Pre-service Teacher Participants Research Articles

University Teaching as a Site for Professional Learning of Teacher Educators: The Role of Collaborative Inquiry and Reflection within a Professional Learning Community

While initial teacher education (ITE) has been acknowledged as an important process for improving the quality of education by preparing future teachers, less attention has been paid to the support of the continuous professional learning of teacher educators (TEs). This study reports on the supporting processes and tools for a collaborative inquiry-based systematic reflection of five TEs and the effects of their use in constructing professional knowledge about ITE. The reflective written reports and reflective discussions of the TEs are thematically analysed to show the focus of inquiry, the links among inquiry, reflection, and action, as well as the contributing role of collaboration within a professional learning community (PLC). The results show that the TE inquiry was a continuous process of exploring the beliefs, understandings, and participation of pre-service teachers (PSTs) during teaching; the impact of the teaching context on TE actions and decisions; and the ways in which their collaboration enhanced professional learning. The inquiry results informed the reflections and practice design of TEs. Guiding questions, sustained interactions among the PLC members, and support from a facilitator created opportunities for the collaborative construction of the professional learning of TEs. This article provides TEs or/and facilitators of PLCs in teacher education with a methodology for supporting professional knowledge through collaborative inquiry and reflection.

Thesis writing anxiety among Indonesian pre-service teachers of English: A survey study

For decades, language anxiety has been a popular research topic in the field of language learning and studies suggested that learners' second/foreign (L2) writing anxiety, one of the anxiety constructs, negatively affected learners' L2 writing achievement. This study aimed to investigate the thesis writing anxiety of Indonesian pre-service English teachers working on their theses in the final semesters of their study. The participants of this study were 105 pre-service teacher participants from ten universities across six different provinces in Indonesia. The study employed an online survey as the method of data collection. It found that generally, the participants had a moderate level of thesis writing anxiety. The detailed findings were further elaborated under four categories: “Difficulty in Grammar and Writing Anxiety”, “Negative Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English”, “Positive Feelings when Writing a Thesis in English”, and “Degree of Influence of Advisors and Peers to Writing Anxiety”. Based on the findings, possible contributions, implications, and limitations are suggested alongside suggested directions for future studies.

Exploring Reflective Teaching Practice of Indonesian EFL Teachers: A Case Study of Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflection in EFL Class

This research aimed at descriptively investigating pre-service teachers’ reflective teaching practices. The contents regarding analysis of the elements of reflection referred to the notion of reflective teaching proposed by Loughran (2006;1996). Four participants of EFL pre-service teachers doing teaching practice in two state secondary schools were involved in this study. Employing a case study design, data were collected through the participants’ reflective teaching journals and semi-structured interviews and were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. The overall findings indicated that all elements of reflection were identified in the pre-service teachers’ reflective teaching journals although those elements did not emerge in sequence. Furthermore, the results showed that the issues that arose during teaching practice were related to learning management, knowledge management, classroom management, and language management. It is hoped that this study gives insight into the current debate concerning the rise of reflective teaching practice related to individual reflection during teaching practice and brings betterment in teacher education.

“People Need to Speak Up”: Preservice Secondary Science Teachers’ Movement Toward a Justice-Centered Science Education

ABSTRACT Teacher education programs must prepare their preservice science teachers to center social justice and to meet the academic needs of culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse students, as justice-centered discourses are traditionally absent from science classrooms yet integral to the teaching and learning of rich and relevant phenomena. In this study, we investigated a cohort of preservice secondary science teachers enrolled in a yearlong, post-baccalaureate teacher education program that attended to social justice. We conducted four interviews with each participant across their program and qualitatively analyzed their discussions of social justice ideas and teaching practices using three tenets of a justice-centered science pedagogy framework: enacting an antiracist and equitable science education, grounding instruction in social and environmental justice phenomena, and framing students as transformative intellectuals. We found preservice teacher participants discussed enacting antiracist and equitable science teaching by using a critical lens to identify inequities in classrooms and schools, and by attending to high academic expectations. Preservice teachers described focusing on socioscientific phenomena and local contexts as starting points for teaching about social justice science issues. Participants also shared their work toward framing students as transformative intellectuals by developing teacher-student relationships, building from students’ ideas, and discussing emerging ideas and efforts for student advocacy. Findings from this study underscore the need for more focused work on ways to prioritize the justice component of social justice science issues and the student advocacy component of students as transformative intellectuals so as to prepare preservice teachers to fully enact a socially just science education.

Experiences of Preservice Teachers on Online-Based Microteachings: New Insights for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Programs

Practicing online teaching activities has been favored quite some time, and it continues to gain popularity with the evolving technology as well as global dynamics (as COVID). Online-Based Microteachings (OBM), in this sense, can enforce preservice teachers to practice digitally-saturated new, possibly an ongoing, set of skills that will contribute to their teaching behaviors in future. Leaning on this idea this paper outlines the experiences of preservice teachers on online teaching activities that are inspired by microteaching strategy, which may initiate a discussion point for teacher trainers and trainees to practice more online-saturated teaching activities that can be developed as online-based microteachings in initial teacher education (ITE) programs. Doing so, the study was built upon case study design including 50 (32 females, 18 males) participants of preservice teachers from different fields. Findings indicate that preservice teachers had many new experiences that may reinforce their existing and future teaching skills as well as many challenges that resulted from digital-based drawbacks. The documented experiences can be used as evidences for international researchers and teacher educators to empower preservice teachers’ online teaching skills because apparently, they had real challenges to design and practice online teaching activities in this local-context. Implications of the study suggest that ITE programs may need additional contents in which necessary online pedagogy and skills are harmonized to enable preservice teachers to be much more-ready for future circumstances and to be familiar with online teaching qualifications.

Students’ Scientific Evaluations of Astronomical Origins

Students often encounter alternative explanations about astronomical phenomena. However, inconsistent with astronomers’ practices, students may not be scientific, critical, and evaluative when comparing alternatives. Instructional scaffolds, such as the Model-Evidence Link (MEL) diagram, where students weigh connections between lines of evidence and alternative explanations, may help facilitate students’ scientific evaluation and deepen their learning about astronomy. Our research team has developed two forms of the MEL: (a) the preconstructed MEL (pcMEL), where students are given four lines of evidence and two alternative explanatory models about the formation of Earth’s Moon and (b) the build-a-MEL (baMEL), where students construct their own diagrams by choosing four lines scientific evidence out of eight choices and two alternative explanatory model out of three choices, about the origins of the Universe. The present study compared the more autonomy-supportive baMEL to the less autonomy-supportive pcMEL and found that both scaffolds shifted high school student and preservice teacher participants’ plausibility judgments toward a more scientific stance and increased their knowledge about the topics. Additional analyses revealed that the baMEL resulted in deeper evaluations and had stronger relations between levels of evaluation and post-instructional plausibility judgements and knowledge compared to the pcMEL. This present study, focused on astronomical topics, supports our team’s earlier research that scaffolds such as the MELs in combination with more autonomy-supportive classrooms may be one way to deepen students’ scientific thinking and increase their knowledge of complex scientific phenomena.

“I Feel Like a Real Teacher”: Emergent Professionalism of Indonesian Pre-Service Teachers of English

The present study investigated how Indonesian pre-service English teachers' professionalism emerged during their teaching practice. The study employed a qualitative document analysis of secondary data in the form of 26 student teachers' reflections from 13 pre-service teacher participants taking Micro Teaching class in the 6th semester of their study. From Thematic Analysis, the study found several themes in their emerging professionalism. First, they realized the role of teacher-student rapport for instructional success and the need to adjust instructions to suit their students' needs and proficiency levels. They could overcome stereotypes and negative preconceptions about teaching vocational students and students with special needs. They reported their joy of being acknowledged by their students as teachers, and they felt happy and proud when they saw their students' success in learning. These indicated the shift in concerns from self to students, signaling the participants' emergent professionalism. Based on the findings, possible contributions and suggested directions for future studies were mentioned, along with the study's possible limitations.

An investigation of studies on professional ethics conducted with the participation of pre-service teachers in Turkey

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the studies on the professional ethics of pre-service teachers in Turkey and to present the data on pre-service teachers and their professional ethics. Accordingly, the systematic review method was used. The keyword combinations as ‘pre-service teacher and ethic’ and ‘pre-service teacher and professional ethics’ were used in both Turkish and English to conduct the literature review in the databases as Google Scholar, ERIC, PsycINFO, Web of Science and EBSCO. As a result, 18 studies from 17 scholarly journals were found using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These studies were analysed based on the year; participants’ grades in the university, number, departments, the curricula of the departments and the contexts of the studies. It is believed that future studies should be done with the participation of pre-service teachers from the 2nd and 3rd grades. Training programmes for pre-service teachers should be organised and the effectiveness of these programmes on professional ethics can be determined. Keywords: Ethics, pre-service teachers, professional ethics, systematic review, teachers

Preparing Preservice Teachers by Building Content and Pedagogical Knowledge of Integrating Technologies

After the declaration of Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, the system of education changed from traditional field experiences to virtual environment of online learning. As per the need of time, this paper discusses the methods of online learning that learners and educators use to keep up with the flow of education. With the complete incorporation of technology in the educating system, the challenges and training support provided to preservice and in-service teachers is the vital essence to deliver beneficial impacts. However, delivering education with proper expertise in specialized software such as Google Classrooms, Zoom, TV school, online portals, Microsoft teams, and different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, also requires learning materials to excel in terms of quality and accessibility. Hence, preservice teachers are being assisted by online forums, webinars, courses, and even degree programs to learn and develop their careers in a virtual context to prepare for their futures. Current research was conducted with over forty preservice teacher respondents which was consistent with a previous study of over one hundred pre service teacher participants. This article aims to highlight the current pandemic scenario and its impacts on the educational sector in the preservice teacher education programs and to discuss methods and measures currently in use to promote the technological way of learning and how the trainers are affected by it.

ADDRESSING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ MISCONCEPTIONS AND PROMOTING CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING THROUGH THE CONCEPTUAL CHANGE MODEL

Teaching science concepts for conceptual understanding has its challenges. Bringing about conceptual change in the science classroom can be difficult because most concepts are complicated and often counter-intuitive in the teaching and learning of science concepts. A review of the literature indicates that the conceptual change model, CCM can be an effective teaching technique in addressing misconceptions and improving conceptual understanding when it comes to science instruction. The aim of this research was to find out the effect of the conceptual change model on pre-service teachers’ conceptual understanding regarding the topic of forces and motion. Using data from tests and questionnaires, the research questions were answered by quantitatively analyzing the collected data. The analysis revealed that there is a statistically significant correlation between the conceptual change model and the conceptual understanding of the pre-service teacher participants. Overall, the results provide evidence in support of the effectiveness of the conceptual change model, CCM in addressing misconceptions and promoting conceptual understanding of forces and motion among the pre-service teacher participants that volunteered for this research. The results also indicate that the CCM is a teaching model which must be considered by science educators and teachers as they seek to address issues related to misconceptions and conceptual understanding in the teaching of science topics. Keywords: conceptual change, conceptual change model, conceptual understanding, misconceptions, pre-service teachers, science education

Measuring the Classification of Digital Natives use Digital Natives Assessment Scale: The Implementation on Pre-Service Physics Teachers in Banten-Indonesia and Its Implications

Education in the digital era had shifted conventional learning methods to digital technology-based learning. Likewise with students have to be faced by pre-service physics teachers who have entered the generation of digital natives. However, is it true that the concept of digital natives exists? Moreover, whether pre-service physics teachers belong to that generation? Therefore, the objective of this study was to prove the construct validity of the Digital Natives Assessment Scale using data from pre-service physics teachers in Banten Province, Indonesia. And follow-up analysis is used to find the relationship between digital natives' status and pre-service physics teacher technology mastery. This study used a quantitative approach with the correlational method. The type of correlation research chosen was Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The instrument used was a Digital Natives Assessment Scale (DNAS) questionnaire consisting of 21 items and four factors, measured using a 7-point scale. The results showed that this study could not prove the 4-factor DNAS model for pre-service teacher participants in Banten Province based on the results of the CFA. And there was no relationship between the status of digital natives and the level of technology mastery of pre-service teachers based on Pearson correlation analysis. So it can be concluded that using a sample of student-teacher candidates in Indonesia, the 4-factor DNAS cannot be proven construct validity. However, this decision is not final but should be tested on a larger scale to show DNAS matches.

Racial Animus in Teacher Education: Uncovering the Hidden Racism behind the Concept of “Care”

This study examines racial bias whereby preservice teacher participants pair photos of people of varying ages and races with positive or negative adjectives. Their responses are then compared to participant self-reporting of open-ended questions on how committed they are to issues of social justice. Findings indicate that participants reported to be much more racially aware and accepting than they actually were. This study has long-reaching implications for teacher education.

Classroom Context Influence on Pre-Service Teacher Pupil Control Ideology

The purpose of this experimental study is to examine the extent to which changes in a classroom scenario influence participant reports of pupil control ideology (PCI). Pre-service teacher participants (n = 83) completed a measure of PCI. They were then randomly assigned into hypothetical classroom contexts (low time, low physical resources, and control conditions). An ANOVA procedure was used to examine group differences in PCI. Results of this study indicate that participants in the low time condition exhibited statistically significantly more custodial PCI than participants in the control condition, while participants in the low resources condition exhibited a near significant mean difference from participants in the control condition. Implications for practice are reported.

Throw Them All in One Pot? Differences in Stereotypes About Subgroups of Pre-Service Teachers

According to the stereotype content model, stereotypes can be described by using the dimensions competence and warmth. Compared to other professions, teaching is associated with a paternalistic stereotype consisting of high warmth and low competence. In four studies, stereotypes about different subgroups of pre-service teachers were compared. The aim was to understand sub-stereotypes better that could lead to different levels of stereotype threat and adverse behavioral tendencies. In Study 1 (N = 335), we compared stereotypes about elementary school pre-service teachers, grammar school pre-service teachers, computer science students, law students, and psychology students reported by pre-service teachers and psychology students. In contrast to nonteaching students, both groups of pre-service teachers corresponded to the paternalistic stereotype. In Study 2 (N = 243), pre-service teachers reported stereotypes about pre-service teachers for elementary schools, special education schools, comprehensive schools, vocational schools, and grammar schools. Elementary school pre-service teachers were stereotyped most paternalistically, while grammar school pre-service teachers matched the paternalistic stereotype the least. The ratings of other school types mostly fell between these extremes. In Studies 3a (N = 133, open-ended questions) and 3b (N = 308, closed-ended questions), students of various study programs compared pre-service teachers majoring in German and history (representing a non-STEM major combination) to pre-service teachers with the majors mathematics and physics (representing a STEM major combination). Pre-service teachers studying German and history were rated warmer but less competent than pre-service teachers with the majors mathematics and physics, confirmed by both methods of measuring stereotypes. In Studies 1, 3a, and 3b, ingroup favoritism in the ratings by pre-service teacher participants was tested and only found for competence in Study 1. The importance of our results and their implications for stereotype threat effects and possible interventions are discussed.

Exploring the Factor Structure of the Constructs of Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK): An Exploratory Factor Analysis Based on the Perceptions of TESOL Pre-Service Teachers at a British Private University in Malaysia

Using the TPACK framework, this research study investigated how pre-service teachers perceive their development of the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy necessary for technology integration; and explored the opportunities that pre-service teachers have to learn about technology integration. It employed a convergent parallel mixed methods case study design. It has a single-embedded case design. The unit of analysis for inquiry is the undergraduate teacher preparation program at a private British university in Malaysia. This study incorporates quantitative data collection in the form of a survey alongside qualitative data collection conducted through semi-structured interviews. The participants for the survey comprised of three purposefully selected convenience samples of pre-service teachers (Years One, Two, and Three) studying the undergraduate teacher preparation program. Following the administration of the survey, a maximum variation sample of pre-service teachers who participated in the survey was invited for semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that the EFA found support for TK and CK being distinctive knowledge constructs within the pre-service teachers’ knowledge perceptions. While PK, PCK, TPK, TCK, and TPACK were postulated to be distinct knowledge constructs in the TPACK framework, these were not reflected in the perceptions of the pre-service teacher participants of this study. Implications and recommendations are suggested.

Investigating the Virtualized Cultural Heritage of Piri Reis with Social Participation and Map Literacy Skills

In this study, it was aimed to transfer Piri Reis’s 1513 world map into an interactive and dynamic environment to reflect social participation and map literacy skills of pre-service social studies teachers, to determine the reflection of the skills from the views of the pre-service teachers and the information they have structured in the database. In this sense, the virtualized map was integrated into a geographical information system application developed by the researcher. This research, in which a qualitative research approach was adopted, was carried out as a case study. The views of the pre-service teacher’s skills and environment were evaluated with content analysis, and their reflection skills were evaluated with descriptive analysis. Eighteen students determined with the maximum diversity sampling method participated in the study, which lasted for two and a half months. It was concluded through the findings obtained from the views of pre-service teachers that social participation and map literacy skills could be reflected in various dimensions, the map could be interpreted collectively with social participation and map literacy skills, and cultural heritage could be transformed into a form of instructional technology. It was determined that the general views of pre-service teachers regarding this environment were mostly positive and the environment beneficially enabled them to discover cultural heritage, developed various skills and gave different perspectives. Still, some pre-service teachers remained passive in the environment. In the findings obtained from the database of the virtualized map, it was determined that the sub-dimensions of map literacy with social participation skill were mostly reflected in the form of understandinginterpreting symbols, finding location - coordinate, measuring distance, finding direction, reading - interpreting a map, but not reflected in using scales.

Connecting engineering design and inquiry cycles: Impact on elementary preservice teachers' engineering efficacy and perspectives toward teaching engineering

AbstractEngineering has become increasingly prominent in science education, with documents such as Next Generation Science Standards detailing the importance of introducing students at all grade levels to science and engineering practices. Yet, many elementary teachers may lack sufficient engineering content and pedagogical knowledge and report feeling unprepared to teach engineering content and processes. To prepare future elementary teachers to teach engineering, two university faculty members in science and mathematics education designed an engineering unit that was incorporated within an elementary science methods course and supported through an elementary mathematics methods course. This unit focused on the engineering design process as well as connections between the work of scientists and engineers; the processes of science, engineering, and mathematics; and the cycles of engineering design and inquiry. The results of the study provide evidence that the unit had a positive influence on the 27 preservice teacher participants’ engineering teaching efficacy, understanding of engineering, and comprehension of the implementation of engineering in the elementary classroom.

An Inquiry into the Self-Evaluation of Star Teacher Characteristics Necessary for Successful Urban Teaching


 
 
 This study examines the degree of agreement between three Haberman Foundation-trained facilitators’ interviews and pre-service teachers’ self-evaluations of behavioral attributes associated with successful urban teaching. Using a quasi-experimental design research approach, data for this investigation was collected from 17 subjects who are all pre-service teacher candidates enrolled in an urban, metropolitan, co-educational research university. The Star Teacher Selection Interview and the Urban Teacher Behavioral Self-Evaluation Assessment served as the assessment instruments. Overall, findings revealed that the trained interviewers rated the pre-service teacher participants much lower on many of the behavioral attributes associated with successful urban teaching than did the subjects themselves.
 
 

Exploring the perceived benefits and drawbacks of using multimodal learning objects in pre-service English teacher inverted instruction

This descriptive classroom-based study involved a group of 25 pre-service teacher participants from the Master’s program in Teaching English as a Foreign and Second Language (TEFL) at the Complutense University in Madrid (UCM), Spain. The participants were approached in their threefold facet as graduate students, classroom active debate leaders, and prospective teachers. We aimed to explore what they perceived to be the benefits and drawbacks of using multimodal learning objects (LO) as learners, active classroom debate leaders and pre-service teachers of English in contexts of inverted classroom instruction. The results showed that LO were perceived as an excellent tool in inverted settings of instruction as they enabled a shift in the classroom dynamics towards a learner-centred approach. No significant differences were found among the views of students, debate leaders, and pre-service teachers. However, pre-service teachers expressed concerns about implementing LO. This suggests that more importance should be given to support their use in the English classroom.

Using conjoint analysis to examine bias in referral to a behavior intervention program

AbstractResearch in the United States suggests that teachers view Black students' misbehavior as more likely to reoccur, but such research has not disentangled the effect of race from related factors. We used conjoint analysis to experimentally test the effect of multiple student characteristics on the chances of being referred for a behavior intervention program. Although preservice teacher participants were not more likely to refer Black students, they were more likely to refer students who had lower grades, lived in poverty, lived with a single mother, and had been retained. We interpret these results and highlight directions for future research and practice.