Education Commons^™

Understanding First Year University Students: Personal Epistemology And Learning, Sue Walker, Joanne Brownlee, Sandra Lennox, Beryl Exley, Kerry Howells, Fiona Cocker

Sandra Lennox

Whilst participation in higher education has increased dramatically over the last two decades, many universities are only now beginning to pay more attention to the learning experiences of first year students. It is important for universities to understand how first year students conceive of learning and knowing in order to promote effective approaches to learning. Even though an extensive body of research demonstrates that beliefs about learning and knowing influence student approaches to learning and learning outcomes, there has been no Australian research that has investigated this critical learner characteristic across first year university students.

This paper reports on preliminary …

Learning By Design: Teachers And Students As Co-Creators Of Knowledge [Book Chapter], Nathan Balasubramanian, Brent Wilson

Brent Wilson

About this book: Numerous educational technology programs and strategies have been developed on all continents to ensure that technology is used effectively for the benefit of student learning and achievement. The impact of technology on learning and instruction is still not clear. This book addresses several concerns of educators who rub elbows with a new technology. The book offers global research-based data on educational technology. The book consists of nine independent blind peer-reviewed scientific articles written by thirteen authors, four from Europe and nine from the USA. The authors present diverse views on social technologies and integration of ICT (information …

Transitioning From Students To Professionals: Using A Writing Across The Curriculum Model To Scaffold Portfolio Development, Lori Elliott, Nancy Daily, Lori Fredricks, Meadow Graham

Lori Elliott

Teacher educators have found portfolios to be a valuable way to judge readiness for student-teaching and initial certification as well as an effective means of examining and validating teacher preparation programs. Tension exists between using the portfolio as a product for evaluation and maintaining its focus as a personal examination, synthesis, and reflection on becoming a teacher. This qualitative action research study was designed to explore the effects of incorporating writing workshops built on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) principles into the initial portfolio process required of students during their first semester in an undergraduate middle-grades teacher-education pro- gram. Findings …

Explicating The Teacher's Perspective From The Researchers' Perspectives: Generating Accounts Of Mathematics Teachers' Practice, Marty Simon, Ron Tzur

Ron Tzur

In this article we articulate a methodology for studying mathematics teacher development in the context of reform. The generation of accounts of teachers'practice, an adaptation of the case study, provides an approach to understanding teachers' current practice and to viewing their current practice in the context of development toward envisioned reforms. The methodology is an alternative both to studies that focus on teachers' deficits and to teachers' own accounts of their practice. Conceptual frameworks developed within the mathematics education research community are applied to the task of investigating the nature of practice developed by teachers in transition. We characterize this …

Characterizing A Perspective Underlying The Practice Of Mathematics Teachers In Transition, Marty Simon, Ron Tzur, Karen Heinz, Margaret Kinzel, Margaret Smith

Ron Tzur

We postulate a construct, perception-based perspective, that we consider to be fundamental to the practices of many teachers currently participating in mathematics education reform in the United States. The postulation of the construct resulted from analyses of data from teaching experiments in teacher education classes with a combined group of prospective and practicing teachers and from case studies with individuals from that group. A perception-based perspective is grounded in a view of mathematics as a connected, logical, and universally accessible part of an ontological reality. From this perspective, learning mathematics with understanding requires learners' direct (firsthand) perception of relevant mathematical …

Knowledge Of Future Primary Teachers For Teaching Mathematics : An International Comparative Study, S Senk, M Tatto, M Reckase, Glenn Rowley, Ray Peck, K Bankov

Ray Peck

This article reports the results of the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) that are related to prospective primary teachers’ knowledge for teaching mathematics. TEDS-M was conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement with additional support from the US. National Science Foundation and the participating countries. In 2008 more than 15,000 future primary teachers, enrolled in about 450 institutions that prepare future primary teachers, were surveyed. Two domains of knowledge for teaching mathematics were assessed using items that had been developed and validated in a cross-national field trial. Large differences in …

From Distance Education To Communities Of Inquiry: A Review Of Historical Developments, Aylin Tekiner Tolu, Linda Evans

Linda S. Evans

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the role and place of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework within the history of distance education. The review of the history reveals two important factors for changes in distance education: the effect of leading learning theories of each era and technological advancements. Distance education has moved from a behavioristic, teacher–centered, correspondence study concept, first to an independent learning model, and then to the current student-centered, socio-constructivist and community-based online learning. In this latest era, the post-modernist age, the CoI framework provides online instructors with a functional framework for designing and teaching …

Teach For Australia Pathway: Evaluation Report Phase 2 Of 3, Paul R. Weldon, Phillip Mckenzie, Elizabeth Kleinhenz, Kate Reid

Dr Paul Weldon

No abstract provided.

Using Learning Walks To Improve Collaboration And Charter School Performance – A University/ P-12 School Partnership: Year One, Paul Thomas Bole, Ken Farizo

Paul Thomas Bole

Many universities exist apart from their community’s public schools. A New Orleans area public university took measures to facilitate collaborative partnerships with four public schools. Those schools were taken-over and converted to charter schools by state officials for poor performance. The partnerships created simultaneous opportunities and challenges, especially in the aftermath of the infamous Hurricane Katrina. One challenge involved replacing damaged school buildings. Another challenge involved forging productive relationships. This article explains how the university utilized ‘Learning Walks’ (Resnick, 1996) to facilitate stakeholder collaboration, which blossomed into partnerships facilitating school and student improvement and professional development opportunities for both entities.

Information Literacy For Teachers: Is Reform Necessary And How To Establish A Successful Model Program?, Sonya Shepherd

Sonya S. Gaither

No abstract provided.

Information Literacy For Teachers: Is Reform Necessary And How To Establish A Successful Model Program?, Sonya Shepherd, Robert Fernekes

Sonya S. Gaither

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Reflection In Epistemological Change: Autobiography In Teacher Education, Sue Ellen Henry, Mary Bushnell

Sue Ellen Henry

The authors promote the use of autobiography in the social foundations of education classroom as a means of connecting education to real life experiences, history, and fostering epistemological development of college students. Autobiography involves students’ awareness of the relationship between theory and lived experience. As a form of reflective knowing, autobiography may help students understand complex terms such as “learning,” “knowledge,” and “education” by exploring various contexts which influence such understandings. Reflective knowing explores some of the experiential and purposive contexts that influence knowledge creation. Intellectual maturity and self-awareness may arise from circumstances that can lead students to be more …

The Role Of Metacognitive And Reflective Learning Processes In Developing Capable Computer Users, Renata Phelps, Allan Ellis, Stewart Hase

Dr Renata Phelps

There is continued pressure for the application, and integration, of computer technologies into learning and teaching. For such innovations to be successfully implemented, students themselves must have the confidence, ability and willingness to engage with computer technology. In some disciplinary and professional contexts such as arts, humanities, social studies and education many adult learners are insecure and anxious regarding their ability to use, or to learn about, computer technology. Traditionally, competency-based, or skills-focussed training approaches have been utilised to assist inexperienced students to gain confidence with using computers. This paper argues that such approaches do not promote the development of …

The Essential Career Guide To Becoming A Middle And High School Teacher, Robert Maloy, Irving Seidman

Robert W. Maloy

The Essential Career Guide to Becoming a Middle and High School Teacher offers a step-by-step guide to preparation, certification, and employment as a teacher. It provides guidance about issues and choices facing prospective educators, including making the decision to teach, assessing the differences between middle schools and high schools, identifying an excellent teacher education program, understanding alternative pathways to certification, taking state-mandated teacher tests, succeeding as a student teacher, and finding a first job in the profession.

Improving Teaching: A Case For Cases, Hilary Hollingsworth, David Clarke

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

Other professions make extensive use of the study of cases for professional development. This article points out the particular virtues which a case-based (as opposed to principles- based) approach adds to a comprehensive professional development program.

Using The Questionnaire On Teacher Interaction In The Professional Development Of Teachers., John Cresswell, D Fisher, B Fraser

Dr John Cresswell

For some time in Australia, the Schools Council of the National Board of Employment, Education and Training has been concerned with issues concerning the quality of teaching as evidenced through its reports on Teacher Quality: An Issues Paper (1989) and Australia's Teachers: An Agenda for the Next Decade (1990). These reports and others highlight the need for teachers to examine continually what they do in their classrooms. Most recently, teacher quality and the need for continued professional development of teachers has been the subject of ministerial statement. This report notes how the impact of, and responsibility for, effective implementation of …

Developing An Understanding Of Teaching Mathematics: Working With People, Ray Peck

Ray Peck

No abstract provided.