Scaffolding Preservice Teachers Research Articles

A multi-feedback system integrated simulation-based teacher training to scaffold pre-service teachers’ teaching skills: A phenomenological approach

AbstractBefore taking full responsibility for a real classroom, pre-service teachers (PTs) can safely experience a rich learning atmosphere in a simulated virtual classroom environment and receive feedback on their lesson planning and teaching performance. This research aims to support and examine the process of structuring PTs’ teaching skills with a multi-source feedback system integrated with simulation-based teacher training (SimInTeach-FBS). A phenomenological approach was employed in order to understand the nature of PT’s experiences from a feedback system focusing on teaching skills. Seventy PTs, twelve mentor teachers (MTs), and six teacher educators (TEs) participated in the study. Various data collection tools were used to gain a deeper understanding of the participants' experiences: reflective journals, open-ended feedback forms, and observation notes. The results of the content analysis showed that teaching experience with SimInTeach-FBS raises self-awareness and improves PTs’ teaching skills. It was revealed that teaching skills were mutually structured, feedback given to the PTs multiplied the effect of the development process, and teaching experience facilitated the transfer of acquired teaching skills to real life.

Using design-based research to adjust lesson study with pre-service teacher candidates

PurposeThis study reports on changes made within the study, plan, teach and reflect steps of lesson study with pre-service teachers who were learning to teach within a disciplinary literacy course.Design/methodology/approachUsing methods associated with formative experiments and design-based research, this study gathered data over four iterations of the disciplinary literacy course. Data included the course materials, pre-service teachers’ written work, observational notes from research lessons, transcripts of post-lesson discussions and teacher-educators’ analysis sessions and pre-service teachers’ post-program interviews. Data were analyzed within and across iterations.FindingsInitial adjustments to the lesson study process focused on the reflect step, as we learned to better scaffold pre-service teachers sharing of observational data from research lessons. Later adjustments occurred in the study and plan steps, as we refined the design of four-day lesson sequences that better supported pre-service teachers’ attention to disciplinary literacy while providing room for their instructional mentors to provide specific team-based feedback. Adjustments to the teach step included reteaching and more explicit attention to literacy objectives.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by explicitly applying formative experiment and design-based research methods to the implementation of lesson study with pre-service teachers. Furthermore, it contributes examples of lesson study within a disciplinary literacy context, expanding the examples of lesson study’s applicability across content areas.

Examining a Phased Planning Approach to Support Elementary Preservice Teachers in Disciplinary Literacy-Focused Instruction

This study reports qualitative findings related to elementary preservice teachers’ perceptions and use of a six-phased planning approach, titled Planning for Elementary Digitally-Supported Disciplinary Literacy, to integrate digitally supported disciplinary literacy into lesson planning. Preservice teachers in this study were seeking PK-6 licensure and were enrolled in a semester-long graduate-level course focused on disciplinary and content literacy, with an emphasis on the integration of digital tools to support disciplinary literacy. The phased approach considered Core Disciplinary Practices to scaffold preservice teachers’ planning. An inductive qualitative approach was used to collect and analyze data. Thematic results explore preservice teachers’ negotiations of knowledge of print and digital texts and tools to plan for disciplinary literacy, preservice teachers’ perceptions regarding complexities of disciplinary literacy in elementary grades, and the idea of core disciplinary practices as a gateway for a reconsideration of literacy. These results provide implications for how elementary teachers might be supported in integrating disciplinary literacy into their classrooms in a manner that aligns with the goals and constructs of elementary education.

Lesson analysis and plan template: scaffolding preservice teachers’ application of professional knowledge to lesson planning

ABSTRACT Teacher education programmes need to provide opportunities that support the integration of theory with practice. To date, there is little research on how to help preservice teachers apply professional knowledge to an important aspect of practice: lesson planning. The present research developed an educational approach to lesson planning by drawing on research on professional vision and analysis of teaching. The approach shows what kinds of connections may be established between professional knowledge and lesson planning decisions. These connections require reasoning about possible learning effects of instruction according to principles of teaching and learning. To help preservice teachers make connections, a scaffolded progression was created using research on lesson planning, case methods and pedagogies of practice. This progression suggests providing preservice teachers with opportunities for the gradual application of professional knowledge to iterative cycles of lesson plan analysis and lesson planning. A tool for the implementation of this approach, the Lesson Analysis and Plan template, was designed through a research-practice partnership in a teacher preparation programme. Advice to future implementers of the template is discussed based on field experience.

Seeing the Unseen: Applying Intersectionality and Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) Frameworks in Preservice Teacher Education

Background/Context: This paper explores how intersectionality and DisCrit can be used as analytic tools to scaffold preservice teachers’ ability to see the ways in which referrals to and services within special education reproduce inequities as a function of race and perceptions of ability that are rooted in White, middle-class, able-bodied norms. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This qualitative study analyzes White preservice teachers’ understanding and application of intersectionality and DisCrit. Applying critical theoretical perspectives, preservice teachers engage in identifying instances of oppression in society and schools and naming the resulting harm to Black students and families. This paper focuses on the following research questions: How do White preservice teachers engage with critical frameworks intended to unearth the impacts of racism and ableism on Black students? What do their responses reveal about preservice teachers’ level of critical consciousness? Population/Participants/Subjects: Participants in this study were preservice general education teachers in the last semester of coursework of an intensive 12-month master’s program in secondary education at a large predominantly White Midwestern university. This study focuses on four self-identified White able-bodied and one White (dis)abled preservice teacher who represent exemplars of the types of engagement evidenced by preservice teachers within the course. Intervention/Program/Practice: The course that was the site of this study focused on preparing preservice teachers to teach and support Students Identified with (Dis)abilities in middle and high school classrooms. The first portion of the course focused on analyzing the history of racism and ableism in special education using critical frameworks. These class sessions provided preservice teachers with frameworks they could apply to their experiences at their school sites and language they needed to discuss racism and ableism. Research Design: This article reports on a qualitative case study of general education preservice teacher engagement with the critical frameworks of intersectionality and disability critical race theory (DisCrit) in a predominantly White teacher education program. Data Collection and Analysis: For the duration of the course, video recordings of whole group discussions and audio recordings of small group discussions were collected. Descriptive and in vivo coding were employed during the first level of coding to closely highlight participants’ perspectives that were rooted in their own language. The second level of analysis captured the content of the ideas expressed by preservice teachers when engaging and employing critical frameworks, and the third level of analysis captured preservice teacher engagement in ways that demonstrated either active adoption, quiet adoption, resistant engagement, or resistant deflection of course material. Findings/Results: There is a fluidity in which preservice teachers move through levels of engagement (active adoption, quiet adoption, resistant engagement, or resistant deflection) when explicitly taught critical frameworks to help them identify and disrupt inequity, in this case, racism and ableism in schools. For example, a preservice teacher may experience dissonance when there is misalignment between their previously held assumptions and new learning. At first, they may resist this knowledge and then adopt new perspectives over time. They may also go back and forth between resistance and adoption, or they may remain resistant throughout the course. Additionally, a preservice teacher may actively adopt course content and frameworks that align with their previous orientations and quietly or actively adopt new frameworks over time. Conclusions/Recommendations: Teaching critical frameworks is an important tool to understanding preservice teachers’ orientations toward inequity. Choosing critical frameworks that undergird teacher education courses supports the development of objectives that are antiracist/antiableist. It also provides teacher educators guidance in choosing materials/artifacts that will encourage preservice teachers to discuss the implications of those frameworks. Critical frameworks provide a method of helping preservice teachers see inequity that aspects of their privilege render invisible and provide an assessment tool for teacher educators to analyze preservice teachers’ orientations toward inequity and how this manifests in their orientation toward students of historically marginalized groups.

Scaffolding pre-service biology teachers’ diagnostic competences in a video-based Learning environment: measuring the effect of different types of scaffolds

ABSTRACT Diagnosing is an important aspect of teachers’ professional competence. To successfully diagnose classroom situations, one has to apply pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in diagnostic activities (DA). Simulated classroom situations with embedded scaffolding can be an effective way of practising skills needed to foster diagnostic competences. In an intervention study with pre-post-test design using the video-based learning environment DiKoBi, we investigated the effects of scaffolds on the diagnostic competences of 57 pre-service biology-teachers in an early stage of university education. For the intervention, we developed two types of scaffolds: one providing additional PCK (PCK-scaffold) and one focusing on the diagnostic activities (DA-scaffold). Pre-service teachers were divided into four groups depending on the type of scaffold they received during the intervention (PCK-, PCK + DA-, DA- and control group). Pre-service teachers receiving PCK-scaffolds showed statistically significantly higher diagnostic competences in the post-test than in the pre-test. This includes the PCK- as well as the PCK + DA-group. For the other two groups, no significant improvement can be reported. Thus, we assume that the diagnostic competences of pre-service biology teachers can effectively be fostered by including PCK-scaffolds in DiKoBi and hence a minimum of PCK is necessary for successfully diagnosing in simulated classroom situations.

Collaborative analytics-supported reflective Assessment for Scaffolding Pre-service Teachers’ collaborative Inquiry and Knowledge Building

Helping pre-service teachers (PSTs) develop competencies in collaborative inquiry and knowledge building is crucial, but this subject remains largely unexplored in CSCL. This study examines the design and process of collaborative analytics-supported reflective assessment and its effects on promoting PSTs to develop their competencies in collaborative inquiry and knowledge building. We used a quasi-experimental design that lasted 18 weeks. The experimental group was a class of 40 PSTs who took a liberal studies course with a knowledge building design enhanced by collaborative analytics-supported reflective assessment. The comparison group was a class of 28 PSTs taught by the same instructor who studied the same inquiry topics but experienced a regular knowledge building environment using portfolios. The analysis of the PSTs’ Knowledge Forum discourse showed that collaborative analytics-supported reflective assessment helps PSTs develop collaborative inquiry competencies for community knowledge advancement. The analysis of the PSTs’ reflection using collaborative analytics and prompt questions showed that the design using KBDeX visualization and knowledge building rubrics helped them engage in productive collaborative knowledge building inquiry by involving them in continuous monitoring, analysis, negotiation, synthesis of inquiry, identification of promising routes for inquiry, and actions to guide further collective inquiry. Implications for designing CSCL collaborative-analytics enriched with reflective assessment and student agency, and broadening CSCL and knowledge building approaches to pre-service teacher education are discussed.

Adopting Hands-Off Approaches to Activism: Examining PSTs’ Experiences Navigating Visibility and Vulnerability as Teacher Activists

This case study examines six English Language Arts (ELA) preservice teachers (PSTs) and the ways they recognize injustice and inequity in education, plan for addressing such issues, and engage as teacher-activists toward impacting the issues they recognize. This research was guided by the following two questions: In what ways do ELA PSTs use their own recognition of educational injustice/inequity to foster discussions of methods for addressing such issues? How do PSTs engage in the agentive work of activists to impact those issues? Findings point to the ways in which PSTs adopt hands-off approaches to activism, or what I theorize as passive activism, where they, perhaps unconsciously, shield and distance themselves from the visibility and vulnerability that accompanies activist work. After a discussion of findings, I offer implications for the field and the ways teacher educators can better scaffold PSTs as they work to “do” the work of activists both inside and outside their classrooms.

Don’t Fear Poetry! Secondary Teachers’ Key Strategies for Engaging Pupils With Poetic Texts

ABSTRACT Poetry is a key element of many literature curricula but poetry teaching is something with which many teachers struggle. Research indicates that teachers lack experience of poetry as well as subject knowledge and that current high-stakes testing poses challenges. While previous research has investigated teachers’ experiences through large quantitative studies, this study focuses on what teachers who are keen readers of poetry regard as key elements of pedagogy. The material comprises 15 interviews with secondary school teachers of Swedish. A thematic analysis identified four themes: drawing on personal engagement, discussing pupils’ conceptions from the outset, creating a safe classroom atmosphere, and scaffolding pupils’ interpretations. The study highlights the centrality of the aesthetic experience and suggests that attention should be paid within research regarding how aesthetic content should be taught and that teacher educators should scaffold pre-service teachers’ individual exploration of poetry to help them become confident teachers of poetry.

Peer-supported collaborative inquiry in teacher education: exploring the influence of peer discussions on pre-service teachers’ levels of critical reflection

Scaffolding pre-service teachers to critically reflect on their practice remains a challenging goal. Exploring the extent to which peer discussion facilitates this critical reflection is the focus of this paper. Using a series of three linked tasks, pre-service teachers 1) reflected on a classroom incident from a vignette of practice, 2) shared and discussed their initial reflections with peers and 3) revisited their initial reflection in an attempt to unearth any assumptions they may have had. The study found that peer discussion broadened pre-service teachers’ perspectives beyond the initial ego-centric reflections, which were dominated by issues of pupil management, control and discipline. The peer discussion process supported pre-service teachers in identifying and questioning some of their preconceived assumptions. However, findings indicate that the process supported pre-service teachers in acquiring greater breadth rather than greater depth in reflective thinking. We would argue that rather than seeing peer engagement opportunities as a panacea, it should be viewed as a valuable scoping exercise to unearth alternative perspectives and to begin the process of ‘hunting assumptions’.

Purposeful Reflections: Scaffolding Preservice Teachers' Field Placement Observations

ABSTRACTIn this qualitative study we examine preservice teachers' abilities to connect theory and practice through the use of a collaboratively developed field observation guide, namely the “Targeted Field Observation Guide.” The goal in developing and implementing this field-based observation guide was to help preservice teachers make explicit, purposeful connections between their required, course-embedded field placements and the secondary undergraduate content area literacy courses in which they were enrolled. Forty-three preservice teachers participated in this study and were enrolled in a large public university or a small private college in the Midwestern United States. Analysis of participants' weekly written reflections shared via computer-mediated communication (Google Docs) reveals that using a field-based observation guide further supported connections and conversations with peers regarding their field reflections and observations. However, many participants' reflections still demonstrated limited connections between theory and practice.

Building Disciplinary Language and Literacy in Elementary Teacher Training

AbstractGiven increased attention to disciplinary literacy in K–5 contexts, there is a need to explore how elementary preservice teachers are trained to engage in disciplinary instruction. The authors present a curriculum for fostering disciplinary language and literacy awareness in elementary teacher preparation. First, they explain how and why they support preservice teachers in critically reflecting on their language experiences. Second, the authors illustrate how they scaffold preservice teachers in moving from merely recognizing the speaking, listening, reading, and writing bound up in disciplinary practices to deconstructing and designing lessons that attend explicitly to the language of the disciplines. The authors conclude by addressing the opportunities and challenges of integrating this work into early childhood education programs.

Tools for Reflection: Video-Based Reflection Within a Preservice Community of Practice

Current reform in science education calls for teachers to understand student thinking within a lesson to effectively address students’ needs (NRC in A framework for K-12 science education: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 2012; NRC in Guide to implementing the Next Generation Science Standards. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2015). This study investigates how to scaffold preservice teachers with learning to attend to students’ thinking for the purpose of guiding curricular decisions. The study focuses on one team teaching a science unit during their early field experience. We sought to understand how participants’ thoughts and abilities changed through participation in a moderated community of practice using video of their own teaching as a reflective tool. We examined how these changes affected both their classroom practice and their decision-making for future lessons. Evidence shows growth in participants’ ability to identify opportunities to elicit, assess, and use students’ thinking to guide instructional decisions. Implications for use of the approach used in this study to begin developing novice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science are discussed.

Pre-service teachers’ personal epistemic beliefs and the beliefs they assume their pupils to have

In their workaday life, teachers are faced with multiple complex tasks. How they carry out these tasks is also influenced by their epistemic beliefs and the beliefs they assume their pupils hold. In an empirical study, pre-service teachers’ epistemic beliefs and those they assume of their pupils were investigated in the setting of teacher education for vocational schools in Germany. Results of the empirical study point at significant inconsistencies between pre-service teachers’ beliefs, the beliefs they assume of their pupils and beliefs conducive to the curricular and didactic concept preferred for vocational schools. Partly, these inconsistencies can be explained by pre-service teachers’ learning experiences in school and university. It seems important that the education of teachers in vocational education aims at scaffolding pre-service teachers in developing beliefs that are conducive for their future profession.

Scaffolding pre-service teachers representing their learning journeys with eportfolios

The term ‘scaffolding’ is often used loosely to describe a broad range of interventions or devices for learners and in many instances the actual nature of the scaffold is unclear. In the true sense, for ‘scaffolding’ to take place the activity needs to be for the learner’s own intentions, i.e. a task that he or she sets for themselves. The scaffold must also operate within the learner’s Zone of Proximal Development, working at the learner’s level of comprehension and drawing the learning into new areas of exploration. A final characteristic of scaffolding is that the scaffold is gradually withdrawn as the learner becomes more competent. The study described in this paper draws on concepts of scaffolding to support beginning pre-service teachers to establish an eportfolio for their course. The students use the eportfolio environment ‘PebblePad’ to store resources and reflect on experiences as they journey through their course. This paper describes and reflects on the processes and artefacts used to scaffold the first year pre-service teachers as they conceptualise and frame their learning journey eportfolios.

Fulfilling multiple obligations: Preservice elementary teachers’ use of an instructional model while learning to plan and teach science

ABSTRACTRecent efforts to design science methods course frameworks that scaffold preservice teachers in organizing inquiry instructional sequences show promise, yet preservice teachers do not always use these frameworks when they teach in school field placements. This article uses a Discourses lens to explore how two preservice elementary teachers’ sense of obligation shaped their use of an instructional model in their science planning and teaching. The preservice teachers’ course assignments, planned and enacted instructional sequences, and stimulated recall interviews were analyzed to characterize how their sense of obligations as students in a university science methods course and as student teachers in their school field‐placement classrooms enabled and constrained their use of the instructional model. Findings show that the preservice teachers encountered multiple Discourses across communities. These Discourses shaped the obligations that preservice teachers were expected to fulfill. The preservice teachers used the instructional model when it supported them in meeting their obligations to others. These findings have implications for situating teacher orientations in Discourses, understanding the role of mentor teachers in supporting preservice teachers in using instructional models, and framing the function of preservice teachers’ subject‐matter knowledge for using instructional models.

Scaffolding pre-service teachers’ observations: eye on the future

Pre-service teachers spend an inordinate amount of time observing teaching and learning in classrooms with the goals of understanding the complexities of that space and impacting their teaching. Consequently, teacher educators are responsible for scaffolding pre-service teachers in the use of appropriate and effective observational skills and tools. In this article, we describe how pre-service teachers were scaffolded to engage in effective observations in their field experiences to reflectively build a foundation for learning about teaching. Data were collected from 27 pre-service teachers during two semester-long language arts methods courses where students used a blended approach for their observations. The description of the course demonstrates that the design of a blended observational process with the related tools completed in the language arts methods courses met the needs of pre-service teachers by honing their observation skills in order to have the potential to positively impact classroom teaching.

Teachers as Moral Compasses: Exploring Critical Literacy through Digital Social Justice Book Talks

A classroom-based study aimed to scaffold preservice teachers’ critical literacy through an exploration of trade picture books. The paper discusses preservice teachers’ shifting views of critical literacy and the place of critical literacy in the language arts classroom. It also assesses the usefulness of digital book talks for engaging preservice teachers with social justice issues. The book talks provided novice teachers with opportunities to question and challenge assumptions, evaluate their own actions and attitudes toward accepted moral standards, and to engage in positive social action. The preservice teachers’ responses to the assignment suggest a number of ways in which teachers can effectively use new media to explore social justice and equity issues with young students.

A Programmatic View of Portfolios for Urban Teacher Preparation

This replication study represents an analysis of 47 exit portfolios of students enrolled in an urban teacher education program. Portfolios were analyzed to determine the degree to which students integrated concepts related to teaching in urban schools: asset/deficit perspectives, connections with families, social justice, high expectations for student learning, and contextualized teaching and learning. The portfolios fall into three groups along a continuum from “awareness” to “trying things out” to “making it their own.” With 30%, 51%, and 19% falling into each group respectively, the data are interpreted in relationship to faculty development and the challenges of scaffolding preservice teachers.

Scaffolding preservice teachers’ WebQuest design: a qualitative study

This study examined how participating preservice teachers reported their perceptions and use of different scaffolds provided to support their WebQuest design. Sixteen preservice teachers participated in a succession of course activities designed to guide WebQuest design and development. Results indicated that while participants followed, adapted, and combined many scaffolds as they designed their WebQuests, they discounted other design supports as redundant, unnecessary, or too time-consuming. Implications for research and practice are described.