The Role of Educational Science in Professional Knowledge: Student Teachers’ Reflections

Background: In the Australian state of Queensland, many Department of Education Policies include behavioural directives for school teachers, whereby ‘the teacher must …’ behave in a certain manner. The introduction of an education policy, such as the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by teachers, has significant and wide-ranging implications for the lives of children. However, little is known, and little literature has been found, about student teachers' knowledge and understanding of these new behavioural directives for teachers. Purpose: This study audits Bachelor of Education (Primary School) student teachers who are about to become qualified teachers, on their knowledge, and their confidence in that knowledge, of the Department of Education behavioural directives on child sexual abuse mandatory reporting policy, which they will soon have to implement when they are employed in professional teaching positions in primary schools. Sample: A fourth-year, final-semester volunteer cohort of 52 Bachelor of Education (Primary School) student teachers at a major university in Queensland, Australia, provided this sample of 42 females and 10 males, whose ages ranged from 21 to 45 years. Design and methods: The audit's five-page, anonymous and confidential questionnaire included a series of valid statements, and one invalid statement, about the behavioural directives for teachers contained in the Queensland Department of Education policy on the mandatory reporting of suspected child sexual abuse. Participants self-evaluated their knowledge of the policy on a quantitative three-point scale, and their confidence in that knowledge on a four-point scale, and then responded to an open-ended qualitative query about their understanding of the policy, during their tutorial classes. The quantitative responses were analysed and displayed as histograms, and the qualitative responses were clustered into three categories. Results: Analysis of the data shows that while the majority of these student teachers claim satisfactory levels of knowledge and confidence concerning their Department's behavioural directives, such results seem disappointing given a necessarily high standard of competence, and significant numbers indicating uncertainty of knowledge and/or lack of confidence regarding their roles as mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse. Conclusions: It is expected that all new teachers be properly equipped and prepared in pre-service training, with appropriate knowledge and understanding of these important directives, to report the cases of suspected child abuse they will encounter in their schools. Current pre-service education of primary school teachers at this Queensland university, and very likely throughout the state, does not reach a standard that engenders educators' satisfaction and confidence in student teachers' understanding of their Department's behavioural and legal requirements upon qualification. This conclusion is consistent with national and international research, showing that teachers and student teachers lack confidence and are inadequately prepared to fulfil their role as mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse.

Student teachers’ reflections on their course activities play an important role in both teacher educators’ reflective teaching practices and bettering pre-service teacher education programmes. Since teacher cognition is also shaped during pre-service education years, teacher educators should collaborate with student teachers to serve their needs better and refresh their academic identity. Thus, this study aimed to find out ELT sophomores’ evaluations on the Approaches and Methods Course. The study was conducted at a state university in ELT Department during 2018-2019 Fall term and there were 31 participants (8 males, 23 females, aged between 19-22) taking the course. The participants filled out a 10-item survey regarding their experiences and their opinions about the course activities, and content analysis was applied to code and categorize their written answers. All the participants indicated that this course is a professional requirement, basis of ELT and they have learnt various classroom activities or techniques. 11 think the approaches and methods learnt in the course are applicable in their future teaching contexts while 4 think they are inapplicable and finally 16 think some of them are applicable stressing the contextual differences, time constraints, crowded classrooms, different learner characteristics and effect of technology. 27 stated that they were taught English via GTM in their previous learning experiences. 27 indicated that the course contributed to their professional knowledge and skills in terms of gaining valuable teaching skills, having different standpoints, developing teaching experience, improving reading, comprehension and vocabulary, serving changing student needs. All reported that the preliminary discussions held at the very beginning of the class about the last week’s topic were a useful reminder of the previous topic, made easier adaptation to the lesson, were a good means for checking student understanding, reinforcement, better and easier understanding and getting ready for the new topic. 14 held negative perspectives about making theoretical presentations with their classmates. They focused on public speaking anxiety, presenter' incompetence, irresponsible members, complicated content. However, 13 held positive perspectives and focused on learner autonomy, cooperative skills, sharing responsibility, fun, feeling like a teacher. 29 stated that watching related videos about the approaches/methods at the end of the class was beneficial in terms of remembering the details, seeing real applications, fun, clear and better understanding, practical awareness, real life applications. 20 stated that they encountered some difficulties while making presentations such as public speaking anxiety, pronunciation mistakes, abstract language of the book, irresponsible members, intense content, lack of content knowledge. 14 stated that all course activities were useful, 10 found micro teaching as the most important activity whereas 10 found theoretical presentations as the least important activity. Finally, 14 recommended teacher lecturing instead of student lecturing for theoretical presentations. The findings offer significant clues for teacher educators for their delivery of instruction and give opportunities for a better understanding of student teachers’ learning preferences. Article visualizations:

Self-regulative learning skills are extremely important contributors in student teacher learning. Also, interest in co-regulation in learning as a facilitator for pupils’ self-regulation skills and an ability to learn how to support peers’ regulated learning has increased significantly during the past decade. Still, our understanding of student teachers’ co- and self-regulative learning during their studies is shallow. This study aims to explore student teachers’ self- and co-regulation of learning, including their elements and qualities embedded in various contexts of teacher education. In this study 19 primary school student teachers from a large research-based Finnish university were interviewed. The data were content analysed by applying an abductive strategy. The results showed that student teachers applied self-regulated learning more often than co-regulated learning, and that teaching practice provided a primary arena for regulative learning. Further investigation revealed that although self- and co-regulation had the same components, they differed in terms of the quality of regulation. Our findings suggest that co-regulated learning activities that involve peers and teacher educators reached a more profound and meaningful level when learning to become a teacher than learning activities involving self-regulated activities.

The emotional experiences of English as a foreign language (EFL) student teachers during their practicum in the United Arab Emirates are examined in this qualitative study (UAE). Six males and ten females made up the sample of 16 pre-service teachers. The majority of the data was gathered through focus group interviews. Participants expressed a wide range of positive and negative emotions, mostly connected to their classroom practices, language skills, professional knowledge, and assistance received during their practicum. The findings also point to a pressing need for increased coordination and collaboration between colleges and training schools. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind in the Gulf region. It is hoped that it will help policymakers, educators, and curriculum developers at the micro and macro levels of teacher education develop a better understanding of student teachers’ emotions through the practicum and identify areas that need to be reconsidered.KeywordsTeaching practicumEmotional experiencePre-service teachersTeacher education

Background Engaging teacher educators in improving the quality of teacher education is an ongoing process internationally. In some countries, there is growing conviction that professional teacher education should be based on research-generated knowledge. This trend has led to reforms in teacher education programmes as well as in teacher educators’ roles and professional practice. Purpose This study explores teacher educators’ understanding of research-based teacher education (RBTE) in Norway and Finland with an emphasis on Norway. Norway introduced RBTE in 2017, while Finland has had experience with this approach since the 1970s. Method The study is qualitative, part of a broader research project involving participants from Norway and Finland. It included in-person interviews with 16 teacher educators in Norway and five in Finland. An asymmetric design was adopted because we were particularly interested in exploring the Norwegian context. The analysis undertaken adhered to the principles of content analysis, identifying and categorising the viewpoints of the teacher educators through a grounded, inductive process. Findings Four data-driven categories emerged: Research-based teaching, comprising teaching methods and the acquisition of professional knowledge; Engagement in research, representing teacher educators’ understanding of student teachers’ participation in research activities; Role of research-based literature, referring to reflections on the use of subject literature; and Critical thinking, describing teacher educators’ assessment of developing a critical and self-reflective mindset when engaging in RBTE. Conclusion The participating teacher educators in both countries shared similar views on the key characteristics of RBTE. They were also generally positive about the role of research in their professional practice and its contribution to fostering critically thinking practitioners. However, the study revealed some tensions among Norwegian teacher educators, due to differing academic backgrounds and the cross-pressure demands of research and teaching.

This study explored student teachers’ experiences of study engagement and burnout by utilising profile analysis. Interrelations between the student teachers’ profiles and perceptions of their learning environment were also explored. To complement the statistical analysis, the student teachers’ social support experiences during teaching practice were explored based on interview data. Two study engagement—burnout profiles were detected among student teachers. The student teachers exhibiting the engaged in studies with a low risk of burnout profile had significantly more positive perceptions of their learning environments compared with the group classified under the reduced study engagement with an increased risk of burnout profile. Further investigation showed that student teachers most frequently reported informational support received from their teaching practice supervisors. The groups representing the two profiles showed both similar and different characteristics in the types and sources of social support. The study contributes to the understanding of student teachers’ study engagement in relation to the learning environment of teacher education. It provides practical implications for teacher educators to improve the learning environments of differently engaged student teachers, particularly during teaching practice, a central arena for student teacher learning.

As part of the reform of teacher education, field placements for student teachers have been expanded and new forms such as paired field placements implemented into standard programmes. For many years, the single field placement has been the standard model for student teachers, but various forms of paired internships have been introduced. However, little is known about the processes of cooperative learning during field placements and how student teachers benefit from different forms of field placement, such as single versus paired field placements.This qualitative study aims at a deeper understanding of student teachers’ learning in single and paired field placements from student teachers’ perspective. Theoretically, our study is based on the offer-and-use model in field experiences combined with the autonomy-parity pattern. Student teachers (N = 20) from the University of Teacher Education in Bern, Switzerland, were interviewed in depth about their learning gains after completing four paired field placements and one single field placement. Results showed that although student teachers appreciate the work and exchange with a peer, the majority of student teachers prefer single field placements. The desire for autonomy and the ability to work flexibly in single field placements seemed to outweigh the advantages of paired field placements. The majority of students considered single field placements to be closer to reality. The results encourage future discussion and research about student teachers’ attitudes towards field placements and the teaching profession.

This paper tells the stories of two early childhood student teachers who decided to discontinue their enrolment in their pre‐service programme. Both consistently received above‐average grades and positive practicum reports but became distressed by their experiences in the programme. The paper focuses on the emotional intensity of their responses to the experiences they encountered. It suggests that an understanding of student teachers' emotional frames of reference and their epistemological perspectives might assist teacher educators to become more sensitive to students' emotional well‐being. In turn, this might alleviate some of the emotional distress which can accompany learning to teach, and help to stem attrition from teacher education programmes.

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

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

An understanding of student teachers' pedagogical images plays an important role in helping teacher educators plan learning experiences. The purposes of this study were to obtain a profile of pedagogical images of a group of student teachers, and to assess whether there is congruence between their pedagogical images and classroom practices. Applying the conception of teaching model proposed by Pratt, Chan developed a questionnaire to evaluate teachers' views about teaching, which was modified here and administered to 59 first-year student teachers before and after their teaching practicum in physical education for secondary schools. Results indicated that the student teachers possess a Nurturing image, whereas in actual classroom practices, their approach was a mix between the Apprenticeship and the Transmission approaches. In other words, whereas student teachers conceive themselves as having a more child-centred approach to teaching, in reality, their practices constituted more a teacher-centred approach. The investigators considered that this type of information would be helpful for teacher educators when planning learning experiences.

Studying to become a teacher is a highly emotional experience. Nevertheless, little is known about emotional patterns and emotional change. The aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of student teachers’ academic emotions by exploring patterns of emotions experienced in emotionally loaded episodes. A total of 19 primary school student teachers were interviewed. The qualitative content analysis revealed five different emotional patterns: positive, negative, ascending, descending and changing. Most of the emotional patterns were positive or changing in nature. Yet all the emotional patterns were highly focused on studying and learning. Moreover, the patterns were experienced equally in short, medium-length and long episodes. Our study showed that emotional patterns were triggered by various task-related elements of teacher education: most commonly, fulfilled or unfilled expectations, sufficient or insufficient abilities, and experiences of social support received or not received.

This article explores student teachers’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and their ability to thrive in online teaching practice. Amid the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges, student teachers exhibited remarkable adaptability in navigating the shift to remote teaching. Through qualitative research and thematic analysis, this article delves into student teachers’ experiences, highlighting their positive encounters with online teaching methodologies and tools. The findings underscore the importance of resilience and adaptability in the dynamic field of education, emphasising the valuable skills student teachers attained through their engagement with online teaching. Furthermore, the article explores the advantages of online practical assessments, shedding light on innovative evaluation methods that may shape future educational practices. Overall, the insights gleaned from this research contribute to a deeper understanding of student teachers’ experiences during times of educational transformation. Recommendations are also offered to integrate online teaching methods into teacher training programmes to enhance these students’ resilience and adaptability in the face of adversity.

This chapter explores the nature and origin of RIKA (Japanese school science) teachers’ professional knowledge. For this purpose, leading elementary RIKA teachers’ quality discourses on what RIKA should be or what the aims and goals of their RIKA lessons should be are analysed. Certain components of such discourses that are different from those of “authentic science” teaching are identified and classified. Then, the chapter explores why and how such clusters of components have been involved in RIKA teachers’ notions of the ideal of RIKA teaching. There is considerable anecdotal data that RIKA teachers’ professional knowledge is different from that of elementary science teachers in western countries. One central aspect of this is that RIKA teachers need to develop a unique capability to cope with other factors than teaching “science” in their science classrooms, in particular RIKA teachers’ professional knowledge will be “indigenized”. The chapter will consider the specific questions of “What are the differences between the nature of RIKA teachers’ professional knowledge for teaching indigenized science (RIKA in the Japanese context) and that of western science teachers?” “Why and how has ‘indigenization of professional knowledge among science teachers’ been occurring?” “Why and how do teachers develop such indigenized professional knowledge?”

This study contributes to the understanding of student teachers’ sustainable behaviors. (Future) teachers are perceived as models of social learning as they model desirable behavior, attitudes, values, and emotions while living and demonstrating a pro-sustainable lifestyle. Therefore, it is essential to understand which personal variables, aptitudes, and psychological benefits predispose them towards a pro-sustainable lifestyle. This study’s intent was to consider components that can affect sustainable actions such as psychological tendencies (e.g., attitudes, motives, beliefs, values, norms) and consequences (e.g., well-being or happiness) associated with sustainable actions. This study’s main objective was to test the sustainable behavior model on a sample of student teachers. A total of 496 student teachers participated in the study. The results analyzed by SEM indicate that student teachers’ sustainable behavior is directly predicted by their intention to act, which is both positively and significantly influenced by indignation and affinity towards diversity. Additionally, sustainable behaviors slightly (but statistically significantly) predict the self-assessment of happiness. These findings contribute to a better general understanding of sustainable behaviors’ antecedents and repercussion variables, especially within a student teacher population.