Value Of Teacher Education Research Articles

Do teachers colleges prepare more effective teachers? Evidence from a top school district in China

This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the value of teacher education by comparing the effectiveness of traditionally trained teachers from teachers' colleges and non-traditionally trained teachers from comprehensive universities in China. We utilize the unique data of 424 traditionally and 40 non-traditionally trained teachers from a top school district in China and a cross-subject value-added model to address teacher-student sorting bias. Our results indicate that, on average, traditionally trained teachers contribute approximately 0.1 standard deviations higher value to students' high-stakes test scores over a three-year period than non-traditionally trained teachers. Behavioral analyses on the district's teacher survey suggest that while teachers from both routes are similar in time allocation and professional psychological characteristics, traditionally trained teacher report being better in applying multitudinous pedagogies and teaching strategies. We find similar results using two administrative data sources from another province. The findings of this study contribute to the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of alternative routes to teaching and the importance of teacher education.

Home and school gardening: Practices, attitudes, and beliefs of pre-service teachers

The study investigates the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers on home and school gardening as the basis for incorporating gardening activity in teacher education courses. Utilizing a descriptive research design, the data was gathered through a researcher-made survey and analyzed using various statistical methods such as percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test for independent sample means, and Pearson r. The findings reveal a high positive regard for gardening among pre-service teachers, irrespective of sex and geographical location. The geographical location shows some variations in beliefs about gardening, particularly between coastal-rural and other areas, whereas attitudes were consistently positive across locations. A significant correlation between beliefs and attitudes suggests that fostering positive beliefs may enhance positive attitudes toward gardening. These results underscore the potential for integrating gardening into teacher education, promoting values like environmental conservation, and healthy habits. The study acknowledges limitations like the limited diversity of the sample and unexplored translation of attitudes into practice and recommends the incorporation of gardening into the curriculum and the provision of practical gardening spaces and training. The conclusions affirm the role of pre-service teachers in addressing challenges like limited food supply and environmental degradation and emphasize the need to include gardening values in teacher education. This study recommends that gardening activities be integrated into the pre-service teacher education curriculum.

Nick Mead (ed.). Moral and political values in teacher education over the time. International perspectives

Nick Mead (ed.). Moral and political values in teacher education over the time. International perspectives

Cognitive Returns to Having Better Educated Teachers: Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey.

Teachers’ own level of human capital development is commonly believed to be deterministic for the quality and effectiveness of their instruction and management in the classroom. Yet, there still exists an international debate on whether better educated teachers contribute to students’ cognitive development. Leveraging a random class-assignment subsample (N = 3436) from a nationally representative teacher-student linked dataset in China, this study reassesses the ongoing contention regarding the value of teacher education. By linking differences in teachers’ own educational attainment levels across different subjects of instruction to variation in seventh grade students’ Chinese, Math and English test scores using student fixed-effect models, this study quantifies the cognitive returns attributable to better educated teachers, in student learning terms. Findings show that teachers with at least a bachelor’s degree contribute substantially to student learning compared to those who are less qualified, by as much as 0.069 SDs or about two additional months of learning over a typical academic year. Additional sensitivity analyses suggest that this observed effect is robust to model specifications, and is consistent for students from different backgrounds.

Axiological Aspect of Professional Training of Future Pedagogues

This scientific research examines the issues related to the axiological aspect of the professional training of future teachers. The relevance of the stated research topic is determined by the urgent necessity to increase the importance of high-quality professional training of future representatives of pedagogical professions, in the context of changes taking place in the modern education system. The purpose of this research work is to identify and state the main components of the axiological aspect of the professional training of future workers in the pedagogical industry, which is able to impart integrity to the entire process of their training. The leading approach in this scientific study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches to the study of issues related to the axiological aspect of the professional training of future workers in the pedagogical industry, in order to determine the main components of the factors affecting the quality and effectiveness of this training and further professional activities of teachers. The main results of this research work were: a statement of the necessity to develop and take a set of measures to clarify the existing value criteria of the education system to future teachers at the stage of their university preparation, as well as the acceptance of the fact of the need for the constant practice of future teachers in instilling in students respect for existing values in the context modern education system. The applied value of this study is determined by the possibility and urgent need to apply in practice the recommendations obtained as a result in order to get practical outcomes expressed in a real increase in the quality of professional training of future teachers, primarily in terms of increasing the value of their profession and their awareness of the value orientation of their activities. Further scientific research within the framework of the stated topic will help to fully reveal the essence of the axiological approach to the system of professional training of future teachers and supplement the existing ideas about the value of teacher education, in the context of the real state of affairs in the modern education system in Ukraine.

Is teacher attrition a poor estimate of the value of teacher education? A Swedish case

ABSTRACTFar from all who complete teacher education end up working as teachers throughout their entire career. At first sight the value of teacher education, in terms of efficiency, seems to be a failure. In the present article we argue that teacher attrition, when defined as whether one is working as teacher or not, is a too blunt measure to gauge whether teacher education has been valuable. With a unique dataset, where we have detailed information on 87 Swedish teacher graduates’ working life across 23 years, we can consider whether activities and/or experiences point to an apparent use of teacher education. In conclusion, we find that in order to get informative estimates of its value it is important to consider it from different perspectives and to consider attrition related to the total working time spent in educational settings across a career rather than percentage leaving teaching after a set of years

Enhancing teacher training skills by strengthening the teaching practice component

PurposeThe ongoing theory vs practice debate reinforces the problems facing teacher training institutions which need to challenge traditional programmes and work towards a tighter coherence between coursework and practical experience. Working more closely with schools to restructure teaching practice is necessary in order to create better tuition experience for students. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis project is situated within an interpretivist paradigm and is qualitative in nature. A sample of four South African education faculties was included. Semi-structured and focus group interviews were used to collect data from fourth-year BEd students, lecturers and in-service practitioners.FindingsThe findings indicated that the participants believed that the lack of actual classroom experience, and ineffective organisation of teaching practice, resulted in students feeling ill-equipped. Suggestions are made to improve the organisation of teaching experience and mentorship programmes.Originality/valueThis is an original research paper and it has value for teacher education.

A place for fundamental (British) values in teacher education in Northern Ireland?

This paper examines the distinctive locus of teacher education in Northern Ireland (NI) in respect of Fundamental British Values (FBV). It is written from the perspective of teacher education tutors in a PGCE programme that explicitly subscribes to pursuing the Shared Future agenda as outlined by NI Government policy in 2005. First, it establishes the inappropriateness of pursuing an FBV agenda in NI where the historical and contemporary context has been characterised by division expressed through opposing British and Irish identities; and, emerging from conflict where future political progress requires greater accommodation between these two often hostile positions. Second, using data from a previous Teaching and Learning Research Programme study (2005) on Values in Teacher Education as an indicator of student teacher social and political attitudes, it draws on later NI census (2011) and Life and Times Survey data (2005 and 2008) to identify the challenges and opportunities facing teacher educators wishing to encourage a more nuanced awareness among student teachers as to how identity issues impact on education. Finally, one teacher education initiative designed for this purpose is examined and its approaches offered as a means that Initial Teacher Education might contribute to producing teachers better equipped to contribute to a more accommodating society in NI in the future.

Policy driven reforms and the role of teacher educators in reframing teacher education in the 21st century

The current policy moment for teacher education in Australia is calling into question the value of teacher education as it is currently practised, proposing alternative pathways into teaching and at the same time tightening outcomes with statements of professional standards for teachers and input measures as part of teacher education regulation. Many features of this current policy moment have the potential to deprofessionalise teacher education and the profession. I argue that teacher educators must work towards shaping the current and future agendas in order to professionalise teacher education and frame the teacher education system in the 21st century. To do that we need to address some of the key questions being asked of us, such as: What is the value of teacher education? What should beginning teachers know and be able to do? How can judgements be made about what beginning teachers know and are able to do? I think we must ensure research- informed and practice-validated professional standards for teaching at various junctures in the teaching career, but specifically for beginning teaching, that capture the complexity and context specific nature of quality teaching and professional judgement. In addition, authentic assessment of beginning teaching that involves consideration of teacher professional judgment and student learning in a range of diverse contexts is an important consideration in re/framing the teacher education system of the 21st century. In conclusion, I argue teacher education research must respond to and inform the questions being asked of us in this policy moment about the value of teacher education.

Towards a complicated conversation: teacher education and the curriculum turn

Historically, research in teacher education has played a practical role deriving its questions directly either from ‘the doing’ of teacher education and/or having sought to directly improve ‘the doing’ of teacher education. As a result, a tendency towards moral, intellectual and institutional parochialism has confined both the promise and purpose of research. It is argued that the field of teacher education might look towards curriculum theory as a possible antidote to parochialism. Curriculum theorising invites consideration of teacher education as a cultural object, nested in layers of meaning that require interpretation and critique. Drawing inspiration from the few scholars whose work is located at the interstices of teacher education and curriculum theory, this article suggests that a curriculum turn is characterised by (1) an attention to language, what it is up to and what it makes of aspiring teachers and their teacher educators; (2) a focus on the fragility of human experience as it is lived in teacher education; and finally (3) a search for new and provocative relations between the social and (teacher) educational worlds. The upshot of a curriculum turn in teacher education research is an emphasis on the significance and complexity of teachers’ work, and the value of teacher education; the recovery of teacher education as an educational project; and an enrichment of the questions that the profession asks of itself.

A teacher educator's practicebecominga living theory

This article presents an author's struggle to develop a ‘living’ theory of values in teacher education. The article argues that these values will manifest especially those situations where there are contradictions and tensions in the ever-changing context of pre-service teacher education. These contradictions are sometimes between discourses of values and the reality of everyday talk and interaction of everyday practice. This paper is an account of one teacher educator's reflective action enquiry in which he attempted to find ways of developing morally reflective communities of practice in which all participants may offer an account of their dynamic (and tension-rich) learning and how values of education feature in this learning. In philosophising about his curricular and instructional practice he gradually composed what he would like to term ‘the becoming’ (in a DeLeuzian sense) of ‘a living theory’. The theoretical lens used to frame the developing living theory is a combination of ‘routinised practice’...

Pedagogical content knowledge circa 1907 and 1987: a study in the history of an idea

Since the 1980s in the US, teacher education has undergone consistent scrutiny and faces frequent attack by politicians and policy makers concerned with the quality of education. Responses to these attacks have varied, but most often they have centered on the need to professionalize teaching. Doubts about the value of teacher education have resulted in efforts to make a case for teaching as a unique intellectual enterprise involving special forms of knowledge and skill. The concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been central to this argument. The author explores PCK against the backdrop of efforts in the early part of the 20th century to professionalize teaching and considers problems with the concept that have limited its influence.

An Orientation Toward Values in Teacher Education

An Orientation Toward Values in Teacher Education

The Role of Values in Teacher Education

The Role of Values in Teacher Education

Supervision of Physical Education in the Elementary School

Abstract This study is concerned with in-service practices of elementary classroom teachers in public schools which had previously been suggested by the various state departments as having adequate supervisory service. Eighty-nine classroom teachers replied. The data show that classroom teachers who are adequately supervised present a picture of the educationally better practices at the elementary school level in respect to planning, correlation of physical education with other subjects, regard for learning problems and those of organization and grouping, use of evaluation, and awareness of in-service procedures found to be helpful. Comparisons are made with a previous study of the supervisors' viewpoint in the same situations. The two studies have value for teacher education at both pre-service and in-service levels.

Recruitment, Institutional Selection, and Guidance of Teachers

PROFESSIONAL literature reveals a definite trend toward greater emphasis (4) on recruiting individuals with intellectual and personal qualifications who are likely to make good teachers and more emphasis on personality as a criterion for selection. Increased emphasis on guidance with attempts to remove handicaps to successful teaching are also noticeable (4, 9). There seems to be a growing recognition that there is no one clear pattern (6) for a successful teacher, that high scholarship and high abstract intelligence (10, 12, 23) may be more significant for the teacher of academic areas like mathematics, science, social studies, and English; and that tests of aptitude for special abilities such as music (2), typing (12), and physical education may be significant for selection of those who propose to major in those areas. Evidence seems to indicate that a combination of criteria have higher predictive value for teacher education (13, 4) than a single criterion. Some evidence (25) indicates that interests in teaching may be formed as a result of experiences in the elementary or junior high school.