Enhance Preservice Teachers Research Articles

Using Task Dialogues to Enhance Preservice Teachers' Abilities to Orchestrate Discourse

We describe an activity designed to help preservice elementary school teachers develop mathematical knowledge for teaching in the domain of facilitating mathematical discussions. The activity involved preservice teachers writing task dialogues, imaginary conversations between a child and teacher about a problem-solving task, in which they practice responding to correct, partially correct, and incorrect student responses. Preservice teachers then implemented these same tasks with children in a field experience setting. We describe 2 different iterations of the activity and field experience in detail as well as the insights into preservice teacher knowledge each iteration afforded us.

Enhancing Understanding of Teaching and the Profession Through School Innovation Rounds

Currently, Australian teacher education programs include professional experiences as a means of enhancing preservice teacher understanding about teaching and the profession. The challenge the programs face is the lack of places available in schools and, at times, the unpredictable quality of the placements as some teachers are time-poor, are not good models of effective teaching practice, and/or lack the skills of articulating their practice. This paper briefly explores features of past models of professional experience before describing a new model that, as an inclusion in a range of field-based placements, addresses many of the challenges in teacher education today. Results from two years’ of surveys (N=262) inform a practitioner research process designed to investigate the effectiveness of this new model. Findings suggest that while the program cannot negate all the difficulties associated with ensuring quality placements, it does provide some solutions that assist in improving the professional experiences of preservice teachers.

Enhancing pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration through lesson planning practice

The purpose of this study was to identify how pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration (SETI) can be improved during the coursework intervention, and which of the course factors (instructional media development skills, knowledge on technology, and lesson planning practice) has the highest impact on the SETI. This research also attempted to explore a more inclusive path of the direct and indirect influences between SETI and other non-course variables (computer use, teachers' attitude towards computers (TAC), changes in TAC). A total of 136 undergraduate students at a teacher education university in Korea participated in the study. Our data analyses illustrated significant increase of prospective teachers' SETI after their completion of education technology course resulting mostly from lesson planning practice. The hierarchical multiple regression revealed that the pre-service teachers with higher positive attitudes toward computers and greater ability for lesson planning showed higher increase in their levels of SETI. The path analysis indicated that these two factors influenced the SETI directly, rather than indirectly. Lesson planning practice did not affect pre-service teachers' attitudinal growth. Implications on effectiveness of the lesson planning and attitudinal factors on SETI, and suggestions for teacher education course design are discussed.

Effectiveness of a Teacher Mentoring Programme in Enhancing Pre-service Chemistry Teachers’ Attitude towards the Teaching Profession

Aims: This study investigated the effectiveness of a teacher mentoring programme in enhancing pre-service teacher’s attitude towards the teaching profession. Study Design: The study was a pretest, post test quasi experimental design. Place and Duration of Study: The study took place in Plateau State of Nigeria and lasted for 12 weeks (that is, between April and June 2012). Methodology: The instruments used for the study were Teacher Mentoring Guide (TMG) and Pre-service Chemistry Teachers’ Attitude Scale (PCTAS). The reliability for PCTAS was 0.82 using Cronbach’s Alpha. A purposive sample of 72 Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) final year chemistry teachers was used in Experimental group by serving teachers using a TMG. Result: PCTAS was used to generate data which were analysed using mean, standard deviation and ANCOVA. It was found that there was a significant difference between the mean attitude score of pre-service chemistry teachers exposed to mentoring (experimental) and those that were not (F 1, 71 = 17.74, p 0.05 and F 1, 35 = 1.29, p > 0.05 respectively). Original Research Article

Making mentoring explicit: articulating pedagogical knowledge practices

Mentoring pedagogical knowledge is fundamental towards developing preservice teachers’ practices. As a result of a train-the-trainer mentoring programme, this study aimed to understand how mentors’ engagement in a professional development programme on mentoring contributes to their mentoring of pedagogical knowledge practices. This qualitative research analyses the mentoring of pedagogical knowledge from six paired mentor teachers and preservice teachers (n=12) after a four-week professional school experience. Findings indicated that the train-the-trainer model was successful for mentoring pedagogical knowledge on 10 of the 11 advocated practices. This suggested that a well-constructed professional development programme on mentoring can advance the quality of mentoring for enhancing preservice teachers’ practices.

Enhancing pre-service teachers’ fraction knowledge through open approach instruction

This study explores whether using the open approach instruction in teaching mathematics has a positive effect for enhancing pre-service teachers’ fraction knowledge. The test consisted of 32 items that were designed to examine pre-service teachers’ procedural and conceptual knowledge of fractions before and after receiving open approach instruction. The study was undertaken among students in four mathematics content and methods courses for the Elementary School Education program in a mid-western public university. The findings show that most of the teachers achieved improved learning outcomes through the open approach instruction.

Preservice Early Childhood Teachers' Sense of Efficacy for Integrating Mathematics and Science: Impact of a Methods Course

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an integrated science and mathematics methods course on preservice early childhood teachers' efficacy beliefs for integrating these content areas. Thirty-four preservice teachers participated in this study, which utilized a quasi-experimental design with two treatment groups. Participants in two cohorts were tested to assess their efficacy beliefs for teaching science, mathematics, and integrated science and mathematics before and immediately after instruction that lasted 8 weeks. Results indicated a statistically significant change in preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs scores from pre- to posttest measures. These results provide evidence that the methods course utilized in the present study was effective in enhancing preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs for integrating science and mathematics.

Preservice Teachers’ Connections of Pedagogical Knowledge to Mentoring At-Risk Adolescents: Benefits and Challenges

Providing authentic encounters with secondary students may be a way to provide a realistic image of students’ academic challenges, and enhance preservice teachers’ skills, knowledge, and dispositions to better address the needs of their future academically, linguistically, socially, and culturally unique students. The purpose of our study was to examine preservice teachers’ experiences in mentoring at-risk high school adolescents. Specifically, we sought to identify the connections to pedagogy associated with their mentoring experience. Major findings generated five themes: (a) relationship building, (b) academic immediacy, (c) embracing a professional lens, (d) a student-centered pedagogical philosophy, and (e) self-efficacy.

Using Debate As A Pedagogical Tool In Enhancing Pre-Service Teachers Learning And Critical Thinking

Research has shown that using debate in higher education as a pedagogical tool has effect on promoting higher order and critical thinking (Camp & Schnader, 2010; Ng et al., 2004; Roy & Macchiette, 2005; Ryan & College, 2006). Debate has been implemented in various disciplines with adult learners, such as psychology (Budesheim & Lundquist, 1999), medicine (Koklanaris, Mackenzie, Fino, Arsland, & Seubert, 2008 ), political science (Omelicheva, 2005), marketing (Roy & Macchiette, 2005), accounting (Camp & Schnader, 2010), science & technology (Scott, 2008). Based on the previous studies, students viewed the use of debate as a new and innovative way to teaching and learning, while being more informative, and eye-opening (Kennedy, 2009; Munakata, 2010). The non-traditional method of teaching also increased students motivation and interest level (Munakata, 2010) as it gave a real sense of drama (Roy & Macchiette, 2005, p. 271). However, in teacher preparation, the implementation of debate as a pedagogical tool to promote learning as well as the research on this topic is relatively limited (Erduran, Ardac, & Yakmaci-Guzel, 2006; Ng, Lan, & They, 2004; Munakata, 2010; Sadler, 2006). This study aims to implement debate as pedagogical tool to enhance pres-service teachers learning on the subject matter and investigate the effect of using debate in teacher training in Singapore context. The following research questions were posed in the study: (1) whether debate stimulated students thinking on the subject matter more than textbook readings and lectures (traditional teacher-directed methods), (2) to which extent students found debate helpful to their learning on the subject matter, (3) to which extent debate helped students to make connections between the subject matter and the real life, and (4) what was the qualitative feedback from students in their learning through the debate activity. Fifty-six pre-service teachers participated in a course evaluation survey to provide feedback on their learning. The results have shown that 83.9% of teachers agree that debate stimulated their thinking more than textbook readings and lectures, while 14.3% of teachers felt neutral, and 1.8% of teachers strongly disagree. Eighty two percent of teachers found debate very helpful to their learning while 16.1% felt neutral. In addition, 80.4% of teachers agree that debate helps them to make connections between the subject matter and the real life experiences while 17.9% of teachers felt neutral. Several observations emerged from students qualitative feedback on using debate in learning. Students expressed that the debate activity helped them to expand the understanding of the subject matter, retention of crucial concepts and knowledge, and comprehension of essential issues on the subject matter. Students felt debate helped them to understand different perspectives, and reduce bias. Some students reported change of their positions and perspectives after the debate. More importantly, many students stated that debate helped them develop critical thinking and higher order thinking skills in comparison to traditional methods.

Living the Poet’s Life: Using an Aesthetic Approach to Poetry to Enhance Preservice Teachers’ Poetry Experiences and Dispositions

In this article, we argue that preservice teachers have limited experience reading and writing poetry, and that if they are to teach poetry in meaningful ways to their future students, they need to have compelling experiences with poetry in teacher education—ones that take into account their former experiences and incoming dispositions and that invite them to begin to live “the life of a poet.” We designed a poetry course for 23 junior and senior elementary, middle school, and secondary school English language arts majors to provide them with such a set of experiences. Although incoming preservice teachers reported limited, often negative, previous experiences with poetry, we found that using what we came to call an “aesthetic approach” improved both their experiences with and their dispositions toward reading, writing, and performing poetry. Using a qualitative research design, we drew on Boyer’s notion of the scholarship of teaching (1990) to address three research questions: (1) What are preservice teachers’ perceptions of past experiences with poetry? (2) What dispositions (that is, attitudes and habits) toward poetry reading, writing, and performance do preservice teachers have? (3) How can an aesthetic approach enhance preservice teachers’ experiences with and dispositions toward poetry? Based on this research, we recommend that teacher education not only include substantive coursework on the topic of poetry, but that the pedagogy of such a course approximate, to the extent possible, practicing poets’ engagement with the genre.

Enhancing Preservice Teachers’ Professionalism through Daily Teaching Reflections

This study assessed the hypothesis that preservice teachers who were required to assemble a portfolio assessment would report greater scores on professionalism as measured by The Student Teaching Reflection Survey (STRS) (Robichaux, 2001) than preservice teachers who were not required to assemble a portfolio assessment. Results from a sample of 510 preservice teachers (232 nonportfolios and 278 portfolios) supported the hypothesis. Assembling a professional portfolio appears to develop more reflective practitioners, which in turn leads to the development of a more effective educator capable of handling the complexities of the teaching profession.

Enhancing Pre-service Teacher’s Self-efficacy and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Designing Digital Media with Self-regulated Learning Instructional Support in Online Project-based Learning

This study investigated pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in designing digital media and their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) for designing digital media using different forms of self- regulated learning instructional support for online project-based learning. The study used a 2x2 factorial research design. The sample consisted of 232 pre-service teachers from an institution situated in Bangkok, Thailand. The four different forms of self-regulated learning instructional support for online project-based learning were PB+SQ+PA, PB+SQonly, PB+PAonly, and PBonly. Two-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used for data analysis. The results showed significant differences in pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy and TPCK posttest scores. No main effect was found between two different self-regulated learning strategies (SQ and PA) upon the means of self-efficacy in designing digital media scores and TPCK scores. The self-regulated learning strategies (SQ and PA) had a statistically significant interaction upon the means of self-efficacy in designing digital media scores while the self-regulated learning strategies (SQ and PA) had no interaction upon the means of the TPCK scores.

Enhancing Pre-Service Teacher Training: The Construction and Application of a Model for Developing Teacher Reflective Practice Online

Reflective practice is an essential component of pre-service teacher training programs. It facilitates the linking of theory and practice and empowers trainees to seek reasons behind their practices and their beliefs. These help novices to evolve as they witness their own teaching philosophies emerging. This research took place over 18 months and comprised 3 case studies of eight weeks with 3rd year ESOL trainees on their first intensive block practice in Hong Kong state schools. The research suggests that an online environment is an effective one in supporting and developing reflective practice during these periods. This was facilitated by asking trainees to apply an online model to scaffold reflections. These reflections were then posted and discussed by all case study members. They were also explored further using online moderator asynchronous Socratic dialogue to prompt further reflection. Findings demonstrate that a deep level of reflection is attainable in this context, albeit relatively rare, using the online medium.

Behind Cultural Competence: The Role of Causal Attribution in Multicultural Teacher Education

In an attempt to bridge the gap between achievement motivation and multicultural teacher education, this study explored the relationship between causal attribution of cultural awareness and cultural competence among preservice teachers. Participants were 793 preservice teachers from two large public universities who reported their causal attributions of cultural awareness and their cultural competence. Canonical correlation analysis results showed two significant relationships between causal attribution and cultural competence. Personal control over the causes of cultural awareness was found to be positively related to praxis, i.e., behavioral outcome; whereas attributions to internal and stable causes were positively associated with knowledge as major components of cultural competence. The findings indicate the importance of addressing causal attribution and moving beyond negative emotions in enhancing preservice teachers’ cultural competence in multicultural education. Implications for multicultural teacher education and future research directions are discussed.

Using an Autobiographical Method in General Teacher Education Program to Enhance Preservice Teachers' Reflective Thinking of Children with Disabilities

Using an Autobiographical Method in General Teacher Education Program to Enhance Preservice Teachers' Reflective Thinking of Children with Disabilities

Influencing Preservice Teachers’ Intention to Adopt Web 2.0 Services

This study investigates preservice teachers’ intention to adopt Web 2.0 services in their future classrooms. Web 2.0 services have the potential to enhance student-centered learning by facilitating collaboration and communication at little cost. As previous studies have found a significant positive relationship between inservice teachers' beliefs and their actual use of technology, it is worthwhile to investigate antecedents of preservice teachers’ intentions to use Web 2.0 services in order to provide practical implications for teacher education. By drawing on expectancy-value theory, we develop a conceptual model of the linkage from preservice teachers’ beliefs to their behavioral intentions and expectations regarding Web 2.0 technology integration. The findings indicate that the reinforcement of salient beliefs, such as ease of use, usefulness, and facilitation, will enhance preservice teachers’ intention to adopt new technologies. This study provides teacher education programs with practical implications to reinforce preservice teachers' beliefs regarding Web 2.0 service integration.

Enhancing Preservice Teacher Development: Field Experiences with Gifted Students

During 3 field experience visits, 23 elementary preservice teachers implemented mathematical problem-solving tasks with grade 3–6 gifted students. Researchers investigated what the teachers learned about gifted students regarding student characteristics, mathematical problem-solving tasks, and pedagogy. Each teacher completed a pre- and post-journal, detailing what they expected to occur and then describing what occurred and how their initial expectations were altered. Further, no training was provided regarding gifted students or conceptions of giftedness in previous course-work. Researchers found that teachers broadened their view of giftedness, recognized the need to adapt instruction for gifted students, made efforts to align problem-solving tasks with gifted students' readiness and interests, realized the necessity of knowing students to differentiate instruction, and emphasized student-centered instruction. These results contribute to the promise of having preservice teachers engage in a field experience with gifted students to supplement discussions about gifted education in methods courses.

Mentors Report on Their Own Mentoring Practices

Implementing an Australian National Curriculum will require targeting both teachers and preservice teachers. Classroom teachers in their roles as mentors are well situated for developing preservice teachers. This mixed-method study presents mentors’ reports on their mentoring of primary preservice teachers (mentees) in mathematics (n=43) and science (n=29). Mentors claimed they mentored the teaching of mathematics more than the teaching of science; 20% or more indicated they did not provide mentoring practices for 25 out of 34 survey items in the science and 9 out of 34 items in the mathematics. Mentors also claimed that professional development on effective mentoring can enhance their skills. Implementing an Australian National Curriculum necessitates professional development for mentors on effective mentoring practices in order to increase the quality and quantity of mentoring for enhancing preservice teachers’ practices.

Comparing Beginning and Experienced Teachers' Perceptions of Classroom Management Beliefs and Practices in Elementary Schools in Turkey

The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether a difference in teachers' classroom management styles exists based on years of teaching experience. Data were collected from 282 elementary school teachers employed by 11 elementary schools in Turkey. The Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom Control Inventory was used to collect the data. Research findings were analyzed to help undergraduate programs and educators revise their program or practicum experiences to enhance preservice teachers' conceptual understanding of classroom management for successful teaching.

The Contribution of Constructivist Instruction Accompanied by Concept Mapping in Enhancing Pre-service Chemistry Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding of Chemistry in the Laboratory Course

The present study aimed to evaluate whether a chemistry laboratory course called “Laboratory Experiments in Science Education” based on constructivist instruction accompanied with concept mapping enhanced pre-service chemistry teachers’ conceptual understanding. Data were collected from five pre-service chemistry teachers at a university in Ankara by means of a concept test and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that pre-service teachers had some alternative conceptions about chemistry topics. Moreover, using constructivist instruction accompanied with concept maps as an instructional tool was effective to promote conceptual understanding. Participants thought that concept maps were useful especially in recognizing the relation between different chemistry concepts.