Education Commons^™

Teacher Education Programs Of Top Pisa Scoring Countries, Stephanie Kafer

Honors Projects

This research paper aims to investigate the teacher education programs of four different countries that have consistently scored high on the international Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test. This project intends to answer two questions: What locations consistently perform high on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test? What do the teacher training programs look like for these locations and are there commonalities between programs of different locations? The first question is answered using statistics of PISA scores from the past twenty years and from those statistics, the top four countries that this paper focuses on are Finland, …

Comparing Special Education Teachers’ Personality Profile With Their Choice To Teach, Laron A. Scott, Lauren Bruno, Philip Gnilka, Lindsay Kozachuk, Katherine Brendli, Vivian Vitullo

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

Researchers have yet to examine the association of Holland personality profiles as it relates to special education teachers. In response to this need, we report the personality and vocational profiles (Holland Codes) of 134 special education teachers across a special education training program. The purpose of this paper is to summarize findings from the Self-Directed Search measure commonly used to assess the personality of participants in an occupation and suggest implications for participants’ choice in becoming a special education teacher. Our focus was on personality match with vocational choice to include participants’ demographic (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, and geographical location) profile. …

Building Community Using Experiential Education With Elementary Preservice Teachers In A Social Studies Methodology Course, Stephanie Speicher

Journal of Global Education and Research

There is urgency for teacher educators to instruct preservice teachers in the tenants of social justice education. This urgency is based upon the American demographic landscape and the responsibility of educators to teach for social justice. Preservice teachers report feeling inadequately prepared to educate for social justice when entering the classroom setting (citations from below). Feelings of incompetence in social justice teaching expressed among preservice teachers coupled with minimal examination in the literature of the effects of teacher education practices that aid in the readiness to teach for social justice provided the foundation for this study. This study examined experiential …

Planning And Teaching For Student Learning In Mathematics: How Graduate Student Instructors Develop And Implement Instruction, Jennifer S. Crooks-Monastra

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate mathematics teaching from the perspective of a graduate student serving as a first-time precalculus instructor of record. A multiple case study was designed to follow three mathematics graduate student instructors (MGSIs) through one semester of teaching to understand their goals for student learning, efforts to achieve these goals, influences on planning, and to identify challenges they encountered. For each MGSI, data collection included four interviews, three observations of teaching, weekly journal entries, and written assignments from a pedagogy course. A focus group, field notes from the pedagogy course, audio from mentor …

Black Liberation In Teacher Education: (Re)Envisioning Educator Preparation To Defend Black Life And Possibility, Justin A. Coles, Darrius Stanley

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Current configurations of teacher education programs are insufficient in attracting and producing teachers equipped to teach through the permanence of antiblackness, instead still relying on race-neutral or color-evasive pedagogies that perpetuate the misrecognition of antiblackness. As evident by the sustained inequities experienced by Black children and the routine marginalization of Black (teacher) educators in the field, we recognize that teacher education programs, and subsequently P-12 classrooms, are not designed nor equipped to reduce the harm caused by persistent anti-Black racism. Despite the ways Blackness is derided and invisibilized in educator preparation, Black students, families, and communities have long countered anti-Black …

If You Are Not Ready, Then Step Aside: Intentionally Centering The Black Male Body In Teacher Education, Cherrel Miller Dyce, Julius Davis

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

The conditions of Black male students in K-12 schools have been well-documented by scholars and clearly illustrate institutionalized anti-Black maleness that continues to go unaddressed or, in some cases, never addressed in most educator preparation programs and school systems in the U.S. We call for the centering of Black male bodies in teacher education and offer Afrocentric Assessment Mattering Pathways (AAMP) for guidance for intentionally centering the Black male body in teacher education: 1) critical anti-black self-reflection, 2) Afrocentric curricular change using Black history, and 3) engaging in off-campus Afrocentric environments.

Shifting Individuals And An Organization Towards Social Justice: A Teacher Education Program Imperative, Jennifer L. Skelding

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Globalization is the interconnected national and international forces that shape and define nations, economies, and peoples and that extend to schools. Higher education institutions, and kindergarten to Grade 12 school systems, are impacted by the internationalization of teaching, research, and service in response to market- and ethically driven discourses of targeted international admissions policies. Teacher education programs are positioned to respond to the internationalized teaching and learning context to support nondominant teacher candidates and prepare future teachers for diverse classrooms post-graduation. This OIP problematizes an inconsistent strategic direction to prioritize culturally sustaining pedagogies in a diverse teacher education program located …

Exploring Language, Culture And Identity: Perspectives From Non-Native Arabic University Teachers In The Us, Brahim Oulbeid

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how six non-native (NN) university Arabic teachers make sense of language, culture, and identity. Specifically, it aims to understand how their experiences as Arabic language learners, preservice teachers, and classroom practitioners shape their classroom work, especially as they relate to their conceptions of teaching culture and the negotiation of their personal and professional identities. Four questions guide this study: how NN Arabic teachers perceive culture, what their culture teaching practices are, what identities they enact, and what their contributions to the teaching of Arabic as foreign language (TAFL) field are. To address these issues, the study draws …

Teacher Educators Learning With Prospective Teachers: Finding Relevant Mathematics In Our (Their) Lives, Lindsay M. Keazer, Eryn M. Maher

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Two mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) discuss the mathematical contexts generated by prospective teachers (PTs) when pushed to look for relevant mathematics in their lives and communities. Through collaborative teacher action research focused on iterations of collecting, categorizing, and discussing PTs’ mathematical contexts, and posing selected examples for PTs’ own examination, layers of learning occurred for both PTs and MTEs. PTs began to craft more personalized, story-like contexts, seemingly noticing more mathematics in their lives. MTEs were unexpectedly pushed to clarify their thinking about what it means to develop contexts that are authentic and relevant, and to contemplate how their actions …

Becoming Inclusive: A Collection And Analysis Of The Perceptions Of Newly Qualified General Elementary Education Teachers On Their Preparedness For Teaching In Inclusive Settings, Brooke M. Armesto

Honors College Theses

Pre-service teachers majoring in elementary education generally have few opportunities to teach students with disabilities. This research addressed the question “How do newly qualified general elementary education teachers perceive their preparedness to teach in inclusive settings?” The goal of this study was to discover what areas new teachers need to become more proficient in order to successfully teach within inclusive classrooms. The topics explored include perceived preparedness for teaching in inclusive settings, ways to measure preparedness, current approaches in teaching within the inclusive settings and strategies for preparing preservice teachers. Using a qualitative narrative design, five newly qualified elementary inclusion …

Covid-19 Modifications To A Service-Learning Project Designed To Prepare Special Education Students To Be Effective Participants In Transdisciplinary Collaborations, Kathy R. Doody, Katrina Fulcher-Rood, Pamela Schuetze

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This research study examined the impact of COVID-19 on university students’ perceptions about the effectiveness of a community-based service-learning project designed to prepare graduate students in special education and undergraduate students in psychology and speech-language pathology to work in transdisciplinary teams in early childhood settings. Students were placed into transdisciplinary teams and assigned to one of two community-based early childhood programs to administer a universal screening tool that assessed young children in several domains. The project was in its sixth year when the country stood still because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was re-envisioned, mid-course, to provide an equitable …

Making The Transition To Virtual Methods In The Literacy Classroom: Reframing Teacher Education Practices, Lindsay Stoetzel, Stephanie Shedrow

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

In response to the COVID 19 pandemic universities and colleges abruptly closed and teacher educators had little time to move instruction from face-to-face classrooms to digital learning environments. This sudden shift created a myriad of obstacles as instructors worked to retain pedagogically sound and effective instruction digitally—while also preparing novice teachers to teach online themselves. Adding another layer of complexity was prospective teachers’ lack of knowledge and hesitation regarding technology tools, as well as how to meaningfully integrate the tools into their teaching. Facing these challenges, we as literacy teacher educators drew upon effective methods of teacher education, literacy practices …

Virtual Mentorship Of Teacher Leaders: The Ripple Effect, Joan Kernan, Joy Denoon, Eric Roberts, Tammy Sanford

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Abstract

In this paper, the authors reflect on the first completely online mathematics specialist preparation and mentoring program. Candidates across Virginia successfully completed this program and are now serving as teacher leaders, interventionists, department leaders, instructional coaches, mentors, and program specialists. They are impacting mathematics instruction across the state at all levels. As two mathematics specialists serving as mentors and two candidates, we share our thoughts and ideas as we continue to learn from our mentorship process. The goal is to provide continuous professional development as candidates share problems, successes, research, and best practices to improve mathematics teaching and learning. …

Learning To Anticipate In An Online Class: Perspectives Of An Instructor And A Mathematics Specialist Candidate, Kristina C. Anthony, Melody O'Quinn

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

This paper will highlight two perspectives, a course instructor and a mathematics specialist candidate working together in an online course, on the practice of anticipating how a learner will approach a task or assignment. The candidate shares her experiences in developing an understanding of what it means to anticipate student responses and implement mathematical practice in the classroom. She also shares how learning to anticipate has impacted her teaching. The instructor reflects on her experiences (or lack thereof) in anticipating how students would engage in the online environment. From the instructor and the candidate perspectives, learning to anticipate helped to …

Teacher Educators Learning With Prospective Teachers: Finding Relevant Mathematics In Our (Their) Lives, Lindsay M. Keazer, Eryn M. Mather

Education Faculty Publications

Two mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) discuss the mathematical contexts generated by prospective teachers (PTs) when pushed to look for relevant mathematics in their lives and communities. Through collaborative teacher action research focused on iterations of collecting, categorizing, and discussing PTs’ mathematical contexts, and posing selected examples for PTs’ own examination, layers of learning occurred for both PTs and MTEs. PTs began to craft more personalized, story-like contexts, seemingly noticing more mathematics in their lives. MTEs were unexpectedly pushed to clarify their thinking about what it means to develop contexts that are authentic and relevant, and to contemplate how their actions …

Students' Transitions Into Initial Teacher Education: Understanding Barriers And Enablers Through An Ecological Lens, Diana L. Amundsen, Nadine Ballam, Katrina Mcchesney

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper presents a small-scale qualitative investigation which explored early first-year transition experiences of pre-service teacher students. The study took place in one university in Aotearoa New Zealand, involving 24 students and three co-researchers from a Faculty of Education. Perceptions of students’ transition experiences were gathered through an essay task six weeks into the first semester; data were analysed using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological theory to identify barriers and enablers related to students’ transition experiences in various contexts. Diverse transitions accounts of ‘becoming a pre-service teacher student’ were analysed as being complex and intertwined with historical, social, cultural and political elements. …