Understanding Of Pre-service Teachers Research Articles

The implementation of metacognitive strategies in students’ teaching practice in microteaching class

A B S T R A C T Microteaching classes can be a challenging area of negotiation between personal and professional values which can help and provide pre-service teachers understanding and opportunities to hone their teaching and learning process better. This research aims to identify the application of metacognitive strategies in the preparation process for teaching practice in microteaching classes, by focusing on the research questions regarding the implementation of metacognitive strategies in teaching practice exercises and students’s motivation to apply metacognitive strategies in micro-teaching classes. A qualitative case study method was used to answer these two research questions by employing purposive sampling with three participants in a micro-teaching class (semester five). The study reveals that students applied metacognitive strategies of goal-setting, planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies to enhance their teaching practices. These strategies are influenced by internal and external motivation factors, such as intuition, personal experience, and self-awareness. Nevertheless, as this study involved a small group and did not focus on real classroom practices, future studies are suggested to involve more participants and combine methods to track both the immediate and long-term effects of using metacognitive strategies in teacher training.

Exploring Project-Based Learning in the SVVR Environment: An Epistemic Network Analysis of Pre-service EFL Teachers

Background:The goal is to explore how pre-service EFL teachers develop spherical video virtual reality (SVVR) projects, applying technological (TK), pedagogical (PK), and content knowledge (CK). Methodology: The data was collected from artifacts of pre-service EFL teachers' SVVR, and then analyzed using epistemic network analysis, a quantitative ethnography analysis. Findings: The pre-service EFL teachers primarily utilized TK features when designing virtual reality projects. These projects incorporated text-to-speech (TTS) to offer authentic speakers. Conclusion: This study showcased the extent to which pre-service EFL teachers developed their virtual reality projects and the features they used. Originality: Our study, utilizing epistemic network analysis, adds a layer to the common analysis, enriching the understanding of pre-service teachers' SVVR projects.

Preservice Teachers’ Assessment Literacy Within Models-Based Practice

Purpose: Using the assessment literacy framework, the purpose of this study was to explore preservice teachers understanding and enactment of the message system during an early field experience. Method: Six PTs employed SE seasons totaling 540 min. Seven qualitative data methods were utilized. Data analysis included deductive and inductive analysis using a thematic approach. Trustworthiness included data triangulation, peer debriefing, negative case analysis, and the maintenance of an audit trail. Results: Three main themes derived from the data included: instructional decisions were driven by the SE model and informal assessment; formal assessment was driven by the structure of SE; and high assessment value but low assessment literacy. Discussion/Conclusion: The SE model drove PTs to use formal assessment, but primarily in an evaluative manner. The PTs lacked assessment literacy, felt pressure to follow the model, did not use assessment to inform teaching, and had concerns for future assessment use.

Seeking the masculine with the feminine: P-6 pre-service teachers’ views on teaching about the 2020 US presidential election

As democracies have deteriorated worldwide, understanding preservice teachers’ perceptions regarding teaching about the 2020 US presidential election helps teacher educators better guide them to make informed and intentional pedagogical decisions for democratic education. Through a survey study, we found that early childhood and elementary preservice social studies teachers did not express a strong degree of comfort teaching about the presidential election and were most comfortable teaching about matters of literacy and of political agreement.

The dialogical self and the multiplicity of I-positions: Experiences of becoming a teacher in the international practicum

The internationalisation of education poses local challenges for training pre-service teachers to navigate new and unfamiliar education contexts. For Chinese language teachers in Australia and beyond, undertaking initial teacher training has been informed by China’s wider agenda regarding the worldwide promotion of Chinese language. Building upon Dialogical self theory, this paper adopts traditions from autoethnography to unpack a Chinese novice teacher’s learning journey during a placement in an Australian Chinese language learning classroom. We focus on the lead author’s conflicted identity and how this identity was positioned and repositioned in response to contexts and through dialogue with the self and with others. This paper offers an alternative approach to understanding pre-service teachers’ learning and professional development, providing insight into how the practicum can be improved to better support Chinese international pre-service teachers who are navigating unfamiliar contexts.

Exploring pre-service teachers’ intention to use virtual reality: A mixed method approach

Despite the increasing integration of virtual reality (VR) into classrooms globally, there is a dearth of empirical evidence concerning perceptions and behavioural intentions of pre-service teachers to employ the technology in Nigerian classrooms, particularly within the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework. Consequently, this study examines pre-service perceptions and behavioural intentions to use VR. To accomplish this objective, we engaged pre-service teachers who voluntarily participated in this study by filling out an online survey for data collection. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed using variance-based structural equation modelling, SmartPLS, and Atlas.ti, respectively. This data triangulation provided a comprehensive understanding of pre-service teachers' perceptions and behavioural intentions to use VR. Our findings, among others, reveal that perceived usefulness strongly predicts pre-service teachers' readiness and behavioural intention to use VR. This finding contributes to the ongoing discourse on how teachers, particularly trainee teachers, make decisions to integrate emerging technologies like VR in their classrooms, thereby offering valuable insights for policy formulation to enhance teacher training programs, especially regarding technology integration in Nigerian classrooms. It also emphasizes the importance of equipping teachers to address challenges related to adopting innovative technologies.

Pre-service teachers’ perceptions on eliciting learners’ knowledge in a mixed-reality simulation environment

Background: Concerns have been raised about the inconsistency and quality of pre-service teacher preparation, especially in reading literacy. Mixed-reality simulations can potentially revolutionise initial teacher education by offering realistic, risk-free practice opportunities to master reading practices.Objectives: This study explores pre-service teachers’ perceptions of: (1) interacting with avatars, (2) teaching core reading skills, particularly eliciting background information on informational text, and (3) using an action review cycle within a mixed-reality simulation environment.Method: A qualitative exploratory case study design was used in this study in order to document pre-service teachers’ perceptions of engaging within a mixed-reality simulation environment. A purposive sampling strategy was used to select participants for this study. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Findings reveal that pre-service teachers valued interacting with the avatars and appreciated the unique focus on eliciting learners’ background knowledge, a core reading practice. They typically teach full lessons with limited genuine engagement during microteaching opportunities, making this an interesting experience. They highlighted the mixed-reality simulation’s features, such as pausing, redoing, and receiving immediate feedback. The simulator allowed them to concentrate on skill mastery rather than staging lessons for grades.Conclusion: This study concludes that pre-service teachers’ skill development benefits from deliberate practice opportunities designed to enhance complex skills. Mixed-reality simulations could reshape how student teachers are prepared for reading instruction.Contributions: This research contributes to the understanding of pre-service teachers’ perspectives on teaching core reading practices in a mixed-reality simulation environment.

Reconceptualising Preservice Teachers’ Subject Knowledge in Climate Change and Sustainability Education: A Framework for Initial Teacher Education from England, UK

Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCSE) has been gaining prominence with the imminent climate emergency humanity is facing. This paper draws upon a conceptual framework created to support the development of preservice teachers’ subject knowledge of CCSE whilst undertaking Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs in England. The core aims and learning outcomes within the framework, namely knowledge; attitudes, values and behaviours; and competences and capabilities, are defined to illustrate what subject knowledge looks like, in this area, for preservice teachers in England. This paper highlights data gathered from 71 preservice teachers via an initial presurvey from three ITE institutions across England. The data were gathered from Early Years and Primary and Secondary phase trainees across both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. The presurvey captured a range of qualitative and quantitative responses from preservice teachers to showcase priority areas, from their perspective, in the teaching of CCSE. The responses were coded and then themed according to the three aims and learning outcomes of the framework (knowledge; attitudes, values and behaviours; and competences and capabilities) to understand preservice teachers’ views on CCSE at the start of their courses. The findings suggest that preservice teachers lack key subject knowledge in CCSE to teach it effectively in schools. Hence, this paper recommends further work needs to be carried out to embed CCSE work in ITE courses across England. It is further suggested that the CCSE framework highlighted in this paper can act as a key national document to support ITE institutions to conceptualise the teaching and learning of CCSE across their ITE programmes.

Unravelling early childhood pre-service teachers’ implicit stereotypes of scientists by using the repertory grid technique

Considering teachers’ roles in developing children’s scientific literacy in preschools, a better understanding of pre-service teachers’ conceptualizations about scientific inquiry and scientists’ practices that have an impact on the science teaching practices offered to their future students is very much needed. Stereotypes were examined here as a component or root for many of the explanations for pre-service teachers’ conceptualizations about scientists. Aligned with the interpretivist paradigm, this phenomenographic study was, mostly qualitative in nature, specifically concerned with exploring pre-service teachers’ stereotypes of scientists by using the repertory grid technique, in which they perceived and differentiated between scientists. 119 early childhood pre-service teachers were recruited. Various types of analysis were carried out to analyze the data gathered in each repertory grid. We investigated the original 66 elicited bipolar constructs into 28 aggregated bi-polar construct groupings, systematically categorized into four bi-polar categories: (1) Recognition vs. Disregarded, (2) Scientific Integrity vs. Misconduct, (3) Communal vs. Dissociation, and (4) Agentic vs. Passivity. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers had typical stereotypical traits of scientists like being introverted, intelligent loners, into experiments and masters in their field with often-unrecognizable female figures. However, there was no association between gender, grade, and stereotypes of scientists elicited in the study. These types of stereotypes of scientists might potentially threaten effective science teaching at early ages. Science education practices can be rooted in these stereotypes of pre-service teachers. Considering these findings, structural changes in science education practices in teacher education programs are very much needed. This study also seems to confirm the importance of using the repertory grid technique as a good starting point to expose especially the implicit stereotypes of pre-service teachers about “who does science”, “how scientists think” and “what scientists do” before their actual actions in future classrooms.

A phenomenological analysis of the emotional experiences of graduate preservice student teachers in Indonesia

Background: Addressing preservice teachers' emotions can help them develop the emotional connections necessary for successful teaching practicums and professional learning experiences. To understand preservice teachers’ emotions towards their surroundings, the researchers used an emotional geography framework to map out the source of their negative and positive emotions and how those feelings affect their beliefs, teaching style, and paradigms. Emotional geographies were divided into two categories (i.e., emotional distance and emotional closeness), which were further mapped into five major themes (i.e., sociocultural, moral, professional, physical, and political). Methods: This study examined emotional geographies of 15 graduate preservice student teachers of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Mulawarman University during their teaching practicums. Moreover, this study used a qualitative design involving semi-structured interviews with 15 graduate students who completed their teaching practicums. Results: The participants experienced all emotional geographies (sociocultural, moral, professional, physical, and political) that reshaped their beliefs and teaching styles, especially related to teaching undergraduate students. These emotions are generally experienced when the participants deal with the students and cooperating teachers. Conclusions: It was found that teachers needed to be strict when instilling discipline in their students, develop friendships with their students to maintain classroom control, and require comprehensive preparation to create teacher's confidence and answer their students' questions. In effect, the theoretical framework of emotional geography when teaching undergraduates during practicums gave student teachers valuable experience to cope with all common teaching challenges and professional growth.

Implementation of Loose Part Play STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Media on STEM Understanding of Pre-service Teachers: A Case Study in Serang City, Indonesia

This study aimed to implement the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-based Loose Part Play Media on an understanding of cerebral palsy pre-service teachers in the city of Serang. The participants in this study are cerebral palsy pre-service teachers in Serang, Indonesia. The participant was 21 teachers. The method in this activity is a case study. The results showed that increasing of the STEM understanding was 26.2. It can be concluded that the STEM-based loose part play media can increase the STEM understanding of the pre-service teachers to find solutions to the problems faced by cerebral palsy pre-service teachers in Serang. An increase in understanding achievement indicates this through loose part play STEM of 26.2 (seen from the initial and final test), and the pre-service teacher's understanding of STEM-based loose play part media is 82.5.

Exploring Pre-service Teachers' Perspectives on TPACK: Technology, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge

In the context of educational transformation, the integration of innovations into teacher education programs is essential for enhancing the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process. Teachers must possess comprehensive content knowledge to incorporate suitable pedagogical practices and create technologically enriched educational environments. Teaching is a dynamic endeavor demanding a diverse range of knowledge and skills from educators, encompassing personal qualities, vocational expertise, and instructional abilities. This research focuses on investigating pre-service teachers' perceptions of Technology, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK). Conducted on 200 pre-service teachers from HNB Garhwal University, the study utilized a TPACK questionnaire with seven components. Employing descriptive quantitative research methodology, the analysis revealed that preservice teachers generally held an average and positive perception of TPACK. Gender and subject stream influenced the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) domain, while no significant differences were found in other components. Furthermore, locality and educational qualifications showed no significant impact on TPACK perception. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of understanding pre-service teachers' perspectives on TPACK to inform and improve teacher education programs.

Unpacking pre-service teachers’ beliefs and reasoning about student ability, sources of teaching knowledge, and teacher-efficacy: A scenario-based approach

The beliefs teachers hold may provide information about their more or less evidence-informed reasoning about educational issues. However, gaining a clear picture of teachers’ beliefs has proven difficult. A promising line of inquiry uses scenario-based approaches to assess teachers’ enacted beliefs. Accordingly, we assessed 75 Norwegian pre-service teachers’ beliefs about student ability, sources of teaching knowledge, and teacher efficacy by analyzing their written responses to authentic classroom scenarios, with these responses also providing information about participants’ reasoning about the scenarios. While participants’ responses seemed to be evidence-informed in many ways, there were also indications of the opposite, such as limited consideration of educational research in pedagogical decision-making. The results contribute uniquely to an understanding of pre-service teachers’ beliefs and reasoning about educational issues. As such, they may help researchers and teacher educators to better understand the beliefs pre-service teachers hold, as well as to facilitate further development of these beliefs. Implications for future research and teacher education are discussed.

Connecting the Science Practices to Teaching and Learning: Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Professed and Intended Beliefs

ABSTRACT Preservice elementary teachers need to be able to engage young students in science practices but may not have extensive experiences with those practices. They also may have contrasting beliefs about them, which inform their teaching practice. To understand preservice teachers’ beliefs related to science practices, we focus on the connections they made between the practices and teaching and learning. We followed nine participants from a physics content course, into a science methods course, and through their student teaching, collecting data including interviews, reflections, and lesson plans. We used our analyses of interviews and reflections to identify participants’ “professed beliefs,” and of lesson plans to identify “intended beliefs”; from the analysis, we developed a description of teaching and learning beliefs such as Autonomy & Curiosity and Develop Scientific Skills. The professed and intended beliefs of the participants formed connected clusters. We also found cases where these beliefs conflicted conceptually (e.g., when deciding to include many or fewer practices in each lesson or if the science practices are unique to science or can be applied generally). Our findings suggest that teacher educators need to be aware of more than just the professed beliefs of their preservice teachers. They should look for evidence of these beliefs in preservice teachers’ intentions as well.

Using life-history narrative writing to examine EFL preservice teachers' preconceptions of teaching and teachers and their initial motivation to undertake teacher education

PurposeThis study examines EFL preservice teachers' life-history narrative. The objectives of the examination were to identify the preconceptions of teaching and teachers that the preservice teachers brought to teachers college, the sources and biographical origins of these preconceptions, and to what extent, if any, the preconceptions influenced their initial motivation to enroll in a teacher education program.Design/methodology/approachUsing a life-history narrative as the method, the authors aimed at capturing and describing the critical moments in the preservice teachers' educational histories, the people involved in those moments (Clandinin and Conelly, 2000) and the sociocultural factors that might have influenced their preconceptions of teaching and the work of teachers as well as their decision to undertake teacher education.FindingsThe narrative analysis of the autobiographies has revealed that the preservice teachers still viewed teaching and teachers from altruistic perspectives. These preconceptions were based on the apprenticeship of observation and highly influenced by significant moments, the people they interacted with throughout their life and educational history and the sociocultural value of teaching and teachers in Indonesia. These preconceptions have influenced their genuine motivation to undertake teacher education and their commitment to the teaching profession. Several pedagogical implications for teacher education are also presented.Originality/valueThe authors’ study contributes to the scholarly conversations about the critical roles of life-history examination in the understanding of preservice teachers' motivation to undertake teacher education.

Using decision theory to understand preservice teachers’ implementations of mathematical modelling

In this study, we aim to explain choices that groups of preservice teachers made to implement modelling tasks in primary school. We found that the preservice teachers decided to facilitate everyday-inspired contexts for the tasks and that this could be explained by their reasoning that modelling is supposed to be an activity close to reality. Essentially, the groups preferred two different approaches to introducing students to the tasks: (1) by inviting students to physically participate in situations related to their local communities that were familiar to them (e.g. trash picking), and (2) through pre-structured problems that were recognisable to students (e.g. estimation of the number of beads in an irregular box). We found evidence that the preservice teachers tended towards avoiding focusing on possible mathematical answers to the tasks. This could be explained by lacking experience with how to find approximate solutions, or that the preservice teachers were engaged in observing students’ solution strategies and mathematical behaviour.

‘I really like teaching, but…’ understanding pre-service teachers’ motivations and perceptions about teaching as a career choice

ABSTRACT This study investigates pre-service teachers’ motivations and perceptions about the decision to choose teaching as a career choice. Twenty-seven students who have embarked on teacher education programme in Scotland were interviewed. It was found that students conveyed ambivalent feelings and perspectives in the decision to teach in the sense that they perceived teaching as a platform to fulfil their career aspirations and enjoy themselves but also portrayed teaching negatively in relation to workload, work-related stress, salary, and social status. In light of expectancy-value theory, this study concludes that participants’ seemingly highly intrinsically motivated to pursue a teaching career is likely to involve the feature of weighing the intrinsic rewards of teaching (enjoyment or fulfilment) and the negative perceptions deriving from a high level of workload and emotional stress and low salary and social status. The findings of this study have important practical implications for recruiting and retaining teachers; and, for helping future teachers fulfil their interests and articulated professional goals.

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.

Understanding Preservice Teachers’ Reluctance to Use of Online Learning Platforms to Teach Individuals with Intellectual Disability

This study investigated the reluctance among pre-service to adopt online learning platforms to teach students with intellectual disability. This study consisted of pre-service teachers. The qualitative phenomenological research method was used to examine pre-service teachers' reluctance to adopt online learning platforms to teach students with intellectual disabilities. In-depth interviews were conducted with pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan. Seven respondents selected using a convenient sampling technique participated in the study; respondents were referred to as Participant 1 to Participant 7 for the purpose of anonymity. Collected data were transcribed and analysed using ATLAS.ti version 22, a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software. Based on participants' responses, four major themes were generated on the perception: opportunities to access various learning platforms, no special provision for learners with intellectual disability, the possibility of learning biases, and ineffective learning methods. Based on the evidence presented here, individuals with ID will not be able to access online learning platforms to the same degree as others within society.

Uncovering Preservice Teachers’ Conceptions of Achievement and Accountability: Evidence from a Framed Field Experiment

ABSTRACT Contemporary research on preservice teachers’ data use opportunities, coursework, and interventions typically focuses on preservice teachers’ perceptions about data use comfort, confidence, and preparedness. Despite the contribution of such research to understanding the efficacy of approaches to teacher preparation, understanding preservice teachers’ underlying conceptions about data and data use is critical to responsive teacher preparation. However, these conceptions are elusive as preservice teachers do not routinely engage in authentic data use practices. In the present study, I develop a novel methodological approach for uncovering preservice teachers’ conceptions about data. Then, I use this framework to investigate how achievement classifications and accountability pressure manifest in preservice teachers’ instructional decision-making. Findings suggest preservice teachers have a general propensity for differentially allocating instructional resources to their lowest achieving students and respond to accountability pressure by shifting these resources toward students approaching proficiency criterion and those closest to achievement thresholds. Findings have implications for how teacher preparation programs may leverage preservice teachers’ conceptions as a foundation for the development of data literacy, iterative instructional improvement, professional inquiry, and accountable leadership.