Post-observation Interviews Research Articles

Scheming and Re-scheming: Secondary Mathematics Teachers\u2019 Use and Re-use of Resources

In this article, we examine secondary mathematics teachers’ work with resources using the Documentational Approach to Didactics lens. Specifically, we look at the resources and a teacher’s scheme of use (aims, rules of actions, operational invariants, and inferences) of these resources across a set of lessons (macro-level analysis) that aim towards students’ preparation for the examinations and how this use emerges in a set of three lessons on the same topic (micro-level analysis) as a response to contingent moments. We propose the terms scheming—a teacher’s emerging scheme of use related to the same set of resources used for the same aim—and re-scheming, namely, shifts in such scheming. Our analysis of lesson observations and the teacher’s reflections on his actions from a post-observation interview demonstrate the interplay between the stable characteristics of the scheme of use and the scheming and re-scheming in individual lessons. We conclude this article with a discussion on the methodological potential of using both macro- and micro-level analyses in the investigation of teachers’ use of resources.

Formative Assessment: The Malaysian English Language Primary School Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs and Values

This study investigated the beliefs and practices of primary school English language teachers in eastern Malaysia with regards to the country’s School-Based Assessment (SBA) reform. The study also investigated the contextual factors affecting the teachers’ beliefs and practices, aiming to understand the effects of these beliefs on their practice of SBA in order to extend our understanding of teachers’ interpretations of SBA, the challenges influencing these interpretations and thus, what affects the implementation process. After preliminary interviews with seven teachers, the study selected three who had an understanding of and knowledge about SBA and examined their claims to be implementing it. The study conducted classroom observations and then, using post-observation interviews, explored the reasons behind the teachers’ practices. The teachers interpreted and implemented SBA using their pedagogical knowledge and beliefs and incorporating existing teaching–learning practices, and they showed awareness of the goals and aims of the SBA initiatives. However, contextual factors affected their implementation process, and thus, their practices deviated from some of the underlying principles and objectives of the SBA policy. The study pointed to a limited uptake of the SBA policy and provided evidence of the importance of studying both the teachers’ prior or existing beliefs about assessment and the contextual factors, to understand the motives behind the teachers’ actual assessment practices and their attitudes towards assessment reforms.

Images of Educational Leadership: How Principals Make Sense of Democracy and Social Justice in Two Distinct Policy Contexts

Purpose: This article investigates how school leaders make sense of social justice and democracy in their practice in two settings, a high-stakes testing and accountability context, the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and a low-stakes testing and accountability context, Norway. It demonstrates how leaders view relationships among education, democracy, and social justice, when located in a neoliberal democracy with a minimalist welfare state or in a social democracy with a robust welfare state. Design and Evidence: Through a comparative design, we analyze qualitative data from two international principal exchanges designed to capture outsiders’ impressions of schools in each context. Participants included alumni from an American and a Norwegian university’s principal preparation programs. Through preobservation and postobservation interviews and focus groups, we explore observations by practitioners, who acted as coconstructors in the research. Findings and Implications: The article presents three findings: (1) While principals in both systems conceptualized equity similarly, their conceptions of democracy were aligned with the type of democracy in which they were embedded; (2) Schools’ norms, climate, structures, and leadership, as well as students’ daily lives, reflected the values implicit in their respective political contexts; (3) Principals perceived elements of their macro- and micro-level settings to enable or constrain their ability to craft democratic, socially just schools. These findings help scholars move beyond discourse about the need for leaders to advocate for equity, to deeper understandings about conditions that shape democratic schools, such as values about collectivism, welfarism, and the common good—tenets of a socially just civic society.

Working Relationally with Networks of Support Within Schools: Supporting Teachers in their Work with Shy Students

Childhood shyness and associated psychosocial difficulties can place pupils at risk of underperforming cognitively. Yet shyness is not regarded as a special need demanding a response from education professionals. In this article, drawing on data from a national study of how teachers support shy children, we trace how teachers negotiate this support from the networks of teachers and carers that are available to them. Data comprised post-observation recall interviews, individual interviews and focus groups with teachers, all of whom had successful experiences with shy students. Qualitative responses from a national teacher survey were also analyzed. Analyses were guided by three cultural-historical concepts which explain professional relationships. Four networks were identified: teacher teams; school resource teams; school leadership teams and families. With peers the negotiation was horizontal, drawing on shared concerns with children as learners; with resource teams teachers negotiated upwards by recognizing and addressing the priorities of the resource teams; with leadership teams the school Principals worked relationally and pedagogically with teachers to enable their agentic responses to challenges; while with families teachers worked sensitively to elicit the what mattered for the families and encourage relational collaborations with school professionals. The implications for professional learning and school leadership are discussed.

Roles, ethics and lawyers’ reactions: An ethnographic study of interpreters’ role performance in interpreted lawyer-client interviews

Abstract This study explores interpreters’ role performance, lawyers’ reactions to interpreters’ performance, and the perceptions and expectations of the interpreter role among these two groups of professionals. It adopts an ethnographic approach to generate data from observations made in Australia of 20 authentic interpreted lawyer-client interviews and post-observation interviews with the lawyers and the interpreters respectively. The study shows that interpreters are very active participants in lawyer-client interviews, as manifested in their various forms of intervention and in their adoption of roles not stipulated in their professional ethics. The interpreters’ active performance of their role relates to their perception of their function, their understanding of the relevant communicative tasks, their assumptions about lawyer’s professional needs, and their previous interpreting experience. While lawyers strongly supported an understanding of the interpreter role as “impartial and faithful” and spoke against certain types of interpreter interference, such as interpreters using summarisation, yet in actual practice, very few lawyers were observed to question or stop interpreters’ interference, and the lawyers’ inaction may in fact be partly responsible for the interpreters’ adoption of additional roles. These findings have implications for the professional development of interpreters and for lawyers in how to conduct effective interpreted legal interviews.

Indonesian EFL teachers’ cognitions and practices related to social justice

The implementation of critical pedagogy has not been well addressed, especially that viewed from the teacher cognition perspective. This project hence aims to study the cognitions and practices related to critical pedagogy by investigating the integration of social justice by high-school English teachers in Indonesia. Two participants who claimed to be critical pedagogy practitioners were interviewed and observed. Interviews were done before and after the class observation. Pre-observation interviews were done in order to identify teachers’ cognition and track factors contributing to the integration of social justice in the ELT classroom. Meanwhile, the post-observation interviews were performed to seek for clarification in relation to the congruence and incongruence between the cognitions and the real practices. Participants’ schooling experience, curriculum demand, and personal beliefs seem to play a major role in the integration of social justice in class. However, incongruence was also recognized between their stated cognition and real practices.

Mathematical knowledge of two middle school mathematics teachers in planning and teaching pattern generalizatio

Examining the knowledge of teachers in practice may shed light on understanding how students learn and finding out why they have difficulty in learning. This paper focused on teachers' knowledge of pattern generalization in instruction with the consideration of students' generalization strategies in planning. The multiple-case study design was used for this study to compare and contrast two middle school mathematics teachers’ lesson planning and instruction. Lesson plans, pre-observation interviews, observations and post-observation interviews were used as the data collection tools. The data were analyzed by using the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) model. The findings showed that the two teachers used numerical reasoning in all representations, but they had difficulties in using figural reasoning. They generally used the tabular representation effectively to underlie the relationship of generalization. While one of the teachers defined the pattern concept correctly and always emphasized analyzing the relationship between the position number and the term, the other teacher defined the pattern concept partially correctly, and her inadequate explanations of functional thinking caused some misunderstandings of students about generalization. It was also observed that the students’ lack of knowledge about algebraic expressions prevented them from obtaining a general rule. Through the cases of these two teachers, it was noted that teachers need to have a good conceptual mathematical understanding and also knowledge of students’ thinking to design effective lessons.

An Observational Study of Thermometer Use by Consumers When Preparing Ground Turkey Patties

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of an intervention for consumer thermometer use by using a randomized experimental design and direct observation of meal preparation. The study was conducted in test kitchen facilities in two locations in North Carolina (one urban and one rural). Cameras recorded participants' actions at various locations throughout the kitchen and recorded the meal preparation from beginning to end. Before preparing the meal, a randomized treatment group watched a 3-min U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food safety video "The Importance of Cooking to a Safe Internal Temperature and How to Use a Food Thermometer." Participants in the control and treatment groups were observed while cooking turkey burgers and preparing a salad to determine whether a thermometer was used to check the doneness of the turkey patties. Following meal preparation, all participants responded to a postobservation interview about food handling behaviors. Treatment group participants were also asked about the intervention. A total of 383 people participated in the study (201 in the control group and 182 in the treatment group). Participants who viewed the video were twice as likely to use a thermometer to check the doneness of the turkey patties compared with the participants who were not exposed to the video (75 versus 34%) and twice as likely to place the thermometer in the correct location (52 versus 23%). Sixty-seven percent of participants who watched the video reported that it influenced their behavior in the kitchen. This study demonstrates the importance of timing and framing of a behavioral intervention for thermometer use and highlights considerations for the development of additional messages (e.g., proper insertion).

The role of vicarious experiences in the development of pre-service teachers’ classroom management self-efficacy beliefs

ABSTRACT The present mixed-methods study investigated classroom management self-efficacy (CMSE) beliefs of early childhood pre-service teachers in Lebanon. Vicarious experiences, through observation of an in-service teacher, were analysed for efficiency in supporting the development of pre-service teachers’ CMSE beliefs. The sample consisted of 23 students who completed a pre- and post-observation survey measuring CMSE; five students participated in pre- and post-observation focus group interviews. Results indicated CMSE beliefs did not undergo a statistically significant change following pre-service teachers’ observations, but several trends were noted through the focus group interviews, including a shift from emphasising reactive behaviours to more proactive ones. All pre-service teachers voiced their desire for additional mastery experiences to aid in the development of their CMSE beliefs. Practical implications and recommendations were discussed.

Aims, actions and advance care planning by district nurses providing palliative care: an ethnographic observational study.

District nurses are core providers of palliative care, yet little is known about the way that they provide care to people at home. This study aimed to investigate the role and practice of the district nurse in palliative care provision. This was an ethnographic study, with non-participant observation of district nurse-palliative care patient encounters, and post-observation interviews. District nurse teams from three geographical areas in northwest England participated. Data were analysed iteratively, facilitated by the use of NVivo, using techniques of constant comparison. Some 17 encounters were observed, with 23 post-observation interviews (11 with district nurses, 12 with patients/carers). Core themes were 'planning for the future' and 'caring in the moment'. District nurses described how they provided and planned future care, but observations showed that this care focused on physical symptom management. District nurses engaged in friendly relationship building, which allows detailed management of symptomatology, but with little evidence of advance care planning.

Kimya Öğretmenlerinin Pedagojik Muhakemelerinin Öğretim Döngüsü Boyunca Değerlendirilmesi

Being regarded as a part of pedagogical content knowledge, science education research community has not reached a consensus about the ways how to measure pedagogical reasoning. As an early attempt to address that issue, the aim of this research is to evaluate chemistry teachers’ pedagogical reasoning during planning-teaching-reflecting parts of a lesson related to nature of equilibrium in chemical reactions. Data on pedagogical reasoning that underlies teachers’ instructional decisions and teaching actions were collected by pre- and post-observation interviews and stimulated recall interviews. Responses that teachers gave to interview questions were analyzed by evaluation criteria suggested to measure pedagogical reasoning, and results were scored accordingly. Results of this research show that the extent of chemistry teachers’ pedagogical reasoning is nearly 50 percent. As planning is the part that contributes the most to that value, reflecting is the part that contributes the least. Pedagogical reasoning dimensions in teaching and reflecting decreased from curriculum saliency to students’ understanding of science. However, pedagogical reasoning dimensions in planning did not show an important change. The lowest score gained by participants was students’ understanding of science dimension, and the highest one was the dimension of curriculum saliency. Recommendations for chemistry teacher education and pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical reasoning research are presented.

Oral Vocabulary Instruction Practices of Teachers of Nonacademic Adult English Language Learners

The number of non-academic adults who need English as a second language (ESL) classes is ever increasing, yet little is known about the instructional practices used to teach this population of learners. The focus of this article is to describe an exploratory single case study of the instructional practices used by teachers in a nonacademic adult English as a second language (NAESL) program. Specifically, the study looked at vocabulary instruction teachers employed with beginner-level adult ESL students. The data was collected using questionnaires, classroom observations, and post-observation interviews with the teachers. The findings show that teachers used two categories of activities to teach vocabulary: oral vocabulary activities and written vocabulary activities. It is significant that not only did the participants use twice as many written vocabulary activities as oral vocabulary activities in their NAESL classrooms, but they did not identify written vocabulary activities and oral vocabulary activities as addressing different language skills. Considering the importance of listening and speaking as entry-level language skills, NAESL teachers need to become aware of the importance of the distinction between these two types of instructional activities and the need to focus more instructional time to building and strengthening listening and speaking as these basic, necessary communication skills.

Examining Two Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge for Teaching Manipulation of Algebraic Expressions during Lesson Planning and Instruction

Teachers use their content and pedagogical content knowledge for teaching algebra. For this reason, the examination of how teachers use this knowledge may help shed light on how students learn algebra, especially in determining why they usually have difficulties. The aim of the current study is to reveal what teachers know, and propose what they actually need to know for teaching the simplification and equivalence of algebraic expressions. The multiple-case study design was used for this study to compare and contrast the two middle school teachers’ lesson planning and instruction. The data corpus included lesson plans, actual instruction records, and post-observation interviews. Data analysis was conducted using the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) model. The findings indicated that both teachers had a lack of specialized content knowledge about mathematical representations such as algebra tiles. They did not use algebra tiles effectively and could not link algebraic and geometric representations that underlie the idea of multiplication. It was observed that both teachers generally used unknowns and variables interchangeably indicating the inadequacy of their common content knowledge. In the planning process, the two teachers were able to state the common misconceptions that the students generally had and the ways of addressing them. Through the cases of these two teachers, it was observed that teachers need to have a good conceptual mathematical understanding and also knowledge of students’ thinking in order to design effective lessons. Based on the findings, the types of knowledge that the teachers need to have are outlined and the theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Teaching science in the foundation phase: Where are the gaps and how are they accounted for?

Background: Foundation phase teachers are not science specialists; however, they are expected to teach science. It is important that research determines where teachers face challenges in teaching science in order to assist them to bridge the gaps and to improve their competence in teaching science. Aim: The aim of this research was to explore teachers’ implementation of the science curriculum. Setting: The research was conducted in a primary school in a province of South Africa. Four foundation phase teachers participated in the study. Methods: This interpretative, qualitative study used classroom observation, learners’ workbooks and post-observation interviews to develop an understanding of teachers’ science knowledge, their facilitation of hands-on science investigations as well as the nature of their interaction with learners in the science classroom. Results: The findings revealed that teachers were not competent in teaching science and when rated according to their profiles of curriculum implementation all four were allocated low scores. However, in-depth observations revealed that while teachers generally had poor science knowledge, they were competent in engaging learners through questions and activities. This pedagogic knowledge could have translated into pedagogic content knowledge should the teachers have attempted to spend more time preparing their science lessons to ensure that they mastered the necessary science content and science knowledge, as well as appropriate methodologies to teach science. Conclusion: Science education should be in the foreground in the foundation phase curriculum to encourage teachers to teach science as an integral part of the curriculum.

Sociocultural Adaptation for Asian Immigrant English Language Learners

This phenomenological study discusses sociocultural adaptation, as one of the findings emerged from the study, among Asian immigrant English language learners (ELLs) and their parents, as well as New Zealand early childhood teachers. The focus of the study is on the analysis of early childhood teachers’ beliefs about how they can support English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLs and how these beliefs influence the teachers’ practices in early childhood education (ECE) settings as they adapt themselves.The theoretical framework of this research draws on a range of sociocultural perspectives, including (i) the sociocultural positions initially defined by Lev (1978); (ii) the notion of guided participation articulated by Barbara (2003) (iii) theories of second language acquisition discussed by Lantolf and Thorne (2000); and by Krashen (1982); Krashen (1985) and (iv) acculturation as addressed by Berry (2001). The main participants of this study were seven early childhood teachers and six Asian immigrant ELLs from two ECE centres. Four Asian parents participated in interviews to ascertain the parents’ perspectives about their children’s learning of English and their maintenance of home language. Research methods for the teachers included observations and semi-structured pre- and post-observation interviews. For each centre, observations were carried out over a six week period which enabled a series of snapshots of how the teachers supported the ELLs as they acquired English. The findings were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that there were dissonances between the teachers’ beliefs and their practices, as well as variation between individual teachers’ beliefs and practices. This study will provide a basis from which to consider how early childhood teachers in New Zealand can draw upon sociocultural perspectives to better support ELLs as they acquire English, while valuing and supporting their linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

A New Approach to Teacher Assessment: Joys and Sorrows of its Introduction

One of the widely discussed issues in the current world is the quality of teacher’s professional competences, which is closely related to the possibilities and ways of their evaluation. The identification and evaluation of teacher's key professional competences is of particular interest for the team of researchers at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (Slovakia) within the research project APVV-14-0446 Assessment of teacher's competences, the output of which should be a new concept of the assessment of teacher's professional competences and the design of a relevant set of assessment tools. The intention of the research team is to encourage teachers' evaluators to use more reflective approach to this task in order to ensure deeper feedback for teachers on their performance. The project started in 2015 and is still in progress. So far the team has managed to agree on 10 professional competences of teacher, which they consider to be the key ones for the high quality performance of teachers. Then, a new stratified approach to their assessment was developed, and for each of the competences, a set of assessment instruments: Assessment Sheets for evaluators, Self -Assessment Sheets for the evaluated teachers and instructions for Post-Observation Interview of the evaluator with the teacher, was designed. The instruments are currently being piloted in schools. The paper deals with partial results of the piloting of the three tools designed to assess the teacher's competence: can develop pupil's personality and their competences. The piloted tools will be introduced in more details and the issues connected with their acceptance and use by school staff and managers will be discussed.

The interplay between culturally responsive teaching, cultural diversity beliefs, and self-reflection: A multiple case study

This investigation examined the dynamic relation between culturally responsive teaching, teacher cultural diversity beliefs, and self-reflection on own teaching. A multiple case study with four ethnic German teachers was conducted using classroom video observations (3 lesson units X 2 raters) and post-observation interviews in a culturally and ethnically diverse high school. For these teachers there was a high congruence between culturally responsive teaching and cultural diversity beliefs. Yet their degree of cultural responsiveness and their beliefs differed across teachers. The teachers who were observed to be more culturally responsive also showed elaborated patterns of self-reflection on their own teaching.

USING STIMULATED RECALL METHOD IN UNDERSTANDING TEACHER INTERACTIVE DECISION MAKING

This study sheds lights on whether Stimulated Recall (SR) as data collection method can gain accurate information if the recall is not conducted immediately after the task is completed. This study emerges from a research conducted previously about teacher decision making regarding their language use which is a dissertation writing and is not published yet. This paper is to investigate whether it is applicable to recall thought processes of teacher interactive decision making. This study applies interpretative method which uses documents of classroom observation video transcription and post observation interview transcription as data. The result is it is beneficial to use SR as data collection method since it can gain information accurately to recall the thought processes of teacher interactive decision making. It can work well to collect the data if SR is conducted based on the recommendations proposed by Gass and Mackay (2000) which are time, strong stimulus, good training for the research participants, and consistency with research questions.

Early Childhood Teachers’ Challenges in Using English to Interact with Young English Language Learners

This phenomenological study explores the challenges faced by Malaysian early childhood teachers in using English as a second language to interact with young English language learners. The main participants of this study were six teachers from one early childhood centre. Research methods included observations and semi-structured pre- and post-observation interviews. Observations were carried out over a six week period which enabled a series of snapshots of challenges faced by the teachers as they used English to interact with the children. The findings were analysed using thematic analysis, and presented three themes: teachers’ limited English proficiency, children’s comprehension, lack of confidence and unsupportive environment. These themes impacted the learning experiences of the children attending the early childhood education centre as well as the teaching approaches of the early childhood teachers. The findings revealed that it is significant for the early childhood teachers to be proficient in English as this will affect their confidence and attitudes in using English as an interactional tool in early childhood settings.

CALL from an ecological perspective: How a teacher perceives affordance and fosters learner agency in a technology-mediated language classroom

AbstractThe possibility of exploiting technology for more robust and meaningful learning and teaching has invoked messianic responses from the language education community. Yet to be explored are teachers’ pedagogical choices based on the perceived technological affordances as well as interactions between teacher and student agency mediated by these affordances in the ecology of a classroom. This qualitative case study adopts an ecological approach, aiming to address rather than factor out the broader social context in a physical classroom. With data collected from 30 hours of classroom observation and 10 post-observation interviews with the participant teacher, the study makes an attempt to show how the ecological model of language learning can provide a theoretical lens through which to explore teachers’ practices of CALL that aim to encourage learner agency. The analysis centers on three focused extracts that illustrate interaction between and among the affordance of technology, the teacher participant’s pedagogical considerations, and her goal of encouraging learner agency. The result of the study emphasizes the teacher’s role from an ecological perspective and classroom learner agency mediated by technology, which provides useful insight that can contribute to language teaching practice with technology in the classroom.