scholarly journals Micro-teaching 2.0: Technology as the classroom

Author(s):  
Susan Ledger ◽  
John Fischetti

Currently pre-service teachers (PSTs) practise teaching by interacting in real-life situations naturally occurring within variable school-based practicums. These are not ideal contexts for beginning teachers because they put novices in situations with real students before demonstrating capability, feedback is often not at point of need and they do not provide all students with similar experiences. Simulation and micro-teaching combine to provide a technological solution to bridge the gap between graduate preparation and real application. This study draws on situated learning and reflective practice ideologies to critique and problematise Micro-teaching 2.0 – a combination of traditional micro-teaching practices and human looped simulations. The findings reveal increased self-efficacy of PSTs (n = 376) and identify the benefits and challenges of Micro-teaching 2.0 for initial teacher education programs. Micro-teaching 2.0 proved to be an effective diagnostic tool for identifying the specific needs of PSTs and a preparatory tool for real-life placements. The controlled learning environment addresses previous issues related to the variability of contexts and subsequent moderation of individual capabilities. The findings are timely as the teaching profession continues to be scrutinised and where technological advances continue to offer choice, challenges and creative options for educators.

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Shields ◽  
Megan Murray

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore beginning teachers’ perceptions of the role of the mentor in the early stages of developing a professional identity. The beginning teachers in the authors’ study are defined as having been awarded qualified teacher status at the end of an initial teacher education programme or having completed their first term as a new teacher with responsibility for a class of pupils. Design/methodology/approach The research design was a qualitative, inductive study. The concepts of communities of practice, legitimate peripheral participation and power dynamics within a community underpinned this study. The data set was collected over a period of 18 months, through six focus groups and 40 questionnaires with beginning teachers across 34 schools altogether. The data set was analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings The findings indicated that the ways in which mentors use their power to recognise (or not) the legitimacy of beginning teachers as being part of the school community influences the development of beginning teachers’ professional identities. The thematic analysis of the data indicated the different types of support that mentors may provide: “belonging”, “emotional”, “pedagogical” and “space”. Research limitations/implications Further research into how mentors perceive their role in supporting new entrants into the profession is needed. Originality/value These findings are pertinent in England, as the increase in school-based initial teacher training provision will intensify the role of school mentors. These findings will be of value to other countries that are moving towards an increase in school-based teacher training.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vijaya Muralidharan

<p>As the field of education world-wide is explicitly striving to make schools and education available to all children and young persons, classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of language, culture, religion, gender, abilities, socioeconomic status and geographic setting. This rapidly growing phenomenon has educators trying to grapple with ways to prepare and support teachers to be responsive to the diverse needs of students in their classrooms. In New Zealand, cultural diversity is also growing rapidly. By the middle of this century nearly half the student population will be of Pasifika origin. Those opting into the teaching profession must be equipped to confront this reality. While initial teacher education can provide opportunities for student teachers to critically examine their own beliefs and orientation towards diversity, and also provide a snapshot of the reality of classrooms through practicum, it is when they begin actual teaching in schools that the "rubber hits the road". This ethnographic study explores the beliefs and attitudes of beginning teachers about student diversity and possible influences of the primary school culture on their perceptions and practice. Seven beginning teachers were involved in the study over a period of 6-18 months. Multiple data sources were used and data was thematically analysed across the settings using a grounded theory approach.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Jones ◽  
Katie Chapman

Purpose Non-dominant voices have been further marginalised in the most recent national curriculum in England (DfE, 2014), and those working across the English teaching profession often find the subject framed according to narrow, assessment-driven models and prescribed skill sets. This paper aims to bring together two perspectives on the importance of literacy education that remains rooted in young people’s everyday experiences of place. Design/methodology/approach Chapman is a newly qualified secondary English teacher. She will share examples taken from her own classroom practice of the ways in which she has responded to stories told by young people about the places in which they live. Findings Jones is a tutor of initial teacher education (ITE). She suggests that Chapman’s approach provides persuasive exemplification of how engagement with alternatives to a dominant view of literacy should remain a key objective for those working with beginning teachers of English. Originality/value For Chapman’s students, urban legends are powerful texts which offer the means to explore what we do when we tell stories, both inside and outside the English classroom. As will be shown, such stories are telling examples of the resources young people can bring to critical literacy learning in current classrooms. In the context of the dominance of a narrow, mandated experience of English as a subject, the imperative becomes even greater to recognise stories such as those shared by Chapman’s students as opportunities for authentic, creative and critical engagement with text.


Author(s):  
Paola Aiello ◽  
Erika Marie Pace

The Italian education system has gained prominence worldwide thanks to its pioneering history in initiating the process of mainstreaming students with disabilities, in providing educational plans tailored to students’ needs, and in the gradual broadening of the vision of inclusion as a means to guarantee quality education for all. At the same time, teacher education programs have reinvigorated their key role in preparing and supporting teachers who are inclusive of all students. Several factors over the past 50 years have been fundamental in shaping the way inclusion is perceived in the 21st century. First, the theoretical frameworks underpinning pedagogy and teaching practices have undergone a complete paradigm shift from an individualized-medical model to a biopsychosocial model, bringing about a new challenge for all stakeholders involved. Second, in line with this evolution, latest reforms and ministerial provisions in initial teacher education and continuous professional development are evidence of the change in perspective regarding the teachers’ pivotal role in promoting and facilitating inclusive practices. However, this shift has not only called for a rethinking of the teachers’ pedagogical and didactic stances. It has also entailed a reconsideration of the necessary professional competencies, understood as a complex interplay of pedagogical knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills to be able to implement effective teaching methods and strategies that favor inclusion. Thus, it has placed a heavy responsibility on teacher education institutions to ensure that current and future teachers are ready, willing, and able to face the complexity characterizing 21st-century classrooms. Italian schools have also been doing their utmost to ensure better school experiences for all their students. An array of projects, both ministerially funded and school-based schemes, have been designed and implemented to create universally functional curricula to meet all the students’ learning styles and promote inclusion. One of the most important lessons to be learned from these intricate developments and initiatives is that collaboration among all stakeholders on micro, meso, and macro levels lies at the heart of effective and sustainable inclusive education.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. M. Thomas ◽  
Nicole Mockler

Research on the development of professional identity for teachers who enter the profession through alternative routes is still in its infancy. In contrast to their peers who complete traditional initial teacher education programs, these teachers are exposed to different conditions and constraints that produce a range of sub-identities previously unidentified in the literature. This paper draws on interviews with 27 teachers who entered teaching through Teach For America and wrestled with these sub-identities as they considered their emerging professional identity. We argue that these sub-identities point to structural challenges embedded within Teach for America, and we highlight the need for additional research on the growing cadre of teachers entering the teaching profession through alternative routes, and subsequently influencing policymaking processes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vijaya Muralidharan

<p>As the field of education world-wide is explicitly striving to make schools and education available to all children and young persons, classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of language, culture, religion, gender, abilities, socioeconomic status and geographic setting. This rapidly growing phenomenon has educators trying to grapple with ways to prepare and support teachers to be responsive to the diverse needs of students in their classrooms. In New Zealand, cultural diversity is also growing rapidly. By the middle of this century nearly half the student population will be of Pasifika origin. Those opting into the teaching profession must be equipped to confront this reality. While initial teacher education can provide opportunities for student teachers to critically examine their own beliefs and orientation towards diversity, and also provide a snapshot of the reality of classrooms through practicum, it is when they begin actual teaching in schools that the "rubber hits the road". This ethnographic study explores the beliefs and attitudes of beginning teachers about student diversity and possible influences of the primary school culture on their perceptions and practice. Seven beginning teachers were involved in the study over a period of 6-18 months. Multiple data sources were used and data was thematically analysed across the settings using a grounded theory approach.</p>


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Fjolla Kaçaniku ◽  
Irene Maderbacher ◽  
Franz Erhard ◽  
Blerim Saqipi

The motivation for career choice motivation of student-teachers is a well-studied topic with a representative theoretical basis in teacher education research that has a long-standing tradition in the international research landscape. However, in understanding the pressing questions of why young people choose to become teachers, only a few longitudinal and comparative studies have been carried out that focus on the development of motivation for choosing a teaching career. This longitudinal study reports on the effects of time within initial teacher education and how it influences student-teacher attitudes and motives about the teaching profession. This article is a product of a larger study that aims at addressing the existing literature gap by examining student-teacher change in attitudes of becoming teachers in Austria and Kosovo starting from initial teacher education, during early stages of their teaching career as novice teachers, and to more advanced stages of their teaching career. This is a panel study located within a longitudinal design. In this study, a questionnaire and student-teacher reflection texts were used as instruments. Data were collected in three phases during which 673 student-teachers participated in face-to-face administered questionnaire as follows: 341 (phase 1), 185 (phase 2), and 147 (phase 3), as well as 19 student-teacher reflections. Questionnaire data were analysed using the general linear model (GLM) with repeated measures test, whereas the reflection text data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings in this longitudinal study provide evidence that student-teacher attitudes and motives for becoming teachers can change over time during the initial teacher education in Austria and Kosovo, and they can be influenced by in-school experiences during teaching practice. The study concludes that motives for choosing a teaching career are primarily intrinsic, are not time-stable, and change over the course of studies. The study findings have clear implications for initial teacher education programs in addressing changes in student-teachers’ attitudes of becoming teachers. The insights gained from the findings of this study lead to recommendations that initial teacher education programs should strengthen teaching practice to better manage the preparation of students and teachers and their entry into the teaching profession.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 225
Author(s):  
Cleomar Locatelli ◽  
Júlio Emílio Diniz-Pereira

O artigo analisa o perfil dos estudantes de licenciatura no Brasil, considerando, especialmente, as condições socioeconômicas e a relação com o magistério. O objetivo é relacionar informações atuais referentes aos estudantes de licenciaturas, avaliando o contexto do trabalho docente e a formação inicial de professores. A pesquisa reuniu dados junto a cinco licenciaturas de todo o país: pedagogia, história, matemática, educação física e biologia, a partir das respostas dadas ao questionário do estudante do Exame Nacional do Desempenho do Estudante (Enade/2014-2017). Constata-se um perfil de estudante trabalhador, com renda familiar baixa, egresso de escola pública e que, em sua maioria, afirma ter escolhido o magistério pela vocação ou pela importância da profissão.WHO ARE THE TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN BRAZIL TODAY? socioeconomic profile and their relationship with teachingAbstractThis article analyzes the profile of undergraduate students from teacher education programs in Brazil, considering their socioeconomic conditions and the relationship with the teaching profession. The objective is to relate current information regarding undergraduate students, assessing the context of teaching work and initial teacher education.  The survey gathered data from five undergraduate degrees across the country: pedagogy, history, mathematics, physical education and biology, from the replies to the questionnaire of the National Survey of Student Performance (Enade/2014-2017). We can observe a profile of a student worker, with a low family income, who graduated from a public school and who, for the most part, claims to have chosen the magisterium by vocation or importance of the profession.Keywords: teacher education; teacher education programs; students’ profile.¿QUIÉNES SON LOS ACTUALES ESTUDIANTES DE LICENCIA EN BRASIL? Perfil socioeconómico y relación con la profesión docenteResumenEl artículo analiza el perfil de los estudiantes de licenciatura en Brasil, considerando, especialmente, las condiciones socioeconómicas y la relación con el magisterio. El objetivo es relacionar informaciones actuales referentes a los estudiantes de licenciaturas, evaluando el contexto del trabajo docente y la formación inicial de profesores. La encuesta reunió datos junto a cinco licenciaturas en todo el país: pedagogía, historia, matemáticas, educación física y biología, a partir de las respuestas dadas al cuestionario del estudiante del Examen Nacional del Desempeño del Estudiante (Enade / 2014-2017). Se constata un perfil de estudiante trabajador, con renta familiar baja, egresado de escuela pública y que, en su mayoría, afirma haber escogido el magisterio por la vocación o por la importancia de la profesión.Palabras clave: formación de profesores; licenciaturas, perfil de los estudiantes.


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