schools. Indeed, preservice teachers may be reluctant to apply for rural teaching positions, particularly as most have had no rural teaching experiences. What may motivate non-rural preservice teachers to seek employment in rural schools? This study investigates 17 preservice teachers’ first experiences of teaching and living in rural areas. These second and third-year preservice teachers were involved in a five-day rural experience, which included interacting with local communities, living with host families, observing teaching practices, and teaching rural middle-school students. These self-nominated preservice teachers were placed in a variety of rural schools …
In Search Of The Essence Of A Good School: School Characteristics Leading To Successful Pds Collaboration, Aviva Klieger, Anat Oster-Levinz
In Search Of The Essence Of A Good School: School Characteristics Leading To Successful Pds Collaboration, Aviva Klieger, Anat Oster-Levinz
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Professional Development Schools (PDSs) are collaborative ventures between schools and teacher training institutions. We identify the characteristics of a school that lead to successful PDS collaboration, relating them to Teitel’s model (2003) that merges the principal standards of collaboration with the stages necessary for developing a PDS. We then describe an external evaluation of a PDS in action in Israel, noting that it took several years to achieve some of the objectives; others have still not been met. Finally, we describe the school’s characteristics that contributed to its success as a PDS.
Best Practice Or Most Practiced? Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs About Effective Behaviour Management Strategies And Reported Self-Efficacy, Susan Main, Lorraine Hammond
Best Practice Or Most Practiced? Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs About Effective Behaviour Management Strategies And Reported Self-Efficacy, Susan Main, Lorraine Hammond
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Managing student behaviour remains one of the most daunting aspects of teaching for educators and this is particularly so when children with disabilities are included in the regular classroom. Self-efficacy has been identified as having a significant impact on a teacher’s behaviour, and pre-service training can play an important role in preparing teachers to be effective classroom managers. The purpose of this study was to identify if pre-service teachers in an Australian university held high or low self-efficacy beliefs and whether the type of strategies they identified as most effective correlated with those highlighted in the research as best practice. …
Science And Mathematics Alliance For Recruiting And Retaining Teachers (Smarrt): Addressing The Teacher Shortage In At-Risk Schools, Denise Staudt, Michael Risku, Elda Martinez
Science And Mathematics Alliance For Recruiting And Retaining Teachers (Smarrt): Addressing The Teacher Shortage In At-Risk Schools, Denise Staudt, Michael Risku, Elda Martinez
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The Science and Mathematics Alliance for Recruiting and Retaining Teachers (SMARRT) is a collaborative partnership pursuing aggressive strategies to recruit high quality minority teachers to teach in high-need schools in urban school districts. This partnership is dedicated to recruiting, preparing, and retaining high quality teachers with strong academic content knowledge in science and/or mathematics and a wide repertoire of research-based teaching practices including ESL strategies. The SMARRT project is designed to allow urban school districts experiencing severe shortages in mathematics, science and ESL teachers to create a pipeline of highly qualified teachers by partnering with the university to recruit, prepare, …
Education Policy, Research And Neuroscience : The Final Solution?, Derek Sankey
Education Policy, Research And Neuroscience : The Final Solution?, Derek Sankey
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Taken as a whole, the findings of educational research are often inconclusive; far too many competing ideas and thus difficult for policy makers to decide what to believe, unless it says what they really want to hear. An alternative is to seek help from the much more ‘scientifically reliable’ findings of neuroscience. Perhaps this will provide a means of uniting education policy and research. For example, it should be possible to scan the brains of children to see whether they are likely to become vicious criminals and so isolate them, before they commit crimes. Will this be the policy makers’ …
Collaborative Partnerships : A Model For Science Teacher Education And Professional Development, Mellita M. Jones
Collaborative Partnerships : A Model For Science Teacher Education And Professional Development, Mellita M. Jones
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This paper proposes a collaborative partnership between practicing and pre-service teachers as a model for implementing science teacher education and professional development. This model provides a structure within which partnerships will work collaboratively to plan, implement and reflect on a series of Science lessons in cycles of action-reflection adapted from Korthagen’s (2001) ALACT model. Issues within Science education, teacher professional development and teacher education are considered in the development of the model which attempts to deepen constructivist approaches to teachers’ professional learning. It attempts to address issues with teacher professional development in the science area and improve professional experience practice …
Confronting The Pedagogical Challenge Of Cyber Safety., Ria Hanewald
Confronting The Pedagogical Challenge Of Cyber Safety., Ria Hanewald
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Cyber violence and the antidote of cyber safety are fast becoming a global concern for governments, educational authorities, teachers, parents and children alike. Despite substantial funding for information dissemination on preventative strategies and the development of electronic responses to hinder perpetrators, the phenomenon of cyber violence has received little attention in the educational research literature. This review paper outlines the status on existing research into cyber violence. Documenting and summarizing the facts on the nature and extend of the issue will inform future debate. It also highlights the need for pre-service and in-service teacher education programs to prepare educators to …
Visual Culture In The Classroom, Tony Fetherston
Visual Culture In The Classroom, Tony Fetherston
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The visual aspect of classroom culture is becoming more important because students now have much greater access to the means of producing, viewing and manipulating images. Using a framework adapted from Foucault and taking a myth-making position, this paper puts forward six propositions as means of explaining how images in the classroom might be read. Theory relating to this emerging literacy is further explained through reference to three dominant classroom narratives. It is argued that the interesting elements of an image are often those that link the classroom metanarratives to wider, hegemonic concerns. Interesting research directions are proposed throughout the …
Creating Web-Based Environmental Education Resources Through Community And University Partnerships, Renata Phelps, Carrie Maddison, Keith Skamp, Richard Braithwaite
Creating Web-Based Environmental Education Resources Through Community And University Partnerships, Renata Phelps, Carrie Maddison, Keith Skamp, Richard Braithwaite
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Community groups often seek to engage with schools in promoting environmental education goals. A collaborative initiative is described in which university pre-service teacher education students were encouraged to create Web-based teaching and learning resources, related to rainforests and world heritage areas, for use at primary and secondary levels. The partnership between Southern Cross University and the Advisory Committees of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area took the form of a voluntary competition, which was integrated with students’ university assessment requirements. The factors that influenced students’ decisions to get involved were identified through telephone interviews. Insight was also gained …
A Comparison Of Perceptions Of Knowledge And Skills Held By Primary And Secondary Teachers: From The Entry To Exit Of Their Preservice Programme, Angela F. Wong, Sylvia Chong, Doris Choy, Isabella Y. Wong, Kim C. Goh
A Comparison Of Perceptions Of Knowledge And Skills Held By Primary And Secondary Teachers: From The Entry To Exit Of Their Preservice Programme, Angela F. Wong, Sylvia Chong, Doris Choy, Isabella Y. Wong, Kim C. Goh
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The purpose of this study was to investigate if there were differences in the levels of pedagogical knowledge and skills as perceived by the student teachers who were enrolled in the Primary and the Secondary Post Graduate Diploma in Education programme at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. 170 Primary and 426 Secondary student teachers participated in the study. The results showed that there were no significant differences at the beginning of the programme between the two cohorts. However, there were significant differences between the two groups at the end of programme, with the Primary student teachers tending to …
Early Childhood Teachers' Sustainment In The Classroom., Pam Kilgallon, Carmel Maloney, Graeme Lock
Early Childhood Teachers' Sustainment In The Classroom., Pam Kilgallon, Carmel Maloney, Graeme Lock
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This paper describes an investigation of Australian early childhood teachers’ sustainment in their profession, focussing on those factors which enhance professional commitment, job satisfaction and occupational motivation. Utilizing qualitative methodology this study also identified key factors early childhood teachers consider crucial to sustaining engagement in teaching, while coping with the daily demands of their work and the implementation of mandated educational change. In particular, this study found early childhood teachers’ students, work colleagues, educational setting and attitudes, beliefs and pedagogical practice contributed to their sustainment, as did their ability to maintain personal well-being and a life-work balance.
Quality Teaching & Professional Learning : Uncritical Reflections Of A Critical Friend, Tony Yeigh
Quality Teaching & Professional Learning : Uncritical Reflections Of A Critical Friend, Tony Yeigh
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This paper discusses how the acquisition, development and exercise of knowledge and skills in relation to quality teaching (QT) practices have impacted upon professional learning within a number of QT inquiry projects. The emphasis is upon how the major challenges and limitations of professional learning have occurred within the social context of collaborative inquiry, and how these challenges and limitations helped shape the professional learning. The paper offers an interpretation of the methodologies and evaluative aspects of teacher professional learning as these have interacted with QT. From this perspective a metacognitive model of professional learning is proposed, aimed at linking …
The Art Of Loving In The Classroom : A Defence Of Affective Pedagogy., Allan Patience
The Art Of Loving In The Classroom : A Defence Of Affective Pedagogy., Allan Patience
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This essay proposes a defence of a form of teaching eroded by what Sennet (2006) calls ‘the culture of the new capitalism’. The term coined for the form under consideration here is ‘affective pedagogy.’ Affective pedagogy is evident in teachers who: • value a discipline (or disciplines) and their associated practices; • value imparting them to students; • challenge students’ learning achievements while respecting their developing intellects; • assess students’ academic progress transparently and constructively; • encourage students to move beyond their knowledge comfort zones; and • engage students in ‘dramatic friendship’ .
Enterprise In The New Zealand Curriculum And Its Challenge To Ethical Teacher Professionality., Leon Benade
Enterprise In The New Zealand Curriculum And Its Challenge To Ethical Teacher Professionality., Leon Benade
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The release in 2006 by the New Zealand Ministry of Education of a Draft national Curriculum set for release in November 2007 challenges schools and teachers to evolve their role to align with the priority to ‘embed’ enterprise values and methodologies. These values and methodologies will be expressed in curricula that school communities will develop locally in line with the new national Curriculum. This paper contextualises the place of ‘enterprise’ in the Draft New Zealand Curriculum of 2006 and considers some modifications in the final version released in November 2007. The possible impact of an emphasis on enterprise for teacher …
Improving Preservice Elementary Teachers' Views Of The Nature Of Science Using Explicit-Reflective Teaching In A Science, Technology And Society Course, Mehmet Kucuk
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This paper discusses how the acquisition, development and exercise of knowledge and skills in relation to quality teaching (QT) practices have impacted upon professional learning within a number of QT inquiry projects. The emphasis is upon how the major challenges and limitations of professional learning have occurred within the social context of collaborative inquiry, and how these challenges and limitations helped shape the professional learning. The paper offers an interpretation of the methodologies and evaluative aspects of teacher professional learning as these have interacted with QT. From this perspective a metacognitive model of professional learning is proposed, aimed at linking …
Building Teacher Capital In Pre-Service Teachers: Reflections On A New Teacher-Education Initiative., Tania Ferfolja
Building Teacher Capital In Pre-Service Teachers: Reflections On A New Teacher-Education Initiative., Tania Ferfolja
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This discussion considers a new pre-service teacher education initiative at the University of Western Sydney, called Classmates. Classmates aims to prepare pre-service teachers to work in diverse and challenging schools. The paper argues that the neo-liberal industrial model of mass teacher education may be limited in its capacity to adequately prepare pre-service teachers for the difficulties they may encounter in a society where socio-cultural inequality is growing. It points out that pre-service teacher-education needs to build teacher capital to better prepare graduates and to buffer the transition from tertiary student to beginning teacher. Classmates offers one way that this may …
Engaging With Images And Stories : Using A Learning Approach To Develop Agency Of Beginning "At-Risk" Pre-Service Teachers, Karen Noble, Robyn Henderson
Engaging With Images And Stories : Using A Learning Approach To Develop Agency Of Beginning "At-Risk" Pre-Service Teachers, Karen Noble, Robyn Henderson
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
At a regional Australian university, a Learning Circle approach was implemented with a small group of first year education students who identified themselves as “at risk” of failure in the tertiary context. As part of their participation in weekly meetings, the students engaged in discussion, reflection and problem-solving related to their transition to university study. They also participated in a visual research inquiry which included the construction of photographic images and research conversations about being university students and dealing with study demands. Through the privileging of interactions and relationships, the students were able to make connections to other Discourses from …
Child As Researcher: Within And Beyond The Classroom, Shelley Kinash, Maddison Hoffman
Child As Researcher: Within And Beyond The Classroom, Shelley Kinash, Maddison Hoffman
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This article was authored by a university educator and a twelve year-old child. The first author was a visiting teacher to a small, rural, state primary school in Queensland Australia. She spent one day per week for nineteen weeks fostering an inquiry-based stance to teaching and learning. The second author is a student within the researched school. Because research generated and co-authored by a child is a largely unprecedented approach to articles published in scholarly journals, the topics of this inquiry are both the within-school research and the complexity of researching and writing about it. The research uses the methodology …
Characteristics Of Preservice Teachers In Multi-Campus Settings: Using Demographics And Epistemological Beliefs To Unpack Stereotypes, Beryl Exley, Sue Walker, Joanne Brownlee
Characteristics Of Preservice Teachers In Multi-Campus Settings: Using Demographics And Epistemological Beliefs To Unpack Stereotypes, Beryl Exley, Sue Walker, Joanne Brownlee
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The last two decades have seen the massification of preservice teacher education and critiques of its quality in Australia and elsewhere. Part of the strategy of massification has been the establishment of satellite campuses in growth corridors. This paper enters the debate on the quality of preservice candidates. The purpose of this research is two-fold: to note comparisons and parallels in demographics across main and satellite campuses, and to advance research on the epistemological beliefs of first year preservice teachers according to campus location. In doing so, we offer an alternative metric for characterising these two groups of students. The …
Good Teachers / Bad Teachers: How Rural Adolescent Students’ Views Of Teachers Impact On Their School Experiences, Joan Strikwerda-Brown, Rhonda Oliver, David Hodgson, Marylin Palmer, Lynelle Watts
Good Teachers / Bad Teachers: How Rural Adolescent Students’ Views Of Teachers Impact On Their School Experiences, Joan Strikwerda-Brown, Rhonda Oliver, David Hodgson, Marylin Palmer, Lynelle Watts
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Student views of their teachers and schooling can influence motivation and interest in schooling as well as their approach to learning. This paper describes the results of an investigation of rural adolescents’ views of their schooling. A total of 240 students from government and non-government schools in the South West of Western Australia were interviewed in small groups. They offered a diversity of responses and insights related to their views of teachers and teaching. Results indicate that what these young people needed from their schools was enough flexibility and choice to cater for this diversity, not only in terms of …
Exploring The Sources Of Turkish Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers’ Chemistry Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Esen Uzuntiryaki
Exploring The Sources Of Turkish Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers’ Chemistry Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Esen Uzuntiryaki
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This study aimed to examine the underlying sources in developing chemistry self-efficacy beliefs of Turkish pre-service chemistry teachers. For this purpose, the College Chemistry Self-efficacy Scale (CCSS) was administered to 20 pre-service chemistry teachers. Then, phenomenological approach was employed and semi-structured interviews were conducted with five pre-service teachers selected based on their scores on the CCSS to identify the underlying sources. The emerging meanings and self-reported sources of participants’ chemistry self-efficacy beliefs were analysed according to Bandura’s sources of self-efficacy. Results indicated that mastery experiences were the major source of self-efficacy beliefs, supporting the tenets of social cognitive theory. Physiological …
A Reflection On The Class Teaching Sequence With Particular Reference To History Classes In Spain, Nicolás Martínez-Valcárcel, Pedro Miralles-Martínez, M. Begoña Alfageme-González
A Reflection On The Class Teaching Sequence With Particular Reference To History Classes In Spain, Nicolás Martínez-Valcárcel, Pedro Miralles-Martínez, M. Begoña Alfageme-González
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This contribution reflects empirical data arising from a study based on the testimony of 1523 students referring to the time when they studied history in secondary school. It forms part of an on-going inter-disciplinary research project. By means of open activities, information was compiled on the History classes received by students studying Bachillerato (two-year pre-university course) in Spanish secondary schools. The data, therefore, reflect students’ views of the subject and the way in which it was imparted. The article will analyse the sequence of actions followed by teachers in the classroom (initial phase, development or application phase, and final phase). …