scholarly journals Namibian teachers’ perceptions and practices of teaching mapwork

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Johanna Naxweka ◽  
Di Wilmot
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Learner Performance ◽  
Poor Learner ◽  
Purposive Sample ◽  
Discrete Map

This article addresses the problem of consistently poor learner performance in mapwork in secondary school geography in Namibia from the perspective of teachers. It presents the findings of a qualitative case study focused on understanding geography teachers’ perceptions and pedagogical practices of mapwork. Data were generated through a questionnaire administered to thirty teachers in fifteen secondary schools in the Ohangwena Region of Northern Namibia, and interviews and classroom observations were done with a purposive sample of three teachers. The study draws on Shulman’s ideas of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (1986, 1987) to interpret what the three teachers say about the teaching of mapwork and how they teach it. The findings reveal that the teachers are conscientious but ill-equipped to teach mapwork. Their classroom practices focus on teaching discrete map skills and procedural knowledge with little if any, attention given to spatial conceptual understanding and application of knowledge to solve problems. The study provides insights that may be of value to teachers, teacher educators and Senior Education Officers in Namibia and other southern African contexts when addressing the problem of low learning outcomes in mapwork.

scholarly journals Serving the Less-Commonly-Trained Teacher: Perspectives from Arabic Instructors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin De Felice ◽  
Amanda Lanier ◽  
Paula Winke
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Perspectives ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Graduate Degree ◽  
Career Placement ◽  
Professional Challenges ◽  
Trained Teacher ◽  
Phenomenological Case Study

As proficient speakers of less-commonly-taught languages seek to meet the demand for qualified instructors, they face a range of personal and professional challenges. In an effort to understand the perspectives of these instructors and their particular educational experiences and needs, we conducted a phenomenological case study of two aspiring Arabic teachers. Specifically, we sought insights into their lived experiences, their motivations for pursuing a graduate degree, their attempts to connect coursework with pedagogical practices, and their needs in terms of professional development. Our findings illuminate the intersecting objectives these instructors must achieve. They need to position themselves as qualified candidates for the available positions as instructors, but they also need to reconcile a number of different roles as they develop their teacher identities and connect their backgrounds to ambitions for students’ growth. As teacher educators, we find that we need to facilitate career placement as well as the negotiation of these roles.

scholarly journals Pathway to ‘Knowing Places’ — and Ecojustice — Three Teacher Educators’ Experiences

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Paige ◽  
David Lloyd ◽  
Richard Smith
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Shared Beliefs

AbstractThe case study reported here seeks to promote the sharing of successful practice in Education for Sustainability (EfS). It uses literature and three personal and professional autobiographies as background to the development of a set of sustainability educational practices integrated into a primary/middle school teacher education program. The set of activities focus on developing in students an understanding of EfS and of processes appropriate to it that they can use in their classrooms on graduation. It is the authors’ view that their collaborative building on shared beliefs, contemporary ecojustice literature and three decades of developing enabling pedagogical practices has assisted their efforts to ‘get’ EfS, and to ensure that their students, particularly as beginning teachers, ‘got it’. The ecojustice principles for teacher education programs are outlined in this article and are believed to have wide applicability in many aspects of ecojustice approaches to pro-ecosocial education.

scholarly journals Reimagining a Writer’s Process Through Digital Storytelling

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Troy Hicks ◽  
Kristen Turner ◽  
Jodi Stratton
Keyword(s):  
Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Personal Narrative ◽  
Writing Process ◽  
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

Building on Hillocks’ (1995) concepts of the declarative and procedural knowledge that writers need in order to craft effective writing, this article explores the writing process of one pre-service teacher as she moved from a personal narrative to an essay to a digital story. The authors argue that digital writers—in addition to needing declarative and procedural knowledge—must also understand knowledge of technology in order to more fully realize the potential of digital storytelling. Implications for teachers and teacher educators are discussed in relation to Mishra and Koehler’s (2008) "technological pedagogical content knowledge,” or TPACK.

Boys Only!

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Hebert
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Dance Education ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Dance Teachers ◽  
Dance Educators

This ethnographic case study discusses the experiences of nine competitive male hip hop dancers as they participated in an all-male jazz technique class, which was taught by the researcher, in a private Canadian dance studio. Questionnaires were distributed to the male students and their three dance teachers to identify both the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of gender in competitive dance education. This chapter critically examines pedagogical practices that masculinize dance movement and teaching strategies in a private dance school with the intention of encouraging male enrollment. It challenges dance educators to assess how their own gendered assumptions influence their pedagogies, and to consider the potential effects they may have on their students’ experiences.

scholarly journals Survey of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK): Teachers’ Views on Reflection

CONVERTER ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 642-657
Author(s):  
Ruifeng Lyu, Jie Chen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
College English ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Post Class ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
High Level ◽  
Education And Development

This research aimed to investigate the views on reflection (one aspect of PCK) of six Chinese in-service teachers teaching College English at two universities in the south of China by using a qualitative multiple case study approach. In order to understand the characteristics of the participant teachers’ views on reflection so as to make suggestions for in-service College English teacher education and development in mainland China, three rounds of data collection (pre-, in-, and post-class teaching observation) were conducted and the College English classroom teaching content analysis approach was applied in the data analysis across the cases. The data revealed that the participant teachers generally had a high level of skill in technical reflection but at times were unskilled at reflection-in-action. This case study offers an exemplar for teachers to reflect on their own teaching. It also can guide teacher educators, educational administrators, and policy makers to support teachers’ self-reflection and thus improve student learning.

Fit for Purpose: Using a Distance Education Approach to Support Underperforming Schools in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Irene McKay
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Educational Design ◽  
Learner Performance ◽  
Poor Learner ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
Content Support

This article explores the South African government’s national school workbook intervention aimed at addressing poor learner performance in the context of teacher under-preparedness and curriculum reform. It shows how the workbooks use a distance education approach to provide pedagogical and content support for teachers, albeit in the context of classroom teaching, to compensate for teachers’ pedagogical challenges. This article uses a mixed methods research approach to explore how teachers, learners and parents used the workbooks and shows that while the distance educational design scaffolded teaching, additional support is necessary to enable the intervention to be more impactful. 

Primary Science Teachers’ Perceptions of Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) In Malaysia

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Yousef Mai ◽  
Mahizer Hamzah
Keyword(s):  
Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Technological Knowledge ◽  
Pedagogical Knowledge ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Primary Science ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Technology Application ◽  
Teachers Perceptions

The integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in classrooms has been a challenge for the educational systems that aim to cope with the needs and the demands of the 21st century. The TPACK framework represents the knowledge needed by teachers bringing together content knowledge, technological knowledge and pedagogical knowledge with the aim of integrating ICTs into teaching-learning processes. The aim of this study is to determine the primary science teachers’ perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) addressing teachers’ perceptions of the affordances of technology application in instruction. A total of 133 prımary science teachers in Malaysia were surveyed (Female= 67, Male= 66). Data were collected through “Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge” (TPACK) scale. The questionnaire consisted of 47 questions about TPACK and is based on the survey instrument developed by Schmidt et al. (2009). TPACK involving the seven factors of technological knowledge (TK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), content knowledge (CK), technological content knowledge (TCK), technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), as well as synthesized knowledge of technology, pedagogy, and content (TPC). The findings indicate that primary science teachers perceive higher self-confidence in pedagogical knowledge in general. Further, no differences between science teachers’ perceptions according to thier gender, while there are diferences between the teachers perceptions of PK, CK, and PCK accordıng to their age

Development and validation of an instrument for measuring Chinese chemistry teachers’ perceptions of pedagogical content knowledge for teaching chemistry core competencies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng He ◽  
Changlong Zheng ◽  
Tingting Li
Keyword(s):  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Chemistry Curriculum ◽  
Teaching Chemistry ◽  
Chemistry Teachers ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Knowledge For Teaching ◽  
New Instrument ◽  
Content Knowledge For Teaching

This study aims to develop and validate a new instrument for measuring chemistry teachers’ perceptions of Pedagogical Content Knowledge for teaching Chemistry Core Competencies (PCK_CCC) in the context of new Chinese chemistry curriculum reform. The five constructs and the initial 17 items in the new instrument were contextualized by the PCK pentagon model (Park S. and Oliver J. S., (2008), J. Res. Sci. Teach., 45(7), 812–834.) with the notions of the Senior High School Chemistry Curriculum Standards (Ministry of Education, P. R. China, 2017). 210 chemistry teachers from a University-Government-School initiative voluntarily participated in this study. The findings from item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis provide sufficient empirical evidence to support the convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument. The concurrent validity of the instrument was confirmed by testing mean differences among teacher demographic groups. The high Cronbach's coefficient alpha values show good internal consistency reliability of the instrument. Integrating the evidence from theory and data, we documented a valid and reliable PCK_CCC instrument with five constructs consisting of 16 items. This study provides a thorough process for developing and validating instruments that address teacher perceptions of their PCK in a particular subject domain. The valid and reliable PCK_CCC instrument would be beneficial for teacher education researchers and teacher professional programs.

scholarly journals Artefacts, practices and pedagogies: teaching writing in English in the NAPLAN era

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Gannon ◽  
Jennifer Dove
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Deep Dive ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Teaching Of Writing

AbstractIn secondary schools, English teachers are often made responsible for writing results in national testing. Yet there have been few studies that focussed on this key group, or on how pedagogical practices have been impacted in the teaching of writing in their classrooms. This study investigated practices of English teachers in four secondary schools across different states, systems and regions. It developed a novel method of case study at a distance that required no classroom presence or school visits for the researchers and allowed a multi-sited and geographically dispersed design. Teachers were invited to select classroom artefacts pertaining to the teaching of writing in their English classes, compile individualised e-portfolios and reflect on these items in writing and in digitally conducted interviews, as well as elaborating on their broader philosophies and feelings about the teaching of writing. Despite and sometimes because of NAPLAN, these teachers held strong views on explicit teaching of elements of writing, but approached these in different ways. The artefacts that they created animated their teaching practices, connected them to their students and their subject, suggested both the pressure of externally driven homogenising approaches to writing and the creative individualised responses of skilled teachers within their unique contexts. In addition to providing granular detail about pedagogical practices in the teaching of writing in the NAPLAN era, the contribution of this paper lies in its methodological adaptation of case study at a distance through teacher-curated artefact portfolios that enabled a deep dive into individual teachers’ practices.

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