Context Of Initial Teacher Education Research Articles

Professional Learning Communities of Student Teachers in Internship

Since the early 1990s, professional learning communities (PLCs) have been widely recognized as an effective, extensively researched approach to professional development, school improvement, and student learning enhancement as well as leadership development within educational settings. Nevertheless, there remains a scarcity of research concerning the impact of this approach to professional development within the context of initial teacher education. The present study is one of the first to systematically examine the possibilities and potential of PLCs for student teachers in their practical pedagogical studies (internship). In particular, the study examines whether Student-Teacher PLCs (ST-PLCs) can be implemented in pre-teacher education and the perceptions of student teachers concerning their participation and professional learning within an ST-PLC. A total of 56 students from the University of Education Vorarlberg (Austria), the University of Málaga (Spain), and the European University Cyprus participated in the study, responding to an online questionnaire and engaging in focus-group interviews. The data collected indicated that ST-PLCs serve as a robust strategy for collaborative learning and the development of professional competencies. An analysis of the qualitative data showed that ST-PLCs are spaces where the reflection and analysis of teaching-related topics are stimulated, supported, shared, encouraged, and enhanced.

Extensive Listening: Indonesian Teacher Educators’ and Student Teachers’ Perspectives and Experiences in Initial Teacher Education Context

This case study examines teacher educators and student teachers’ experiences and perspectives in East Java, Indonesia, with the aim of investigating Extensive Listening (EL) integration to the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) as a prescribed language curriculum program. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with the three teacher educators and six student teachers. The results revealed variations in how EL programs are practiced among various institutions, underscoring the necessity for a standardized curriculum to incorporate EL into language teaching programs. Teacher educators performed resourcefulness by creatively using online resources to compensate for the absence of formal EL training. The independent listening practices of student teachers emphasizing the importance of authentic materials that align with their personal interests, using technology to promote self-directed learning. This research serves as an initial exploration of the potential of EL in the ITE context in Indonesia. Both teacher educators and student teachers hold crucial roles in driving curriculum innovation by advocating for the acknowledgment and inclusion of EL within the language curriculum.

Enterprise education: pre-service further education teachers' impressions and aspirations

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.

Supporting teacher educators’ professional learning through lesson study

ABSTRACT Lesson Study is a rapidly growing and increasingly popular teacher professional development approach and is valued for its cyclical, classroom-based and collaborative nature. Mostly used in primary and secondary education, Lesson Study has only recently been applied to the context of initial teacher education focussing on pre-service teachers’ professional learning. Only a few studies report on teacher educators participating in Lesson Study. This study aims to fill this gap by examining to what extent Lesson Study is considered a valuable approach to support teacher educators’ professional learning and what conditions should be taken into account when applying Lesson Study in their context. Two groups of teacher educators were followed using learning reports as they participated in a Lesson Study cycle. To determine whether the reported reflections sustained in their practice, focus group interviews were held one year after their Lesson Study participation. The results show that, depending on the conditions, participating in Lesson Study can be supportive as a means to focusing on the learning of pre-service teachers, exchanging knowledge and experiences, and counteracting a culture of professional isolation.

Student Teachers’ Listening Fluency Interaction Patterns: The Use of Similar News Stories in Narrow Listening

This article reports the use of similar news stories in narrow listening in an Extensive Listening course to promote student teachers’ listening fluency in an Indonesian initial teacher education context. This study was to investigate: (1) What is the patterns of interaction of Indonesian student teachers of English regarding their listening fluency when exposed to slow, moderately slow, and normal speech level texts?; and (2) What are the challenges and opportunities of promoting listening fluency through narrow listening using news stories in an Extensive Listening course? The aims of this article are to portray student teachers’ listening fluency interaction patterns through similar news stories in narrow listening and to investigate the challenges and opportunities of promoting listening fluency using narrow listening. This sequential mix-method study reported 40 student teachers’ engagement in extensive listening activities over 12 weeks, such as: (1) the choice of the news stories using online extensive listening material selection survey, (2) repeated listening tasks for fluency development at a lower to a normal speech rate level, and (3) linked-skills fluency development activities scaffolded by the teacher educators. The study found that similar news stories in narrow listening as extensive listening material helped student teachers familiarize similar structures and vocabulary of the spoken texts from similar topics/themes. The article portrays the inclusion of narrow listening in an Extensive Listening course can help the development of student teachers’ listening fluency in Indonesian initial Teacher Education context.

Assessing student teachers’ agency and using it for predicting commitment to teaching

ABSTRACT In this paper, we focus on the professional agency of student teachers in the initial teacher education context. Based on the ecological model of teacher agency, a questionnaire was developed for a self-reported assessment of student teachers agency in three domains: planning of teaching and learning activities, teaching diverse ability students in the same class, using ICT in teaching. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to validate the structure of the instrument in all domains using data from 168 student teachers. The findings confirmed that student-teacher agency could be described through three dimensions (iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative) in all studied domains. In addition, we found, using path analysis, that agency in two domains predicted student-teacher commitment to teaching.

Teacher-Researcher Development? Unpacking the Understandings and Approaches in Initial Teacher Education in Kosovo

The teacher-researcher is a prevailing concept in the post-professionalism age of teacher education. The development of teacher-researchers is discussed alongside reforming initial teacher education programmes as research-based. At this time, there is no consensus regarding the understanding and methodologies of teacher-researcher development. The purpose of this study is to examine student teachers’ and teacher educators’ understandings of and approaches to teacher-researcher development in initial teacher education in Kosovo within the research-based education movement. The study used a qualitative research design. The data were collected through open questionnaires (n = 270 student teachers), interviews (n = 15 teacher educators), and programme content (n = 5) at two initial teacher education institutions in Kosovo. Using Healey and Jenkins’s research curriculum categories as a guiding framework, the study identified four clusters of contradictory understandings and approaches relating to teacher educator practice and programme values and goals, fragmenting the context of teacher-researcher development in Kosovo. In order to build consensus in teacher-researcher development, coordinated efforts are recommended to address the current isolated and differing understandings and practices within the broader context of initial teacher education.

Educate – mentor – nurture: improving the transition from initial teacher education to qualified teacher status and beyond

ABSTRACT Teacher recruitment and retention concerns across the world remain a high priority to ensure the best possible education opportunities for children and young people. Related to recruitment and retention, but also important in its own right, is the wellbeing of early career teachers. This study investigated the wellbeing of early career teachers in England and Australia to examine how best to provide early career support as a foundation for professional growth and longer-term retention. Survey responses from 67 newly qualified teachers in England and Australia, and five semi-structured interviews, provided rich insights into new teachers’ experiences, highlighting the overwhelming nature of the transition experience as new teachers struggled to adjust as they moved from the relative safety of the initial teacher education context to the reality of work in schools, in particular managing considerable workload which continued beyond the initial transition phase. Vital to successful transition were ongoing linkages between initial teacher education providers and employing schools, a supportive community of practice and bespoke mentoring. This has important policy implications, emphasising the need for personalised approaches to transition with high-quality mentoring during the first few years in the profession. An ‘educate – mentor – nurture’ model is proposed, to enable smoother and more supportive transitions, leading to professional growth and wellbeing.

Understandings of mentoring in school placement settings within the context of initial teacher education in Scotland: dimensions of collaboration and power

ABSTRACT This study critically addresses mentor and mentee understandings of mentoring primary education student teachers within existing operations of power in the context of Scottish Initial Teacher Education. Semi-structured interviews of mentors and student teachers were used to elicit relational understandings of the mentoring process within an instrumental, collective case study research design. Findings indicate that participants understood mentoring as a multifaceted process aimed at supporting the professional learning of student teachers. The article addresses the main mentoring relationship between the class teacher mentor and student teacher mentee. Analysis of their responses suggests an understanding of mentoring as involving both personal and professional dimensions. From these dimensions emerge the focus of this article: implicit collaboration and conceptions of power as a relational duality situated within a more Foucauldian ‘flux’ form. Critical discussion of findings extends understandings of the complexity of the mentoring process with reference to perceptions of collaboration, power and their co-existence. Conclusions focus on the need for a quality, consistent mentor education programme to promote an informed knowledge and understanding of the complex nature of mentoring in order to improve the quality and consistency of mentee learning experiences.

Student teachers’ engagement in Facebook-assisted peer assessment in an initial teacher education context: speaking 2.0

ABSTRACTAlthough peer assessment (PA) has been explored and implemented in higher education, little is known about how it is carried out through such a virtual platform as Facebook in an initial teacher education (ITE) context. To fill this practical void, this article showcases the brief portrait of Facebook-assisted PA in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. This in-practice article shows how Facebook as an online platform serves as virtual engagement in PA among English student teachers in the EFL speaking classroom. This virtual engagement not only created an interactive virtual speaking classroom, but also it encouraged students to become critical reflective language learners.

Reading While Listening (RWL) in an Extensive Listening Course to Reduce Student Teachers’ Foreign Language Listening Anxiety (FLLA)

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Can an outsider become an insider? Analysing the effect of action research in initial EFL teacher education programs

ABSTRACTAction research methodology is commonly used in initial teacher education programmes as a pedagogical strategy to enhance student teacher learning. Action research is most often used in tandem with school-based practicum components in the latter stage of programmes as a means of bridging the theory-practice divide. It is also frequently used as a capstone assessment to assure prospective teacher capability for reflective inquiry. The study reported here focuses on the perspectives of teachers who were recent graduates of two initial English language teacher education programmes in Chile, who had undertaken action research projects as part of their degree programme. It also engaged the university-based supervisors who had overseen this work. These experiences are analysed in the context of the guiding epistemological and political foundations of action research. The outcomes of this research suggest that the use of action research in initial teacher education contexts may be more problematic than it is often assumed; particularly, where student teachers’ work is professionally isolated. From this, it is suggested that action research in initial teacher education needs to be conscious of potential constraints in school-based contexts, as these may act to limit the current and prospective impact of this learning experience.

A biographical experience of teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand

The article analyses initial teacher education (ITE) policy and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand over forty years. Central to the local ITE context was the incorporation of the ‘monotechnic’ colleges of teacher education into the university sector in the 1990s and 2000s, following New Zealand’s structural adjustments to the state education sector in 1989 and 1990. Policy ideologies of ‘marketisation’ and ‘professionalisation’ raised expectations of the abstract knowledge base and competencies that university-based teacher education graduates would acquire, while simultaneously degrading the rich immersion in cultural, curriculum and subject studies and learning by doing that were the hallmark of the former colleges. Indigenous staff and students arguably suffered most during the incorporation years. The final section looks to New Zealand’s future demographic, environmental and socio-economic imperatives and asks how ITE can be recast to enable teacher educators and beginning teachers to face the realities and challenges of the decades ahead.

Revisión de la Escala de Motivación Educativa. Inclusión de la Regulación Integrada para Medir la Motivación en la Formación Inicial del Profesorado

<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The objective of this study was to incorporate the integrated regulation assessment into the Academic Motivation Scale within the Spanish initial teacher education context. There were 496 student participants (233 men and 263 women; <em>M</em><sub>age </sub>= 25.70, <em>SD</em> = 4.23) from the Masters in Teaching for Compulsory Secondary Education, Upper Secondary School Education and Professional Education, and Language Teaching. The confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable fit-indexes for the eight-factor correlated structure and an invariant factor structure across genders. Internal consistency and temporal stability were satisfactory for each of the eight factors. The linear regression analysis indicated that integrated regulation was the strongest predictor of intention to become a teacher. This new instrument may contribute to a deeper understanding of the motivational processes involved in the initial teacher education context.</span></p>

Student Responses to an ICT-Based E-Assessment Application for the Teaching Practicum/ Teaching Practice MODULE

Situated within the context of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in South Africa, this study introduces the notion of an interactive Teaching Practicum E- Assessment application: e-assessment application for the teaching practicum/Teaching Practice module to replace the current model of assessment. At present students enrolled for an Initial Teacher Education qualification have to complete a compulsory Teaching Practice module. The successful completion of the module arguably provides evidence of students' readiness for professional practice. The assessment of the teaching practicum is often riddled with anxiety on the part of the students and conflict between students and their supervisor. Two interrelated research questions guided this study: What are students' experiences of the current teaching practicum assessment? and What were students' responses to the ICT-based assessment proposal? Data were collected from a sample of Teaching Practice students (N = 40) and a focus group discussion conducted with eight (8) students. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) and critical connectivity theory provided the study with analytical and conceptual lenses. Findings are discussed in response to the research questions posed in preparation of the software development stage of the project.

“You Learn How to Write from Doing the Writing, But You Also Learn the Subject and the Ways of Reasoning”

The research question addressed in this paper is: How do the activities of writing mediate knowledge of writing, disciplinary knowledge, and professional knowledge as intertwined sites of learning? To conceptualise the role that writing can take in these complex processes, we apply an analytical framework comprising two core concepts; mediation and learning trajectories. We draw on an empirical study from the context of initial teacher education in Norway. From our analysis, we identify three qualities of writing as important. First, the writing process should in- clude responding to and sharing drafts. Other important qualities include high teacher expectations and continuous reflection. From the perspective adopted here, learning is understood to be distributed and situated. In particular, in situated cultural contexts, collaborative writing can become a significant mediational tool for learning. Initial teacher education seeks to prepare the student teacher for a highly complex professional competency, developing both professionally and in individual subjects. To do so, students must transform social structures and the tools embedded in practices into psychological tools. We contend that writing is one significant tool in moving through complex trajectories of learning towards becoming professional teachers.

Implicated reading: a method for reflecting on practice

This paper evaluates an attempt by the author to operationalise the theory of reflective practice within the context of initial teacher education. Whilst an integral element of many teacher education programmes, the problematic of ‘how’ to reflect on practice remains a concern. In response, and taking inspiration from the work of Deleuze and Guattari, specifically their critique of representational thought and common understandings of text, the author experiments with a method for reflecting called implicated reading. The method involves the reading of students’ lived experiences as beginning teachers (recorded in written form), against a variety of other texts. The author draws on interview data to analyse and discuss the merits of the approach. The paper concludes that the method of implicated reading has the potential to unsettle the common tendency to focus on meaning and interpretation when reflecting on events and experiences. It is argued that the student teachers involved in the project instead begin to experience reflection as a process of connectivity, rethinking pedagogy as a result.

Processes of Writing as Mediational Tool in Higher Education

ABSTRACTThis article addresses writing in higher education with the primary aim of conceptualizing writing as a mediational tool. The conceptual framework consists of three concepts: learning trajectories, mediation, and recontextualization. The article describes how writing can work as a mediational tool and suggests possible implications for higher education. An empirical study from the context of initial teacher education in Norway is used for the purpose of illustration. Writing activities can mediate learning in important ways. However, design elements that make students explore, contrast, and compare different meaning potentials and position themselves within disciplinary or professional discourse are crucial when considering the potential of writing as a mediational tool in higher education.

Letramento digital e a formação do professor de língua na contemporaneidade

Na tentativa de contemplar e repensar a formação do professor sob um viés mais contemporâneo, objetivamos promover uma discussão, a partir da reflexão e articulação de conceitos e perspectivas sobre Letramento Digital (STREET, 1995; BUZATO, 2006; ROJO, 2013) e a Formação Sociocultural do Professor (VIGOTSKI, 1998; 2010; JOHNSON, 2009; FRIEDRICH, 2012), no que se refere ao uso da tecnologia da informação e da comunicação (LÉVY, 1998; 1999; 2007) como responsável por (novas) práticas de letramento no âmbito educacional. De forma a instigar uma reflexão sobre a experiência prática à luz da literatura da área, tecemos considerações mais pontuais sobre uma pesquisa qualitativa de cunho etnográfico, realizada em um contexto de formação inicial do profissional de Letras, em que se fez uso da tecnologia com vistas a promover uma formação social, crítica e reflexiva do professor. Os dados evidenciaram que o sucesso da atividade não está relacionado diretamente ao uso de uma ferramenta tecnológica apropriada, mas ao engajamento dos participantes na tarefa solicitada, o que implica necessariamente uma nova forma de pensar e agir, (trans)formada e delineada por recursos metodológicos, tecnológicos e contextuais.

“I chose to become a teacher because”. Exploring the factors influencing teaching choice amongst pre-service teachers in Ireland

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the suitability of the FIT-Choice scale for use within an Irish Initial Teacher Education setting with a cohort of first year pre-service teachers (n = 143), from across five different subject disciplines. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to examine participants’ motivations for choosing teaching as a career, as well as their perceptions about teaching. The results were found to be consistent with the original FIT-Choice structure thus supporting the validity of the FIT-Choice scale within this Irish Initial Teacher Education context. Prior teaching and learning experiences, as well as perceived ability, were found to be the strongest influential factors in participants’ decision to become a teacher. These findings further highlight the prominence given to subject-based knowledge in Ireland. The relationships between participants’ motivations for becoming a teacher and their satisfaction with career choice were also examined. Choosing teaching as a fallback career was negatively related to satisfaction, whereas a desire to work with children was found to be a significant positive predictor.