A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback and of various peer feedback forms in a secondary school writing curriculum

This study examines whether peer feedback can be a substitute for teacher feedback and which measures can be taken to improve its effectiveness. A pre‐test post‐test control group design examined the long‐term learning effects of individual peer feedback and of collective teacher feedback on writing assignments in secondary education. Moreover, it examined the added value of a priori question forms and a posteriori reply forms aimed at supporting the assessee's response to peer feedback. The study supports the ‘non‐inferiority’ hypothesis of there being no significant difference in students’ progress after plain substitutional peer feedback or teacher feedback. Both groups (plain peer feedback and teacher feedback), however, improved significantly less than the groups that worked with question or reply forms, confirming the added‐value of these forms. Almost half of the students found the received peer feedback helpful, but less than a quarter considered giving feedback an aid in their own learning process.     

Establishing a portfolio assessment framework for pre-service teachers: a multiple perspectives approach

In the field of initial teacher training, portfolios are widely used to assess pre-service teachers' performance as well as the outcomes of university-based teacher preparation programmes. However, little is known about the explicit design of portfolio assessment mechanisms in teacher preparation programmes. Issues related to the design and validation of portfolios for pre-service teacher assessment are a critical area of inquiry for the field of initial teacher training. In this study, perspectives were elicited from school trainee teachers and faculty from a secondary teacher preparation programme to examine the relationships identified among core competencies of a portfolio assessment framework and pre-service candidate learning outcomes. Comparative findings are presented about the relationships identified by the trainee teachers and faculty across the secondary education programme's portfolio core competencies and trainee learning outcomes. A discussion of the findings is presented with implications and future directions highlighted.     

Teachers' Self-Regulated Learning Lesson Design: Integrating Learning from Problems and Successes

Teachers' design of a lesson is critical for helping their students develop academically effective forms of self-regulating learning (SRL) in classrooms. Using a quasi-experimental design, the researchers integrated systematic collaborative learning from problematic and successful experiences into teachers' preparatory programs and examined how such learning was associated with preservice physics teachers' SRL-based lesson design. The participants in this study were 132 preservice physics teachers during the practicum phase of their teacher education at four major research universities. Results indicated that preservice teachers who contemplated both problematic and successful experiences developed better SRL lesson-designing skills compared to preservice teachers who contemplated only problematic experiences. This study provides a new outlook for linking collaborative learning from problematic and successful experiences as a means of nurturing teachers' SRL, as well as suggesting implications and further research avenues.     

Teachers as Designers of Learning Environments

Abstract

This study examined how six Singapore teachers approached the design and implementation of a unit of work (topic) to demonstrate exemplary classroom practices that engage learners and use ICT in knowledge-generative rather than presentational activities. After a reflection and feedback session on the first lesson observation involving the researcher and the teacher, the teacher redesigned the lesson to enhance ICT use and involve students more actively in their learning. Our study revealed that there is a difference between students' physical engagement and cognitive engagement in a task and that the teacher, as a designer of the learning environment, needs to make explicit the cognitive processes involved in using the tool to ensure students' effective use of ICT. The teachers' understanding of what constitutes effective learning and their roles in students' learning determine how they design the learning environment. In essence, it is the teacher's skill in managing the “tripartite” partnership of IT tool, learning task, and teacher support that brings about higher levels of student engagement.     

Discourses about School-based Mathematics Teacher Education in Finland and Sweden

In this cross-case study we focus on school-based teacher education in Sweden and Finland. Through the use of focus-group interviews with mathematics teacher educators in Finland and Sweden, the study shows that there are substantial differences in how school-based teacher education is introduced and portrayed in the discourse about teacher education and prospective teachers' learning. The school-based teacher education among the Finnish groups is made relevant in relation to several aspects of prospective teachers' learning. In the Swedish groups, school-based teacher education is portrayed as an organizational problem and few aspects of prospective teachers' learning are brought into the discourse. The results cannot be generalized to the two countries but show interesting conceptualizations of school-based education potentially useful for teacher educators and scholars.     

Learning to Mentor as Learning a Second Language of Teaching

This paper describes and interprets the process by which two novice mentors of English teachers, who are experienced high school teachers of English, learnt to construe their new role by articulating differences and similarities between their practice as teachers of children and as mentors of teachers. The evolving competencies that the focal mentors attributed to their learning are interpreted through the metaphor of 'learning to mentor as learning a second language of teaching'; an organising framework that emerged from the findings of a qualitative case study that investigated the learning process experienced by two veteran teachers of English in their passage from teaching English to school children to becoming mentors of teachers of English (Orland, 1997). The study suggests that although the passage from being a teacher of children to becoming a teacher of teachers is shaped by strong emotional and motivational dispositions, it is also a highly conscious and gradual process of developing communicative competencies, whereby the mentor learns to redefine his/her context of teaching in order to make sense of his/her new context of mentoring. At an operational level the study indicates that there is a definite need to prepare teachers for this passage by providing opportunities to voice and articulate these connections in teacher education programmes.     

Assessing students' understanding of inquiry: What do prospective science teachers notice?

The theoretical construct of teacher noticing has allowed mathematics teacher educators to examine teacher thinking and practice by looking at the range of activities that teachers notice in the classroom. Guided by this approach to the study of teacher thinking, the central goal of this exploratory study was to identify what prospective science teachers notice when evaluating evidence of student understanding in another teacher's inquiry‐based unit. Our results are based on the qualitative analysis of 43 prospective teachers' evaluations of assessment evidence presented to them in the form of a video case and associated written artifacts. Analysis of our data revealed two major categories of elements, Task‐General and Task‐Specific, noticed by our study participants. Task‐General elements included attention to learning objectives, independent student work, and presentation issues and they often served to guide or qualify the specific inquiry skills that were evaluated. Task‐Specific elements included the noticing of students' abilities to perform different components of an investigation. In general, study participants paid attention to important general and specific aspects of student work in the context of inquiry. However, they showed preferential attention to those process skills associated with designing an investigation versus those practices related to the analysis of data and generation of conclusions. Additionally, their interpretations of assessment outcomes were largely focused on the demonstration of general science process skills; much less attention was paid to the analysis of the epistemological validity or scientific plausibility of students' ideas. Our results provide insights into the design of meaningful learning experiences for prospective teachers that elicit, challenge, and enrich their conceptions of student understanding in the context of inquiry. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:189–208, 2013     

The Wheels of the Bus: Children designing in an early years classroom

Many claims have been made for the value of design in the school curriculum. This case study, of young children's designs in an early years design, make and appraise (DMA) classroom, examined several issues related to these claims, including the connection between designing and making, the purpose of drawing for young children, children's understandings about the design process, types of images used by young children and children's attitudes to designing. The role of the teacher in the children's understanding of the design / drawing process was explored. The study revealed that design for young children is a complex topic requiring a range of sophisticated teaching and learning strategies.     

Argumentation in Science Teacher Education: The simulated jury as a resource for teaching and learning

In this article, we focus on the contributions that a simulated jury-based activity might have for pre-service teachers, especially for their active participation and learning in teacher education. We observed a teacher educator using a series of simulated juries as teaching resources to help pre-service teachers develop their pedagogical knowledge and their argumentation abilities in a physics teacher methods course. For the purposes of this article, we have selected one simulated jury-based activity, comprising two opposed groups of pre-service teachers that presented aspects that hinder the teachers' development of professional knowledge (against group) and aspects that allow this development (favor group). After the groups’ presentations, a group of judges was formed to evaluate the discussion. We applied a multi-level method for discourse analysis and the results showed that (1) the simulated jury afforded the pre-service teachers to position themselves as active knowledge producers; (2) the teacher acted as ‘animator' of the pre-service teachers' actions, showing responsiveness to the emergence of circumstantial teaching and learning opportunities and (3) the simulated jury culminated in the judges’ identification of the pattern ‘concrete/obstacles–ideological/possibilities' in the groups’ responses, which was elaborated by the teacher for the whole class. Implications from this study include using simulated juries for teaching and learning and for the development of the pre-service teachers’ argumentative abilities. The potential of simulated juries to improve teaching and learning needs to be further explored in order to inform the uses and reflections of this resource in science education.     

Becoming a teacher: Coordinating past,present, and future selves with perspectival understandings about teaching

A longitudinal study is presented of how students preparing to become teachers conceptualized teaching and developed their identities as teachers. Findings were that contextualized momentary switchings between student and teacher perspectives accompanied participants' understandings about teaching and their negotiation of the process of becoming a teacher. Dynamic processes involved in constructing conceptions of teaching and self-as-a-teacher unfolded across three semesters, culminating in a more professional identity at program's end. The study contributes to teacher preparation research by making connections among aspects of professional development and suggesting a model of learning to teach, grounded in participants' situated perspectives on teaching.     

Inservice science teachers' views of a professional development workshop and their learning of force and motion concepts

Teacher attitudes affect their instruction such that positive teacher attitudes enhance the teaching and learning process. The purpose of this study was to explore inservice science teachers' views of learning physics within the context of a professional development experience and to investigate the relationship between those views and the teachers' understanding of force and motion concepts. The conceptual understanding pretest results indicate the need for inservice science teacher professional development that focuses on conceptual understanding. The relationship between participants' views and their conceptual understanding at posttest has additional implications for the curriculum for these science teachers' professional development experiences.     

The teacher's role in supporting a learner-centred learning environment: voices from a group of part-time postgraduate students in Hong Kong

This study outlines what 29 part-time adult learners perceive as effective teacher (tutor/instructor/lecturer) practice in supporting their learning. The positive characteristics of teacher support from the students' perspective are first examined, and then what they found to be disappointing. Finally, the underlying themes that emerge are considered and the data is subjected to a holistic interpretation. Overall, the study confirmed the usefulness of a framework developed from a consideration of literature on learner-centred education and students' conceptions of learning. The investigation was able to reveal both key differences between and key similarities among the groups of students. The differences relate to conceptions of the roles and responsibilities of both students and teachers, while the similarities relate to the relationships between the parties in the teaching and learning environment. The implications for tutors/lecturers in improving their support to their students are highly significant. However, the most challenging task in establishing a learner-centred context is to influence students' learning conceptions and help them take a more active role in their learning.     

An Electronic Lifeline: Information and communication technologies in a teacher education internship

Practicum experiences in preservice teacher education are often characterised by disconnection. Preservice teachers are typically disconnected from university faculty and from their peers. Traditionally, university-based supervisors work to bridge the school and university contexts of preservice teacher education and facilitate learning to teach by visiting preservice teachers in their schools. This situation places high importance on the value of face-to-face interaction. The research reported in this paper explores the possibilities of utilising information and communication technologies (ICT) in the practicum component of preservice teacher education. It investigated the use of electronic discussion groups by preservice teachers and university lecturers while the preservice teachers were completing an internship towards the end of their teacher preparation programme. The paper discusses the benefits and challenges as reported by the participants in interviews, draws on the actual text of the electronic communication, analyses the findings, and draws implications for all participants in the preservice teacher education practicum. The study highlights the potential of ICT in providing new learning spaces that enable personal and professional networking and support, and points to reconceptualised notions of university supervision focussing on facilitating learning to teach and promoting reflective practice within the context of a professional learning community rather than as 'check-up' trips to schools.     

Reclaiming Teacher Agency in a Student-Centred Digital World

This article examines the current dilemma faced by many teachers: the drive for a modern day pedagogy advocating student-centred, technology-enabled learning is at odds with teacher comfort zones still nestled in a teacher-talk, print-based classroom. Put another way, the 'techno-reluctance' of many teachers represents a negative reaction to the perception that new technologies represent a threat to their traditional roles and general sense of practical agency in the learning process or classroom. The paper interprets some of the key factors impacting on techno-reluctance as a means of moving beyond such a simplistic view of the connection between digital technologies and changing teacher roles. On this basis, it goes on to discuss the concept of 'technoliteracy' as a means of reclaiming teacher agency in a studentcentred, computer-mediated environment and also reframing teacher attitudes to electronic texts and related literacy practices.     

Cognitive attainment in online learning environments: matching cognitive and technological presence

To know whether students' achievements are the result of online interaction and not just a consequence of individual differences themselves, it seems essential to link the cognitive results to the students' online behavior (technological presence). In technological presence, interaction is based on the degree in which the online student senses the availability of, and connectedness with, other students, the teacher, and the context. Cognitive presence as a part of the interaction process of teaching and learning reflects the level of accomplishment in online learning environments (cognitive attainment). The purpose of this article is to show some evidence of the mutual influence of the students' technological behaviors and the students' cognitive factors in online learning environments – including teacher and instructional design factors. Two thousand one-hundred thirty written computer-mediated communications from 88 participants in four prototypical online learning activities have been analyzed for this purpose. The analysis shows the influence of technological presence on the quality of learning results of the online knowledge construction process. The conclusions point out the importance of considering technological presence as a new and complementary type of presence as it provides relevant information for instructional and technological design.     

The Effects of Reciprocal Imitation on Teacher–Student Relationships and Student Learning Outcomes

Neuroscientific and developmental psychological research in imitation has yielded important insights into building teacher–student relationships and enhancing students' learning. This study investigated the effects of reciprocal imitation on teacher–student relationships and students' learning outcomes in one‐on‐one teacher–student interactions. In a within‐subjects design, participants learned eight English vocabulary words under two conditions: one condition paired with teacher's imitative behaviors and the other with teacher's random behaviors. Students' self‐rating surveys and quiz scores on new words were assessed. When the teacher imitated the students' behaviors in interactions, the students reported significantly higher perceptions of rapport, more confidence in and satisfaction with learning outcomes, and had significantly higher quiz scores. Results had important implications for teachers in using imitation as an effective teaching tool to build teacher–student relationships and enhance students' learning.     

Can a collaborative network environment enhance essay-writing processes?

The aim of this study is to examine whether a computer-supported learning environment enhances essay writing by providing an opportunity to share drafts with fellow students and receive feedback from a draft version. Data for this study were provided by 25 law students who were enrolled in a course in legal history at the University of Helsinki in February 2001. Both the students and the teacher were interviewed. The interviews showed that the students' experiences of the essay-writing process were very positive. The teacher's experiences were in line with the students'. The results showed that the students seemed to divide into two groups concerning their experiences towards sharing written drafts with peers: those who were very enthusiastic and enjoyed the possibility to share drafts and those who, on the other hand, felt that the idea of sharing unfinished essays was too threatening for them and required too much openness. The results further showed that the active use of a computer-supported learning environment was related to good essay grades.     

Teacher Beliefs Regarding Learning,Pedagogy, and the Use of Technology in Higher Education

This study examines university teachers' beliefs about the role of technology in achieving the pedagogical aims of learning within teaching development initiatives at a Finnish university. The initiatives targeted technology adoption in teaching and learning and were enhanced within teacher groups, with support from a university-level network program. Thematic interviews were conducted with the members of 11 initiative groups, covering 18 teachers from various disciplines. The qualitative content analysis revealed diverse belief groups. Technology was perceived as a tool for the promotion of self-paced studying without explicit learning aims; for active and interactive learning; for integrative learning with continuous assessment; and for meaningful learning. The study highlights the need for a more systematic explication of teacher beliefs and the acknowledgment of alternative ways of thinking in teacher developmental programs. (Keywords: higher education, pedagogy, teacher beliefs, technology)     

Blended teaching and learning: a two-way systems approach

A first-year tertiary-student structural equation modelling approach builds understanding of blended learning. The Biggs' 3P teaching-and-learning-systems model displays significant two-way interactions between each of its presage, process and product constructs. This study validates the Biggs' approach as a dynamic interactive learning system. The student learning processes occur through teacher contributions, mixed with learning interactions and feedback systems. Greater learning, knowledge and skills transfer is possible when students are suitably pre-prepared/pre-skilled for their ensuing learning experiences and for the varieties of teaching/learning interactions that they encounter.