Language of learning and teaching in schools: an issue for research in mathematics teacher education?

Most countries in Africa have introduced the use of local languages as the language of learning and teaching for the first few years of schooling. Meaning that for the first few years of learning, learners learn mathematics in their local languages. In response to this, most research has focused on the challenges of using local languages in multilingual mathematics classrooms in schools. Not much research focuses on how the teacher educators prepare the prospective teachers to teach mathematics in multilingual classrooms. To further knowledge in the area of multilingualism in mathematics education, I, in this paper, present an analysis of the literature on multilingual teacher education in Africa. Specifically, I look at what it is that governments in interested countries are doing in teacher education programs in response to the introduction of local languages in schools. From the literature examined, I found that although there is awareness in a number of countries of the need for multilingual teacher education, not much has been done in order to train mathematics teachers on how to use local languages in the classroom. I therefore recommend that, for those countries that have implemented or planning to introduce the use of local languages in schools, some reforms should also take place in teacher education programs in terms of training the prospective teachers how to teach in local languages.     

Coteaching: Creating resources for learning and learning to teach chemistry in urban high schools

How do new teachers become confident and competent while they are interns in inner‐city neighborhood schools challenged by many problems, often associated with economic shortfalls and cultural differences between the students and their teachers? Many science teacher education programs place a lot of emphasis on the planning stages of curriculum. But considerable discrepancies emerge between planned and lived curriculum, particularly in inner‐city, comprehensive high schools, and especially in classrooms that honor student interests and culture as starting points for learning. Previous research showed that coteaching provides opportunities for learning to teach even though the lived curriculum emerges often in unpredictable ways from the dialectic of collective (teacher and students) agency and structure. The present study allowed us to understand the underlying processes: the presence of a coteacher increases access to social and material resources, and thereby increases opportunities for actions that otherwise would not occur. Greater teaching opportunities provide newcomers with greater opportunities of learning to teach. ? 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 882‐904, 2004.     

Beginning teachers as enquirers: m-level work in initial teacher education

In order to deliver life-long learning for teachers, practitioner-based enquiry learning is being promoted by teacher education institutions on the basis that this form of learning gives teachers the ability to understand factors affecting learning within their own classrooms by systematic investigations of issues and the construction of an evidence-base on which decisions which improve learning can be taken. In turn this enhances teacher professionalism. This article presents a study of how practitioner-based enquiry was embedded in an initial teacher education programme; the reasons for this; and the purposes of the strategy, which raised the one-year postgraduate qualification to masters-level. It looks at the reasons for the change; the nature of the change, which included educating teachers intending to teach in primary schools together with those intending to teach in secondary; the introduction of practitioner-based enquiry; some early student reaction; and the structural, cultural and learning issues which have emerged.     

Patterns in the Initial Teaching Assignments of Secondary English Teachers: Implications for Teacher Agency and Retention

This study examined the teaching assignments of English teachers in 13 Mid-Atlantic high schools across five states. Data on the experience levels of 175 English teachers teaching 246 classes and surveys from 85 teacher participants were collected. Findings reveal that major agency-thwarting challenges face new English teachers: They typically are assigned to teach the students who need the most assistance, do not have their own classrooms and believe that teacher tracking occurs in their schools. Results suggest that in order to increase teacher agency, retention, and student learning, we must shift the working conditions, rhetoric, and culture around new teachers.     

Demographic differences in changing pre‐service teachers’ attitudes,sentiments and concerns about inclusive education

The preparation of teachers for regular schools has clearly needed to undergo quite significant change in recent years. One major adjustment has been the necessity to prepare teachers for progressively more diverse student populations as they will increasingly be required to teach in inclusive classrooms. Many teacher education institutions are, therefore, offering units of work that aim to tackle this. Utilizing an international data set of 603 pre‐service teachers, consideration is given to the effect of a range of demographic differences on changing pre‐service teacher attitudes toward inclusion; sentiments towards people with a disability and in reducing their concerns about inclusion when involved in a focused unit of work. Pre‐ and post‐training comparisons are made which identify a range of variables that impact on changing pre‐service teacher perceptions about inclusion. The discussion focuses on the importance of differentiating teacher preparation courses to address these different needs of pre‐service teachers.     

随班就读轻度智力落后学生学校范围内社会支持现状的调查

本研究通过对上海市青浦区 1 89名担任随班就读工作教师进行的《随班就读学生在学校范围内获得社会支持现状的调查》问卷调查 ,旨在探讨现有的社会支持系统是否满足有效的随班就读工作的需要 ,以帮助这些孩子回归主流社会。本研究从学校行政领导、教师以及同伴等方面来调查随班就读学生学校范围内获得社会支持的现状。问卷结果表明 ,学校行政、教师以及同伴所提供的社会支持仍旧非常有限 ,还有待进一步加强。     

What Islamic school teachers want: towards developing an Islamic teacher education programme

In the 70 year history of Islamic schools in North America, there is yet to be an accredited teacher education programme to train and professionally equip Islamic school teachers with an understanding of an Islamic pedagogy. Arguably, there has been an imbalance of energy placed on curriculum development projects over the considerations of teacher training. From my experience working as a teacher trainer/education consultant for Islamic schools for the past 10 years, it is evident that the underlying assumption for many school administrators is that a State/Ministry certified teacher who is Muslim will know how to teach ‘Islamically’. The aims of this paper are to first establish some semblance of what it means to teach Islamically or, more accurately, to teach through an Islamic pedagogy. From this framework, the crux of the paper is to present findings from a series of focus groups with Islamic school educators about their teacher training needs. The findings of this study establish the need for a formal teacher education programme in Islamic pedagogy within an established faculty of education. Such a programme would achieve three major ends in cultivating the stewardship of Islamic schools in North America: 1. Define and establish Islamic education as a valid and relevant pedagogical model that can contribute to the broader discourse of alternative, faith-based education;

2. Standardise the pedagogy and curriculum of Islamic schools based on the principles of education in Islam and to make both contextually relevant;

3. Contribute to raising the standards of Islamic schools through a teacher education programme at credible faculties of education where ongoing research and development will also be supported.

     

Using pupil perspective research to inform teacher pedagogy: what Caribbean pupils with dyslexia say about teaching and learning

The transformative potential of pupils' voices is well documented in past research by Pedder and McIntyre; and Cooper and McIntyre. In this qualitative research, I utilise a social constructivist framework by Vygotsky to ask pupils with dyslexia about the kinds of teacher strategies that they find helpful to their learning at secondary school in Barbados. This study utilised direct observations and individual interviews as part of a multiple case study strategy of 16 pupils with dyslexia from two secondary schools in Barbados. Findings suggest that there are regular teachers' strategies like more detailed explanations, demonstrations, drama and role play, storytelling, asking questions and enquiry‐based approaches that pupils find facilitative of their learning. This research is guided by the following questions: (1) what do pupils mean when they refer to teacher strategies as helpful?; and (2) what pedagogical approaches do pupils with dyslexia find helpful to their learning at secondary school?     

Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of simSchool as preparation for inclusive education: a pilot study

The shift towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools has meant that general classroom teachers need to be skilled in educating students with a diverse range of needs and abilities. Together with theoretical study and as a supplement to practical experience, teacher educators have begun to explore virtual and simulated classrooms to help prepare pre-service teachers for the complexity of the teaching profession. In this pilot study, we examined the perspective of pre-service teachers on a classroom simulation program called “simSchool.” Two-hour-long tutorial sessions focusing on catering for student diversity and the educational needs of students with autism spectrum disorder were conducted. The pre-service teachers’ responses to an 11-item questionnaire are discussed, highlighting the potential of simSchool as well as some current limitations of this approach in the context of Australian teacher education courses.     

The educational psychologist: Facing a new era

The once firm divisions between regular and special education are now fading. In many regions, the integration into regular classrooms of formerly extruded atypical students has an accepted and sometimes legally determined future. Much greater responsibility has thus fallen upon the shoulders of the classroom teacher, and when the failure of students to learn is attributed to a failure to teach them effectively, the question of professional accountability becomes poignant indeed. So, too, for the educational psychologist. Assessment, tied to placement, is no longer acceptable as a raison d'etre. His/her primary contribution in an era of integration for special education is towards improving the quality of instruction in regular classrooms and the quality of learning. Activities of educational psychologists, including assessment, research dissemination, programs of evaluation, systems analysis, and work with parents are reconstrued in this paper as contributing to better instruction in better classrooms.     

Teachers’ and school leaders’ perceptions of commercialisation in Australian public schools

This paper explores teachers’ and school leaders’ perceptions of commercialisation in Australian public schools, reporting on findings from an open-ended survey question from an exploratory study that sought to investigate teacher and school leader perceptions and experiences of commercialisation. Commercialisation, for the purposes of this paper, is understood as the creation, marketing and sale of education goods and services to schools by for-profit providers and often includes (but is not limited to) the provision of curriculum content, assessment services, data infrastructures, digital learning, remedial instruction, professional development and school administration support. Our account highlights that commercialisation is prevalent in the day-to-day practice of Australian public schools. The perceptions of teachers and leaders suggest that commercialisation is complex, with both affordances and challenges. Respondents acknowledged that aspects of commercialisation are necessary for successfully running schools and classrooms in the 21st century, but also noted that there is a fine line beyond which these seemingly innocuous services become perilous. Concerns focused on how particular services are leading to the deprofessionalisation of teachers as they have less autonomy over what to teach and how to teach it. Moreover, teachers and school leaders reported being perturbed by the idea that commercial providers and services might work to replace teachers in the future. Drawing on these data we argue that growing commercialisation in Australian public schools clearly requires an ethical debate that schools, education professionals, policy makers and interested publics are yet to have.     

Teachers developing assessment for learning: impact on student achievement

While it is generally acknowledged that increased use of formative assessment (or assessment for learning) leads to higher quality learning, it is often claimed that the pressure in schools to improve the results achieved by students in externally‐set tests and examinations precludes its use. This paper reports on the achievement of secondary school students who worked in classrooms where teachers made time to develop formative assessment strategies. A total of 24 teachers (2 science and 2 mathematics teachers, in each of six schools in two LEAs) were supported over a six‐month period in exploring and planning their approach to formative assessment, and then, beginning in September 1999, the teachers put these plans into action with selected classes. In order to compute effect sizes, a measure of prior attainment and at least one comparison group was established for each class (typically either an equivalent class taught in the previous year by the same teacher, or a parallel class taught by another teacher). The mean effect size in favour of the intervention was 0.32.     

Attitudes and self‐efficacy of pre‐service teachers towards inclusion in Pakistan

This study sought to determine the attitudes and teaching self‐efficacy of pre‐service teachers towards the inclusion of students with disabilities into regular classrooms. A questionnaire was administered to 194 pre‐service Pakistani teachers (male 73, female 121) enrolled in a 1‐year teacher education programme at a government university in Pakistan. Overall, male pre‐service teachers expressed more positive attitudes than their female counterparts regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classrooms. Surprisingly, those pre‐service teachers majoring in special education did not express more positive attitudes towards inclusion than their counterparts who were preparing to teach in mainstream schools. However, participants with training in special education, knowledge of disability legislation, teaching experience and personal experience with a disability reported higher levels of self‐efficacy towards teaching within inclusive settings. The findings of the study are discussed with possible implications for policy‐makers and teacher educators in Pakistan and other countries in the South Asian region.     

Inquiring About Practice: Using web‐based materials to develop teacher inquiry

This paper explores a new pedagogical approach to teaching teachers to assume a learning or inquiry stance in their practice. It is based on an assumption that professional learning is a core capability of good teaching that is responsive to the changing needs of children, schools, and communities. One source of teacher learning is practice—one's own practice and the practice of others. Whereas there is much written about teachers learning from their own practice, there is scant attention in the field currently about learning from the practice of others. What do we mean by learning from the practice of others? Beyond visiting their classrooms, how might teachers access the practice of others so that they can learn from it? How does learning work proceed? This paper grapples with these questions as a frame for discussing one teacher education attempt at preparing teachers to learn from the practice of others. It begins by making a case for learning as a centerpiece of good teaching, and then proceeds to describe one example of how the inquiry practice of experienced teachers was used to teach teacher inquiry to a group of novice teachers in California.     

Academic and Social Benefits of a Co-enrollment Model of Inclusive Education for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/hh) students are traditionally educated within self-contained programs at residential or special day schools, within self-contained or resource classrooms in public schools, or within regular education classrooms with support provided by an itinerant teacher. The co-enrollment model offers a promising alternative in which these students are educated within a regular education classroom composed of both d/hh and hearing students and team-taught by a teacher of the deaf and a regular education teacher. This article examines the development of one such program and the social and academic performance of the d/hh students within the program. Data on social interaction between d/hh and hearing classmates suggest that specific instructional strategies that promoted students' sign language development, identified d/hh students as "sign language specialists" and grouped d/hh and hearing students during academic activities resulted in increased interaction between these two groups of students. Stanford Achievement Test scores in the areas of reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, mathematical problem solving and procedures indicate that although d/hh students scored below the national normative hearing group, reading comprehension levels exceeded the national normative sample of d/hh students during both years two and three of the program. We discuss the challenges of implementing a co-enrollment program.     

Teachers' attitudes to signing for children with severe learning disabilities in Indonesia

The Indonesian education system is striving for an inclusive approach and techniques are needed which can support children with severe learning disabilities and their peers in this context. Manually signed language has proved useful both in supporting the development and empowerment of children with severe learning disabilities and supporting inclusive educational practices. The development of an Indonesian signed language approach for this purpose is therefore argued to be an appropriate goal. There is evidence that the use of signed language within classrooms is significantly influenced by teacher attitudes and beliefs. This paper examines the attitudes towards such an approach based on semi-structured interviews with 20 teachers in 7 schools in East Java and questionnaire responses from 69 teachers and educational professionals more widely located across Indonesia. The results suggest that teachers hold broadly positive attitudes to the possibility of signing. There is a complex relationship between social stigmatisation, the nature of signing and a possible classroom pedagogy. These issues need to be considered if the development of an Indonesian signed language approach for inclusive classrooms is to proceed successfully.     

如何提高偏远山区的英语教学质量

针对山区英语教学的状况 ,从六个方面分析了山区英语教学中存在的问题。要全面提高我国民众整体的英语水平 ,全面提高英语教学质量 ,就必须针对问题 ,制定有效、可行的英语教学方法     

美国南卡鲍勃琼斯大学汉语教学——科技手段在汉语教学中的作用

本文旨在指出在对外汉语教学的课堂内外,综合运用科技手段开展教学的迫切性和重要性,以及利用科技可以提高对外汉语教学的效率和教学效果。随着电脑和互联网的迅猛发展,尤其是美国苹果公司的iPhone第4代席卷全球,人们的生活、工作和学习,各个方面都进入了一个崭新而又颇有挑战的新时期。如何更好地利用数码电子工具是对外汉语教学成功的关键。本文将举例说明目前在海外,尤其是在美国南卡鲍勃琼斯大学,对外汉语教学中常用的一些教育科技软件及其在教学上的综合应用,包括对外汉语老师如何可以在课堂内外有效利用科技采增强听、说、读和写四项汉语技能。     

Teacher educators' competences in fostering student teachers’ proficiency in teaching and learning with technology: An overview of relevant research literature

Teacher educators play an important role in preparing student teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms. This article presents an overview of research literature on teacher educators' competences in preparing their students to teach with technology. A literature search yielded 26 relevant research articles. Four domains of competence were identified: technology competences, competences for pedagogical and educational technology use, beliefs about teaching and learning and competences in professional learning. The literature focuses on teacher educators’ competences in using technology for teaching. Research on the competences that teacher educators need and have as second-order teachers is lacking. Recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Social capital and student learning: Empirical results from Latin American primary schools

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between social capital and student math and language achievement and the probability of promotion, using data gathered from fourth grade classrooms in public schools in four Latin American cities. The results suggest that social capital among teachers in a school, between teacher and students, and among the students in a classroom contribute significantly to learning achievement and the probability of promotion. Furthermore, social capital between the students matters at least as much as the teacher's social capital. Children learn from each other and the networks allowing that to happen can be very important. The current pressure on teachers to achieve results on reading and math scores has tended to push teachers to “teach to the test”. Ironically, this study's results indicate that spending time in creating social capital within the classroom environment is associated with higher language and math test scores.