Education Commons^™

The Silenced Discourse: Students With Intellectual Disabilities At The Academy Of Music In Sweden, Marie-Helene Zimmerman Nilsson, Claes Ericsson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this article, based on a larger research project, the ambition is to critically discuss the first collaboration between students with intellectual disabilities and the Academy of Music in Sweden. The article presents an analysis of video observations of lessons in rhythmics, related to an encounter between the students with intellectual disabilities and a group of student teachers. The theoretical and methodological framework emanates from post-structuralist and social constructionist theories. The results show that the silenced discourse, the unspoken, is constructed from the fact that the students with disabilities both are insufficiently skilled for the task as leaders in rhythmics, …

Book Review - Critical Voices In Teacher Education: Teaching For Social Justice In Conservative Times, Ivan Snook

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Barry Down & John Smyth (eds). New York, London: Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg, 2012.

The central theme of this volume is that, in recent decades, education in Australia (and many other countries) has been taken over by a managerialist ideology which has “damaged the profession of teaching by reducing teacher autonomy, deskilling teachers’ work, standardising curricula and introducing prefab lessons and scripted curricula”(p 3).

Dead Certainty? The Case For Doubt In Teacher Education., Sandy Schuck, John Buchanan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this conceptual paper we discuss the value of doubt in teacher education for ourselves and, by implication, more broadly. We develop an argument for the value of doubt in teacher education that grows out of the recognition of the complexity of teaching. We interrogate meanings of doubt in this context and debate the value of doubt and certainty. We also indicate the challenges of fostering and nurturing doubt in teaching and teacher education. We suggest that doubt is a necessary element of teacher education as its presence helps to prepare our students for their careers as teachers in a …

Turkish Pre-Service Teachers` Perceived Self-Efficacy Beliefs And Knowledge About Using Expository Text As An Instructional Tool In Their Future Classroom Settings, Kasim Yildirim, Seyit Ates

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this research was to examine Turkish pre-service teachers` knowledge and perceived self-efficacy beliefs toward using expository text as an instructional tool in their future classroom settings. The research sample were 346 pre-service teachers who studied in different teacher preparation programs which included elementary classroom and middle content classrooms (for example, science, social studies and Turkish language arts) teaching professions. A teacher efficacy inventory and a knowledge test about using expository text were developed and administered to the pre-service teachers in a public university in Turkey. The research findings showed that there was a small but positive correlation …

Education Direct: An Alternative Entry Pathway To Pre-Service Teacher Education, Kevin Pilkington, Graeme Lock

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Universities in Australia are offering alternative entrance pathways to attract students from a range of backgrounds. These alternative pathways will undoubtedly be reviewed due to the recommendation in the Review of Australian Higher Education (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent & Scales, 2008) concerning increasing the diversity of university entrants.

This paper discusses an alternative entry pathway, Education Direct (ED), offered by the School of Education at Edith Cowan University, and commences with a review of the literature about such pathways. The next section explores the development and nature of the ED pathway, before outlining the research design and identifying the research questions, …

Self-Determination: Using Agency, Efficacy And Resilience (Aer) To Counter Novice Teachers’ Experiences Of Intensification, Jayne Keogh, Susanne Garvis, Donna Pendergast, Pat Diamond

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The intensification process associated with the first year of teaching has a significant impact on beginning teachers’ personal and professional lives. This paper uses a narrative approach to investigate the electronic conversations of 16 beginning teachers on a self-initiated group email site. The participants’ electronic exchanges demonstrated their qualities of agency, efficacy and resilience (AER), and an increased sense of self-determination as they journeyed through the five phases typical of first year teacher experience. Findings suggest that the provision of similar peer-based support mechanisms would benefit other beginning teachers, perhaps working to counteract current high attrition rates from the profession.

What Pre-Service Teachers Need To Know To Be Effective At Values-Based Education, Amanda G. Mergler, Rebecca Spooner-Lane

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Evidence is mounting that values education is providing positive outcomes for students, teachers and schools (Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn, & Smith, 2006; DEST, 2008; Hattie, 2003; Lovat, Clement, Dally, & Toomey, 2010). Despite this, Australian pre-service teacher education does not appear to be changing in ways necessary to support skilling teachers to teach with a values focus (Lovat, Dally, Clement, and Toomey, 2011). This article presents findings from a case study that explored current teachers’ perceptions of the skills pre-service teachers need to teach values education effectively. Teachers who currently teach with a values focus highlighted that pre-service teacher education degrees …

Effects Of Increased Self-Regulated Learning Opportunities On Student Teachers’ Motivation And Use Of Metacognitive Skills, Emmy Vrieling, Theo Bastiaens, Sjef Stijnen

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This intervention study focused on the relationships between primary student teachers’ self-regulated learning (SRL) opportunities, their motivation for learning and their use of metacognitive learning strategies. The participants were 3 teacher educators and 136 first-year student teachers. During one semester, teacher educators and student teachers were monitored by questionnaires measuring opportunities for SRL offered by the program. Questionnaires were also administered monitoring student teachers’ motivation and metacognition. During data collection, teacher educators participated in training courses and tutorial conversations aimed at increasing student teachers’ SRL opportunities in the curriculum. At the end of the research period, all teacher educators and …

Rethinking Sport Teaching In Physical Education: A Case Study Of Research Based Innovation In Teacher Education, Shane Pill, Dawn Penney, Karen Swabey

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper focuses on the significance of physical education teacher education (PETE) in the diffusion of ‘new’ thinking about sport teaching in physical education. It explores issues arising from a case study investigation that sought to respond to the critical commentary about the form and substance of sport teaching in physical education by supporting innovation in school curriculum and pedagogy through pre-service teacher education. The study was designed to challenge PETE pre-service teachers’ thinking about sport curriculum and pedagogy in physical education, introduce them to new thinking about models and specifically, the sport literacy model (Drummond & Pill, 2011; Pill, …

“Talking To Learn”: Focussing Teacher Education On Dialogue As A Core Practice For Teaching And Learning., Christine J. Edwards-Groves, Rhonda L. Hoare

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Classroom interaction, as a core practice of teaching and learning, remains a ‘taken-for-granted’ and under-examined dimension of teacher education. This paper reports preliminary findings from an empirical investigation of pre-service teacher’s development of skills in classroom interaction as core educational practice. Specifically, the paper presents findings from a faculty-wide initiative involving first year Bachelor of Education students from one rural/regional university in NSW, Australia. The research investigated the impact that a focus on the role of dialogue for learning - both in university subjects and practising in classroom sites - has on 124 first year education pre-service teachers’ interaction practices …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptions Of Education For Sustainability, Neus (Snowy) Evans, Hilary Whitehouse, Ruth Hickey

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Environmental education researchers argue that pre-service teachers have a limited understanding of education for sustainability. The research described in this article applies a phenomenographic approach to investigating variations in how a representative cohort of 30 pre-service teachers, at various stages of completing an education degree at a small regional Australian university, understands the concept of education for sustainability. The results distinguish four related but distinctive categories of descriptions: (1) education that is continuous; (2) education about ecological systems and environmental systems; (3) education that is active, hands-on, local and relevant; and (4) education for the future. This paper discusses the …

Evaluation Of An In-Service Training Program For Primary-School Language Teachers In Turkey, Hacer H. Uysal

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Despite the critical importance of in-service education programs (INSETs) for teachers’ on-going professional development, educators often report problems concerning many INSETs. However, due to lack of systematic evaluation studies of INSETs in especially language education field, specific problems in these courses cannot be diagnosed, and they are left unresolved. The present study, therefore, evaluates a one-week INSET offered by the Turkish Ministry of Education to explore its sustained impact on language teachers’ attitudes, knowledge-base, and classroom practices. The program is first evaluated against the criteria for effective INSETs suggested by previous literature. Then, data are gathered through course materials analysis, …

Motivation And Quality Of Work Life Among Secondary School Efl Teachers, Sasan Baleghizadeh, Yahya Gordani

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study set out to investigate the relationship between quality of work life and teacher motivation among 160 secondary school English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Tehran, Iran. In addition, 30 of the participants were randomly selected to take part in follow-up interviews which asked why they felt the way they reported. The results revealed that the participants enjoyed a medium level of quality of work life and experienced a medium-to-low level of motivation. In addition, a significant relationship was found between motivation and quality of work life categories. Furthermore, the sub-scales of the quality of work life …

Lack Of Men, Flame Throwers And Rabbit Drives: Student Life In Australia's First Rural Teachers College 1945-1955, Anthony Potts

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article examines student life in an Australian rural teachers college. The paper is informed by studies on university student life and extends these to Australia’s first rural teachers college in the period 1945-1955. It explores the diversity of students’ experiences in a small college with predominately female students gradually supplemented by male students. It looks at staff student relations in a college struggling to train teachers for rural Australian towns in the immediate post World War II period. While these rural students’ lives were similar to those portrayed in the standard histories of teacher education students were well aware …

How Can Schools Support Beginning Teachers? A Call For Timely Induction And Mentoring For Effective Teaching, Peter Hudson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Induction programs largely focus on informing the beginning teacher about the school culture and infrastructure yet the core business of education is teaching and learning. This qualitative study uses a survey, questionnaire, and interviews to investigate 10 beginning teachers’ needs towards becoming effective teachers in their first year of teaching. Findings were synonymous with studies in other countries that showed they required more support in the induction process, particularly around the school context, networking, managing people, and creating work-life balances. It also found that these beginning teachers required support in school culture and infrastructure with stronger consideration of developing teaching …

Nintendo Wii: Opportunities To Put The Education Back Into Physical Education, Dana Perlman, Greg Forrest, Phil Pearson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Movement-based gaming technologies, such as the Nintendo Wii, are becoming more visible within the physical education. As research on movement-based technologies develops, an aspect that has gained interest is the potential educational value for the physical education student. The purpose of this study was to examine movement-based sport games and the potential learning opportunities (i.e. game performance elements) for physical education students. Using qualitative measures, experts in the field of physical education teacher education analyzed the game performance opportunities across multiple sport-based games. Findings indicated that movement-based games provide opportunities to develop and work on the cognitive understanding of sport …

Teacher Professional Development Through A School-University Partnership. What Role Does Teacher Identity Play?, John Trent

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study examines the continuing professional development of one group of secondary school English language teachers who participated in a school-university partnership in Hong Kong. Grounded in a framework of teacher identity and using in-depth interviews conducted over the entire 12 month period of the partnership, the study explores the teacher’s professional development experiences in terms of their negotiation of membership within and across multiple communities. Results suggest that the teachers’ experienced professional development through partnership partly as identity conflict, as they negotiated recognition of the competencies they associated with the partnership within the different communities of teachers in which …

Does Study Of An Inclusive Education Subject Influence Pre-Service Teachers' Concerns And Self-Efficacy About Inclusion?, Stuart Woodcock, Brian Hemmings, Russell Kay

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Survey data were collected from pre-service teachers studying at a large regional Australian university. These data were examined with the purpose of determining whether pre-service teachers’ views (and concerns) about inclusion and their confidence to teach in inclusive classrooms had changed as a result of studying an inclusive education subject and undertaking a practicum linked to that subject. The results of an analysis based on mean values indicated that the various concerns, namely, resources, acceptance, workplace, and academic standards, did not change markedly as a consequence of the subject and practicum experiences. This analysis also showed a hierarchy of concerns …

Supporting Teachers’ Professional Learning At A Distance: A Model For Change In At-Risk Contexts, Elizabeth A. Warren, Janine Quine, Eva Devries

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper examines the effectiveness of a professional learning model developed to support early years teachers in rural and remote communities in Queensland as they began to implement the Australian Curriculum in Mathematics. The data are drawn from 35 teachers at the initial stage of a large, four year longitudinal study RoleM (Representations, oral language and engagement in Mathematics). The particular aims of the longitudinal study are to (a) identify effective pedagogical practices that may assist young Indigenous Australian students to negotiate Western mathematical understanding, and (b) investigate professional learning models that best support teachers within this context. The data …

The Role Of Field Experience In The Preparation Of Reflective Teachers, Maria Liakopoulou

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A basic condition for teachers developing their personal theory about teaching and utilising their knowledge in practice and perceiving and managing the complexity of the teaching process, is their ability to analyse the teaching process and to reflect on it. The research data presented in this article comes from research carried out, during which the role of field experience in teachers training was examined, and in particular to what extent and under what conditions field experience contributes to developing the ability of teachers to analyse and evaluate the teaching process. To answer those questions, information was primarily obtained from reflection …

Early Career Teachers’ Self-Efficacy For Balanced Reading Instruction, Petra Hastings

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

According to Bandura (1986; 1997), perceptions of efficacy are based on four sources: enactive attainment; vicarious experience; physiological and emotional states; and verbal persuasion. The factors affecting Early Career Teachers' self-efficacy for reading instruction are closely related to these four sources. It is not difficult to imagine an Early Career Teacher practicing within a ‘source vacuum’ as he or she attempts to grapple with the methodologies and strategies necessary for a balanced reading program. How, then, do they rate their teaching efficacy for this area of the curriculum? And which types of professional learning opportunities do they believe have heightened …

'Me As A Science Teacher': Responding To A Small Network Survey To Assist Teachers With Subject-Specific Literacy Demands In The Middle Years Of Schooling, Anne-Marie Morgan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Middle years’ teachers in primary schools are increasingly required to teach curriculum-specific subjects at a depth requiring considerable content and pedagogical knowledge, as well as a detailed understanding of the particular literacy requirements specific to each subject. Science teaching, in the latter years of primary schooling, is particularly demanding for non-specialist teachers. Many teachers struggle with feelings of (in)adequacy and (in)competence to be ‘science literate’ and ‘good’ science teachers, providing sufficient and valuable science learning opportunities for their learners.

This paper describes one primary school’s attention to teachers’ feelings of wellbeing and competence in relation to themselves as science teachers. …

Basic Literacy Or New Literacies? Examining The Contradictions Of Australia’S Education Revolution, Rachel Buchanan, Kathryn Holmes, Gregory Preston, Kylie Shaw

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In 2007 the Labor Government came to power with the promise to bring to Australia an ‘Education Revolution’. More than four years later we are still waiting for the full impact of this series of policy initiatives. Among the various facets of the Education Revolution was the assurance that the Education Revolution would focus on the most fundamental skills – literacy and numeracy, and that it would offer world-class teaching and learning through a ‘Digital Education Revolution’. The digital education revolution aims to foster the development of 21^st century learning skills in students, skills which seem at odds with …

Urban Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptions Of Teaching In Rural Communities, Lenore Adie, Georgina Barton

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Encouraging quality teaching staff to apply for and accept teaching placements in rural and remote locations is an ongoing concern internationally. The value of different support mechanisms provided for pre-service teachers attending a rural and remote practicum[1] are investigated through theories of place and the school-community nexus. Qualitative data regarding the experiences of the pre-service teachers were collected through interviews and case study notes. This project adds to our understanding of practicum in rural areas by employing a conceptual understanding of place to propose how the experiences of a four-week practicum may contribute to urban pre-service teachers’ conceptions of …

Integrating Peer Assisted Learning And Elearning: Using Innovative Pedagogies To Support Learning And Teaching In Higher Education Settings, Susan Edwards, Jane Bone

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The paper reports the findings from a project which examined the interface between Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) and eLearning in a higher education setting. Traditional uses of ICTs in Higher Education have focused on the ‘transfer model’ where existing face to face pedagogies have tended to be transferred to approaches to elearning. This paper argues that arrival of Web 2.0 has challenged the continued viability of the transfer model and discusses instead the need for more innovative approaches to inform the design of teaching and learning in higher education settings. In response to this the PAL project was conceptualised using …

Transforming Selves For Inclusive Practice: Experiences Of Early Childhood Preservice Teachers, Joseph S. Agbenyega, Sunanta Klibthong

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper we discussed the impact of ‘spaces of difference’ on teachers’ professional learning to embrace and celebrate diversity, as perceived by early childhood preservice teachers who share their opinions through online group discussions. Spaces of difference is a first year undergraduate course unit designed to support preservice teachers’ professional education to embrace and implement inclusive practice in early childhood education. Informed by Critical theoretical ideas of Bourdieu (Capital, Field, Habitus), we investigated early childhood preservice teachers’ concept of spaces of difference and their personal transformations. Results of this qualitative study suggested that teachers’ understanding of space extended and …

Teaching Students With Disabilities: A Web-Based Examination Of Preparation Of Preservice Primary School Teachers, Jennifer Stephenson, Sue O'Neill, Mark Carter

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

With increasing expectations that preservice teachers will be prepared to teach students with special needs in regular classrooms, it is timely to review relevant units in teacher education courses. Units relevant to special education/inclusion in primary undergraduate teacher preparation courses in Australian tertiary institutions, delivered in 2009, were examined. Information was gathered through a series of Google searches, and available information was very limited for some units. Sixty-one units in 34 courses met criteria for inclusion. Units typically ran for one semester with 30-40 hours of instruction. Just under half the instructors for whom relevant information was available had an …

Balancing Detailed Comprehensiveness With A Big Vision: A Suggested Conceptual Framework For Teacher Education Courses, Christine A. Ormond

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The current national professional accreditation processes have great significance for teacher educatioCurrent Australian teacher accreditation processes are impacting significantly on the expectations of teacher education courses, particularly in relation to graduate resilience, flexibility and capability. This paper uses a logical conceptual format to explain how writers at a Western Australian university prepared a new Secondary Degree course, one that offers students an optimum selection of diverse learning contexts for building a deeper understanding of the teaching profession. Four “stages” of conceptual planning are described. The first three conceptual stages established the thematic structure of the developmental course model across …

Towards Evidence-Based Initial Teacher Education In Singapore: A Review Of Current Literature, Ee-Ling Low, Chenri Hui, Peter G. Taylor, Pak Tee Ng

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Initial teacher education (ITE) in Singapore is shifting towards evidence-based practice. Despite a clear policy orientation, ITE in Singapore has not yet produced the evidence base that it is anticipating. This paper presents an analytical review of previous research into ITE in Singapore and makes comparisons to the larger international context. The review begins with a brief overview of some of the main characteristics of the research over the last decade (1999-2010). Our analysis suggests that the field of ITE research in Singapore is relatively new and still struggling to be a focus of educational research. Current published studies are …

Crossing The Primary And Secondary School Divide In Teacher Preparation, Sally Knipe

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher education courses at universities qualify graduates to teach in age-related contexts of primary/early childhood/secondary that reflect the organisational structure of schools. In terms of teacher employment, for some considerable time, these longstanding organisational divisions have been by-passed whereby a shortage of teachers in particular areas (for example a perennial shortage of science and mathematics teachers) has resulted in schools employing teachers in subjects and grade levels for which they are not qualified. More recently, the development of middle schooling, P/K to 10 and P/K to 12 colleges, has created demand for teachers with generic skills able to teach across …