Education Commons^™

Supporting Learners Through Effective Communication: Student Teachers’ Communication Strategies To Address Learner Behaviour, Jirina Karasova, Gabriela Kleckova

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teachers’ communication skills are integral to classroom management skills. If teachers implement effective communication skills and appropriate communication strategies, they are more likely to support learner autonomy, engagement, self-concept, well-being, or responsibility and succeed in behaviour management. This study examines student teachers’ awareness and use of communication strategies to address common disruptive learner behaviours. Although the participants showed limited ability to support learners through communication, they were more likely to identify effective communication responses than to produce them themselves. The study unveils that student teachers in the last year of a graduate program cannot respond to disruptive behaviour without communication …

Inside Mentor-Mentee Meetings In Pre-Service Teacher School-Based Teaching Practice In Zimbabwe., Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi, Lilian Manwa

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Mentor-mentee meetings are a critical aspect of student teacher mentoring during teaching practice (TP)as they significantly contribute to the success of the whole mentoring process and consequently to the positive accomplishment of the entire practicum. This study contributes to debates on mentor-mentee meetings given the limited research on this phenomenon. By investigating the kinds of knowledge student teachers gain from such meetings, the findings may influence researchers to investigate other aspects of mentor-mentee meetings.

The study sought to explore from the student teachers’ perspectives, the domains of knowledge that they gain from mentoring meetings during residential TP. A qualitative approach …

Teaching As A Career Choice: Triggers And Drivers, Ee Ling Low, Pak Tee Ng, Chenri Hui, Li Cai

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Why people are drawn to teaching has been a focal research area. However, previous studies seem to centre on the traditional conceptualisations of intrinsic, altruistic, and extrinsic motivations as well as some other similar categorisations. This study attempts to discuss the issue from a different conceptual stance, proposing a distinction between the “triggers” and the “drivers”. The influences on the motivation for joining teaching were explored through in-depth interviews with 26 student teachers. Results show that student teachers’ motivations for joining teaching in Singapore may differ in important ways from that of their counterparts in other places. More importantly, the …

Creating Space For Pre-Service Teacher Professional Development During Practicum: A Teacher Educator’S Self-Study., Tabitha G. Mukeredzi

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article reports on my self-study of leading cohorts of Bachelor of Education student teachers through collaborative reflections applying reflective questions strategy during four weeks of residential practicum in a rural school. I explore the potential for reflective questions approach as an effective tool for reflection and professional learning in teaching and mentoring pre-service teachers. Data consisted of journal entries describing my experiences as classroom teacher and teacher educator and, of teaching and mentoring groups of students during residential practicum. Reading teacher education as text and, the audio recorded collaborative reflection conversations also provided data. Students’ documented personal and collaborative …

Exploring The Effects Of Classroom Culture On Primary Pre-Service Teachers’ Professional Development, Taner Altun

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study aims to examine primary student teachers’ (PSTs) perceptions about the effects of pre-formed classroom culture on their professional development. In the study, a mixed method approach was used. The study group consisted of 4^th year student teachers who attend a primary teacher education program leading to a B.Ed diploma at the Fatih Faculty of Education at Karadeniz Technical University. The data was collected during the spring semester of the 2011-2012 academic year, in which student teachers carried out their teaching practices in primary schools. The main data collection instruments included a preliminary questionnaire which was distributed to …

The Use Of The Epostl To Foster Teacher Autonomy: Elt Student Teachers’ And Teacher Trainers’ Views, Abdulvahit Cakir, Cem Balcikanli

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It was the aim of this pilot study to investigate ELT (English Language Teaching) student teachers’ and teacher trainers’ views on the use of the EPOSTL (The European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages) in pre-service language teacher education of a Turkish state university. Upon the implementation of the EPOSTL as a reflection tool for the second semester of 2010, 25 student teachers and 4 teacher trainers were interviewed through the questions prepared and piloted. The findings indicated that both student teachers and teacher trainers found the use of the EPOSTL beneficial in terms of reflection, self-assessment and awareness. …

Social Justice, Pedagogy And Multiliteracies: Developing Communities Of Practice For Teacher Education, Wendy Cumming-Potvin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Celebrating and responding equitably to diversity have become increasingly essential for teachers’ work in the new millennium, which is characterized by shifting local and global communities. Aiming to broaden conceptions of teacher education within a predominantly ‘back to basics’ literacy environment, this article draws on selected results from a qualitative study underpinned by the metaphor of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998; Wenger et al., 2002). Conducted in Western Australia, the project involved a small group of pre-service teachers using a pedagogy of ‘Multiliteracies’ (The New London Group, 2000) in face-to-face and on-line settings to construct understandings about literacy learning and …

Learning By Doing: Preservice Teachers As Reading Tutors, Suzanne Dawkins, Marie-Eve Ritz, William Louden

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Whilst early childhood educators are well aware of the importance of meeting the needs of individual children when teaching ‘struggling readers’, finding the time for frequent one-on-one support is difficult. Studies have established that with a well developed and structured tutoring programme, as well as high quality training and supervision, volunteers can be used to provide tutoring in a one-on-one early intervention reading programme. The current study suggests that there is an opportunity for preservice teachers to gain valuable information to increase their knowledge of the reading process, while providing effective support to schools as trained tutors. The small-scale exploratory …

Examining The Teacher Efficacy And Achievement Goals As Predictors Of Turkish Student Teachers’ Conceptions About Teaching And Learning, Altay Eren

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Based on the fact that the relationships among student teachers’ efficacy beliefs, achievement goals, and conceptions about teaching and learning has remained to be investigated to date, this study aimed to examine student teachers’ efficacy beliefs and achievement goals as predictors of their conceptions about teaching and learning. Results of the present study showed that student teachers’ conceptions about teaching and learning are significantly predicted by their efficacy beliefs and achievement goals. Results also demonstrated that the effects of student teachers’ efficacy beliefs and motivational beliefs on their conceptions about teaching and learning vary as a function of the fields …

Promoting Reflection During Practice Teaching In An Australian University : Clarifying The Rhetoric And The Reality, Ross Brooker, Thomas A. O'Donoghue

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper focuses on the promotion of reflectivity during practice teaching amongst student teachers at a university in Australia. By way of background, current criticisms of what is termed the "technocratic" approach to teacher education are outlined and the emphasis which is placed on the development of the "reflective teacher" as a counterforce to this approach is considered. It is then argued that the "technocratic" position and the "reflective teacher" position need not necessarily be viewed as being in conflict. Rather, the contention is that they are both satisfactorily accommodated within Van Manen's (1977) "theory of reflectivity". For the study …

School Experience : A Collaborative Partnership, William Young

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper describes a number of special features of the school based internship program which has been developed at the University of New England (Northern Rivers). Arrangements are described for interns' time spent in classrooms, collaborative teaching strategies which underpin these placements, the security which supports interns' practice, and approaches to integrate their practice with university studies. Processes of appraisal of interns' development are explained, and the potential of mentoring for their teachers' professional development is examined.

A School-Based Initiative : An Opportunity To Better Understand The Practicum, Jeff Northfield

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Each year since 1987 a group of 16-20 Dip. Ed. students at Monash University has been placed in three or four schools for an extended ten week experience. As a member of the staff at Monash, I have spent half-time in the schools during this practicum supervising student teachers, arranging school experience activities and conducting seminars for student teachers and school staff. In 1993 I had a half-time teaching allotment in one of the schools so that my classroom also became a source of common experiences for follow-up discussion. This paper outlines the restructuring of the traditional preservice program that …

Do Early Field Experiences Make A Difference In Perceived Professional Development And Commitment To Teaching Of University Students Preparing To Become Elementary School Teachers?, F. W. Sesow

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Although the concept of early field experiences in teacher/preparation programs is not unique, the attempts to measure the effectiveness of directed experiences in elementary schools for freshmen and sophomores is limited. These experiences have been included in preparation programs as a response to students and faculty feeling a need for direct concrete experiences during the early phases of the preparation program. This need is based on the theory that students should have concrete professional field experiences prior to enrolment in professional courses which should allow for greater understanding of the abstract theories and concepts of teaching and learning presented by …

A Typology Of Teaching For Use In Teacher Education, Lewis Wilson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Often when educators 'talk about teaching', they mention 'the nature of the child' and the expectations the child brings to the learning situation. Student teachers also bring expectations to learning situations in College. Though teacher educators inculcate respect in their students for pupil expectancies in school they can ignore the anticipations and concerns of their student teachers. A particular expectancy of many student teachers is that, while at College, they will be taught 'how to teach'. One can justifiably ignore this expectancy to a degree because ultimately each student teacher should develop his or her own style of teaching. To …