scholarly journals Online supplementary mathematics tuition in a first-year childhood teacher education programme

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Fonseca ◽  
Nadine Petersen

This study reports on an intervention that was aimed at improving the content knowledge of first-year intermediate-phase education students at a South African university. The study gives some insight into preservice teachers’ perceptions of an online programme for the development of mathematics common content knowledge for teachers of mathematics in the intermediate grades. The effectiveness of the intervention programme was analysed according to Shapiro’s evaluation criteria for intervention research. The findings show that there has been a positive shift in preservice teachers’ common content knowledge but that there is much room for further development. The student teachers found the programme to be of great benefit with regard to the development of their mathematics knowledge as well as their confidence as future teachers of mathematics. The findings highlighted their disturbingly limited knowledge of mathematics content knowledge and pointed to the responsibility of teacher education departments at universities to implement sufficient maths content courses that will address the status quo of poor mathematics teaching in South African primary schools. The authors conclude that the students need to spend much more time on ‘catching up’ before they become teachers.

2014 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Schechter ◽  
Tova Michalsky

Background Collective learning in teacher education has primarily focused on learning from problematic practices/approaches, depriving preservice teachers of learning opportunities embedded in professional successes. Purpose The goal of the present study was to explore the value of systematic learning from success as a complementary reflective framework during the practicum phase in teacher preparatory programs. Research Design We developed four distinct reflective methods to examine the effect of integrating systematic learning from problematic as well as successful experiences in preparatory programs on physics student teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and sense of teaching efficacy. Data Collection and Analysis Participants were 124 second-year preservice physics teachers at four major research universities. One-way within-subjects analyses of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures were conducted, with post-test performance as the dependent variable and with treatment (four reflective groups) as the independent variable. Findings Results indicated greater performance improvement on pedagogical content knowledge measures and on sense of self-efficacy measures when contemplating both problematic and successful experiences than when focusing solely on problematic experiences. Recommendations The current study may reinterpret the instructional framework of teacher education programs to include learning from successes too as a means of nurturing the practical wisdom necessary for teaching in dynamic school contexts.


2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Folake Modupe Adelabu ◽  
Jogymol Alex

This article describes a part of an online and technological intervention at a rural South African Higher Education Institution focused at improving the mathematical knowledge of first-year Senior Phase and Further Education Training (SP& FET) Bachelor of Education student teachers. As part of the interventions in an ICT integrated Mathematics Education and Research Centre, the student teachers were subjected to write an online baseline assessment on the content knowledge in Grade 7 mathematics, which is the first year in Senior Phase in South African Schools. A total of 193 student teachers wrote the online baseline test with 20 items in an invigilated computer laboratory environment. The test items were from the online Computer Aided Mathematics Instruction (CAMI) program which is aligned to the Grade 7 CAPS curriculum of South Africa. The data were analysed by the CAMI system and were further analysed using Microsoft Excel 2016. The result of the test showed an average performance of 38,67% (Variance: 0,66% and SD: 0,81%). This sheds light into the disturbingly limited mathematics subject content knowledge the student teachers enter the HEI with. The programme structure of the Senior Phase mathematics content module of the HEI was also analysed. The authors of this paper recommend that student teachers need to be thoroughly engaged in learning the content during their training as future mathematics teachers. This paper contributes to the ongoing research on ITE programmes at HEIs that prepare teachers for their mathematics teaching role in the senior Phase classrooms.   Received: 21 September 2021 / Accepted: 11 December 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022


2021 ◽  
pp. 003452372198937
Author(s):  
Caroline Elbra-Ramsay

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study seeking to investigate how student teachers, within a three-year undergraduate programme, understand feedback. Feedback has been central to debates and discussion in the assessment literature in recent years. Hence, in this paper, feedback is positioned within the often-contradictory discourses of assessment, including perspectives on student and teacher feedback. The study focused on two first year undergraduate student teachers at a small university in England and considered the relationships between their understanding of feedback as a student, their understanding of feedback as an emerging teacher, and the key influences shaping these understandings. A phenomenological case study methodology was employed with interviews as the prime method of data collection. Themes emerged as part of an Nvivo analysis, including emotional responses, relationships and dialogue, all of which appear to have impacted on the students’ conceptual understanding of feedback as indelibly shaped by its interpersonal and affective, rather than purely cognitive or ideational, dimensions. The paper therefore seeks to contribute to the wider feedback discourse by offering an analysis of empirical data. Although situated within English teacher education, there are tentative conclusions that are applicable to international teacher education and as well as higher education more generally.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Morshed Salim Abdullah Al-Jaro ◽  
Adelina Asmawi ◽  
Zuwati Hasim

This study aims to analyse the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the current curriculum of the English teacher education programme (ETEP) at a Faculty of Education in a Yemeni University. PCK and teaching competencies take shape within the initial preparation of ETEP in which student teachers spenda long time receiving knowledge and understanding the teaching context before they practically experience teaching at schools. During their BA study, students are required to study 49 courses which can be categorised into four main components: skills, linguistics, literature and professional. This study analyses the content of the curriculum courses so as tovisualise the way student teachers translate what they have learned into pedagogical practices during their teaching practices. In this study, the curriculum content of ETEP is qualitatively analysed using the inductive approach. Categories emerged from the analysis demonstrate various aspects of student teachers’ PCK. The analysis reveals that the pedagogical skills courses are not enough to enhance and strengthen the student teachers’ PCK needed to be reflected in their teaching practices. The findings show that the curriculum lacks courses necessary to provide student teachers with basic knowledge and pedagogical principles which are of vital significance to demonstrate their understanding before they are practically engaged in the teaching experience.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-164
Author(s):  
Gregor STEINBEIß

Abstract: This article investigates teachers’ professional identity of beginning first-year students through their beliefs about being a teacher. The presented study focuses on Austrian teacher students’ (N=18) conceptions of becoming a professional; what convictions student teachers reflect on, which professional identity emerges and what synthesis of a professional teacher identity position can be portrayed at the beginning of teacher education. Through inductively driven content analysis all statements (N=401) have been combined, and a unified synthesis of a beginning student teachers’ professional identity was formed. Three main categories were found: the “ideal” teacher, “good” teaching, and the “optimal” working environment. The results showed a highly idealistic view of being a teacher. The majority of statements referred to teaching from a pupil-centered perspective by strongly emphasising personality traits, student-teacher relationships, and teachers’ professional knowledge. Based on the results, the role of professional identity in Austrian’s teacher education is discussed, and further implementations in research are recommended.


Author(s):  
Ramesh Sathappan ◽  
Malini Sathappan

This study set to find out the challenges faced by TESL students at a local teacher training institute during their first practicum practices at selected Malaysian primary schools for the 2nd semester of the academic year 2017. This research is of significant value, as the 17 students- teachers’ experiences need to be made known; the findings on the transitional move from a safe protected college environment into the unknown territory of school surroundings. Each of these trainee teachers had leapt into the role of a teacher in the 21st century language class. They would each maintain daily and weekly reflective journals throughout their practicum period to document their teaching concerns and the level of confidence they put into their abilities to teach and manage their primary school students. Thematic areas are discussed in the findings. These findings are triangulated with document reports from their respective supervisors and the school teachers who mentored them. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted.  This research enables to shed more lights into the areas of second language teaching in the classroom as the findings would be able to provide more support for future management and development of teacher education. Furthermore, these student-teachers could understand themselves better throughout the month-long practicum. The ability to self-monitor and self-appraise themselves are valuable skills to be acquired by these student-teachers for their personal and autonomous continuous self-assessments to become effective second language teachers.


Author(s):  
Peter A. Hastie

This paper presents a summary of the research on teacher (and preservice teacher) content knowledge within physical education teaching and teacher education. It is organized around the key terms that are predominant in the literature of this field, namely, content knowledge, common content knowledge, and specialized content knowledge. Each of the studies and their key findings are presented within tables. The result is a document that serves as a primer, allowing readers a good understanding of the vocabulary of the field, as well as knowledge of the topics that have been researched to date.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsa Santaolalla ◽  
Belén Urosa ◽  
Olga Martín ◽  
Ana Verde ◽  
Tamara Díaz

Interdisciplinary projects play an important role in the development of a student profile based on the 21st century skills. Nevertheless, the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach is a challenge for both teachers and teacher educators. The aim of this study is to create an interdisciplinary model for teacher education, and to provide an empirical study which analyses its impact on learning. An educational innovation project was carried out with preservice teachers who experienced and subsequently designed a Problem Based Learning with interdisciplinary activities including Mathematics and Social Sciences, using the National Archaeological Museum as an educational resource. The proposals were implemented amongst children to evaluate the project’s effectiveness, considering two aspects: (a) improved teaching skills for preservice teachers (N = 26) and (b) improved learning for Mathematics and Social Sciences content amongst primary school children (N = 58). In the case of the student teachers, the variance analysis implemented showed sufficient empirical evidence of the improvement between the pre and post treatment, in different dimensions of the teaching skills and competences. On the primary school students, some significantly statistic progresses were found concerning the learning of both subjects, as well as their perception of museums as place for learning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 512-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erhan Devrilmez ◽  
Fatih Dervent ◽  
Phillip Ward ◽  
Mustafa Levent Ince

Common content knowledge (CCK) is comprised of the knowledge of rules, techniques, and tactics and can be used to define the scope of what teachers teach in their lessons. Developing reliable and valid measures of teacher knowledge such as CCK strengthens our understanding of what teachers know and in turn the field’s ability to help teachers in their practice. There are, however, few validated tests of CCK of sport for teachers. The primary purpose of this study was to provide content and concurrent validity evidence for a 19-question test of the CCK for gymnastics required in Turkish elementary and secondary schools. Participants were 240 preservice teachers who had previously taken a class in content knowledge for gymnastics in six state universities. Rasch modeling was used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the CCK gymnastics test. Results indicated good item model fit for all 19 items. High internal consistency for item difficulty and high internal consistency for person-ability were obtained. Overall analysis showed good evidence to support the validity and reliability of the CCK gymnastics test. The CCK test can be used in initial teacher education and continuing professional development to determine the CCK knowledge of preservice and inservice teachers and in turn a measure of what they learn from professional development efforts.


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