Enhancing pedagogical content knowledge for STEM teaching of teacher candidates through lesson study

PurposeThis study explores how lesson study (LS) can enhance teacher candidates' ability to develop their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).Design/methodology/approachA multiple case study design was undertaken using the social-constructivist paradigm. The authors explored similarities and differences within and among four cases of teacher candidates who collaborated with a cooperating teacher and a university mentor. The data were collected from field observations, post-lesson discussions and follow-up interviews; it was then content analyzed and validated using negative case analysis.FindingsLearning from post-lesson discussions within their own LS clusters, including a teacher candidate, his/her cooperating teacher and university mentor, could help teacher candidates develop their PCK for STEM, rather than gain experience through several rounds of LS engagement. The foci of post-lesson discussions, which were discussed by each LS cluster the most, were students' context, teaching and STEM prototypes, while knowledge of instructional strategies for teaching STEM was mostly related to the previously mentioned foci. Teacher candidates' confidence in teaching STEM lessons seemed to improve when they designed and discussed the overall lessons with their LS clusters.Originality/valueThe STEM-specific LS model was proposed to support the exploration of the struggles and successes of student learning before designing the purpose of the LS and enacting its phases; the implementation of LS could be the tool for enhancing teacher candidates' PCK for STEM teaching.

The Emotional Geography of A Female EFL Pre-service Teacher in Teaching Practicum: Voice from Initial Teacher Education

Despite a surge of research interest in pre-service teachers' experiences in teaching practicum over the past years, scant attention has been paid to exploring pre-service teachers' emotional aspects in teaching practicum. This study seeks to fill this gap by investigating the emotional experiences, in particular the emotional geography of a female pre-service teacher who has just completed her teaching practicum situated in Indonesian teacher education, by adopting a narrative inquiry. The data were derived from interviews capturing the critical incidents of her emotional geography while interacting with her cooperating teacher, students and teacher educator. The data were qualitatively analyzed with Hargreaves' emotional geography framework, including physical, moral, socio-cultural, professional and political geography. Drawing on the findings, the participant expressed a wide range of positive and negative emotions such as dealing with a scary-imaged person, being more attentive employing bilingualism during then instruction, getting customized with varieties of instructional media, and being good feeling. This study implied that the policymakers, teacher educator, and cooperating teacher should pay pre-service teacher teaching skills and the emotional aspect to get emotional understanding for continuing learning to teach in teacher education landscape

A Multiple Case Study of Music Cooperating Teacher Roles in Mentoring Dialogues

While music education researchers have examined cooperating teacher and student teacher interactions via classroom observations and interviews, there is little research on extended dialogues between the cooperating teacher and student teacher or various mentoring roles (coach, guide, model, and evaluator) assumed by cooperating teachers. During one 8-week student teaching placement period, I recorded extended dialogues between four student teacher-cooperating teacher pairs, along with individual interviews. Data were analyzed using the mentor roles in dialogues model. The mentoring role assumed during dialogues reflected the student teaching context, perceptions about appropriate roles, cooperating teacher and student teacher personalities, and their relationship. Mentoring dialogues were especially influenced by unique features of the music ensemble class.

Maintaining Dialogue in Remote English Classes

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about one of our students who has disclosed to my CT (Cooperating Teacher) that she has been living on her own for the past two semesters and works full time to support herself. Due to her work schedule, she goes through periods of time when she is unable to attend classes, and other periods of time when she can. She asked my CT to reach out to her other teachers about her situation so that they know why her attendance is sporadic. I worked with this student in our afternoon classes, which my CT had decided to reserve for making up work at the end of the marking period.

RESPONSABILITÉS ET RÔLES INSTITUTIONNELS ET INTERINSTITUTIONNELS DANS LE CONTEXTE DE LA FORMATION DES ENSEIGNANTS ASSOCIÉS AU QUÉBEC

Among the actors revolving around the student teacher, the cooperating teacher holds an essential place. Considering the significance and complexity of his role, the cooperating teacher is invited to take part in training activities. Since 2008, leaders from different universities in charge of this matter have been working together to harmonise and improve training activities. Meanwhile, a partnership between them and school representatives is also being established. This partnership is not self-evident because the institutional and inter-institutional roles and responsibilities are poorly defined, and because university and school cultures are distinct. Individual interviews with seven Quebec francophone university representatives show similarities and specificities in their roles and responsibilities.

Planning a research lesson online: pre-service teachers' documentation work

PurposeThe authors developed a lesson study innovation for bridging pre-service teachers' experiences in an early methods course and clinical experiences focusing on the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The authors analyze one planning meeting by a lesson study team comprised of four pre-service teachers and one cooperating teacher. The purpose of this research was to determine the nature of documentation during the online planning meeting and how the cooperating teacher facilitated the documentation process.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used Gueudet and Trouche's (2009) documentation framework to determine the way the lesson study team in our study used all the resources available to plan a lesson. They analyzed the video recordings of the meeting to examine the interplay between material, didactical and mathematical components during the discussions. The material components included the Teacher Desmos Activity Builder and the eTextbook. The didactical components included assessment, scaffolding, multiple representations and problem-solving activities. The mathematical components pertained to systems of linear equations and inequalities with two variables.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that the cooperating teacher performed an invariant set of actions for improving the research lesson and, also, gave recommendations about how to implement the lesson. In facilitating the planning discussions, the cooperating teacher made explicit the relationship between material, didactical and mathematical components. The authors’ work has implications for supporting the preparation of facilitators of online planning sessions during lesson study.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors did not have access to the planning meeting where the PSTs created the draft of the research lesson. In addition, they are reporting the observations of only one online meeting.Originality/valueThe authors’ work has implications for supporting the preparation of facilitators of online planning sessions during lesson study.

Lesson Study in Initial Teacher Education to Stimulate the Pedagogical Content Knowledge on the topic of Speed of Sound

The lesson study is a collaborative model of teacher professional development originating in Japan, which has received growing international attention. This multifaceted model can be considered from many points of view. This research aims to understand what physics and chemistry pre-service teachers learn, in the domain of the pedagogical content knowledge on the speed of sound, in a lesson study. Participants were all pre-service teachers (three) attending the first year of their initial teaching education programme. The lesson study, had two cycles, took place over the course of twelve sessions and a total of 36 hours of work. The first cycle consisted of ten sessions: the first eight sessions aimed at defining the topic and lesson planning; this was followed by the first research lesson taught by the cooperating teacher; and finally, there was a post-lesson reflection. The second cycle consisted of two sessions; a second research lesson was also taught by the cooperating teacher; and subsequent to this, there was a post-lesson reflection. This is a qualitative and interpretative study. Data were collected from participant observation of all sessions using field notes and video recording, individual interviews and individual written reflections. Results showed that the pre-service teachers developed the pedagogical teacher knowledge (PCK) to teach the topic in the planning phase, when they identified the students’ prior knowledge, which would help them learn the topic, and in the post-lesson reflection sessions, when they discussed strategies that could help students overcome their learning difficulties.