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Full-Text Articles in Education
Pre-Service Music Teachers’ Understanding Of Blended Learning: Implications For Teaching Post Covid-19, Louise E. Jenkins, Renee Crawford
Pre-Service Music Teachers’ Understanding Of Blended Learning: Implications For Teaching Post Covid-19, Louise E. Jenkins, Renee Crawford
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The significant increase in online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic has created a heightened need for educators to implement teaching methods which do not rely solely on “face-to-face” learning within the same physical space. Blended Learning (BL) is one such approach, allowing for flexibility in the delivery of a class and constant access to unit materials. This paper reports on an investigation, by two Australian Pre-service Teacher (PST) educators, of their students’ understanding of BL at the beginning and end of a BL music method unit. Data were collected for three consecutive years with three separate cohorts. Findings indicated that …
Voices On Data Literacy And Initial Teacher Education: Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections And Recommendations, Shannon Kennedy-Clark, Vilma Galstaun, Peter Reimann, Taylor Martyn, Kiatin Williamson, Jessica Weight
Voices On Data Literacy And Initial Teacher Education: Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections And Recommendations, Shannon Kennedy-Clark, Vilma Galstaun, Peter Reimann, Taylor Martyn, Kiatin Williamson, Jessica Weight
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The purpose of study was gain insight into pre-service teachers’ experiences in using classroom data to make learning and teaching decisions. The qualitative study is based on the reflections and recommendations of three pre-service teachers’ that participated in a data-driven decision-making intervention whilst on an immersive 10-week professional learning experience. This study is underpinned by an action research framework. There are many understandings of action research, here the approach is understood to be a systematic investigation into one’s own practice with the aim of improving teaching and learning. From the thematic analysis of the reflections, several recommendations were put forward …
Inside The Mentors’ Experience: Using Poetic Representation To Examine The Tensions Of Mentoring Pre-Service Teachers., Sharon L. Mcdonough
Inside The Mentors’ Experience: Using Poetic Representation To Examine The Tensions Of Mentoring Pre-Service Teachers., Sharon L. Mcdonough
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The supervision and mentoring of pre-service teachers during professional experience is complex work that requires a range of skills and capacities. Professional development for this work has traditionally been limited, however, and mentor teachers report experiencing tensions in their work stemming from their roles as both supporter and assessor of pre-service teachers. Despite the central role that mentors play in professional experience, their voices are underrepresented in the literature. In this paper, I draw on interview data to examine teachers’ experiences as mentors and the tensions they experience. I use poetic representation to illuminate the tensions and emotions of …
Primary Pre-Service Teachers' Attitudes Towards Inclusion Across The Training Years, Corrina Goddard, David Evans
Primary Pre-Service Teachers' Attitudes Towards Inclusion Across The Training Years, Corrina Goddard, David Evans
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Teachers are responsible for meeting the needs of increasingly diverse learners. Given their position as catalysts for educational change, teachers’ positive attitudes towards inclusive education must be considered prerequisite to its success in Australian classrooms. This study investigated the extent to which pre-service training affects pre-service primary teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education. A survey was designed to examine such attitudes among primary pre-service teachers at all year levels of their Bachelor of Education (Primary). To reflect the increasingly broad definition of inclusion established in the literature, participants’ attitudes towards gifted and talented students, those learning English as a second language …
Making Pedagogy Tangible: Developing Skills And Knowledge Using A Team Teaching And Blended Learning Approach, Renée Crawford, Louise E. Jenkins
Making Pedagogy Tangible: Developing Skills And Knowledge Using A Team Teaching And Blended Learning Approach, Renée Crawford, Louise E. Jenkins
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
In an era of accountability government and industry bodies are mandating that teacher education programs provide evidence of their impact. This paper provides an example of evidence-based practice, exploring how a team teaching and blended learning approach influenced the development of pre-service teachers (PSTs) competency skills and knowledge. This approach was introduced to an initial teacher education (ITE) specialist music secondary methods unit to ensure that the tertiary learning context aligned with contemporary innovations in schools and provided authentic learning and teaching opportunities. Using an embedded advanced mixed methodology, this research had two phases. Phase 1 explored the development of …
Transforming Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs And Understandings About Design And Technologies, Marnie Best
Transforming Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs And Understandings About Design And Technologies, Marnie Best
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Design and Technologies challenges students to think differently: to think critically and creatively. Yet, how, when and why students are exposed to Design and Technologies curriculum in school classrooms is at the prerogative of their teacher. For this reason, it is imperative that pre-service teachers are inspired by and engaged through relevant, rigorous and responsive courses throughout their undergraduate teaching program. Situated within the Bachelor of Education (Primary and Middle) degree at the University of South Australia, Australia, this study captures pre-service teachers’ emerging beliefs, attitudes and understandings of Design and Technologies. Drawing on the comparative responses of pre-service teachers …
The Politics Of Quality Teacher Discourses: Implications For Pre-Service Teachers In High Poverty Schools, Laura Scholes, Jo Lampert, Bruce Burnett, Barbara M. Comber, Lutz Hoff, Angela Ferguson
The Politics Of Quality Teacher Discourses: Implications For Pre-Service Teachers In High Poverty Schools, Laura Scholes, Jo Lampert, Bruce Burnett, Barbara M. Comber, Lutz Hoff, Angela Ferguson
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Improving the quality of education for young people growing up in high poverty and culturally diverse communities is an escalating problem in affluent nations with increasing gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Improving the quality of teachers and improving the quality of teaching are amongst the prominent solutions offered to redress the differences between student academic performances related to socio-economic family circumstances. This article examines the different discourses of ‘quality’ in relation to the preparation of pre-service teachers to work in high poverty schools such as graduates of the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schoolspre-service teacher education program. Key …
Turkish Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflective Practices In Teaching English To Young Learners, Muzeyyen Nazli Gungor
Turkish Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflective Practices In Teaching English To Young Learners, Muzeyyen Nazli Gungor
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The course ‘Teaching English to Young Learners’ is the first stage where pre-service teachers are introduced to a child’s world, developmental characteristics, needs, interests as well as teaching and learning techniques for these learners in English language teaching pre-service teacher education programmes in Turkey. This action research study identifies the gap that pre-service teachers experience between the theoretical considerations and realities of teaching, and the problems they face in this course. It provides the opportunity for monitoring and evaluating themselves in a pre-service teacher education programme in Turkey. Hence, this piece of research aims to promote reflective practice at the …
Planting The Seed Of Teacher Identity: Nurturing Early Growth Through A Collaborative Learning Community, Ann Harlow, Donella J. Cobb
Planting The Seed Of Teacher Identity: Nurturing Early Growth Through A Collaborative Learning Community, Ann Harlow, Donella J. Cobb
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Abstract: This paper reports on the findings of a reconceptualised Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme where a collaborative relationship between the university and partner schools saw the shared responsibility for the first year ITE programme. Findings from this study suggests that ongoing, authentic teaching experiences in collaboration with school-based university tutorials provided a strong foundation for the early development of teacher identity. Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning provides a theoretical framework for understanding why this community of practice has been particularly effective in planting the seed of teacher identity at such an early stage of the ITE programme.
Standards In Literacy And Numeracy: Contributing Factors, Linda Meeks, Coral Kemp, Jennifer Stephenson
Standards In Literacy And Numeracy: Contributing Factors, Linda Meeks, Coral Kemp, Jennifer Stephenson
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The establishment of international testing regimes such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has provided one way for individual countries to monitor the effectiveness of their educational systems. Not only do such programs allow for overall student achievement to be compared across member, and partner, countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and to those countries choosing to participate in PIRLS and TIMSS, but comparisons can also be made in relation to the percentage of students achieving …
Pre-Service Visual Art Teachers’ Perceptions Of Assessment In Online Learning, Jeanne M. Allen, Suzie Wright, Maureen Innes
Pre-Service Visual Art Teachers’ Perceptions Of Assessment In Online Learning, Jeanne M. Allen, Suzie Wright, Maureen Innes
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Abstract: This paper reports on a study conducted into how one cohort of Master of Teaching pre-service visual art teachers perceived their learning in a fully online learning environment. Located in an Australian urban university, this qualitative study provided insights into a number of areas associated with higher education online learning, including that of assessment, the focus of this paper. Authentic assessment tasks were designed within the University’s learning and teaching framework of constructive alignment and were sequenced across the three semesters of the visual art program. Analysis of data collected through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews revealed that participants …
Start With The End In Mind: Experiences Of Accelerated Course Completion By Pre-Service Teachers And Educators, Anita Collins, Iain Hay, Irmgard Heiner
Start With The End In Mind: Experiences Of Accelerated Course Completion By Pre-Service Teachers And Educators, Anita Collins, Iain Hay, Irmgard Heiner
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
In response to changes government funding and policies over the past five years, the Australian tertiary sector has entered an increasingly competitive climate. This has forced many universities to become more strategic in attracting increased numbers of PSTs. Providing accelerated learning opportunities for PSTs is viewed as one way to gain greater market share. Accelerated learning programs are one of the fastest growing transformations in Australian higher education over the past five years. There is limited research that investigates the effectiveness of accelerated programs and the ways in which PSTs experience them. This preliminary study investigates the experiences of pre-service …
The Portfolio Effect: Enhancing Turkish Elt Student-Teachers’ Autonomy, Rana Yildirim
The Portfolio Effect: Enhancing Turkish Elt Student-Teachers’ Autonomy, Rana Yildirim
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This article reports on the use of portfolios to develop ELT major student-teachers’ autonomy. The research was carried out for 14 weeks with twenty-one 3rd grade student-teachers in the English Language Teaching Department of Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. To evaluate the impact of portfolios on fostering the participants’ autonomy, data were collected from an autonomy readiness questionnaire, semi-structured interviews with the student-teachers and three portfolio evidences: graded goal sheets, reflection reports, and cover letters. The findings revealed that the use of portfolios assisted the student-teachers in becoming autonomous in regard to their personal and professional development and that the student-teachers …
Creative Arts: An Essential Element In The Teacher’S Toolkit When Developing Critical Thinking In Children, Caroline Nilson, Catherine M. Fetherston, Anne Mcmurray, Tony Fetherston
Creative Arts: An Essential Element In The Teacher’S Toolkit When Developing Critical Thinking In Children, Caroline Nilson, Catherine M. Fetherston, Anne Mcmurray, Tony Fetherston
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This paper is a position paper, which argues the position that critical thinking is a crucial skill, which needs to be developed in the school curriculum and that the creative arts can do this. The paper explores the states of the Arts in the present curriculum and goes on to argue that knowing how to develop critical thinking is an important pedagogical skill that needs to be developed in our pre-service teachers. This position is supported through data gathered from an innovative project that explored teachers’ and mothers’ perceptions of children’s critical thinking.
Creating Flickr Photo-Narratives With First-Year Teacher Education Students: The Possibilities And Pitfalls Of Designing Emergent Learning Tasks, Marta Kawka, Kevin M. Larkin, Patrick Danaher
Creating Flickr Photo-Narratives With First-Year Teacher Education Students: The Possibilities And Pitfalls Of Designing Emergent Learning Tasks, Marta Kawka, Kevin M. Larkin, Patrick Danaher
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
This paper explores the implementation of a Flickr (Web 2.0 photo sharing software) learning task in a first year primary education course. The context for the task was a Multiliteracies course where students designed digital media activities for later use with primary age students. The Flickr task was constructed to determine how a learning activity might be designed to afford the best opportunities for emergent learning (Kawka, Larkin, & Danaher, 2011). Emergent learning describes learning situations where: the student is self-directed; the content is created and distributed by learners; and the learning destination is open-ended and unpredictable (Williams, Karousou, & …
Student And Staff Engagement: Developing An Engagement Framework In A Faculty Of Education, Sharon M. Pittaway
Student And Staff Engagement: Developing An Engagement Framework In A Faculty Of Education, Sharon M. Pittaway
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Student engagement is emerging as a key focus in higher education, as engagement is increasingly understood as a prerequisite for effective learning. This paper reports on the development of an Engagement Framework that provides a practical understanding of student (and staff) engagement which can be applied to any discipline, year level or course. The Engagement Framework proposes five non-hierarchical elements: personal engagement, academic engagement, intellectual engagement, social engagement, and professional engagement. As well as describing these elements, the paper also explores the theoretical foundations of the Engagement Framework, including a recognition of the importance of conation as one of three …
Being A Teacher Educator: Exploring Issues Of Authenticity And Safety Through Self-Study, Dawn Garbett, Alan Ovens
Being A Teacher Educator: Exploring Issues Of Authenticity And Safety Through Self-Study, Dawn Garbett, Alan Ovens
Australian Journal of Teacher Education
The catalyst for this self-study was implementing peer-teaching in our respective science education and physical education teacher education courses. Because our students taught one another it meant we redefined our roles as teacher educators as well as the roles that our students took in the teaching and learning community. We documented and explored our learning about teaching and teacher education through journaling, observations, discussions and interviews with students. Our students’ responses to peer- teaching provided a critical lens through which we considered our efficacy as teacher educators. Through this collaborative self-study, we have learnt to manage the issues of authenticity …