Professional Development for Teachers Working with International Students

The commercialisation of education and the massive recruitment of international students across different vocational education and training (VET) systems including the US, UK, Canada and Australia have led to significant changes in the VET teaching and learning landscape. This situation compels the VET sector to design and develop new professional development programs to support the immediate and changing needs of teachers working with the diverse international student cohort. However, to date, teacher professional development in response to the growing population of international students has not been an explicit focus of empirical study and theoretical conceptualisation in VET research. This study responds to this paucity. It draws on a broader three-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council (2014–2017) that involves fieldwork, participation in and observation of staff professional development activities and interviews with 102 VET staff in Australia. It uses positioning theory as a conceptual framework to examine how VET teachers position themselves and their professional development needs in response to international students. The results call for a critical need to re-examine the focus of the current professional development programs offered for VET teachers. The current context requires teacher professional development in international VET to focus on developing teachers’ capabilities to re-examine their pedagogical beliefs and practices and to understand international students’ various needs and cultural backgrounds. The study also stresses the importance of ongoing professional learning to equip teachers with the skills and knowledge to appropriate their pedagogical practices in response to the critical need to prepare all students for the intercultural labour market and to use students’ diversity as a resource for teaching and learning.     

浅谈高中英语教学中教法与学法的统一

教学方法是教法和学法的辩证统一。教法与学法相互制约与联系,两者重在学法,并可相互转化。要提高教学质量,既要重视教法又要重视学法。然而长期以来,受传统教学观念“教师中心论”的影响,我国教学改革的重点过分集中在教师的教法和教学观念的更新和变革方面,学校和教师将太多的注意力放在教法方面,忽视对学法的研究和指导,从而造戍教法和学法脱节,教学质量达不到预期效果。要扭转这种教法与学法脱节的局面,师生就要在教法与学法问题上形成良性互动。教师要让学生了解教法,引导和指导学生探索相应学法,充分发挥学生的主体性,达成教法与学法的统一,从而促进教学。     

职前教师教育中教育技术能力体系及其建构

教育技术能力是教师专业素质的重要组成部分,职前教师教育中一般通过开设《现代教育技术》课程来培养师范生的教育技术能力,但文献调研、问卷调查、实地考察与访谈都显示：师范生的教育技术能力养成状况欠佳.在终身学习视野下,教师职前教育应依据基础教育的实际需求、师范生成长的规律以及高校人才培养的特点,建构教师教育技术能力体系,培养师范生的教育技术能力.职前教师教育中教育技术能力体系由信息技术基础能力、教学软件制作能力、教学软件运用能力、技术与课程整合能力、技术支持专业发展能力递进式构成.教育技术能力体系可以通过系列课程平台和系列课外学习活动来建构,针对这些课程和学习活动还需提供配套技术平台支持.     

Implementation and evaluation of a student-centered learning unit: A case study

The purpose of this case study was to explore the issues involved in implementing a technology-enhanced student-centered unit in order to provide recommendations to improve and enhance these types of learning activities. Specifically, the study examined problems students encountered in completing the unit activities, problems the teacher encountered in facilitating the delivery of the unit to her students, and strategies to improve and enhance these types of learning activities. One teacher and the 21 students in her intact United States history class participated in the study. The central unit problem required students to determine the strategies that should be pursued in 1968 to continue the struggle for a more just, equal United States society. Students worked in teams to gather data from an electronic database of primary- and secondary-source materials, and use the data to develop solutions to the unit problem. Results of this study suggest that a variety of factors impact the success or failure of student-centered activities, including student orientation to the unit problem, student collaboration, teacher management strategies, and student accountability mechanisms. These results also provide insight into how the design of these types of activities can be improved. Perhaps the most important considerations that need additional attention are the additional aids required by teachers as they struggle to implement these types of activities in their classrooms.     

Transforming a Traditional Inquiry-Based Science Unit into a STEM Unit for Elementary Pre-service Teachers: A View from the Trenches

The need to prepare students with twenty-first-century skills through STEM-related teaching is strong, especially at the elementary level. However, most teacher education preparation programs do not focus on STEM education. In an attempt to provide an exemplary model of a STEM unit, we used a rapid prototyping approach to transform an inquiry-based unit on moon phases into one that integrated technology in a meaningful manner to develop technological literacy and scientific concepts for pre-service teachers (PSTs). Using qualitative case study methodology, we describe lessons learned related to the development and implementation of a STEM unit in an undergraduate elementary methods course, focusing on the impact the inquiry model had on PSTs’ perceptions of inquiry-based science instruction and how the integration of technology impacted their learning experience. Using field notes and survey data, we uncovered three overarching themes. First, we found that PSTs held absolutist beliefs and had a need for instruction on inquiry-based learning and teaching. Second, we determined that explicit examples of effective and ineffective technology use are needed to help PSTs develop an understanding of meaningful technology integration. Finally, the rapid prototyping approach resulted in a successful modification of the unit, but caused the usability of our digital instructional materials to suffer. Our findings suggest that while inquiry-based STEM units can be implemented in existing programs, creating and testing these prototypes requires significant effort to meet PSTs’ learning needs, and that iterating designs is essential to successful implementation.     

Improving mathematics teaching and learning experiences for hard of hearing students with wireless technology-enhanced classrooms

Hard of hearing students usually face more difficulties at school than other students. A classroom environment with wireless technology was implemented to explore whether wireless technology could enhance mathematics learning and teaching activities for a hearing teacher and her 7 hard of hearing students in a Taiwan junior high school. Experiments showed that the highly interactive communication through the wireless network increased student participation in learning activities. Students demonstrated more responses to the teacher and fewer distraction behaviors. Fewer mistakes were made in in-class course work because Tablet PCs provided students scaffolds. Students stated that the environment with wireless technology was desirable and said that they hoped to continue using the environment to learn mathematics.     

基于“互联网+”的信息技术教学模式创新研究

本研究基于"互联网+"背景下进行了教学模式的创新实践工作:在调查了解学生对信息技术课程的需求后,进行了相关研究准备工作,并围绕课程资源设计、教学实施、教学评价、校本文化支持等开展教学模式探索。然后对基于"互联网+"的信息技术教学成效进行了探讨:形成了受到师生认可的基于慕课平台(SPOC)的信息技术教学模式;丰富了学生的个性化学习空间;教师的教学方式真正得到转变。     

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.     

Student evaluation surveys: anonymous comments that offend or are unprofessional

Student comments are routinely collected in university evaluation surveys for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. Whilst student comments provide valuable insights into their experiences, there is limited published research reporting the extent to which student comments are offensive and professional. The aim of this study was to investigate the number of student comments that were identified as being offensive or unprofessional in an online unit evaluation survey collected in a semester in 2010 from an Australian university. One person read 30,684 comments taken from 17,855 surveys and identified comments considered to be abusive or unprofessional. Comments were categorised as either abusive or unprofessional and by the intended target (that is, teacher, unit, resource). Thirteen abusive comments (0.04 % of the sample) were identified. Five abusive comments were directed at the teacher and eight were targeted at teaching and learning experiences. Forty-six comments (0.15 % of the sample) were identified as unprofessional. Of these, seven comments were directed at the teacher and 34 were about units. This suggests that the vast majority of students do not abuse the privilege of giving anonymous feedback. Strategies identified in this paper to educate students and give appropriate feedback can be adopted by universities to minimise offensive comments. Universities can educate students and teachers in appropriate and professional ways of working together, in providing professional feedback to improve the student experience in teaching and learning and to support and mentor teachers in their academic careers.     

The Negotiated Project Approach: Project-Based Learning without Leaving the Standards Behind

The purpose this study was to explore how a veteran first-grade teacher collaboratively negotiated the implementation of a project with her students while, at the same time, addressed grade-level standards. Researchers investigated the teacher’s strategies for integrating the district’s standards into project topics, investigative activities, and final presentations. They also examined the teacher’s strategies for promoting students’ participation in project planning and independent problem-solving. Data sources included field notes, teacher interviews, videotaped observations, and transcribed teacher, and student interviews. As an extension to teacher-directed approaches to implementing the project approach, the results of this study revealed a collaborative approach to implementing projects that allowed the teacher and the students to work together for project planning and learning. The teacher felt successful with meeting grade level learning needs, and the students were given the opportunity to fuel their learning by expressing their natural interests and curiosities, and become problem solvers.     

Differences in pedagogical understanding among student–teachers in a four-year initial teacher education programme

As teacher educators, preparing student–teachers who are able to address diverse student needs is our main concern. It has been suggested in the literature that teachers who are adaptive to students’ needs are those who possess adequate pedagogical content knowledge or pedagogical understanding. However, it is not uncommon for teacher educators to find student–teachers with diverse pedagogical understandings even at the point of graduation from the teacher education programme. This paper aims to explain and analyse the development of pedagogical understanding among student–teachers in an initial teacher education programme. The findings are drawn from a study conducted at the Hong Kong Institute of Education where in-depth interviews were carried out during the four-year programme. The findings from the three selected cases provide an explanation for why some individual student–teachers show continuous development, whereas others remain confused in their pedagogical understanding throughout the teacher education programme. While acknowledging individual differences in pedagogical understanding, we attempt to explain such differences by investigating the relationship between different dimensions of the student–teachers’ learning such as the integration of pedagogical understanding with the teaching contexts, integration of feedback from lecturers and supporting teachers, and their focus of concern. The findings reveal that the three cases demonstrate different levels of pedagogical understanding and possess varying ‘senses of agency’. Of the three cases, the first one, Peggy has the strongest sense of agency. Despite influences related to classroom management, diverse learning ability among pupils, and the teaching methods which pupils were accustomed to previously, she actively introduced rhythmic movements into her lessons, developed pupils’ ability to learn gradually and achieved an impact on pupils’ learning which was also recognized by her supporting teacher. The analysis suggests that the second case, Lilian has a weaker sense of agency as she was severely limited by influences in the teaching context in her first teaching practice and resorted to teacher-centered teaching strategies. She improved later on in the programme and started to plan her own learning, drawing on the feedback she received as well as learning from other taught modules, from feedback from various sources, and from her pupils’ responses to her teaching and her own evaluation of her teaching. The third case, Stephanie remained confused throughout the programme and struggled with the implementation of student-centered teaching strategies. The ability to practice one’s own convictions and demonstrate an active sense of agency distinguishes the student–teacher who achieves better pedagogical understanding. Drawing on the findings, the paper concludes that it is crucial for teacher educators to identify ways to nurture a sense of agency among student–teachers. Implications for teacher education programmes are discussed, including providing opportunities for student–teachers to be able to articulate and integrate their pedagogical understandings, as well as negotiate how to accomplish their learning and teaching targets despite complex classroom situations.     

论基于《标准》的职前教师专业能力形成机理

职前教师的专业能力培养是高等师范教育的基本任务。教师专业能力具有职业的特殊性,以解决教育教学实际问题为目标导向。《中学教师专业标准（试行）》把教师专业能力划分为六大领域,各领域之间具有相互支撑、相互促进的关系。作为职前教师的师范生需要发挥自身主体性,积极参与学习、实践和反思,指导教师需要为师范生提供支持,为其创设有利于各领域能力成长的学习环境。师范生六大领域专业能力的形成机理各有特点,需要师范生和教师的协同配合。     

TEACHING AND LEARNING ABOUT MATTER IN GRADE 6 CLASSROOMS: A CONCEPTUAL CHANGE APPROACH

The purpose of this study was to enhance the teaching and learning of matter and its properties for grade 6 students. The development of a conceptual change approach instructional unit was undertaken for this purpose. Pre- and post-concept surveys, classroom observations, and student and teacher interviews were used to collect data. The teaching activities not only challenged and encouraged students’ conceptual change but also indicated that teachers needed to develop their content knowledge and teaching strategies. The participants developed more scientific conceptions and were able to apply these in appropriate contexts. This study illustrates how a conceptual change approach can be accomplished in the Thai context.     

Near‐peer teaching in anatomy: An approach for deeper learning

Peer teaching has been recognized as a valuable and effective approach for learning and has been incorporated into medical, dental, and healthcare courses using a variety of approaches. The success of peer teaching is thought to be related to the ability of peer tutors and tutees to communicate more effectively, thereby improving the learning environment. Near‐peer teaching involves more experienced students acting as tutors who are ideally placed to pass on their knowledge and experience. The advantage of using near‐peer teachers is the opportunity for the teacher to reinforce and expand their own learning and develop essential teaching skills. This study describes the design and implementation of a program for fourth year medical students to teach anatomy to first‐ and second‐year medical students and evaluates the perceptions of the near‐peer teachers on the usefulness of the program, particularly in relation to their own learning. Feedback from participants suggests that the program fulfills its aims of providing an effective environment for developing deeper learning in anatomy through teaching. Participants recognize that the program also equips them with more advanced teaching skills that will be required as they move nearer toward taking on supervisory and teaching duties. The program has also provided the school with an additional valuable and appropriate resource for teaching anatomy to first‐ and second‐year students, who themselves view the inclusion of near‐peer teachers as a positive element in their learning. Anat Sci Educ 2:227–233, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

随班就读体育教育综述

本文通过对随班就读体育教育相关法律规定、意义及目的、体育教学、师资培养等方面的综述与分析,建议完善相关的法律与法规,加强目前随班就读体育教育在职师资的培训,加强资源的支持,建立协作式的研讨组织机构,以保证随班就读学生能够真正跟班上体育课,推动随班就读体育教育的发展。     

聋哑学生的可视化教学研究

对于聋哑学生而言,有效使用视觉信息,可以弥补自身不足,促进知识学习。根据聋哑学生的认知特点,开展聋哑学生可视化教学,利用视觉语言将教学内容以直观的方式表达出来,可以提高聋哑学生的学习效率和效果。然而,目前的聋哑学生可视化教学多凭借个人教学经验,没有将教学设计思想融入进去。聋哑学生可视化教学设计中,需要阐释可视化教学的主要功能,构建可视化教学的基本流程,提出可视化教学的实施策略,分析可视化教学的资源支持。聋哑学生可视化教学需要在分析教学问题的基础上,针对聋哑学生认知特征开展实施,应用信息处理方法分析教学关系,通过针对性开发资源工具予以支持。     

日本全纳教育的实施体系、改革方向及面临的问题

日本全纳教育的特有形式为＂特殊需要教育＂,它的实施体系包括普通班、特殊需要教育班、资源教室、特殊需要教育学校及访问教育。日本政府从法律上、财政上对全纳教育大力支持,日本学校从特殊需要资源教室的设立、特殊需要教育学校功能的扩展、加强联合活动与学习等方面进行改革以迈向全纳教育。当前日本全纳教育还面临着观念、师资培养以及高年级学生回流等问题。     

A Self-Study of the Role of Technology in Promoting Reflection and Inquiry-Based Science Teaching

   This self-study examined the 1st-year science teacher educator's integration of instructional technology into a science methods course and modeled the reflective practice of her own teaching. Elementary science methods students participated in a series of inquiry-based activities that utilized various instructional technologies. Data sources included daily reflections, formative assessments, concern-based surveys, and class assignments. Findings from this self-study revealed that the teacher educator's own reflections and practical inquiry influenced and paralleled her students’ development of learning how to teach scientific inquiry using instructional technology. Results suggest that inviting preservice teachers into reflective practice and modeling for them the development of professional practical knowledge allow them to address the uncertainties in their own learning about using technology for inquiry-based science teaching.