Teacher Education Majors Research Articles

What undergraduate physical education majors learn during a field experience.

Early field experiences and student teaching have a significant impact on the development of prospective teachers' perceptions of teaching and themselves as teachers (Dodds, 1989). The purpose of this study was to describe what happened to physical education majors during a secondary physical education methodology course that included two field experiences in which the undergraduates taught at least one lesson a day. The four research questions that guided the study were (a) What issues did the majors attend to as significant incidents from their teaching, and did these issues change during their field experiences? (b) What were the characteristics of field experience lessons they perceived as successful? (c) What were the characteristics of field experience lessons they perceived as unsuccessful? and (d) What were the physical education majors' conceptions of teaching? Participants in the study were 39 junior-year physical education teacher education majors. Data were collected using the critical incident technique (Flanagan, 1954) and an open-ended, written questionnaire that was designed to encourage the majors to reflect on various aspects of their teaching experience. The questionnaire and critical incidents were analyzed using an inductive analytical procedure and a series of categories developed from several readings of students' writings. The teacher preparation program affected how these trainees defined and evaluated their teaching experiences. In contrast to some of the earlier work in physical education, the results indicated pupil learning, quality lesson planning to ensure pupil learning, and efficient lesson management were major characteristics of successful lessons for these trainees. The trainees presented "theories of knowledge" that emphasized technical concepts of teaching with little attention to the social or ethical dimensions of their work or the content knowledge of their field. Additional research is needed to examine appropriate programmatic efforts to help preservice teachers reflect not only on teaching, learning, and schooling as a technical enterprise but also as a moral and ethical enterprise.

The Effect of Student Planning and Self-Competence on Self-Motivated Performance

AbstractThis study evaluated the self-regulated performance of 130 collegiate teacher education majors assigned to either the condition of being given forms to plan their performance on a specific task or to the condition of being given no planning forms. The task enabled students to earn various exam grade point bonuses for writing test items related to weekly reading assignments in a required educational psychology course. Students were divided into high and medium + low perceived self-competence groups based on their self-rated capability for writing test items before the task began. Planning form users earned significantly more grade bonuses than did students not given the form, but this finding was true only for students of medium + low perceived self-competence. Planning appeared to provide those unsure of their own capability with the strategy necessary to perform well on the task.

An Exploratory Study of Undergraduate Recruitment into Several Major Programs at One University

The impact of teacher education programs is determined in part by characteristics of the teaching recruits. Nevertheless, research on recruits remains the exception rather than the rule, and most prior studies have neither been informed by nor contributed to occupational socialization theory. The exploratory research reported here is informed by such theory and is designed to contribute to it. Questionnaires were completed by 55 undergraduates upon entry into several undergraduate majors. In addition to conventional data about each recruit’s biography and physical activity background, teacher education recruits were compared with recruits in other majors. Attention was given to several career concepts (e.g., career map, career contingency, internal career) and differences between early and late deciders. One important finding, which differed from previous work, was that some teacher education recruits viewed learning as the primary purpose of school physical education programs. This finding is encouraging, given the “busy, happy, and good” orientation found in previous studies of undergraduate teacher education majors.

An Analysis of the Problem of Disappearing Black Educators

There has been a significant decline in the number of minority teachers and principals, particularly blacks. The recent downturn has been so drastic that writers have referred to these groups as endangered species. The dwindling black work force can be attributed to a variety of political, economic, demographic, and sociological factors affecting both black teachers and black principals: (1) the decline in the number of college students declaring teacher education majors; (2) the decline in black college students; (3) widening career options for blacks, especially black females; and (4) teacher competency tests. These decreasing numbers and the factors that have contributed to them should be addressed by policymakers, school systems, and teacher educators. Equally important will be the ability of all teachers and principals-black and white-to educate effectively an increasingly multiethnic school population.

Cognitive Styles and Teacher Education: Field Dependence and Areas of Specialization among Teacher Education Majors

This study examined the potential role of cognitive style for academic counseling. Differences in field dependence (unadjusted and adjusted for aptitude) among female teacher education majors (N = 427) enrolled in different areas of specialization were investigated using Hidden Figures Test, ACT, and GPA data. The results of this study support the contention that field dependence is related to choice of area of specialization in a manner consistent with field-dependence theory. Teacher education majors who specialized in the areas of natural sciences, mathematics, and business were significantly (p < .05) more field independent than majors in the areas of humanities, family and child development, home economics, special education, and speech pathology. Implications of these findings for academic counseling and cognitive style research are discussed

A Case History of Differential Grading: Do Teacher Education Majors Really Receive Higher Grades?

A Case History of Differential Grading: Do Teacher Education Majors Really Receive Higher Grades?

Cross-Cultural Literacy of Students from Two Different Geographical Locations

Cultural diversity in the United States is an obvious fact of Ufe. The effect of legal decisions regarding school desegregation during the past 20 years dictates the likelihood that teachers will practice their professional skills in a multicultural classroom populated by pupils from a wide range of ethnic and socioeconomic back grounds. The ability of a teacher to relate to these pupils will play a major role in the future success of both pupils and teacher. One of the major factors in establishing a positive pupil teacher relationship in a multicultural setting is the teach er's understanding of and sensitivity to the beliefs, values and life styles of pupils. Unless teachers are sensitive to the values of pupils from backgrounds different from their own, the possibility of misunderstandings and conflict is greatly increased. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which teacher education majors from different cultural and geographical backgrounds have an understanding of their own culture and that of a target culture presumably different from their own.

The effect of facilitative communication training on teacher response quality

Training designed to enhance facilitative communication between teachers and students is becoming an increasingly important element of teacher training programs. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effect of facilitative communication training on the quality of teacher response to various student problems and to the accompanying emotional states of anger, joy, or depression. The subjects consisted of 64 undergraduate teacher education majors who responded in writing to 15 audiotaped stimulus vignettes. A 5×3×2 repeated measures analysis of variance was used to measure the effects of problem situation, emotional state, and training on empathic understanding. The results indicated significant differences between trained and untrained groups, as well as differences in quality of response due to emotion, with joy eliciting greater empathy than depression or anger. Significant interactions among the variables also were obtained. Implications are discussed in terms of human relations training for teachers.

A study of selected science and mathematics teacher education majors to assess knowledge of metric measures and their applications

A study of selected science and mathematics teacher education majors to assess knowledge of metric measures and their applications