How Elementary Teaching Candidates’ Learning Opportunities Are Associated with Their Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Beliefs

Background/Context Many elementary teacher education programs seek to prepare candidates to enact ambitious mathematics instruction that supports students in engaging in rigorous, conceptually rich mathematics tasks. Extant literature suggests that preparedness to engage in ambitious elementary mathematics instruction is multifaceted and includes teaching candidates’ mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT), self-efficacy with regard to teaching mathematics, and pedagogical beliefs about mathematics. Prior research has produced findings that provide discrete, and at times conflicting, information about teacher preparation. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examined how elementary candidates’ learning opportunities in mathematics content courses, mathematics methods courses, and student teaching were moderated by their reports about the quality of their experiences in courses and field placements to seem to affect their MKT, self-efficacy, and beliefs. Population/Participants/Subjects The study participants were 220 elementary teaching candidates who were in their final year of teacher preparation at four universities in three states. Research Design We employed multivariate path analysis, an approach that is purposefully designed to probe heterogeneity in teaching candidates’ experiences in courses and clinical placements. Data Collection and Analysis We administered two surveys to each study participant: an elementary teaching candidate survey, which included measures of mathematics teaching self-efficacy and pedagogical beliefs about mathematics, and an MKT survey. Findings/Results The number of mathematics content courses that elementary candidates took was positively associated with their MKT and mathematics teaching self-efficacy only when they also reported having positive experiences learning mathematics. When candidates reported increased opportunities to engage with representations, decompositions, and approximations of mathematics teaching practices in mathematics methods courses, this was associated with higher MKT scores and pedagogical beliefs about mathematics. When candidates reported that their cooperating teacher was a high-quality mentor, increased opportunities to observe, attempt, and receive feedback on mathematics teaching practices during their field experience were associated with mathematics teaching self-efficacy and pedagogical beliefs about mathematics. Conclusions/Recommendations The findings from this multivariate path analysis, which account for both the reported quantity and the perceived quality of elementary teaching candidate experiences, may shed light on conflicting findings in prior literature. There is little agreement in extant literature about associations between facets of teacher preparation and candidate knowledge, self-efficacy, or beliefs. Explaining the positive associations in some samples and lack of associations in others may have more to do with the quality of teaching candidate experiences than with whether a candidate was exposed to a particular opportunity to learn.

Social Entrepreneurship and Psychological Well-being in Teaching Candidates: Mediator Role of Hope

The investigation and supporting variables related to the mental health of teaching candidates is important since teachers’ psychological traits will affect students’ personal, social, and academic development. In this paper, the intermediary role of hope in the relationship between the social entrepreneurship characteristics and psychological well-being of teaching candidates was investigated. The sample consisted of 855 teaching candidates were chosen randomly. The data were collected by using the Psychological Well-being Scale, the Social Entrepreneurship Characteristics of the Pre-service Teachers’ Scale, the Dispositional Hope Scale and a Demographic Information Form. In the analysis descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, and regression-based bootstrapping method were used. The results showed that teaching candidates’ social entrepreneurship characteristics were positively and significantly correlated with psychological well-being and two components of hope (alternative ways of thinking and actuating thinking). Besides, it was found that alternative ways of thinking and actuating thinking had partial mediating roles in the relationship between teaching candidates’ social entrepreneurship characteristics and psychological well-being. The obtained findings were discussed in the light of related literature and suggestions were offered.

How Methods Instructors and Program Administrators Promote Teacher Education Program Coherence

Although a growing body of scholarship points to the importance of teacher education program coherence, few studies focus on the ways in which teacher education program directors, field placement coordinators, and methods course instructors foster program coherence. This mixed-methods study draws on interview data from four teacher education program directors, seven field placement coordinators, and 25 elementary mathematics and English language arts methods course instructors at four large, public research universities, as well as survey data from 305 elementary teaching candidates at those universities. Using a coherence framework, we analyze differences across programs in the degree to which teaching candidates perceived their programs as having clear visions and high levels of program coherence. We also describe ways in which program directors, field placement coordinators, and methods instructors described and promoted shared visions across courses and between courses and field experiences. Implications for teacher education programs and research are discussed.

How Can Preservice Teaching Programs Help New Teachers Feel Prepared to Address Absenteeism?

Background Though policy makers are beginning to hold schools accountable for reducing chronic absenteeism, little attention has been paid to the role of teachers. No known study has examined whether rising cohorts of new teachers feel prepared to address this challenge. This is particularly problematic given that teachers with less experience tend to be less efficacious at reducing students’ absences. Research Questions (1) Do newly graduating teachers feel as if they have sufficient knowledge about chronic absenteeism? (2) Do newly graduating teachers feel prepared to address absenteeism? (3) Do these perceptions differ by elementary versus secondary preservice graduates? Subjects Our study collected survey data from the 2017–2018 graduating cohort of general education teacher candidates from a statewide university system in California. This system prepares, on average, 800 teaching candidates a year, and all general education candidates participate in teacher licensure. We surveyed the teaching candidates in the 2017–2018 graduating cohort from these campuses and had a response rate of 60%. Survey measures included teacher background data and perceptions of the effectiveness of their preparation programs, knowledge of absenteeism, and perceived ability to address absenteeism. Research Design We began with a baseline model in which our outcome measures (knowledge and ability to address absenteeism) were regressed on teachers’ background characteristics and perceptions of the efficacy of their preparation programs. We augmented this model by including university fixed effects, such that we only explore variation within program rather than across universities. Results Our findings suggest that preservice teachers who found their programs to be helpful, who felt supported by supervisors, and who found usefulness in their field placements also felt as though they had greater knowledge about chronic absenteeism and how to address it. The results were differentiated by elementary versus secondary candidates. Conclusions Given our students’ extreme rate of missing school days, it is of immediate importance to determine if we are preparing our nation's newest teachers to help address the current crisis. Our study fills this gap by looking at the influence that teacher education programs (specifically teacher licensure requirements) might have in contributing to teachers’ perceptions of being prepared to graduate and attend to attendance.

Facilitating Authentic Practices in Teacher Education Through Pedagogies of Enactment

There has been a renewed interest in practice-based teacher education, in which teaching candidates don't just learn about teaching but actually acquire instructional experiences during their time in the educator preparation program. Teacher educators and scholars have called for the creation and acceptance of a coherent curriculum centering around a research-based set of core or high leverage practices. Grossman's pedagogy of enactment framework has provided one method of studying how teacher educators prepare future teachers for enacting successful instructional practices. In this pedagogy of enactment framework, teaching candidates learn about effective instructional practices through artifacts and other representations, decompositions of these practices, and then approximate the practices through rehearsals in simulated environments. This chapter specifically details three cases studies of authentic practice that one university program uses to prepare teacher candidates within this framework of practice-based teacher education and high leverage practices.

Pre-School Science Education: The Development and Evaluation of Science Teaching Materials

It has been aimed with this study that the pre-school teaching candidates develop the science teaching materials as to use in teaching the science subjects, that the factors that the teaching candidates pay attention to develop the teaching material and the contribution of teaching material development process to them are determined. The study was conducted with the participation of 54 third-year undergraduate students majoring in Preschool Teaching. Teaching materials prepared by prospective teachers were examined using descriptive analysis. It was found that prospective teachers took care to build colorful and fun materials designed to attract children’s attention, using easy to source materials. The use of teaching materials in science education is important for drawing and retaining students’ attention, for making science fun, and for achieving long-term and meaningful learning.

La Profesionalización De La Docencia Universitaria Y Su Influencia En El Desarrollo De Las Competencias Pedagógicas En La Formación De Docentes En El Instituto Superior De Ciencias De La Educación (ISCED) De Benguela, Angola

The presentation of the results of the present study was used to fundamentally analyze the influence of professionalism of university teaching in the development of the pedagogical competences of students in teacher training at the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences (ISCED) in Benguela. This study was carried out on the theme based on reference. The research carried out is of the descriptive type, whose data collection was quantitative and qualitative, from the determined sample. It is made up of teachers, students, and school board members. This, however, is a quantitative and qualitative study. Based on the data collected, the paper concludes on the lack of planning in pairs of the teaching work, the lack of a specific team for the supervision of the teaching work, and the fact that there is no specific criterion in the entrance periphery of teaching candidates.