Interruptions: Thinking-in-Action in Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Cara Furman ◽  
Shannon Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Classroom Observation ◽  
Teacher Inquiry ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Reflective Journals ◽  
Ethical Choices ◽  
Narrative Format ◽  
Background Context

Background/Context This paper is a part of the special issue “Reimagining Research and Practice at the Crossroads of Philosophy, Teaching, and Teacher Education.” We center what follows on a practice used in undergraduate methods courses that we have termed Interruptions. Interruptions are a form of inter-class visitation in which faculty plan together, visit one another's classes, and publicly interrupt the teaching of the other with a variety of both pre-planned and spontaneous questions relating to the day's lesson. Research Design We weave together a conceptual analysis and qualitative research, drawing from a larger qualitative study conducted in one early childhood and one elementary undergraduate math methods course in Spring 2016. For the study, we co-planned eight lessons together (four in each course), and observed one another teach each of those lessons, while taking notes and purposely interrupting instruction. We collected survey data from students at the end of each classroom observation and interviewed two students from each class at the end of the term. We also kept reflective journals of our work. In this paper we deploy a narrative format to document teacher inquiry drawing upon our reflective journals and classroom observation to describe the development, enactment, and our response to Interruptions. Outcomes Our use of Interruptions pushed us to examine our own philosophical beliefs and how they were, or were not, enacted in our teaching practice. We highlight that the connections that emerged between philosophy and teacher education provided us with the necessary time to care for our ethical selves both in and out of the classroom. Specifically, we share how this exercise allowed us each to become more deliberately reflective about the work that we do and why and how we do it. Conclusions/Recommendations In addition to giving us time to slow down our teaching in order to think carefully about our choices while in the midst of teaching, we found that we also considered instructional implications long after the Interruptions were complete. Interruptions helped us think more deliberately about the ethical choices we made as educators and in the service of our students. Interruptions proved to have deep and long-lasting effects on our practice as teacher educators. Other practitioners who ground themselves in both philosophy and methods may benefit from similarly systematic approaches for examining their own practice with an eye towards improvements in teaching and understanding of the self.

Listening to the Experiences and Concerns of Pre-Service Teachers During Teaching Practice Programme

2021 ◽  
pp. 14-27
Author(s):  
Darshana Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Practical Training ◽  
Teacher Education Programme ◽  
Practice Teaching

Teaching Practice is widely recognised as the sine-qua-non of any teacher education programme. It is a component in the teacher preparation programme where prospective teachers are provided with an opportunity to put their theoretical studies into practice, get feedback, reflect on practice and consequently further improve their teaching skills. As teaching practice is an important component of a teacher education programme, considerable attention must be given to make it more effective and fruitful. This paper is based on a research study conducted to know pre-service teachers' experiences of the quality of teaching practice and the common concerns they have during teaching practice. On the basis of focussed group discussion a total of five themes were identified, these are (1) usefulness of teaching practice (2) experiences/concerns with pupils' behaviour (3) experiences/concerns with own behaviour (4) experiences/concerns with supervisors' behaviour (5) experiences/concerns with institutional and personal adjustments. The outcome of the focussed group discussion was used to prepare a structured questionnaire. Among other things, the study recommended rigorous practical training in lesson planning, demonstration lessons by teacher educators, simulated teaching before the commencement of practice teaching, school orientation programmes, a separate internship of two weeks and writing a journal by student teachers during teaching practice.

Equitable Teaching and the Core Practice Movement: Preservice Teachers’ Professional Reasoning

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Britnie Delinger Kane
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Student Teacher ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
The Core ◽  
Collaborative Analysis ◽  
Core Practice

Background/Context The Core Practice movement continues to gain momentum in teacher education research. Yet critics highlight that equitable teaching cannot be reduced to a set of “core” practices, arguing that such a reduction risks representing teaching as technical work that will be neither culturally responsive nor sustaining. Instead, they argue that preservice teachers need opportunities to develop professional reasoning that takes the specific strengths and needs of students, communities, and subject matter into account. Purpose This analysis takes up the question of how and whether pedagogies of investigation and enactment can support preservice teachers’ development of the professional reasoning that equitable teaching requires. It conceptualizes two types of professional reasoning: interpretive, in which reasoners decide how to frame instructional problems and make subsequent efforts to solve them, and prescriptive, in which reasoners solve an instructional problem as given. Research Design This work is a qualitative, multiple case study, based on design research in which preservice teachers participated in three different cycles of investigation and enactment, which were designed around a teaching practice central to equitable teaching: making student thinking visible. Preservice teachers attended to students’ thinking in the context of the collaborative analysis of students’ writing and also through designed simulations of student-teacher writing conferences. Findings/Results Preservice teachers’ collaborative analysis of students’ writing supported prescriptive professional reasoning about disciplinary ideas in ELA and writing instruction (i.e., How do seventh graders use hyperbole? How is hyperbole related to the Six Traits of Writing?), while the simulation of a writing conference supported preservice teachers to reason interpretively about how to balance the need to support students’ affective commitment to writing with their desire to teach academic concepts about writing. Conclusions/Recommendations This analysis highlights an important heuristic for the design of pedagogies in teacher education: Teacher educators need to attend to preservice teachers’ opportunities for both interpretive and prescriptive reasoning. Both are essential for teachers, but only interpretive reasoning will support teachers to teach in ways that are both intellectually rigorous and equitable. The article further describes how and why a tempting assumption—that opportunities to role-play student-teacher interactions will support preservice teachers to reason interpretively, while non-interactive work will not—is incomplete and avoidable.

Whiteness as Property in Science Teacher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Felicia Moore Mensah ◽  
Iesha Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Science Teacher ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Elementary Science ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Science Teacher Education ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Teachers Of Color ◽  
Science Teacher Educators

Background/Context The disparity between the race and ethnicity of teachers and students is expected to increase as our nation and classrooms continue to become more racially, ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse. It is extremely important to think about not only the educational needs of such a diverse student population within schools but also who will teach these students. However, when looking at subject-matter specificity for the retention of Teachers of Color, such as science teachers, the picture becomes extremely serious when we understand teachers’ paths into and out of science and teaching. Purpose The purpose of the study is to analyze the experiences of preservice Teachers of Color (PTOC) enrolled in an elementary science methods course as they gain access to science as White property. Our analysis provides evidence that PTOC can break the perpetual cycle of alienation, exclusion, and inequity in science when they are given opportunities to engage in science as learners and teachers. In addition, we also offer insights regarding the role science teacher educators may play in preparing teachers and especially TOC for urban schools. Setting/Research Design The context of this study was a graduate-level preservice elementary science methods course at a large urban university in New York City. Multiple data sources included pre-post surveys, semester observation journals, final course papers, and a post-course questionnaire. Utilizing constructivist grounded during the initial phase of analysis and themes from critical race theory (CRT), our unique voices of color and positionalities allowed us to interpret the data from a CRT perspective and arrive at findings relevant to making science inclusive to PTOC. Conclusions/Recommendations In order to push the field of science teacher education toward social justice issues of access, opportunity, and enjoyment, efforts must focus on increasing representation of Teachers of Color in science education. The transformation of science teacher education to grant equitable learning experiences for Teachers of Color is needed. Further research on the experiences of science Teachers of Color, as well as Faculty of Color and their relationship with students, is highly encouraged. Both teacher preparation and science education must be open to interrogate and reveal structural forms of race, racism, and power that manifest through curriculum, structure, and pedagogy that cause alienation and exclusion for Teachers of Color. Therefore, we encourage science teacher educators to examine their own course curriculum, structure, and pedagogy through self-study and refection. Overall practices in teacher preparation must empower rather than impede progress toward important goals of CRT, and this may be achieved through building stronger relationships with PTOC and Faculty of Color across teacher preparation courses in support of these goals.

scholarly journals Preparing Practice-Based Researchers for Diverse Classrooms: A Pathway for Teacher Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Lammert
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Diverse Classrooms ◽  
Practice Based Research ◽  
Conducting Research

Twenty-first century educators are faced with new dilemmas, as well as new opportunities. In response to the increasing racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of students, some school districts and states have implemented policies mandating particular curriculum. However, evidence increasingly shows that teachers who are effective in diverse classrooms are adaptive and responsive rather than strictly adhering to scripted curriculum. One proposed solution is preparation to conduct practice-based research as part of teaching. Practice-based research is a method of studying ones’ own teaching that draws on action research, design-development research, and transformative research. As a method through which teachers define questions, explore solutions, and share successes in professional communities, practice-based research holds tremendous potential to support teachers in diverse classrooms as they work to teach in culturally sustaining ways despite external pressures. This chapter begins with the history of action research and the tradition of teachers conducting research on their practice. Then, examples of practice-based research in literacy teacher education settings from a review of the research literature are provided to demonstrate the challenges, opportunities, and design features for this work. The chapter concludes with recommendations for teacher education policies, for teacher educators, and for practice.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF ATTITUDE TOWARDS REFLECTIVE TEACHING PRACTICE (RTP) SCALE

2020 ◽  
pp. 337-348
Author(s):  
Karuna K Simha ◽  
Umme Kulsum
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Reflective Teaching ◽  
Reflective Practitioners ◽  
The Government

The NCF-2005, NCFTE-2009 and the New Education Policy-2020 recommend teachers to be reflective practitioners. The realization of the concept of reflective teaching practice helps us to openly accept the new changes that are brought about by the education system and enables us to progress towards the betterment of the education system. The fundamental principle of teacher education is to be on reflective teaching model. As the reflective practice has been introduced more recently, there has been a shift in the approaches of teaching from teacher centeredness to learner centeredness. Adapting to the novel changes requires a mind-set to acknowledge the changes and evolve according to the need. It also involves likes and dislikes which can be rightly called attitudes. It is helpful to know the level of attitude of teachers, so as to provide them with required training, motivation and support. This helps the teachers also to change their attitudes towards reflective teaching. The measurement of attitude towards reflective teaching practices enables the teacher-educators, the educationists and the government to design programmes to help teachers develop a positive attitude to the new recommendations. It also helps the teacher education institutions to inculcate the positive attitudes towards the reflective teaching so as to prepare the entrant teachers to become reflective practitioners. Hence the attitude scale was constructed. The main purpose of the attitude scale is to measure and quantify the attitude towards reflective teaching practices. The reflective teaching practice scale was developed based on Likert scale construction procedures. The theoretical framework was adopted from the Pollard’s Reflective Teaching.

Leveraging Virtual Worlds Foreign Language Teacher Preparation

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Moser ◽  
Nicole C Miller ◽  
Krista Chambless
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
The Many

Recently in the field of teacher education, there has been a call for a more practice-based approach to teacher education. Best practices for developing any skill set is live practice and coaching. However, due to the many ethical considerations and the obstacles presented to the learning-to-teach process, it is neither practical nor best practice, to have teacher candidates conduct live practice lessons in real classrooms with constant interruptions by expert teachers. In contrast, virtual worlds such as Second Life (SL) can potentially assist teacher educators in overcoming these obstacles. This article presents the findings of a research study using SL in an inter-university Foreign Language (FL) methods course to provide teacher candidates with opportunities to teach (practice skills) while receiving continuous live feedback (coaching) from their methods instructors. The virtual experience and immediate feedback impacted candidate confidence as well as pedagogical practice and forced candidates to engage in reflective practice regarding content and pedagogical knowledge. The complexity of teaching, the role of feedback, and simulation within SL in FL teacher candidate learning are also discussed.

Analyzing the Teaching of Professional Practice

2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (12) ◽  
pp. 2878-2896
Author(s):  
Pamela A. Moss
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Professional Educators ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Intended Learning Outcomes ◽  
Background Context ◽  
Over Time

Background/Context Based on their case studies of preparation for professional practice in the clergy, teaching, and clinical psychology, Grossman and colleagues (2009) identified three key concepts for analyzing and comparing practice in professional education—representations, decomposition, and approximations—to support professional educators in learning from each other's practice. In this special issue, two teams of teacher educators (Kucan & Palincsar, and Boerst, Sleep, Ball, & Bass) put these concepts to work in representing their practice of preparing novice teachers to lead discussions with their students. Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus of Study This analytic essay presents an argument for the importance of (a) adding a fourth key concept to the Grossman et al. framework—conceptions of quality—and (b) using these four concepts to trace novices’ learning opportunities as they unfold over time in order to serve the goal of facilitating instructive comparisons in professional education. Research Design In this analytic essay, I analyze the three articles to examine how conceptions of quality are already entailed in the characterizations of practice. My analysis focuses on the kinds of criteria or “qualities” that are foregrounded; the grain size of practice to which the conception of quality is applied; and the ways in which variations in criteria— what counts as more or less advanced—are represented. I then contrast the sequence of learning opportunities and assessments described in the articles on discussion leading in terms of these four concepts. Conclusions/Recommendations Even instructional practices that appeared quite similar when described through the lenses of approximations, decomposition, and representations looked quite different when conceptions of quality and learning opportunities and assessments were traced over time. Representing these “learning trajectories”—which entail an understanding of the evolving dialectical relationships between learning opportunities and (at least intended) learning outcomes—seems essential to understanding and learning from the teaching practice.

Teacher Education: How Teacher Educators Can Use Manipulative Materials with Preservice Teachers

1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-13
Author(s):  
Sharon L. Young
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Preservice Teacher ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methods Course

Not long ago I wa ob erving Martha Peterson, a preservice teacher from my methods course, as she was teaching the subtraction algorithm to some third grader. Martha was using base-ten blocks to show how the physical exchange of a “long” for ten “unit,” in relation to a written step in the algorithm, when Johnny exclaimed, “so that' why you cross out the tens!” As we left the classroom, Martha was elated and said. “Did you hear Johnny? The base-ten block really helped him understand. l didn't think manipulative material would really work but now I do”

scholarly journals "And My Screen Wouldn't Share": Student-Teachers' Perceptions of ICT in Online Teaching Practice and Online Teaching

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-529
Author(s):  
Nicola Fořtová ◽  
Jitka Sedláčková ◽  
František Tůma
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
The Face

The sudden switch to online teaching enforced by the covid-19 pandemic has impacted teacher education at universities, particularly micro-teachings and teaching practice, as technology has become an inherent part of these processes. The growing body of literature on online teaching and teacher education during lockdown conditions mainly addresses challenges in teacher education and educator perceptions. However, very few studies deal with the perceptions of student- teachers. To fill this gap, a group of teacher educators conducted a research study with 63 students enrolled in a master’s Degree in Teaching efl for Secondary Schools offered at Masaryk University, Czechia. To carry it out, qualitative coding procedures were employed on a dataset of 120 lesson reflections written by students completing their teaching practice via online courses which were ordinarily conducted in person. The purpose was to find out how student-teachers perceived technology use when teaching online. The main findings show that, despite constant comparison between the face-to-face and online classrooms and an initial reliance on the success of technology to determine a lesson’s success, the majority of student-teachers normalized technology as a platform for teaching, using technology-specific language for teaching strategies and classroom events. These findings suggest that online teaching and learning should be seen as an integral part of teacher education.

scholarly journals The Challenges of Models-Based Practice in Physical Education Teacher Education: A Collaborative Self-Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Fletcher ◽  
Ashley Casey
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Beginning Teacher ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Physical Education Teacher Education ◽  
School Teaching ◽  
Self Study ◽  
The University ◽  
University Setting

There are two purposes of this study. The first is to examine our experiences as beginning teacher educators who taught using models-based practice (using the example of Cooperative Learning). The second is to consider the benefits of using collaborative self-study to foster deep understandings of teacher education practice. The findings highlight the challenges in adapting school teaching practices to the university setting, and the different types of knowledge required to teach about the “hows” and “whys” of a models-based approach. We conclude by acknowledging the benefits of systematic study of practice in helping to unpack the complexities and challenges of teaching about teaching. Our collaborative self-study enabled us to develop insights into the intertwined nature of self and practice, and the personal and professional value of our research leads us to encourage teacher educators to examine and share their challenges and understandings of teaching practice.

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