Examining the Challenges Early Childhood Teacher Candidates Face in Figuring Their Roles as Early Educators

Federal, state, and local policy makers' high-stakes standards-based accountability reforms are transforming the early childhood teacher education process. These reforms affect how early education teacher candidates figure their role as teachers. By employing Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain's conception of figured worlds to analyze the findings of a qualitative case study, this article examines how three early childhood teacher candidates' figured conceptions of themselves as early educators evolve in high-stakes classrooms and teacher education environments. It also investigates how these candidates see themselves addressing these reforms in their own classrooms. Such a study not only further details the impact reforms have on preservice teachers' conceptions of teaching, but it also provides a chance for early childhood teacher educators to consider strategies they might employ to assist their candidates in developing a figured conception of teaching that addresses these reforms in an developmentally appropriate manner.     

Content and Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Elementary Science Teacher Educators: Knowing our Students

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

教师专业发展视域下的高校师范生微格教学实践探析

微格教学是一种以现代教育理论为基础,以师范生或在职教师为培训对象,利用现代教育技术手段来集中解决某一特定教学问题的教学方法。文章从教师专业发展的角度,深入分析高校师范生微格教学实践的重要性及其存在的主要问题,提出解决对策：重视微格教学的课程设置,提高教学系统的利用率;重视现代科技的发展,提高微格教学的科技含量;重视微格教学理论的学习,提高师范生对微格教学理论的认识水平;重视微格教学的师资队伍建设,加快专业资料的编纂进程;重视师范生的素质能力和训练的方式方法,提高微格教学的实践效率。     

Our Practice, Their Readiness: Teacher Educators Collaborate to Explore and Improve Preservice Teacher Readiness for Science and Math Instruction

Since many preservice teachers (PTs) display anxiety over teaching math and science, four PT educators collaborated to better understand the PTs’ background experiences and attitudes toward those subjects. The research project provided two avenues for professional learning: the data collected from the PTs and the opportunity for collaborative action research. The mixed method study focused on: the relationship between gender and undergraduate major (science versus non-science) with respect to previous and current engagement in science and math, understanding the processes of inquiry, and learning outside the classroom. A field trip to a science center provided the setting for the data collection. From a sample of 132 PTs, a multivariate analysis showed that the science major of PTs explained most of the gender differences with respect to the PTs’ attitudes toward science and mathematics. The process of inquiry is generally poorly interpreted by PTs, and non-science majors prefer a more social approach in their learning to teach science and math. The four educators/collaborators reflect on the impacts of the research on their individual practices, for example, the need to: include place-based learning, attend to the different learning strategies taken by non-science majors, emphasize social and environmental contexts for learning science and math, be more explicit regarding the processes of science inquiry, and provide out-of-classroom experiences for PTs. They conclude that the collaboration, though difficult at times, provided powerful opportunities for examining individual praxis.     

Professional Development of Mathematics Teacher Educators: Growth Through Practice

In this paper we present a study conductedwithin the framework of an in-serviceprofessional development program for junior andsenior high school mathematics teachers. Thefocus of the study is the analysis of processesencountered by the staff members, as members ofa community of practice, which contributed totheir growth as teacher educators. We offer athree-layer model of growth through practice asa conceptual framework to think about becominga mathematics teacher educator, and illustratehow our suggested model can be adapted to thecomplexities and commonalities of theunderlying processes of professionaldevelopment of mathematics teacher educators.     

行动研究：教师专业发展的实践探索

作为近年来在我国兴起的行动研究,已有成为教师继续教育及专业发展主要形式。但在实际开展过程中由于针对性弱,讲多练少,组织失当等问题的存在,致使效果不明显,教师参与兴趣不大。而行动研究的校本培训在实践中可以有效克服此类流弊,推动教师专业化的进程。     

Preservice Teacher Learning within a Kindergarten Internship: Insights for Early Childhood Teacher Educators

This study is an examination of early childhood preservice teachers' kindergarten internship experiences to identify the supportive and challenging conditions for their learning and explore in what ways those conditions are productive or unproductive for them, based on ecological perspective as a theoretical framework. Qualitative data were collected from weekly seminar notes and field notes by the researchers, a focus group with the preservice teachers, and course evaluation feedback. Through a constant comparative analysis approach, the findings indicate that both supportive and challenging learning conditions were created by collaborating teachers, preservice teachers, and the university supervisors. The findings illuminate the complex responsibilities of early childhood teacher educators to develop horizontal expertise for both themselves and preservice teachers so they can negotiate the best practices from research and the reality of school contexts.     

美国职业技术教师教育者的特征

本文旨在通过描述与评论美国高等学校职业技术教师教育者的外观基本情况和职业技术教师教育者在职业教师培养中喜欢运用的专业发展模式、教学途径、最常任教的课程及科目、自身所进行的专业发展活动等,期望使读者对美国职业技术教育师资培养培训与高等学校职业技术教师教育者的一般特征及整体素质有所了解.     

Dancing with Maggots and Saints: Visions for Subject Matter Knowledge,Pedagogical Knowledge,and Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Teacher Education Reform

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

When We Inquire Into Our Own Practice: An Early Childhood Teacher Research Group

Every day, early childhood teachers confront issues, problems, and concerns in their classrooms. Sometimes they do nothing. Sometimes they use trial and error. Sometimes they go to a workshop or read an article. We have found a way to intentionally and systematically research and answer our own questions and to enrich our own professional development through teacher research. Teacher research provides early childhood educators with a strategy that supports reflective thinking and practice. This article describes the experience of a small group of early childhood teacher researchers. How is it different from other required assessments? How is it different from other professional development?     

Walking the Roads as Immigrant Mothers and Teacher Educators: A Collaborative Self-Study of Three Korean Immigrant Early Childhood Educators

Offering an analysis of our multifaceted experiences as three Korean immigrant early childhood teacher educators in the United States, this critical collaborative self-study examines how positions as immigrant mothers and teacher educators interplay with each other. This study also explores ways in which the intersectional experiences influence our teaching pedagogy and practices. We found that we as immigrant mothers have challenges pertaining to parental involvement and maintaining our heritage language, meet tensions when advocating for diversity, and experience role-model pressure as teacher educators. Keeping these challenges in mind, the interactions between our two roles benefitted our students as our teaching became more critical and deeper. This collaborative self-study unpacks the intersecting positions of immigrant mother and teacher educator insightfully and reveals the development of pedagogical practices. It also suggests directions for classroom teachers and future researchers in relation to immigrant children and families.     

Changing Pedagogical Practice in Teacher Education: Negotiating the spaces between realism and relativism

This article reports a self-study from a larger research project that explored the impact on pre-service and in-service teacher education of a new national curriculum in New Zealand and the conceptualisations of epistemological shifts signalled by that document. A pedagogical initiative to introduce inquiry-based learning into a graduate diploma course for pre-service primary teachers was the result of and the catalyst for further reflection on my practice and the (mis)alignments between my theoretical understandings and beliefs and my pedagogical choices. In this article I focus on the tensions and contradictions I encountered while attempting to enact, in a tertiary environment, a pedagogy that aligned with the underpinning principles of the new curriculum. I describe the model that I developed to understand those tensions and contradictions, which are characterised as the spaces between realism and relativism. I suggest that negotiating these spaces is part of the process of becoming a teacher and a teacher educator in the twenty-first century.     

Teacher Educators Struggling to Make Complex Practice Explicit: Distancing Teaching through Video

This self-study examines our use of video with a cohort of preservice teachers as a means to address the challenges we face as teacher educators who are working with candidates in extensive clinical practice. We came to video as a nuanced way to discuss and make meaning of complex practice and as a means of bridging theory and practice. We found that our use of video supported preservice teachers and their mentors in decomposing, representing, and approximating practice. We also found that, as suggested by the literature, the use of video distanced preservice teachers from their experiences in practice. Finally, we discuss the implications for using video to support the work of rich clinical teacher education.     

The Development of Teacher Leaders and Inservice Teacher Educators

This article discusses the development of teacher leaders and inservice teacher educators whose role it is to promote teacher learning about mathematics teaching in the process of changing school mathematics. The Manor Program for the development of teacher leaders and teacher educators is used as a vehicle for addressing this issue. The article focuses on aspects of curriculum design, discusses the theoretical rationale for the learning opportunities provided by the program, and considers several problematic aspects encountered.     

Understanding Teacher Educators and Their Pre-Service Teachers through Multi-Media Case Studies of Practice

The challenges facing those who seek to prepare mathematics teachers are well established in the literature. Most of the research to date has focused on the perceptions and understandings of pre-service teachers, but not on the perceptions and understandings of teacher educators. In this study, we explore how four teacher educators understand their pre-service secondary teachers as the pre-service teachers attempt to make sense of teaching through the investigation of a multimedia case study of practice. We found that the teacher educators adopted two different implementation strategies: one strategy tended to be open-ended and exploratory; the other was more focused on the teacher educators' goals of anticipating student understanding and developing mathematical content knowledge for teaching. We also found that, in using the case study, teacher educators elicited pre-service teachers' thinking about the complexities of the teacher's role in small group work, about the value of explicitly revealing the teacher's reflections on the lessons, about the role of planning and preparation, and about the limits of pre-service teachers' abilities to understand and appreciate students' thinking and to extend lesson ideas. Both teacher educators and their pre-service teachers gained perspectives on the role of a teacher's mathematical content knowledge. These results imply that multimedia case studies of practice can serve as vehicles for revealing the knowledge and practice of teacher educators, as they engage in supporting the professional development of pre-service teachers.     

Professional Growth and Identity Development of STEM Teacher Educators in a Community of Practice

Quality STEM teacher education is predicated on teacher educators who are well-equipped to design learning experiences, provide feedback, guide the development of teachers across their career span, and conduct rigorous research to advance education theory and praxis. While numerous models and approaches to professional development for teachers exist, few parallels can be drawn between the professional development of teachers and teacher educators (Loughran, 2014). To support the multi-faceted identity (trans)formation of STEM teacher educators, self-directed learning opportunities can help bridge knowledge and practice, enhance productive collaboration, and support efforts to negotiate multiple and conflicting agendas (Goodwin &; Kosnik, 2013). The purpose of this empirical study was to explore the identity (trans)formation of teacher educators participating in a long-term interdisciplinary STEM-based Community of Practice (CoP; Wenger, 1998), which began in 2012. An analysis of our experiences through the figured worlds lens informs how a CoP can impact curricular approaches and teacher PD, imploring members to move through their comfort zones into innovative spaces. We conclude with suggestions for our STEM teacher educator colleagues who seek opportunities to challenge their own positions and best support preservice and in-service STEM teachers in a way that allows them to model for their students the value of community.