University Teacher Education Program Research Articles

Factors affecting the attitudes of principals of saudi general education public schools toward the inclusion of students with disabilities

BackgroundResearch has indicated that the attitudes of principals toward students with disabilities may affect the success of the implementation of inclusive programs in schools. This study was designed to address a gap in the research regarding Saudi principals’ attitudes toward inclusion. Relationships between attitudes and a number of variables were analyzed (i.e., gender, years of experience, level of school, type of student disability, personal relationships with individuals with disabilities). Methods and procedureThe study sample was drawn from the 600 public general education elementary, middle, and high schools with special education programs in Riyadh (n = 366 schools) and Jeddah (n = 234 schools) in Saudi Arabia. Each of the principals of these schools for AY2022/2023 was sent an email invitation to participate. A total of 403 respondents (67.17% response rate) successfully completed Bailey’s (2004) Principals’ Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education (PATIE) scale via electronic survey link. Results and outcomesOverall, the research found that Saudi principals of public general education schools have positive attitudes toward inclusion. The factors of training in special education, personal experience with individuals with disabilities, and years of experience as principal were found to be significant in regard to more positive attitudes. Conversely, the variables of gender, level of school, and type of student disability were not found to correlate with more or less positive attitudes. Conclusions and implicationsWhile the findings of the study bode well for the implementation of inclusion in Saudi public schools, certain limitations exist, including that the study sample was entirely drawn from the two largest cities in the country. In addition, the Saudi Ministry of Education has created an incentive plan that provides financial bonuses to principals at public schools who implement inclusive and special education programming in their schools. This indicates that the target population of this study might be more inclined to be positive toward inclusion than their colleagues at private schools. The findings have implications for expanding special education training in university teacher education programs and the creation of public awareness programs designed to improve understanding of disabilities and how inclusion positively impacts society as a whole.

Weaving Pathways: The Role of High School Family and Consumer Sciences Courses in Cultivating a Teacher Pipeline Across the Midwest

High School Family and Consumer Science classrooms hold the potential for university and high school partnerships for teacher education pipelines. This study uses a comparative policy analysis to provide a regional resource for laws, policies, and programs within the Midwest regarding FCS classrooms and courses that are offered. Utilizing a comparative policy analysis approach, the aim is to create an opportunity for guiding current high school students toward becoming future candidates in teacher education programs by doing intentional outreach. This analysis will provide an outline of how university Teacher Education programs can partner intentionally to recruit and mentor incoming first-year college students while they are learning educational pedagogy in their high school FCS classrooms. This analysis provides a foundation for how high school FCS classrooms and university teacher education classrooms can foster cohesive and supportive mutually beneficial partnerships in the states surrounding Illinois and Indiana. Data were gathered by accessing regional education department websites and illustrating the potential opportunities for high school coursework to connect with established teacher education university programs and align pedagogically. Key findings include multiple opportunities in the Midwest for partnerships that are mutually beneficial and are easily accessible if intentional connections are made between faculty.

Design thinking as instructional design: examining a professional learning community for pre- and in-service teachers

ABSTRACT Across jurisdictions, new and experienced teachers are expected to engage in ongoing professional learning that centers context, student learning, and teachers as adaptive instructional designers. The present study examines one such professional learning opportunity. From 2017 to 2020, a university teacher education program partnered with a school division in Alberta, Canada, to create a professional learning community (PLC) for instructional design. Pre- and in-service teachers jointly participated in 12-month cycles of formal workshops, sustained practicum placements, and iterative opportunities for co-learning and reflection to strengthen their skills as instructional designers, with a specific focus on a design thinking approach. Semistructured interviews conducted between June 2020 and June 2021 with six pre- and in-service teachers who had participated in the PLC identified five key themes: (a) a sense of willingness, (b) teaching for innovation, (c) creating space to change practices, (d) a notion of ‘currency’, and (e) collaboration across stakeholder groups. Participants’ insights offer situated examples of how such collaboration may extend knowledge sharing across pre- and in-service boundaries to provide multilevel supports for teacher-led professional learning.

Self-Evaluation as a Form of Reflective Practice in the Practicum

This research aims to explore the content of the reflection that pre-service EFL teachers are engaged in their self-evaluation reports during the practicum process at a public university teacher education program. So far, most reflection research in teacher education has concentrated on the levels of reflection pre-service teachers are involved in. Against this backdrop, we analyzed self-evaluation reports that the participant teachers wrote after three teaching tasks in the practicum. In general, the findings suggest that the pre-service EFL teachers reflected mostly on the instructional processes. The other areas they considered in their self-evaluations were learner motivation and engagement, their self as a teacher and classroom management. The findings also demonstrate that there is a change in the focus regarding the self as a teacher during the practicum. We conclude that examining the content of reflection has the potential to guide and inform practicum regarding the areas to reflect on through various tasks. 
 Keywords: reflective practice, self-evaluation, practicum, pre-service teachers, English as a foreign language

The Perils and Strains of Teaching Race and Racism to Predominantly White Teacher Candidates

This paper examines the overt and covert racism Black professors experience within the context of mainstream university teacher education programs. Informed by literature from Canadian sources and the authors’ personal experiences, the paper challenges the perception that Canadian postsecondary teacher education is amenable to honest, open and civil debates regarding racism. The common view of Canada as an inclusive and welcoming society needs re-examining given the degree of resistance encountered by racialized professors while teaching controversial topics, including racism and antiracism. A call is made for teacher education programs to revamp their curricula and to embed critical race and antiracist literature in all courses, in addition to recruiting, mentoring and retaining Black professors, senior administrators, staff and students.

“Homegrown” Latinx educator pathways: the challenges and possibilities for early childhood teacher education

ABSTRACTThis study highlights a critical case that can serve as a programmatic and conceptual model for institutional partnerships seeking to diversify the early childhood education (ECE) teaching profession with “homegrown” Latinx teachers. The case study explored the experiences of Latinx students in an ECE program at a regional, public 4-year university who participated in a Grow Your Own (GYO) program at their high schools and/or local community college. The student-centered qualitative case study addressed: What obstacles have GYO Latinx teacher candidates experienced as they transferred to a 4-year university teacher education program? What can we learn about how they made sense of and responded to these challenges for improving the way in which early childhood teacher education programs might extend and transform GYO initiatives at the university level to support the retention and continued success of Latinx teacher candidates? Using a combination of interviews and focus groups, and Latinx Critical Theory, this study demonstrated that once at the university, GYO Latinx students struggled with increased financial strain, entrance requirements into teacher education, and commuting. Stressed across the interviews was the importance of building a critical learning community, in which relationships could be nurtured in culturally sustaining and place-based ways.

Place as Teacher: Community-Based Experiences, Third Spaces, & Teacher Education

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the systematic collective reflections of four teacher educators as they interrogate their own practice engaging in community-based settings, specifically considering how these settings can serve as an additional teacher. It is informed by a theory that centers educational experiences within the community and is guided by Gutiérrez’s use of the concept of third space. Connected to third spaces, the results of this study reveal that traditional PK-12 settings serve as the first spaces, the university teacher education programs as the second spaces, and the community-based settings as third spaces. Results showcase how these third spaces can be transformative for teacher educators as they consider preservice teachers’ learning. Findings are drawn from a 2-year collective self-study of four teacher educators facilitating community-based field experiences in the United States and Canada. Analysis of the teacher educator reflections of their observations revealed the transformative ways in which these community-based places, as separate and unique constructs, acted as a teacher for preservice teachers when working in community-based settings. This study presents arguments for integrating community-based field experiences within teacher education, particularly as such places can support and facilitate preservice teachers’ learning.

The Efficacy of Microteaching in a Teacher Education Programme During the Lockdown at a University in South Africa

The microteaching programme is the initial phase of teacher development, and it intends to provide student teachers with a genuine experience of the teaching profession. Prior to the global COVID-19 lockdown, microteaching was conducted in a traditional face-to-face setting. However, the lockdown restrictions compelled such programmes to be carried out virtually using digital devices. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative study is to examine the efficacy of microteaching during the lockdown in a university teacher education programme. The research was conducted with two groups of Post Graduate Certificate in Education students at a university, in South Africa. Each group comprised of five members, with a totality of 10 participants. A case study research design was employed, and data were collected through observations and semi-structured interviews. An observation schedule and interview schedule were utilised to guide the accuracy of data collection. Thereafter, data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis, whereby codes and themes were developed. The findings reveal the efficacy of microteaching since all student teachers successfully completed their microteaching virtually with better marks when comparing Microteaching One and Microteaching 2. The microteaching programme was enhanced by improving the utilisation of technology resources in the programme. Student teachers’ digital skills, knowledge and critical thinking skills were enhanced. Conducting microteaching virtually also resulted in inclusive learning. It is concluded that technology resources played a vital role in the efficacy of microteaching during the lockdown. This study contributes to the literature on teacher education programmes to embrace technology utilisation in microteaching, even after the lockdown.

Learning from Country to conceptualise what an Aboriginal curriculum narrative might look like in education

Missing from the Australian Curriculum is a coherent Aboriginal curriculum narrative that is legitimate in its own right, rather than an “add on” to other curriculum areas. We argue that in order to do this, teachers need to experience Country-centred learning led by local Aboriginal community members. From these experiences, teachers can build relationships and better understand local knowledges and practices to develop an Aboriginal curriculum narrative for their teaching. In an urban Australian university teacher education program, Learning from Country in the City (LFC), a largely non-Aboriginal cohort of preservice teachers participate in Aboriginal community–led learning outside the classroom and on Country. This paper is based on qualitative data from individual yarns and group yarning circles with ten Aboriginal community-based educators and 30 preservice teachers. From this data, a Learning from Country Framework (Burgess et al., Teachers and Teaching, forthcoming) was developed which emphasises (i) Country-Centred Relationships, (ii) Relating, (iii) Critical Engagement, and (iv) Mobilising. Through deep listening and truth telling processes, preservice teachers build confidence and relationships with Aboriginal people and Country, awaken their critical consciousness and explore processes to conceptualise an Aboriginal curriculum narrative for their teaching. Through deep listening to the cultural, historical, and socio-political narratives of place, learning occurs through being and doing. Aboriginal community-based educators highlight the significance of Country-centred knowledges and truth-telling processes to challenge settler-colonial narratives and the power dynamics that have silenced Aboriginal people.

Reflective Practice in Teacher Education: A Look into Past and Present Theories, and Some Pertinent Issues

Many educators regard the practice of pedagogical reflection as a prime motivator in the professional growth of teachers. This idea has spurred the realization of the practice of reflection since the early stages of the university's teacher education program. Several scholars have developed their ideas regarding excellent practices in reflection throughout the years. They presented methodologies, concepts, and ways to construct the course of reflection from non-reflective to critical reflective by identifying the reflective thought process and underpinning the degrees of reflection. These ideas would also allow educators to create evaluations for reflective practice. However, this sound theoretical framework is frequently riddled with flaws that linger to the present time, particularly about the extent to which such activity will provide noteworthy growth for teachers, as well as the legitimacy of its reflexivity itself. This paper tries to revisit the origin of the concept, the development, and pinpoint the persistent issues. This, hopefully, would enable us to seek the deeper insight into the dynamics of reflective practice in teacher education program.

Illusions of online readiness: the counter-intuitive impact of rapid immersion in digital learning due to COVID-19

ABSTRACT Framed from a socio-cognitive perspective, and the contemporary increased salience of digital learning readiness and competence, the purpose of this study was two-fold: to validate Online Learner Readiness Scale in a new context and to explore potential variances in online readiness within a student-teacher population between less (pre-COVID) and more experienced (during COVID) groups. A CFA was used to examine the suitability of the OLRS in an Irish context, and variances between groups based on gender and professional experience were explored. Two cross-sectional datasets were gathered from student teachers from a university teacher education programme in the Republic of Ireland (n 1 = 281, n 2 = 154). The analysis demonstrated significantly lower perceived online readiness in the more experienced ‘during COVID’ cohort compared to ‘pre-COVID’ cohort. This counter-intuitive finding is in direct contrast to prior research, and potential influencing factors include the sudden immersion in an entirely digital learning environment. The more experienced cohort reported significantly lower online readiness across all five components of the OLRS. The findings are discussed in the context of a major shift in the student-teacher learning experience due to COVID-19. Implications for future research are explored in the context of increasingly digitised teaching and learning environments during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

PETE Faculty’s Perspectives of edTPA: The Range of Change

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the extent of changes taking place within the context, structure, and culture of university physical education teacher education programs facilitating high-stakes educative Teacher Performance Assessment policy. Method: Utilizing a multiple-case study design framed by analytical dualism, eight physical education teacher education faculty from eight different programs who had direct involvement in the high-stakes educative Teacher Performance Assessment process were investigated. Data from semi-structured individual interviews, focus group interviews, and documents were interpretively analyzed. Results: Faculty reacted in three distinct ways to the process of change: prevailers, conceders, or exceeders. The process appeared to be based upon an implementation continuum from isolation to internalization. Discussion/Conclusions: University programs have a responsibility to prepare effective physical education teachers who use the best practices for teaching. It is imperative for physical education teacher education faculty to reflect upon the impetus and impact of changes made to their programs.

The Effectiveness of In-Person versus Online Instruction in the Pre-service Teacher Preparation Programme

In reference to the reflective nature of the methodological design of the current pre-service English teacher education program at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, considerable challenges related to teacher-education were noted during the emergency online switch. For this reason, the theory/practice connections, typically strengthened via the practical, experiential and reflective components of university teacher-education programs, were put to the test. The research is aimed at identifying the challenges of the online switch and focuses on comparison of the effectiveness of in-person versus online instruction in the pre-service English teacher preparation program. The research questions seek to examine whether teacher-training sessions online are more demanding and challenging, and potentially less effective (as perceived by the respondents), compared to the in-person teacher-training practices. The study results offer a valuable insight into the teacher-trainees’ perceptions of the challenges and effectiveness of the online English teacher-training course implementation in comparison with the in-person mode.

A longitudinal investigation of changing conceptions about teaching science and pedagogical implications of student diversity

AbstractThis longitudinal case study investigates how one science teachers' conceptions change in one domain (assessment of science learning) but not in another (understanding the pedagogical implications of student diversity) over a period of 10 years that includes a university teacher education program and nine subsequent years of experience of classroom teaching. This article describes the case of Victor, a White and male high school physics teacher, and documents changes in his conceptions of teaching science over 10 years. This study suggests that teachers who undertake the effort to change an aspect of their practice, knowing that they will need to rethink some of their existing ideas, can be successful. Conversely, if an area of teacher knowledge is underdeveloped at the conclusion of a teacher preparation program, there is no guarantee that the situation will be ameliorated simply through years of classroom experience, even if teachers grow to feel a level of increased confidence and comfort in that domain. It also demonstrates that the opportunity to undergo conceptual change with regard to issues of student diversity is highly dependent on a science teacher's identity, personal history, and teaching contexts and experiences.

National Biomechanics Day: A Novel and Collaborative Recruitment Tool

As student enrollment numbers continue to drop within university Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs across the country, the importance of recruiting high school students into the fields of physical education has never been greater. The PETE and exercise science programs at a university in the Pacific Northwest collaborated using National Biomechanics Day as a recruitment tool to promote biomechanics (as a field of study) and highlight both PETE and exercise science degree programs to high school students.

The Politics of the Hero's Journey: A Narratology of American Special Education Textbooks

This paper explores introduction to special education textbooks in order to illuminate how they portray the social and political work of special educators, especially in relation to disabled students and adults. This study analyzed five leading special education textbooks used in university teacher education programs using traditional methods of discourse analysis, including line-by-line coding and language-in-use with valuation. The analysis and coding tracked story plot components and characters associated with five phases evident in the narrative structure of a hero's journey: (1) the call to adventure, (2) supernatural aid, (3) threshold guardians, (4) trials and tribulations, and (5) the return. Discussions of the findings illustrate the problematic ways in which the textbooks create a heroic narrative of past and current elements tied to the field of special education.

Finding Satisfaction in Belonging: Preservice Teacher Subjective Well-Being and its Relationship to Belonging, Trust, and Self-Efficacy

The well-being of teachers and preservice teachers has been a topic extensively explored through the lens of burnout and stress. Despite its manifold benefits, few studies have explored PST well-being through the lens of subjective well-being. Grounding our study in positive psychology, we explore the relationships between preservice teachers’ subjective well-being, program sense of belonging, relational trust, and self-efficacy. Our participants included 63 multiple- and single-subject preservice teachers in a major university teacher education program in the western United States. They were surveyed in May 2019 in the final month of completing their program. We found that sense of belonging, relational trust, and self-efficacy individually are positively associated with well-being. A mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between relational trust and subjective well-being is mediated by program sense of belonging, which may indicate the importance of cohesion in a cohort-based teacher education program.

Investigation of Ethnopedagogical Factors in Teacher Education: Kyrgyzstan Sample

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ethnopedagogy education in the teacher education programs in Kyrgyzstan. Basic qualitative research method was applied in the study. The data were collected through document review and interviews with graduate students from Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University and instructors. The researcher stayed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for 50 days to collect the data, the documents and to plan and conduct the interviews. The data collected via document review and interviews, were analyzed by content analysis method. As a result of the analysis, information about the ethnopedagogy class at Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University teacher education program was reviewed and the instructors’ opinions about ethnopedagogy education at teacher education programs and the graduate students’ opinions about the ethnopedagogy class were identified. The most important result can be seen as that instructors and students give great importance to ethnopedagogy and adopt its ideas. They also indicated further insight and concrete proposals. As a country with a deep and rich history, it would be a great chance for Turkey to benefit from this educational experience.

Computer-Based Classification of Preservice Physics Teachers\u2019 Written Reflections

Reflecting in written form on one’s teaching enactments has been considered a facilitator for teachers’ professional growth in university-based preservice teacher education. Writing a structured reflection can be facilitated through external feedback. However, researchers noted that feedback in preservice teacher education often relies on holistic, rather than more content-based, analytic feedback because educators oftentimes lack resources (e.g., time) to provide more analytic feedback. To overcome this impediment to feedback for written reflection, advances in computer technology can be of use. Hence, this study sought to utilize techniques of natural language processing and machine learning to train a computer-based classifier that classifies preservice physics teachers’ written reflections on their teaching enactments in a German university teacher education program. To do so, a reflection model was adapted to physics education. It was then tested to what extent the computer-based classifier could accurately classify the elements of the reflection model in segments of preservice physics teachers’ written reflections. Multinomial logistic regression using word count as a predictor was found to yield acceptable average human-computer agreement (F1-score on held-out test dataset of 0.56) so that it might fuel further development towards an automated feedback tool that supplements existing holistic feedback for written reflections with data-based, analytic feedback.

Identifying Pre-service Teachers’ Conceptions about the NGSS Practices Using a Curriculum Critique and Revision (CCR) Task

ABSTRACT The Next Generation Science Standards articulate a new vision for K-12 science learning that engages students in disciplinary practices to encourage deeper participation in and understandings of science and engineering. Teacher educators have a major responsibility in helping pre-service teachers (PSTs) develop knowledge of these practices and ways to engage students in the practices. The words comprising the NGSS practices convey specialized disciplinary meanings. Yet, most PSTs have common sense interpretations of these words, which influence their understanding of the practices from a disciplinary perspective and further influence the way they implement these practices in classrooms. This study reports on conceptions of the NGSS practices that elementary PSTs exhibit during a Curriculum Critique and Revision (CCR) task in a methods course at two different university teacher education programs. Using the CCR, PSTs analyzed the presence or absence of NGSS practices within a lesson from a science curriculum guide. Qualitative thematic analysis of the PSTs’ responses revealed a wide range of interpretations of the practices. We share these PST conceptions and present findings that may enable teacher educators to better understand PSTs’ views of the practices. We provide conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses in PST’s understandings for each of the NGSS practices and suggest possible implications for the community of teacher educators.