Contemplating Teachers’ Disposition and Pedagogical Skills within Inclusive Classrooms: Responsibilities of, and Implications for, Teacher Education Programs and In-Service Professional Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-86
Author(s):  
David J. Connor
2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Epstein

The client analysis conducted in this study explores the professional development needs of11 language teachers, five in South Africa and six in Canada. The study employs a questionnaire and interviews to discover how each teacher's background and context affects his or her perceived professional development needs. Interviews show that teacher educators cannot necessarily predict teachers' professional development needs based on their backgrounds and contexts alone. A variety of inputs from recipients over an extended time is desirable and would yield more accurate predictability of an individual's professional development needs. This would result in teacher education programs that more accurately meet a teacher's real needs.


The authors perceive that institutionalized racial hierarchies are the greatest barrier to educational equity in the United States. While P-12 teachers may express the desire to make their classrooms spaces of joy, creativity, and intellectual brilliance, it is primarily through intentional skills development that teachers succeed. The authors assert the need for greater investments by school districts and teacher education programs in professional development for in-service P-12 teachers that further empower them and, in turn, their students, to contribute to the dismantling of racism in the U.S. Teacher educators, administrators and policy makers need to position themselves as cultivators and supporters of P-12 teachers in ways that encourage and sustain their antiracist advocacy and equity work in their teaching.


Author(s):  
Hae Seong Park ◽  
Joanne Gilbreath ◽  
Daniel Lawson ◽  
Helen Easterling Williams

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors to determine the competence of technology integration for teacher candidates. This study utilized data from a 2006 quick-response survey entitled ‘Educational Technology in Teacher Education Programs for Initial Licensure.’ Only 1,350 institutions that have teacher education programs for initial licensure were selected. The result of a hierarchical regression revealed that the extent of institutional training programs for technology explain most variation (33%) of the competence of technology integration of teacher candidates. In addition, the more variation of technology programs an institution employs in its program, the more confidence the teacher candidates possess. The result supports findings from previous research as well as supporting some emphasis on professional development design considerations that may be of value to those planning the similar technology trainings.


Author(s):  
Eva Brown ◽  
Michele Jacobsen

Meaningful and authentic use of technology for quality teaching and meaningful learning is an essential component of a 21st century education. Teacher education programs have been slow to transform and adopt programs that are essential for new teachers to be equipped with skills for 21st century teaching. Professional development of veteran teachers faces challenges in format and delivery and teachers are slow to become enculturated in design inquiry learning infusing technology in meaningful ways that embrace digital citizenship to meet the needs of 21st century education. The project described in this chapter offers an innovative approach to professional learning in a partnership approach with teacher education students and veteran teachers to address the challenges faced by both teacher education programs and professional development models.


2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Hemmings ◽  
Stuart Woodcock

AbstractSurvey-based research was conducted with preservice teachers, from a large regional Australian university, to explore their views about inclusion and their readiness to teach in inclusive classrooms. Open-ended questions were included in the survey to glean information on the respondents' feelings and concerns about inclusion and inclusive practices. In addition, questions were framed to allow the respondents to discuss ways that the university could better prepare them as practising teachers. The responses to each of these questions were content analysed to delineate categories, and frequencies were calculated on the most salient categories. The results of this analysis are reported and comparisons are made of the views expressed by the respondents before they experienced an inclusive education subject and a related practicum with those expressed after. The implications of the results for teacher education programs are considered.


Author(s):  
Reyhan Tekin-Sitrava ◽  
Gabriele Kaiser ◽  
Mine Işıksal-Bostan

AbstractAlthough the effects of professional development programs on teachers’ noticing skills have attracted considerable interest among mathematics education researchers, little is known about the developmental process of prospective teachers’ noticing skills within initial teacher education. This paper examines the extent to which prospective teachers’ noticing skills are developed through the mathematics education courses taken within the mathematics teachers’ education program using exemplarily the topic division of fractions. The study is grounded on the framework of Professional Noticing of Children’s Mathematical Thinking which specifies three facets of noticing, that are attending, interpreting, and deciding how to respond. Twenty-two prospective mathematics teachers (PSTs), who were enrolled in the Middle School Mathematics Teacher Education Program at a Turkish university, participated in this study. The results revealed that most PSTs gained expertise in all three kinds of noticing skills during their teacher education. The highest progression could be identified in the interpretation skills and the lowest in attending skills. These results are important for initial teacher education programs, highlighting that general, non-specialized mathematics education courses within initial teacher education have the potential to provide an efficient professional development program to develop PST’s noticing skills. The study points out that further research is needed in order to provide additional details about how teacher education programs could be redesigned and implemented to ensure opportunities for PSTs to develop noticing skills within all three facets leading to robust or at least substantial evidence of all three noticing skills.


Author(s):  
Cynthia Benton ◽  
Stephanie Falls

This program study used faculty, administrator and teacher candidate participant interviews to examine expanded field experiences and action research effects on a Professional Development School (PDS) partnership. Specifically, the roles and relationships between public school and higher education members were examined in light of the effectiveness of the program and teacher candidate performance. Implications for higher education practices in PDS development, program design, faculty development and student learning are described. The PDS model has been embraced as a means to collaboratively develop teacher education programs that benefit student learning as well as to effectively meet licensure and academic requirements.


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