Teacher Education Intervention Research Articles

Moving beyond native-speakerism through identity-based teacher education: The roles of positioning and agency

In the field of English language teaching, the deeply entrenched dichotomy between ‘native English-speaking teachers’ (NESTs) and ‘non-native English-speaking teachers’ (NNESTs) has forcibly positioned NNESTs as linguistically and pedagogically inferior to their native counterparts. The prevalence of native-speaker ideologies marginalizes NNESTs in professional settings and impedes their agency enactment in claiming identities as competent educators. Therefore, it is crucial to facilitate English teachers (especially NNESTs) to practice agency to (re)negotiate identities to move beyond native-speaker ideologies. Framed by positioning theory, this study investigates how 12 in-service English teachers worldwide exercised agency to (re)negotiate positions throughout an innovative identity-based intervention. The intervention, implemented in three online sessions across six weeks, instigated participants’ identity reflections based on three themes: theories, pedagogy and power. Each session comprised one online seminar and one self-reflective written task. Drawing on data from the intervention and pre- and post-intervention interviews, our findings yielded three distinct identity negotiation patterns, namely active, tentative and reluctant repositioning. Participants of each pattern presented unique combinations of repositioning acts, including resisting inferior positions, selectively engaging with empowering positions, shifting back to initial positions and maintaining existing positions. Agency and positioning were found to be reciprocally informed. While agency was practised to facilitate repositioning, the agentic positions teachers undertook influenced agency enactment as well. Participants’ choices of different repositioning acts were jointly mediated by their evaluation of native-speaker ideologies’ impact on their existing positions and their power to challenge native-speakerism in their own professional settings. At a theoretical level, this article provides a conceptual framework that illustrates the interconnectedness between the intervention, teacher identity and teacher agency. At a practical level, it demonstrates the effectiveness of implementing identity-based intervention in teacher education to foster NNESTs’ repositioning and agency enactment against the backdrop of native-speakerism.

Examining Grade 6 Teachers’ Knowledge and Understanding of Differentiated Instruction in O.R. Tambo Inland District in South Africa

It is essential to ensure differentiation in curriculum delivery to give all learners access to learning while also meeting the diversity of learner needs in the classroom in line with the Republic of South Africa’s inclusive education policy. This mixed methods study sought to examine grade 6 teachers’ knowledge and understanding of differentiated instruction to respond to the diverse needs of learners in OR Tambo Education District in the Eastern Cape. Data was collected from three randomly selected primary schools using interviews, questionnaires, and classroom observation tools. Four grade 6 teachers for mathematics and reading-to-learn were selected from each school (N 12). Key findings revealed that teachers lacked knowledge and understanding of differentiated instruction, and how it should be implemented in the classroom. This implies that all teachers should be trained or in-serviced (during and after training respectively) on how to respond to learners’ diverse needs during teaching and learning. This study contributes to knowledge in the field of inclusive education. The results of this study may influence universities to design teacher education programmes, methods, and/or interventions, which will enhance responses to learner diversity through differentiated instruction. This study could help researchers uncover the critical areas of differentiated instruction, its importance and its application in the classroom, its benefits for teachers and learners, and its impact on student learning. Keywords: Curriculum Delivery, Differentiated Instruction, Learner Diversity, Pedagogical Knowledge.

The Impact of Social-Emotional Learning Interventions in Teacher Education

Social-emotional learning (SEL) plays a vital role in the realm of daily teaching and learning. As a significant pedagogical approach, it profoundly influences the teaching methods and philosophies employed by educators. This article delves into a comprehensive examination of the various forms of SEL intervention in teacher education and their resulting outcomes. Drawing upon a meticulous review of 16 previous scholarly articles, this research identifies two primary types of SEL interventions: lecture-based learning and participatory learning. The study demonstrates that SEL interventions effectively enhance teachers Social and Emotional Competence (SEC) development, foster robust teacher-student relationships, promote teachers professional growth, and contribute to overall teacher well-being. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that the article highlights the potential influence of teachers and pre-service teachers ethnicity or racial backgrounds, as well as the prevailing school climate, on the effectiveness of SEL interventions, thus potentially hindering these interventions from achieving optimal results. This article presents an insightful and comprehensive overview of the association between SEL interventions and teacher education. The findings underscore the importance of encouraging educators to actively engage in SEL intervention programs while emphasizing the need for interventions to be tailored to accommodate the unique personal teaching experiences and individual backgrounds of teachers.

Investigating the effectiveness of three school based interventions for preventing psychotic experiences over a year period – a secondary data analysis study of a randomized control trial

IntroductionPsychotic experiences (PEs) are associated with increased risk of later mental disorders and so could be valuable in prevention studies. However, to date few intervention studies have examined PEs. Given this lack of evidence, in the current study a secondary data analysis was conducted on a clustered-randomized control trial (RCT) of 3 school based interventions to reduce suicidal behaviour, to investigate if these may reduce rates of PEs, and prevent PE, at 3-month and 1-year follow-up.MethodsThe Irish site of the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe study, trial registration (DRKS00000214), a cluster-RCT designed to examine the effect of school-based interventions on suicidal thoughts and behaviour. Seventeen schools (n = 1096) were randomly assigned to one of three intervention arms or a control arm. The interventions included a teacher training (gate-keeper) intervention, an interactive educational (universal-education) intervention, and a screening and integrated referral (selective-indicative) intervention. The primary outcome of this secondary data-analysis was reduction in point-prevalence of PEs at 12 months. A second analysis excluding those with PEs at baseline was conducted to examine prevention of PEs. Additional analysis was conducted of change in depression and anxiety scores (comparing those with/without PEs) in each arm of the intervention. Statistical analyses were conducted using mixed-effects modelling.ResultsAt 12-months, the screening and referral intervention was associated with a significant reduction in PEs (OR:0.12,95%CI[0.02–0.62]) compared to the control arm. The teacher training and education intervention did not show this effect. Prevention was also observed only in the screening and referral arm (OR:0.30,95%CI[0.09–0.97]). Participants with PEs showed higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, compared to those without, and different responses to the screening and referral intervention & universal-education intervention.ConclusionsThis study provides the first evidence for a school based intervention that reduce & prevent PEs in adolescence. This intervention is a combination of a school-based screening for psychopathology and subsequent referral intervention significantly reduced PEs in adolescents. Although further research is needed, our findings point to the effectiveness of school-based programmes for prevention of future mental health problems.

An Affective, Formative and Data-Driven Feedback Intervention in Teacher Education

Educators and researchers have long contemplated the most effective ways to provide feedback to students, to build sustainable feedback practices, and to establish feedback literacy. While a considerable amount of research, theory, and practical approaches exist to support the effect of formative feedback practices, less research exists on the impact of affective elements related to feedback. This study set out to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions of a feedback intervention that included affective, formative, and data-driven aspects. A mixed-reality simulation environment was selected as the context for the study, and eight pre-service teachers performing in the simulation were selected as participants. This qualitative multicase study included three rounds of simulation observations, a feedback intervention, and interviews. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis framework. Findings showed that the application of confirmation, empathy, and reciprocity in the feedback intervention prompted the development of helping relationships that promoted personal growth. Humanism became a useful framework for these emergent findings. In addition, findings included participants’ preferences for formative feedback over data-feedback, particularly formative feedback that introduced engaging language, purposeful organization, and details and examples. Lastly, findings revealed participants’ perceived personal growth in feedback literacy, especially in managing emotions and committing to the feedback process.

Teacher Education Interventions on Teacher TPACK: A Meta-Analysis Study

Teacher education is an important strategy for developing teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Many schools in the world have incorporated the training into teacher education plans. However, there has been controversy in academic circles concerning the effects of teacher education intervention in promoting the development of teacher TPACK. Therefore, this study used a meta-analysis approach to review the published literature on teacher education programs to determine the impact on TPACK. The results showed that teacher education intervention positively affected TPACK (d = 0.839, p < 0.0001). Besides cultural background, experimental participants, types, sample types, intervention durations, differences in measurement methods, intervention types, and learning environments are the reasons for the differences in the effects of the interventions. The research design using random experiments had a significant positive effect on the size, which was significantly higher than that of the quasi-experiment. The longer the duration of teaching intervention, the stronger the improvement effect of teachers’ TPACK. There are significant differences in improving TPACK between teaching interventions, and the effect is more obvious. Teacher education intervention has a greater and slightly smaller impact on theoretical and practical knowledge. However, cultural background, experimental participant, sample type, and learning environment have no significant effect on teacher education intervention.

“From Her Eyes”: On the Affordances of Video Resources in Supporting Teacher Reflection

The contribution presents data and findings from a teacher education intervention, which aimed at supporting (student) teachers’ professional vision in order to improve their (dialogic) reflective practices. In order to facilitate meaningful dialogue, video-recorded English lessons were used as bases of discussion. The 19 participants were early career teachers (with about two to four years teaching experience) from diverse geographical and educational backgrounds. Overall, interactions amounting to 349 minutes were recorded. Data show interesting interactions between participants describing and noticing specific teaching events on the video material, the challenges of suspending evaluation and the crucial role of dialogue in deepening the reflective process. Findings also show the affordances of video materials on fostering professional vision, such as the means of re-watching episodes and of several participants having seen the same teaching event. Although the participants had teaching experience, the facilitators were crucial in guiding towards both specific moments in the teaching events observed and to theory-based knowledge available to the participants. This raises implication for both pre- and in-service teaching aimed at reflective practice.

Promoting critical thinking through mathematics and science teacher education: the case of argumentation and graphs interpretation about climate change

ABSTRACT A shift from teaching to learn to learning to think is necessary to promote critical thinkers. Since teachers tend to replicate the educational models they have experienced as students, new references are needed. In order to address these concerns, we present an interdisciplinary intervention in initial teacher education and analyse its impact on teachers’ critical thinking and awareness of the importance to promote it. The intervention is based on the potential of socio-scientific issues to support argumentation and provide meaningful contexts for graph interpretation. The content analysis of participants’ responses before and after inquiring about climate change shows an increase in the level of argumentation and the capacity to read beyond data, providing evidence of the development of critical thinking. In addition, pre-service teachers explicitly refer to their future responsibility in preparing students to face current challenges, demonstrating awareness of the need to promote critical thinking.

Themes in Train-the-Trainer Nutrition Education Interventions Targeting Middle School Students: A Systematic Review.

Context-appropriate nutrition education interventions targeting middle school students have the potential to promote healthy dietary patters that may help prevent unnecessary weight gain at a point in childhood development when youth experience increasing agency over their food choices. The aim of this review was to identify and synthesize themes in train-the-trainer approaches, intervention content and delivery, and youth receptivity across teacher, mentor, and peer-led nutrition education interventions that targeted middle school-age youth in urban, primarily low-income settings. A systematic, electronic literature search was conducted in seven electronic databases, PubMed/Medline, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane CENTRAL, using fixed inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 53 papers representing 39 unique interventions were selected for data extraction and quality assessment. A framework synthesis approach was used to organize the interventions into six categories and identify themes according to whether the intervention was classroom-based or out-of-school-based and whether adults, cross-age peers or same-age peers delivered the intervention. Ten of the interventions contained multiple components such that they were included in two of the categories. The review findings indicated that trainings should be interactive, include opportunities to role-play intervention scenarios and provide follow-up support throughout intervention delivery. Interventions targeting middle school youth should include positive messaging and empower youth to make healthy choices within their specific food environment context.

Changing teacher learners’ language ideologies and pedagogical practices: an action research intervention in World Englishes

ABSTRACT The growing recognition of the varieties of Englishes constituting the world Englishes (WE) and related paradigms calls for replacing teachers’ existing language ideologies with WE-oriented beliefs and preparing them to teach with WE awareness. Since WE has yet to be part of mainstream education and teacher education, formal and informal interventions are used by educators and researchers for teacher learning and professional development. How effective are such interventions in changing student-teachers’ language beliefs and practices? The action research reported in this article was conducted in a postgraduate Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) course at an Australian university involving in-service and pre-service teachers mainly from Asia. We report some changes in the participants’ beliefs of English and their views of pedagogical practices. However, the major contribution of the research is noted in its reporting of pedagogical and methodological challenges for such interventions and drawing lessons for future research.

From teachers’ implicit theories of intelligence to job stress: The mediating role of teachers’ causal attribution of students’ academic achievement

AbstractTo better understand the cognitive antecedents of teachers’ stress in the school setting, the effects of teachers’ beliefs regarding intelligence and their causal attributions of students’ academic performance on teachers’ job stress were examined in the current study. We recruited 271 teachers who voluntarily filled out an anonymous questionnaire. Findings demonstrated that teachers who endorsed the entity theory of intelligence tended to attribute students’ poor performance to students’ inability but not lack of effort. Results showed a positive relationship between teachers’ fixed view of intelligence and job stress, and this relationship was mediated by teachers’ attributing students’ poor performance to students’ lack of ability, even after controlling for teacher efficacy. We suggest to promote the psychological health of teachers by incorporating intelligence mindset and attribution training programs in preservice teacher education, professional development, and cognitive behavioral stress intervention for in‐service teachers.

Effects of Cooperative Learning Models on Prospective Teachers’ Achievement and Equity

The cooperative learning (CL) intervention was conducted to find out the effects of two conditions of cooperative learning on prospective teachers (PTs) achievement and equity. Cooperative learning was embedded in methods of teaching English course. Thirty five students enrolled in Masters programme (MA ELTL) were the subjects of the study. The study employed counter balanced design. The main research questions addressed were; (1) What is the difference in PTs achievement after exposure to CL as compared to their previous CGPA? (2) Which model of CL is better for producing higher achievement? (3) Which CL model provides/ establishes equity (equal chances to succeed) to maximum number of students? Achievement tests and class quizzes were administered to obtain data. Paired samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were carried out to answer the research questions. The findings suggest that CL significantly enhances PTs achievement as compared to TI. Both CL models are compatible to increase achievement and equity in TE. Learning together is more efficient and effective as compared to STAD. The study open doors for doing innovations and intervention in teacher education through different CL models.

Drawing Nature of Science in Pre-service Science Teacher Education: Epistemic Insight Through Visual Representations

Developing pre-service science teachers’ epistemic insight remains a challenge, despite decades of research in related bodies of work such as the nature of science (NOS) in science education. While there may be numerous aspects to this problem, one critical element is that the NOS is a meta-concept that demands higher-order cognitive skills. One possible strategy to facilitate pre-service teachers’ understanding of epistemic aspects of science is visualisation. Visual representations of objects and processes can be tools for developing and monitoring understanding. Although the NOS and visualisation literatures have been studied extensively, the intersection of these bodies of literatures has been minimal. Incorporating visual tools on the NOS in teacher education is likely to facilitate teachers’ learning, eventually impacting their students’ learning of the NOS. The objective of this paper is to illustrate how the visual tools of scientific knowledge and practices aspects of the NOS can be integrated in science teacher education in order to develop pre-service teachers’ epistemic insight. The paper presents an empirical study that incorporated visual tools about the NOS in primary science teacher education. Data on 14 pre-service teachers’ are presented along with in-depth case studies of 3 pre-service teachers illustrating the influence of the teacher education intervention. The qualitative analysis of visual representations before and after the intervention as well as verbal data suggests that there was improvement in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the NOS. Implications for future research on visualisation of the NOS are discussed.

Reconceptualised family resemblance approach to nature of science in pre-service science teacher education

ABSTRACTA recent framework on nature of science (NOS) is the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA). FRA presents NOS as a cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional system with a set of categories: aims and values, scientific methods, scientific practices, scientific knowledge and social-institutional aspects of science. Although FRA has been problematised philosophically and its implications for science education have been considered by science educators, its empirical adaptations in science education are limited. In order to illustrate the educational adaptations of FRA, we refer to Reconceptualised Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science or RFN. We present a study based on a funded pre-service science teacher education project whose aim was to design, implement and evaluate the impact of RFN strategies. Fifteen pre-service teachers participated in a 14-week teacher education intervention that infused RFN. A 70-item questionnaire was designed to investigate the outcomes of the teacher education intervention. Individual interviews with pre-service teachers were also conducted. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis suggest that the teacher education intervention had an overall significant impact on pre-service teachers’ views of NOS. The paper contributes to the understanding of how NOS can be incorporated in science teacher education using a new orientation to NOS based on FRA.

Agresión escolar: Efectos del ambiente del aula, la actitud hacia la autoridad y la reputación social entre los iguales

Numerosas investigaciones han mostrado la relación existente entre el ambiente social del aula y la implicación en conductas agresivas en la escuela. Poco se sabe, sin embargo, sobre los mecanismos explicativos de esta asociación y los factores intermedios que pueden estar afectando dicha relación. En esta línea, el objetivo del presente estudio fue examinar el rol desempeñado por la actitud hacia la autoridad y la reputación social entre los iguales; en otras palabras, se analizó la influencia del ambiente en el aula, considerando tanto las interacciones con el profesorado como con otros alumnos, en el comportamiento agresivo en la escuela, y tratando la actitud hacia la autoridad y la reputación social entre los iguales como variables intermedias. La muestra se compuso de 1319 adolescentes con edades comprendidas entre los 11 y los 16 años (47% chicos). Los participantes pertenecían a siete escuelas secundarias públicas de Valencia (España). Se calculó un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales con el Programa EQS con el objeto de analizar las interacciones entre las variables. Los resultados mostraron una asociación indirecta entre el ambiente en el aula y la agresión a través de la actitud hacia la autoridad y la reputación social, estando ambas, a su vez, directamente relacionadas con la agresión escolar. Se discuten las implicaciones prácticas de estos resultados en relación con políticas escolares, programas de educación del profesorado y prácticas de intervención en el aula con estudiantes.

Initial Results of a New Clinical Practice Model: Impact on Learners at Risk

The last several years have seen a dramatic increase in interest surrounding the role of clinical experiences in enhancing the learning of teacher candidates. Further, pressure has intensified to demonstrate the impact of teacher candidates on P–12 learners. With these goals in mind, a model alternative school/university partnership was created, based on Korthagen's “Realistic Teacher Education” framework. This article is an evaluation of the impact of this intervention on student outcomes from the program's first three years. A convergence of evidence reveals significant improvements in grade point average and credits earned; furthermore, significant improvements in total disciplinary incidents emerged in some of the analyses. These results suggest that this teacher education intervention has promise for documenting impact on P–12 learners. This outcome is significant for accreditation purposes, for bolstering the image of teacher education programs within the broader community, and for establishing a common research agenda.

EVOLUCIÓN DE LAS CREENCIAS DEL PROFESORADO EN FORMACIÓN SOBRE LA ENSEÑANZA Y EL APRENDIZAJE DEL INGLÉS

INTRODUCTION. One of the most controversial issues found across the research on teacher thinking is that of the stability of teachers’ beliefs and their resistance to teacher education interventions. Along this line, the research presented in this article is aimed at investigating whether the beliefs about language learning and the teaching of prospective Primary English teachers could experience any changes as a result of their training in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and, if so, whether a trend can be detected in those changes. Apart from this, the study intended to establish whether the teacher education program (that of the former Degree in Primary Teaching –with a specialization in EFL) versus the current Bachelor Degree in Primary Education – also with a specialization in EFL) influences the evolution of these beliefs. METHOD . A survey was carried out following two prestigious and widely used questionnaires to investigate language teachers’ beliefs. The data were obtained before and after the participants (N=129) followed modules in EFL teaching and analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics (means, a paired Student’s t-test, a 2x2 mixed factorial ANOVA and effect size calculation). RESULTS . The results show that participants moved away from the traditional conceptions and adopted new perspectives promoted by the EFL teacher education curriculum, which are in line with a communicative notion of language and an interactive view of language learning. The findings also reveal more substantial changes in the beliefs held by the Bachelor Degree in Primary Education group, which received a longer, more intense training in ELT teaching albeit inspired in the same principles. DISCUSSION . This study provides evidence that the beliefs that prospective teachers of English bring to pre-service teacher training courses are flexible and modifiable, and amenable to be influenced by the teacher education program.

Becoming a Teacher in the United States: Are Attitudes of Incoming Candidates Malleable?

In the United States over the course of the last few decades, teacher education programs have been intentionally truncated. This often leaves teacher educators somewhat discouraged as to whether they are able to make any differences in teacher candidates during this relatively short period of time. Research seems to say that while we can teach prospective teachers specific knowledge and skills, we will find it much more difficult to change teacher attitudes or dispositions. The study reported in this article examines whether beliefs about teaching change during a two and one-half year undergraduate teacher education program. The study recorded the beliefs and attitudes of students as they entered a teacher education program and compared these with their attitudes upon graduation five semesters later, using a semantic differential instrument that demonstrates differences in perceptions of certain words. The results of this study are presented, and then this study is compared to a similar study undertaken with students in a one-year teacher education program. Finally, implications of the study for teacher education programs are discussed. In the United States, the teaching profession and teacher preparation programs have been the perennial targets of wide-ranging but largely illinformed criticism. At least beginning with the 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education), teachers have borne the brunt of all the evils of the United States from economic woes to global warming. Through it all, generation after generation of teachers have kept right on. We find them meeting their classes, honing their craft, and shielding their students to the best of their abilities against the worst excesses of United States educational policies. Teacher preparation programs, especially those traditional programs housed in universities, have also been routinely criticized for failing to produce more able teachers. The same distrust and lack of respect that is unthinkingly heaped upon teachers themselves is also extended to the programs which educate these teachers. This has resulted in increasing governmental intervention and control in teacher education. The simplest area to target for this has turned out to be the curriculum of teacher education. Because the

School Aggression: Effects of Classroom Environment, Attitude to Authority and Social Reputation Among Peers

Several researches have demonstrated the relationship between social environment in the classroom and involvement in aggressive behaviours at school. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms explaining this link and intermediating factors that may be affecting such association. In this line, the aim of the present study was to examine the role played by attitude to authority and social reputation among peers; in other words, we analysed the influence of classroom environment, considering interactions with both teachers and other classmates, on aggressive behaviours at school, and treating attitude to authority and social reputation among peers as intermediating variables. The sample was composed of 1319 adolescents, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years (47% male). Participants were drawn from seven state secondary schools in Valencia (Spain). A structural equation model was tested using the EQS Program in order to analyse interactions among variables. Results revealed an indirect association between classroom environment and aggression through attitude to authority and social reputation, both of which were, in turn, directly related to school aggression. Practical implications of these findings are discussed in relation to school policies, teacher education programs and intervention practices with students in the classroom.

A Design-Based Self-Study of the Development of Student Reflection in Teacher Education

Reflection is critical to successful pre-service teacher learning, but it is hard to teach and difficult for students to conceptualize. This article reports a self-study, with others, where a practitioner and colleagues scrutinized an intervention in teacher education. The study employed design-based methodology to examine an intervention in a teacher educator's own class. Students were invited to use teaching strategies such as investigating, problem solving or cooperative learning and to analyze aspects of episodes in their school-based experience when teaching with these strategies. In collaboration with others, the teacher educator gathered data on the effects of this intervention through interviews, focus groups, observation, records of lecturers' reflections, on-line discussion board records and students' portfolios. The findings revealed that the use of contextual anchors contributed to these students becoming reflective and exhibiting increasing levels of reflection. Over the semester they moved from simple descriptions of what was happening in their classroom to richer analysis of their practice. We locate this study in current developments in science teacher education with particular emphasis on reflective practices.