Pre-service Secondary Teachers Research Articles

Exploration of the Perception of Elementary and Secondary Pre-Service Teachers About “Novelty Space” in Learning in Geological Field Trip — A Secondary Publication

Exploration of the Perception of Elementary and Secondary Pre-Service Teachers About “Novelty Space” in Learning in Geological Field Trip — A Secondary Publication

The relationship between opportunities to learn in teacher education and Chinese preservice teachers’ professional competence

ABSTRACT Although research on the relationship between opportunities to learn (OTL) in teacher preparation and preservice teachers’ learning outcomes, including aspects of their knowledge, has significantly increased in recent years, the relationship between OTL and preservice secondary school teachers’ cognitive competence and, particularly, the situated aspect of competence, in Mainland China remain poorly understood. This paper examines this association based on a study involving 583 preservice teachers chosen from four preservice teacher education institutions. The results revealed that the preservice teachers received adequate OTL in various domains, such as tertiary-level mathematics and mathematics education pedagogy. However, mainly due to the influence of academically oriented teacher preparation models in Mainland China, there were quite weak overall connections between OTL and the four examined aspects of teachers’ professional competence (mathematics content knowledge, mathematics pedagogical content knowledge, a mathematics instruction-related perspective on noticing, and a general pedagogy-related classroom perspective on noticing). Comparatively speaking, relatively strong associations existed between OTL in teaching methods, school-based teaching practicums, and the situated aspect of competence (e.g. noticing). These findings show that, to a great degree, initial teacher preparation in Mainland China does not relate closely to preservice teachers’ professional competence.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in pre-service secondary education teachers in Spain

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the initial motivations for studying the Master’s Degree in Secondary School Teaching in Spain. Participants were 441 university students who filled out a work-related values and motives questionnaire. Cluster analysis revealed four motivational profiles. Three of them display adequate intrinsic motivation, although there are marked differences among them. However, the fourth profile was associated with a low degree of vocation, along with difficulties in adapting to the demands of the role of teacher. The Chi-squared test yielded a better motivational profile in females and among those who had previous experience. These results allow us to make a series of proposals in the educational field. Further research should be conducted in this area; moreover, efforts should be devoted to improving the instructional design of the Spanish Master’s Degree in Secondary School Teaching, as well as to revising the procedures designed for selection and orientation of future students.

Using different digital tools in designing and solving mathematical modelling problems

AbstractWhile existing studies acknowledge the importance of using technology in the mathematical modelling process, questions about how to integrate digital tools into mathematical modelling are not still answered. This study aims to examine pre-service mathematics teachers’ designing and solving mathematical modelling problems by using different digital tools through the collaboration of two different courses in their education program. The GeoGebra-supported modelling cycle was adopted as the conceptual framework of the study. The case study was used to design the research. The participants of the study were three volunteer pre-service secondary mathematics teachers, who were able to use and integrate digital tools in mathematics education. The pre-service teachers were asked to design a mathematical modelling problem by integrating different digital tools as the final assignment in both courses. The designed mathematical modelling problem, the video records of pre-service teachers’ explanations including the designing and solving process, and the video records of the focus group interview were the data of the study. The results showed that the pre-service teachers were able to design and solve an effective and comprehensive mathematical modelling problem using technology by combining their skills that they had learnt through different courses. In particular, they were able to use different digital tools in both designing and solving a mathematical modelling problem. Their solution also led to the extension of the adopted framework by adding new technological actions into the modelling stages.

Television Series as a Didactic Tool in the Initial Training of Secondary School Teachers

Within the context of Pre-Service Secondary Teacher Education, skills development (PSTE) requires, among other things, the cultivation of critical thinking among future teachers, who must also acquire conflict prevention and resolution skills. To this end, the students of a master’s degree in Secondary School Teacher Training at a Spanish University were asked to analyse, in small groups, the conflicts featured in a television series. The research objective was to learn more about trainee teachers’ opinions regarding this methodology. The results indicate that they had favourable opinions about this method and were highly satisfied with the learning process and with the teamwork. Significant differences according to sex and age were observed. This suggests that forming more heterogeneous work groups in the future would be a good idea. The results also suggest that critical thinking was a good predictor of student satisfaction with the methodology. It would, therefore, be a good idea to develop critical thinking in more depth during PSTE.

Virtual reality platform for teacher training on classroom climate management: evaluating user acceptance

Enhancing the educational experience through Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) is a promising avenue, elevating the authenticity and responsiveness of simulations. Particularly in educational settings, IVR holds the potential to augment accessibility and engagement in learning. However, one pivotal aspect lies in assessing the learners' acceptance of such environments to ensure optimal and effective utilization of these technologies. This paper delves into the Didascalia Virtual-ClassRoom usability testing —an immersive IVR environment tailored for pre-service secondary school teachers. The platform transports users into a simulated classroom, where they are invited to play the role of a teacher. During the simulation, three scenarios are recreated, reproducing disruptive behaviours commonly faced in real classrooms. 84 participants (28 teachers and 56 pre-service teachers) engaged in decision-making to manage the classroom climate influenced by the simulated situations. To collect data, we used a questionnaire based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to assess and gauge users' inclinations and attitudes towards embracing the technology in question. To gain deeper insights into the user experience, participants were further invited to participate in semi-structured interviews, offering reflections and suggestions for potential enhancements. The evaluation process encompassed the perceived usefulness of the Didascalia Virtual-ClassRoom, shedding light on factors that could either facilitate or impede the adoption of this platform to enhance classroom management competence. The participants' perspectives serve as a valuable foundation for refining the tool's functionality, and their feedback fuels recommendations for its seamless integration into initial teacher training programs.

Virtual reality in the classroom: a difficult but exciting adventure for teachers and students

Virtual reality (VR) enables the creation of immersive and interactive learning environments for students and teachers. This article reports on an exploratory teaching practice conducted with pre-service secondary school teachers using Neotrie, a dynamic geometry software in virtual reality. In small groups, future teachers must learn how to use the software and design a didactic sequence to bring to the classroom. Following a research-action methodology, through this experience it is reported both the advantages and difficulties encountered when starting to use VR to design didactic sequences, as well as when learning a VR sandbox software with interactive tools, like Neotrie. A proposal for assessing the sequences under the premises of the TPaCK model is also included.

Quantitative reasoning as a lens to examine changes in modelling competencies of secondary preservice teachers

AbstractThis study draws on quantitative reasoning research to explain how secondary mathematics preservice teachers’ (PSTs) modelling competencies changed as they participated in a teacher education programme that integrated modelling experience. Adopting a mixed methods approach, we documented 110 PSTs’ competencies in Vietnam using an adapted Modelling Competencies Questionnaire. The results show that PSTs improved their real-world-problem-statement, formulating-a-model, solving-mathematics, and interpreting-outcomes competencies. Showing their formulating-a-model and interpreting-outcomes competencies, PSTs enhanced their quantitative reasoning by properly interpreting the quantities and their relationships using different representations. In addition, the analysis showed a statistically significant correlation between PSTs’ modelling competencies and quantitative reasoning. Suggestions for programme design to enhance modelling competencies are included.

Predicting the pre-service teachers’ teaching intention from educator-created (dis)empowering climates: A self-determination theory-based longitudinal approach

Guided by self-determination theory, this two-wave longitudinal research aims to examine the associations between pre-service teachers’ perceptions of educator-created (dis-)empowering climates and their teaching intention, considering the bright and dark motivational pathways. A total of 1,258 secondary pre-service teachers (55.5% women, Mage = 26.17, SD = 5.66) have participated. The results from path analysis have shown positive associations between educator-created perceived empowering climates and need satisfaction, autonomous motivation, and teaching intention in pre-service teachers, while educator-created perceived disempowering climates have been positively related to pre-service teachers’ need frustration, controlled motivation and amotivation. The conclusions have suggested that pre-service teachers’ perceptions of educator-created (dis-)empowering climates during their initial teacher education program play a determining role in their teaching intention.

Predicción de la intención docente del profesorado en formación inicial a partir del clima de (des-)empoderamiento creado por el formador del profesorado: un análisis longitudinal basado en la teoría de la autodeterminación

Guided by self-determination theory, this two-wave longitudinal research aims to examine the associations between pre-service teachers’ perceptions of educator-created (dis-)empowering climates and their teaching intention, considering the bright and dark motivational pathways. A total of 1,258 secondary pre-service teachers (55.5% women, Mage=26.17, SD=5.66) have participated. The results from path analysis have shown positive associations between educator-created perceived empowering climates and need satisfaction, autonomous motivation, and teaching intention in pre-service teachers, while educator-created perceived disempowering climates have been positively related to pre-service teachers’ need frustration, controlled motivation and amotivation. The conclusions have suggested that pre-service teachers’ perceptions of educator-created (dis-)empowering climates during their initial teacher education program play a determining role in their teaching intention.

Metacognitive scaffolding for preservice teachers’ self-regulated design of higher order thinking tasks

This study compared two professional training courses targeting self-regulated learning (SRL) amongst preservice secondary science teachers in the context of didactic content knowledge for teaching higher-order thinking (HOT-PCK), either with metacognitive scaffolding (Meta group) or without (Control group). Measures included trainees' comprehension and design of HOT-PCK learning tasks, online SRL reflections about learning-teaching events, and self-reported SRL aptitude. Results indicated skill improvement in both groups, but the metacognitive support provided by the IMPROVE self-questioning technique better enhanced the preservice teachers’ (PSTs) development of HOT-PCK, both as students (comprehension skills) and as future teachers (design skills), additionally as their ability to reflect on and control their studying. Findings also revealed significant correlations between SRL assessments (self-reports, event-based reflections) and between SRL and HOT-PCK indices. Consequences for teacher education combining SRL and HOT-PCK contexts are discussed.

예비교사를 위한 AI 활용 수업 사례 및 효과성 분석

The purpose of this study was to examine a instructional case and effectiveness in order to derive implications for designing AI education courses for pre-service teachers. To this end, we conducted a preliminary survey of 50 elementary and secondary pre-service teachers at a four-year university in the Seoul, and found that perceived usefulness had a significant effect on the intention to adopt AI technology, and based on this, we designed a class that considered the usefulness of AI. The designed AI utilization class was validated by two pedagogical experts, and the final design was derived and applied to the class. To verify the effectiveness of the program, we conducted a paired t-test and found that AI class was effective. The post-test showed that perceived usefulness and social influence were positively related to the intention to use of AI. Therefore, AI utilization education for pre-service teachers should focus primarily on the usefulness of AI in teaching and learning, but should also consider various independent variables that affect technology acceptance.

Fostering expansive and connective sensemaking with preservice secondary science teachers

AbstractPreservice secondary science teachers often experience science learning in narrow and marginalizing ways in their science preparation. These experiences cause harm, particularly for preservice teachers of color. They also limit the disciplinary resources they can develop for later teaching science in ways that value and sustain their students' ways of knowing and being in the world. Our research explores possibilities for cultivating new spaces for preservice secondary science teachers to engage in science. In a content‐focused education course, we designed for and studied preservice teachers' engagement in expansive and connective sensemaking, incorporating heterogeneity, power, and historicity in pursuits of explanatory accounts of the natural world. In this article, we examined how this course design can support preservice teachers to attune to heterogeneity in ways of knowing in science and to connect to identity and historicity in scientific sensemaking. Our analysis suggests that students' final projects reflected attunements to diverse knowing, communicating, and relating in science and deep connections with their identities and future‐making, yet had fewer connections to sociohistorical narratives and structures. We developed illustrative case studies of four student projects, highlighting the personal, social, and political possibilities of creating space for future educators to imagine more expansive and connective forms of science. This study contributes a novel model for preservice science teacher education to support teacher learning to value and sustain their students' ways of knowing and being in the world.

Influence of empowering and disempowering motivational climates on academic self-concept amongst STEM, social studies, language, and physical education pre-service teachers: a test of basic psychological needs

ABSTRACT Guided by the bright and dark side described in Self-Determination Theory, and following hierarchical and integrative conceptualisation of motivational climates, the primary objective of this research was to test the predictive relationships between pre-service teachers’ perceptions of educator-created (dis-)empowering climates and need-based and novelty-based experiences with their academic self-concept. Bearing in mind that the pre-service teachers’ academic self-concept might vary depending on the knowledge domain, a secondary objective was to test invariance in the predictive model across the four knowledge domains (i.e. STEM, social studies, language, and physical education). The convenience sample included 1,410 pre-service secondary teachers (40.30% men; Mage = 23.85; SDage = 5.13; domain: 23.2% STEM, 24.8% social studies, 30.5% language, and 21.4% physical education) who participated in this cross-sectional study. The results from the structural equation modelling showed positive relationships between an educator-created empowering climate and need and novelty satisfaction, and negative relationships with need and novelty frustration. A disempowering climate was positively associated with need and novelty frustration, and negatively related to novelty satisfaction. Need satisfaction and novelty satisfaction were positively associated with academic self-concept, while need frustration and novelty frustration were associated negatively. The paths were invariant across the knowledge domains of STEM, social studies, language, and physical education. The results show that, regardless of the knowledge domain, the educator-created motivational climate represents a differential social-contextual factor explaining the need-based and novelty-based experiences, and academic self-concept of pre-service teachers throughout their initial teacher education programme.

Applying Bandura's Theory of Self-Efficacy to assess the perceptions of Pre-service Economics teachers concerning teaching using graphs

This qualitative study examined the Self-efficacy perceptions of preservice economics teachers regarding teaching with graphs. Understanding graphs have a major role in future teaching practices however learners find it challenging understanding economics graphs. Using a structured interview of 55 pre-service secondary school teachers, economics self-efficacy items by Bandura self-efficacy framework was used to analyze the data. The study found that student teachers are not confident to teach using graphs but have positive attitude to learn how to plot and interpret graphs. The teaching practices of high school teachers were found to have influenced the low-self-efficacy of most of the participants though they look forward to teaching using graphs. Most participants agreed that plotting, understanding, and interpreting data from graphs as well as presenting information graphically are key skills that all economics teachers and students should master. The research concludes that both high school economics teachers and preservice teachers should be equipped with the necessary skills to understand graph presentation because they both grapple with interpreting and plotting graphs. The research contributes to improving the way graphs are taught because economics teachers must be comfortable with graph presentations. Higher education institutions should increase their effectiveness when teaching introductory economics courses by finding creative ways to help students understand graphical representations of economics content. It is recommended that Teacher Education programs should emphasize the importance of graphs in the teaching of economics and empower student teachers with the necessary skills.

Is it the school of fish or the size of the pond that matters? An experimental examination of reference group effects in secondary school

Do teachers consider not only an individual student's performance and abilities but also the number of motivated peers in a class as a frame of reference when deciding whether or not to recommend them for academic high school? Given the limited number of places available in such schools in the short run, we argue that a student's chances of being recommended depend on the number of competitors and especially whether they already secured a recommendation for themselves. Using choice experiments presenting groups of three to five students to pre-service secondary school teachers in Switzerland, we show how the individual probability for a recommendation for the most advantageous school track depends on the size of the reference group. Furthermore, individual chances are especially affected by the number of other students in the group that the teacher deems fit for academic high school: The higher the share of competitors in the reference group with a recommendation, the smaller the individual chances. These effects are robust across samples, methods, and with respect to alternative mechanisms.

Discussion on Microteaching in Korean Mathematics Education

This study conducted a literature review to scrutinize the landscape of microteaching-related research within the field of mathematics education in South Korea. The research data were collected by searching for keywords such as microteaching, teaching demonstrations, and simulated rehearsal on RISS until July 2023. The final research data consisted of 28 empirical studies, including only those published in academic journals. For data analysis, the study delved into the purposes of microteaching, the specific grade levels being targeted, and the diverse methodologies employed in microteaching. The findings illuminated that a predominant focus of the studies was on secondary preservice teachers, with microteaching being implemented primarily for the purpose of observing teaching behaviors. Qualitative research methodologies prevailed, with a notable prevalence of studies utilizing video recordings to encapsulate the intricacies of the teaching process. Furthermore, it was a customary practice to facilitate peer feedback sessions following the teaching sessions. Finally, a comprehensive discourse was engaged to elucidate the underlying rationales driving the observed trends in these findings.

Development of VAScoR: A rubric to qualify and score responses to the views of nature of science (VNOS) questionnaire

AbstractWe report on the development of a rubric to reliably qualify and score responses to the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS): The VNOS Analysis and Scoring Rubric (VAScoR). The VAScoR is designed to (a) provide systematic guidance for the qualitative analysis, and score assignment to nuanced categories, of VNOS responses, (b) explicitly scaffold qualitative inferencing and standardize score assignment to substantially lessen the burden of, and variance in, analyzing and scoring the VNOS, and (c) improve the viability and meaningfulness of cross‐study comparisons drawing on VNOS data. The rubric adopted the VNOS's consensus NOS framework and further delineated core and related elements across 10 target NOS aspects. The VAScoR's reliability was examined in two studies that drew on VNOS questionnaires completed by 185 preservice secondary science teachers (58% female; 126 undergraduate and 59 graduate students) enrolled over several years in a combined undergraduate and graduate licensure program in a large U.S. Midwestern university. In Study I, VAScoR analyses of 86 VNOS questionnaires undertaken by a single author were used to examine the rubric's intra‐rater reliability, which resulted in a robust Cronbach's alpha value of 0.81. In Study II, analyses by four authors of a randomly generated, overlapping set of 18 questionnaires were used to examine inter‐rater reliability, which was supported with substantial consensus among raters as indicated by a Cohen's kappa of 0.71. Further evidence for the VAScoR's inter‐rater reliability was indicated by moderate to strong consistency among four raters with an overall Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.82, and coefficient values ranging from 0.77 to 0.89 for six possible rater pairings.

Primary and secondary pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education

The practice of inclusive education in schools has led to changes in policy and pedagogy, hence teacher acceptance and attitude are important components of its success. The aim of this study is to identify the differences in attitudes of primary and secondary pre-service teachers on inclusion and the potential relationship between demographic variables such as definitions of inclusion, previous experience working in a school, completion of a module on inclusive schools, and other variables. The study included 548 Australian university students studying primary (n = 348) or secondary (n = 193) professional teaching. All participants completed the Teacher Attitudes to Inclusion Scale (TAISA). Principle components analysis was performed to transform the TAISA questionnaire into smaller set of components and two-way between-groups analysis of variance was used to analyse data. Results showed that primary pre-service teachers have more positive attitudes towards inclusion than secondary pre-service teachers. Primary pre-service teachers were also more responsive to training on inclusive education. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Educational Game Design Experiences of Secondary School Preservice Mathematics Teachers

In this study, it was aimed to reveal the mathematical games designed by secondary school preservice mathematics teachers and their views on this process. The participants of the study, in which a case study, one of the qualitative research designs, was used, consisted of 45 pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers who took the Teaching Mathematics with Games course. The data obtained from the study were subjected to descriptive and content analysis. According to the results obtained from the study, while the majority of the games were designed as board/card games, the most preferred learning area was numbers and operations. In addition, according to the grade levels, the most games were designed for the 8th grade and the least for the 5th grade level. In the process of mathematical game design, pre-service teachers mostly aim to provide meaningful learning, develop procedural skills, reinforce what has been learned, and make learning mathematics fun. In addition, although the pre-service teachers experienced some difficulties during the game design process, it was determined that this process affected them positively in cognitive, affective, and pedagogical terms.