Collaborative action research between schools,a continuing professional development centre for teachers and the university: a case study in Spain

This article describes a collaborative action research project developed over the course of the 2011/12 academic year in the Faculty of Education at Cordoba University (Spain). The RIECU school–continuing professional development centre for teachers–university learning network is part of this research process. The aim is to create and consolidate a community of practice made up of continuing professional development advisers to teachers, infant education teachers, university students who are training to become infant education teachers and university teaching staff. The most relevant findings, which respond to the questions raised, are: the action research conducted indicates that teamwork between teacher, adviser, researcher and university student is an effective strategy to facilitate the acquisition of professional competences among student teachers; and student-teachers involved in the case study have evolved in their conception and approach to childhood and have had the opportunity to learn by modelling the professional conduct of their mentor teachers.     

Identifying Canadian teacher candidates' needs for training in the use of inclusive classroom assessment

To identify teacher candidates' needs for training in inclusive classroom assessment, the present study investigated teacher candidates' beliefs about inclusive classroom assessments for all students educated in regular classrooms, including those with special needs and English language learners. An innovative theoretical assessment model, consisting of four concepts of assessment for, as, of learning as well as accommodations and modifications, was built to compare with questionnaire responses from a group of Canadian teacher candidates (n?=?295). Our data yielded five factors: (1) beliefs about accommodations and modifications for students with diverse needs (ACC), (2) assessment of learning, (3) assessment as learning, (4) misconceptions of inclusive assessment, and (5) negative beliefs about assessment for learning (NAFL). Contrary to expectations, assessment concepts are not fully interrelated with each other in teacher candidates' belief systems. In addition, participating teacher candidates may have some misconceptions about inclusive assessments given that they possessed positive beliefs towards them. The implications for teacher education programmes and professional development were also discussed in this study.     

Becoming animated when teaching physics,crafts and drama together: a multidisciplinary course for student-teachers

This article examines a physics course for pre-service primary teachers in which physics, crafts and drama were taught together by connecting the standpoints of crafts and drama. The study was carried out by three university educators from these disciplines during an advanced optional course for student-teachers at the University of Helsinki in Finland. This article discusses the impact of the multidisciplinary teaching approach on the participants’ learning outcomes. First, the article explains the multidisciplinary teaching model, an educational energy game that the student-teachers designed as part of the course. Second, it describes the learning that emerged from the student-teachers’ learning process, including (1) learning skills, (2) new pedagogic thinking and (3) a change of attitude towards integrative teaching. Finally, the analysis shows the strength of sociocultural animation, which is traced through a path of becoming animated.     

Infusing Technology into the Elementary Classroom

Abstract

A project to infuse technology into elementary school and university classrooms was implemented in two Professional Development Schools (PDS). The ultimate goal of Project PICT (Pre-service Infusion of Computer Technology) was to impact the learning and achievement of elementary students by equipping pre-service teachers with the necessary skills to fully utilize modern technology in their future classrooms. As such, teams of elementary and pre-service teachers, teacher educators, and university faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences received technology training and planned for infusion during the initial phase of the project. After four months of training, teams implemented infusion plans in their classrooms and produced artifacts which can be seen at the project's Web site: http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/edhd/LPS/EDFI/PICT. The article discusses the project and its effects on one PDS. It describes specific activities implemented and initial impacts upon elementary and university classrooms. It also addresses strengths and drawbacks of technology infusion through this model.     

Learning from the Past: An account of an oral history project for students in an early childhood teacher education program

Engagement of student-teachers with the community of practice they are entering is central to the formation of their identity as an educator. This paper outlines a teaching and research project that enabled early childhood student-teachers to gain insights into the field through interviewing past teachers and reflecting on their practices. In the process, students became aware of the complexities of their chosen profession, alternative teaching practices and different ways of relating with families. Their responses indicated that the experience had an impact on their identity with the profession, their learning about the nature of history and their understanding of research processes.     

Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen und Pädagogisches Professionswissen im Verlauf des Lehramtsstudiums

Teacher Self-Efficacy and General Pedagogical Knowledge During Teacher Education. The present study investigates how teacher self-efficacy beliefs develop during teacher education and how self-efficacy beliefs and general pedagogical knowledge of student-teachers are related. In a cross-sectional study, 257 student-teachers were investigated (173 first year students, 27 advanced students, 35 examination candidates, 19 preservice teachers). The data show that self-efficacy beliefs for the subscales classroom management and assessment increase between the start and the end of training (preservice teachers). Concerning diagnostic competency, self-efficacy beliefs do not change during studies and even decrease for the preservice teachers. For the subscales communication and conflicts as well as coping little difference is noticeable. Professional knowledge, in contrast, increases during studies. Self-efficacy beliefs for classroom management and assessment are linked to professional knowledge. Finally, the usefulness of the multidimensional measuring of self-efficacy beliefs is discussed and implications for future research approaches are presented.     

Student perceptions of learning environment: disciplinary program versus general education classrooms

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of the learning environment in their program major and general education classrooms. The participants were 870 undergraduate students majoring in engineering, fine arts, education, economics and nursing programs at a university in Thailand. We found significant differences in the perceptions of the classroom learning environment across various disciplines. Engineering and economics students perceived the learning environment in general education classrooms as more cooperative than the learning environment in program major classrooms. Fine arts and nursing students perceived greater involvement among students in the program major classrooms than in the general education classrooms. Our findings contribute to the body of research on inter-disciplinary differences in classroom learning environments in universities and the ways in which these differences may impact student learning outcomes.     

Exploring learning culture in Finnish and South Korean classrooms

The authors aimed to investigate learning culture in classrooms at schools to understand education in Finland and South Korea. For this, Finnish and South Korean university students made observations on classrooms in partner countries and reflected on both education systems based on their own previous experiences (2011–2014). Afterwards, researchers from both countries categorized and thematized the experiences of the participants, and interpreted the main themes to figure out the learning culture in Finland and South Korea. As a result, the learning culture in both countries were characterized into six themes: teacher's autonomy in teaching, authenticity in learning, relationships between teachers and students, learning assessment, student engagement, and student well-being. Noteworthy features of high-performing education were recognized through the observation on the learning culture in both countries.     

Technology 2000

Abstract

This article describes a collaborative university-school district project for improving teaching and learning by using state-of-the-art educational technologies. The work resulted in the simultaneous improvement of P-12 education and teacher education. The article illustrates some of the important outcomes of a project known as Technology 2000, a collaborative effort between a university, a school district, and a business partner. Through using appropriate educational technologies, pre-service teachers, in cooperation with their supervising teachers in five classrooms at two school sites, engaged in the collaborative alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment to facilitate student achievement. The participants believe that the outcomes of this educational technology project have important implications for improving teaching and learning in other schools and teacher education settings.     

大众化过程中大学教学理念的变革

在高等教育大众化过程中,由于招生规模扩大带来高等教育精英色彩消褪,大学的办学理念、师生关系、大学与社会的关系,以及大学与大学之间的关系,都发生了一系列变化,大学教学理念也正在发生着深刻变革。如从单纯的高深学问向高深学问与高深技能并重扩展,从单纯的知识学习向复合型学习转变,学术旨趣与职业取向渐趋融合,以及"有教有类,各类分享"教学理念的形成等。为保障我国高等教育大众化的健康发展,积极稳妥地推进大学教学理念变革具有重要的现实意义。     

“I experienced freedom within the frame of my own narrative”: The contribution of psychodrama techniques to experiential learning in teacher training

To prepare Dutch students in education for critical situations in their professional life as a teacher, part of their training is to ask them to reflect upon their own experiences in their life as a child, a pupil and a student – experiences of crucial moments or with significant others which are still of the utmost importance to them. This article underlines the significance of so-called “experiential learning” in student career counselling. In this context, experiential learning is understood as an extension of in-depth reflection on critical incidents and critical persons in the biography of pre-service teachers. This reflection – customary and effective in Dutch teacher training – is a verbal process. However, this technique does not seem to be adequate for many students from other cultural backgrounds (e.g. second-generation descendants of migrant workers). By consequence, some of these students are not able to take newly offered information on board, but remain imprisoned in their own culture-related narrative, their own ethnic society of mind. Research has shown that for these students, psychodrama techniques, focusing on non-verbal and playful aspects of reflection, seem to be more suitable. The author of this article presents a sample case from a pilot study which used one of the psychodrama techniques called the empty chair. The findings of the pilot study are promising in the sense that experiencing different I-positions does seem to help students from other cultural backgrounds to develop agency in responding to hitherto unfamiliar and confusing situations.     

Impacts of Pre-Service Training and Coaching on Kindergarten Quality and Student Learning Outcomes in Ghana

Using a randomized-control trial, this study evaluates a program designed to support Ghanaian kindergarten student-teachers during pre-service training through mentorship and in-classroom training. Several potential barriers to improved teaching quality and learning outcomes are examined. Findings show that the program improved knowledge and implementation of the national curriculum for individuals both when they were student-teachers and, the following year, when they became newly qualified teachers (NQTs). There were mixed impacts on professional well-being, increasing personal accomplishment and motivation but decreasing job satisfaction for NQTs. There were mixed impacts on teaching quality, with increases in child-led learning but decreases in some other aspects of quality. There were no impacts on NQTs’ student learning outcomes. The findings highlight system level challenges with both the posting of NQTs and the absence of support in their first teaching year. Implications for global early childhood education policy and teacher education are discussed.     

Effect of gender differences on 3-on-3 basketball games taught in a mobile flipped classroom

ABSTRACT

Physical education emphasizes learning sports skills, which is why it is usually conducted in a face-to-face manner. Instructors focus on explaining rules and demonstrating moves, which the learners are required to repeat and imitate. Flipped classrooms have become a trend; thus, the present study investigated their influence on physical education. A mobile application for novice and advanced basketball players was developed and tested in a course teaching 3-on-3 basketball and various teaching methods were implemented to test for the effects of gender differences on learning outcome. The participants were students enrolled in the aforementioned course in a university in central Taiwan. 326 participants were included in the study, of whom 238 were male and 88 were female. The duration of the experiment was 5 weeks between May and June 2017, during which the correctness of moves, maneuverability, teamwork, sense of balance, and adaptability of the participants were evaluated and graded as their learning outcome. The research team observed the participants each week to gather empirical data for analysis. The results indicate that a mobile flipped classroom is the optimal teaching strategy, followed by projecting teaching; therefore, a mobile flipped classroom is the recommended approach to be integrated into physical education.     

老年大学的“三个课堂”存在的问题及对策

文章从老年人到老年大学学习的学习目标、老年人学习的要求及老年教育的发展,阐述了＂三个课堂＂产生的过程。分析了当前＂三个课堂＂存在的问题及其解决这些问题的对策。     

Authentic,dialogical knowledge construction: a blended and mobile teacher education programme

Background: Knowledge construction and technology have been identified as critical for an understanding of the future of teacher education. Knowledge is discovered, applied and created collaboratively from authentic starting points. Today’s new mobile and blended learning environments create increased opportunities for such processes, including learner-centred approaches, authenticity and dialogical knowledge construction. However, teaching still requires appropriate learning design and structuring. The presented study explored, and was designed and implemented, using the ‘Dialogical Authentic Netlearning Activity’ (DIANA) pedagogical model, which is seen as one of the learning designing models for existing digital, open and mobile learning environments.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and opportunities inherent in the adoption of the DIANA model and to examine student-teachers’ reflections concerning authentic and dialogical knowledge construction. The focus is on the learning process.

Sample: Participants were 63 student-teachers who were following the study module ‘Networks in Vocational Education’ at the School of Professional Teacher Education, in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Design and methods: This qualitative study uses a deductive content analysis to discern relationships between the data and the existing theory. The data for this study were drawn from an online questionnaire and participants’ self-reflective accounts.

Findings: The results indicate that achieving deep-oriented learning through dialogical actions is the most challenging part of using the DIANA model. Some of the students had difficulty understanding the concept of ‘authenticity’.

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest enhancing learner-centred scaffolding and guidance, particularly at the outset of the learning process. In addition, methods that develop dialogical skills and competences ought to be integrated into teacher education as extensively as possible, in order to make collaborative work and problem-solving genuinely dialogical and equal.     

Impact of professional development on teacher practice: Uncovering connections

An Inquiry Learning Partnership (ILP) for professional development (PD) was formed between a university, science centre, and two urban school districts to offer 4–6th grade teachers specific science content and pedagogical techniques intended to integrate inquiry-based instruction in elementary classrooms. From pre/post content exams, PD surveys, focus group, and assessment data, teachers increased their science content knowledge, reported implementing inquiry practices in their classrooms and their students experienced modest gains on 5th grade standardized science achievement exams. While some teachers were transferring knowledge/skills gained in professional development to their classrooms, others encountered barriers to implementing PD. These obstacles included limited resources, time constraints, mandated curriculum pacing, language learning, and classroom management issues. Strategies to mitigate these barriers in order to maximize the impact of professional development need to be a priority in professional development reform.     

Using a video annotation tool to enhance student-teachers’ reflective practices and communication competence in consultation practices through a collaborative learning community

This study investigated how peer comments made using a video annotation tool (VAT) through an online learning community improved student-teachers’ level of reflective thinking and communication competence throughout the simulated (i.e., role-play) context of consultation practice. Eighty student-teachers from two classes of the course “Comprehensive School Guidance” participated in this study, and all recorded two videos for their tripartite practice on parent consultation for self-evaluation and peer comment. Forty student-teachers were in the comparison class and provided general comments to their peers on the learning platform, while those in the experimental class used the VAT on the learning platform to provide specific comments to their peers. Two post-practice online questionnaires and reflective journal entries, which aimed to measure communication competence and reflective thinking ability, were administered to the student-teachers after the first and second consultation practice. The reflective journal entries were segmented into units of analysis that were scored using a 4-level model of reflective thinking (from 1 to 4), with a higher score indicating demonstration of a higher level of reflective thinking for that particular segment. Both the number of reflective notes made and the average level of reflective thinking in student-teachers’ journal entries were indicators of reflective thinking ability. Two mixed ANOVAs were conducted to examine whether student-teachers in the experimental (VAT) class improved their reflective thinking ability and communication competence more significantly than those in the comparison (non-VAT) class. The results showed that student-teachers in both the VAT and non-VAT classes had statistically higher scores for communication competence and reflective thinking in the second role-play practice. Student-teachers with the support of VAT, in comparison to those without, significantly improved their average reflective thinking ability. Focus group interviews were also conducted to investigate how VAT could support student-teachers’ learning process and to learn their perceptions of the strengths and limitations of the VAT. The results indicated that the VAT could enhance student-teachers’ learning by reducing communication barriers created by the tendency to avoid direct observations of peers’ weaknesses, enhancing reflection-in-action during practice, and contextualizing written comments by referring to specific video segments. However, student-teachers felt that the VAT should also allow users to draw on the video screens.

     

Primary school puberty/sexuality education: student-teachers' past learning,present professional education,and intention to teach these subjects

Primary school teachers are often tasked with puberty/sexuality education for students who are undergoing sexual maturation at ever-earlier ages. This study explores the changing trajectories of the pre-service learning and teaching of primary school puberty/sexuality education at an urban university, including student-teachers' childhood learning, professional pre-service studies, and technological educational future. Biographical narratives and a theoretically based conceptual and diagnostic framework are used to analyse the views of fourth-year Bachelor of Education student-teachers about their own primary school puberty/sexuality education, their present university professional education for teaching these subjects, and their intentionality to teach them to future Grade 6 school students. Results show that these student-teachers intend to replicate their own primary school learning experiences. Pre-service professional education appears to have failed to operationalise the contemporary learning and teaching of puberty/sexuality education that would allow a new generation of more effective knowledge and pedagogies to be implemented.