Implications For Teacher Education Research Articles

“We Aren’t Only Here to Teach”: Caring Practices of Teachers in the Context of Inclusive Refugee Education in Jordan

This article examines the complex process of teachers’ care for students in contexts of inclusive refugee education in Jordan, where Syrian refugees and Jordanian students study together. I illustrate that while teachers’ caring practices represent efforts to support refugee students, they are limited by teachers’ inability to see the social, structural, and systemic power dynamics that restrict Syrian refugees, reifying unequal relations of power between refugees and nationals. National teachers are embedded in the social fabric of the societies in which they live and not impervious to the discriminatory attitudes towards refugees, thereby limiting the extent of their care. This article illuminates the complexity of inclusive refugee education and concludes with implications for teacher education and professional development.

Teacher Reading Motivation: Factors and Latent Profiles

ABSTRACT This study investigated reading motivation among teachers in PK–12 schools. Teachers (N = 1,052) from across the U.S. completed the Adult Reading Motivation Scale. Researchers used exploratory structural equation modeling and found five factors, namely Importance of Reading (IR), Reading for Recognition (RR), Reading for Occupational Effectiveness (RO), Reading Challenge (RC), and Reading Self-Efficacy (RSE). Further latent profile analysis yielded five profiles of teachers’ reading motivation: (a) the group labeled AVG (n = 528) had close to average scores on all five factors; (b) the latent profile labeled AA-Low RR (n = 302) had overall above-average factor scores except for RR; (c) an AA-High RR (n = 77) group with overall above-average scores and the highest mean RR scores; (d) a BA-Low RSE group (n = 79) with overall below-average factor scores and the lowest mean RSE scores; and (e) a BA-Low IR group (n = 61), the smallest group, with below-average factor scores on all indicators and the lowest mean IR scores. Ethnicity, educational attainment, years of experience, grade level, and subject area differed significantly across profiles. Findings are interpreted through the lenses of self-determination theory. Implications for teacher education and PK–12 professional learning are discussed.

Individual behavior support in positive behavior support schools in Finland

One objective in Finnish basic education is for pupils with disabilities or behavioral problems to be able to participate in mainstream education and ordinary classrooms. Positive behavior support (PBS) is an approach that offers multi-tiered behavior support for pupils. In addition to providing support at a universal level, educators need to have the necessary skills to provide more intensive individual support for pupils who need it. Check-in/Check-out (CICO) is a research-based individual support system that is widely used in PBS schools. The Finnish application of CICO includes an individual behavior assessment process for pupils with persistent challenging behaviors. In this article, we examined which pupils in Finnish PBS schools are provided CICO support, and in particular, how many have identified needs for specific pedagogical support or behavior-related disabilities, and whether educators find CICO to be an acceptable way of supporting behavior in an inclusive school setting. CICO support was found to be used the most in the first four grade levels, and support was offered mainly for boys. The number of pupils receiving CICO support in participating schools was much lower than expected, and CICO seemed to be secondary to other pedagogical supports. The social validity of CICO was equally high for all grade levels and pupil groups. The experienced effectiveness was somewhat lower among pupils with a need for pedagogical support in basic academic skills. The results suggest that Finnish schools may have a high threshold for starting structured behavior support despite its high acceptability. Implications for teacher education and the development of the Finnish version of CICO are discussed.

Transition markers in Qatari university students' argumentative writing: A cross-linguistic analysis of L1 Arabic and L2 English

The current cross-linguistic study compares university students' use of transition markers (addition, compare/contrast, and consequence markers) in their L1 Arabic and L2 English argumentative writing. It also explores students' metalinguistic understanding of transition markers (TMs) through writing conversation interviews. We analysed the Qatari Corpus of Argumentative Writing (QCAW), which comprises 390 texts in L1 Arabic and L2 English written by the same Qatari undergraduate students. Using Hyland's (2005) model of metadiscourse, the findings revealed that frequencies of transition marker use among less proficient L2 English writers were closer to L1 Arabic. Based on the results of a writing proficiency test, low-proficiency students transferred overt strategies to signal transitions, supported by the interview findings. Interestingly, students with an average L2 English proficiency exhibited a greater variety in TMs. In contrast, higher-proficiency writers tended to use more complex and subtler means to indicate textual transitions. The students used TMs for different purposes. Lack of knowledge and writing under controlled conditions inhibited some participants from using TMs. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications for teaching and assessing TMs.

Explicit instruction on procedural and epistemic knowledge – is it happening? A video-based exploration of classroom practice

ABSTRACT Background Inquiry-based instruction is a prominent teaching strategy in science education that is assumed to be an effective means to foster not only students’ understanding of science content but also their procedural and epistemic knowledge concerning inquiry processes. Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that inquiry-related activities should be combined with instruction that explicitly addresses procedural and epistemic knowledge to support students’ learning effectively. Purpose The aim of this study is to explore to what extent explicit instruction on procedural and epistemic knowledge is occurring in inquiry-based biology and chemistry lessons. Sample The sample analysed in this study consist of 16 inquiry-based biology and chemistry lessons recorded in German classrooms. Design and Methods The video recordings of the lessons were analysed in three steps. First, event-based codes were used to identify all phases of a lesson in which students were engaged in an inquiry-related activity (e.g. developing questions, planning investigations). Second, each phase was analysed with respect to features of explicit instruction (e.g. explications of inquiry strategies). Third, event-based codes were used to capture individual features of explicit instruction in a phase. Results In our sample explicit instruction on procedural knowledge occurred rarely and mostly in the form of brief sidenotes rather than as a comprehensive and deliberately planned action. Furthermore, explicit instruction on epistemic knowledge was virtually non-existent. However, we observed that many tasks and questions that are given by the teachers during their lessons have a high potential for making procedural (and epistemic) aspects explicit. Conclusion While this explorative study does not allow for causal explanations for the lack of explicit instruction, its findings provide important insights into classroom practice. Implications for teacher education and future research are discussed.

Flagging a turn as humorous with prospective indexicals

This study explores how second language students design their turns to produce a humorous frame in Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) sequences. More specifically, it examines and unpacks the multimodal resources deployed by students in flagging utterances as humorous and how they are responded to within task-based context. Using Conversation Analysis, we demonstrate that various resources deployed by the speaker in different sequential placements collectively serve as “prospective indexicals” (Goodwin, 1996), through which speakers (1) mobilise participants’ attention and (2) prepare them as to the nature of the forthcoming utterance and thus, what to listen for, and (3) signal that the utterance is to be treated as a laughable as well as indicating which specific part of the utterance is. In doing so, this study provides implications for teacher education and foreign language teaching as well as shedding light on an under-researched phenomenon in both L2 classroom interaction research and humour scholarship.

Classroom Management Strategies among Basic School Teachers: Toward Holistic Teacher Education

There have been cases when students depict unacceptable behavior traits, which need to be managed by teachers during instructional hours. Using Wolfgang and Glickman Teacher’s Behavior Continuum as the theoretical framework, this study reports classroom management strategies among basic schoolteachers and their implications for teacher education in Ghana. Descriptive research design and a quantitative approach were used; questionnaire was used to gather data from the respondents. One hundred and five (105) teachers were selected using simple random sampling technique. Validity and reliability of the research instrument were tested using expert judgement and Cronbach’s alpha, respectively. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) were used in the analyses of the research questions. The findings were that the majority of teachers used a teacher-centered approach. It was also discovered that teachers had difficulty in managing some disruptive student behaviors, as the most prevalent disruptive behavior exhibited by students was noise making. Some teachers also agreed that once the classroom environment is conducive, it makes teaching easier because the teacher gets the full attention and concentration of students. Teachers should set example for students by acting appropriately at all times; especially, in the classroom. It was recommended, among other things, that teachers pay extra attention to the special needs of students and encourage them to behave in the classroom. While holistic education is governed by a single underlying principle, teachers need to use a variety of approaches and strategies to foster a holistic learning culture.

An analysis of teacher questioning practices in dialogic lessons

Despite growing evidence associating productive classroom dialogue with student outcomes, orchestrating dialogic interactions remains a challenging task for teachers. We argue that attention should be drawn to the quality of teacher questioning practices. Converting the dominant Initiation-Response-Feedback pattern from authoritative to dialogic is key. We follow lessons of 14 pre-primary and primary teachers in Cyprus, who participated in an innovative programme promoting dialogue. The coding of lessons from two time points suggest that, despite initial variation of questioning practices, there is a significant increase of dialogic invitations over time. Correlations between teachers’ dialogic invitations and relevant students’ responses demonstrates impact of teacher questioning practices. Theoretical and methodological contributions, as well as implications for teacher education are discussed.

Perception of Readiness for Implementing Inclusive Education among Primary School Subject Teachers: Implications for Teacher Education in Ethiopia

The objective of this study was to examine teachers’ perceptions of readiness for teaching in inclusive classrooms using a survey design. It also explored teachers’ views on factors that hinder them apply inclusive education. A questionnaire consisting of open and close-ended items was administered to collect data from participant eachers. The close-ended questions measured teachers’ perceptions of readiness and open-ended questions solicited information on factors that hinder teachers to implement inclusive education. Data collected from 80 sample teachers were analyzed. Findings indicated that teachers had lower levels of readiness for teaching in nclusive classrooms. While variables such as participants’ gender and grade level taught do not generate variations in teachers’ perceptions of readiness, teaching experience seemed to generate variations. It is revealed that the lack of short-term pieces of training and knowledge and skills teachers gained in teacher training programs which were insufficient and were not quite useful for teaching in inclusive classrooms were factors identified by teachers that affect inclusive education implementation. In general, teachers lack the readiness to teach in inclusive classrooms. So, to make inclusive education a success for students with special needs, it is high time to evisit the teacher education program in Ethiopia.

Effectiveness of a contextualised and integrated approach to improving and retaining preservice teachers’ views of the nature of science

ABSTRACT Teachers are key players in supporting the understanding of epistemological and social aspects affecting the development and validation of scientific knowledge, but they often hold inappropriate views of the Nature of Science (NOS), therefore hindering this understanding as an essential part of students’ scientific literacy. To tackle this challenge from the initial teacher education level, an innovative inquiry-based intervention contextualised in the scientific controversy of spontaneous generation has been developed and evaluated by involving pre-service teachers. Results from a pretest/posttest-control group design showed improvements in the understanding of the epistemological and sociological aspects after the intervention. The effect size detected in the experimental group versus the control group was retained and even enhanced five-and-a-half months after its completion. These results are especially relevant to respond to experts’ claims about the need for further studies to understand the issues related to retention following explicit instructions about NOS. Additionally, qualitative data provided an enriched picture of the participants’ understanding of the NOS, unveiling the complexities of the different issues involved and suggesting the need to combine quantitative and qualitative studies. Finally, implications for teacher educators and educational researchers are presented along with directions for future work in the field.

교사의 적응적 실행에 대한 선행연구 분석

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze research papers of teachers’ adaptive practices published in the last ten years through theoretical considerations on the concept and factors of teachers' adaptive practices for examining the characteristics of teachers’ adaptive practice and related factors and to suggest future research directions and implications for teacher education. Methods: For this purpose, a total of fifty-four papers on adaptive practices published in the last ten years searched in ERIC database were analyzed for an adaptive practices’ definition, factors, and effects, and the definitions of adaptive practices were analyzed with network analysis. Results: As a result of the analysis, first, teachers' adaptive practices occur to help learning in response to new, uncertain, or non-routine teaching and learning situations or to individual learners' various responses. This could be viewed as the active controlled behavior of teachers. Second, reflective thinking, flexibility, knowledge, and experience of teachers are required as important teacher factors for the adaptive practices of teachers. As for environmental factors, adaptive practices are limited in a uniform education policy or evaluation system, and are promoted in an environment that is open and supports various attempts. Third, it was found that the teachers’ adaptive practices help to improve learning achievement and enhance students’ interest and participation in class, and it was helpful for teachers to improve expertise and lifelong learning ability, and to establish a teacher's identity. Conclusion: Considering the results of the analysis, the adaptive practice of teachers is one of the important areas of teachers’ expertise. To further improve in this area, it is important to understand the nature of unpredictable educational environments, to develop reflective thinking and flexibility, and to provide opportunities for professional development that can build a repertoire of adaptation cases through various challenges.

Exploring self-compassion as a means of emotion regulation in teaching

ABSTRACT Self-compassion is emerging as a method to support teachers dealing with the stress of teaching. In this qualitative study, the authors investigate the ways in which self-compassion already exists in the teaching context and in what ways self-compassion intersects with emotion regulation. Teachers shared critical incidents of unsatisfactory outcomes in their teaching. Through a priori coding and I-poems, the authors found self-compassion present before the resolution, after the resolution and even used as the resolution to conflict in those unsatisfactory critical incidents, indicating the usefulness of self-compassion as a method of emotion regulation. The earlier the use of self-compassion, the more quickly emotional recovery occurred. Implications for teacher education are the need for explicit teaching, practicing, and encouragement of self-compassion as an important element in pre-service and in-service teacher development and resilience in the profession.

Examining the Use of Renewable Assignments in a Teacher Education Course to Build Understanding of Open Educational Resources

Despite a culture of sharing in education, awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) in teacher education and K-12 education is limited. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore graduate-level teacher candidates’ (n = 9) understanding of OER, the value they placed on it, and their self-efficacy in sharing work openly after participating in a renewable assignment. Data collected included a survey, course artifacts, and interviews. Of the nine participants, three openly licensed their work and one shared their resource publicly on OER Commons. Further findings indicate that the participants’ understanding of OER improved and they valued OER as part of their practice in both using and sharing resources. Participants indicated that they lacked teacher self-efficacy about their work for varied reasons. However, after receiving positive student outcomes and feedback from peers, participants were more open to sharing their work publicly. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

Critical Arts-Based Projects for Equitable Emergent Teacher Education Researcher Preparation

This paper captures how four BIPOC student researchers and their Black woman professor used critical arts-based research methods to resist the policies and systems predisposed to BIPOC’s dispossession in academia. The arts utilized for our purpose were: songwriting, art collage, theater, and podcast. We determined these methods to be in tune with our researcher selves, which allowed for a more equitable approach preparing teacher education researchers. This work has implications for teacher educators, graduate research programs, and graduate students.

“ESL teachers are looked down upon”: Understanding the lived experience of a first-year ESL teacher with culturally and linguistically diverse background

Research indicates many new English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers leave the profession within 5 years. However, limited research has focused on these teachers’ experiences and far fewer studies examined those with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds to identify what contributes to the high attrition rate. This narrative study captured the experience of a first-year ESL teacher with CALD backgrounds. Data were collected using a three-step interview approach over the course of 1 year. The data show the protagonist’s identity as an advocate for Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) began during his extended clinical practicum and was further driven by his CALD background, unsupportive colleagues, and the marginalized status of EBs and ESL teachers. Although he overcame numerous challenges, he ultimately left his ESL position due to his unsustainable low salary. The story confirmed current research regarding systematic barriers that may prevent CALD individuals from entering and staying in the ESL teaching field. Possible implications for teacher educators and policy makers are discussed.

THE TREATMENT OF COLLOCATIONS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR VIETNAMESE STUDENTS

The present study investigates collocational profiles that appear in the English textbook series for Vietnamese students from elementary to high school grades by identifying how the series covers collocations in terms of frequency and how the mode of collocation presentation aligns with recommendations in the existing literature. A total of 30,005 collocations of both verb-noun and adjective-noun patterns were identified, of which 1,078 are targeted collocations. The study found that the frequencies of occurrences of collocation tokens increase steadily alongside the three grade levels, while the frequencies of collocation types are not distributed proportionately. As for the mode of collocation presentation, targeted collocations and collocation exercises follow the best practices recommended in the literature to a certain extent and in some criteria; inconsistency, however, was found to be one of the shortcomings across those evaluation criteria. Pedagogical implications for teachers and textbook authors are discussed.

Toward Understanding Science as a Whole

Nature of science (NOS) is a global conception of the infrastructure of science and, therefore, forms the foundation for teaching and learning science, especially for preservice teachers who are expected to have the proper understanding of NOS to thoughtfully emphasize NOS within their instruction to students. However, studies investigating UAE science preservice teachers’ views of NOS through the macro-lens of the Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science (RFN) are limited. This study, therefore, aims to determine the current state of UAE preservice teachers’ (N = 130) understanding of the NOS and NOS instruction. Results obtained from the RFN 70-item questionnaire demonstrate that teachers were mostly informed about issues pertaining to the social-institutional aspects compared to aspects related to the cognitive-epistemic nature of science. Although teachers appeared to hold informed perceptions on certain aspects of NOS across the RFN scales and subscales, they had mixed views, as well as misconceptions on other particular aspects of NOS (i.e., the role of bias, gender, and politics on scientific knowledge, the existence of a universal scientific method, and the distinction between laws and theories). Practical and pedagogical implications for teaching and an agenda for further research are discussed.

The identity dilemmas of Early Career Teachers from under-represented groups in the UK

ABSTRACT Uncontested narratives of normality in primary teacher training are located and demonstrated in heteronormativity, whiteness, able-bodiedness and femininity. Early-Career Teachers who know and feel they lie outside of these are positioned uneasily as they try to locate spaces to express their identities and enable self-agency. This article explores how beginning teachers from under-represented groups come to understand themselves and others during the process of becoming a primary teacher. Through qualitative analysis of video stories of 12 novice primary teachers, we identified salient themes including dilemmas around identity invisibility/hypervisibility and lack of agency to (re)construct their identities. Our findings have implications for teacher educators and school leaders to provide new teachers opportunities to explore their identity dilemmas alongside their peers in safe spaces. Developing provision that builds beginning teachers’ peer networks alongside their understanding of self may not only offer an outlet for self-agency but impact on teacher retention from those located in under-represented groups.

Pre-service teachers’ search strategies when sourcing educational information on the Internet

Teachers need to be able to inform and justify their teaching practice based on available research knowledge. When searching for research knowledge, the Internet plays a crucial role as it allows teachers to search for and access evidence long after their own education at university. On the Internet, however, educational information can have varying levels of scientific groundedness (e.g., science articles or blogs from colleagues), and research indicates that (pre-service) teachers struggle to find, select, and evaluate online educational information. It is precisely for this reason that it is important to educate (pre-service) teachers on how to competently source online information. This study describes pre-service teachers’ search strategies when sourcing online educational information about the topic “students’ use of mobile phones in class.” It sheds light on their use of (1) basic or advanced search strategies and (2) the role of Internet-specific epistemological beliefs (ISEBs). N = 77 pre-service teachers conducted a realistic search on the Internet and selected those web items (WI) that they perceived relevant for justifying whether mobile phones should be used in class. Their sourcing behavior was screen-recorded and analyzed. Most selected WI were found via search engines of Google LLC (91.4%). Advanced search strategies were defined as (1) using two or more search engines (performed by 62.3% of participants), (2) adapting search terms and/or formulating new search terms (90.9%), (3) selecting at least one WI that was not listed among the first four ranks on the first search engine results page (54.7%), and (4) checking for the trustworthiness of the author/source (14.3%) or the quality of the content (13%). Binary logistic regressions were used to analyze the relationship between ISEBs and (1) search strategies and (2) science-relatedness of WI as dependent variables. The predictor ISEB did not contribute to the models, meaning that differences in participants’ ISEBs did not significantly relate to their search strategies nor to the science-relatedness of WI, all β ≤ |0.36|, Wald ≤ 0.64, p ≥ 0.43. The role of pre-service teachers’ search strategies is discussed with respect to teachers’ evidence-informed reasoning and its implications for teacher education.

Examining peer group mentoring in teaching practicum and its impact on the process of pre-service teachers’ joint reflection

ABSTRACT This case study examines joint reflection in the context of peer group mentoring during the teaching practicum, involving three pre-service teachers and a mentor engaging in discussions supported by the video recorded lessons taught by the pre-service teachers. The approach to joint reflection was non-prescriptive and pre-service teacher-initiated. The roles of the peer group and the mentor are explored in the light of their impact on pre-service teachers’ joint reflection process. The findings challenge prior research by demonstrating that pre-service teacher-initiated reflection has the potential to assist peer groups in creating a common language and learning context to acquire practicum knowledge, develop practical tools and build inferential knowledge. The findings also reveal that mentors’ role needs not be directive, but they can maintain the role of a co-reflector throughout the peer group mentoring process. The implications for teacher education are discussed.