Education Commons^™

Foreign Language Teachers’ Knowledge Base And The Influence Of Teaching Experience, Marianna Levrints (Lőrincz)

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The present paper elucidated the issue of foreign language teachers’ knowledge base and the influence of teaching experience on their beliefs. A self-report questionnaire was utilised to explore what domains of knowledge language teachers prioritised in planning and delivering instruction, what sources they drew on to gain professional understanding and to compare teachers’ views relevant to the length of their experience. The analysis of data revealed quantitative dissimilarities in the assumed sources and knowledge domains, as well as teachers' instructional preferences. The study’s findings lend empirical evidence to the influence of experience on teachers’ cognitions and yield additional insight into …

Supporting Primary And Secondary Teachers To Deliver Inclusive Education, Jill Duncan, Renée Punch, Nic Croce

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

With Australian disability discrimination legislation and educational policy promoting movement toward inclusive education, the building and supporting of inclusive education workforce capability is of paramount importance. This study investigated how principals in Australian primary and secondary educational settings support teachers to provide inclusive education and what these principals perceive to be barriers to supporting the education workforce to deliver inclusive education. The study used an online open- and closed-set survey. The findings demonstrated that principals in educational settings across the government, Catholic and independent sectors and across geographical regions offered largely similar professional learning opportunities to their staff, and expressed …

Social Studies Teachers’ Opinions And Practices Regarding Teaching Controversial Issues, Zafer Kuş, Durdane Öztürk

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In today’s globalised world, many issues have become controversial. These controversial issues affect society and the individuals who form them. It is inevitable that these topics are brought into social studies classrooms, because this learning area is profoundly related to society. Social studies teachers’ behaviours, attitudes, and professional knowledge are crucial in teaching controversial issues. The goal of this study was to investigate social studies teachers’ opinions and practices regarding teaching controversial issues in Turkey. The study utilised a mixed method in which both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. The quantitative data for this study were collected from …

Effects Of Epistemological And Pedagogical Beliefs On The Instructional Practices Of Teachers: A Chinese Perspective, John Chi-Kin Lee, Zhonghua Zhang, Huan Song, Xianhan Huang

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study examines how the beliefs of Chinese in-service teachers regarding knowledge and knowledge acquisition influence their instructional classroom practices in junior secondary schools directly or indirectly through their conceptions of teaching and learning. The results indicate that the factor of learning effort/process is highly valued by Chinese in-service teachers in their epistemological beliefs, and that the constructivist approach is the dominant conception on teaching and learning for junior secondary school teachers.. In addition, the constructivist conception of teaching and learning is found to be positively related to three types of classroom instructional practices, whereas the traditional conception about teaching …

Does Involuntary Mental Time Travel Make Sense In Prospective Teachers’ Feelings And Behaviors During Lessons?, Altay Eren, Amanda Yesilbursa

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study examined the effects of involuntary mental time travel into the past and into the future on prospective teachers’ feelings and behaviors during the period of a class hour. A total of 110 prospective teachers participated voluntarily in the study. The results of the present study showed that (a) the involuntary mental time travel into the past and into the future occurred in the classrooms even during the period of a class hour; (b) both involuntary memories/future images were significantly discernible in terms of their characteristics; (c) the characteristics of the participants’ feelings and behavior following the involuntary memories/future …

University-School Partnerships: Pre-Service And In-Service Teachers Working Together To Teach Primary Science., John Daniel Kenny

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on a partnership approach preparing pre-service primary teachers to teach science. Partnerships involving pre-service teachers and volunteer in-service colleagues were formed to teach science in the classroom of the colleague, with support from the science education lecturer. Each pre-service teacher collaboratively planned and delivered a sequence of at least six science lessons over six weeks.

An earlier paper reported on how the program affected the confidence of the pre-service teachers. Over three iterations, 61 in-service teachers from 23 local schools participated.

In this paper the data from the colleague teachers and principals who participated is explored. The …