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Full-Text Articles in Teacher Education and Professional Development

Second-Year Pre-Service Teachers’ Responses To Proportional Reasoning Test Items, Sharyn Livy, Sandra Herbert Nov 2013

Second-Year Pre-Service Teachers’ Responses To Proportional Reasoning Test Items, Sharyn Livy, Sandra Herbert

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A recent international study of pre-service teachers identified that proportional reasoning was problematic for pre-service teachers. Proportional reasoning is an important topic in the middle years of schooling and therefore it is critical that teachers understand this topic and can rely on their Mathematical Content Knowledge (MCK) when teaching. The focus of this paper is second-year Australian primary pre-service teachers’ MCK of real number items related to ratio, rate, proportion and proportional reasoning. This paper reports on strengths and weakness of pre-service teachers’ MCK when responding to test items; including a method suitable for analysing responses to five items and …


The Case For Using Learning Designs With Pre-Service Teachers, Leanne Cameron, Chris Campbell Jun 2013

The Case For Using Learning Designs With Pre-Service Teachers, Leanne Cameron, Chris Campbell

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This research paper documents what learning designs, teaching methods and teaching activities were most commonly used by pre-service teachers and experienced teachers as observed by the pre-service teachers when on their practicum visits in schools. The paper also outlines the benefits of documenting learning designs so that good teaching practice might be shared. Using case study methodology, the authors also report how infrequently the pre-service teachers participated in discussions about learning designs, teaching methods and teaching activities with their supervising teacher and/or other experienced teachers. The findings demonstrate that while the pre-service teachers recognized the benefits of documenting and sharing …


Intentions And Behaviours: Record-Keeping Practices Of Pre-Service Teachers During Professional Experience, Simon G. Shaw, Scott Pedersen, Dean Cooley, Rosemary A. Callingham Jun 2013

Intentions And Behaviours: Record-Keeping Practices Of Pre-Service Teachers During Professional Experience, Simon G. Shaw, Scott Pedersen, Dean Cooley, Rosemary A. Callingham

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The current expectation of teachers in Australia is that they are able to collect, interpret, and use data related to teaching and learning. Digital technologies in schools, such as electronic methods of record-keeping, offer enhanced opportunities for teachers to perform this skill, and its application has been growing steadily in education. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine fourth-year pre-service teachers’ behaviour in record-keeping whilst on their final professional experience placement. Using Ajzen’s (1992) theory of planned behavior, this study found that most pre-service teachers exhibited positive attitudes toward the behaviour of recording, using, and analysing classroom data. …


The Role Of Genre In Reflective Practice: Tracing The Development Of A Beginning Teacher's Journaling Practice, Heidi L. Hallman, Amy Adam May 2013

The Role Of Genre In Reflective Practice: Tracing The Development Of A Beginning Teacher's Journaling Practice, Heidi L. Hallman, Amy Adam

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

In this article, a teacher educator and a first-year teacher identify the role that genre, in a rhetorical sense, plays in reflective practice. As reflection in teacher education has been criticized for its potential to reinforce prior attitudes and dispositions within pre-service and beginning teachers, we see how meta-knowledge of genre is important to beginning teachers’ successful practice of reflection. Throughout this article, we draw on examples from one beginning teacher’s journaling practice as a way to illustrate that multiple genres of reflection co-exist within teachers’ reflective practice.


Conceptualising Changes To Pre-Service Teachers’ Knowledge Of How To Best Facilitate Learning In Mathematics: A Tpack Inspired Initiative, Frank G. Bate, Lorraine Day, Jean Macnish May 2013

Conceptualising Changes To Pre-Service Teachers’ Knowledge Of How To Best Facilitate Learning In Mathematics: A Tpack Inspired Initiative, Frank G. Bate, Lorraine Day, Jean Macnish

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In 2010, the Australian Commonwealth government initiated an $8m project called Teaching Teachers for the Future. The aim of the project was to engage teacher educators in a professional learning network which focused on optimising exemplary use of information and communications technologies in teacher education. By taking part in this network, participants were afforded opportunities to transform their practice through a range of localised initiatives that applied information and communications technologies to the art and science of teaching and learning. One of these initiatives involved re-engineering a university mathematics unit targeted at pre-service teachers. Information and communications technologies were purposefully …


Education For Sustainability: A Case Study Of Pre-Service Primary Teachers' Knowledge And Efficacy, Gerard Effeney, Julie Davis May 2013

Education For Sustainability: A Case Study Of Pre-Service Primary Teachers' Knowledge And Efficacy, Gerard Effeney, Julie Davis

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigated the relationships between knowledge and efficacy for teaching sustainability in a sample of 266 pre-service primary teachers at a large, metropolitan university in Australia. A survey gathered information about the participant’s attitudes and self-efficacy for education for sustainability, along with their perceived and actual knowledge of environmental sustainability issues. The participants typically believed they were confident in their abilities to engage with education for sustainability with self-efficacy increasing with increased levels of perceived knowledge. However no relationship was found between perceived knowledge and actual knowledge which suggests that the participants either do not feel constrained by their …


Culturally Proficient Teachers, Lori R. Piowlski May 2013

Culturally Proficient Teachers, Lori R. Piowlski

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Action needs to be taken by teacher preparation programs to prepare culturally proficient educators who are able to deliver equitable instruction and inspire all students to strive for greatness if the achievement gap is to be closed. Existing literature mainly describes the importance and urgency to prepare future teachers for the changing demographics with classrooms across the United States. There is not significant literature on how it is being done. Therefore the purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how university teacher education programs are preparing teachers to be culturally proficient. A cross-reference of data collected from Adequate Yearly …


Pre-Service Teachers’ Preferred Methods Of Assessment: A Perspective From Saudi Arabia, Amani K. Hamdan Alghamdi Apr 2013

Pre-Service Teachers’ Preferred Methods Of Assessment: A Perspective From Saudi Arabia, Amani K. Hamdan Alghamdi

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher-candidate course assessment is one topic that has not been adequately explored in teacher education literature where pre-service teachers’ voices are rarely heard. Assessment methods in pre-service teacher programs across the world, including in Saudi Arabia, have received little exploration in the literature. This mixed-methods study explored a group of female pre-service teachers (n = 83) enrolled in a Diploma of Education program to identify their preferred method of assessment for their learning. The results showed that these individuals preferred a group assignment, consisting of a written report and an oral presentation, over an individual assignment, consisting of an …


Providing Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers With Increased Science Content Knowledge And Effective Teaching Strategies: A Two Year Project, Lyndall Muschell, Holley Roberts, Christine Mutiti Mar 2013

Providing Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers With Increased Science Content Knowledge And Effective Teaching Strategies: A Two Year Project, Lyndall Muschell, Holley Roberts, Christine Mutiti

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)

This presentation explores the results of a two-year project with pre-service teachers which focused primarily on providing increased knowledge of science concepts, effective strategies, and use of resources to improve science instruction while increasing confidence for the teaching of science.


Multicultural Dispositions: A Viable Tool For Teacher Training, Franklin Titus Thompson Feb 2013

Multicultural Dispositions: A Viable Tool For Teacher Training, Franklin Titus Thompson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

The practice of assessing the dispositions of pre-service educators has gained increasing attention among institutions of teacher preparation. Current debate often centers on the needs and views of P-12 children, researchers, and policy makers, at the expense of a forgotten voice—teacher candidates. In particular, this study examines the multicultural portion of the larger dispositional debate. Education majors (N=420) from a Midwestern metropolitan university were asked to rate the viability of 13 selected multicultural dispositions as a training tool. Utilizing a 9-point Likert Scale, respondents gave strong support for multicultural dispositions not only during the posttest (M=8.38) but also the pretest …


Do Pre-Service Teachers Feel Ready To Teach In Inclusive Classrooms? A Four Country Study Of Teaching Self-Efficacy., Tim Loreman, Umesh Sharma, Chris Forlin Jan 2013

Do Pre-Service Teachers Feel Ready To Teach In Inclusive Classrooms? A Four Country Study Of Teaching Self-Efficacy., Tim Loreman, Umesh Sharma, Chris Forlin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports the results of an international study examining pre-service teacher reports of teaching self-efficacy for inclusive education; principally focusing on the explanatory relationship between a scale designed to measure teaching self-efficacy in this area and key demographic variables within Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. The study builds on earlier work by this research team on attitudes towards inclusion and offers a more comprehensive picture of pre-service teachers’ preparedness to teach in inclusive classrooms. Data were collected from 380 pre-service teachers in four countries. Results indicated that strong international differences existed. Other factors impacting responses regarding teaching self-efficacy …


Embracing Messy Play: Using Documentation To Illustrate A Partnership Of Community, Teachers, And Nature Education., Jennifer Leeper Miller, Erin Hamel Jan 2013

Embracing Messy Play: Using Documentation To Illustrate A Partnership Of Community, Teachers, And Nature Education., Jennifer Leeper Miller, Erin Hamel

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The perfect companion to nature is messy play. Allowing children (and pre-service teachers) the opportunity to touch, prod, splash, toss, and experience the natural world through their senses is a must. Teachers created opportunities for children to wonder, engage and marvel in the natural world through hands on experiences; using mud day to spark interactions and inquiry among children, families, teachers and mud.