Education Commons^™

Supporting Pre-Service Teachers In Becoming Reflective Practitioners Using Conversation And Professional Standards, Ondine J. Bradbury, Angela Fitzgerald, Justen P. O'Connor

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A significant goal of teacher education is to support the development of reflective practitioners. This intention, however, is not easily achieved when after-the-fact recall and reporting are key features of pre-service teacher learning rather than critique and contemplation. This research reports on a small-scale pilot study evaluating a novel approach to help pre-service teachers develop reflective skills in order to both understand and address the requirements of the profession. The approach involved a set of Conversation Cards with a series of question-based prompts directly linked to the APSTs and designed to enhance reflective conversations. Focus group interview discussions unveiled the …

The Teaching Discipline Doesn’T Matter? An Assessment Of Preservice Teachers’ Perception Of The Value Of Professional Experience In Attaining Teacher Competencies., Peter Howley, Ruth Reynolds, Erica Southgate

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper is one in a series of papers interrogating some of the fundamental bases of what is seen as good professional experience in initial teacher education (ITE). This paper uses the case study of Health/Physical Education (HPE) students’ perceptions of their professional experience, compared to other teaching disciplines, in one regional university to examine the seemingly taken-for–granted view that professional experience in all teaching disciplines can be assessed according to generic professional standards. In this case when HPE students were surveyed on their views of their ability to satisfy the NSW Institute of Teachers’ Professional Teaching Standards during practical …

Volunteering Within Initial Teacher Education: Factors That Boost And Block Participation, Daniella J. Forster, Jennifer Archer, Rukhsana T. Tajin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Voluntary professional experience can be a powerful way for initial teacher education (ITE) students to develop an understanding of schools and their communities. Do ITE students make use of these opportunities? There is little Australian research that explores genuine volunteering that does not “require” students to engage with the community. We conducted an on-line survey with 141 ITE students who were eligible to participate in a volunteer program. What factors reduced volunteering and what factors enhanced it? The results showed that, while students value volunteering and can point to benefits that come from it, most are unable or unwilling to …

A Primary School Internship Model: Graduate Teacher Performance As Perceived By Employing Principals, Gemma Louise Foxall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Achieving an effective balance between the theoretical and practical components of pre-service teacher education has been a long debated issue. The quality of pre-service teacher practicum experiences vary, and are dependent on numerous variables, such as the duration of the practicum and the quality of the mentoring and provision of feedback.

This study reports on an Internship Model, which began in 2009, and its perceived impact on the quality of graduate teachers in Western Australia. As an ‘Intern Teacher’, pre-service teachers spend their final academic year working at a selected primary school, paired with a trained mentor and receive ongoing …