Practice-based Teacher Education Research Articles

Using Simulations or Rehearsals in Teacher Preparation Coursework: Learning from Preservice Social Studies Teacher Experiences to Inform Future Practice

Research on practice-based teacher education [PBTE], such as rehearsals or teaching simulations, assumes that preservice teachers [PSTs] prefer such practical approaches in comparison to more theoretical work. Few studies test this assumption or incorporate PSTs voices and perspectives on PBTE approaches. This study draws on survey data and interviews from secondary history/social studies PSTs to investigate the benefits and challenges they experienced with practice-based coursework. PSTs found more authentic and active aspects of preparation (e.g., clinical work, teaching simulations, and instructional feedback) as more important for developing their practice than passive and theoretical activities (e.g., readings, discussion, and essays). Teaching simulations also cultivated communities of practice where PSTs engaged in productive struggle and surfaced equity considerations. Participants reported that rehearsals can serve as representations of practice that supplement, and in some cases supplant, experiences in clinical placements. Considerations for effectively enacting rehearsals or simulations within preparation coursework are also discussed.

Developing Adaptive Planning Skills by Preservice Physical Education Teachers

Purpose: This study examined how physical education preservice teachers (PSTs) developed adaptive skills in the planning of the lessons in the 5 weeks of an introductory physical education method course using the practice-based teacher education framework. Method: Twenty-two PSTs edited three lesson plans over the 5 weeks. A total of 150 lesson plans were analyzed using descriptive statistics to explore (a) the total number of adaptations, (b) the total number of adaptations made to core practices, and (c) the types of adaptations. Findings: The PSTs made a wide-ranged number of adaptations from lesson plan one to three (one [median = 38.50, range 6–101]; two [median = 49.00, range 14–184]; three [median = 38.00, range 18–97]). They made adaptations most frequently in providing clear instruction and type two adaptations (refine). Conclusions: The results support the use of pedagogical approaches within the practice-based teacher education framework effective in developing PSTs’ adaptive competence in lesson plans.

“How can we change if we are the same people?”: Chilean academic leaders’ experiences implementing a practice-based teacher education approach

A growing body of literature in teacher education stresses the importance of enhancing the training of pre-service teachers through a practice-based teacher education approach centered on core teaching practices. However, further research is needed to explore how schools of education implement this approach at an institutional level. Through semi-structured interviews, this paper reports on how seven academic leaders from two Chilean schools of education experienced implementing this practice-based teacher education approach. The findings reveal factors that support and challenge the organizational learning necessary to enact the approach at an institutional level. This study also highlights implications for practice.

Practice-Based Teacher Education Benefits Graduate Trainees and Their Students Through Inclusive and Active Teaching Methods

The next generations of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers are being trained in college and university classrooms by a workforce of instructors who learn pedagogical practice largely on the job. While inclusive instructional practices and their impacts are increasingly well-studied, this training is difficult to instill within the professional development that most STEM professors receive before teaching their students. The Science Teaching Experience Program for Upcoming PhDs (STEP-UP) at the University of Washington was built to prepare future professors for inclusive excellence by guiding them through the literature in education research and providing them a space to practice active and inclusive teaching techniques. This study of STEP-UP uses a design-based approach to understand graduate trainee and undergraduate perceptions of the most salient aspects and outcomes of the program. Our study found that trainees used opportunities to practice inclusive teaching methods with a cohort of their peers, and crucially that these methods were evident in trainee-taught courses through multiple lines of evidence. STEP-UP-trained instructors used inclusive teaching strategies that helped students to feel socioemotionally supported. This study offers a model program that fosters inclusion and equity in undergraduate STEM classrooms through improving teaching professional development for graduate students.

Teaching Adaptive Competence to Preservice Teachers in an Introductory Methods Class

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine how preservice teachers (PSTs) adapted their lesson planning components over time. We were particularly interested in the quality of adaptations that were made by PSTs in a practice-based teacher education (PBTE) program. A descriptive analytic design was used to examine the lesson plans of nine PSTs who were peer teaching for 10-weeks. The context for teaching became incrementally more complex in terms of core practices of instructional and managerial skills as the semester progressed. Three PBTE pedagogical strategies were integrated throughout the peer teaching across five phases: rehearsals, repeated teaching, and approximations of contexts. A descriptive analysis of lesson components (e.g., instruction, management, and closure) was conducted, with further examination in three quality indicators: alignment to the lesson, preciseness of the task statements, and the content appropriateness of the lesson plan. Almost three quarters of adaptations were made in instructional statements and content development. Improvements in alignment to the lesson were made faster than improvement in preciseness and content. Approximately 80% of improved adaptations were maintained by PSTs across different lessons over time. The findings in this study suggest that PBTE pedagogical strategies support PSTs’ development of adaptive competence in lesson planning and improve PSTs’ adaptation in quality indicators as well.

Discussing the Case for Use of Practically Assessed Structured Scenarios (PASS) as a Mode of Assessment in Physical Education Teacher Education and Sport Coaching Programs

Historically, written and oral assessments such as essays and group presentations have been the predominant modes of assessment used to assess pre-service physical education students’ and sport coaching students’ teaching and coaching knowledge the pedagogical content knowledge of preservice physical education students and sport coaching students. Yet, at a time when the call for more practice-based teacher education is commanding more and more attention in the literature, key consideration should be given to the authenticity of assessment modes being used. Thus, one particular mode of assessment that could be considered is use of Practically Assessed Structured Scenarios (PASS). This article presents a four-way conversation conducted by university educators from four different countries who discuss the benefits and challenges of using PASS as a mode of assessment within physical education teacher education (PETE) and sport coaching education programs. An example of how a PASS assessment session might be organised is also included.

Practice-based coaching for project-based teaching: Understanding relationships between coaching practice and teaching practice

Only a limited amount of scholarship on practice-based teacher education has investigated the relationship between practice-based pedagogies of teacher education and teachers' subsequent classroom practice. This mixed methods study addresses this gap by investigating relationships between how coaches represent, decompose, and approximate practice and how teachers go on to enact those practices in K-12 classrooms. Quantitative findings illustrate that longer episodes of decomposition in teacher coaching sessions are predictive of teachers’ subsequent growth in observation protocol scores. Qualitative analyses reveal that longer episodes of decomposition typically involve opportunities for teacher learners to play a role in the decomposition process. These findings have significant implications for instructional coaches and teacher educators, those designing instructional coach and teacher educator learning opportunities, and future research into the practices of instructional coaches and teacher educators.

Faculty Perspectives Using Practice-Based Teacher Education in Physical Education

Purpose: Practice-based teacher education (PBTE) has been proposed as an approach to combat forms of teacher education that create prescriptive understandings of teaching that are disconnected from practice. In physical education, PBTE is becoming more prevalent. Some have argued that many of its elements have been in use for some time, whereas other elements have been refined or are new. In this study, we were motivated to examine the use of PBTE by physical education teacher educators and their perceptions of PBTE. Method: Participants were nine teacher educators from the United States (n = 6), Turkey (n = 2), and Belgium (n = 1). Surveys were used to gather data on the use of PBTE and the perceptions of teacher educators. Data describing the use of PBTE in their programs were descriptively analyzed. Our perceptions were interpreted using an intrinsic case study with PBTE serving as the case. Findings: Programs adopted similar and different elements of PBTE. Four themes emerged relative to the perceptions of teacher educators about PBTE: (a) how the context of the teacher educator influences their use of PBTE, (b) teacher educators’ use of PBTE, (c) the advantages of using PBTE, and (d) a critical analysis of PBTE. Conclusion: Our approach to operationalizing PBTE may help encourage useful conversations in physical education teacher education.

Practice-Based Teacher Education in Physical Education

Background: Teacher education is a complex endeavor designed to prepare preservice teachers for the task of teaching physical education to students in K–12 schools. Yet, there is widespread criticism of teacher education outcomes within the United States and around the world. Consequently, teacher educators have been increasingly called upon to use evidence-based approaches in teacher education. Purpose: In this article, we discuss a teacher education reform called practice-based teacher education from macro and micro perspectives. Discussion: Practice-based teacher education emphasizes a curriculum that is focused on relevance defined in terms of what a teacher needs to know and do to be able to teach physical education. Evidence for curricular changes to physical education teacher education and to the content and pedagogies of methods and content classes are presented. We conclude with a discussion of how practice-based teacher education can address social injustice.

From coursework to fieldwork: How do teacher candidates enact and adapt core practices for instructional scaffolding?

Scholars debate whether foregrounding core practices in teacher education will enable candidates not only to enact but also to adapt these practices to specific classroom contexts. This study investigated six candidates’ enactment and adaptation of three practices for instructional scaffolding—introduced through the use of video during coursework— as they implemented those practices in their language arts teaching during fieldwork. The findings showed that all six candidates enacted the practices with their students and made various adaptations suited to their respective classroom contexts. The study provides nuanced information for ongoing conversations about pedagogies for practice-based teacher education.

Practice-based 21st-century teacher education: Design principles for adaptive expertise

Currently, there is consensus about an education to promote 21st-century skills; however, limited research has explored how to incorporate them into practice-based teacher education. This article characterizes three design principles underpinning a one-year design-based research project that planned and tested a learning sequence for developing early adaptive expertise through critical thinking and collaboration. On average, the 14 prospective teachers who participated in this study scored 63% for core practices and 66% for pedagogical reasoning. Our study proposes a set of tools and activities for 21st-century teacher education that foregrounds specific progressive pedagogies to increase core practices and pedagogical reasoning performances.

The “Turn Once Again Toward Practice-Based Teacher Education” Revisited

This paper provides an analysis of how work on practice-based teacher education has evolved and remained the same since 2012.

Reprint: The Turn Once Again Toward Practice-Based Teacher Education

Current work to identify the core teaching practices that should be included in teacher education curriculum is a part of a long-standing tradition of reform in American teacher education. This article situates the proposals of Hiebert and Morris and the contemporary work to which it is linked within this historical tradition and identifies several issues that need to be addressed by this current work. These include the task of developing a system that unlike performance-based systems in the past is evidence-based, manageable, and sustainable, and that does not ignore important aspects of good teaching.

Challenges and Tradeoffs of “Good” Teaching: The Pursuit of Multiple Educational Outcomes

The pursuit of multiple educational outcomes makes teaching a complex craft subject to potential conflicts and competing commitments. Using a data set in which teachers were randomly assigned to classes paired with videotaped lessons, we both document and unpack such a tradeoff. Upper-elementary teachers who excel at raising students’ math test scores often are less successful at improving student-reported engagement in class (and vice versa). Furthermore, teaching practices that improve test scores (e.g., cognitively demanding content) can simultaneously decrease engagement. At the same time, paired quantitative and qualitative analyses reveal two areas of practice that support both outcomes: active mathematics with opportunities for hands-on participation, physical movement, and peer interaction; and established routines and procedures to proactively organize the classroom. In addition to guiding practice-based teacher education, our sequential, explanatory mixed-methods analysis can serve as a model for rigorously studying and identifying dimensions of “good” teaching that promote multidimensional student development.

Do Simulated Teaching Experiences Impact Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Ability to Facilitate Argumentation-Focused Discussions in Mathematics and Science?

Recently scholars have advocated for using teachers’ practice as a site for teacher learning. The recent proliferation of online, digital spaces, including simulated classrooms, has paved the way for novel approaches within practice-based teacher education. Yet, limited research has investigated the extent to which and how the use of online, simulated teaching experiences promote teacher learning of core teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how integrating simulated teaching experiences into teacher education coursework impacts preservice teacher (PST) learning. Findings showed that the use of simulated teaching experiences within elementary teacher education methods courses resulted in evidence of statistically significant growth in PSTs’ ability to engage in one core teaching practice: facilitating argumentation-focused discussions.

Introducing Complexity Theory to Consider Practice-Based Teacher Education for Democratic Citizenship

Introducing Complexity Theory to Consider Practice-Based Teacher Education for Democratic Citizenship

A Descriptive Case Study of a Literacy Methods Course with a Focus On Practices Related to Text-Based Discussions about Informational Text

This article describes a literacy methods course designed to introduce reading specialist candidates to research-based practices for comprehension instruction. Specifically, this article focuses on a sequence of assignments and class sessions within that course that introduced theoretical perspectives about comprehension processes and how those perspectives inform text-based discussion as a setting for teaching those processes. We describe the course assignments and sessions within three research paradigms: (a) practice-based teacher education pedagogy with a focus on text-based discussion as a core teaching practice, (b) pedagogies of investigation and pedagogies of enactment, and (c) Grossman and colleagues’ (2009) framework for analyzing the teaching of practice, which includes representation, decomposition, and approximation. To the Grossman et al. framework, we propose co-construction as another aspect of teaching practice. By that we mean, candidates’ knowledge and insights can contribute to the process of learning specific practices if they are positioned to share their insights and experiences. Our goal in this article is to provide a descriptive case study that shows how course design, the work of a teacher educator, and the contributions of candidates were orchestrated to support learning about text-based discussion as a context for comprehension instruction.

Lifelong Learning and Metacognition in the Assessment of Pre-service Teachers in Practice-Based Teacher Education

Initial teacher education should prepare pre-service teachers to develop effective teaching and lifelong learning tendencies. This study aimed to identify the component to consider in pre-service teachers’ assessment processes that promote lifelong learning and develop metacognition skills. For this, it analyzed how the planned and implemented actions by the teacher educators in Practice-based Teacher Education programs promoted metacognition and lifelong learning in the pre-service teachers. The method was a mixed explanatory sequential design. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were applied. Information was obtained from the learning and assessment resources (72 syllabi and 14 assessment tasks) and pre-service teachers’ opinions (survey: n = 231, interviews: n = 8). The findings identified three main components: (i) authentic and relevant assessment tasks, (ii) prior communication of instructions and evaluation criteria, and (iii) frequent performance-focused feedback from peers and teacher educators during and at the end of assignments. The study results can be valuable in teacher education programs to strengthen assessment processes, promote lifelong learning tendencies, and develop metacognitive skills among the teachers in training.

An Analysis of the Questions Elementary Education Teacher Candidates Pose to Elicit Mathematical Thinking

ABSTRACT This paper describes the findings of a study that examined the questions elementary education teacher candidates (TCs) posed while facilitating a number talk or a discussion about a word problem with elementary school students. The TCs in this study were undergraduates participating in a practice-based mathematics pedagogy/methods course designed to provide multiple experiences unpacking, planning, and rehearsing pedagogies focused on eliciting students’ mathematical thinking. Recordings of the TCs facilitating a discussion were analyzed using two different frameworks: question types from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles to Action and components of eliciting students’ thinking. Findings indicate varied levels of questions across participants, but showed that some TCs were able to pose question types aimed at effectively eliciting students’ mathematical thinking. Implications for future studies include further examination about how to increase TCs’ enactment of effective questions in classrooms after practice-based teacher education activities.

Ambitious Coaching Core Practices: Borrowing From Teacher Education to Inform Coach Development Pedagogy

Coach development programs have been moving away from knowledge focused, rationalistic pedagogies toward more constructivist, applied approaches that recognize the complex, relational, and contextual nature of coaching and learning to coach. Teacher educators have been doing similar pedagogical work: trying to identify the dynamic elements of what makes an expert teacher and distill those elements into a learner-centered teacher education framework that brings knowledge into action. One such practice-based teacher education framework is ambitious teaching core practices. Core practices are empirically-based moves and social routines that teachers learn to enact adaptively to enhance learning across diverse groups of students. The purpose of this study was to explore the application of ambitious teaching core practices to coach development and take a step toward identifying and defining coaching core practices. Findings from this Delphi panel of expert coaches resulted in 15 ambitious coaching core practices for facilitating athlete performance and well-being including allowing space for athlete exploration, creativity, and problem solving and developing and flexibly executing a practice plan. Applying the concept of core practices to coaching is both a novel way to understand effective coaching and a first step toward a new practice-based coach development framework.