Beyond Apps in Pre-Service Education

Author(s):  
Lesley Wilton ◽  
Clare Brett

This chapter presents a multiyear case study in a two-year graduate teacher education program at a large urban university in Canada. This research studies how the incorporation of the TPACK theoretical framework and the concept of global competencies supports pre-service candidates' depth of pedagogical understandings when integrating technology into teaching practice. Online surveys were conducted with students attending a compulsory information and communications technology (ICT) course. Five instances of the course across a four-year time span were studied. Online questionnaires were also given to students and five instructors. Four themes were identified by students and instructors: (1) TPACK helps students integrate the three kinds of knowledge, (2) TPACK allows a focus on pedagogy by defocusing on technology, (3) TPACK is a robust theory, and (4) TPACK takes time to integrate into practice. This chapter offers teacher education program recommendations and suggests directions for future research.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Everton Lacerda Jacinto

Globally, progress in education has been made in recent years to promote learning opportunities for all. However, significant gaps remain in lowincome countries. In Malawi, a developing country where the educational system is under development, primary education is a major concern. Several initiatives have been made to bridge this gap through improving the quality of teacher education, but research has shown that there is still a need to further understand the learning process of preservice teachers during the teacher education program. The present study aimed to gain knowledge about the primary preservice teachers’ process of learning, particularly, the development of their understanding of the knowledge necessary to teach mathematics. The current study addressed the question: How do pre-service teachers develop their understanding of the knowledge necessary to teach mathematics throughout teacher education? In the study, the knowledge necessary for teaching mathematics refers to the knowledge that teachers need to carry out the tasks of teaching mathematics. To further examine this matter, the overall question was divided into three sub-research questions: (1) What understanding do pre-service teachers have of the knowledge needed to carry out the tasks of mathematics teaching at the beginning of their teacher education? (2) To what extent does the pre-service teacher’s understanding of the knowledge needed to carry out teaching tasks evolve through the discussion of practical experiences in college? (3) How do pre-service teachers develop their understanding of the knowledge necessary to carry out the tasks of teaching throughout teacher education? These questions were compiled into a qualitative case study with six preservice teachers in a two-year primary teacher education program at a college in Malawi. Each of these pre-service teachers represented a different profile with teaching experience, subject preferences in high school, and a favorite subject to teach during college. The research occurred over three different moments in a two-year teacher education program in which the pre-service teachers were enrolled: an initial moment at the beginning of the program consisted of a questionnaire survey and individual interviews; a second moment during teaching practice that involved mathematics lessons observations and post-lesson interviews; and a third moment at the end of the program that included a focus group discussion. The data gathered were transcribed and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. The themes of analysis were designed based on the six domains of mathematical knowledge for teaching theory. Findings show that pre-service teachers develop different paths of development of their understanding of the knowledge needed for teaching mathematics during teacher education and that such development has influences in how they acknowledge effective teaching in Malawi. The current thesis includes four articles that present the main data and results of the study. The first two articles present findings from an analysis of the pre-service teachers’ understanding of the subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, and the third article presents an analysis of the pre-service teachers’ understanding when discussing teaching practice. The fourth article explores the understanding pre-service teachers developed throughout the teacher education program. The contribution of this thesis is to not only offer new empirical and theoretical insights to teacher education but also to suggest a path for further research in teaching knowledge.


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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (3 (253)) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Brzosko-Barratt

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huanshu Yuan

This qualitative case study examines how a teacher education institution in China prepares culturally responsive Han teachers for diverse student populations. The purpose of this study was to explore preservice Han teachers’ perspectives of, and academic preparation in, multicultural education in order to enhance institutional quality and effectively prepare culturally responsive Han teachers for multicultural and multiethnic students in China. Four major findings revealed teacher candidates’ ambiguous perceptions of diversity; the inadequate academic preparation in teaching for diversity; disparity between academic training and teaching practice; and lack of institutional commitment to preparing teachers for diversity in China.


2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Wintle

For adults with intellectual disabilities, the opportunity to attend a postsecondary institution is increasingly becoming reality. Although there is a growing body of literature documenting examples of inclusive postsecondary education, there is a lack of information detailing the experiences of pre-service teacher candidates (TCs) who are enrolled in inclusive courses. The purpose of this interview study using case-study methods was to describe the challenges and benefits of an inclu-sive class in a 1-year, after-degree professional teacher education program from the perspectives of 5 TCs enrolled in a course audited by a young woman with an ID, as well as from the perspective of the course instructor. The classmates and course instructor provided positive responses regarding their experiences in the inclusive class, such as seeing inclusion in practice. Negative responses con-cerned whether or not a curriculum class in the teacher education program was the right fit for the student with ID.


Author(s):  
Urip Sulistiyo ◽  
Amirul Mukminin ◽  
Kemas Abdurrahman ◽  
Eddy Haryanto

This qualitative case study was conducted to gather information on the implementation of teaching practicum in order to improve the quality of the program in an English teacher education program at a state-owned university, Jambi, Indonesia. Information was gathered from five recent teacher graduates, five beginner teachers, five school principals, and five teacher educators on their perceptions of English Foreign Language Teacher Education Program (EFLTEP) graduates as beginner teachers. This qualitative study employed a background survey, document analyses and interviews for data collection. Document analyses were used to examine the aims and content of the English teacher education program and official Indonesian English teacher education curriculum and policies. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the main data from graduates and collect information from the beginner teachers. Interviews with principals and teacher educators were used to obtain further data and evidence about the beginner teachers’ knowledge and preparedness to teach. We organized our analysis, findings, and discussion around the implementation of teaching practicum. The analyses of the documents and texts revealed that major themes related to (1) the standards for implementing the teaching practicum in the program, (2) quality of the teaching practicum, (3) duration of the teaching practicum, (4) the roles of mentor teachers and teacher educators, and (5) selecting school partners for the student teacher practicum. Particularly, the findings indicated that teaching practicum projects undertaken during the program provided suitable but limited experience for student teachers to translate their knowledge learnt at university into the real practice of teaching at school levels. For future improvement of the program, the role of supervising teachers and teacher educators in assisting student teachers during the teaching practicum project should be a priority. The organisation and management of school–university partnerships for schools taking part in the teaching practicum require attention to maximise benefits to student teachers.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258459
Author(s):  
Tine Nielsen

The aim of the study was to conduct a first validation of three field practice experience scales intended to measure students’ opportunities to learn through observation of other teachers, own practice and feedback on own practice of 12 key teaching activities while in field practice placement as part of teacher education programs. The scales were translated and adapted from the elementary teaching candidate survey from the Development of Ambitious Instruction project. Items were adapted to refer to the teaching subject students were training in, and the response scale was modified. A four-step translation-back-translation strategy was used, and subsequently the Danish and a Norwegian and Icelandic translations were mutually adjusted for meaning to facilitate later cross-Nordic studies. Participants were 345 Danish students in the teacher education program from one university college, who had been in at least one field practice placement. Data were collected using a targeted online survey during one month immediately following field placement. Data was analysed using the Rasch model. Each of the three field experience scales fitted a Rasch model, with no evidence against overall homogeneity of scores for low versus high scoring students, local dependence between items, or DIF in relation to level of field practice, campus, type of teacher education program, gender or age. Reliability of each scale was excellent for most subgroups, while the targeting of the scales to the study sample was not very good, as there were too few teaching activities occurring rarely during field practice (i.e. too few difficult items). For all three scales there were significant differences in mean scores dependent on level of field practice placement. Thus, while the scales should be expanded to get better coverage of students’ opportunities to learn in relation to all the core teaching activities present in that are to be trained in the field practice placement, the very good psychometric properties of the three scales, shows promise for future research.


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