Reconceptualised family resemblance approach to nature of science in pre-service science teacher education

A recent framework on nature of science (NOS) is the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA). FRA presents NOS as a cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional system with a set of categories: aims and values, scientific methods, scientific practices, scientific knowledge and social-institutional aspects of science. Although FRA has been problematised philosophically and its implications for science education have been considered by science educators, its empirical adaptations in science education are limited. In order to illustrate the educational adaptations of FRA, we refer to Reconceptualised Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science or RFN. We present a study based on a funded pre-service science teacher education project whose aim was to design, implement and evaluate the impact of RFN strategies. Fifteen pre-service teachers participated in a 14-week teacher education intervention that infused RFN. A 70-item questionnaire was designed to investigate the outcomes of the teacher education intervention. Individual interviews with pre-service teachers were also conducted. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis suggest that the teacher education intervention had an overall significant impact on pre-service teachers’ views of NOS. The paper contributes to the understanding of how NOS can be incorporated in science teacher education using a new orientation to NOS based on FRA.     

Exploring emotional climate in preservice science teacher education

Classroom emotional climates (ECs) are interrelated with students’ engagement with university courses. Despite growing interest in emotions and EC research, little is known about the ways in which social interactions and different subject matter mediate ECs in preservice science teacher education classes. In this study we investigated the EC and associated classroom interactions in a preservice science teacher education class. We were interested in the ways in which salient classroom interactions were related to the EC during lessons centered on debates about science-based issues (e.g., nuclear energy alternatives). Participants used audience response technology to indicate their perceptions of the EC. Analysis of conversation for salient video clips and analysis of non-verbal conduct (acoustic parameters, body movements, and facial expressions) supplemented EC data. One key contribution that this study makes to preservice science teacher education is to identify the micro-processes of successful and unsuccessful class interactions that were associated with positive and neutral EC. The structure of these interactions can inform the practice of other science educators who wish to produce positive ECs in their classes. The study also extends and explicates the construct of intensity of EC.     

Digital portfolios in pre-service teacher education

With the pre-service student portfolio process and product well in hand in a paper-based format, in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) (B.Ed. Primary) at University of Western Sydney (UWS), new horizons have presented themselves. These new possibilities are facilitated but not driven by developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The impetus for this study comes from the changing context in which the students will work and from the rapidly evolving mediums of communication employed by the society these future teachers will serve. With new technologies being developed the use of digital portfolios could give an extra dimension to student learning as well as giving choice and variety to the reporting and presenting of that learning. This paper aims to report on the process of the development of digital portfolios as an alternative method of reporting and presenting student learning, as opposed to the current paper-based portfolios used in Pre-service Teacher Education at UWS. A study of the processes employed by nine students who elected to develop their portfolios digitally was carried out over a three-semester period. This resulted in a procedure that assisted students in using ICT to showcase their learning. The advantages and limitations of the use of such technology and the results of this process during its initial implementation are discussed.     

Educating science teachers in the twenty-first century: implications for pre-service teacher education

Abstract

This study examines the verbal interactions among a group of pre-service teachers as they engaged in scientific discussions in a medicinal chemistry course. These discussions were part of the course that encompassed an explicit instruction of scientific argumentation structures as well as an applied component, whereby the pre-service teachers learned the content of medicinal chemistry through cases developed using the strategy of competing theories. By adopting a case study approach using sociocultural framework of learning, we examined the interactions between the pre-service teachers using video data. We describe 12 possible forms of interactions during discussions – (1) seeking clarification, (2) figuring out loud, (3) sharing information, (4) agreement, (5) asking questions, (6) providing explanations, (7) raising strategic and procedural issues, (8) stating claims, (9) disagreement, (10) sharing perspectives, (11) offering alternatives, and (12) persuasion. The pre-service teachers engaged in figuring out aloud and seeking clarifications frequently, and used persuasion least in their discussions. To clarify their ideas and thoughts, pre-service teachers commonly rebut their counterparts and used warrants to support their own assertions. A similar pattern was also observed when figuring their thoughts out loud. Our findings suggest that pre-service teachers were able to carry out rebuttals in the argumentation process. However, the quality and function of their rebuttals can be improved by deepening their understanding of the subject matter knowledge and the science argumentation structure. Implications are discussed.     

Spaces of possibility in pre-service teacher education

Pre-service teacher education is a spatialised enterprise. It operates across a number of spaces that may or may not be linked ideologically and/or physically. These spaces can include daily practices, locations, infrastructure, relationships and representations of power and ideology. The interrelationships between and within these (sometimes competing) spaces for pre-service teachers will influence their identities as teachers and learners across time and space. Pre-service teachers are expected to make the connections between these often-contradictory spaces with little or no guidance on how to negotiate such complex relationships. These are difficult spaces, yet the slippages and gaps between these spaces offer generative possibilities. This paper explores these spaces of possibility for pre-service teacher education, and uses the spatial theories of Lefebvre and Foucault to argue that critical reflective practice can be used to create Soja’s ‘thirdspace’ for reconstructing future practice.     

Negotiating psychological disturbance in pre-service teacher education

This article describes the results of studies into the intrapsychic disturbance experienced by student teachers. The process of becoming a teacher is explored in terms of transition and the emergence of a teacher identity. Interview data were developed into case study narratives around the theme of an emerging professional teacher self. The study drew on psychoanalytic theory to interpret the potential conflict between the students’ emerging identity and a historical, non-professional self. The fourth and final case study presented here illustrates how one student used an extended piece of personal writing during her pre-service course to explore her emerging teacher identity.     

Promoting experiential learning in pre-service teacher education

This report introduces the experiential learning initiative at a major university in Hong Kong that prepares pre-service teachers with experience of engaging with social and cultural issues in teaching. It calls on teacher educators in different contexts to work together on similar initiatives that help pre-service teachers grow professionally through designing, developing, managing and promoting their experiential learning projects to enhance human development and improve human conditions.     

Transformational practice: critical teacher research in pre-service teacher education

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines: the role of the teacher’s personal and academic history in the design of their teacher research projects; how their research worked to disrupt and complicate classroom cultures and practices; and the ways in which the pre-service teachers interpreted their research in light of new contexts during their first year of teaching. This work has critical implications in an era when teacher education programs are under attack, including: the value of drawing on pre-service teachers' lived experiences as an entry point into inquiry; creating highly localized inquiries; and positioning novice teachers as knowledgeable practitioners who are able to share research with colleagues.     

The role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge for pre-service science teacher education

ABSTRACT

Research on teacher education, especially on the development of teacher educators, is limited. This paper considers the role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge (PK) for science teacher educators (STEs), across stages of career. It argues that beliefs and perceptions shift and change along with, but not directly related to, what STEs pay attention to and when they pay attention to it. The eight participants were asked to identify the critical experiences (CEs) of their career that impacted on their development of PK. CEs were analyzed using Morine-Dershimer and Kent’s (1999) model of PK as a framework, but also to identify common emergent themes across participants and common emergent themes for individuals that led to identification of patterns of actions and finally, participant’s dispositions. The notion that beliefs, dispositions and PK are all developed for each individual at their own pace and in their own way is reinforced.     

Exploring authenticity of microteaching in pre-service teacher education programmes

This study examined the perspective of a cohort of 60 Chinese EFL pre-service teachers with regards to microteaching. Reflective paper writing was employed to explore the student teachers’ perceptions of the experience. The study results show that microteaching was a useful tool for the pre-service teachers’ professional development; however, the experience was not without flaws. The most commonly perceived deficiency was artificiality, which appeared to have to some extent limited the student teachers’ development of real-life classroom teaching competence. The study suggests that microteaching should be supplemented with various alternative forms of school experience and practice.     

Pedagogical aspects of integrating wikis in pre-service teacher education

The study examines pedagogical approaches in using wikis in teaching and learning in teacher education colleges. It focuses on: instructors’ motivation for wiki-based teaching; course types; teaching methods; evaluation; content structure; characteristics of student collaboration and learning outcomes; involvement of instructors in the learning process. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 11 teacher educators from six colleges of education in Israel. The authors discuss added value and challenges of wiki-based teaching, the impact of assessment on shaping the learning process, as well as general conclusions regarding wiki-based pedagogy.     

From assistant teacher to teacher: challenges and pathways in situated pre-service teacher education

Vocational pathways to Higher Education have a key role in opening teacher education to under-represented groups but bring with them particular challenges. Teacher educators need to address the challenges faced by these learners, of not only connecting their learning but also challenging their knowledge, and doing so in an invested work environment. This paper shares my experiences as a teacher educator working with two groups of Indigenous and non-Indigenous para-professional pre-service teachers in remote and urban Central Australia. I identify four key role-shifting challenges individuals face in developing their professional practice and locate them in two interdependent areas: social sphere challenges arising out of the situated learning setting of professional experience, and those occurring in the personal sphere of professional identity. I suggest that the new ways of mentoring and the development of student’s reflexive capacity needed to address these challenges can best be mobilised by re-positioning the role of professional identity at the centre of both professional experience and academic learning.     

Science teacher education for sustainable development: a case study of a residential field course in a Norwegian pre-service teacher education programme

In this paper, we explore how a Norwegian teacher education institution promotes education for sustainable development (ESD) through a residential field course. The residential field course was located in a mountain area and data were collected through participant observation. The data included—together with instructional artefacts—evaluation schemes and assignments written by the student teachers, and the analysis was based on categories for science ESD. Through exemplary teaching experiences in an outdoor environment and pupil-active teaching methods, such as inquiry learning and phenomenon-based teaching, the student teachers gained experience in outdoor education and of stepping into the unknown in a safe learning environment. This was further connected to ESD pedagogy.     

Integrating theory and practice in the pre-service teacher education practicum

This article reports on a study into student teachers’ perceptions about their professional development during practicum. Framed within a symbolic interactionist perspective, the study examined to what extent, and how effectively, one group of student teachers was able to integrate theory and practice during a three-week practicum in the first year of their degree. The context for this mixed methods study was a Master of Teaching, graduate-level entry programme in the Faculty of Education at an urban Australian university. Although there is a strong field of literature around the practicum in pre-service teacher education, there has been a limited focus on how student teachers themselves perceive their development during this learning period. Further, despite widespread and longstanding acknowledgement of the ‘gap’ between theory and practice in teacher education, there is still more to learn about how well the practicum enables an integration of these two dimensions of teacher preparation. In presenting three major findings of the study, this paper goes some way in addressing these shortcomings in the literature. First, participants in this study largely valued both the theoretical and practical components of their programme, which stands in contrast to the commonly identified tendency of the student teacher to privilege practice over theory. Second, opportunities to integrate theory and practice were varied, with many participants reporting the detrimental impact of an apparent lack of clarity around stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities. Third, participants overwhelmingly supported the notion of linking university coursework assessment to the practicum as a means of bridging the gap between, on the one hand, the university and the school and, on the other hand, theory and practice.     

Co-constructing imaginative spaces: public art in pre-service teacher education

This documentary account explores the potential of public art pedagogy to co-construct imaginative spaces in pre-service teacher education. Based upon a collaborative venture between two professors and an arts-based educational organization, the present article describes and analyzes key features and relations that were influential in transforming the response of a resistant professor and students. Using arts-based educational research methodology, this research finds that at least five thematic ingredients were influential in designing an education event with public art that promoted the generation of imaginative inquiry in teacher education: a base of trust; a naturalistic encounter; the choice to “shake-it-up”; a jolt of awareness; and a longer shelf-life. Strategies and insights for furthering the integration of public art into pre-service teacher education are included.     

Enhancing the role of the arts in primary pre-service teacher education

This research sought to explore the impact upon pre-service teachers' orientations towards the arts of a performing arts week within a one-year postgraduate teacher education programme. There is evidence from a range of data collected before, during and after the week that it had helped to strengthen participants' self-image as artistic individuals who recognise the value of the arts in children's education and have enhanced confidence in working with different professionals to teach the arts in a cross-disciplinary way. Within a climate of compliance, this study suggests that pre-service teachers require such experiences to overcome their fear of curriculum innovation.     

Analyzing the degree of technology use occurring in pre-service teacher education

Technology is not in the forefront of teacher education program thinking and planning. Yet, it is the tool dramatically changing education. Internationally, the role of technology has evolved from the role of assisting the teacher in personal management to using technology for instruction. To respond to this need, universities are altering courses to infuse the introduction and utilization of technological tools to enhance instruction. The end product is that pre-service teachers should graduate with the skills to seamlessly integrate technology to advance student learning. This study looks at a large comprehensive university’s available data on pre-service teachers regarding their utilization of technology. The focus of the study was to (a) document the technology skills within the university's capstone project, (b) examine the capstone project data to confirm or refute the premise that pre-service teachers integrate technology, and (c) review other internal data to assess pre-service teacher competencies on technology.     

Evaluation of a model science teacher education program

This study assessed the effectiveness of one science teacher education program designed to be a model program. The study provided evidence that preservice science teacher education can have a very positive effect on the development of preservice science teachers into effective practicing teachers. Thirty program graduates completed a pilot version of the 1985 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education providing information on course objectives, teaching strategies, equipment use, time allocation, and textbook use. The responses of program graduates were compared to the responses of a select national sample of teachers. All teachers in the comparison group were from programs in the Search for Excellence in Science Education, Presidential Award winners, recognized as outstanding state science teachers, employed as department chairs, or actively involved in the development of science curriculum. Analysis of the responses indicated that both program graduates and comparison group teachers had similar course objectives and teaching strategies, used materials and equipment a similar amount of time, and allocated class time in similar ways. In another component of the study, students of 37 program graduates completed a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes toward science teachers, science classes, and the study of science. Analysis of attitudinal data from their 2871 students indicated that students of program graduates generally had positive attitudes. For instance, 89% of the students perceived their science teacher as asking questions and 80% perceived their science teacher as letting them ask questions. In general, the data are in stark contrast to the images obtained from National Assessment efforts.