Education Commons^™

Supporting Teachers To Develop Substantive Discourse In Primary Science Classrooms, Prudence M. Smith, Mark W. Hackling

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Students’ thinking and learning in inquiry-based science is contingent on them being able to participate in substantive conversations so they explore their ideas and develop reasons and explanations for the outcomes of their investigations.

While teachers understand the importance of talk for student learning, they are often unaware of the impact of their discourse practice on the quality of classroom talk. To develop substantive classroom discourse, first teachers need to understand what substantive talk looks and sounds like, and then they need to develop their capacity to use questioning and discourse moves to achieve such talk. Science poses additional challenges …

Investigating Coherence Among Turkish Elementary Science Teachers’ Teaching Belief Systems, Pedagogical Content Knowledge And Practice, Eralp Bahcivan, William W. Cobern

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigated comprehensive science teaching belief systems and their relation to science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and teaching practices. Rokeach’s (1968) belief system was used as a framework for representing the hierarchy among in-service teachers’ teaching beliefs. This study employed a multiple case study design with three in-service science teachers. Cases were selected based on participant’s personal epistemology. Data were collected through interviews and classroom observations. Content analyses showed that when science teachers presented characteristics of autonomous self-construal more than related self-construal, they had a more advanced personal epistemology. In addition, these beliefs shaped participants’ conceptions of teaching and …

Navigating The Challenges Of Becoming A Culturally Responsive Teacher: Supportive Networking May Be The Key, Nina L. Nilsson Ph.D., Ailing Kong Ph.D., Shantel Hubert

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Research shows graduates of teacher education programs do not always transfer, or apply, the best practices they learn to instructional practice due to factors related to course features, the student, and workplace environment (e.g., Brown & Bentley, 2004; de Jong et al., 2010). This study examined the challenges a secondary-level English teacher in the United States encountered when she attempted to implement culturally responsive teaching practices she learned from a graduate course to her class with ELLs. Findings indicate she faced strategy- and language-related challenges due to student culture and school environment factors (“external challenges”), as well as her own …

Preparing Pre-Service Teachers For Professional Engagement Through Place/Community Pedagogies And Partnerships, Monica M. Green

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

There is an expectation that Australian teachers engage professionally in all aspects of teaching and learning, including engagement with teaching networks and broader communities. This paper reports on a partnership between a teacher educator and an environmental educator who set out to expand pre-service teachers’ professional knowledge, engagement and practice in an undergraduate Bachelor of Education (primary) course. The paper reports on a study about teacher education students’ perspectives of fieldwork-based learning and its potential to inform students’ future engagement with the broader school community. Using a conceptual framework of place- and community based education, the study examined data from …

Contextualizing Generic Pedagogical Knowledge Through Tension-Focused Reflection: A Self-Study, Zhu Chen

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A major concern in recent decades is that teachers are equipped with pedagogical knowledge through pre-service teacher education programs but know nothing about how to put pedagogical knowledge into their own teaching scenarios. Hence, an increasing attention has been attached to teachers’ contextualized understanding of pedagogical knowledge for effective teaching. Reflection has often been recommended as an instrument for constructing teachers’ context-specific knowledge of teaching. This self-study has identified an approach of reflection by which I, as a beginning Chinese language teacher-researcher, employed to develop contextualized understanding of a generic pedagogical model known as Quality Teaching (QT). The essence of …

Professional Development Needs Of Turkish Teachers In An Era Of National Reforms, Tuba Gokmenoglu, Christopher M. Clark, Ercan Kiraz

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

An emerging consensus in the teacher education literature confirms that supporting educational reforms and improving designs for national programs can be accomplished simply by maximizing the match between teachers’ expressed needs and the content by which those professional development needs are met. This paper presents an interpretation of findings on Turkish teachers’ in-service training needs during an era of massive reform. The findings indicate that teachers do not report a strong need for any professional development program content. Analyses are based on survey data from 1,730 Turkish teachers from 352 primary schools. The results raise the discussion of whether teachers …

Perceptions And Competence Of Turkish Pre-Service Science Teachers With Regard To Entrepreneurship, Isa Deveci

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this study is both to determine the perceptions of pre-service science teachers towards the concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial characteristics and to investigate the perceptions of pre-service science teachers regarding transferring the entrepreneurial characteristics to students. This study is designed as a qualitative study and a phenomenological research approach is used. A total of 12 pre-service science teachers from grades 5 to 8 participated in the study. Data were gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews. The data were evaluated through both descriptive and content analysis. The results show that the perceptions of the 12 …

Feedback On Second Language Pronunciation: A Case Study Of Eap Teachers’ Beliefs And Practices, Amanda Baker, Michael Burri

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In the modern English language classroom,

Abstract: In the modern English language classroom, teachers are often faced with the challenging task of supporting students to achieve comprehensible pronunciation, but many teachers limit or neglect giving students feedback on their pronunciation for a variety of reasons. This paper examines the case of five experienced English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors who strive to provide feedback on specific features of pronunciation that negatively affect students’ comprehensibility. Results derived from semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews reveal that the teachers use similar approaches to select and provide feedback on problematic features …

The Challenges Of Practitioner Research: A Comparative Study Of Singapore And Nsw, Neville Ellis, Tony Loughland

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Practitioner research is considered an integral form of professional learning for teachers but in its implementation it will often encounter significant challenges. This qualitative comparative case-study of teachers in Singapore and NSW investigated the range of challenges they encountered during their work as practitioner researchers. The study employs Schatzki’s practice theory to analyse the impact of practitioner research on the existing practice architectures of schools. A total of 42 participants from NSW and Singapore were interviewed for this study. The results explicate the various challenges teachers encountered and how these act to prefigure and remodel practitioner research as a practice …

Pre-Service Teachers And Climate Change: A Stalemate?, Helen J. Boon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Findings from the second phase of a study of pre-service teachers’ attitudes to environmental education and knowledge of climate change are reported in this paper. A sample of 87 pre-service teachers participated in a survey study in the last year of their Bachelor of Education degree to examine developments to their attitudes to environmental education and their knowledge of climate change as a result of training. Results showed their attitudes towards environmental education were consistently favourable, but their climate change science knowledge had not changed as a result of their participation in their degree. Data on preservice teachers’ sources of …

Reflective Teaching And Self-Efficacy Beliefs: Exploring Relationships In The Context Of Teaching Efl In Iran, Mehdi Babaei, Arman Abednia

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article reports on a study that explored the relationship between reflective teaching and teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. Two questionnaires, the English Language Teaching Reflection Inventory (Akbari, Behzadpoor, & Dadvand, 2010) and Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs System-Self (TEBS-Self) (Dellinger, Bobbett, Olivier, & Ellett, 2008), were distributed among 225 Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis showed a significant positive relationship between the general factors of teacher reflectiveness and self-efficacy. Standard multiple regression identified Efficacy for Learner Engagement as the only predictor of teacher reflectiveness and Meta-Cognitive Reflection as the only predictor of teacher self-efficacy. Finally, the interconnections …

Video-Mediated Microteaching – A Stimulus For Reflection And Teacher Growth, Stella Kourieos

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Numerous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of video as an effective means of reflective practice in pre-service Teacher Education. However, only few studies have explored pre-service teachers’ own perceptions in this regard in the field of ELT and none of these was related to primary level. To address this gap, multiple forms of qualitative data were triangulated. Participants were found to consider the use of video combined with guided reflection and peer dialogue to have a great potential in helping them form links between theory and practice and bring a heightened awareness of their teaching practices, especially in …

A Retrospective Appraisal Of Teacher Induction, Fadia M. Nasser-Abu Alhija, Barbara Fresko

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A Retrospective Appraisal of Teacher Induction

Abstract

Examination of an induction program for new teachers was undertaken from the viewpoint of induction graduates three years after participation. Their retrospective perspectives were investigated as to their satisfaction with assimilation in school in the induction year, their attitudes towards organizational aspects of the program, and the program's contribution to their professional development. Comparisons were made to beginning teachers in the midst of their induction year. Data were collected from 98 induction graduates and 390 induction participants using questionnaires. Compared to induction participants, graduates retrospectively remembered the induction year at school less positively …

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 …

Dangerous Practices: The Practicum Experiences Of Non-Indigenous Pre-Service Teachers In Remote Communities, Glenn Auld, Julie Dyer, Claire Charles

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper seeks to explore the risks of providing pre-service teachers with professional experiences in remote communities. In particular this paper focuses on the risks associated with this kind of professional experience. Twelve pre-service teachers were interviewed while on a three-week practicum around Katherine and in Maningrida in the Northern Territory during 2012. The dangers outlined in this paper relate to the way their experiences continued to be mediated by stereotypes and perpetuating colonial practices. The pre-service teachers’ limited understandings of Indigenous knowledges and languages are discussed before exploring the vexed issue of reverse culture shock that some of the …

A Common Language? The Use Of Teaching Standards In The Assessment Of Professional Experience: Teacher Education Students’ Perceptions, Tony Loughland, Neville Ellis

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

There is a strong critique of the reductionist, technical and instrumentalist impacts of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers from critical policy researchers in education. At the same time, advocates of the standards espouse their potential as providing a common language of teaching. We argue that both views are based on logical rather than empirical warrants. Therefore, this study sought to gather empirical data via a survey of 229 teacher education students followed by focus groups in an endeavour to record their perceptions on the use of the standards as assessment criteria for professional experience. The findings are that a …

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 …