Teacher Education Project Research Articles

Deepening awareness of inequities: investigating an advocacy project in early childhood teacher education

ABSTRACT An important goal for early childhood teacher education is to prepare teachers who advocate for policies leading to greater equity for families, young children, and the early childhood profession. This study investigated the extent to which an early childhood policy and advocacy course with an embedded advocacy project increased undergraduate students’ knowledge about inequities in early childhood as well as their attitudes toward adopting an active role in advocating for equitable child and family policies. Qualitative analysis of written reflections revealed that the project increased students’ knowledge about equity issues at a surface level and, for some students, more deeply, especially relating to specific topics of project focus. A few students even described new insights for equity-minded leadership. Several students also became more aware of inequities beyond their own project and articulated a commitment to recognize and address inequities through advocacy. Implications for early childhood teacher preparation are discussed.

Generic competences for end-of-degree projects in teacher education: students’ and university teachers’ perceptions

The aim of this study is to analyse the perception of students and university teachers on the level of importance of generic competences when devising the End-of-Degree Project in Teacher Education, as well as on the amount of training the students receive regarding these competences. It also looks for possible differences between both groups and both ratings. An online survey was applied to a sample of 52 university teachers and 199 fourth year and graduate students of Primary/Preschool Teacher Degree courses. Participants were asked to rate 33 generic competences of an instrumental, interpersonal and systemic nature. It was found that the students thought they had received less training regarding many of the competences, as compared to the perception of university teachers. In addition, importance score was significantly higher than those related to training for both students and university teachers. These results highlight the need to explicitly address and assess the development of generic competences across all subjects in ways that meet the students’ needs.

Implementing CLIL Innovation in a Collaborative Teacher Education Ecosystem

AbstractThis paper reports on the implementation of a 6‐month collaborative teacher education project (CTEP) in China, designed to help teachers adopt CLIL in response to new primary school curriculum requirements. A multi‐site case study was conducted to track two focal teachers' changes in CLIL implementation and its sustainability. Adopting ecological theory, the study investigated how teachers' interactions with university‐based, district‐based, and school‐based teacher educators in the project contributed to their professional development. Our research focused on an innovative dimension of the project, namely, close collaboration among university researchers, teacher educators, and primary teachers who all contributed to the CTEP ecosystem. Data collection involved semi‐structured interviews at the pre‐stage, while‐stage, post‐stage, and delayed post‐stages of the project, classroom observation notes, lesson study minutes, field notes, informal exchanges, and project documents. Our data analysis revealed that although both teachers had a positive attitude towards CLIL, they exhibited different trajectories of changes in their pedagogical practices. The teachers' interactions with teacher educators within and across the four sub‐contexts in the CTEP ecosystem played a significant role in their professional development. Notably, the school‐based teacher educators contributed by establishing a collaborative teaching study group (TSG) that ensured sustainable professional development for the teachers. The findings of this study have important implications for educational policymaking and for designing and implementing collaborative teacher education programmes that offer an alternative to traditional top‐down modes of language teacher professional development.

Could a playful approach to teaching be a path to resonant connections? Experiences from teacher education in Denmark

Creative and playful approaches to teaching in teacher education emerge these years. Due to the increasing focus on performance, pace, visible goals, and efficiency in the educational systems within the Western societies, there seem to be a search for new answers when organising teaching within teacher education—also for the future. Based on empirical material created in a large research project in teacher education in Denmark, this paper analyses how playful approaches can contribute to improving conditions for a holistic approach to education, and how these approaches must be linked to concrete pedagogical actions. By applying a theoretical framework of playful approaches to learning in teacher education based on Rosa, Lennon and Skovbjerg, the main contribution of the paper is to point to both pedagogical directions and clarifications when working with playful approaches in teacher education.

Educating Teachers for Sustainability and Social Justice: A Service-Learning Project in Physical Education Initial Teacher Education

The Sustainable Development Goals are a mission for all societies. Higher education has an essential role in preparing citizens for this global challenge by adopting student-centred approaches and active methodologies. Service Learning (SL) is recognised as having educative value in promoting values, teamwork, and social awareness. The pedagogical project reported in this study was built with the underpinnings of the SL and active learning methodologies and aimed to describe and analyse the experience built on the principles of SL for Society within the theme of Olympics values. This study took place during the school placement curricular unit of a master’s programme in the Physical Education Teacher Education programme at (blinded for review). Seventy-two preservice teachers, organised in groups, were invited to develop an SL for Society project subordinated to the theme of “No one should be left behind” (ASD 2030). An analysis of the 22 projects revealed a spectrum of seven themes: (1) Inclusion, (2) Environment and Sustainability, (3) Gender Equality, (4) Health and Wellness, (5) Olympic and Social Values, (6) Cultural Heritage and Intergenerational Relations, and (7) Learning Communities. While conceiving, planning, implementing, and evaluating the projects, the preservice teachers understood the importance of embracing inclusion, equity, sustainability, and social justice in teaching.

Meeting eye to eye: the power relations in triadic mentoring of the degree project in teacher education

ABSTRACT This study highlights and discusses power aspects within discourses discerned in articulations on triadic mentoring in degree projects in teacher education in Sweden. Each mentoring triad consisted of a pre-service teacher, a professional teacher acting as co-mentor, and a university mentor. As teacher education is to be based on a scientific foundation and proven experience, a symmetrical and complementary approach was to be implemented. Data from interviews, logbooks, and observations of mentoring were analysed discursively using CDA. Two main discourses were distinguished: The hegemony of science, and A gateway to the profession and science: The potential third space. The study shows that the academic paradigm tends to overshadow the symmetrical and complementary approach, but that the third space, the metaphorical meeting outside of the participants’ comfort zone, potentially balances up the mentoring triads through the pre-service teachers’ ownership of the process.

Social Ecology and Environmental Diversity in Teacher Education

Abstract This paper offers reflections on the development and potential of a transformative teacher education project as one component of the Professional Development Programs (PDPs) at the Faculty of Education of a comprehensive Canadian university. The work of our teacher education program is set in Vancouver and utilizes the lenses of social ecology and environmental diversity (or SEEDs) to examine the roles of teachers in bringing an awareness of local/global sustainability issues to student learning experiences. Using auto-ethnographical methods our project reflects on a critical and place-based teacher education agenda highlighting democratic and participatory methods in its approach. We use our experiences combined with relevant literature to explore what inspirations might be drawn from our evolving approach. Drawing from Bookchin’s social ecology, our teacher education practices are based on the conviction that most of our present ecological problems originate with/in deep-seated social problems. It follows, from this view, that ecological problems cannot be understood, let alone solved, without a more careful understanding of our existing society and the irrationalities that often dominate it. In our most recent work, our teacher education candidates identified strongly with the related theoretical notions of Social Ecology and Diversity; hence, our identity (as seeds or seedlings) is in a state of flux as we continue to move and adapt to our current socio-political conditions.

Improving South African student teachers’ English language skills: an argument for the assessment strategies of the PrimTEd language teaching project

South Africa is a linguistically diverse and educationally complex country. Most student teachers in Bachelor of Education programmes who are preparing to teach in primary schools do not speak English as a mother tongue. The medium of instruction for B.Ed programmes is English. Foundation Phase teachers will be expected to teach learners English (as a) First Additional language (EFAL). Intermediate Phase teachers will be expected to use English across the curriculum as English is the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) from grade 4 upwards. As such, it is important that newly qualified teachers entering primary schools can engage with English texts, have a competent understanding of English and communicate fluently in English. As one way of making a positive intervention in future teacher competency, this paper argues for the use of language and literacies assessment in Initial Teacher Education (ITE)at universities. The Primary Teacher Education project (PrimTEd) has developed a set of Language and Literacy standards for teachers, as well as assessments for primary school student teachers’ knowledge of English. These assessments are designed to occur at two points: entry level (first year) and exit level (fourth year) of the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree. Methodologically this paper considers the complex background conditions in language education which led to the PrimTEd project’s work and then sets out how the PrimTEd project’s assessment strategy may offer a hopeful intervention in these circumstances.

Cross-Border Dialogues: A Collaborative Instructional Design Inquiry to Promote Equity and Diversity

The COVID-19 pandemic complicates ingrained educational inequalities around the globe and foregrounds the pertaining challenges that teachers have encountered due to school closures and the shift to distance learning. This cross-border teacher education project intended to examine how academics and pre-service teachers in different geographic locales could collaboratively explore equitable learning opportunities for diverse learners through the use of critical media literacies to respond to interconnected global crises. In this six-week cross-border teacher education project, we recruited four Mandarin and English literacy teacher candidates in Hong Kong to interact with one another and one Canadian professor as part of the teacher preparation phase of a larger-scale cross-border research project that connects youth from Hong Kong and Canada in a social networking space. For the purposes of teacher professional development, the Hong Kong teacher candidates and Canadian researchers engaged in collective exploration of how instructional designs in literacy education could promote equitable learning opportunities for diverse learners. Findings show that the cross-border teacher education project supported teacher candidates’ development of pedagogical skills and espoused their agency in promoting educational equity and collective problem-solving through critical media literacies. Findings relate the teacher candidates’ shifted perspectives from focusing on students’ decontextualized language skills to nurturing critical media skills. Changing from a deficit-oriented view about what literacy learners could not do, the teacher candidates also adopted an asset-oriented view about the linguistic and cultural repertoires that diverse learners could bring to literacy classrooms.

You Might Have to Refute, but Unfortunately the Path to Doing So May Not Be So Clear: A Case Study

Refutation articles may be unpopular with journal editors for various reasons, not only because refutations dwell on the already-published rather than present alluring new findings. Refutations can generate discomfort in casting a harsh spotlight on screening processes and may not fare well in editorial decisions regarding acceptance/rejection. This is unfortunate, since refutations are vital to healthy open debate, allowing academics with genuine concerns about published research a voice. Consequently, there should be a place for carefully researched, thoroughly peer-reviewed refutations. This article explores these issues with reference to an illustrative case study of a rejected refutation. This refutation was produced in response to a misleading claim about an English language teacher education project in Oman. The reader is invited to consider whether this refutation, which was favourably peer-reviewed but then rejected by the editor, deserved closer consideration.

Designing an English language and literacies knowledge and skills test for Initial Teacher Education students in South Africa

Since 2016 the Primary Teacher Education (PrimTEd) project has assessed first and fourth year student teachers' English language and literacies knowledge and skills with a view to optimising what is offered in teacher education courses. In 2021, after a critical review of these English language assessments, a process of test redesigning that also provides professional development opportunities for language teacher educators, was initiated. In this paper, we report on this process of modifying an existing test and discuss a new design that is still a work in progress, in order to make it more responsive to the English language needs of the student teachers. We argue that the emerging test has the potential to contribute to improved English language teacher education at universities and to improved teaching and learning of languages and literacies in South African primary schools.

“One Good Idea”: A Physical Education Teacher Education Project Advocating for LGBTQ + Students in School Physical Education

This article is co-written by teacher educators and pre-service teachers, and shares practical examples of how to design and enact a ‘One Good Idea’ project titled: ‘How We Can All Be Allies’. This project allowed pre-service teachers the space to engage with and explore social justice issues, enhance advocacy skills, and to ‘think outside the box’ in supporting marginalized school students.

Perspectives of the degree project: Small-scale action research in Swedish higher education

The degree project in educational sciences constitutes the pre-service teacher students' final academic achievement in the Bridging Teacher Education Programme at a university in Sweden. The degree project is complicated or a possibility because this university thesis constitutes only one part of the professional degree. The other part of the thesis project, a BA/BSc or MA/MSc, has been acknowledged as previous academic achievement, a required academic qualification for enrolment in the programme. A further difficulty or opportunity is that students' previous theses were achieved in academic disciplines not typically related to teacher education, sometimes several decades ago. This study aimed to visualise the notion of degree project in bridging teacher education. Our initial questions were: Could the transition between academic disciplines be facilitated? Could knowledge of degree project genres be visualised to enhance academic achievement? What is professional development for student teachers? In the actual study, the scope was limited to perspectives of the degree project and suggestions for improvement of degree project design. Thus, in participatory inquiry conversations, small groups of students and lecturers shared their perspectives of the degree project, and provided suggestions for improvement of the project design. Findings from qualitative analysis of the audio recorded data revealed students’ difficulties in conceptualising the writing assignment, mainly due to unpreparedness. Means of addressing the unpreparedness emerged as task-sequencing throughout the study programme, applying an academic literacies approach. Implications for further action research and teaching are participatory inquiry conversations as continual components in the study programme. A further area of potential investigation is application of instructional design theory to degree project supervision.

Learning together: The dynamics of training teachers for disability inclusion in South Africa

Despite the need for inclusive education in South Africa, many teachers have not been appropriately trained for the inclusion process for learners with disabilities in classrooms. A consideration of teacher education for inclusive education involves examining both the structural and professional barriers to training that prevent effective implementation. We review the outcomes of a teacher education project in South Africa through three studies that emanate from Teacher Empowerment for Disability Inclusion (TEDI) at the University of Cape Town. These studies are a situation analysis; a survey of teacher education availability for working with learners with severe disabilities; and an evaluation of short courses. We draw on these studies to develop a holistic picture of the kind of training needed to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills of teachers to address barriers to learning that arise from disability. This entails a conceptual analysis of how the different elements of training work together to address learner needs.

From measuring impact to informing course design: The second design trial of the Maths Intensive course

This paper describes the changes made to the administration of assessments in the second design trial of the Maths Intensive course at a comprehensive university in South Africa because of Covid-19. The course was designed in direct response to poor attainment in the Primary Teacher Education project's mathematics test. Building on positive findings of improved attainment evident in the first design cycle, the Maths Intensive course was further refined for a second cohort of students, and shifts in attainment were once again analysed. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that student could not write the post-test on campus. As a result, the post-test data were not used to measure impact but, instead, were used to establish what the student teachers knew and were able to do at the end of the course. The Maths Intensive test framework mapped the test items to the learning outcomes for the course. Facility scores revealed areas where students were capable and areas where they still required support. The assumption that students would use calculators in un-invigilated circumstances was challenged, and requires further research. These findings may be of interest to lecturers and teachers seeking to develop assessment reports that provide useable information to improve their instructional design and teaching practice. They may also be of interest to academics and training providers designing mathematics education programmes for initial teacher education or for ongoing professional development courses for teachers in primary schools.

Smart Chemistry Teachers Cologne (SChemTeC) – a project in chemistry teacher education to promote scientific literacy

AbstractEine zentrale Implikation naturwissenschaftlicher Grundbildung ist die Befähigung von Schüler:innen, auf Grundlage ihres erworbenen naturwissenschaftlichen Wissens an Diskursen und Entscheidungsprozessen um gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen, etwa dem Klimawandel, zu partizipieren. Um entsprechende Kompetenzen vermitteln zu können, bedarf es Chemielehrer:innen, die selbst an den gesellschaftlich relevanten Diskursen partizipieren können, in einem wissenschaftsgerechten Umgang mit Daten‐ und Informationsquellen angeleitet wurden, sowie in der Lage sind, gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen in die unterrichtliche Praxis zu transformieren. Dazu ist ein Bildungsangebot für Chemielehramtsstudierende konzipiert worden, welches Diskurse von Emissionen der Oxide des Kohlenstoffs und Stickstoffs in den Blick nahm. In einem qualitativen Setting wurden die Entwicklungen von Chemielehramtsstudierenden im Laufe des Seminars erforscht.

University–school collaboration as an arena for community-building in teacher education

ABSTRACT Background In many settings internationally, initial teacher education (ITE) relies on cooperation between schools and universities. When these institutions collaborate on teacher education, the shared work can form a basis for community building. This article focuses on experiences in Norwegian ITE of the Change Laboratory (CL), a form of participatory data analysis workshop, as an arena for such work, and hence community building, in teacher education. Purpose Contextualised within the framework of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), the research aimed to understand participants’ experiences of collaboration in CLs, and how the CLs functioned as an arena for community building. We asked: in what way was the work in CLs during the first year of an intervention research project in teacher education experienced as community building? Method The research was conducted within a four-year teacher education research and development project involving two ITE institutions. We carried out focus group interviews with three groups engaged together in shared work: teacher educators in university (n = 10), teacher educators in school (n = 5), and student teachers (n = 20). Data were analysed qualitatively. Findings During the project, all participants gradually felt that they had a voice and were listened to. Their mutual engagement on the project work, and the use of CHAT also brought them together. Overall, the findings were encouraging and suggested that a focus on community building in CLs in the start-up phase of a project can lay the foundation for collaboration between teacher education and schools, contributing to the co-construction of knowledge, and to learning and development. However, the challenge of disseminating the work to colleagues in universities and schools was perceived as a hindrance. Conclusions The development and sustaining of collaboration in teacher education is an important goal, ultimately benefitting the entire learning community. Crossing boundaries can lead to joint learning, as in this project, and to further development and learning in teacher education.

Practices and their Challenges in an English Teaching Project of a Brazilian State University during the Pandemic

The aim of this manuscript is to present, analyze and discuss the practices developed in a Teacher Education project called Residência Pedagógica (Pedagogical Residency) - a project that the Brazilian government offers to Brazilian universities - and their challenges during the pandemic. More specifically, it intends to focus on the practical phase of the first module of the project, which was when the project-participants observed classes in the school, designed lesson plans for the groups of whose classes they observed and implemented the lessons for these groups. Methodology. Qualitative research method was adopted in this study. The reports, lesson plans and video lessons of the project's participants were used as data in order to analyze their practices under the light of theoretical discussion held during the project. A reflexive diary kept by me was also used as data. Moreover, the participants’ practices were contrasted with situations that occurred in the pandemic context. Results. The project practical phases did not occur as foreseen; however, the participants were able to reflect upon their practices based on the theoretical discussion carried out previously in the project. They recognized the language learning and teaching perspectives in the lessons they observed and, in the lesson, plans they designed and implemented. The pandemic had a great interference in the project, which had to be adapted, so that the first module could be concluded. Conclusions. In spite of the pandemic, we managed to reach the project’s main objective, which was to provide space for college students, who shall graduate as English teachers, to have contact with the school environment.

Феномен психологічної саморегуляції станів у життєдіяльності педагога

Based on the structural and system analysis, the article considers the need for self-regulation for teachers, substantiates and provides statistics on the negative psychophysical states of educators, which they acquire as a result of professional activity. One hundred teachers were interviewed in order to define the mastering level of their self-regulation and the need to educate teachers in the theory and practice of these aspects. Based on the data obtained, it is obvious that educators need education on this issue, and the level of assimilation of this information and skills still needs to be better. The necessity of developming the motivational system of self-regulation mastering by teachers through the following components of this motivation is substantiated in the article: it can be made through a condition of psychophysical health; because of the culturological need of educators and because of the need not to expose others, in particular children, according to the negatives of their emotional deviations; due to the need for pedagogical competence, which has the competence of the psychological spectrum, which determines the professional status; because of the need for the teacher to be a proactive person. Since teachers are mostly motivated to learn self-regulation mainly because of health and the effectiveness of such motivation is limited, we conclude that there should be several motivational areas, where each specialist will find what he needs. The article analyzes and systematizes theoretical principles of self-regulation of mental states of the personality in order to bring this information in an adaptive form for teachers. In this context, the periodization is made considering the research on self-regulation by scientists from foreign and national physiological and psychological schools. The meaningful information of theoretical bases of regulation is structured and systematized. The necessity of a regular system of education on the theory and practice of self-regulation is substantiated and in this perspective the article gives the basics of such education. In our publication the authors offer the term, forms of work and its content. Conclusions are made on improving the awareness of educators of the practical acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities on the problem. Key words: self-regulation of personality mental states; motivation, mastery of self-regulation of mental states by the teacher; systematization of theoretical principles of self-regulation; basics of the teacher education project on self-regulation issues.

Mentoring for school-based teacher education

Due to the shortage of teachers at schools, the Ministry of Education and Science in Latvia has devoted special attention to fast track of teachers to teaching starting new teacher education project to attract capable and motivated professionals from various fields to the work of a teacher. This also raised the necessity for the development of programme and training competent teachers to act as mentors in school-based teacher education programme. The study aimed to explore and evaluate mentor education in the context of work-based (school-based) initial teacher education. The research sample consisted of 55 participants of mentor professional development programme and 2 mentor trainers. The data analysis of participants’ questionnaires, reflections, mentor trainers’ self-evaluations and feedback on participants’ assignments led to the guidelines for building partnership between schools and universities to promote a common understanding of school-based teacher education. Keywords: mentor education; school-based teacher education; student teacher; university-school partnership