美国教师教育之“品性”标准探微

当代美国教师教育的标准可分为三个维度:知识、技能、品性。它与传统标准不同之处在于"品性"取代了原有的"态度"成为新的一维。"品性"标准的提出克服了教师道德教育忽视实际工作表现的缺点,把教师道德教育的理论标准与实践紧密结合起来。教师品性的评价主要借助观察。"品性"标准最大问题在于缺乏一个明确的评价标准。     

Beyond Native and Nonnative: Translingual Dispositions for More Inclusive Teacher Identity in Language and Literacy Education

ABSTRACT

This article proposes translingual dispositions as a way to move beyond the NES/NNES dichotomy in understanding language teacher identity. Recent scholarship in TESOL and Applied Linguistics has problematized the NES/NNES binary from a poststructuralist perspective, highlighting how NES/NNES subjectivities are discursively and performatively (co-)constructed and negotiated. Despite the efforts to empower NNESs, the very binary reifies monolingual ideologies. This article argues that translingual dispositions can help move beyond the binary and complicate theorization of teachers’ identities and practice. To illustrate, we report an ethnographic case study of a “NES” teacher, Daphne, and examine how Daphne’s translingual dispositions shape her teaching and facilitate her students’ creative negotiation of monolingual norms in a writing course. We conclude by discussing future research directions and the implications for language teacher education in fostering translingual dispositions.     

Facts and fallacies: differentiation and the general education curriculum for students with special educational needs

As policy makers and educators respond to legislation promoting the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms, there is sometimes confusion about why this is being done and how it can be accomplished effectively. In this article, two categories of fallacies, or misunderstandings, are identified. The first fallacy is that students with disabilities are incapable of learning the general education curriculum. The second fallacy is that teachers are required to ‘cover’ the entire curriculum, sometimes at a pace that leaves students with and without disabilities behind. Facts are presented following each fallacy. These facts describe research‐based pedagogies effective for students with and without disabilities, indicating that students with mild disabilities can learn the general education curriculum when responsive pedagogies are used. These facts also describe how schools that promote differentiation can potentially achieve higher scores on large‐scale assessments than schools that promote ‘one size fits all’ instruction.     

A Systematic Review of Assessment Literacy Measures

This work systematically reviews teacher assessment literacy measures within the context of contemporary teacher evaluation policy. In this study, the researchers collected objective tests of assessment knowledge, teacher self‐reports, and rubrics to evaluate teachers’ work in assessment literacy studies from 1991 to 2012. Then they evaluated the psychometric work from these measures against a set of claims related to score interpretation and use. Across the 36 measures reviewed, they found support for these claims was weak. This outcome highlights the need for increased work on assessment literacy measures in the educational measurement field. The authors conclude with recommendations and a resource to inform a research agenda focused on assessment literacy measurement to inform policy and practice.     

Union gives strength: mainstream and special education teachers’ responsibilities in inclusive co-taught classrooms

Co-teaching has gained considerable interest as a means of promoting the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream education. Nowadays, there is a consensus among researchers that co-teaching should provide effective education to all students in a mainstream class. This study aims to explore co-teachers’ attitudes towards co-teaching responsibilities in Greek mainstream classrooms. In particular, it examines co-teachers’ attitudes with regard to their non-class-time (planning and evaluation) and class-time (instruction and behaviour management) responsibilities for students with and without disabilities. Four hundred co-teachers participated in this survey study. Overall, our findings demonstrate that mainstream education teachers and special education teachers disagree about their respective class-time and non-class-time responsibilities, and that their role influences their attitudes towards these responsibilities. The study concludes that the different attitudes of co-teachers towards their responsibilities could hinder the development of a shared approach in teaching students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms.

Union gives strength

Aesop

(ca. 620-564 BC)     

Achieving inclusion of students with disabilities in Turkey: current challenges and future prospects

Developing inclusion in schools has been an objective for many countries in recent decades, giving rise to a variety of definitions, policy -making activities and school practices. This paper focuses on the attempts made towards inclusion of students with disabilities in Turkey. We start by introducing inclusive education and its parameters, and continue with recent trends in education in Turkey. Next, we discuss current progress in including students with disabilities within mainstream schools, and continue with the legislative attempts made to improve this position. After that, we discuss recent developments and challenges in the education and inclusion of students with disabilities, and conclude by noting several recommendations for realising their inclusion in Turkey. While the purpose of this paper is to investigate the inclusion of students with disabilities in the Turkish context, there is much of relevance to other international contexts going through similar developmental processes in terms of inclusion.     

Reflections on Equipping Candidates to Teach Literacy in Culturally Diverse Schools

Abstract

This essay reflects on ways to equip teacher candidates so they are not only prepared to answer tough questions, but are educated for the linguistic and literacy challenges of today’s classrooms. We recognize that with an ever-growing majority minority population, it is time to change the teacher preparation system, and to support current teachers and the preparation of future teachers for the field; these changes need to be soon and are imperative.     

Developing inclusive educators: enhancing the accessibility of teaching and learning in higher education

In light of the growing population of students with disabilities at colleges and universities worldwide, faculty development connected to accessible teaching is of paramount importance. Drawing from the existing literature and from the results of a qualitative study of educational accessibility at one Canadian university, this article offers a series of recommendations for academic developers hoping to establish effective development initiatives focused on accessible teaching and learning. Key issues considered include the need to support instructors in translating principles of inclusive teaching into practice, the value of discussion-based approaches that take up difficult questions about minimum standards, and the question of whether development initiatives should be discipline-specific or interdisciplinary, mandatory or optional. Recommendations for further research are also discussed.     

Social Conversation: Presidents as Educators

The skill set associated with lifelong scientific literacy often includes the ability to decode the content and accuracy of scientific research as presented in the media. However, students often find decoding science in the media difficult, due to limited content knowledge and shifting definitions of accuracy. Faculty have developed a variety of approaches to increasing scientific literacy, but these approaches often miss out on valuable opportunities to teach core information literacy skills, including accessing original scientific research. We describe a scaffolded assignment using news reports that allows students enrolled in a science course for non-majors to learn about the nature of the scientific research literature, the connection between the popular press and the scientific literature, and the accuracy of popular media reporting of science while developing important information literacy skills. Our experience suggests that students develop information literacy skills associated with finding scientific articles using media reports, actively engage in trying to decode scientific articles, and are willing to thoughtfully assess the accuracy of science reporting in the news despite minimal content training. Moreover, students anecdotally report that the skills developed here are portable to decoding media reports from other academic fields of research, especially the social sciences.     

An analysis of legal issues relating to the least restrictive environment standards

The lack of clear language in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is the federal law that governs the provision of special education and related services to children with disabilities in the USA, has led to inconsistencies in school districts' decisions regarding the least restrictive environment (LRE). This uncertainty in determining an appropriate LRE has become a significant obstacle to educating students with disabilities. Therefore, this paper examines a number of court cases that have challenged school districts to provide the LRE for students with disabilities and have handed down decisions that define specific standards that are useful for school teams to implement the mandate of the LRE. Through the synthesis of these cases, the author provides criteria for determining the LRE for students with disabilities that could enhance inclusive education for these students. Finally, the author suggests that legislators should reconsider the language of LRE, make it more specific regarding the determination of LRE, and apply the standards defined in these cases and others to state a clear formula for developing LRE that could be utilised in school districts throughout the country.     

Effective special teacher characteristics: perceptions of preschool special educators in Greece

The aim of the present study was to evaluate six characteristics of effective special pre‐school teachers, similar to those used in the relevant literature. The study participants were all special teachers (n = 226), serving in Greek state and community pre‐primary educational institutions (i.e. kindergartens and day nurseries) for children with learning disabilities. Data were collected through a two‐part questionnaire sent to the targeted special teachers (response rate 100%) and through focused group discussion with teachers. Three characteristics emerged as salient features of an effective teacher: love for the children; competent pre‐service training and ongoing professional development; and professionalism and commitment. The remaining three characteristics assessed (i.e. effective communication skills, a well‐rounded personality, and instructional ability) were also judged to be essential. Based on each characteristic’s analysis, the paper discusses the implications of pre‐service and in‐service training for special teachers.     

Dispositions Toward Families and Family Involvement: Supporting Preservice Teacher Development

This article highlights the importance of nurturing preservice teachers as they develop the dispositions essential to establish empowering relationships with children’s families. The authors identify and describe several key dispositions necessary for working with families and offer suggestions for ways that these elements might be integrated into early childhood teacher preparation programs.     

Defining Meaningful Literacy: Findings from a Socially-oriented Literacy Intervention for Adults with Developmental Disabilities

The current study is a qualitative analysis of the results of a literacy skills intervention with a group comprising of three individuals with Down syndrome and three individuals with other developmental disabilities. The intervention was developed to address the concern that individuals in this population are often only exposed to functional literacy experiences (i.e. those building only literacy skills required for daily functioning and survival), at the expense of more enriched experiences that engage personal meaning. As a result, it included both reading and writing activities designed to invite personal investment in literacy experiences. In this vein, the data collected derives primarily from the participant’s own writing, and has been supplemented with other qualitative measures (e.g. parental questionnaires, participant focus group responses, field notes). The current article discusses the impact and implications of this intervention for future literacy interventions of this kind, in terms of the themes, which emerged from these data; with a particular emphasis on the participants’ own experiences.     

Factors related to teachers' attitudes towards the inclusive education of students with severe intellectual disabilities in Riyadh,Saudi

In Saudi Arabia, the majority of students with severe intellectual disabilities are still educated in special schools that do not meet their unique needs for interaction with their typically developing peers in public schools settings where they could improve social, communication and academic skills. One of the most significant obstacles to inclusion of this group of students is teachers' perspectives regarding inclusive education for this category of students. As a result, this study examined teachers' perspectives regarding the inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities using a quantitative approach. In addition, this study also examined the relationship between teachers' perspectives regarding the inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities and current teaching position, training, teacher's levels of education, previous teaching experience with any kind of disabilities in inclusive settings, grade level being taught, teacher's gender and whether they have a family member with a disability. Three hundred and three teachers responded to the Opinions Relative to inclusion of Students with Disabilities (ORI: Arabic version) survey, including 161 males and 139 females, and three non‐specified gender. A two‐way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), a one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and an independent t‐test were used to answer the research questions. The findings of the study indicate that teachers have slightly negative perspectives towards the inclusive education of students with severe intellectual disabilities. Significant factors regarding teachers' perspectives towards the inclusion of this group of students included their current teaching position, previous teaching experience with students who had any kind of disability in inclusive settings and the teacher's gender.     

Teacher knowledge: a complex tapestry

Teachers need to know a great deal, in many areas and in multiple ways. Teacher knowledge is a complex tapestry, and teachers must successfully weave the multiple threads. In this article, I present a conceptualisation of teacher knowledge that provides a framework for describing the complexity of teacher knowledge. The framework describes three ways of knowing: “knowing how,” “knowing why,” and “knowing what” and then applies these three knowledge discourses across six domains of teacher knowledge. The framework was developed from a study of 14 teachers in their first year of teaching, and in this article the framework is applied to their experiences to illustrate specific gaps in their teacher knowledge. It is proposed that this conceptualisation of teacher knowledge allows those involved in teacher education and induction to more clearly identify professional learning needs and develop their programmes with specificity.     

Constructing a Sense of Purpose and a Professional Teaching Identity: Experiences of Teacher Candidates with Disabilities

Abstract

Using grounded theory, we examined the ways in which undergraduate teacher candidates with disabilities developed a sense of purpose and constructed professional identities. Our findings suggest K-12 experiences with advocacy as well as exclusionary school experiences influenced their emerging professional identities. Resistance to a deficit view of disability was central to teachers’ professional identities and influenced their desire to become “change agents” in their future professions. We describe collegiate experiences that affirmed or presented roadblocks to their career path.     

“Too many theories and not enough instruction”: perceptions of preservice teacher preparation for literacy teaching in Australian schools

In this paper, we describe part of an Australian national research project that aimed to find out how well prepared beginning teachers are to teach literacy. A majority of beginning teachers participating in a series of national surveys and focus group meetings were confident about their personal literacy skills, their conceptual understandings of literacy, their understanding of curriculum documents and assessment strategies and their broad preparation to teach. Fewer beginning teachers were confident about their capacity to teach specific aspects of literacy such as viewing, spelling, grammar and phonics, or about their capacity to meet the challenges of student diversity. Senior staff working with beginning teachers were generally sceptical about the quality of teacher preparation for teaching literacy and were less confident than the beginning teachers about personal literacy skills. We discuss these findings in relation to the relative importance placed on particular substantive and structural issues by the study participants and in terms of previous findings.     

Changes in Self-efficacy of Prospective Special and General Education Teachers: Implication for inclusive education

The impact of three variables on the self-efficacy of 992 general and special education preservice teachers was examined. These variables were years of preservice education, experience with children with special educational needs, and training in inclusion or exceptional education. All participants responded to a teacher self-efficacy scale that measured four factors. Findings revealed a main effect for years of preservice education and for major of the academic degree. The main effect for years of preservice education was found only for efficacy for social relations. The main effect for degree major revealed that special education majors had significantly higher scores than regular education majors, on all four factors. A significant main effect for experience and major was also found. Students with much and some experience had significantly higher scores than students with no experience on two factors. Intensity of training was associated with self-efficacy. Students with much and some training had significantly higher scores than students with no training on all four factors. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

高校大学生信息素养教育模式探析

从分析信息素养的内涵入手,论述了信息素养教育模式的理论基础,探讨了大学生信息素养教育模式的实现途径。     

Preparing new teachers for inclusive schools and classrooms

The policy of including pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools and classes is now firmly established in many jurisdictions worldwide. Successful implementation of such policy depends largely on teachers having the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to make it work. This poses a considerable challenge for both teachers and those responsible for Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This article presents the results of a study investigating current Northern Ireland practitioners' perceptions of their initial ITE relative to SEN. The major question under investigation was whether they felt that their ITE prepared them to be effective teachers in inclusive settings. Findings confirm research in other jurisdictions that teachers feel unprepared for inclusion. Emerging from this are the participants' recommendations for the content and delivery of SEN courses in ITE. Their recommended model of SEN delivery is a combination of ‘permeation’ plus a ‘stand alone’ course with the focus on student characteristics, behaviour management, assessment and evaluation, and SEN legislation.