Empowering Inclusion: A Study of Pre-Service Teachers' Proposals for Enhancing Initial Teacher Education in Kazakhstan

Iowa State University currently offers two different and distinct preservice teacher preparation programs. The traditional program reflects a more conventional way of conveying important theoretical knowledge and necessary skills to preservice students. This traditional program consists of individual course requirements coupled with practicum experiences at strategic points in the curriculum. The new megamethods curriculum creates a unique blend between university coursework and practical experience in general education classrooms. Preservice teachers involved with this curriculum spend a larger percentage of their university class time within a general education classroom. The primary purpose of this study was to determine if preservice teachers at Iowa State University felt competent to teach in inclusive general education classrooms as they sequentially completed their individual curriculum coursework. In addition, this study examined preservice teachers' ratings, from both curricula, in regard to their ratings of sensitivity toward the needs of children in the general education classroom who have differing learning abilities. The study utilized a non-static comparison group design and data was collected at the end of each methods course in the spring, 1996. The instrument used to measure preservice teacher ratings of their competencies to teach in inclusive classrooms was the Inclusive Classroom Teacher Behavior Rating Scale. This survey instrument contained items, or behaviors, the literature reported were necessary to implement in order to be successful in inclusive classrooms. Results indicated preservice teachers completing the megamethods curriculum rated themselves as more prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms than preservice teachers enrolled in the traditional curriculum. Limitations and implications of this study are also discussed.

The paper sought to determine the perceptions Colleges of Education tutors hold on how the current curriculum helps pre-service teachers to collaborate with other professionals and parents to manage children with special educational needs and disabilities for effective inclusive education in Ghana. A descriptive survey design was adopted using a sample of 235 tutors from 13 public Colleges of Education in Ghana. The lottery method was used to select four out of the sixteen regions in Ghana and the purposive sampling technique was used to select all the Colleges within the four regions, while convenience sampling technique was used to select the actual respondents for the study. Questionnaire was used to gather the research data. Percentages and frequencies were used as statistical tools to analyse the data. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers had difficulties collaborating with other professionals and parents in managing children with special educational needs and disabilities in the inclusive classroom. It was therefore, recommended that measures that could help pre-service teachers to effectively and efficiently collaborate with parents and other professionals should be put in place. Keywords: Collaboration, Perceptions, Inclusive Education, Pre-service teachers, Children with Special Educational Needs. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/11-20-07 Publication date: October 31 st 2021

For over twenty years now the role of teachers’ beliefs in teacher education designed to help pre-service and in-service teachers develop their thinking and practices has been a topic of intense debate among teacher educators and trainers (cf. Freeman and Johnson 2005; Borg 2003; Mattheoudakis 2007; Farrell and Kun 2008; Gabryś-Barker 2010; Li and Walsh 2011). According to Calderhead (1996) the main areas in which teachers have been found to hold significant beliefs are learners and learning; teaching; the subject itself; the process of learning to teach; the self and the teaching roles. The present chapter, however, refers to those beliefs that are related to multilingual didactics (Jessner 2006; Ringbom 2007). More specifically, the article discusses and promotes the need to analyse the pre-service teachers’ beliefs in the field of teaching a second foreign language (L3). Undoubtedly, the findings, which demonstrate what pre-service teachers think of L3 teaching and learning within the context of multilingual education may have practical implications for course design and evaluation in language teacher education programs—both in the area of ELT as well as in the field of teaching other foreign languages. Moreover, insights from such data could help to identify and address the gaps between pre-service teachers’ beliefs and the requirements of the language teacher training courses. Thus, the present chapter advocates in favor of exploiting pre-service teachers’ beliefs on multilinguality in the teacher training programs.KeywordsForeign LanguageLanguage LearningTeacher Education ProgramLanguage TeacherForeign Language LearningThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

In recent times, more attention has been directed towards identifying international trends and ‘best’ practice for assessing pre-service teachers’ classroom performance. Previous attempts to assess Oman’s preservice teachers were based on adopting a psychometric/measurement assessment practice, whereby performance was measured by grades. Such an approach, in recent times, has been viewed as being fundamentally flawed in its attempts to measure pre-service teachers’ classroom practices. This is primarily due to its inability to authentically assess teacher’s learning in the classroom setting. Further underpinning this problem, is that Omani pre-service teachers are expected to undertake an International English Language Testing System (commonly referred to as IELTS), as a measurement of their English proficiency. This approach is problematic, in principle, as it is positioned after graduation and therefore forms no connection to the pre-service teachers’ school experience nor does it add to quality teaching and assessment. This recent shift in thinking, as to the idea that educational assessment should be based on psychometric measurements and grades, has evolved into assessment practices which encourage the integration of assessment into the learning and teaching environment. This thesis is concerned with how the pre-service English Language teacher’s classroom performance is assessed in Oman. Drawing on the work of Gipps (1999, 2002), this thesis adopted a sociocultural perspective to investigate the phenomenon of assessment practices associated with evaluating pre-service teacher’s classroom performance during school-based professional experience (also known as teaching practicum). Understanding assessment practices from a sociocultural perspective and its current practices such as authentic assessment and Assessment for Learning (AfL) assists pre-service teachers to learn so as to become professional, qualified teachers. To achieve the aims of this study, the thesis adopted a qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology approach to investigate the assessment phenomenon and to gain a deep understanding from the key stakeholders involved in the phenomenon. To enable this, the data collected from three higher education institutions, namely Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Rustaq-College of Applied Sciences (CAS) and Nizwa University and their participating schools. A range of different data sources obtained: assessment texts which position pre-service English Language teachers; three-series of interviews with the different stakeholders: three pre-service teachers, three cooperating teachers and four university supervisors to reveal their experiences; and observing the phenomenon in situ to triangulate with the aforementioned data. Implementing hermeneutic phenomenology, the obtained data analysed using two approaches: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) so that the existing practices for assessing pre-service English language teachers’ classroom performance in Oman were captured. The analyses revealed that each institution has its assessment practices influenced by its socio-political structure, yet SQU, unlike Rustaq-CAS and Nizwa University, is distinguished in relation to its pre-determined set of professional standards for graduating teachers; explicit assessment criteria that are shared and discussed with pre-service teachers; collaboration between all stakeholders in the assessment process; a clearly defined role for the cooperating teacher as mentor; effective feedback provided to the pre-service teacher; using portfolios to record and document the pre-service teachers achievements; and effective self- and peer-assessment strategies. These practices are mostly experienced by stakeholders at SQU due to its international accreditation under the influence of the standards based on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The findings suggest that SQU assessment practices are more aligned with the indicators of international best practice, compared to that of Rustaq-CAS and Nizwa University. Similarly, SQU had a better understanding of assessment practices from a sociocultural perspective. This means that within the context of assessing pre-service teachers’ classroom performance in Oman, the findings are not about each higher education institution but about producing quality teacher graduates by reforming the Omani assessment practices. Having SQU as a model in Oman, the key recommendations for policy and practice from this study are to: 1) set a national professional standards for teachers; 2) have explicit assessment criteria that align with the professional standards; 3) share the assessment criteria for success between all stakeholders in the phenomenon; 4) strengthen the collaboration between schools and universities as well as university supervisors and cooperating teachers,5) make the role of the portfolio more explicit in terms of monitoring and enhancing pre-service teacher development and learning; 6) empower the cooperating teacher to provide a more meaningful mentoring role to pre-service teachers; 7) provide explicit training in effective peer and self-assessment strategies for pre-service teachers in the classroom context and 8) provide explicit training in understanding and delivering quality feedback on classroom performance for all stakeholders.

The mastery of STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) language literacy is essential for both engineering students and professionals as it enables effective communication using technical terminology and facilitates problem-solving, research, and innovation within the field. However, STEM language proficiency remains an area of improvement within Kazakhstan’s engineering education system. Our research focused on enhancing STEM language literacy learning for Bachelor of Engineering students in Kazakhstan, with a specific emphasis on leveraging digital technologies to support their learning. Our paper outlines the outcomes of the research project titled ‘Enhancing Scientific and Professional Language Learning for Engineering Students in Kazakhstan through Digital Technologies’, conducted at the Saginov Technical University (STU) in Kazakhstan and supported by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP19678460). This project holds significant promise for advancing engineering education in the country. Throughout this project, our team examined best practices for STEM literacy learning in engineering education globally. We also utilised a comprehensive SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to identify effective approaches for STEM literacy learning and the successful integration of digital technologies. Ultimately, we developed a framework for enhancing STEM language literacy in engineering education at universities in Kazakhstan.

Introduction: Although there is ambiguity about the elements of teacher knowledge, all researchers accept that being able to anticipate what errors can be made, the reasons for and the strategies to overcome these errors, in short, the knowledge of students is important for student achievement. In this study, knowledge of students refers to being aware of students’ possible errors and underlying reasons for these errors and knowing how to overcome these errors. Based on this consideration, the purpose of this study is to investigate pre-service elementary teachers’ knowledge of students on the subtraction topic. Methods: Considering the purpose, the data were collected from 118 pre-service elementary teachers who were enrolled in a four-year Elementary Teacher Education program via a task-based questionnaire related to the topic of subtraction and semi-structured interviews following the questionnaire. The task-based questionnaire included three completed incorrect subtraction tasks and was prepared considering the related literature and the elementary school mathematics curriculum of Turkey. Each task in the questionnaire contained a different type of error. The pre-service elementary teachers’ answers to the task-based questionnaire were categorized as correct, partially correct, wrong, or no answer by means of categorical analysis. The pre-service elementary teachers who gave correct and partially correct answers to the tasks were asked to participate in the second part of the study to learn their possible strategies to overcome the errors made in the tasks. Results: As a result of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the pre-service elementary teachers’ responses, it was found that their knowledge of students for subtraction is limited. Specifically, although the pre-service elementary teachers were partially able to identify the errors in the first and second task, they were not able to identify the error in the third task. Furthermore, they were better able to determine a more commonly occurring subtraction error compared to the uncommon ones. The pre-service elementary teachers could not identify the underlying reasons that led the students to the errors. They could not explain what conceptual knowledge related to the topic of subtraction the student lacked that resulted in the errors. As the pre-service teachers did not attain these reasons, they were not able to provide strategies to overcome these errors different than restating the rules or procedures to overcome students’ errors. Discussion: Only being able to identify the errors is not enough to make the instruction effective. Teachers also need to know and provide a rationale for why the errors happen and how to overcome them (Even & Tirosh, 1995). Contrary to this statement, the pre-service elementary teachers in this study could not attempt to understand the students’ thinking or could not explain the reasons behind students’ errors with the notion of subtraction. Son (2013) emphasizes that pre-service teachers tend to explain the reasons for students’ errors as procedural. Similar to this emphasis, the pre-service teachers identified the errors as resulting from not applying procedures carefully or not enough knowing algorithms to find correct solutions. However, without addressing the reasons or focusing on procedures does not promote students’ understanding of the related topic (An, Kulm, & Wu, 2004). The pre-service teachers’ difficulties in identifying the possible conceptual reasons may result from deficits in knowledge of students (Fennema & Franke, 1992; Ball et al., 2008). Limitations: The findings were limited with the responses of the pre-service elementary teachers participating in this study. Moreover, the pre-service elementary teachers’ knowledge of students was investigated within the scope of subtraction. Conclusions: Although the pre-service elementary teachers could identify students’ errors on subtraction, they had difficulty in identifying the reasons and suggesting strategies to overcome the errors. Therefore, it can be concluded that the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of students for the topic of subtraction is limited. An implication of this is that teacher educators need to include error-analysis tasks to help pre-service teachers be aware of the importance of their knowledge of students.

Teachers’ self-efficacy in classroom management is essential to their professional identity and teaching quality. While contextual factors shape these beliefs, the role of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of teacher education courses in influencing self-efficacy through their classroom management beliefs remains underexplored. This study expands self-efficacy theory by proposing an integrated model in which beliefs serve as both a mediator and a moderator between course perceptions and classroom management self-efficacy, particularly in inclusive classrooms. It builds on previous evidence that pre-service teachers’ beliefs about proactive strategies partially mediate the relationship between their course perceptions and capability beliefs in proactive management practices. This leads to the proposal of a moderated mediation model to explore a more nuanced relationship by investigating whether pre-service teachers’ punishment-oriented classroom management beliefs alter the strength and direction of this partial mediation effect. Data collected online from 480 pre-service teachers enrolled in State University and National Colleges of Education in Sri Lanka, which were used in the previous study, were analyzed using SmartPLS4 structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that punishment-based beliefs negatively moderated the indirect partial effect of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of classroom management training on their self-efficacy for inclusive classroom management, mediated by preventative beliefs. This positive indirect effect was significant only when reactive punishment-based beliefs were at low to moderate levels. These findings suggest that an overreliance on reactive strategies diminishes the beneficial influence of teacher education on self-efficacy in implementing preventive measures for inclusive classroom management. The results emphasize the importance of fostering proactive beliefs through targeted training within initial teacher education programs, supported by dedicated engagement from teacher educators and policymakers.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in eight preservice teachers’ professional identity and the factors contributing to such changes during a four-week block practicum.Design/methodology/approach– A qualitative case study design was used and the data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with preservice teachers and their mentors, reflective journals and observation checklists. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data.Findings– The findings showed high levels of confidence and development of teacher voice by the end of their four-week block practicum. The findings also suggested that positive mentoring relationships contributed to changes in the preservice teachers’ teacher identity.Research limitations/implications– Despite focussing on a relatively small number of preservice secondary teachers during the first four-week practicum of a single teacher education program at a Western Australian University, this research highlights the need to maintain constructive mentoring relationships with preservice teachers to provide positive influences on their professional identity. In order to facilitate this, preservice teacher education programs should provide thorough training for mentor teachers.Originality/value– This work highlighted the crucial role of mentor teachers in creating positive impacts on preservice teachers’ professional identity, such as development of their confidence and teacher voice. This paper provides useful insights for researchers, mentor teachers, and preservice teacher education policy developers.

All over the word, classrooms are getting more and more diverse and teachers are required to effectively manage these classes even when students have special education needs (SEN). The study aimed to investigate classroom management strategies and interpersonal teacher behaviour in relation to students internalizing and externalizing behaviour, whereby we varied the diagnosis of special educational needs. Two hundred and fifty-four German pre-service teachers (143 female) with a mean age of 26.04 years participated in the study. Using an experimental between-subjects design, a fictitious student was described as exhibiting either internalizing or externalizing behaviour. Additionally, we varied whether the student was diagnosed as having SEN or not. The participants were asked to indicate which strategies they would apply and how they would interact with students. Results showed that teacher interaction in response to both students with internalizing and externalizing behaviour approached ideal interpersonal teacher behaviour (i.e. high level of cooperativeness with certain level of dominance), whereas pre-service teachers applied all classroom management strategies to minimize effects of student behaviour on learning time. Although pre-service teachers adapted their responses based on type of behaviour, they only made allowances for internalizing behaviour while their response to externalizing behaviour did not vary much as a function of a SEN diagnosis. Together, these findings highlight the importance of providing pre-service teachers with the pedagogical knowledge concerning effective classroom management and flexible use of strategies in response to diverse student needs in inclusive classrooms.

This study aimed to assess the readiness of pre-service English teachers in a teacher training program at Fiji National University to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to Fijian ESL learners. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from twenty-two students enrolled in a compulsory language course during their third year of undergraduate study. These findings underscore the pivotal role of English teachers in maximizing students’ formal schooling and exposure to their native language (L1) to create an engaging learning environment. Additionally, this study found that enhancing pre-service teachers’ cultural awareness improves their readiness to teach English to Fijian ESL students. Central to this study is the recognition of the essential elements necessary in pre-service teacher education programs. This study includes multifaceted support systems, such as emphasizing the significance of comprehensive support in pre-service teacher education programs, including mentorship programs, practical teaching opportunity experiences, feedback mechanisms, platforms for self-reflection and peer reflection opportunities, integration of technology into teaching, and the improvement of effective communication and teaching methodologies. These findings hold substantial promise in informing and potentially guide policy decisions and offer recommendations for the refinement of teacher-training programs and curriculum development in secondary school settings. This study recommends the provision of training and support through professional development seminars geared towards fostering culturally responsive and inclusive classrooms, emphasizing the importance of training and ongoing support for teachers.

The number of students with special education needs in the Canadian school system is estimated to range from 9 to 15% (Timmons, 2006). Within Canada, inclusive education means that students who are diverse learners attend their neighbourhood school with their same age peers where they are accepted, valued and made to feel they belong in regular classrooms and schools (Specht and Young, 2010). Research attests to the link among teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about learning and inclusive education and their classroom practice (Jordan, Schwartz and McGhie-Richmond, 2009). Teachers are more willing to adopt inclusive teaching practices, those which promote greater equity in classrooms of diverse learners, when they are comfortable with the use of appropriate pedagogy and when they believe that all students can learn and should be included in heterogeneous classrooms. The challenge is to equip and empower teachers with the competence and confidence required to teach students in inclusive classrooms. University pre-service teacher education programmes are designed to begin to equip prospective teachers with these experiences (Ashman, 2010). Within the faculties of education that participated in this research study, pre-service teachers are required to undertake a course in special or inclusive education as part of their teacher education programme. This national study provided a cross-Canada snapshot of the beliefs about inclusion in pre-service teacher education programmes for the purpose of understanding whether or not our teacher education programmes are graduating teachers who believe that they possess the skills, knowledge and beliefs necessary to be successful in diverse and inclusive classrooms. The participants were 1490 pre-service teachers (385 Men; 11105 Women) from 11 Faculties of Education (Mage=25.9 years; SD=5.4). We report on their response to the question ‘what does inclusion mean to you’? This question was designed to be broad in order to elicit participants’ understanding of inclusion and to determine key ideas participants may be deriving from their teacher education programmes. A content analysis approach was employed. This involved coding statements based on key concepts, clustering the concepts into themes and revisiting the themes to further refine them (Fiese and Bickham, 1998). The first major theme reflected pre-service teacher beliefs and attitudes towards inclusion. They indicated that inclusion was a ‘right’ for all students and that students should have the opportunity to be successful. They also expressed doubt in their own ability, in the concept of inclusion, and whether or not all students are capable of being included. The second major theme concerned creating an environment that is conducive to and supportive of inclusion. The subthemes reflected the need to create a welcoming and positive space, the responsibility of the teacher to instruct in ways that recognise and support students and the recognition that others are involved in providing support for students. Instructional approaches and strategies that have developed from understanding and addressing the needs of students with special education needs (i.e., Universal Design for Learning, Differentiated Instruction, assistive and instructional technology and collaborative practice) serve all students. Incorporating these approaches and strategies in an intentional, holistic manner into all curricular coursework in pre-service teacher education programmes may further support pre-service teachers’ understanding that inclusion is about all students. Increasing the opportunities that pre-service teachers have to apply these teaching approaches may improve their skills and confidence and optimally prepare them for inclusive classrooms and counter the perception and belief that inclusion cannot be accomplished or that it is a passing educational fad. The author reports no conflict of interest.

ABSTRACTInclusive education (IE) has the potential to improve special education needs (SEN) students’ learning outcomes, but IE requires teachers receive adequate training to be effective. We introduce an approach to pre-service teacher preparation using experiential learning in an informal learning environment to educate beginning teachers about effective science teaching for SEN students. Using data collected from observations, survey, interviews, and autobiographical reflections, we explored how teachers’ engagement in an informal teaching experience impacted their perceptions about SEN students, their beliefs about the value of teaching science to SEN students, and their beliefs about their future responsibilities to support SEN students in inclusive classrooms. Findings expand our understanding of how to prepare new science teachers to improve science learning for students who are routinely marginalized in formal educational settings. Building from these findings, we discuss the need for transforming pre-service teacher education using university-based experiential learning courses that simultaneously offer SEN students targeted, high quality content learning experiences that could also have a positive impact on SEN students’ attitudes about and achievement in science. We conclude by raising questions about the need for expanded policy, teacher preparation programmes, and additional research focused on improving science teaching and learning for SEN students.

Values are the building blocks of a society; they create societies and contain their characteristics. Accordingly, the teaching of values is very important for a society. The role of teachers in the teaching of values is large. In the 2019 curriculum for Turkish language classes, such values are also referred to as ten root values. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers and pre-service teachers to know the ten root values in the Turkish language teaching programme in terms of teaching values. In this study, the views of pre-service Turkish teachers and pre-service classroom teachers on root values were analysed. The study group consisted of a total of 60 pre-service teachers from Turkish education (30) and classroom education (30) programmes who were studying at a public university in the second semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. A semi-structured interview form consisting of five open-ended questions was administered to these pre-service teachers and the obtained data were analysed with content analysis. When the results of the research were evaluated, it was concluded that pre-service Turkish and classroom education teachers considered values to be basic elements. Pre-service teachers described the role of values in education as supportive, while pre-service Turkish teachers also described the concept as necessary and pre-service classroom teachers described it as a way of raising useful individuals. It was concluded that both groups viewed root values as the values people should have, and the values they viewed as priorities were love and justice. Both groups suggested that empathy be added to the root values. Despite some differences, Turkish and classroom education pre-service teachers generally shared the same views on values and root values.

Teacher education for inclusive education is a key priority in the UK and internationally, with much research exploring how pre-service teachers can be prepared to educate pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN). However, this has resulted in less consideration of how pre-service teachers can be prepared to work with the parents of these pupils. One specific aspect of the home–school relationship that has elicited little attention is empathy. This article details a study that explored parental perceptions of teacher empathy and consequently identifies how empathy and understanding were developed in pre-service teachers. Parental perceptions of teacher empathy were elicited, where most parents identified that teachers could not empathies with them unless they had children with SEN themselves. As it is clearly impossible for all teachers to have children with SEN, the second part of the study explored how empathy could be developed during pre-service teacher education. This involved a mother of two children with SEN sharing her ‘story’ with 344 pre-service teachers at two universities in north west England, and the success of this approach is considered. The research findings have evident implications for the development of teacher education, regarding how pre-service teachers can be encouraged to empathise with parents from the very beginning of their careers.

Teachers' Sense of Efficacy: An Important Factor in School Improvement