Pre-service Teacher Training Research Articles

Challenges of Implementing Education for Sustainable Development: University Teachers’ Perspectives

There have been proven and successful developments in the field of Higher Education for Sustainable Development over the past 15 years (Leal Filho et al., 2017). Universities, in particular, are essential to achieving the SDGs that equip the next generation with knowledge, and enable them to address sustainability challenges (Avila et al., 2017). In this regard, teacher educators also play their role and use their expertise to train pre-service teachers to adopt sustainable practices. Research has also highlighted that teacher educators face numerous challenges in developing knowledge of sustainability among pre-service teachers. Through a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis procedures, this study explored the viewpoints of twenty-two teacher educators from eight public sector universities in Punjab. The findings indicated that teacher educators face many challenges including lack of commitment from students, lack of support from management, lack of time and lack of instructional resources, narrow-focused courses while integrating sustainability knowledge among pre-service teachers.

Attitudes and Self-Efficacy of Preservice Teachers Toward Teaching Gifted and Talented Students

Teacher training is fundamental to the success of gifted and talented education (GATE). Unfortunately, in sub-Saharan Africa, which is still in the early stages of practicing inclusive education, knowledge about GATE is limited because preservice teacher training programs have yet to prioritize this subject area. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the attitudes and self-efficacy of 304 preservice teachers regarding GATE at three education colleges in Ghana. Using Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework, the results show a positive association between attitude and self-efficacy, with the latter emerging as a significant predictor of the former. Other background variables—such as gender, knowledge of inclusive education policy, specialization, and level of study—provide insights into the attitudes and self-efficacy of preservice teachers. Also discussed is the need for teacher training institutions to introduce training courses and develop culturally responsive policies, guidelines, and strategies for GATE.

Pre-service Teacher Training Program at Yarmouk University: Mixed methodology Evaluation Study

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the pre-service teacher training program (TTP) for the Classroom Teacher and Early Childhood Education majors at Yarmouk University from stakeholders’ perspectives.
 Methods: The study utilized a mixed methodology approach. The quantitative method with (57) female students from the Classroom Teacher and Early Childhood programs at Yarmouk University, 41 female cooperative teachers, and 10 faculty supervising for 2019/2020 at the Bani Ubaid District Directorate of Education. The qualitative method utilized the Consensual qualitative research (CQR) with a phenomenology paradigm through 21 semi-structured interviews to explore how stakeholders perceived the different challenges and opportunities that affected the efficiency of the pre-service training program at Yarmouk University.
 Results: The quantitative methods indicated a high degree of effectiveness in meeting the program's expected competencies (planning, teaching, classroom management, and assessment) in both majors. The qualitative data uncovered two main themes about challenges: teaching practices and regulatory and organizational challenges, and three themes in terms of opportunities: reforming competencies to include dispositions, creating a shared vision between schools and TTP units, and building accountability systems to enhance the efficiency of TTP.
 Conclusions: The study provided recommendations to revisit the pre-service teacher education program competencies, enhance pipeline efforts between the TTP unit and the schools, and monitor the pre-service procedures and regulations on both sites: university and school.

In-service teachers mentoring teacher trainees: (Not always) constructive dialogue

The paper concerns the topic of student teaching in the context of preservice teacher training. More specifically, the paper examines the nature of relationship between in-service teachers who undertake the role of practicum supervisor and student teachers, potential entrants into teaching. Relationships are a two-way interaction and the quality of dialogue depends on the engagement of both parties, which means that it is both supervisor (mentor) and teacher trainee (mentee) who are responsible for the development of this relationship. The aim of the present study was, however, to explore the role of mentor in directing the mentoring process, engaging student teachers in dialogue and developing a working relationship with them. The respondents were English philology students who had elected teacher training as part of their degree. The research instruments – questionnaire and interview – sought to gather data on various aspects of respondents’ student teaching: primarily, the relation with their mentors, but also more general issues, such as their contacts with the school headteacher and the atmosphere at school. The results of the study show that while some mentors provide high-quality supervision and develop a genuine connection with their mentees, for about one-fifth of respondents cooperation with their supervisor was difficult. What we see as one of the problems is that the function and role of practicum supervisor is not regulated in any formal way. Supervisors are not informed on what is expected from them and are not prepared or trained for this function. Whether teacher trainees conduct their student teaching in a supportive environment seems to solely depend on the mentor’s personality traits and good will.

An Action Research of Implementing "Little Teacher" Project in Competence-based Curriculum of Pre-service Teacher Training in Special Education

An Action Research of Implementing "Little Teacher" Project in Competence-based Curriculum of Pre-service Teacher Training in Special Education

Learning Experiences and Perceived Competencies to Integrate Instructional Technology among Pre-service Teacher Trainees at Busitema University

Entrepreneurship has been challenging to embrace amongst youths because entrepreneurship is much more than skill acquisition but requires a strong will to forge ahead. Although entrepreneurship education teaches skills, the real challenge is an individual’s willingness to apply the skills acquired to real-life situations through self-employment in the face of escalating graduate unemployment in developing economies. This study aims at identifying factors affecting self-employment, encouraging entrepreneurship as a livelihood and reducing unemployment among graduates in Tanzania. The entrepreneurship theory is used in the study. The survey through snowball technique was able to identify 357 respondents in Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Singida, Arusha, Iringa, Morogoro and Mbeya. Descriptive and multiple linear regression r statistical analyses were employed. The findings reveal that entrepreneurship theory variables used in the study knowledge and skills significantly positively affect self-employment. However, competence does not have a significant effect on self-employment. The result implies that entrepreneurship training to gain knowledge and acquire skills will improve the embracement of self-employment by graduates of institutions of higher education. This further suggests that training institutions ought to enhance the learning content of knowledge and skills in their training programs to equip learners with necessary tools for self-employment in eradicating the problem of unemployment to graduates of institutions of higher education.

Becoming corpus literate: An in-service EFL teacher education framework for integrating corpora into EFL teaching

While much language teaching research has extolled the advantages of using corpora in the language learning classroom, uptake of corpora by language teachers remains low (Poole, 2020; Charles, 2020). Frankenberg-Garcia (2012a) reports that this is partly due to teachers having little time to prepare lessons with corpora given their busy teaching schedules. However, we also argue it is because teachers are not exposed to corpora sufficiently in pre-service teacher training programmes. This paper outlines a training framework for in-service EFL practitioners which will enable them to become corpus literate over a period of weeks. The framework utilises observational learning, and we gauge trainees’ corpus literacy development based on their reflections and experiences of teaching with corpora in class. Similar to previous corpus training research, teachers reported an overwhelmingly positive experience of learning to use a corpus for classroom materials design. Unlike previous trainings with corpora, teachers commented that using corpora did not require more time in lesson preparation when compared with traditional methods. Recommendations for future iterations of the training programme include the incorporation of additional corpora, tools and user interfaces.

Using Educational Robotics in Pre-Service Teacher Training: Orchestration between an Exploration Guide and Teacher Role

The proper integration of technology in teaching and learning processes must consider the role of teachers and students, as well as the design of tasks and the context in which they are implemented. Teachers’ perceived self-efficacy significantly influences their willingness to integrate educational robotics (ER) into their practice, so initial teacher training should provide opportunities for teachers to participate in structured activities that integrate ER. In this study, a class of pre-service teachers from an initial teacher training programme were provided with their first contact with an ER platform through the use of a simulator. We present the design process of a student exploration guide and teacher guide, developed over three iterative cycles of implementation, assessment and redesign. The analysis of the data collected allowed for improvements in the design of the tasks, the graphic component of the student exploration guide, and more precise indications for the teacher’s actions. The main contribution of this study is the chain orchestration between the simulator, student exploration guide and teacher guide, which allowed pre-service teachers to solve a set of challenges of increasing complexity, thereby progressively decreasing their difficulties and contributing to an adequate integration of ER in their future teaching practices.

Relationship between Mathematics Teachers’ Teaching Styles and Students’ Achievement in Mathematics

This study investigated the relationship between teaching styles of 30 grade 9 mathematics teachers and the achievement of their 1489 students. The Grasha Model of learning styles was adapted in the study. Results of the analysis indicated a significant relation between teaching style and student achievement based on students' highest mean percentage score. Approximately 39% of the total variance in students’ achievement is attributable to the difference between the teaching styles. Post hoc comparisons showed that students whose teachers exhibit the Expert style, as well as those whose teachers use a combination of teaching styles have significantly higher achievement scores than students whose teachers employ the Formal Authority style of teaching. Since favorable teaching styles were identified from this study among grade 9 teachers and students, a wider research on the association of teaching styles and student achievement in mathematics focusing on other grade levels is being put forward. This may also help determine at which grade level student achievement starts to decline and further identify effective teaching styles appropriate for each grade level. Pre-service teacher training and in-service teacher retooling may likewise be conducted to leverage academic learning by allowing teachers to discover their teaching styles and improve on them. Keywords: teaching style, students’ achievement, mathematics

Developing pre-service teachers' computational thinking: a systematic literature review.

Recently, computational thinking (CT) has gained importance in education systems worldwide, specifically the CT training of pre-service teachers. This study conducted a systematic literature analysis (2011-2021) of 38 works on pre-service teachers' CT based on Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases. The results were as follows: (1) Six training methods were found, (2) CT training effectively improved pre-service teachers' CT, (3) A positive relationship was found between pre-service teachers' CT ability and the five factors affecting the ability, (4) A mode of training to improve CT ability of pre-service teachers and the relationship between CT ability and teaching methods were considered. This study suggested ideas for designing training modules of CT ability and a reference for realizing the best training effect. Finally, future research trends and a general model of training were presented as references for researchers, instructors, and policy makers to promote the CT of pre-service teachers.

Early Childhood Teachers’ Confidence to Teach Religious Education and the Influences Which Impact Their Teaching of Religious Education in Catholic Primary Schools

This article reports findings from a study that examines the factors which influence early childhood and care (ECEC) early career teachers’ confidence in teaching Religious Education (RE) and how it impacts their teaching of RE in Catholic primary schools in Western Australia. Teachers’ confidence is a teacher’s belief in their ability to accomplish a goal and refers to strength of belief. Research in this area has shown that confidence is correlated with the sense of teaching efficacy and responsibility for student learning. Whilst there has been some research into teacher confidence, there has been insufficient research into early childhood teachers’ confidence to teach RE in Catholic schools in an Australian context. Literature supports the notion that if early childhood teachers have a strong teacher confidence for a subject, they are more motivated to teach the subject and this has a positive correlation with positive student outcomes. The epistemological approach underpinning the research is constructivist in nature; therefore, it is based on understanding the constructed realities of what humans know of the world and themselves as produced by communications and systems of meaning. Three case studies follow teachers from their early career to second-year experience in Catholic schools. This study investigates support structures and aspects that contribute to teacher confidence in the teaching of RE. The main themes identified by the data that contributed to confidence or lack of confidence included training, family and religious backgrounds, teaching and learning, mentoring and support in the first year of teaching. The implications of the results for pre-service teacher training and support for graduate teachers are discussed and some suggestions are offered about the courses provided by universities and what schools and education systems can do to support early career teachers to teach RE effectively in Catholic schools.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Experience of Learning about Sustainability in Technology Education in South Africa

There have been many calls for the integration of Education for Sustainable development in the training of pre-service teachers so that they can develop sustainability action competence to address sustainability issues now and in the future in their communities. This qualitative pilot project sought to explore pre-service technology teachers’ (PSTTs) experiences of learning about sustainability in the processing of the polymers module, when they were engaged in community-based assessment tasks. Data was collated from 25 PSTTs enrolled for the processing of the polymers module using reflective diaries and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis revealed that PSTTs had three key experiences of learning about sustainability, making a difference, learning as hands-on, minds-on, and hearts-on and sustainable pedagogies. At a theoretical level, the findings highlight the value of adopting an ESD lens and experiential learning approach to infuse learning about sustainability when teaching technology education. Further, the findings indicate that if PSTTs are challenged to participate actively in sustainability issues in their communities, they make informed choices about their role in society as future teachers, the pedagogies they plan to adopt, and the kinds of learning they strive to promote in learners.

Pedagogical technology of constructing professional identity of pre-service foreign language teachers

Introduction. The authors of the article investigate the formation of pre-service foreign language teachers’ professional identity in the conditions of higher professional education. Its relevance is confirmed by the increased requirements of the society for the personality of a specialist, by the urge for elaborating the internal confidence in his/her professionalism, the ability to build effective professional interactions, and to realise the need for self-expression in his/her profession, all of which are an indicator of high-quality professional training. Aim. The current research aims to provide the scientific justification for the effectiveness of the developed pedagogical technology of constructing the professional identity of students – pre-service foreign language teachers.Methodology and research methods. This study was grounded on the provisions of competency-based, personality-oriented, system-activity, axiological, anthropological approaches; the principles of nature conformity, humanisation, integrity, professional reasonability, activity, and independence; conceptual theoretical provisions of personality and its development in the process of education and professional training, theoretical and practical framework of using modern educational technologies, recent research on professional and pedagogical training of pre-service foreign language teachers and on using innovation technologies in the pedagogical process of vocational training. The study was conducted through the use of the following methods: theoretical analysis of literary sources, generalisation of existing scientific provisions, derivation and systematisation of new knowledge, questionnaire method, observation, experiment, and statistical analysis of the obtained data.Results and scientific novelty. Empirically, the authors have determined and formulated the pedagogical conditions for constructing the professional identity of pre-service foreign language teachers. There has been developed and tested the pedagogical technology that proved its effectiveness in ensuring the formation of students’ professional identity till the status of achievement, the development of three components of professional identity (cognitive, emotional, and behavioural), and the correspondent professional and personal qualities and skills.Practical significance. The materials of the study may form the basis for further advances in scientific investigations and bring advantages in psychological coaching during professional evolution of students and experienced foreign language teachers, who need to resolve difficulties associated with professional identity. The developed course on constructing the professional identity of pre-service foreign language teachers can be put into university educational process as part of training methods courses, student teaching placement, tutorial sessions, extracurricular activities on pedagogical excellence, qualification upgrade courses for experienced teachers and educators, methodical seminars, workshops, round tables, as well as into the process of handling the crisis conditions and professional burnout. This course can be included into the university curriculum as a special discipline to prepare teachers both of foreign language and of other school subjects.

Evaluating a training of emotional competence for pre-service teachers

Teachers' emotional competence predicts teachers' mental health and the teacher-student relationship. Therefore, training pre-service teachers' emotional competence seems important. In the present study, we evaluated a training of emotional competence comprising elements of emotion knowledge, emotion awareness, and emotion regulation training. We report on data of 186 participants and compared 71 trained subjects to two comparison groups. We found some effects of the training on both self-estimated and objectively measured emotion regulation ability. These effects remained stable over time. Furthermore, we found that the in-situation emotion insecurity decreased only in the training group. Future implications of these results are discussed.

Primary school teachers' emotions, implicit beliefs, andself-efficacy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, primary school teachers faced many challenges when providing online and hybrid teaching, especially in PE classes. This study aimed to analyze emotions, self-perceived instructional competence, and incremental beliefs during the first lockdown, in distance education instructional delivery, and, as the pandemic emergency persisted, in hybrid teaching. One hundred and four primary school teachers (Males = 7; Females = 97; Mage = 53.24; SDage = 7.34) were involved in the study from four Italian Primary Schools. Participants filled in the Motivation, Emotion, Strategies, and Teaching questionnaire (MESI) ( 1) administered in an online survey. Results showed that younger teachers had significantly lower scores in negative emotions when they taught than the older ones. On the other hand, older teachers have more belief in their own abilities to improve teaching, unlike younger teachers. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that teachers' positive emotions experienced in teaching predict perceived instructional efficacy during distance learning. Furthermore, teachers' positive emotions experienced in teaching and in the role of teacher predict teachers' changes in PE teaching during distance learning. Incremental beliefs predict perceived instructional efficacy during distance learning. Efforts on pre-service and in-service teacher training programs could help teachers strengthen emotional competencies and manage their stress in the classroom, both in normal educational contexts and in adverse conditions.

Research Hotspot and Trends in Pre-Service Training for Inclusive Preschool Teachers in China — A Bibliometric Analysis Based on Cite Space

The purpose of this paper is to help better understand pre-service training for inclusive preschool teachers in China; to grasp the research context, evolution research hotspots and trends of pre-service training for inclusive preschool teachers in China. In this paper, we use the scientific quantitative knowledge graph method and using Cite Space visualization software to analyze 111 studies from 2009-2023 in CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) databases, Such as literature publication trend graph and analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis, keyword clustering analysis, research hotspot analysis and research prospects. The results show that the current hot research on pre-service training for inclusive education teachers is mainly focused on: pre-service training for inclusive education literacy of preschool teachers (it includes the research of the concept, connotation, status quo and pre-service training of preschool inclusive education teachers); pre-service talent cultivation models for inclusive early childhood education and design of inclusive early childhood education course; future research on inclusive education for pre-service preschool teachers can actively explore three aspects: First, according to the China’s policy requirements for the training of inclusive teachers in colleges and universities, the preschool education major must clarify the pre-service training plan for preschool inclusive teachers. Secondly, it should analyze the social needs for preschool inclusive teachers and develop and design pre-service preschool inclusive education courses. Finally, pay attention to pre-service practice inclusive education and improve the pre-school inclusive education pre-service curriculum system.

Ideas clave para enseñar la luz en primaria

This paper addresses the main ideas associated with the teaching-learning processes of light in primary education and specifically in Pre-service teacher training. First, the main learning difficulties in infants, which are usually shared by teachers in Pre-service teacher training, are presented. In addition, an analysis of several primary textbooks has been carried out, identifying the main deficiencies in their proposals for working with light. Based on the review and the authors' experience in teacher training, a proposal of key ideas and their sequencing for working with light in primary education is presented.

Institutionalizing Crisis-Sensitive Education Planning, Preparedness and Capacity Building through Media and Technology Practical Skills for Undergraduate Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract: There is consensus that teacher educators should be held responsible for the trainees that they graduate. COVID-19 led to rapid response to the crisis by promoting adoption of remote learning. Ministries of education all over the world aligned rapid response to their long-term learning priorities. Efforts should be geared towards enhancing the skills of teacher educators and the trainee teachers in crisis risk reduction and management through micro-teaching course. Educational media practical skill training is critical to ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all. Teachers need Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge to use technology for economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental conservation. Digitalization of the curriculum is about looking ahead of crises that may disrupt learning. However, studies on integration of ICT into pedagogy have revealed gross incompetence of teachers and lack of infrastructure and instructional leadership to support its implementation. Additionally, Ministries of Education in Africa have not institutionalized crisis-risk reduction and management into education policies and programs. Moreover, effective continuous professional development for teacher educators and learners has not been institutionalized in higher education in Kenya. Therefore, adoption and integration of ICT into higher education curriculum and pedagogy is still at a nascent stage. A study was done among fourth year pre-service teacher trainees at Maasai Mara University to establish how effective the media practical skills training prepared them for teaching practice and Technological Pedagogical Knowledge Content. The findings revealed that there was a relationship between media practical skills training and teaching practice. They also revealed that most of the students had pedagogical and content knowledge but no Technological Knowledge. This study has recommended revision of the teacher education curriculum, capacity building of teacher educators in 21st Century skills on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and provision of well-equipped resource centers in teacher training institutions.

Pedagogical innovation and the development of 21st century skills and sustainable development in the teaching and learning of life and earth sciences in Morocco

The world of education in the 21st century is undergoing transformations that affect teaching methods and learning styles. The Moroccan education system is at the heart of this movement, demonstrating its will and institutional commitment through the pedagogical integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the teaching-learning process. However, a number of studies have shown that this integration into learning and assessment activities in life and earth sciences (LES) remains very weak, if not absent, in qualifying secondary and college education. To pedagogically innovate teaching practice in LES, our research comes to help teachers and innovative designers conceive digital resources to develop 21st century skills in LES. To meet the objective of our research, a questionnaire was drawn up and sent to 200 teachers in the various regional education and training academies of the Kingdom of Morocco. Analysis of the results showed that teachers’ awareness of these skills in general, and those specific to LES in particular, was moderate and that in-service and pre-service teacher training, the design of multi-level and multi-type digital resources, and curriculum reform are very important elements in reinforcing 21st century skills in the digital teaching-learning of LES.

THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF TRANSLATION COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT IN PRE-SERVICE TRAINING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE TEACHERS

The article highlights some aspects revealing the development of translation competence of prospective foreign language and literature teachers. Attention is focused on internal and external factors necessitating the development of translation competence of pre-service foreign language and literature teachers. The study identifies the needs of the specialized school and the requirements for translation teaching courses in senior classrooms of specialized schools. The author analyzes scholarly perspectives on the concepts of ‘translation’ and ‘translation competence’. On this basis, the essential characteristics of translation competence in pre-service training of foreign language and literature teachers are substantiated. Translation competence has been found to be an integrated characteristic that involves the ability to translate authentic texts at the appropriate level and understand their content, as well as to implement the information received in accordance with the target audience and further use in foreign language education and intercultural communication. It has been proved that developing the translation competence of prospective foreign language and literature teachers requires the introduction of innovative approaches to structuring the professional training content and the implementation of innovative forms and methods of translation teaching. The study outlines controversial issues and problems in undergraduate training of foreign language and literature teachers in terms of the learning outcomes reached as a result of interpretation and translation courses. Ways to improve the content of professional training based on the development and thematic updating for the content of mandatory and optional educational components are proposed. The research provides the analysis of the ways in which unassisted translation work with foreign language texts and native speakers should be organized. Particular attention is paid to the use of innovative methods and technologies of translation training provided to prospective foreign language and literature teachers.