scholarly journals A Technology Supported Induction Network for Rural Student Teachers

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Winstead Fry
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Discussion Board ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
Inservice Teachers ◽  
Compressed Video ◽  
University Personnel

Student teaching is a challenging period for preservice teachers as they make the transition from preparation to practice. Support from mentor teachers and university personnel can make this time easier, helping preservice teachers successfully integrate educational theory into their practice. Because of logistical, financial, and personnel limitations, many student teachers with rural placements receive inadequate support. The Technology Supported Induction Network (TSIN) was developed to address these issues by providing support and  ongoing professional learning opportunities for preservice teachers through distance technology. A qualitative case study was used to investigate the TSIN’s impact on elementary level student teachers. Results indicate that the TSIN’s two primary components, a discussion board and compressed video sessions, served different supportive roles. Recommendations for future programs utilizing technology as a way to enhance the preparation of student teachers or provide induction for inservice teachers in rural schools are also discussed.  

How the Match Gets Made: Exploring Student Teacher Placements across Teacher Education Programs, Districts, and Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. e20200014
Author(s):  
Elise St. John ◽  
Dan Goldhaber ◽  
John Krieg ◽  
Roddy Theobald
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Student Teacher ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
K 12

Emerging research finds connections between teacher candidates’ student teaching placements and their future career paths and effectiveness. Yet relatively little is known about the factors that influence these placements and how teacher education programs (TEPs) and K-12 school systems match teacher candidates to mentor teachers. In our study of this process in Washington state, we find that TEPs and K-12 systems share overarching goals related to successful student teacher placements and developing a highly effective teacher workforce. However, distinct accountabilities and day-to-day demands also sometimes lead them to prioritize other objectives. In addition, we identified informational asymmetries, which left TEPs questioning how mentor teachers were selected, and districts and schools with limited information with which to make intentional matches between teacher candidates and mentor teachers. The findings from this study inform both practice and research in teacher education and human resources. First, they illuminate practices that appear to contribute to informational gaps and institutional disadvantages in the placement of student teachers. Additionally, they raise questions about what constitutes an effective mentor teacher and provide researchers and policymakers with better insight into the professional realities of teacher educators and K-12 educators, as well as those of district human resource (HR) coordinators, which is important given their differing accountabilities and distinctive positionings in the education of teacher candidates.

Mentoring as More Than “Cheerleading”: Looking at Educative Mentoring Practices Through Mentors’ Eyes

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 567-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randi N. Stanulis ◽  
Lindsay J. Wexler ◽  
Stacey Pylman ◽  
Amy Guenther ◽  
Scott Farver ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Teaching ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
Classroom Teachers ◽  
Student Work ◽  
School Year ◽  
Mentoring Practices ◽  
Educative Mentoring

Traditionally, classroom teachers have been asked to “cooperate” during student teaching, providing advice to imitate and emotional support to meet immediate needs. Based on theories of educative experience, educative mentoring focuses on growth, continuity, and inquiry. The purpose of this study was to understand what educative practices look like through the eyes of 10 mentor teachers who participated in six mentor study groups across a school year. We report on mentor’s talk about and enactment of three practices: coplanning, observing and debriefing, and analyzing student work. Although we introduced and gave name to particular mentoring practices, the mentors’ interpretations of what these look like when done in educative ways helped us craft the definitions we present in our findings. The findings of this study highlight that mentors benefit from professional learning that is focused on concrete practices with opportunities to develop over time in educative ways.

Designing a pre-service CLIL teacher education program

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (3 (253)) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Brzosko-Barratt
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
Instrumental Case Study ◽  
Early Primary ◽  
The University

This paper is a part of a larger instrumental case study exploring the process of creating a CLIL teacher education program for early primary level at the University of Warsaw. The paper identifies some challenges related to program design and describes areas of growth of student teachers specifically related to CLIL planning instruction. The data were collected over a period of five years and included interviews and focused groups with student teachers, teacher educators and mentor teachers as well as the analysis of CLIL units created by the student teachers.

scholarly journals Preservice Teachers’ Learning to Plan Intellectually Challenging Tasks

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hosun Kang
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Secondary Science Teachers ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
Situative Perspective ◽  
Problems Of Practice

This study explores how and under which conditions preservice secondary science teachers (PSTs) engage in effective planning practices that incorporate intellectually challenging tasks into lessons. Drawing upon a situative perspective on learning, eight PSTs’ trajectories of participation in communities of practice are examined with a focus on planning throughout student teaching. Data include 32 sets of teaching artifacts, interviews with PSTs, interviews with methods course instructors, and interviews with mentor teachers. The analyses show that instructional tasks observed at the beginning of lessons link to the ways in which PSTs engage in the three interrelated processes of (a) framing instructional goals, (b) constructing a lesson scenario, and (c) addressing problems of practice. The consistencies and changes observed in the PSTs’ trajectories of planning reveal the dynamic, responsive, and contentious nature of planning situated in local contexts. Three implications for designing productive learning opportunities for PSTs are discussed.

scholarly journals Student Teachers with Mental Health Conditions Share Barriers to Success: A Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Houdyshell ◽  
Diane Kratt ◽  
Jackie Greene
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Mental Health Condition ◽  
Barriers To Success ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Mental Health Awareness

Universities are trying to address student mental health needs through counseling centers and other outreach initiatives. However, do individual colleges know how to address the mental health concerns of their own students? Three faculty members in the College of Education at a university located in the southern United States posed two questions to find out what it is like for student teachers to live with a mental health condition, and what would support academic performance in the College. Seventeen undergraduate students who self-reported as having a mental health condition and were completing their senior year as student teachers volunteered to be interviewed for this case study. Three themes emerged after a reiterative process of reading and coding the interview responses. The three themes were barriers to success, student teaching as a positive experience, and lack of mental health awareness, education, and training for all. The discussion section includes recommendations for removing some barriers through more effective communication and increasing mental health literacy for faculty, staff, and students in the college.

Teacher Knowledge of Educational Technology: A Case Study of Student/Mentor Teacher Pairs

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Margerum-Leys ◽  
Ronald W. Marx
Keyword(s):  
Educational Technology ◽  
Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teacher Knowledge ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Student Teacher ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
Mentor Teacher ◽  
Pedagogical Content

This study had two purposes. The first was to explore the construct of teacher knowledge of educational technology through the lens of three components of Shulman's model of teachers' knowledge—content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge. A second purpose was to investigate the ways in which teacher knowledge is acquired, shared, and used by student teachers and their mentors in the context of the student teaching placement. The literature in educational technology takes, for the most part, a limited view of educational technology knowledge, reporting on teachers' awareness of technological applications and affordances. By using Shulman's model, this study constructed and considered a more comprehensive depiction of teacher knowledge. Teacher knowledge of educational technology as thus depicted was explored as it developed within a particular setting. Data were drawn from a three-month observation and interview period in the spring of 1999. Six participants—three student teachers and three mentor teachers—were observed and interviewed at a middle school in a working-class suburb of a large Midwestern city. From observations of teacher practice, inferences were made about the underlying body of knowledge evidenced by the participants. The perspective of student and mentor teacher participants was gained through a quasi-ethnographic interview process. Observation and interview data were analyzed using a shared coding system, allowing a rich description to be created. Results of the study indicated that employment of Shulman's model revealed a set of knowledge derived from and applicable to practice with educational technology. This knowledge could be considered a Pedagogical Content Knowledge of technology, corresponding to Shulman's identification of a particular understanding by teachers of content in service of teaching and teaming. Within the context of the mentor/student teacher pairs, both knowledge acquired in and brought to the setting was shared in a multi-year cycle from student teacher to mentor to subsequent student teacher. Impact on the field includes a broadening sense of the nature of knowledge of educational technology, as well as increased attention to the importance of the student teaching placement and student and mentor teachers' roles within that environment.

Preservice music teachers’ self-efficacy and concerns before and during student teaching

2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142199078
Author(s):  
Bradley J Regier
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Classroom Management ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Teaching Experiences ◽  
Student Impact

The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences and contextual factors that influenced preservice music teachers’ self-efficacy and concerns from pre-student teaching to student teaching. Data were collected for this case study through an open-response questionnaire about participants’ ( N = 4) efficacious teaching experiences, 10 weekly e-journal reflections written during pre-student teaching ( n = 5 weeks) and student teaching placements ( n = 5 weeks at 1 placement), interviews ( n = 4), and my own researcher journal ( n = 31 entries). Preservice teachers’ self-efficacy and concerns were most impacted by teaching experiences in familiar settings. Results indicated that participants made more comments about student-impact and self-survival concerns during student teaching than pre-student teaching. Further investigation revealed that participants consistently expressed concerns for classroom management during pre-student teaching and student teaching placements. Finding ways to expedite the developmental process could reduce the amount of time that preservice teachers focus on early contextual factors and instead identify ways to improve students’ music and academic performance.

scholarly journals Borderlands of Possibility: Exploring the Construction of Professional Identity With Intern Teachers

in education ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-25
Author(s):  
Sharon L. Allan
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Field Experience ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Interpretive Case Study ◽  
Intern Teachers ◽  
Bachelor Of Education

Students enrolled in Bachelor of Education degree programs engage in academic study and field experiences that both validate and challenge their existing understandings of who they are and who they are becoming: their professional identity. This interpretive case study explored the ways in which four intern teachers constructed professional understandings during the 15 weeks of their culminating field experience: a borderland space. Ecologically defined as an ecotone, this time in between—of being a student and becoming a teacher—is a zone of transition, a crossroads of being and becoming. Using a series of conversational interviews where the researcher and the participants explored the experience of living on the borderland, this study revealed the challenges of constructing a professional identity as well as the ways in which these intern teachers gradually assumed the subject position: teacher. Four essential aspects of this experience were distilled from the findings of this inquiry and arranged into a conceptual framework to assist teacher educators as they craft curriculum capable of engaging student teachers in the consideration of who they are becoming as teachers. By contributing to our growing understanding of the ways in which preservice teachers view themselves as emerging professionals, this inquiry suggests deeper investigation of the mentor-mentee relationship is needed in order to better support student teachers on the borderlands of their final field experience.            Keywords: professional identity; borderland space; intern teachers; field experience; interpretive case study

scholarly journals Primary preservice teachers' perspectives of their literacy mentoring experiences during professional placement

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Margaret James ◽  
Suzanne(Sue) M. Hudson ◽  
Alexandra Lasczik
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Literacy Teaching ◽  
System Requirements

PurposeBeing literate can change the lives of Australian students. Therefore, graduating effective teachers of literacy is an imperative for Australian schools. Professional experience provides an opportunity for preservice teachers to refine their skills for teaching literacy under the guidance of a mentor teacher. This study investigates from the perspective of preservice teachers, the attributes and practices primary mentor teachers demonstrate when mentoring literacy teaching during professional experience.Design/methodology/approachThis investigation utilised survey design to gather data from primary preservice teachers (n = 402) from seven Australian universities. The 34 survey items were underpinned by the Five Factor Model of Mentoring and literacy practices prescribed by the Australian curriculum. Preservice teachers self-reported their responses about their literacy mentoring experiences on a five-point Likert scale. The Five Factor Model of Mentoring provided a framework to analyse and present the data using descriptive statistics.FindingsFindings revealed 70% or more of preservice teachers agreed or strongly agreed mentor teachers had the personal attributes, shared the pedagogical knowledge, modelled best practice and provided feedback for effective literacy teaching. Conversely, only 58.7% of the participants reported their mentor teachers shared the system requirements for effective literacy teaching.Research limitations/implicationsThe preservice teachers self-reported their experiences, and although this may be their experience, it does not necessarily mean the mentor teachers did not demonstrate the attributes and practices reported, it may mean they were not identified by the preservice teachers. While there were 402 participants in this study, the viewpoints of these preservice teachers' may or may not be indicative of the entire population of preservice teachers across Australia. This study included primary preservice teachers, so the experiences of secondary and early childhood teachers have not been reported. An extended study would include secondary and early childhood contexts.Practical implicationsThis research highlighted that not all mentor teachers shared the system requirements for literacy teaching with their mentee. This finding prompts a need to undertake further research to investigate the confidence of mentor teachers in their own ability to teach literacy in the primary school. Teaching literacy is complex, and the curriculum is continually evolving. Providing professional learning in teaching literacy will position mentor teachers to better support preservice teachers during professional experience. Ultimately, the goal is to sustain high quality literacy teaching in schools to promote positive outcomes for all Australian school students.Originality/valueWhile the role of mentor teacher is well recognised, there is a dearth of research that explores the mentoring of literacy during professional experience. The preservice teachers in this study self-reported inconsistencies in mentor teachers' attributes and practices for mentoring literacy prompting a need for further professional learning in this vital learning area.

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