Education Commons^™

A Storied Tale: Melding Digital Storytelling, Service-Learning, And Digital And Information Literacy Skills For Pre-Service Teachers, Heather K. Beirne

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Today’s teachers, a diverse body of individuals with a variety of technological backgrounds and skill sets, often find themselves working from a “digital immigrant” perspective. Even pre-service teachers, who may be classified as digital natives, report “strong positive beliefs in technology, yet moderate confidence and reserved attitude in using technology” (Lei, 2009); Lei reports that, though they are often viewed as “innovative users of available technology and eager adopters of new technology,” pre-service teachers are also not utilizing digital technology to its fullest advantage, self-report that they do not feel comfortable with or proficient at the use of higher level …

Mathematics Instruction In Pre-Service Undergraduate Programs In The State Of Maine, Jessica Cefalo Osich

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary pre-service teacher preparation in mathematics offered in undergraduate education programs in the state of Maine. The research questions were: How many mathematics courses are undergraduate programs requiring pre-service teachers to take for their baccalaureate education? Within the courses that are required, how many are mathematical content courses, and how many are mathematical pedagogical courses? How does a knowledgeable informant characterize the quality of elementary pre-service teacher preparation in mathematics at their institutions? And, how do faculty evaluate student-teacher competence in math preparation? The conceptual framework was based on three core ideas: …

Technology Integration And Use In Elementary Mathematics Methods Courses For Pre-Service Teachers, Elzbieta Manos

Doctoral Dissertations

According to the National Educational Technology Plan 2010, technology should be incorporated into teaching methods courses and field experiences and not just in stand-alone technology courses. The teacher preparation programs would provide technology-based learning experiences to prepare pre-service teachers to effectively use technology to improve learning, assessment, and instructional practices. However, the problem is that graduate pre-service teacher preparation programs do not adequately prepare pre-service teachers to incorporate technology into their teaching. Furthermore, the teacher preparation programs lacked opportunities for the pre-service teachers to experience technology as learners beyond the stand-alone course in technology. Research shows the need for pre-service …

Impact On Student Learning: Monitoring Student Progress, Deanna T. Vaccaro, Laura D. Sabella

Journal of Practitioner Research

Monitoring each individual student’s learning can be a challenge. It is easy for a teacher to ask the whole group a question, but doing so is not an effective strategy to determine an individual student’s progress. In Florida, student teachers are required to ask the question, “What is my impact on student learning?” as a part of his/her final internship experience. This study takes place in the final internship of a Secondary English Education major’s eleventh grade English Honors class at a high performing, high achieving high school in one of the largest school districts in the country. A class …

Perceptions Of Career And Technical Education By Pre-Service Students, Scott W. Smalley, Kelsey Sands

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

Agricultural education programs are one component of Career and Technical Education (CTE). For CTE to be effective, educators teaching CTE courses must be able to make connections between the curriculum and real-life situations. This qualitative study explored self-reported perceptions of CTE by pre-service students. Wigfield and Eccles’ expectancy-value model of achievement was used as the framework for this study. Findings indicated that career and technical education provides benefits for everyone because it helps develop career skills. With the shortage of educators and budget cuts, career and technical education cannot continue to survive. Participants also describe characteristics of successful career and …

How Brief Motivational Interventions Impact Math Beliefs In Undergraduate University Students, Ayesha Lynn Livingston Phd

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Despite best efforts, students in U.S. schools still underperform in mathematics compared to many other developed countries, and the achievement gap persists. Teachers play a most important role in student success, yet the knowledge about adult beliefs (and how they can be changed) concerning one’s ability to learn math, the value one has for math, and one’s understanding about how math anxiety derails learning still falls short in informing efforts to best train/support pre-service or in-service teachers. A group of undergraduate university students (N=123) participated in a fully online intervention measuring each of the components in the Expectancy-Value-Cost (EVC) motivational …

Does Seeing Matter? Exploring Pre-Service Teachers’ Use Of Self-Video As A Tool For Self-Reflection In The Study Of Their Own Practice, Lynn Navin

Dissertations

The use of video for teacher learning is a useful tool to support reflection and self-analysis. Video records have been successful in supporting teachers in learning to notice student thinking, a strong component in instructional expertise. The use of video provides permanent records of classroom lessons that can be viewed repeatedly (Sherin, 2001, 2007; van Es & Sherin, 2002, 2008.) It allows deep engagement and collaborative learning. Including the use of video in teacher preparation courses has successfully contributed to increasing pre-service teachers’ attending and analyzing skills, necessary components of professional vision, (Santagata & Guarani, 2011; Stürmer, Könings, & Seidel, …

Impact Of Service Learning On The Inter-Cultural Competency Of Pre-Service Teachers, Andrea Faye Gangoso-Aguila, Jonathon Arndt, Yuseina Brito-Lino, Chandler Gooding, Alyssa Harter, Sean O'Rourke, Amanda Rousemiller, David Edwards, Tori Smith

Education Presentations at National and International Conferences

The population of the U.S. is becoming increasingly diverse in language and culture. And, the population of students in elementary and secondary schools is becoming more diverse, as well. Therefore, it is critical that pre-service teachers (PSTs) experience and understand other cultures. Teachers will need to become more inter-culturally competent (ICC). According to Hammer & Bennett (2010), ICC is "the capability to accurately understand and adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonality.” One way to do this is for PSTs to participate in Service Learning. According to the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC), service learning is “a teaching and learning strategy …

The Impact Of Mentoring At- Risk Youth On The Socialization Process Of Pre-Service Teachers, Theresa Allgaier

Theses and Dissertations

While much is known about how traditional field based practical experiences in teacher preparation programs impact the socialization of pre-service teachers, less is known about how practical experiences within after-school programs and other contexts influence pre-service teacher socialization. Relatedly, many scholars have sought to understand at-risk youth and have investigated teachers’ experiences with these students within the context of schools and the gym. The purpose of this study was to understand how mentoring at-risk youth in an after-school program impacted the socialization of six pre-service teachers. Occupational Socialization Theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Six PETE majors, in …

“There’S Nothing Wrong With Fun”: Unpacking The Tensions And Challenges Of Human Centered Design For Learning With Pre-Service Teachers, Zoe Falls, Justin Olmanson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Research into practices of making within formalized education has primarily focused on K12 settings, inservice teachers in professional development, and pre-service teachers facilitating a maker experience for K12 students. Less is known about the professionalizing impact making and human centered design can have on pre-service teachers, especially in relation to how or if the experience deepens their understanding of content, pedagogy and human centered design. This study traces a group of pre-service social science teachers’ development of a meme generator to support learning history. By studying their process from inception to conclusion, we found students were less inclined to engage …

Pre-Service Teacher Perception Of Instructor Emotional Intelligence, Catherine Deane

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how pre-service teachers perceive instructor EI in a state college teacher education environment. An operational construct sampling of 12 pre-service teachers investigated the real-time experiences of pre-service teachers in a state college teacher preparation program specifically in exploring instructor EI and EI awareness of self and others. Instrumentation and data collection was accomplished by semi-structured interview, observation, and an online EI survey. Themes identified include: emotional connection through instructor support and empathy, emotional awareness through use of and facilitation of emotions, and emotional engagement through instructional attributes. Teaching practices …

Initial Teacher Preparation For Teaching Students With Exceptionalities: Pre-Service Teachers' Knowledge And Perceived Competence, Michelle L. Bannister-Tyrrell, Sofia Mavropoulou, Marguerite Jones, Jeffrey Bailey, Anne O'Donnell-Ostini, Rinchen Dorji

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This research study surveyed 100 undergraduate teacher education students in a regional university in Australia, explored self-reported perceptions of their knowledge about students with exceptional needs, and their competence to be effective educators of these students in an inclusive classroom. Additionally, we included a measure of general attitude toward teaching in an inclusive classroom. What made this exploratory study atypical was broadening the concept of ‘exceptionality’ to the inclusion of items related to students with physical and cognitive challenges, superior academic gifts and those deemed to be twice exceptional. The results were unexpected in that teachers’ age, parental status and …

Transforming The Embodied Dispositions Of Pre-Service Special Education Teachers, Gene Fellner, Helen Kwah

Publications and Research

Teacher education programs seek to foster dispositions that welcome student differences in race, culture, language and ability. However, pre-service teachers’ dispositions are difficult to transform because they tend to be aligned with the field of schooling where differences are punished or excluded. This study examines an activity for transforming pre-service teachers’ communicative habitus that was inspired by Bourdieu’s theory that habitus or dispositions are unconsciously embodied and therefore require a bodily counter-training for change. The activity instructed 17 pre-service Special Education teachers to communicate an experience through sound alone rather than words in order to challenge teachers’ deeply embodied communicative …

Readiness To Teach Secondary Mathematics: A Study Of Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers' Self-Perceptions, Gregory S.C. Hine, Thuan Thai

Education Conference Papers

This study evaluated pre-service teachers’ (PSMTs) perceptions of their own readiness to teach secondary mathematics. The study was conducted at an Australian university across two campuses, in different states. Specifically, PSMTs’ perceptions of their preparedness were explored in terms of mathematical content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and mathematical knowledge for teaching. Findings indicate that while the majority of participants feel that they have the requisite content knowledge to confidently teach Lower School secondary mathematics, further training is required to develop their content and pedagogical knowledge, especially for upper secondary mathematics.

Course Portfolio For Math 407 Mathematics For High School Teaching: Refining Conceptual Understanding In A Mathematics Course For Pre-Service Teachers, Alexandra Seceleanu

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

My intention in this portfolio is to present my approach to teaching an upper-level mathematics course for pre-service secondary level mathematics teachers. Several teaching strategies are discussed in the context of designing a coherent approach to this course, which emphasizes the need for conceptual reasoning above all other goals. These strategies are evaluated and assessed in connection to the learning outcomes using samples of student work from the course.

Also presented are samples of course materials that were used to lead students through an organized discussion of the relevant concepts. These materials convey some basic mathematical knowledge and therefore may …

Rights, Respect And Responsibilities Online - Reflections And Efficacy, Michelle J. Eady, Michael L. Jones, Irit Alony, Yoke Berry

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Demands for moral development are increasing in business and professional training. Mixed results of diversity training programs in the higher education sector suggest that innovative approaches are required for preparing students to become morally upright leaders and teachers. This research looks at the implementation of an online interactive tutorial that focuses on students working and learning together with others from a variety of diverse backgrounds. The study comprises a three-year investigation on the attitudes and understandings of students prior to a group work assessment task, and after completing the online tutorial. First year primary education students (n=594) completed pre- and …

The Effects Of Writing Instructors’ Motivational Strategies On Student Motivation, Yin Ling Cheung

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While the last decade has witnessed a growing body of research on student motivation in second language acquisition, research about the impact of writing instructors’ motivational strategies on student motivation has remained underexplored. In order to fill this important gap, this study, guided by motivational strategy framework, investigates the effect of writing instructors’ motivational strategies on student motivation. Participants were 344 first-year undergraduate students taking a writing course at a university in Singapore. Classroom observation schemes, student surveys, and surveys with writing instructors were collected. Findings show that the more the writing instructors reported using strategies in generating students’ initial …

Exploring The Use Of Narratives To Understand Pre-Service Teachers' Practicum Experiences From A Sociocultural Perspective, Gonca Yangin Eksi, Muzeyyen Nazli Gungor

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on an exploratory study designed to investigate what aspects of practicum pre-service teachers narrate as meaningful experiences and how these narratives help them promote teacher awareness and professional development. The study is conducted with 21 fourth-year pre-service teachers attending the practicum at the time of the study. The data consist of 84 narratives written in 2015-16 academic year and oral interviews with pre-service teachers conducted in seminar courses. A two-person review panel analysed the data through inductive data analysis from a sociocultural perspective. The analysis points to the nature of narratives, the practicum school context these narratives …

Developing Pre-Service Teacher Professional Capabilities Through Action Research, Shannon Kennedy-Clark, Katrina Eddles-Hirsch, Tryon Francis, Grace Cummins, Luke Ferantino, Matthew Tichelaar, Lloyd Ruz

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

There is a growing interest in pre-service teacher education programs on how to maximise the learning benefits of professional experience. This study attempts to discover how action research can be used as a vehicle to bridge the divide between theory and practice and to support pre-service teachers in the development of authentic professional knowledge. In this paper, we share the experiences of four pre-service teachers who undertook an action research study whilst on a ten-week professional experience placement in an Australian High School. The findings of the study indicate that pre-service teachers see the benefit of being able to conduct …

An Application Of The Solo Taxonomy To Classify Strategies Used By Pre-Service Teachers To Solve “One Question Problems”, Joanne C. Caniglia, Michelle Meadows

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: The purpose of this article is to report on the strategies of secondary mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs) as they solved conceptually rich problems. Using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes by Biggs and C (1982) (SOLO) Taxonomy, 15 PSTs’ solutions (in groups of 3 or 4) were analyzed by a panel of three mathematics educators. In addition, the authors studied questions posed by PSTs during their student teaching experiences through video analysis. Questions were then categorized using Crespo’s criteria of problem posing. Results showed a significant majority of the problems posed were procedural while PSTs own problem solutions showed …

Lines Of School-University Partnership: Perception, Sensation And Meshwork Reshaping Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences, Narelle Lemon, Anat Wilson, Catherine Oxworth, Agli Zavros-Orr, Bryan Wood

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

School-university partnerships are complex, entangled and layered. As renewal of initial teacher education is at the forefront, understanding how we approach partnerships is imperative. This paper draws on reflective narratives of a school leader and initial teacher education staff involved in setting up a school-university partnership program. We identify the use of ‘meshworks’, that is complex and layered weaving of ideas or lines (Ingold, 2011; 2015; 2017) – specifically the lines of ‘partnership’, ‘partnership understanding’, ‘involvement’, ‘supporting pre-service teachers’, ‘noticing of pre-service teachers’, and ‘impact’. The analysis of the findings illuminate benefits from co-design and vision, while demonstrating how a …

Student Reflections On Teacher Identity Development In A Year-Long Secondary Teacher Preparation Program, Kaisa Hahl, Erin Mikulec

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This preliminary case study examines qualitatively the experiences of 20 participants enrolled in an international English-medium secondary teacher preparation program at a university in Finland and analyzes reflections on their teacher identity development. Multiple measures of data with triangulation were collected from course work, including reflection essays from 20 pre-service teachers and a focus group interview with four of the pre-service teachers. The data were analyzed with thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) in order to find categories of factors that influenced the pre-service teachers’ teacher identity development. The results indicate that the support especially from mentors and positive feedback …

Examining The Lived Experiences Of Nontraditional Students In A Teacher Education Program, Katy Ann Turpen

Doctor of Education (EdD)

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences of five nontraditional students who graduated from the Elementary Education Program at George Fox University (a degree-completion program targeting adult learners). Each of the participants simultaneously completed a Bachelor of Science Degree and obtained a teaching license during their program. The researcher sought to hear participants’ stories and how they gave meaning to experiences while completing the alternative teaching licensing program. Participants’ status as nontraditional included their age of 23 and older, working part-time, and attending classes in a hybrid part-time format. Participants shared unique stories fraught with …

A Study On The Impact Of A Music Looping Technology Intervention Upon Pre-Service Generalist Teachers’ Self-Efficacy To Teach Music In Primary Schools, John Nathan Heyworth

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In Australia, in the current climate of economic rationalism in which there has been an increasing emphasis on literacy and numeracy, funding for specialised subjects like music has been reducing. As a result, generalist classroom teachers are being given more responsibility for delivering effective music education in primary schools. However, the time dedicated to training pre-service teachers in music education in tertiary institutions has diminished. Further, time constraints involved in building pre-service knowledge and skills in teaching music may impact many pre-service teachers’ beliefs about their ability to teach music.

Within these constraints, digital technology may provide a key to …