Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of effective inquiry instruction: are effective instruction and effective inquiry instruction essentially the same?

This multiple case study examined pre-service teachers perceptions of effective post-secondary instruction. Pre-service teachers were asked to write essays describing an effective teacher of their choice. Twenty-one essays were randomly selected. Data analysis involved open coding of each essay, content analysis of each essay using Anderson and Burns’ (Research in classrooms: The study of teachers, teaching, and instruction (1st ed.). Oxford, England; New York: Pergamon Press, 1989) empirically derived dimensions of instruction, and effect size analysis of student and teacher roles. Instructional components were identified that differentiate between effective inquiry instruction and effective instruction. Effective inquiry instruction was associated with more and different teacher and student roles, more activities as part of instruction, and more student small group discussion than was effective instruction.     

Student teachers’ perceptions of feedback as an aid to reflection for developing effective practice in the classroom

Since Schön’s influential work on reflective practice, reflection has been prioritised in teacher education programmes internationally. The research described in this paper examined the development of postgraduate student teachers’ reflective processes in their first school placement. Twenty-five students were asked to write an account of their evolution in an area of their teaching, and how they were supported to evaluate lessons and reflect on their practice. Subsequently, a sample was interviewed to explore themes arising from the essays. In describing their development of a reflective perspective, the students identified useful feedback from three main sources: mentors, peers and pupils. Although the research took place within a Scottish context, the different roles that feedback played in the development of reflection should be of interest to teacher educators and student teachers internationally, as it could be argued that beginning teachers in every country face similar issues relating to reflection.     

Rethinking Reflection: Teachers' Critiques

This article presents findings from a study conducted with a teacher focus group asked to read and discuss their responses to selected published teacher narratives of reflective practice. The teachers challenged features of practitioner reflection presented in several of the reading selections as not representative of how they experienced reflection in practice. In this study, the teachers' critiques were not viewed as anti-intellectual, lazy, or provincial. Rather, the researcher used reader response theory to frame the teachers' critiques as informed feedback that needs the inquiry and input of teacher educators. The findings invite consideration of the unintended consequences of these representations for practitioners and scholars, especially in an age of emphasis on standards and accountability.     

Prevalence and predictors of out‐of‐field teaching in the first five years

Many new science teachers are assigned to teach subjects in which they have not been prepared, a practice referred to as out‐of‐field (OOF) teaching. Teaching OOF has been shown to negatively influence instruction and constrain teachers’ development. In this study, we explored the extent to which new secondary science teachers were assigned OOF across their first 5 years. Analysis of this longitudinal data set indicated that these assignments were common. While new science teachers were assigned to teach a variety of subjects over their first 5 years of teaching, they were not assigned more or fewer OOF courses over time. Furthermore, results indicated that teachers in certain situations are more likely than others to be assigned to teach OOF. Even with federal legislation in the United States seeking to eliminate OOF teaching, a large portion of new secondary science teachers are assigned to teach science disciplines for which they are inadequately prepared. Based on the findings of this study, it is worth exploring policy avenues that eliminate OOF teaching. Policymakers, administrators, and teacher educators should seek to provide supports, such as science‐specific induction programs designed for new teachers who are assigned OOF, and science teacher educators should prepare prospective teachers to teach multiple science disciplines. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54:1197–1218, 2017     

Teachers’ Integration of Scientific and Engineering Practices in Primary Classrooms

The Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS) challenge primary teachers and students to work and think like scientists and engineers as they strive to understand complex concepts. Teachers and teacher educators can leverage what is already known about inquiry teaching as they plan instruction to help students meet the new standards. This cross-case analysis of a multiple case study examined teacher practices in the context of a semester-long professional development course for elementary teachers. We reviewed lessons and teacher reflections, examining how kindergarten and first grade teachers incorporated NGSS scientific and engineering practices during inquiry-based instruction. We found that most of the teachers worked with their students on asking questions; planning and carrying out investigations; analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking; and obtaining, evaluating and communicating information. Teachers faced challenges in supporting students in developing their own questions that could be investigated and using data collection strategies that aligned with students’ development of number sense concepts. Also, some teachers overemphasized the scientific method and lacked clarity in how they elicited and responded to student predictions. Discussion focuses on teacher supports that will be needed as states transition to NGSS.     

ESTIMATING THE RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, AND INVALIDITY OF ESSAY RATINGS

In an essay rating study multiple ratings may be obtained by having different raters judge essays or by having the same rater(s) repeat the judging of essays. An important question in the analysis of essay ratings is whether multiple ratings, however obtained, may be assumed to represent the same true scores. When different raters judge the same essays only once, it is impossible to answer this question. In this study 16 raters judged 105 essays on two occasions; hence, it was possible to test assumptions about true scores within the framework of linear structural equation models. It emerged that the ratings of a given rater on the two occasions represented the same true scores. However, the ratings of different raters did not represent the same true scores. The estimated intercorrelations of the true scores of different raters ranged from .415 to .910. Parameters of the best fitting model were used to compute coefficients of reliability, validity, and invalidity. The implications of these coefficients are discussed.     

What Does the No Child Left Behind Act Mean to Early Childhood Teacher Educators?: A Call for a Collective Professional Rejoinder

This article is a call to become more critically aware of the new law commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind Act, which was put into effect in 2002 in the United States. The article is also an invitation to early childhood educators worldwide to engage in a dialogue that raises several questions: (a) How does such legislation affect early childhood educators and teacher preparation programs?; (b) How might teacher educators react and respond to the new law as they continuously practice informed decision-making about teacher preparation that is socially responsible? In view of these questions, it is a hope that we can see the initiation of nationwide dialogue regarding the issue of the No Child Left Behind Act. Primarily, how does the new law affect teacher educators and teachers? It is inevitable for us to be united and politically informed to prevent further scrutiny of questionable politically and economically driven educational practices in the United States, not to mention “test-heavy” evidence-based education reform.     

‘It’s very much taken as an insult if I say anything’: do new educators have a right to speak their mind?

This article describes the challenges beginning teachers face in schooling contexts that have become increasingly subject to direct political intervention. To tell the story it focuses on the experiences of five teachers in their first year of teaching in an urban jurisdiction in Australia, examining the ways in which they taught literacy, and were required to teach literacy. Government-driven political agendas of national testing, teacher standards and performance pay were all gaining traction as they commenced their first year of teaching. The ways in which these new educators felt they were discouraged from voicing their own opinions about these issues are examined and the consequences of silencing new educators are considered. The article concludes with recommendations for teacher education programmes to better prepare teachers for the politics of teaching.     

Could Australia have its own teacher professional standards for teaching relationships and sexuality education?

In many countries, there are no professional standards determining attributes, praxis, effectiveness and evaluation for teachers of relationships and sexuality education in schools. However, in the USA, a new set of pre-service teacher preparation standards has been developed for sexuality education and health. Australia has a set of generic teacher professional standards, but none specifically designed for teachers of relationships and sexuality education. This study aims to explore the possible development of such specific education professional standards for Australian teachers, by comparing and contrasting the knowledge, skills, and competencies exemplified in the prospective USA preparation standards with those in existing generic Australian teacher standards at graduate level. The analysis points to common areas of suitability, competencies, and effectiveness that could help pre-service/initial teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators find appropriate and relevant benchmarks for the teaching of timely and comprehensive relationships and sexuality education. The findings show structural similarities, content consistencies, and helpful commonalities in both standards’ sets, comprising seven USA teacher preparation standards, and seven Australian teacher professional standards. Such information may be useful for teachers and educators wishing to generate professional standards for the teaching of relationships and sexuality education in Australia.     

Professional standards for teachers—what are they good for?

This article reports on a study of teacher and principal attitudes to newly mandated teacher standards in Australia. The qualitative study of 36 teachers and principals was conducted over 12 months as the new educators in five schools completed a mandatory teacher probation process framed by the teacher standards. The study found positive attitudes to teacher standards from both teachers and principals. Contextual reasons, including teacher ownership over the standards and their implementation, are discussed as possible reasons for the positive manner in which the participants in the study received these new standards for teachers.     

The teacher educator’s role as enacted and experienced in school-based development

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on teacher educators’ role and how it was enacted and experienced by teachers and leaders in a school-based development project. The arena for the teachers’ professional development was the school, and teacher educators at one teacher-education institution and three schools took part in the research. Teacher educators, teachers and school leaders were interviewed two years and two months after they formally took part in the project, for one year in a pilot program and afterward for three semesters. The findings show that the teacher educators enacted their roles differently, and that they realise that they should have collaborated more and coordinated their experiences from collaborations with teachers and leaders to learn from their experiences in school. The leaders and teachers were satisfied with the teacher educators’ lectures, but the teachers wanted more dialogue with teacher educators and felt that teacher educators should have helped them transform their knowledge into teaching actions in practice. Teacher educators taking part as supporters in teachers’ practice truly could infiltrate instruction and learning. The study demonstrates that culture, structure and content need to be coordinated to enhance school-based development.     

Development of a cadre of teacher educators: some lessons from Pakistan

This article is based on an educational innovation, the creation of a cadre of teacher educators, in the developing world. Professional development teachers (PDT) were trained in an in-service two-year teacher education programme leading to a Masters of Education (M.Ed.) degree. The PDTs were expected to play three roles in their home schools upon completion of the degree programme: (a) exemplary teachers; (b) teacher educators; and (c) change agents within their home schools to effect improvement.This article reviews education in Pakistan and the innovations that have come to inform the need to focus on teacher education as a primary area of investment and presents findings of a three-year longitudinal study of a selection of PDTs trained at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED). The main findings of the study indicate that teachers benefited significantly as individuals with enhanced career prospects, identified themselves more and preferred the role of teacher educators as opposed to classroom-based teachers, and sought opportunities outside their own schools but their role as change agents was more limited. Those teachers who maintained links with their schools beyond the three-year bonding period (a condition of being admitted to study for the M.Ed.) varied in the extent to which they managed to initiate and sustain school improvement efforts as indicated by changes in the structures and relationships within schools affecting the teaching–learning offered to pupils.     

Representations of teaching and standards-based reform: are we closing the debate about teacher education?

Since the mid-eighties, national organizations have been working together in an effort to reform schools and, more specifically, to reform teaching. Paralleling the movement toward developing curriculum standards for students, professional standards for teachers have also been developed for the purpose of teacher education program accreditation. The objective of this national coalition is to strengthen the teaching profession and raise its standards—eventually enhancing the quality of student learning—by redesigning teacher licensing and accountability requirements for teacher education programs, and engaging teachers in on-going professional development. In this study we address three specific questions: (1) what representations of teaching and teachers are portrayed in the professional teaching standards, their related policies and assessment? (2) how are standards-based reform policies affecting teacher education programs? (3) what representations or conceptions of teaching and teachers are currently reflected in teacher education programs in the context of this reform? To address these questions two states were selected as test cases. Reform documents, policies and practices, as well as interviews with key participants in the reform (e.g., teacher educators, state-level administrators) are described and analyzed, and constitute the evidential basis for this study. The patterns emerging from the data indicate that teacher educators’ degrees of resistance or cooperation with externally imposed frameworks is influenced by their conception of teaching, education and its purpose. Further, as teacher educators uncritically participate in the standards-based movement it becomes impossible for them to entertain alternative perspectives on teaching and education outside of the framework provided to them by the standards.     

The past,history, and education

If you mention ‘educational reform’ in a room full of educators in the US, prepare to leave the room with your ears burning. For most teachers and school administrators in the US, ‘educational reform’ currently means standards, curriculum frameworks, mandatory state tests for students, and sanctions for schools if test scores fail to rise. Although some educators see benefits in parts of this agenda, many find that their jobs have become more stressful and less rewarding, and they wonder how schools got into their current situation. Reading the two books reviewed in this essay provides some answers, including insights into what motivates educational reformers and into why reforms often play out differently from what their designers intended.     

University students’ conceptions of the good teacher: A Hong Kong perspective

One way that universities assess teaching effectiveness is by eliciting student feedback. However, what standards do students themselves use to judge whether a lecturer is a ‘good’ teacher? As part of a study carried out at a Hong Kong university, students were interviewed about their first-year learning experience and asked what they felt constituted ‘good’ and “bad’ teaching. Unlike when asked to complete teacher effectiveness surveys, no criteria or characteristics were given. Responses focused primarily on teaching skills that supported student learning and encouraged critical thinking, particularly the teacher’s ability to give clear explanations supported by relevant, practical examples.     

Hope as Work--Student Teachers Constructing Their Narrative Identities

This article examines how student teachers construct their teacher identities by using (auto)biographical stories. Teacher identity is seen as a narrative process and teaching as a certain kind of practice, in which hope is a significant part. The inquiry is based on 35 essays written by students. The analysis includes five different stages of reading. The students are aware of the moral roots of teachers' work, its joys and predicaments, and struggle to make sense of the different narratives they hear about teachers' work. Although student teachers consider hope as an important part of teaching, they at the same time 'apologise' for having such an 'unrealistic view'. The results prove that (auto)biographical stories are a powerful tool for making the moral dimensions of teachers' identities visible. The results also challenge teacher educators and administrators of education to support student teachers to keep up their prospects of hope.     

When Magic Becomes Art: Educating Teachers

Metaphors representing the practice of teacher educators were the data for this collaborative self-study by a small group of teacher educators from across the USA. Seventy-five pre-service teachers and practicing teachers enrolled in teacher education courses were asked to create metaphors to represent the teaching practices of the authors, who were their professors at the time. Qualitative analysis of these data revealed that many of these students believed that effective teaching springs from a kind of teacher magic – a mysterious force arising from the personal characteristics of the teacher rather than from any purposeful selection from a repertoire of instructional strategies – developed over time. For the researchers, these results posed a challenge for reworking their teaching to make the art of teaching more visible and accessible.