Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Three Reading-Intervention Teachers’ Identity Positioning And Practices To Motivate And Engage Emergent Bilinguals In An Urban Middle School, Jung-In Kim, Kara Mitchell Viesca

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

This study investigated three urban middle-school teachers’ practices with respect to motivating and engaging emergent bilinguals in reading-intervention classrooms by exploring the teachers’ identity positioning. The three teachers’ sociocultural and sociopolitical positioning of their students (e.g. students as individuals, as monolithic learners, or as problems) was found to be related to their practices for motivating and engaging the students (e.g. hybrid, calibrated, or imposed practices). The teachers’ historical and current resources partially shaped how they positioned their students. The findings support that teachers should not only learn motivational practices but also reflect critically on positioning processes in the classroom.

Multilingual Pedagogies And Pre-Service Teachers: Implementing “Language As A Resource” Orientations In Teacher Education Programs, Theresa Catalano, Edmund T. Hamann

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

While Ruiz’s (1984) influential work on language orientations has substantively influenced how we study and talk about language planning, few teacher education programs today actually embed his framework in the praxis of preparing pre-service and practicing teachers. Hence, the primary purpose of this article is to demonstrate new understandings and expansions of Ruiz’s language-as-resource (LAR) approach and ways in which teacher education programs can model this orientation in their own classes, including those programs, like ours, that prepare mostly monolingual preservice and in-service teachers to work with bi/multilingual students. The authors pursue this by laying out the theoretical framework for …

What Does Motivated Mean? Re-Presenting Learning, Technology, And Motivation In Middle Schools Via New Ethnographic Writing, Justin Olmanson

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

This article offers a critique of the way middle schoolers are often positioned as generalizable objects that can be acted upon to produce measurable increases in motivation and learning. The critique invites a reconsideration and cultural analysis of some of the dominant discourses and perceptions of technology, young adolescence, and the study of motivation. The use of New Ethnographic Writing—a method that performs a cultural critique via extended scenes—connects to the roles and status of motivation, technology, and educational research methods deployed within public schools. Coupled with weak theory, this approach offers a way to understand young adolescents as navigating …

New Media Literacies, Justin Olmanson, Zoe Falls

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

From Pleistocene-epoch cave drawings to texts produced via movable type, to on-demand video content accessed via personal mobile devices, the means of message production and distribution has expanded from exclusive and local to inclusive and international. During the same period, media have evolved from one-way mono-modal communication to interactive, multimodal, social experiences.

New media platforms provide educators with the means to connect academic literacy with learner literacies. A growing body of new media literacies research highlights some of the ways educators have integrated new media literacies into learning spaces without colonizing learner practices to align solely with conventional literacy goals …

Fostering Connections, Empowering Communities, Celebrating The World, Aleidine Kramer Moeller

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

Selected Papers from the 2016 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Editor: Aleidine Moeller, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

1. Analyzing Song Lyrics as an Authentic Language Learning Opportunity — Georgia Coats

2. Prose Combat: Contemporary Target Language Songs as Authentic Text — Kirsten Halling & Pascale Abadie

3. Enhancing the Use of Music in Language Learning through Technology — Nick Ziegler

4. The Case for Integrating Dance in the Language Classroom — Angela N. Gardner

5. Digital Language Learning: Bringing Community to the Classroom — Leah McKeeman & Blanca Oviedo

6. Digital Storytelling in the Foreign Language Classroom …

Learning To Teach In An Urban Teacher Residency, Lauren Gatti

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

In this article, I employ sociocultural theory to analyze the learning to teach process of two novice teachers enrolled in one Urban Teacher Residency (UTR). Findings show that Genesis and Jackie were differentially drawing on programmatic, disciplinary, relational, experiential, and dispositional resources as they learned to teach in an urban context. I show that programmatic resources of supervision and classroom management requirements (i.e., Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion) not only differentially influenced teachers’ learning and development but also differentially impacted the development of trust with students.

Personal Practical Knowledge Of Teacher Educators, Vicki Ross, Elaine Chan

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

We introduce the notion of personal practical knowledge (PPK) and, then, explore complexities of knowledge and knowing in the lives and work of teacher educators. To do so, we draw heavily on existing literature based upon and addressing personal practical knowledge (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988) to better understand tensions at play in the field of teacher knowledge, and to offer research literature and methods that value, document, and fold in details of teachers’ experiences to inform understanding of the work of teacher educators.

We begin with a definition of the term ‘personal practical knowledge’, proposed by Connelly and Clandinin (1988), …

Being “In A Limbo”: Perceptions Of Immigration, Identity And Adaptation Of Immigrant Students In South Africa And The United States, Theresa Catalano, Jill Fox, Saloshna Vandeyar

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

Much research is available that details student experiences of immigration and adaptation to receiving countries and schools, but few studies analyze the metaphors used by immigrant students (IS) when talking about the immigration experience, or offer a comparative lens through which to view identity negotiation in two very different contexts. The present paper aims to address these gaps by conducting a comparative linguistic analysis of 20 interviews conducted with IS at universities in South Africa and the United States in order to gain a greater understanding of immigration and the types of identity negotiation processes learners undergo in these very …

Understanding Energy: Primary Students Investigate The Effects Of Energy, Deepika Menon, Blake Shelby, Christine Mattingly

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

Energy is a term often used in everyday language. Even young children associate energy with the food they eat, feeling tired after playing soccer, or when asked to turn the lights off to save light energy. However, they may not have the scientific conceptual understanding of energy at this age. Teaching energy and matter could be challenging at the K–2 level because they are abstract concepts. Nevertheless, developing a concrete understanding of energy at an early age is important for children in order to rationalize why we need energy from food or why wearing gloves helps keep our hands warmer. …

College And Career Readiness:Texas House Bill 5 Reform Realities In A Far-West Texas School District, Tomas Sigala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Efforts by the 83rd Texas Legislature (2013), along with decades of state legislative measures to address access and equity for Texas school children, helped create House Bill 5 (HB 5). This policy stipulates that public schools need to more accurately reflect a college and career readiness culture through the expansion of curriculum options for students, the reduction of standardized testing, and the enhancement of school accountability (Texas Education Agency, 2014a). These type of outputs provide the structure and guidance that schools need to streamline a successful student pathway aimed at preparing them for a college and career choice. If students …

Observation And Coaching As A Professional Learning Model To Support The Implementation Of Co-Teaching, Mary Alice Henley

Dissertations

Purpose

This qualitative study provides a description of a professional learning model using observation and coaching for teachers who participated in training regarding co-teaching to support the implementation of co-teaching.

Method

The study involved participants who were general and special educators from grades K-12 across urban, rural, and suburban school districts in Connecticut. The study included 329 observations of 136 co-teaching teams from 44 schools in 14 districts over the course of 14 years. Classroom observations of 15-20 minutes were initiated in schools with co-teachers in their natural settings using an open-ended observation protocol recorded on the Connecticut Co-Teaching Technical …

Historical Trends And Emerging Issues In Teacher Education Programs In The United States, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

US national and state educational polices are advocating for more teacher accountability with respect to student performance, and accrediting agencies are requiring more evidence of teachers’ mastery of subject area knowledge and professional skills. This paper examines some of the significant educational and social issues currently facing basic education and teacher preparation programs in the United States. It addresses numerous topics and focuses on five general issues that confront K-12 education and either directly or indirectly Teacher Preparation Programs.

Las políticas educativas nacionales y estatales de Estados Unidos están abogando por una mayor responsabilidad de los maestros con respecto al …

The Potential Of Early Practice: A Case Study, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

The growing emphasis on teaching performance suggests that education students need consistent opportunities to practice teaching before they “student teach.” This case study examined how first-year candidates in one foundations course viewed their peer teaching experience as a tool to develop competency and skills. Results from their feedback demonstrate the potential of early practice as one straightforward way to augment their clinical experience, meet InTASC standards, and face performance-based assessments like Danielson’s Framework for Teaching and edTPA.

Catering For Eal/D Students’ Language Needs In Mainstream Classes: Early Childhood Teachers’ Perspectives And Practices In One Australian Setting., Toni J. Dobinson, Sylvia Buchori

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article aims to highlight the complexity of English language related experiences and interactions of a small group of teachers in an Australian, Early Childhood (EC), mainstream setting with children four to eight years old. It draws on data collected from a qualitative case study which investigated four teachers’ perspectives and anxieties when it comes to 1) achieving a balance between use of home languages and the use of Standard Australian English in classrooms 2) mainstream teacher knowledge of, and confidence in, using appropriate practices to enhance English language learning experiences for EAL/D students in mainstream classes. Through data collected …

‘Knowing Your Students’ In The Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Classroom, Robyn Moloney, David Saltmarsh

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The population movement of globalization brings greater cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD) to communities and education systems. To address the growing diversity in school classrooms, beginning teachers need an expanded set of skills and attitudes to support effective learning. It is an expectation today that teachers know their students and how the students learn. It follows that lecturers and tutors should also know something of the cultural and linguistic profile of their pre-service teacher education students. This article reports a study in a university which examined its teacher education practice in this light. It assessed the curriculum provision of material …

Perceptions And Competence Of Turkish Pre-Service Science Teachers With Regard To Entrepreneurship, Isa Deveci

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this study is both to determine the perceptions of pre-service science teachers towards the concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial characteristics and to investigate the perceptions of pre-service science teachers regarding transferring the entrepreneurial characteristics to students. This study is designed as a qualitative study and a phenomenological research approach is used. A total of 12 pre-service science teachers from grades 5 to 8 participated in the study. Data were gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews. The data were evaluated through both descriptive and content analysis. The results show that the perceptions of the 12 …

Video-Mediated Microteaching – A Stimulus For Reflection And Teacher Growth, Stella Kourieos

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Numerous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of video as an effective means of reflective practice in pre-service Teacher Education. However, only few studies have explored pre-service teachers’ own perceptions in this regard in the field of ELT and none of these was related to primary level. To address this gap, multiple forms of qualitative data were triangulated. Participants were found to consider the use of video combined with guided reflection and peer dialogue to have a great potential in helping them form links between theory and practice and bring a heightened awareness of their teaching practices, especially in …

Becoming A Reflective In-Service Teacher: Role Of Research Attitude, Maria A. Impedovo, Sufiana Khatoon Malik

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this article we consider the importance of the role of reflective practice and research attitude for the professional development of in-service teachers. Nine teachers engaged in an international master course (in a Belgium and French university) are interviewed to obtain self-narratives. The two years full-time master was aimed to acquire skills of science educational research. The interview was conducted at the end of the master to explore their reflective practices and to evaluate the impact of the research attitude developed during the master on their reflective practices.

From the results we can consider how the reflection practice is differently …

Grassroots Teacher Education Initiatives In Malaysia: An Intercultural Self-Study, Brendon Tagg

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article describes and analyses one example of a successful grassroots-based collaborative introduction to teacher education class that was based at a small education program in a private Malaysian university. This class formed the beginning of government-sponsored program in English language primary education; developed and implemented at extremely short notice it led to an accidental but extremely informative ‘shake up’ of ordinary teaching practices. This in fact may offer some promise as an alternative to the heavy central planning typically found in the current Malaysian education system. Because this particular class needed to be developed over the space of a …

A Retrospective Appraisal Of Teacher Induction, Fadia M. Nasser-Abu Alhija, Barbara Fresko

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A Retrospective Appraisal of Teacher Induction

Abstract

Examination of an induction program for new teachers was undertaken from the viewpoint of induction graduates three years after participation. Their retrospective perspectives were investigated as to their satisfaction with assimilation in school in the induction year, their attitudes towards organizational aspects of the program, and the program's contribution to their professional development. Comparisons were made to beginning teachers in the midst of their induction year. Data were collected from 98 induction graduates and 390 induction participants using questionnaires. Compared to induction participants, graduates retrospectively remembered the induction year at school less positively …

Developing Primary Pre-Service Teachers' Mathematical Content Knowledge During Practicum Teaching, Sharyn L. Livy, Colleen Vale, Sandra Herbert

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While it is recognised that a teachers’ mathematical content knowledge (MCK) is crucial for teaching, less is known about when different categories of MCK develop during teacher education. This paper reports on two primary pre-service teachers, whose MCK was investigated during their practicum experiences in first, second and fourth years of a four-year Bachelor of Education program. The results identify when and under what conditions pre-service teachers’ developed different categories of their MCK during practicum. Factors that assisted pre-service teachers to develop their MCK included program structure providing breadth and depth of experiences; sustained engagement for learning MCK; and …

What Type Of Feedback Do Student Teachers Expect From Their School Mentors During Practicum Experience? The Case Of Spanish Efl Student Teachers, Juan De Dios Martínez Agudo

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Mentorship represents a vital component in all teacher education programmes since mentors’ feedback plays an essential role in shaping candidate teachers’ professional identity. The quality of feedback provided by school mentors during the practicum experience constitutes the main focus of this study. This research paper aimed at investigating Spanish EFL student teachers’ needs and expectations from their school mentors’ feedback in the practicum setting, drawing particular attention to what areas or aspects related to mentor feedback needed improvement. Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used in the study. The resulting data revealed a high degree of satisfaction among the …

Contextualizing Generic Pedagogical Knowledge Through Tension-Focused Reflection: A Self-Study, Zhu Chen

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A major concern in recent decades is that teachers are equipped with pedagogical knowledge through pre-service teacher education programs but know nothing about how to put pedagogical knowledge into their own teaching scenarios. Hence, an increasing attention has been attached to teachers’ contextualized understanding of pedagogical knowledge for effective teaching. Reflection has often been recommended as an instrument for constructing teachers’ context-specific knowledge of teaching. This self-study has identified an approach of reflection by which I, as a beginning Chinese language teacher-researcher, employed to develop contextualized understanding of a generic pedagogical model known as Quality Teaching (QT). The essence of …

Scaffolding The Mathematical “Connections”: A New Approach To Preparing Teachers For The Teaching Of Lower Secondary Algebra., Christine A. Ormond

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper discusses the results of a three-year mixed methods study into the effectiveness of a mathematics education unit. This was written for both pre-service primary education students and re-training in-service teachers, to prepare them for the teaching of pre-algebra and early algebra. The unit was taught rom 2013 to 2015 inclusively in a School of Education setting of a university in an Australian capital city. Focusing on the Number and Algebra strand in the Australian Curriculum, its purpose was to better prepare some novice teachers through modelling a more coherent approach to mathematics teaching. The unit’s genesis lies in …

Classroom Management And National Professional Standards For Teachers: A Review Of The Literature On Theory And Practice, Helen M. Egeberg, Andrew Mcconney, Anne Price

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article reviews the conceptual and empirical research on classroom management to ascertain the extent to which there is consistency between the “advice” found in the research literature and the professional standards for teachers and initial teacher education, in regards to knowledge and perspectives about effective classroom management. Focusing on the evolution of beliefs, knowledge and perspectives about classroom management the article will clarify effective classroom management and place this within the frameworks on effective teaching, in particular the AITSL standards, and consequently consider some implications for best practice.

"There's Too Much To Explain": On Being A Bilingual Pre-Service Teacher In A Monolingual Teacher Education Institution., Jackie Coleman

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article is derived from a study which followed a group of bilingual and multilingual pre-service mainstream primary teachers over three years of their enrolment at an Australian university to investigate their perspectives and experiences related to their linguistic skills and the relationship of these to their English-medium course. By providing a platform for the voice of one study participant, Seo-yun (pseudonym), a bilingual Korean-Australian, to be heard in depth as her ‘story’ develops over three years, this article adds to the ‘stories’ of other linguistically diverse students in monolingual higher education contexts found elsewhere in the literature (For example, …

Exploring Quality Teaching In The Online Environment Using An Evidence-Based Approach, Elena Prieto-Rodriguez, Jennifer Gore, Kathryn Holmes

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Online learning is increasingly ubiquitous in higher education. However, research regarding online teaching often focuses on the affordances of the online environment rather than on the quality of pedagogy. In this paper we consider how online learning could be enhanced using rich pedagogical models that are consistent with a wealth of existing knowledge on pedagogy for face-to-face settings. To do so, we apply an established framework, the Quality Teaching model, to explore pedagogy in the online environment and illustrate its potential benefits using a case study of 60 students in a tertiary mathematics teacher education program. We conclude that the …

Part-Time Post Graduate Certificate In Education Teacher-Students: What Do They Bring To And Expect From A Formal South African Teaching Programme?, Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi, Doras Sibanda

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The purpose of this study was to understand the nature and extent of subject content and curriculum knowledge that part-time Post Graduate Certificate in Education students in one South African university, brought to the classroom, and the kind and level of knowledge that they expected and sought from the programme. The study employed a qualitative design and data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 146 part-time students on this programme. These students were teaching in different contexts: urban, rural and, township high schools. The findings indicated that teachers within the 0-3 years’ professional life phase expected to gain knowledge …

Comparing Stress Levels Of Graduate And Undergraduate Pre-Service Teachers Following Their Teaching Practicums, Gretchen Geng, Richard Midford, Jenny Buckworth

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In comparison to undergraduate pre-service teachers (PSTs), graduate PSTs have previously completed a three-year bachelor degree and are enrolled in initial teacher education (ITE) programs to become a teacher. Following a review of literature on teachers’ sense of stress, reflection and identity development, this study compared the stress levels and concerns of graduate PSTs with those of undergraduate PSTs. One hundred and fifty-one graduate and one hundred and fifty-nine undergraduate PSTs participated in this study. The graduate PSTs had significantly higher stress levels than undergraduate PSTs (p < .01). Contributing stressors from both groups’ own demographic background and teaching practicum perspectives were investigated and compared. These findings provide an empirical basis from which to develop appropriate strategies to support both groups of PSTs to manage their stress, develop their identity and personal beliefs and increase their retention in teacher education programs.

Graduate Standards For Teachers: Final-Year Preservice Teachers Potentially Identify The Gaps, Suzanne M. Hudson, Peter Hudson, Noelene L. Weatherby-Fell, Brad Shipway

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) were devised to identify the attributes, skills and practices required of teachers at various career stages. This study investigates final-year preservice teachers’ self-reported confidence against the APST at the graduate career stage. This mixed-method study used a Likert scale survey and interviews. Preservice teachers indicated areas of confidence, and also identified potential gaps in their teacher preparation with 30% or more of preservice teachers indicating they lacked confidence to: Use strategies to support full participation of students with a disability; demonstrate understanding for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students; engage with parents …