scholarly journals EXPLORING PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE: A FOCUS ON FUNCTIONAL THINKING

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-278
Author(s):  
Hélia Oliveira ◽  
Irene Polo Blanco ◽  
Ana Henriques

The importance of students being acquainted with algebraic ideas before secondary education has been revealed in the research literature. It is therefore essential that prospective elementary teachers (PTs) be prepared to instill an early algebra perspective in their teaching. However, PTs often show difficulties in algebra content knowledge, which need to be diagnosed aiming to assist them in developing the required knowledge to teach according to that perspective. This study aims to understand what aspects of functional thinking Spanish and Portuguese elementary PTs exhibit at the beginning of their teacher education program. The findings show that although PTs from both countries use different strategies to generalize functional relationships, the occurrence of successful strategies is low. Also, most participants provide local approaches in their interpretation of relationships between variables and reveal difficulties in understanding and connecting different representations of functions. These difficulties show that PTs lack important knowledge about functional thinking. By providing a framework concerning the functional thinking required for PTs to teach within an early algebra perspective, we shed light on a necessary step for teacher education programs to diagnose PTs’ functional thinking and to assist them in developing the needed mathematical knowledge to teach accordingly.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35
Author(s):  
Chancey Bosch ◽  
Trevor Ellis

Technology-enhanced learning continues to provide opportunities for increased interventions in educational programing. For teacher education programs, novelty pales in comparison to providing meaningful instruction and enduring outcomes. The use of avatars has provided integration of research evidence that increases intended behaviors; however, research is lacking on teacher self-efficacy change via an avatar experience. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and avatar use in a teacher education program. A relational study using both parametric and non-parametric designs for four different samples indicated a significant relationship between avatar intervention and teacher self-efficacy in classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement. The sample from a student teaching course, which had a limited number of participants, provided mixed results. More studies need to include experimental designs and isolation of variabilities in the avatar model.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-37
Author(s):  
Chin-Wen Chien

Teachers should adjust their curriculum and instructional practice to meet the needs of individual learners, because one size does not fit all (Kaplan, Rogers, &Webster, 2008; Tomlinson, 2003). This study focuses on the implementation of differentiated instruction in products, “tiered assignments,” in a Children’s English class in a teacher education program in Taiwan. The study concludes that 52 college students held a positive attitude toward these tiered assignments and that they learned theories and instructional strategies not only from lectures and tasks in the university classes but also from completing different choices. Another important finding is that participants’ choice of completing these assignments is based on the level of easy of the assignments. Two suggestions are made to effectively implement differentiated instruction in products in teacher education programs in terms of explicitly modeling and explaining differentiated instruction in products and designing tiered assignments based on the levels of challenge as well as learners’ readiness, interests and profiles.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Anne Block ◽  
Paul Betts

Teacher candidates’ individual and collaborative inquiry occurs within multiple and layered contexts of learning. The layered contexts support a strong connection between the practicum and the university and the emergent teaching identities. Our understanding of teacher identity is as situated and socially constructed, yet fluid and agentic. This paper explores how agentic teaching identities emerge within the layered contexts of our teacher education program as examined in five narratives of teacher candidates’ experience. These narratives involve tension, inquiry, successes and risks, as teacher candidates negotiate what is means to learn how to teach, to teach and to critically reflect on knowledge needed to teach. We conclude that navigating teacher identity is a teacher candidate capacity that could be explicitly cultivated by teacher education programs.


2016 ◽  
pp. 1424-1437
Author(s):  
Nwachukwu Prince Ololube ◽  
Nanighe Baldwin Major ◽  
Peter James Kpolovie

In this chapter we highlighted the impact of the current economic and political dispensation in Nigeria and its impact on teacher education programs and the means of enhancing teacher education in the Niger Delta region. This paper is a conceptual and methodological breakthrough in Nigeria's academic landscape where qualitative and quantitative experiences highlight issues that are pertinent to teacher education program in the Niger Delta. The chapter proposed that the Niger Delta region's and the entire Nigeria's teacher education programs would be advanced if the component parts of the current economic and political disposition are resolved. This chapter contends that the Niger Delta region has the potential to address the challenges currently faced in the region such as social disruption (violence threat), poverty, hunger, disease, conflict, marginalization, and the achievement and improvement for effective teacher education programs. This chapter is of the immense judgment that successfully addressing the challenges currently faced in the Niger Delta region, teacher education programs will greatly improve qualitatively and quantitatively.


2016 ◽  
pp. 109-125
Author(s):  
George Zhou ◽  
Judy Xu

Today's teachers are expected to use digital technologies in their teaching. However, teacher education programs do not yet effectively develop teachers' capabilities to teach with technology. In order to search for best approaches, this chapter starts with an epistemological discussion on knowledge, and then moves to a more specific discussion about the nature of preservice teachers' learning about using technology to teach. Using the framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, the chapter argues that methods courses of a teacher education program are the key space where preservice teachers can be trained to use technology in subject teaching. Particularly, the Microteaching Lesson Study approach in methods courses was considered an effective way for the development of technology proficiency. A small recent supports the arguments and articulates the success and challenges of the Microteaching Lesson Study approach.


2011 ◽  
pp. 2272-2287
Author(s):  
Hilary Wilder

This case study explores the use of online distance learning technology to bring an international component to a teacher education program. By converting a course in the program into a fully online offering, the author was able include students from Namibian teacher education programs in the class along with her own students from New Jersey. The objective was to give all students a chance to interact with peers that they would not otherwise have the chance to meet, and to explore differences and commonalities in their respective education systems. This case study describes the pitfalls and successes in meeting that objective.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina M. Doepker

AbstractThere has been considerable attention to multicultural education and how to effectively integrate it into teacher education programs so that it helps teachers to be attentive to and effective for the economically, culturally, and racially diverse student populace. This article will focus on my personal journey with multicultural teacher education and literacy education. There will be a discussion of multicultural or diverse-oriented teacher education with a focus on the challenges as well as the potentials that face these teacher preparation programs. In addition, there will be a discussion of current educational trends in schools as evidence that demands the need for stronger multicultural teacher education programs. Finally, an existing teacher education program will be presented that has an emphasis on multicultural teacher training, as well as suggest approaches for building a research-based multicultural teacher education program.


1981 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 317-318
Author(s):  
Jack V. Powell ◽  
Judith C. Reiff

Perceptions of 72 elementary teachers supervising in a competency-based teacher-education program were compared with the perceptions of 54 elementary teachers supervising in a field-based program. Significant differences were found between the two groups on cooperative program planning and interns' influence on classroom teachers' instructional behavior.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 323-337
Author(s):  
Zuochen Zhang

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasingly used in education settings, and graduates from teacher education programs are expected to have adequate knowledge and skills to integrate ICT in their teaching. Inspired by some studies that report cases about pre-service teachers’ ICT-related learning in different countries in Asia, this article presents, in case-study format, the experimentations carried out regarding the teaching of ICT as part of the curriculum to pre-service teachers in a teacher education program in Ontario, Canada. The aim is to share with instructors and researchers in teacher education institutions and programs what we can learn from our experiences, and how we can use these experiences to improve our practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Raja Nor Safinas Raja Harun ◽  
Mohd Hafiz Hanif ◽  
Goh Swee Choo

The advances in technology have paved the way for student centred learning environment which allows for higher students’ engagement, active participation, deep meaningful learning, and critical thinking. One of the technology applications which have gained popularity at the beginning of the 1990s is the use of e-portfolio. Studies in many professional fields have shown exceptional findings on the adoption of e-portfolio. Nonetheless, the development of e-portfolio affordances over a period of time has yet to be explored to ascertain its usefulness particularly in the area of teacher education. This article presents the process of systematic literature on the e-portfolio pedagogical affordances in teacher education programs and issues to be addressed for successful implementation. Using the content analysis method, 28 articles which focused on e-portfolio, teacher education, English as a second language, scientific research, and secondary school were reviewed. The findings of the review have mainly shed positive lights on its use in documenting student teachers’ learning experiences particularly on assisting and assessing student teachers learning how to teach. This article implicates the relevance of having a holistic view and understanding of the e-portfolio pedagogical affordances and the need to recognize issues to be addressed prior to its implementation in a teacher education program. With this understanding, the university and teacher education institutions can have a well-defined policy on the adoption of e-portfolio into their teacher education programs. 


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