La práctica docente en la Licenciatura en Literatura. Diagnóstico. Aportes a una discusión

Teacher Educators’ Practices from the View of Building Lifelong Learning Capabilities in Student Teachers

The Influence of Experience on the Beginning Teacher

The idea of ‘teacher as moral guide’ (TMG) is a core motif among teachers in Vietnam. However, what counts as morality and the moral role of teachers in contemporary Vietnam is constantly challenged and reconstructed by processes of globalisation, the international status of English, the country’s exposure to different values brought about by its open-door policy, and its ambition to integrate globally. Employing a qualitative case study research approach with nineteen student teachers and ten teacher educators of English at three different English language teacher education institutions in Vietnam, this study has attempted to re-examine the notion of ‘morality as an identity filter’ and the conception of ‘teachers as moral guide’ (Phan, 2008; Phan & Phan, 2006; Phan, Phan, & McPherron, 2011) as the ‘core’ identity of Vietnamese teachers through the participants’ social positioning of self and others and through interactions. In other words, it focuses on examining the reconstructed meaning of this professional/national identity in relation to English as an international language (EIL) in the context of globalisation. More specifically, the study looks deeply into the way EIL might influence the development of teacher identities within the boundaries of English language education. The data collection process involved three stages proceeding from guided journal writing/semi structured individual interviews (before the practicum), through 4-6 weekly diaries collected through email correspondence (during the practicum) to in-depth individual interviews (after the practicum). Individual in-depth interviews were carried out both with teacher educators and student teachers at the final stage. The findings have illuminated the translation in meaning of TMG and ‘teacher morality’ firstly through dialectic positioning of self and others, and secondly through the conflicts and negotiation of morals and values associated with the informants’ experiences during English language learning and teaching (ELLT). The meaning of TMG in relation to EIL and globalisation has been identified in recognition of several influential factors. It is found that the pragmatic issues of teaching professions such as low pay, work and life balance, the vision of being perfect, overloaded professional requirements, the senior teachers’ models (both negative and positive images), and experiences of ELLT have contributed to the negotiation of teacher morals, moral roles and related values leading to the transformation of subjectivity among the participants. The complex interplay of factors and reasons created dilemmas which student teachers navigated as they developed their particular understandings of TMG and the formation of their professional identity. The meaning of teacher morality and TMG has been extended from being good in conduct and knowledge, to also being an inspiring model. The study has portrayed a shifting image of Vietnamese teachers, focusing on teachers being ‘moral’ in a less conventional way. The ELT teachers are suggested as being a model of modern teachers who own a typically distinctive image without having to wear the image of a ‘classic’ teacher. Wearing a new look and practising their own styles, ELT teachers have been perceived as setting an example for their students with their knowledge, their enthusiasm, their open-heartedness, their inspirational spirit, and most importantly their embodiment of morality of Vietnamese teachers. The findings have also contributed some universal characteristics of ELT professionals and the tensions that they engender. ELLT has more or less acted as a driver of shaping and reshaping the personal and professional identities of ELT teachers. The concept of TMG as a ‘core’ identity of Vietnamese teachers, while retaining its currency and significance, has been socially and linguistically reconstructed in relation to universal ELT professionalism, in which teachers should perform their moral roles as ELT professionals while demonstrating themselves to be moral educators for issues that matter locally, nationally and globally. The perceptions of ELT Vietnamese teachers’ image/teacher identity have confirmed the usefulness of the underlying socio-cultural approach (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) that informs this study, and which shows that identity is (re)constructed through positioning and interactions. The study also reinforces the scholarship about professional identity as constructed through identification and negotiation of personal, local and universal values and beliefs. This project puts forward issues for teacher education, urging the explicit encouragement of TEs to enact their moral guiding roles through a caring relationship while enhancing STs’ understanding of morality and development of moral identity.

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

A distinctive feature of the practice of teacher education is the value of teacher educators as role models for student teachers. This potential is not always realised because teacher educators do not always know how to model their practice, and when they do their student teachers may not notice it. Knowing this, a project team from a Dutch institute for teacher education trialled a 12-week intervention to address these shortcomings with six teacher educators. The intervention aimed to first put an emphasis on the teacher educators’ explicit modelling during classes; second, develop their student teachers’ observation skills so that they better noticed the teacher educators’ use of modelling; and third, organise a professional dialogue between teacher educators and students about the practice of teaching. The intervention was an attempt to facilitate the idea of teacher educators working with student teachers as partners to improve teacher education. The researchers used data from questionnaires completed by the teacher educators and their student teachers to establish the outcomes of the intervention. This data suggested that the intervention contributed to the professional learning and practice of the teacher educators and helped student teachers to learn from and about their teacher educators’ modelled practice.

Engaging with recent calls to incorporate teacher identity as a central principle in language teacher education, this article aims to address practical ways to support teacher identity development in students in a graduate program for language educators. Employing duoethnography as a qualitative research approach and reflective practice, the two authors, who are instructors in the program, engage in conversation on coursework and activities that invite reflection on and negotiation of identities among participants in the program. The work we have been doing explores a variety of aspects to create a more holistic lens from which to support the development of teacher identity as connected to professional identities (educational beliefs, practices, and experiences) and personal identities (cultural background, ethnicity, language, gender, etc.). The idea that who we are is continuously evolving in a process of becoming is a metaphor guiding identity work in the program. This process of becoming and teaching who we are calls for teacher educators to consider in depth the impact of teacher education activities and processes on student teachers’ developing understandings of themselves as language educators in our globalized world.

Foreign language teacher education has been having a shift from a transmissive into a transformative and progressive perspective with which pre-service teachers (student teachers) have become more aware of their own learning, growth and progress since the beginnings of the 2000s, in particular. What transformative teacher education is designed for today is that a prospective teacher is to be aware of how they are learning to teach by themselves. Transformative teacher education focusses mainly on pre-service teachers’ awareness of how they are becoming a teacher and what is happening throughout their becoming since they can transfer all of that experience into their own future careers and their prospective students’ lives. With the integration of technology, we, teacher educators, have more opportunities today, to witness our student teachers’ (pre-service education teachers’) awareness situation and their stories of becoming teachers. Digital portfolios which provide them to save all of their written work as a digital copy throughout months, even years, help us be constant witnesses of their professional growth and development throughout the years they attend the faculty of education. This also gives way to make our evaluation from many different perspectives: we can see how they prepare their paper work as lesson plans, worksheets, reports, checklist and so on and besides, we can read their digital journals where they write their thoughts, opinions, ideas and feelings about their own practices, experience and learning, which would make their becoming stories a very humanistic cooperation and collaboration work. This paper intends to present a longitudinal research on the digital portfolio of pre-service (student) teachers of FLTE in a state university, İstanbul, Turkey for two years from 2015 to 2017. During their final years (year 4), approximately 120 student teachers kept a digital portfolio in which they saved their lesson plans, observation checklists, and teaching reports about and in a practicum course at the faculty and the practicum in primary and secondary schools in İstanbul. This paper evaluated the process and outcomes of these portfolios in terms of their contributions to the student teachers’ professional developments regarding pre-service teachers’ reported reflections. The results showed that the digital portfolios, especially their digital journals provided quite positive outcomes relevant to their awareness on their professional development.

The Elementary School Journal Volume 81, Number 1 ? 1980 by The University of Chicago 0013-5984/81/8101-0008$0o1.00 In colleges and universities across the country, prospective and practicing teachers and administrators take courses on planning-curriculum-planning and instructional planning. During the courses, teachers and administrators usually study an objectives-first model of curriculumplanning. This model has four steps. Planners are expected to 1. Formulate objectives 2. Choose appropriate learning activities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudes and impressions of pre-service Further Education teachers towards enterprise education. It also looks at the potential impact on their future teaching practices and aspirations. This study builds on the literature in this area by bringing a teacher education focus and by providing views from the underserved further education sector.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research approach was used to evaluate pre-service further education teachers' understanding of and attitudes towards, enterprise education. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 students in their final year of an initial teacher education degree.FindingsFindings emerged through constant comparative analysis of interview transcripts. These findings indicate that exposure to enterprise education greatly increased understanding of its importance and relevance, while also encouraging pre-service further education teachers to recognise the benefits of incorporating enterprise education into their classrooms of the future.Originality/valueWhile there is an array of literature on entrepreneurship and enterprise education outside of business contents, very few studies exist, which examine enterprise education in an initial teacher education context. Fewer still examine enterprise education from the perspective of further education. This study provides a unique qualitative view of pre-service further education teachers' impressions of enterprise education and their aspirations for the future.

The concept of the ‘professional teacher’ is highly contestable, and the array of definitions that circulate in teacher education draw on competing theoretical and ideological positions. This paper explores what discourses about professionalism are currently available within Norwegian physical education teacher education (PETE) and, in particular, asks whether they reflect the needs of postmodern teachers in a ‘knowledge society’? It acknowledges that there are currently two dominant discourses about the ‘professional’ teacher, so-called ‘activist’ or ‘managerial’ professionalism, and asks whether, and in what ways, PE student teachers engage with and/or reject the discourses’ competing ideas about what counts as ‘good’ practice. By analysing the student teachers’ emerging professional identities, the paper aims to reveal not only the students’ subjective meanings about professionalism, but also illuminate the current power structures that operate in PETE about relevant ‘professional’ knowledge. It draws on data from group interviews with 12 Norwegian PE students in their final year of study for a bachelor degree in PETE, and a critical content analysis of PETE curricula at two institutions of higher education. The paper highlights the way in which views about professionalism in PETE tend to be normative in nature, and are not founded on explicit theoretical ideas about ‘good’ practice or theoretical understandings of the role of the teacher in postmodern schools. Indeed, PETE programmes seem to do little to disrupt recruits’ ‘apprenticeship-of-observation’, even though Lortie revealed this problematic aspect of professional socialisation over three decades ago. The student teachers’ narratives seem to be locked into ‘modernist’ or ‘classical’ ideas about good PE practice, which are inappropriate for meeting the challenges of working with socially diverse pupils or in collaborative teacher groups. Recruitment to PETE via examinable PE appears paradoxically to accentuate the students’ sports performing (teacher) selves, rather than providing them with a solid understanding of PE's content knowledge on which to develop broader PE teacher professional identities. Therefore, the paper asks whether teacher educators need to reassess their recruitment policies to PETE, as well as to systematically re-analyse their ‘taken-for-granted’ notions of teacher professionalism.

This study aims to investigate the levels of pedagogical competencies and ESD competencies in a group of future primary school teachers when integrating teaching practices and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into a science education course. Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used. Eighty-eight of the student teachers demonstrated pedagogical and ESD competencies, as evidenced by the self-rated scores and course instructor-rated scores of their teaching practices which were collected and analyzed. In addition, the lesson plans designed by the student teachers were coded and scrutinized to identify their ESD-specific competencies related to designing primary science instruction. Furthermore, the student teachers responded to the questionnaires about their views and attitudes towards the integration of the SDGs and teaching practices. The findings reveal a difference between the participants’ self-rated scores and the instructor-rated scores for pedagogical competencies during the teaching practices, whereas the scores for general ESD competencies were closely aligned. Content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and motivation and value related to sustainable development and science education were well represented in the lesson plans, and the student teachers generally held a positive attitude towards the integration of the SDGs and teaching practices. This study offers practical insights into the effective integration of pertinent topics and knowledge regarding sustainable development into teacher education and science education curricula.

One of the many problems assailing Philippine Education, according to the Congressional Commission on education (EDCOM), is the progressive deterioration of basic education (EDCOM Report, 1993). It also notes that our elementary and secondary schools have failed to teach the expected competencies to the students, as much as it reveals that the teachers are the main culprits, one reason being that many teachers themselves do not posses at least the minimum teaching competence. In 1997 the Filipino grade and high school students ranked 37th and 38th respectively in a test administered to 39 nations for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. This is certainly one other instance that reflects the deplorable performance of most Filipino students. The 1993 EDCOM Reports again attributed such inadequacy to poor teacher preparation and training, as well as to the low quality of students enrolled in teacher training institution. The same observation echoes in one Professional Regulation Commission report in 2006, where it revealed that in the last four years, the national rate of passing in the Licensure Examinations for Teachers has not indicated any improvement. To exemplify, it noted that in 2005, only 26% registered a passing rate, as compared with the 27%, 26%, and 35% of the 2004, 2003, and 2002 respective rates. This may be one reason why the then Department of Education Secretary Florencio Abad had said in an interview account in 2005 that, apparently, basic education could not as yet deliver quality education because of the failure of most teacher training institutions to provide the department with quality graduates. The Presidential Commission for Educational Reform (PCER) must have been a bit prophetic when it found in a 2000 survey that some aspects of the educational system were either stagnating or deteriorating. It offered as evidence the perpetual shortfalls in classrooms, textbooks, and teachers; unsatisfactory achievement scores in Math, Science, and Language; increasing disparity among regions and between urban and rural areas; decline of private sector participation, and the recurring issue regarding language instruction. All these contributing factors, it further averred, took a heavy toll on overall teacher development, which, it claimed, as it cited the 1998 World Educational Report, has "in fact declined over the last 30 years and continues to decline in every region and most countries." To address these problems, PCER has recommended the implementation of Project Teacher Empowerment to Achieve Competence and Humaneness (TEACH), which aimed at strengthening the competencies of both in-service and pre-service teachers. In the same view, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), in collaboration with the Teacher Education Council, developed the master plan for Teacher Education (CHED Report, 1997). This plan envisions to design programs for teacher education that will enhance the positive image of the teacher through a deliberate effort of improving the curriculum and the teachers' workplace. It also hopes to bring about a culture of excellence and world-class competitiveness, which will once more bring teachers at the helm of all professions. In this light, one of its earlier tasks was to require teacher education institutions (TEIs) to review, and if need be, redesign their curricula and syllabi. It also set up centers of excellence for the different areas that TEIs must be concerned with, such as, for example on research, science and math instruction, and teacher education. These various progressive initiatives done by the CHED to improve and uplift the teaching profession via the TEIs were largely made the basis for the crafting and eventual implementing of the CHED Memorandum Order No. 30 (CMO 30), series of 2004. This document on the "Revised Policies and Standards for Undergraduate Teacher Education Curriculum", seeks among other things, to define certain limits regarding the TEIs' education and other allied programs, competency standards, curriculum, and course specifications. Together with the Joint CHED-DepEd Memorandum, which was issued subsequently, certain guidelines for the implementation of the new teacher education curriculum were formulated for TEIs' compliance. Such moves created additional, albeit necessary demands on many TEIs. The Philippine Normal University (PNU), for one, which is considered as the country's premier teacher training institution, has been tasked to play a crucial role in addressing major educational issues and concerns. Being a Center of Excellence in teacher education on a national level, it has been its mandate to pioneer in delivering efficient and effective, yet innovative, relevant, functional, and quality program in teacher education. It thus becomes incumbent upon PNU not only to consider possible alternative sources for educating the teachers, but also to conceptualize and experiment on a variety of programs. While carrying out more vigorously its mandated objectives, functions, and responsibilities, the University embarked on a five-year modernization program which is predicated upon such a mission. Through this effort the Department of Student Teaching (DST) saw a rebirth of sort when the Board of Regents (BOR) approved its creation on January 12, 2003. Where it used to be for many years only a unit under the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, it is now an independent department. At its inchoate stage, the DST, saddled with such challenges as are brought about by university-wide changes and development, already finds it difficult to provide quality experience to its clientele, the student teachers (STs). For one, there is now a mismatch between the growing number of STs and the present condition and circumstances prevailing in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) where they hold their campus teaching practicum. There is, for example, only one class in certain grade/year level at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) that can accommodate only a few STs at a time. With the total number of STs per term ranging between 600 to 700, accommodation problems definitely boggle the mind. Given also the substandard classrooms in terms of size and facilities, most STs have to stay outside while the class is going on. This situation somehow deprives them of the learning they otherwise would have gained from observing the supervising instructors (SIs) or their peers teach the class have they been inside the classroom all throughout the session. For another reason, especially in the high school level, there are majorship areas that lack corresponding SIs. Records show that in recent years, CTL high school teachers' specialization is only in such areas as English, Mathematics, Filipino, and Biology. The STs whose major fields of concentration are in General Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Values Education are, therefore, not given proper placement. Considering that STs stay only for a quarter of a term in either the campus or off-campus internship program (which runs for only about 12 weeks of exposure for observation and actual instruction), the special Wednesday policy at the CTL, following the university practice, may seem to be a bit ruinous on quality, even adequacy, of learning that the STs should otherwise be gaining. Moreover, although the co-and extra-curricular activities are important part of the student teaching experiences, the instructional skills that can be developed from actual classroom work may again be put to task, if too many such activities are held within the 6-week period of internship (e.g. boy/girl scout investitures, Sportfest and field demonstrations, which could eat a lot of time from STs for student rehearsals). All these confirm the findings of the 1999 CHED-PNU Collaborative Research on Laboratory Schools (CORELS) to the effect that greater participation and actual classroom teaching are more apparent in off-campus than on-campus teaching experience; and that a significant number of TEIs have neither been giving adequate exposure nor have accomplished many activities that develop the pre-service teacher competencies to a greater extent. There is, however, one other thing to consider should a revision of the STP become a necessary option. This concerns the Joint CHED and DepEd Memorandum Order, which has been issued under DepEd order no. 39, s. 2005. With its premise that says that student teaching being one of the most important and crucial phases in Teacher Education and that all TEIs and public and private schools involved "shall ensure that students teachers are well prepared for their eventual assumption as teachers," it further requires that TEIs and DepEd schools concerned "shall forge a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the TEIs which should stipulate the administrative and financial arrangements effective SY 2005-2006." It has, thus, set some collaborative guidelines regarding deployment of Preservice teachers for their Field Study and Practice Teaching courses and the specific roles and functions that CHED, DepEd, and TEIs are expected to perform. With this new concern emerging, most TEIs, especially SUCs whose budget has been slashed down, face another challenge insofar as implementing their STPs are concerned. Because of these challenges and concerns, the DST deems it necessary to rethink the structures as well as the overall system involved in the STP that it presently implements, especially since some of the practices it has observed through the years virtually bear little relevance to the existing demands, concerns, and recent developments in student teaching. New modalities, therefore, need to be resorted to in order to fully address these concerns and challenges. As the UNESCO International Commission on Education for the 21st Century Report has so aptly stated, "...the profound changes required on teacher education (and for that matter, on student teaching), call not for

This study explored the perceptions and practices of teacher educators in integrating information and communication Technology (ICT) in teacher education programs. The study adopted a phenomenological design under the qualitative research approach that included eighteen selected participants from a teacher education university college. Data collection employed semi-structured interviews, observations, and documentary reviews. The authors adopted the Braun and Clarke (2006) thematic analysis model for data analysis. The findings showed that while young and inexperienced teachers showed readiness to use ICT, some teacher educators do not understand the logic behind using technology and hence question the rationale for applying it to their teaching. At the same time, equipment challenges, large teaching burdens, and time limits were the critical barriers to integration. Again, the findings revealed that teacher educators use different software and learning platforms, use social media, gather online information, and access learning materials through journal subscriptions to enhance preservice teachers’ learning. Thus, integrating ICT during teacher training is paramount, and teacher educators should be assisted and encouraged to develop positive attitudes in learning and to apply ICT in their teaching practices. Concomitantly, equipping preservice teachers with ICT-based pedagogical skills, not only through specialized ICT courses, but also through observing how teacher educators use it, has a significant impact on transforming teaching practices in their future classrooms.

This study aimed to determine student teachers’ and teacher educators’ perceptions of an effective English teacher in terms of content, pedagogical, and personal knowledge in the English study program at Universitas Prima Indonesia (UNPRI). To achieve this objective, this study was designed as a mixed-methods study. To achieve this objective, this study was designed using a mixed method to look for the perceptions of 82 student teachers and 10 teacher educators. Data were collected through a 36-item Likert-type questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The results indicate that both groups agree that combining all the components is important for an effective teacher. Comparing both groups’ perceptions, the results showed a statistically significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) for 11 out of 36 items. It was found that student teachers place higher importance on some effective attributes than teacher educators do and vice versa. Additionally, the study found that pedagogical and personal knowledge was equally, if not more, important than content knowledge in defining an effective English teacher. This study highlights the significance of balancing content, pedagogical, and personal knowledge in teacher effectiveness, particularly in the EFL context of Indonesia, and discusses its pedagogical implications and limitations. This study was small due to a lack of participants. Future research should include more participants for comparison.

Learner-centred teaching education generally involves methods of teaching that move the focus of instruction from the teacher to the learner. The “learner-centred” label is subsequently attached to teaching strategies, learning events, classroom layout and learning programmes. Aspects such as active learning, learner commitment and the construction of own knowledge are among the principles of learner-centred teaching. Worldwide, the thorough training of teachers is crucial. Every organisation preparing teachers should establish whether they offer suitable qualifications that empower student teachers to cope with the abundant difficulties of the teaching occupation, including learner-centred teaching. The aim of this article is to explore student teachers’ perceptions, experiences, and challenges of learner-centred teaching. To this end, an inquisitive research strategy and qualitative research approach were selected as suitable methodology. Data was collected through a voluntary written assignment set out in student teachers’ teaching practice notebooks. The participants were fourth-year students enrolled at a higher education institution for the Bachelor of Education (BEd) qualification (with speciality in the Foundation Phase). These students were placed in productive, successful schools for the duration of their teaching practicum by the teachers training institution. In addition to their placements, they had to complete their teaching practice at schools in widely differing social environments. The schools’ locations ranged from well-off areas, with good teaching means, to schools in poor areas that were lacking learning support materials. The participants were from diverse cultural groups. Furthermore, the constructivist learning theory was used as theoretical framework. The findings reveal that student teachers have a limited understanding of learner-centred teaching and are currently experiencing three serious challenges with regard to learner-centred teaching. To combat this, guiding principles involving lecturers’ support and involvement, reflection, and the accountable intervention of mentor teachers are suggested. Keywords: community of practice; constructivism; internships; learner-centredness; mentor teachers; pre-service teaching; student teachers