Using Book Clubs to Support Inquiry in Teacher Education

The bombardment of information on students in higher education has created a need for not only information processing skills but improved communicative competence and interpersonal relationship skills. In an attempt to address this, we have implemented book clubs in our undergraduate teacher education courses. In these book clubs, we facilitate students in both critique and analysis of perspectives at difference with one another as well as the process of communicating on a professional level. The results have been students who feel more confident in evaluating literature and hosting conversations with critical elements.

Fostering Student Engagement Through Showing Empathy and Caring in an Online College Course

This chapter describes a collaborative action research project in which one post-secondary instructor used the experiences in her undergraduate teacher education course to learn how to best support students and peers in a health crisis and social justice uncertainty climate. The authors used empathy and care theories and universal design for learning (UDL) to plan, implement, and reflect on ways to empathize and show care for students in a course that was online due to COVID-19. Using the action research processes, the authors found five themes related to using UDL practices and showing empathy and caring. They conclude with recommendations for other instructors interested in supporting their students in online classes and in times of crisis.

Teaching about and for social justice in teacher education in Hong Kong

This paper analyses the learning impacts of a social justice learning unit, which was implemented through three lectures in each of two undergraduate teacher education courses in 2017/18 across two semesters. The design of the unit allows for social inquiry and experiential learning in the undergraduate curriculum. A sequential mixed-methods design was adopted, with pre and post questionnaire and interview data gathered from undergraduate students. We argue that learning and applying social justice concepts through group inquiry and other learning activities on social justice related issues, together with an experiential learning site visit, can facilitate the development of understanding of both the concept and application of social justice, a positive perception towards ethnic minorities and a desire for further learning and engagement in the community. This study would be useful for any university educators who want to teach about and for social justice in ways that may help students to develop an increased willingness for community service.

The Truth behind the Fallen Leaves: Untold Stories of Unsuccessful LET Examinees

This case study was conducted to disentangle the stories of unsuccessful LET examinees, their responses to failure, and their perspectives of the factors that contributed to their failure. The results demonstrate five themes related to the failure experience. Factors related to the physical environment, psychological well-being, and preparedness influenced the performance of the examinees. Contributory factors to failure provided several implications to teacher education practice. Educators have a responsibility to identify, inform, and intervene with students who are at high risk of failing the LET, and this responsibility could be executed capably. However, the role should be extended beyond graduation. The responsibility to help graduates transition from failure to licensure is the final step of successful undergraduate teacher education.

The feasibility and impact of embedding pedagogical strategies targeting physical activity within undergraduate teacher education: Transform-Ed!

Purpose Low levels of physical activity and high levels of sedentary behaviour are pervasive, especially in schools. Pre-service teacher education is pivotal to school and educational reform but is an under-studied setting for physical activity and sedentary behaviour intervention research. The objective of this pilot study was to test the feasibility and potential impact of embedding evidence-based active pedagogy based on an adapted version of Transform-Us!, Transform-Ed! in one core unit of an undergraduate teacher education degree. Methods Baseline and follow-up measures (i.e. surveys) were conducted with Bachelor of Education (Primary) pre-service teachers who received the Transform-Ed! intervention and academic educators who delivered the intervention. Focus groups of senior academics and telephone interviews with primary school principals examined perceptions of intervention feasibility and explored potential real-world relevance and impact of pre-service teachers training in active pedagogy. Results After 12 weeks, pre-service teachers (n = 218) were significantly more willing (pre–post change Δ = 0.54, 95% CI [0.16, 0.91]), confident (Δ = 1.40, 95% CI [0.89, 1.91]) and competent (Δ = 2.39, 95% CI [1.85, 2.92]) to deliver Transform-Ed!, had more positive feelings about the impact of physical activity on student outcomes (Δ = 2.05, 95% CI [1.58, 2.52]), and perceived fewer barriers to integrating Transform-Ed! into current and future teaching (Δ = − 7.26, 95% CI [− 8.88, − 5.64]). Four major themes emerged from the focus groups (n = 9) and interviews (n = 5) around participant perceptions of Transform-Ed!: (i) acceptability and appropriateness, (ii) need (tertiary level), (iii) need (primary level) and (iv) overcoming challenges. Conclusion The Transform-Ed! pilot study demonstrated promising results across multiple participant levels, as it was perceived to be feasible, acceptable and appropriate by pre-service teachers, academics and school principals. The findings have direct implications for the progression of Transform-Ed! from pilot to a future definitive trial.

Learning From Students, Teachers, and Schools: Field-Based Teacher Education for Emergent Bilingual Learners

Today’s schools are more culturally and linguistically diverse than ever before, prompting the need for teachers with the requisite expertise for work with emergent bilingual learners. As students grow in numbers and fill seats in classrooms spanning grades and disciplines, teacher educators must consider ways to prepare an increasing number of teachers, including those spanning licensure areas. This research probed one university’s efforts to prepare all teacher candidates for this growing subgroup of students through a field-based undergraduate teacher education program in the urban Midwest. Using artifact data from 29 program completers and survey and interview data from five focal teachers spanning licensure areas, this study investigated how particular facets of the field-based program promoted or deterred candidates’ learning across the 4-year program and into teachers’ first year of teaching. Implications center on how universities can leverage field-based teacher education to prepare future teachers for diverse classrooms.

Exploring the genre of undergraduate teacher education acknowledgments

Genre-based studies in various disciplines have continuously flourished throughout the years. Despite this proliferation, local studies dealing with the acknowledgment section of the undergraduate theses tend to be premature most specifically in the field of Teacher Education (TE). The study aimed to analyze, through the presence of moves, the overall structure of the thirty (30) randomly sampled undergraduate acknowledgments from the field of TE using Hyland’s model. The findings revealed that the undergraduate acknowledgment structure was comprised of Thanking Move which is the most pervasive move, followed by the Reflecting Move. Though the Announcing Move was notpresent, one unique move, which is Thanking God, appeared to be dominating in the corpus. It is suggested for future studies to increase the number of the corpus in order to yield more interesting results and explore the socio-cultural aspect of the investigated genre.