Teacher Education Courses Research Articles

Modeling the Relationship Between Affective Balance, Social Intelligence, and Speech Anxiety With the Mediating Role of Consequence Expectation

Objectives: There are several predictor variables for speech anxiety (SA) among students. Affective balance (AB) and social intelligence (SI) are two main factors in this field. In this study, we assess the mediating role of consequence expectation (CE) among these variables. Accordingly, this study aims to explore a model of the relationships between AB, SI, and SA mediated by CE among teacher-training students of Farhangian University. Methods: This was a descriptive-correlational study and the population included students of teacher-education courses at the Farhangian University in Kerman Province, Iran, in the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample included 740 participants who were selected via the cluster sampling method. They completed the speech anxiety thoughts inventory, the Bradburn scale of psychological well-being (1969), the social intelligence questionnaire, and the personal outcome expectancy scale. Results: The results showed that the model of explaining AB, SI, and SA through the mediating role of CE in teacher-training students of Farhangian University has an acceptable fit. Hence, AB has a direct effect on SA. SI has a direct effect on SA and AB has a direct effect on the expectation of CE. Meanwhile, SI has a direct effect on the CE and AB has an indirect effect on SA through the mediating role of the CE. And, SI has an indirect effect on SA by the mediating role of the CE. Discussion: We can conclude the proposed model of the relationship between AB, SI, and SA with the mediating CE among teacher-training students of Farhangian University is fit and has proper values.

“Literacy to me is about power”: reading book-length fiction and non-fiction texts in a disciplinary literacy teacher education course

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the reading of a book-length fiction or non-fiction text in one disciplinary literacy (DL) teacher education course. This paper considers how the assignment may help pre- and in-service teachers understand literacy as multifaceted and connected within and beyond their content areas (Moje, 2015). The research explores how reading a book-length text may help support DL, equity-oriented curricula that consider literacy as empowerment and connected to lived and communal experiences (González et al., 2005; Muhammad, 2020).Design/methodology/approachThis work is grounded in a qualitative, humanizing methodology and thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Paris and Winn, 2014). This approach examines student work in one DL course, considering how teachers within and beyond English language arts (ELA) respond to the task of reading a book-length text.FindingsFirst, the assignment offered space for participants to redefine literacy as empowerment and enjoyment. Second, the assignment helped participants connect literacy within and beyond their content areas and to see literacy as active and interdisciplinary. Third, the assignment includes clear limitations for a DL approach, particularly when participants focus mainly on connections to their content area. This sometimes obfuscated participants’ enjoyment of reading.Originality/valueThe study offers a new perspective on a task that is often seen as specifically “ELA”: reading a book-length text. This project offers space for ELA educators to consider literacy from a DL, equity-oriented framework focused on enjoyment in literature within and beyond ELA classrooms.

Promoting Prospective Mathematics Teachers’ Professional Vision on a Whole-class Reflective Discussion: Contributions of Digital Resources

The present study aims to understand how the professional vision of prospective teachers (PTs) regarding whole-class reflective discussion develops as they explore a multimedia case (MC) in a mathematics teacher education course. The data come from the written productions of seven groups of PTs (N=15) related to whole-class discussion of one 6th grade lesson in two sections of the MC: first, they have focused on the teacher’s lesson plan and on her intentions for the whole-class discussion aiming at the students’ algebraic thinking; and in the second, they have analysed two video episodes of that lesson phase. The results show an integrated development of two processes of PTs’ professional vision – noticed events and the nature of the reasoning about them – with significant evolution from one section to another as they explore the MC. The study shows PTs’ alternative ways of accessing and making sense of the complexity of both ambitious and authentic teaching practices that can also be employed in at distance teacher education and mitigate the consequences of the impossibility to access the classrooms, such as that resulting from the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Effectiveness of Inclusivity in Technical Education: A Case of Visually Impaired Learners in Mashonaland East Province of Zimbabwe

The study investigated on effectiveness of inclusivity in the teaching and learning of technical subjects in high schools of Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe. A descriptive survey research design was adopted while the questionnaire and the interview guide were used to receive data for the study. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics in terms of mean scores. Based on the findings, the study concluded that the inclusion of learners with low vision in the teaching of technical subjects in the main stream was not effectively conducted as most teachers were not trained to handle learners with special educational needs such as the visually impaired at colleges or universities. Specialist teachers did not get time to professionally develop their colleagues and hence subject teachers remained ineffective and incompetent. It is therefore recommended that school authorities should periodically initiate staff development programs for subject teachers on how to effectively help learners with low vision in the respective schools. Technical teachers’ colleges in the country should include Special Needs Education (SNE) courses for student teachers to effectively discharge their duties in the classroom. High schools managers in the province should ensure that learners with low vision get adequate time per week for assistance and remediation.

Reimagining Creative Democracy: ReCreaDe the Book

ReCreaDe (Reimagining Creative Democracy) is an Erasmus+ project (2018-2021) designed to address the current crisis of democracy through a shared European course in teacher education. Despite the disruption of the Covid pandemic, over a period of three years, researchers and teachers from eight European universities developed, organised, carried out and evaluated face-to-face and online interdisciplinary intensive programmes for student teach-ers from the partner institutions. The participants from universities in Swe-den, Finland, Estonia, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom had different models and experiences of democracy both in socie-ty at large and within teacher education, yet a shared interest in the task of Reimagining Creative Democracy.

Contextual Factors Impacting School and Pastoralist Family Communication in Rural Mongolia: A Partial Ecological Model

This study developed a partial ecological model of contextual factors impacting school and pastoralist family communication at the primary school level in rural Mongolia based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. To develop the model, we interviewed 10 classroom teachers and 10 pastoralist parents from two remote county schools in eastern Mongolia. During our interpretative phenomenological analysis based on semi-structured interviews, we found eight contextual factors impacting rural school and pastoralist family communication located at the exosystem and the macrosystem levels. The partial ecological model can be used in teacher education programs providing a greater insight into the contexts of school-family communication for pre-service and in-service teachers and for teacher educators and policy makers. The model could also be a foundational model for communication training in teacher education courses. In this respect, the current study may help inform researchers and education policy makers not only in Mongolia but also in other settings.

Nurturing Teachers’ Research Mindset in an Inquiry‐Based Language Teacher Education Course

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of an inquiry‐based teacher education course in nurturing second language (L2) teachers’ research mindset, defined herein as their cognition and action toward research. One hundred and thirty pre‐ and in‐service L2 teachers of various nationalities participated in a teacher education course on instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) at an Australian university. The course was designed following an inquiry‐based approach, with course activities focused on promoting teacher learners’ curiosity about ISLA issues and their engagement both with and in research. Data were collected before, during, and after course participation, using a precourse survey, written reflections, and focus group interviews. Findings revealed that the inquiry‐based course activities enabled the teacher learners to adopt a stronger research mindset. They were able to articulate the importance of research for teaching practice and gained firsthand experience as well as increased confidence in conducting research. They also showed inclination toward research‐informed teaching and were keen to maintain their newly established favorable relationship with research, despite acknowledging concerns about their future actual research engagement, mostly due to time constraint and lack of institutional support. These findings suggest implications for nurturing language teachers’ research mindset within L2 teacher education courses.

English Language Teachers’ Perceived Classroom Assessment Knowledge and Practice: Developing and Validating a Scale

This study sought to develop and validate a classroom-based language assessment literacy scale to measure teachers’ perceived classroom-based assessment knowledge and practice. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale items clustered around four factors: (a) purposes of assessment and grading, (b) assessment ethics, (c) student involvement in assessment, and (d) feedback and assessment interpretation. Moreover, the scale was administered to 348 Iranian English as a foreign language teachers. The findings showed that the majority reported to be literate in classroom-based language assessment and agreed to the allocation of more space to classroom-based language assessment in teacher education courses. The findings suggest that the newly-developed scale can serve as a valid and reliable tool to explore language teachers’ classroom-based assessment literacy.

Enriching Pre-service Teacher Education with Keeping Learning Journals

Investigating the integration of learning journals into a pre-service teacher education course to promote reflection was the overall goal of this study. Studies about evaluating students’ journals have generally analyzed them using a holistic and general approach without examining their content and levels of reflection. This study focuses on both contents, levels of reflection, and their relationship. The participants of the study consisted of 33 senior pre-service elementary teachers. The participants were asked to produce a learning journal entry each week at the end of the Science, Technology, Society, and Environment class, in which they were asked to reflect on what they had learned. A deductive content analysis was utilized to determine the levels of reflection of the pre-service teachers’ journals. Deductive content analysis was used to determine the levels of reflection of the pre-service teachers’ journals. The levels of reflection of the participants were moderate and did not show a pattern of improvement over time; instead, the levels of reflection depended on the content of the related class meeting. The majority of the participants agreed that keeping learning journals improved their self-expression and self-assessment skills and retention. The feedback cycle should be reconsidered for further improvement in the journals.

Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers’ Web of Knowledge Recalled for Mathematically Rich and Contextually Realistic Problems

This study aimed to elicit middle school preservice mathematics teachers’ self-reported web of knowledge recalled in generating mathematically rich and contextually realistic problems. We designed this study as multi-tier design research incorporated into two teacher education courses in which 40 preservice teachers enrolled in total. Preservice teachers worked in small groups and recorded the characteristics of mathematically rich and contextually realistic problems. They were also asked to produce webs of knowledge recalled in this process. Preservice teachers’ individual reflection papers, audio records of their group discussions and interviews were analyzed to understand how different types of knowledge in their web of knowledge function in relation to the mathematical richness and contextual realness aspects of the problems. The findings indicated that preservice teachers could identify various characteristics for mathematical richness and contextual realistic aspects of the problems. In relation to those characteristics, the preservice teachers’ self-reported web of knowledge produced three core knowledge types for ensuring mathematical richness (i.e., knowledge of content, curriculum, and pedagogy) and two aspects of realistic contexts (i.e., real life knowledge and interdisciplinary knowledge). Furthermore, although they included common knowledge types, the webs of knowledge were in different shapes and indicated various relationships (i.e., hierarchical, categorical, influential, and holistic.). Considering the various relations indicated by the webs of knowledge, we claimed that teachers needed an interconnected knowledge base for mathematically rich and contextually realistic problems, the implications of which we discussed for mathematics teacher education.

Voices in practice: challenges to implementing differentiated instruction by teachers and school leaders in an Australian mainstream secondary school

This paper investigates the challenges experienced by some Australian school educators in implementing differentiated instruction (DI) at a large secondary school. A small-scale study was conducted using individual, semi-structured interviews with teachers and school leaders. Using thematic analysis, three major themes were identified, namely: teachers’ barriers to implementing DI, school leaders’ constraints to implementing DI, and pre-service to in-service exchanges and sharing about DI. Findings from teachers revealed limited school resources, student behaviour issues and inadequate time for planning and implementation. School leaders also identified time as an impeding factor but also reticence by experienced teachers to use DI. Teacher education courses are not clear about DI as a comprehensive teaching framework suitable for all students. Results highlight the need for further research at the teacher educator, teacher and school leader level to remove existing barriers, constraints, and misunderstandings about DI to ensure maximum learning opportunities for all students.

Mixed-reality simulations as a tool to enhance parent-teacher conferencing in initial teacher education

Communicating effectively with parents and carers is an important skill for pre-service teachers to develop. However, they often graduate underprepared due to limited opportunities for parent interaction during their course. When engaging with parents, pre-service teachers must be able to confidently articulate their pedagogical choices, provide examples of what students will do and justify why these choices have been made. One solution lies in providing opportunities for pre-service teachers to practise parent-teacher conferencing using mixed-reality simulation technology. In this study, differentiated instruction served as the context, and reflective practice, teacher self-efficacy theory and experiential learning theory were employed as the theoretical frameworks to build on an existing parent-teacher conferencing model developed by Dotger et al. (2008) to develop a new model for use with pre-service teachers. The model uses mixed-reality simulation technology and incorporates standardised parents and students, peer observation and opportunities for feedback and reflection. The model was developed and trialled with pre-service teachers in a core unit in an initial teacher education course at an Australian university. Results indicated that the pre-service teachers felt more prepared for parent-teacher conferencing after the technology-enhanced role-play experience. Implications for practice or policy: Mixed-reality simulation technology can be a valuable tool for authentic role-play experiences for pre-service teachers when preparing for parent-teacher conferencing. Simulation technologies can provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to practise aspects of teaching, such as parent-teacher conferencing, in a safe and low-stakes environment. Simulation technologies can provide powerful opportunities for pre-service teachers to reflect and learn from peers through peer observation and reflection.

Academic reading as a social practice in higher education

In this study, an undergraduate teacher education course is used to explore whether and how academic reading seminars reflect the theoretical notion of academic literacies and provide a learning environment for developing academic and professional learning and engagement. The data analyzed in this article are transcribed recordings of small group activities where students discuss scientific articles based on a template. First, our empirical analysis shows that the use of the template facilitated dialogical discussions and the development of a cognitive skillset and disciplinary categories when used in a social setting. Second, we found that the most challenging part of designing a reading practice related to the academic literacies tradition was fostering a dialogical environment for discussing the validity of findings across different contexts and provide for discussions encompassing complexity, nuances, and meaning making. We found traces of such discussions in all the transcripts; however, many examples were in a premature stage. The paper concludes with a discussion on, and some suggestions for, further development of the template used in the reading seminars.

Exploring Effective Pedagogies in Environmental and Sustainability Education for Teachers: A Story of New Zealand Pre-Service Teachers’ Learning Experiences

Although teachers have been identified as key change agents in the shift towards a flourishing planet for all, research into effective pedagogies for embedding environmental and sustainability education (ESE) into teacher education courses is an emerging area. Understandings about the most effective approaches and activities are needed, along with theories that could underpin teachers’ learning. This study explores 21 pre-service primary school teachers’ learning following their engagement in an elective course designed to help them embed ESE into their future practice. Qualitative data were gathered using reflections as well as peer and individual interviews. An analysis showed that the activities considered most valuable for learning were those that gave pre-service teachers space and time to think more deeply and in different ways. Mezirow’s transformative learning theory was used to explore their learning. The use of its three elements and six components identified that transformative learning took place for about half of these pre-service teachers. While it seems this theory has potential to underpin ESE teacher education courses, further research is needed to explore how transformation can occur for more teachers.

Evaluative Knowledge and Skills of Student Teachers Within the Adapted Degree Courses

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many university initial teacher education courses have been adapted into remote mode. Starting from specific topics of the training curriculum, the work focuses on adapting courses on evaluative knowledge and skills in an e-learning environment; it examined the development of student teachers’ evaluative knowledge (terminology and concepts) and skills (design of paper and pencil assessment tools) who took the adapted courses. A comparative study of two adapted university degree courses (University of Bergamo and Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria in Italy – initial training of future primary school teachers) in the area of evaluation, was carried out. The study involved 155 primary school student teachers and made a mixed method investigation with sequential system. The first exploratory method collected quantitative data by an “ad hoc” questionnaire on student teacher’ knowledge, the second confirmatory method gained qualitative data through the document analysis of paper-and-pencil assessment tool on student teachers’ skill. The results highlight substantial similarities on knowledge (function of evaluation, difference between evaluation and assessment, object of school evaluation) and skill (ability to refer to real situations and promote situated knowledge) but also differences (construct of school “evaluation processes” and ability to provide different solutions for solving the task) e specific difficulty in implementing the “constructive alignment.”

Aspiring teachers’ technology-enhanced learning practices within and beyond teacher education coursework: lessons for a post COVID-19 era

ABSTRACT The shift to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic has further revealed a range of issues related to technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Among these were educators’ lack of prior exposure to more creative and participatory forms of TEL in credential coursework and professional development. To address the new realities of schooling, we must first understand the TEL practices that aspiring teachers have had in their teacher education courses. This study examined the TEL practices of aspiring teachers within and beyond their educational coursework prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their perceived degree of proficiency with these practices. Our survey research found that participants reported more experience and proficiency with TEL practices involving consumption-based and transactional modes of learning, and less experience and proficiency with practices related to creativity, collaboration, and knowledge generation. We discuss how these findings suggest improvements for credentialing programs in the area of TEL.

Investigating Engagement and Achievement in an Online Teacher Education Course during the Compulsory Distance Education Period

Investigating Engagement and Achievement in an Online Teacher Education Course during the Compulsory Distance Education Period

Seeing the Unseen: Applying Intersectionality and Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) Frameworks in Preservice Teacher Education

Background/Context: This paper explores how intersectionality and DisCrit can be used as analytic tools to scaffold preservice teachers’ ability to see the ways in which referrals to and services within special education reproduce inequities as a function of race and perceptions of ability that are rooted in White, middle-class, able-bodied norms. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This qualitative study analyzes White preservice teachers’ understanding and application of intersectionality and DisCrit. Applying critical theoretical perspectives, preservice teachers engage in identifying instances of oppression in society and schools and naming the resulting harm to Black students and families. This paper focuses on the following research questions: How do White preservice teachers engage with critical frameworks intended to unearth the impacts of racism and ableism on Black students? What do their responses reveal about preservice teachers’ level of critical consciousness? Population/Participants/Subjects: Participants in this study were preservice general education teachers in the last semester of coursework of an intensive 12-month master’s program in secondary education at a large predominantly White Midwestern university. This study focuses on four self-identified White able-bodied and one White (dis)abled preservice teacher who represent exemplars of the types of engagement evidenced by preservice teachers within the course. Intervention/Program/Practice: The course that was the site of this study focused on preparing preservice teachers to teach and support Students Identified with (Dis)abilities in middle and high school classrooms. The first portion of the course focused on analyzing the history of racism and ableism in special education using critical frameworks. These class sessions provided preservice teachers with frameworks they could apply to their experiences at their school sites and language they needed to discuss racism and ableism. Research Design: This article reports on a qualitative case study of general education preservice teacher engagement with the critical frameworks of intersectionality and disability critical race theory (DisCrit) in a predominantly White teacher education program. Data Collection and Analysis: For the duration of the course, video recordings of whole group discussions and audio recordings of small group discussions were collected. Descriptive and in vivo coding were employed during the first level of coding to closely highlight participants’ perspectives that were rooted in their own language. The second level of analysis captured the content of the ideas expressed by preservice teachers when engaging and employing critical frameworks, and the third level of analysis captured preservice teacher engagement in ways that demonstrated either active adoption, quiet adoption, resistant engagement, or resistant deflection of course material. Findings/Results: There is a fluidity in which preservice teachers move through levels of engagement (active adoption, quiet adoption, resistant engagement, or resistant deflection) when explicitly taught critical frameworks to help them identify and disrupt inequity, in this case, racism and ableism in schools. For example, a preservice teacher may experience dissonance when there is misalignment between their previously held assumptions and new learning. At first, they may resist this knowledge and then adopt new perspectives over time. They may also go back and forth between resistance and adoption, or they may remain resistant throughout the course. Additionally, a preservice teacher may actively adopt course content and frameworks that align with their previous orientations and quietly or actively adopt new frameworks over time. Conclusions/Recommendations: Teaching critical frameworks is an important tool to understanding preservice teachers’ orientations toward inequity. Choosing critical frameworks that undergird teacher education courses supports the development of objectives that are antiracist/antiableist. It also provides teacher educators guidance in choosing materials/artifacts that will encourage preservice teachers to discuss the implications of those frameworks. Critical frameworks provide a method of helping preservice teachers see inequity that aspects of their privilege render invisible and provide an assessment tool for teacher educators to analyze preservice teachers’ orientations toward inequity and how this manifests in their orientation toward students of historically marginalized groups.

Using Popular Films in History of Mathematics Courses: Reflections from Prospective Mathematics Teachers

This article examines the reflections of prospective mathematics teachers about the use of popular films in a history of mathematics course. Three films are used in the course are Agora, The Man Who Knew Infinity and A Beautiful Mind, which are describing mathematicians’ experiences and struggles in different historical moments. Following completion of the course, twelve middle school prospective mathematics teachers voluntarily participate in the face-to-face semi-structured interviews. According to the results, popular films are inspirational for prospective mathematics teachers to pursue further mathematical studies and the stories in the films are influential while making future decisions. For prospective mathematics teachers, popular films are also helpful to put mathematicians in context in which their life styles and experiences become more visible. Despite the benefits of watching mathematicians in the films, prospective mathematics teachers reflect on the fact that popular films are coming from a profit-driven sector and they reflect on how the commercial purposes can limit a full comprehension of mathematicians’ lives. In the light of the findings, popular films are recommended as productive instructional materials in mathematics teacher education courses while there is a need to reflect on the commercial purposes and disadvantages.

Structural Model Analysis of Factors Affecting Sustainable Teacher Job Satisfaction in Korea: Evidence from TALIS 2018

This study aims to explore the relationship between the preparedness, self-efficacy, career motivation, and job satisfaction of Korean teachers with the 2018 data of TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey). For this purpose, 1266 Korean middle school teachers were selected, and an analysis of mediating effects was executed by utilizing structural equation modeling and phantom variables. The results are as follows: teacher preparedness had a significant and positive effect on teacher self-efficacy and career motivation. However, it failed to show a significant effect on teacher job satisfaction, which was instead significantly and positively affected by teacher self-efficacy and career motivation. In addition, based on the analysis of the estimate of mediating effects, it was discovered that teacher career motivation had a greater positive effect than that teacher self-efficacy on teacher job satisfaction. Taking these results into consideration, this study accordingly makes suggestions concerning the improvement of sustainable teacher job satisfaction, self-efficacy and career motivation inside teacher education courses. Furthermore, this study will propose measures such as further valuing the Teaching Personality and Aptitude Test and strengthening in-depth interviews in student teacher selection, extending teaching experiences through simulated instruction and peer supervision as well as providing well-organized teaching professional counseling opportunities for student teachers.