Education Commons^™

Mind Mapping: Overcoming Problems Of Writer Identity And Convention For Academic Writing By Student Collaboration, Carmel O'Reilly

Articles

This article will consider Mind Mapping as an eLearning tool for the enhancement of learning and assessment within the discipline of academic writing. Building on research which relates to the use of Mind Mapping by students of English as a foreign language (EFL), this article will reflect specifically on students taking a module in Applied Writing on a Mature Access Foundation Programme (MAFP), at Institution X. It goes on to explore existing research in order to highlight two key problems student writers have in common: firstly, writer identity and the affective domain of writing and second, the conventions of academic …

Perceptions Of Mode Selection Of Textbook Delivery Across Course Subjects, Gail M. Spencer-Scott

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Universities are exploring the use of e-books in order to mitigate the high cost of textbooks. The study university was providing both delivery modes to students but was considering adapting to using e-books exclusively. An investigation of users' perceptions on textbook delivery modes had not been conducted at the local site. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of students about using e-books and the experiences of textbook directors in the decision-making processes regarding the use of e-books versus textbooks. The Davis' Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) served as the conceptual framework for the study and …

The Relationship Between Terrorism, Oil Prices, And Airline Profitability, Ubirathan Miranda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Given the financial challenges faced by the airline industry, understanding of the combined effect of terrorism and the price of petroleum on airline profitability is imperative. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if a combination of terrorism and the price of petroleum significantly predicted airline profitability, and which variable was the most significant. This study collected samples of financial records from major American commercial passenger and cargo airlines on costs of fuel (n = 84) and airline profitability (n = 84). The terrorism data (n = 84) were comprised of terrorist attacks on petroleum infrastructure in oil-producing …

The Role Of The Teacher In Family Involvement: A Multiple Case Study, Terri Garrison

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the teacher's role in family involvement in preschool classrooms. Family involvement has been a relevant topic for early childhood educators for many years (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995). When families are involved in their child's school experience, it has added a positive benefit to the child's development (Chavkin, 2005; Swick, 2004; Marcon, 1999). Regardless of this widely held belief, many families face barriers that prevent involvement from occurring (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001; Lamb-Parker, Piotrkowski, Baker, Kessler-Sklar, Clark, & Peay, 2001). This multiple case study was designed to answer the following …

Chile’S Educational Reform: The Struggle Between Nationalization And Privatization, Vannia J. Zelaya

Pepperdine Policy Review

This paper looks into Chile's educational system and the recent policy reforms that President Michelle Bachelet seeks to establish. More specifically, this paper explores the "Proyecto de Ley de Fin al Lucro, la Selección y el Copago," which aims to eliminate private for-profit institutions within the public system, admission selectivity, and mandatory copay fees. With this, Bachelet's administration along with Chile's Ministry of Education intend to end the inequality of access to education, which is part of Chile's broader problem of great socioeconomic inequality. This particular policy is part of Bachelet's comprehensive educational system reform, and it brings Chile's voucher …

Adopting Online Lecturing For Improved Learning: A Case Study From Teacher Education, Marie Quinn, Shannon Kennedy-Clark

Education Papers and Journal Articles

This paper presents the results of a study that examined the integration of video lectures into a pre-service teacher unit of study. The aim of the research was to ascertain how students used the pre-recorded videos to complement their learning. The focus was on the pedagogy, and explored three factors: convenience, self-regulation of learning and design to aid learning. A mixed method approach to the data collection was used. Data sources included reflective journals, surveys and semi-structured interviews. An analysis of the data indicates that the pre-service teachers viewed the use of pre-recorded lectures positively and that they were a …

Measurement: Five Considerations To Add Even More Impact To Your Program, Derek Hurrell

Education Papers and Journal Articles

The potential of using Measurement as a way of “tuning students into mathematics” is demonstrated. Five ideas that can form the basis of focusing on measurement to access other strands of the mathematics curriculum are examined.

Critical Cultural Awareness In The Foreign Language Classroom, Kristen Nugent, Theresa Catalano

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

Preparing learners to interact appropriately and effectively while participating in intercultural relationships is a key component of foreign language curricula. The notion of critical cultural awareness, which is embedded within the framework of intercultural communicative competence, encourages language educators to craft learning opportunities that guide learners in observing clear connections between classroom lessons and real-world issues while exercising critical thinking skills throughout the process. Although research by Byram (1997, 2012) has demonstrated the importance of critical cultural awareness, few studies have illustrated how critical cultural awareness can be developed in a classroom setting while working to achieve language proficiency. This …

Foreign Language Teaching And Learning, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Theresa Catalano

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

Foreign language teaching and learning have changed from teacher-centered to learner/learning-centered environments. Relying on language theories, research findings, and experiences, educators developed teaching strategies and learning environments that engaged learners in interactive communicative language tasks. A shift in foreign language pedagogy from a specific foreign language method to the measurement of language performance/competency has resulted in a change in the role of the teacher from one of authority/expert to that of facilitator/guide and agent of change. Current developments point to public pedagogy, social media, and action research as additional ways to foster intercultural competence and language learning.

Critical Discourse Analysis: Definition, Approaches, Relation To Pragmatics, Critique, And Trends, Linda R. Waugh, Theresa Catalano, Khaled Al Masaeed, Tom Hong Do, Paul G. Renigar

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

This chapter introduces the transdisciplinary research movement of critical discourse analysis (CDA) beginning with its definition and recent examples of CDA work. In addition, approaches to CDA such as the dialectical relational (Fairclough), sociocognitive (van Dijk), discourse historical (Wodak), social actors (van Leeuwen), and the Foucauldian dispositive analysis (Jager and Maier) are outlined, as well as the complex relation of CDA to pragmatics. Next, the chapter provides a brief mention of the extensive critique of CDA, the creation of critical discourse studies (CDS), and new trends in CDA, including positive discourse analysis (PDA), CDA with multimodality, CDA and cognitive linguistics, …

The Teacher-Artist's Creed: Teaching As A Human, Artistic, And Moral Act, Amanda Morales, Jory Samkoff

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

Historically, educators and philosophers have struggled to define the role and the value of formal curriculum and its impact on classroom praxis. As the current accountability movement dominates discussions in education, educators are pressured to implement increasingly standardized curricula. The authors of this chapter consider the tensions arising from this trend, situated first within contrasting theories on teaching and learning. They then explore the concept of phronesis through an interpretive biography of one teacher-artist, Frieda, whose praxis also demonstrates the aesthetic and artistic side of the teaching-learning process. This 90-year-old teacher-artist's experiences implementing her curriculums suggest that it is always …

Learning To See, Seeing To Learn: The Learning Journey Of Three Pre-Service Teachers In A Video Club Setting, Catherine Moore

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study sought to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of professional growth in pre-service teachers during their final practicum. The research was situated in a primary school and involved three pre-service teachers with widely differing backgrounds who brought differing experiences to the practicum. The study identified personal and contextual variables that affected the pre-service teachers’ professional growth and explored how professional discourse within a learning community of peers, informed by multiple perspectives on teaching practice that were facilitated by video, influenced professional growth.

This qualitative research project used a broad phenomenological approach in that the methods used were …

An Investigation Of Teachers’ Awareness And Willingness To Engage With A Self-Directed Professional Development Package On Gifted And Talented Education, Kylie T. Fraser-Seeto, Steven J. Howard, Stuart Woodcock

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Despite recognising the importance of educators in meeting the needs of gifted and talented students, research indicates that teachers often lack the essential knowledge, skills and confidence to identify and meet the needs of gifted and talented students. Evidence suggests this lack of preparation may be related to teachers’ professional development. This quantitative study of 96 primary school teachers aimed to provide an initial insight into the knowledge and uptake of the 2005 DEST/GERRIC Gifted and Talented Training Package. It further aimed to give some insight into teachers’ opinions and behaviours as it pertains to this mode of professional development. …

How Does Pre-Service Teacher Preparedness To Use Icts For Learning And Teaching Develop Through Their Degree Program?, Lincoln Gill, Barney Dalgarno, Lauren Carlson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It is now well accepted that graduating teachers need the capacity to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in ways which harness their learning affordances and develop students’ digital literacies. However, effective ICT integration in the classroom is challenging because it requires complex application of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge. A key challenge for teacher educators is the provision of learning experiences at university and on professional placement which will allow pre-service teachers to develop these capacities. Understanding the learning process of pre-service teachers in relation to ICT integration is essential if this teacher education challenge is to be addressed. …

Language Teachers’ Conceptions Of Intelligence And Their Roles In Teacher Care And Teacher Feedback, Reza Pishghadam, Elham Naji Meidani, Gholam Hassan Khajavy

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to find the relationships among teachers’ conceptions of intelligence, teacher care, and teacher feedback in the realm of English Language Teaching (ELT). To this aim, three scales were developed to measure the aforementioned constructs. The participants consisted of 81 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and their 426 students who were learning English in private language institutes. The scales were validated by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and the correlations among their subscales were investigated. The findings suggested that modularity, increasibility and applied ELT are associated with the nature and amount of teacher …

The Lesson Observation On-Line (Evidence Portfolio) Platform, David G. Cooper

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: At a time when teacher training is being moved to school-based programmes it is important to engage in a research-informed dialogue about creating more distinctive, and cost-effective 21^st century models of teacher training. Three years ago I began feasibility field testing the Lesson Observation On-line (Evidence Portfolio) Platform [LOOP] concept (Cooper, 2012). Student-teachers from a university in the Midlands of England were video recorded, with their schools’ permissions, teaching mathematics’ lessons during their second period of teaching experience. The video recorded lessons together with the trainees’ lesson plans, accompanying lesson resources, lesson self-evaluations and snapshots of …

Learning To Become Teacher Educators: Testimonies Of Three Phd Students In China, Rui Yuan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While there has been an increasing number of graduate students who enter teacher education after obtaining a higher research degree (e.g., PhD or EdD), scant attention has been paid to their professional learning as prospective teacher educators in higher education. To fill this gap, this study, informed by the social theory of learning, investigates how three PhD students learned to become teacher educators in a university in China. Drawing on the data from interviews and the participants’ personal reflections, the study shows that the participants engaged in professional learning by interacting with different others (e.g., teachers and teacher educators), negotiating …

Using Qualitative Research Methods To Assess The Degree Of Fit Between Teachers’ Reported Self-Efficacy Beliefs And Their Practical Knowledge During Teacher Education, Mark Wyatt

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: There is a need for qualitative research into teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs so that the relationship between these beliefs and other cognitions possessed by teachers, including their practical knowledge, can be better understood by teacher educators. Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs may need supporting if they seem too low or challenging if they seem too high. However, clear criteria are needed to facilitate assessment, together with the use of rigorous qualitative methods. This article explores these issues while reporting on research conducted in Oman into the cognitions of two in-service English language teachers. There is a focus on how qualitative case study …

Feedback, Iterative Processing And Academic Trust - Teacher Education Students' Perceptions Of Assessment Feedback, Susan E. Davis, Joanne M. Dargusch

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: Feedback and reflective processes play an important role in learning with both teachers and students required to play active roles. The importance of feedback processes and practices takes on an added dimension in the field of teacher education as the assessment and feedback processes are also professional practices that students themselves will be enacting in their professional roles. To this end, feedback provides opportunities for students to develop their own professional assessment literacy but also draws attention to the role of the teacher-education lecturer or assessor and the roles and relationships involved. This article reports on a research study …

Avoiding Practice Shock: Using Teacher Movies To Realign Pre-Service Teachers’ Expectations Of Teaching, Jeremy Delamarter

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Pre-service teachers often have unrealistic expectations of teaching. They often create an inspiration/content dichotomy in which they expect relational activities to trump content delivery. Unchecked, these misaligned expectations can lead to practice shock, the disorienting and sometimes traumatic identity crisis that often occurs during the first year of teaching. Teacher preparation programs can use course-based reflective activities to provide structure and impetus for reevaluating expectations. This article studies the effects of these activities on two undergraduate pre-service teachers. Popular Hollywood teacher films were used to confront and challenge candidates’ expectations of teaching. An analytical framework based on Baudrillard’s (1995) simulacra …

Student Voices In School-Based Assessment, Siu Yin Annie Tong, Bob Adamson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The value of student voices in dialogues about learning improvement is acknowledged in the literature. This paper examines how the views of students regarding School-based Assessment (SBA), a significant shift in examination policy and practice in secondary schools in Hong Kong, have largely been ignored. The study captures student voices through a survey of 423 Secondary 5 students and interviews with 45 students in 3 schools concerning the use of SBA in the high-stakes assessment for the English Language subject. Results suggest a wide range of student perceptions of, and responses to SBA and related feedback. In general, students indicated …

Getting Ready For The Profession: Prospective Teachers’ Noticing Related To Teacher Actions, Aslihan Osmanoglu, Mine Isiksal, Yusuf Koc

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to investigate what the prospective elementary mathematics teachers noticed and how their noticing changed in an environment in which they discuss on video cases. To achieve this aim, we asked senior elementary mathematics prospective teachers to watch and discuss videos depicting real elementary mathematics classrooms. In this qualitative study, the main data sources were the participants’ reflection papers and interviews with the focus participants. The online discussions among the focus participants were also analyzed. For the analysis, the Learning to Notice framework (van Es & Sherin, 2002) was used. The findings suggested that prospective …

The Value Of Masters Study To Teachers’ Professional Practice: Contradictory Discourses Within The Workplace, Helen Dixon, Gillian Ward

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Postgraduate study provides teachers with opportunities to become critical consumers of research as well as generators of their own knowledge, enabling them to fulfil the mandate of teaching being a research informed and evidenced based profession (Robinson, 2003). This article pays attention to 18 practicing teachers’ reasons for undertaking a master’s degree and the type of workplace support offered during their enrolment. Findings suggest that teachers’ reasons for undertaking academic study were very much tied to their perceptions of what it means to be a teacher and how teaching and learning can be improved. As such teachers’ professional identity seemed …

Students’ Attitudes Towards Individual Musical Instrument Courses In Music Education Graduate Programs In Turkey, Gülten Cüceoğlu Önder

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The Individual Musical Instrument course is a compulsory part of the curriculum, in the Music Education Departments of universities in Turkey. The main purpose of the course is to ensure that each student is able to play a musical instrument and, use the instrument once they become music teachers. This study aims to determine the attitudes of students enrolled in the Music Education Department towards the course within the program. Participants included 334 students studying Music Education at four different Universities in Turkey. The study adopted the “Attitudes towards Individual Musical Instrument Course Scale” (Topoğlu & Erden,2012). No statistically significant …

Teaching For Democracy: Towards An Ecological Understanding Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs, Babak Dadvand

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Due to the significance of beliefs in giving direction to the activities of educators, the present study examined the beliefs of 12 Iranian pre-service teachers about democratic education. Overall, the findings of focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews pointed to a technicist and often an apolitical view of teaching held by most of the participants. While these findings can be explained with reference to a constellation of factors in Iran’s education policy, this study concludes by pointing to the need for an ecological understanding of teachers’ belief systems. Such an approach identifies teachers’ agency embedded within a matrix of structural …

Remembering Reflection In Pre-Service Teachers' Professional Experience, Geraldine M. Ditchburn

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract

In an Australian education policy environment where professional standards are determining the parameters of effective teaching and learning, it is important that we revisit ways to ensure reflection and collegial engagement are embedded in pre-service teachers’ professional experience. This article reports on a university program initiative that used a non-clinical model of professional experience to centralise opportunities for pre-service teachers to engage in reflection and research of their practice in a collaborative and largely non-hierarchical learning and teaching environment. Ultimately the results of their experience indicated that pre-service teachers were able to theorise about their practice in ways …

Changing Expectations, Same Perspective: Pre-Service Teachers’ Judgments Of Professional Efficacy, Graham Hardy, David Spendlove, Damien Shortt

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This two-part study tracks and measures the professional self-efficacy judgements of two cohorts of pre-service teachers (PST). In Part One, the GTCE’s Code of Conduct and Practice (GTCE, 2009) was used to help form an instrument which tracked changes in the professional self-efficacy judgements of 211 PST through a one-year graduate program. Judgements were sought from PST both about themselves, and importantly, also about practicing teachers in the profession. In Part Two, statements making up the new DfE Teaching Standards (DfE, 2011) were similarly used to form an instrument and used with a subsequent cohort of 416 PST. Outcomes showed …

Preliminary Evaluation Of The Friends For Life Program On Students’ And Teachers’ Emotional States For A School In A Low Socio-Economic Status Area, Cristina A. Iizuka, Paula M. Barrett, Robyn Gillies, Clayton R. Cook, Welber Marinovic

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the FRIENDS for Life program on students’ and teachers’ emotional outcomes in a school serving a high-poverty population. The focus of the intervention was to train/coach teachers with strategies to develop social and emotional skills for students. A single group, pre/post-test design was used to conduct a preliminary investigation of the intervention to improve participants’ social and emotional outcomes. At the end of the intervention, students who were at risk showed significant decrease in their anxiety levels and teacher’s demonstrated significant improvements on their emotional resilience.

“To Get A Foot In The Door”: New Host Country Educated Immigrant Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Employability In Finland, Kaisa Hahl, Heini Paavola

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article sets out to find factors that promote or hinder employment opportunities for immigrant teachers educated in the host country. The data were collected through online questionnaires and focus group discussions among two student cohorts. After a year of graduating from English-medium teacher education in Finland, the employment situations ranged from full-time permanent teaching posts in Finland to unemployment. Although the majority was successful in securing at least some work, no one was teaching in mainstream classrooms in a Finnish-medium school. The scope of teaching qualifications and references from substitutions were considered factors for employment. Lacking “strong enough” Finnish …

A Study On Preferred Learning Styles Of Turkish Efl Teacher Trainees, Sevim Inal, Oya Büyükyavuz, Mustafa Tekin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Since people have different ways of perception, levels of motivation, and attitudes towards teaching and learning they consistently differ from each other in their preferences of learning and acquiring knowledge. Therefore, the more instructors understand the differences, the better chance they have of understanding and meeting the diverse learning needs of their students. The present study has been conducted to investigate the Turkish ELT students’ learning style preferences in relation to gender and age to see if there is any relationship between achievement and learning style preferences. To perform the aim of the study Wintergerst and DeCapua’s (1999) learning style …