“Real-world:” preservice teachers' research competence and research difficulties in action research

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Mae Dabi Toquero
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Real World ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Competence ◽  
Life Problems

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide an analysis of the teacher education program focused on the development of the research competence of the preservice teachers, difficulties they encountered in conducting action research and the need to provide them with realistic research opportunities. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study made use of data sources taken from observations, feedback sessions, presentations and follow-up written interview of 133 randomly selected preservice teachers. Findings Findings reported that the multicultural preservice teachers have novice research skills and that the real-world application of their research skills developed their research competence. However, they encountered difficulties creating their action research, such as in the literature review and the research conceptualization. Research limitations/implications Aside from the self-reported experiences of the students, the training on the action research mainly focused on the conceptualization, design formulation of interventions and proposal writing stage but were not implemented due to course constraints. Practical implications This study can assist policymakers to integrate a mandatory research course as part of the curricular offerings and for the university to create space for students to practice their research skills based on real-life problems in the basic level institutions. Social implications Understanding the challenges, difficulties, and basic competence in the research development of the preservice teachers would strengthen the research practice of the future teachers for evidence-based teaching in the schools. Originality/value The limited literature focus on the development of research competence on teacher education students using action research, including the difficulties that university students experience in doing research based on a societal context.

Critical multicultural education and preservice teachers’ multicultural attitudes

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeki Arsal
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Teacher Preparation Program ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Multicultural Education ◽  
Quasi Experimental

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of critical multicultural education on the multicultural attitudes of preservice teachers in a teacher education program. Design/methodology/approach The study sample consisted of 76 preservice teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program. This study used a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental research design with pretest-posttest. The multicultural content integration was implemented in an experimental group for one semester, and data were collected using the teacher multicultural attitude survey. Findings Analyses indicated that preservice teachers who were exposed to the critical multicultural education program showed significantly greater progress in their multicultural attitudes compared with teachers in the control group. The results of this study indicate that the integrating critical multicultural education content into teacher education program has a positive effect on fostering preservice teachers’ multicultural attitudes. Practical implications Teacher education program planners should integrate multicultural content, materials and activities into teaching methods courses to promote change in preservice teachers’ multicultural attitudes. Originality/value This study contributes to the multicultural studies on teacher education.

The teacher in me

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Woods ◽  
Mary Alice Barksdale ◽  
Cheri F. Triplett ◽  
Ann Potts
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Preservice Teacher ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Preservice Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Unexpected Finding ◽  
Content Type

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a study of identity development in the context of a preservice teacher education program that used a variety of approaches to support development of understanding of cultural diversity. Design/methodology/approach – Fifty preservice teachers in a graduate program in elementary education participated in the study. Of the 50 participants, 47 were Caucasian, two were African American and one was originally from India, but was a US citizen. The analyses were qualitative. A phenomenological approach to data analysis was taken, viewing the drawings and written explanations created by the participants as independently occurring phenomenon (as compared with data that might be considered for grounded theory or constant comparison) (Hycner, 1985; Moustakas, 1994). Findings – Overall, the low number of drawings and writings that included representations of cultural, linguistic, special needs and gender diversity suggests of a lack of understanding about the significant roles of these student characteristics in the lives of elementary teachers dedicated to meeting student needs. Given the strong focus on diversity education in this preservice teacher education program, this was an unexpected finding. One explanation is that preservice and beginning teachers are highly involved in identifying their own beliefs and values about teaching and exploring how their personal characteristics can be reconciled and applied in their specific teaching contexts. Originality/value – It is imperative that teacher education programs effectively address diversity in the classroom for the population typically entering the teaching profession. While many programs spend considerable time and effort “teaching” multicultural concepts, few, if any, have asked students to look inward in the way we did on this study.

Music Teacher Education Program Practices: Preparing Teachers to Work With Diverse Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Mara E. Culp ◽  
Karen Salvador
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Diverse Learners ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Education Programs

Music educators must meet the needs of students with diverse characteristics, including but not limited to cultural backgrounds, musical abilities and interests, and physical, behavioral, social, and cognitive functioning. Music education programs may not systematically prepare preservice teachers or potential music teacher educators for this reality. The purpose of this study was to examine how music teacher education programs prepare undergraduate and graduate students to structure inclusive and responsive experiences for diverse learners. We replicated and expanded Salvador’s study by including graduate student preparation, incorporating additional facets of human diversity, and contacting all institutions accredited by National Association of Schools of Music to prepare music educators. According to our respondents, integrated instruction focused on diverse learners was more commonly part of undergraduate coursework than graduate coursework. We used quantitative and qualitative analysis to describe course offerings and content integration.

Digital stories, material transformations: reflections of education students in a pre-teacher program

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Louise Romero-Ivanova ◽  
Paul Cook ◽  
Greta Faurote
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Peer Reviews ◽  
Digital Stories ◽  
K 12

Purpose This study centers on high school pre-teacher education students’ reviews of their peers’ digital stories. The purpose of this study is twofold: to bring digital storytelling to the forefront as a literacy practice within classrooms that seeks to privilege students’ voices and experiences and also to encapsulate the authors’ different experiences and perspectives as teachers. The authors sought to understand how pre-teacher education candidates analyzed, understood and made meaning from their classmates’ digital stories using the seven elements of digital storytelling (Dreon et al., 2011). Design/methodology/approach Using grounded theory (Charmaz, 2008) as a framework, the question of how do high school pre-teacher education program candidates reflectively peer review their classmates’ digital stories is addressed and discussed through university and high school instructors’ narrative reflections. Through peer reviews of their fellow classmates’ digital stories, students were able to use the digital storytelling guide that included the seven elements of digital storytelling planning to critique and offer suggestions. The authors used the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 cohorts’ digital stories, digital storytelling guides and peer reviews to discover emerging categories and themes and then made sense of these through narrative analysis. This study looks at students’ narratives through the contexts of peer reviews. Findings The seven elements of digital storytelling, as noted by Dreon et al. (2011, p. 5), which are point of view, dramatic question, emotional content, the gift of your voice, the power of the soundtrack, economy and pacing, were used as starting points for coding students’ responses in their evaluations of their peers’ digital stories. Situated on the premise of 21st century technologies as important promoters of differentiated ways of teaching and learning that are highly interactive (Greenhow et al., 2009), digital stories and students’ reflective practices of peer reviewing were the foundational aspects of this paper. Research limitations/implications The research the authors have done has been in regards to reviewing and analyzing students’ peer reviews of their classmates’ digital stories, so the authors did not conduct a research study empirical in nature. What the authors have done is to use students’ artifacts (digital story, digital storytelling guides and reflections/peer reviews) to allow students’ authentic voices and perspectives to emerge without their own perspectives marring these. The authors, as teachers, are simply the tools of analysis. Practical implications In reading this paper, teachers of different grade levels will be able to obtain ideas on using digital storytelling in their classrooms first. Second, teachers will be able to obtain hands-on tools for implementing digital storytelling. For example, the digital storytelling guide to which the authors refer (Figure 1) can be used in different subject areas to help students plan their stories. Teachers will also be able to glean knowledge on using students’ peer reviews as a kind of authentic assessment. Social implications The authors hope in writing and presenting this paper is that teachers and instructors at different levels, K-12 through higher education, will consider digital storytelling as a pedagogical and learning practice to spark deeper conversations within the classroom that flow beyond margins and borders of instructional settings out into the community and beyond. The authors hope that others will use opportunities for storytelling, digital, verbal, traditional writing and other ways to spark conversations and privilege students’ voices and lives. Originality/value As the authors speak of the original notion of using students’ crucial events as story starters, this is different than prior research for digital storytelling that has focused on lesson units or subject area content. Also, because the authors have used crucial events, this is an entry point to students’ lives and the creation of rapport within the classroom.

scholarly journals Implementing Action Research in a Teacher Preparation Program: Opportunities and Limitations

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-71
Author(s):  
Glenda L. Black
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Teacher Preparation Program ◽  
Preparation Program ◽  
Problem Solving Skills

Action research has the potential to reconstruct schools into professional learning communities that are able to identify educational issues and develop appropriate solutions for 21st century learning. Increasingly, teacher education programs are providing action research experiences to encourage analytical thinking and problem-solving skills (Darling-Hammond, 2009, 2012). The purpose of this study was to critically examine the experiences of the teacher educator and teacher candidates involved in the implementation of an action research component over four years in a revised consecutive initial teacher preparation program. A case study design using action research methodology was used in the research, which provided the tools to explore a complex phenomenon within its context: the implementation of an action research assignment in a core course in a teacher preparation program. The perceptions of the faculty teaching the course and the teacher candidates (n=544) in each of the four years provided insight into challenges, benefits, and lessons learned.  The discussion centers on the implementation of action research in a compulsory course in a teacher education program; identifying opportunities and limitations settled into four main categories: structural incongruence, reflection, growth, and recommendations.

scholarly journals From Literacy to Information Literacy: Reading for Understanding in the Real World

2021 ◽  
pp. 254-267
Author(s):  
John Royce
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Real World ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
The Real ◽  
Life Problems ◽  
Complicated Process ◽  
Process Failure ◽  
Vital Component

Good readers evaluate as they go along, open to triggers and alarms which warn that something is not quite right, or that something has not been understood. Evaluation is a vital component of information literacy, a keystone for reading with understanding. It is also a complex, complicated process. Failure to evaluate well may prove expensive. The nature and amount of information on the Internet make evaluation skills ever more necessary. Looking at research studies in reading and in evaluation, real-life problems are suggested for teaching, modelling and discussion, to bring greater awareness to good, and to less good, readers.

scholarly journals IMPROVING TEACHING PRACTICUM: SUGGESTIONS FROM THE ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULA

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ha Le Kim Anh
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Real Life ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Teaching Practicum ◽  
Pedagogical Competence ◽  
National University

Teaching practicum is an important component of a foreign language teacher education program, which helps future teachers to learn and develop pedagogical competence in a real-life context. Within the scope of this article, we focus on analyzing the foreign language teacher education curricula of 9 universities in Vietnam, and offer our recommendations for improving foreign language teacher education in general and English teaching practicum in particular at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

scholarly journals Implementing Narrative-Pedagogical Approaches in a Teacher Education Classroom

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Goh
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Narrative Pedagogy ◽  
Educational Stakeholders ◽  
Conventional Teaching ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
The Rich

Preservice teachers can no longer be prepared using conventional teaching approaches as these are inadequate to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills they require to perform the tasks of teaching effectively. Teacher educators need to use new pedagogies, and narrative pedagogy is seen as a teaching method which can better prepare preservice teachers for the challenging classrooms of today. My study explored nine preservice teachers’ experiences after the enactment of a narrative pedagogical approach in one of their courses within their teacher education program. I used Ricoeur’s framework of the prefigured and configured arena of education to analyse the rich interview and reflective data which emerged. Three themes for the prefigured arena emerged: (a) feeling the sense of responsibility, (b) feeling anxious, and (c) feeling the lack of experience and confidence. Similarly, three themes were found for the configured arena: (a) learning through emotions, (b) learning through insights, and (c) learning through discussion. The preservice teachers have interpreted and discussed “lived” stories and this has shifted the way they think about teaching. The results do offer teacher educators and educational stakeholders a stepping-stone to further pedagogical insight into using narrative pedagogy in teacher education.

Critical Thinking in Teacher Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Katie Peterson-Hernandez ◽  
Steven S. Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Teacher Preparation Programs ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Literacy Methods

This chapter documents the development of critical thinking skills in preservice teachers as they engaged in practicum settings in a teacher education program. Qualitative data helps illustrate the shifts in thinking that correlated with particular experiences in the program. Data is used to illustrate strategies that teacher preparation programs might draw on to help teacher education students develop critical thinking skills related to pedagogies and practices. The authors conclude by theorizing a relationship between the structure and strategies employed within a literacy methods course and the expansion of preservice teachers understanding of literacy, teaching, and learning.

“If Not Me, Then Who?”

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ann Ethridge ◽  
Vickie E. Lake ◽  
Amber H. Beisly
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Sense Of Power

Research has indicated that teachers typically do not view themselves as advocates for many reasons such as fear of personal and professional risk (Peters & Reid, 2009). Participants include both preservice teachers and graduates of an early childhood teacher education program. This chapter addresses how the program utilized intentional assignments and group and individual scaffolding as preservice teachers moved from experiencing service learning to pure advocacy. Through a mixed methods study, preservice teachers began to see themselves as agents of change with increased confidence and sense of power. These transformations continued as graduates of the program reported they were still engaging in advocacy.

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