Reimagining the Contextualization of a Rural Teacher Educator Preparation Program During COVID

Within the rural context of our nation, education has largely been overlooked or ignored within the research. The predominant educational research focuses more upon larger urban areas with a distinct context. Training quality teacher educators within the context of a worldwide pandemic dismisses many established and traditional methods. In order to prepare our teacher candidates within this new context, our EPP revaluated its current practices. Innovation in teacher preparation is clearly at hand and is well within our reach if we use the pandemic as a springboard to reimagine a teaching force equipped to face any challenge and problem-solve to create the most effective learning environment for the students they teach. It is possible and doable and can sustain our public education system in ways that we thought impossible prior to the pandemic. It pushes us out of the rut we find ourselves within. The chapter address strategies to support preservice teachers in rural settings.

Popplet in Education

Aristotle once said, “The soul never thinks without a mental image.” From the author's experience as an ESL program director, ESL instructor, technology coach, and teacher educator, this saying is absolutely true. This chapter reviews an innovative web-based platform and a technology-based approach to teaching called Popplet that can be found at www.popplet.com. Popplet is a mind mapping application and a graphic organizer that allows teachers and students to create visually pleasing graphic organizers that integrate different features such as colors, texts, images, videos, and links to organize and present information. In addition to its use to enhance students' brainstorming, presentation, and discussion techniques, Popplet can also support the students' 21st century skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. This chapter will highlight some of Popplet's important features for teachers who would consider implementing it in their teaching pedagogy in the future.

Studying and Addressing Listening Levels of Children in a Rural Poverty-Stricken Area

This chapter reports the work of a teacher educator/researcher as she supported teacher candidates to assess and tutor struggling readers in a public school in a rural, economically depressed, yet diverse, area. Alerted by the scores for listening comprehension the candidates were finding over several semesters that indicated little reading potential for the students being assessed, she worked with the school's principal to reassess one group of students at the end of the year to determine growth, and therefore potential success, of the school's new intervention program in raising listening levels. No significant results were found, yet school personnel made no change in their program to address it. The teacher educator/researcher subsequently followed the implications of the research to provide instruction in listening skills to students in two other schools. The chapter closes with a discussion of what may truly make a difference in developing listening skills for the children in this community beyond a commercial program.

Questioning Our Credibility: An Exploration of the Professional Identity Development of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Preparing future mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) with knowledge that are needed to effectively support pre-service teachers (PSTs) is very important. However, little attention was paid to MTEs’ knowledge development, which is multifaceted and complex. This study investigates successes, challenges, and tensions that four international graduate MTEs and one mathematics teacher educator (TE) experienced in developing their identity as math teacher educators. In total, 20 h of interactive interviews were analyzed by using qualitative methods. Emerging themes include how MTEs establish a sense of credibility and how they feel they are navigating multiple identities. Among the graduate MTEs, credibility was described as having the following: (a) knowledge of and experience teaching in the US education system; (b) experience in teaching using a problem-solving approach; (c) the ability to enact theory in practice. While navigating multiple identities, graduate MTEs recognize their ethnic identities are central and influence their perceptions of self as MTEs, and how they think they are perceived by others. The results highlight the importance of understanding MTEs tensions and challenges and provide “in-the-moment” support along the journey of becoming teacher educators.

PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS OF TRAINING FUTURE MASTERS OF MEDICINE FOR PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITY IN HIGHER MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS OF EDUCATION

The training of future masters of medicine for teaching is extremely important. On the shoulders of doctors rests the responsibility for people's lives, for the future of the nation. The modern doctor, interacting with patients and colleagues, should take the position of not only a physician, but also the position of a teacher, educator, assistant, friend, and mentor. Pedagogy helps to form, develop and implement all these qualities. Knowledge in the field of pedagogy helps a doctor to become a worthy profession representative, easy to communicate with varous group of population, while demonstrating high professionalism and generosity. The aim of the study is to reflect the pedagogical conditions of training of future masters of medicine for teaching in higher medical educational institutions. Research methods applied: system analysis, logical and theoretical generalization, grouping and comparison. It has been established that pedagogical conditions provide the creation of an educational environment for the training of future masters of medicine in higher medical educational institutions. By pedagogical conditions of training the future masters of medicine for pedagogical activity in higher medical educational institutions is understood: (i) the orientation of the educational process on the formation of motivational and value attitude of future masters of medicine to pedagogical activity in the health care system; (ii) pedagogically oriented connotation of the content and methods of studying the general scientific and medical disciplines; (iii) optimal combination of educational forms, methods, technologies in the obtaining by future masters of medicine the pedagogical component in medical practice; (iv) stimulating the future masters of medicine to personal and professional self-development.

Learning and Teaching en Dos Idiomas: Critical Autoethnography, Translenguaje, y Rechazando English Learner

Language usage in US K–12 classrooms and beyond continues to be an issue of equity (Navarro Martell, 2021; Palmer et al., 2019). Teachers expect racialized students who appear to be Latinx to know and perform as if their native language is Spanish, mientras a otros se les celebra sus intentos de usar el español; otro idioma colonizador. Some educators know language can be used as a tool to teach content y que muchos adultos translenguamos mientras navegamos espacios profesionales y personales, not because of our lack of mastery of English or Spanish, pero porque tenemos la habilidad y el poder de navegar y vivir en varios idiomas. Entonces, why are many educators determined to force students to use only one language at a time cuando el translanguage es tan común (Martínez et al., 2015)? This essay provides reflections and lessons learned of one immigrant, formerly labeled “English learner,” who was once a fourth and eighth grade math and science dual language teacher. Inspired by critical autoethnography, this manuscript is written by a current math and science bilingual methods teacher educator and supporter of translanguaging in the P–20+ classroom.

AR Module for Learning Changes of Matter in Chemistry

Internal Visualization challenges concerning sub-microscopic particles in chemistry often result in some difficulties in learning the change of state of matter. Therefore, this study aims at developing an augmented reality ProCAR module that utilizes a project-based learning approach to facilitate learning changes of matter. This study employs ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) instructional design model. The quality of the module was evaluated by a group of 5 Chemistry teacher-educator experts of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to identify the suitability of the module. Inter-rater reliability (IRR) percentages were determined and the feedback was analyzed based on thematic analysis. The result shows that 100% of its learning objectives, Content, Usability, and Assessment and 75% of its performances were good and reliable all having IRR value 75% and above. Such revealed that AR Module is potentially effective for the teaching phase change to Secondary school students. Recommendations for future studies were highlighted

Becoming humanizing educators during inhumane times: Valuing compassion and care above productivity and performance

This qualitative inquiry presents a duoethnographic reflection by a pre-service teacher and teacher educator on their individual and collective experiences navigating teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emails of gratitude exchanged between both authors serve as the beginning of their inquiry and analysis. Their narratives reveal the ways in which they experienced humanizing pedagogies, received compassion and care, and engaged in culturally sustaining pedagogies within their teacher preparation program. Implications for reimagining teacher preparation embedded in humanizing pedagogies are explored.

On the Mis-Education of Teachers of Color: A Letter to Teacher Educators

Although teacher education researchers have long claimed their commitment to successfully preparing teachers to educate students of Color—a growing majority in U.S. schools—notably absent from their attempts are the voices of teachers of Color. This silence often results in pathological portrayals, positioning teachers of Color as the problem while obscuring the pervasive, problematic, and harmful Whiteness of teaching and teacher education. In this context, inspired by James Baldwin’s letter-essays and centering truthtelling as theoretical framework, eight tenured New York City public school teachers of Color and a teacher educator of Color engaged in collective analysis of a truthtelling exercise focused on what practitioners and institutions of teacher education can and should learn from teachers of Color to develop an antidote to the overwhelming Whiteness of teaching and teacher education, which has been shown to disproportionately disadvantage students of Color. Herein, we offer a composite counter-story—a letter to White teacher educators and, in fact, teacher educators of any racial identification who are in any way aligned with protecting and upholding Whiteness—revisiting our own nuanced memories of becoming and being teachers, unveiling teacher education’s epistemic violence, and issuing a call to action.