Grappling with ‘Natural Selection’ — Experiences of a Teacher

Since evolution forms the core of modern biology, teaching about natural selection is extremely important as this equips the student to frame the ‘why’ questions properly and, at the same time, sharpens their understanding about a host of issues pertaining to behaviour, diversity and genetics.     

Understanding Candidates’ Learning Relationships with their Cooperating Teachers: A call to Reframe my Pedagogy

Abstract

This self-study frames the influences of cooperating (or mentor) teachers on teacher candidates in my teacher education classroom as an action-at-a-distance on my pedagogy of teacher education; that is, a tacit set of influences and expectations that teacher candidates develop about my course before it even begins. Interviews with teacher candidates enabled me to develop two conceptual metaphors to think about the relationships candidates develop with cooperating teachers on practicum. The first, freedom with foundation, reflects the fact that teacher candidates hope to have considerable autonomy in their practicum placements while simultaneously having the support from their cooperating teacher to receive meaningful, regular, feedback. The second, power and performance, names the tensions teacher candidates feel in experiencing the practicum as a site of performance rather than as a site of learning. I offer some specific pedagogical ways in which I have responded to these issues before making a turn to self. I examined journal entries from my own experiences as a teacher candidate 20 years ago with a view to understanding the ways in which the two metaphors may have played a role in my own development as a teacher. This research compels me to attend explicitly to action-at-at-distance forces in my teacher education classroom, such as candidates’ relationship with cooperating teachers and my relationships with my former cooperating teachers.     

A Study of Teacher Candidates’ Experiences Investigating Global Climate Change Within an Elementary Science Methods Course

We investigated the inclusion of a curricular module on global climate change in an Elementary Science Methods course. Using complementary research methods, we analyzed findings from 63 teacher candidates’ drawings, questionnaires, and journal entries collected throughout their participation in the module. We highlighted three focal cases to illustrate the diversity of participants’ experiences. Findings suggest potential positive impacts on teacher candidates’ content understanding related to global climate change, confidence to teach, and awareness of resources to support their future science instruction. Recommendations for science teacher education underscore the importance of providing opportunities for teacher candidates to increase their relevant content understanding, helping teacher candidates become familiar with appropriate curricular resources, and engaging in ongoing conversation and evaluation of developing views and understandings related to global climate change.     

Understanding Teacher Candidates’ Engagement with Inquiry-Based Professional Development: A Continuum of Responses and Needs

Teacher educators recognize that teacher candidates must have authentic, scaffolded opportunities to transform knowledge into practice. This study explores teacher candidates’ engagement with teacher inquiry as a method for supporting professional development. Findings suggest teacher candidates differ tremendously in their responses to the inquiry process, creating a continuum of proficiency. This study extends the literature by providing concrete examples of the variation in readiness, sophistication, and quality in teacher candidates’ attempts to engage in teacher inquiry. Implications for teacher educators include the importance of providing differentiated support through structured, sequenced experiences that build an inquiry stance in teacher candidates.     

Inquiry-Based Field Experiences: Transforming Early Childhood Teacher Candidates’ Effectiveness

Contemporary teacher preparation programs are challenged to provide transformational learning experiences that enhance the development of highly effective teachers. This mixed-methods case study explored the influence of inquiry-based field experiences as a pedagogical approach to teacher preparation. Four teacher candidates participated in a 15-week practicum hosted by four community-based early childhood classrooms. Research methods included peer discussions, self-assessments, coaching sessions facilitated by the instructor/researcher, and a survey. Triangulated content analysis indicated that inquiry-based field experiences positively contributed to the participants’ (a) understanding and application of core knowledge, (b) consciousness of teacher–child interactions, (c) appreciation of co-inquiry learning, and (d) utilization of reflective learning. Inquiry-based field experiences also positively contributed to the participants’ professional intentionality and discernment.     

Finding Common Ground: A Synthesis of Science and Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Experiences with Professional Growth

The seven articles that comprise this Special Issue examine the professional growth of mathematics and science teacher educators across different contexts and different foci of who is the teacher educator being studied. Despite these differences, a common thread running throughout these seven articles is the need for learning to be situated in collaboration with others. In this final article, we examine the contribution of these articles through two perspectives: that of the collaborative contexts supporting the professional growth of mathematics and science teacher educators, and the role of disciplinary knowledge as part of the purpose for teacher educators’ professional growth. We notice that collaboration can take on very different structures in supporting teacher educators’ professional learning due to the different purposes and roles of the teacher educators in the studies. We also notice that while collaboration figures as an important component in all of the studies, the disciplinary specific aspects of collaboration, i.e., how collaboration might be negotiated differently by teacher educators in mathematics and science, is still not well understood. Overall, these articles provide important insights that help to shed new light on the complex and multifaceted nature of teacher educators’ learning and growth and provide productive avenues for future research.

     

Early Practicum Experiences: Preservice Early Childhood Students’ Perceptions and Sense of Efficacy

The current study explored early practicum experiences (those occurring before student teaching) in an early childhood birth to kindergarten teacher education program. Undergraduates enrolled in practicum courses completed questionnaires about their overall practicum experience including: socio-emotional components (their perceived fit with their cooperating teacher and intrapersonal feelings while in the classroom), overall practicum satisfaction, and their sense of teacher efficacy. Results revealed that practicum students generally reported feelings of being energized and relaxed, though some practicum students reported feelings of frustration in their practicum classrooms. Feeling energized and relaxed and students’ perception of fit with their cooperating teacher were positively associated with practicum satisfaction and practicum students’ teacher efficacy. Feelings of frustration were negatively associated with students’ fit with their cooperating teacher, practicum satisfaction, and students’ teacher efficacy. Higher levels of practicum satisfaction predicted higher practicum students’ teacher efficacy. Findings highlight the importance of understanding early practicum experiences and what factors of the practicum experience contribute teacher efficacy. Implications for future research and practice for early childhood teacher preparation programs are discussed.     

Beliefs or Classroom Context: What Matters Most to Novice Urban Teachers’ Enactment of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy?

The Urban Review - Education scholarship is unclear about what matters most to novice teachers’ enactment of culturally responsive instructional practices. To better understand the factors...     

Multimedia e-Learning and Self-Regulated Science Learning: a Study of Primary School Learners’ Experiences and Perceptions

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Multimedia-supported e-learning is considered useful as it can offer an enjoyable independent learning experience to learners. However, the...     

A Simple Study of the Teacher’s Influence on Students’ Psychology in English Learning

This paper analyzes the teacher’s influence on students’psychologyin English learning from two aspects and emphasizes the importance of English teachers’role in helping students establish healthy psychology in English learning.     

Improving the Quality of Practicum Learning: Self-Study of a Faculty Member’s Role in Practicum Supervision

Abstract

This self-study of activities as a practicum supervisor in several secondary schools focuses on the supervisor’s contribution to the quality of a teacher candidate’s professional learning in the context of a familiar tension between on-campus courses and in-school practicum experiences. Data from both formal and informal supervisory experiences are taken from notes recorded in classes with those supervised formally, records of notes taken in practicum observations, and email messages exchanged with teacher candidates about their supervision experiences. Analysis of formal supervision experiences generated a series of insights into candidates’ experiences of the practicum, a modest innovation in supervisory practice, and important reminders arising from a significant error in personal practice as a supervisor. Informal supervision experiences involved visits arising from invitations to observe extended by candidates in the author’s physics methods course. These experiences generated opportunities to test an alternative supervisory strategy focused on candidates’ perceptions of their learning from experience. Related literature includes the topics of learning from experience, reflective practice, and the potential significance of an epistemology of practice. In closing, attention is given to trustworthiness, the personal significance of the study and connections to the teacher education literature.     

Straddling Teacher Candidates’ Two Worlds to Link Practice and Theory: A Self-Study of Successful and Unsuccessful Efforts

Abstract

This self-study examines a teacher educator’s quest to provide an integrated practice-and-theory approach to learning to teach that places the experiences of the teacher candidates at the centre of the curriculum by focussing on their developing questions, challenges and issues through socio-constructivist discussions of their emerging practices. Constraints of university structures with regards to offering such an approach are discussed, including the impact that offering seminars on the university campus rather than in schools has on teacher candidates’ ability to integrate theories and practices of learning to teach. The research questions guiding this study include: How can I understand what process candidates actually undergo during practicum in the development of their ability as teachers vis-à-vis my course?, and How can I re-structure and re-organize my course to enhance the development of candidates’ practice as teachers? Data include interviews with volunteer student participants before and after observations made during classroom visits as well as discussions with groups of students. Analysis is based on reading and rereading the data as well as discussing it with the larger research team. The findings include the realization of how little of my course is integrated into my teacher candidates’ teaching, how much greater the influence of their mentor teacher is, and the extent to which teacher candidates need explicit help and guidance to transform or reframe their teaching. The article concludes with specific suggestions for adjusting a seminar associated with the practicum to enhance the development of a practice-and-theory approach to teaching.     

Urban Teachers’ Perspectives of Strengths and Needs: The Promise of Teacher Responsive Professional Development

The Urban Review - This study examines urban high school teachers’ perceptions (N?=?50) of their strengths and needs in supporting diverse students in their classrooms....     

The Influence of University Coursework on Pre-service Middle and High School Teachers’ Experiences with Multicultural Themes

The study explored the influence of university-based teacher education courses on pre-service middle and high school teachers’ experiences with multicultural themes in a secondary science alternative certification program. Eight participants (N = 8), six women and two men, volunteered to be a part of the study that took place over a period of four semesters. Qualitative data was collected, coded and analyzed to make meaning of the participants’ experiences. Data comprised of participants’ reflective journals, personal and group interviews, and classroom observations done in middle school practicum and high school student teaching placements. The findings indicated that while the participants became more familiar with the themes of multicultural education, many did not demonstrate fluency with these themes and struggled with balancing their responsibilities as a science teacher and a culturally competent teacher.     

On the Operationalisation of Conceptions of Learning in Higher Education and Their Association with Students’ Knowledge and Experiences of Their Learning

Conceptions of learning, as well as other associated aspects of prior knowledge, are theoretically important factors in influencing the manner in which the content and context of learning are engaged. The present study reports on: (a) the operationalisation of some of these factors aimed at isolating sources of explanatory variation that can be used for modelling purposes; and (b) a conservative exploration of the discriminatory power of, and exhibited patterns of association between, such sources of variation as have been isolated. Based on a conservative analytical approach, the results of the present study do not support a single clearly defined empirical model of conceptions of learning and associated constructs. Instead, there is consistent evidence that underlying empirical structures appear to be sensitive to the response context and other factors.     

Investigating Teacher Candidates’ Mentoring of Students at Risk of Academic Failure: A Canadian Experiential Field Model

In this study, the authors explore a Canadian field experience model in a bachelor of education program that focuses on mentor‐based relationships between teacher candidates and students at risk of dropping out of high school. They examine teacher candidates’ and at‐risk students’ attitudinal approaches. The model emphasizes praxis and social justice, and the authors argue that it would benefit from a greater emphasis on critical literacy theory. Data were collected through triangulation of Ministry of Education documents, a literature review, program coordinators’ informal reflections and field notes, and interviews. Interview participants were two teacher candidates, three at‐risk students, and three Student Success teachers. The mentoring improved human relations and attendance more than grades for the at‐risk students. The results indicate that at‐risk students feel individually empowered through the mentor‐based model and teacher candidates demonstrate insights into their mentoring relationships.     

High School Students’ Perceptions of Evolution Instruction: Acceptance and Evolution Learning Experiences

Evolution is an important and sometimes controversial component of high school biology. In this study, we used a mixed methods approach to explore students’ evolution acceptance and views of evolution teaching and learning. Students explained their acceptance and rejection of evolution in terms of evidence and conflicts with religion and authority. Students largely supported the teaching of evolution and offered several reasons for its inclusion in high school biology. Students also offered several suggestions for improving evolution instruction. Evolution acceptors’ and rejecters’ views of evolution teaching and learning differed in a number of respects, and these differences may be explained using border crossing as a theoretical lens. Relevant implications for evolution instruction are discussed.     

Steps to Opening Scientific Inquiry: Pre-Service Teachers’ Practicum Experiences with a New Support Framework

This qualitative multiple-comparative case study investigates (1) The reported experiences and impressions of four pre-service teachers (PTs) on practicum placement in four different classrooms (grades 1–9) where a new Steps to Inquiry (SI) framework was being utilized to support students conducting open inquiry; (2) The relative dispositions of the PTs toward conducting open inquiry, as indicated by their core conceptions regarding science, the purpose of education, effective teaching, and the capacity of students. Findings indicate that (1) although there were differences in the experiences of the four PTs, all four had an opportunity to observe and/or facilitate students conducting open inquiry with the SI framework, and after the practicum, all of them reported that they would like to include open inquiry in their own classrooms in the future; (2) one PT already possessed core conceptions indicative of a favorable disposition toward open inquiry before the placement; another altered her core conceptions substantially toward a favorable disposition during the placement; a third altered her conceptions regarding the capacity of students; and one PT maintained core conceptions indicative of a disposition that was not favorable to open inquiry despite the pronouncements that she would like to conduct open inquiry with students in their own future classroom. Possible reasons for the differences in the responses of the four pre-services teachers to the practicum placement are discussed.     

Pupils’ Information Processing and Its Implications for Learning and Assessment: A Think-Aloud Study

A think-aloud study investigated 7th graders’ (N?=?30) information processing and seeking of feedback while reading four multiple partly contradictory texts. An extreme-case analysis shows that a highly-skilled reader uses deeper strategies, such as elaboration, evaluation, and paraphrasing of less contradictory information, than a less-skilled reader. Elaboration strategies are frequently used by the less-skilled reader, but often consist of irrelevant elaboration strategies, which seem to preclude comprehension and deeper learning. The highly-skilled reader seeks internal feedback on task-, process-, and self levels, while the less-skilled reader seeks feedback related to task- and self levels. The results provide useful knowledge regarding pupils’ trajectories into deeper learning and self-regulation processes in information-processing tasks.