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     

Influencing Intended Teaching Practice: Exploring pre-service teachers’ perceptions of science teaching resources

Many researchers have identified and expressed concern over the state of science education internationally, but primary teachers face particular obstacles when teaching science due to their poor science background and low confidence with science. Research has suggested that exemplary resources, or units that work, may be an effective way to support primary teachers. This study explores the effect of one such resource on the intentions of pre-service primary teachers to teach science. The resource in question is Primary Connections, a series of learning resources produced by the Australian Academy of Science specifically designed for primary science. Evaluative studies of Primary Connections have indicated its efficacy with practising primary teachers but there is little evidence of its impact upon pre-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how effective these quality teaching resources were in influencing the intentions of primary pre-service teachers to teach science after they graduated. The theory of planned behaviour highlighted the linkage between the intentions of the pre-service teachers to teach science, and their awareness of and experiences with using Primary Connections during their education studies. This enabled key factors to be identified which influenced the intentions of the pre-service teachers to use Primary Connections to teach science after they graduate. The study also provided evidence of how quality science teaching resources can be effectively embedded in a teacher education programme as a means of encouraging and supporting pre-service teachers to teach science.     

Learning About Semi Conductors for Teaching—the Role Played by Content Knowledge in Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Development

This study focuses on how teachers learn to teach a new topic and the role played by their developing content knowledge as they teach. The paper is based on seven high school science teachers’ studies on the teaching of semiconductors, at the time a new topic in the curriculum. Analysis of artefacts such as teacher concept maps, video recordings of lessons, journals and other classroom-based evidence shows how the extent and type of teachers’ content knowledge informed their choice of teaching approaches and how their learning of content took place alongside the development of teaching strategies. The development of content knowledge was combined with increased understanding of how to teach the topic in almost all cases. Evidence of development of teachers’ PCK was found in their increased ability to design teaching strategies, and their use of representations and suitable assessment tasks for their lessons. Some specific common teaching strategies were identified across the teachers. These strategies could add to the canon of teachers’ topic - specific professional knowledge for semiconductors. The study provides increased understanding of how teachers simultaneously master content and its teaching and how mediated self-reflection is a fruitful approach for assisting teachers to learn to teach a new topic.     

Factors affecting Canadian teachers' willingness to teach sexual health education

Non-specialist teachers in Canada are increasingly required to teach sexual health topics. However, research suggests that they do not always do so willingly. This study examined the associations between the characteristics of non-specialist elementary and middle school teachers (n = 294) in Canadian schools and their willingness to provide sexual health education (SHE) and their perceptions of factors affecting their willingness to provide SHE. On average, the teachers were only somewhat willing to teach SHE and their willingness varied between topics. The teachers who reported greater willingness to teach SHE were more likely to be teaching middle school, have less teaching experience, have received training to teach SHE, feel more knowledgeable about sexual health, and view broad-based SHE as more important. More than 20% of participants identified 10 out of 11 factors as making them less willing to teach sexual health education; conversely, more than 20% of participants identified nine of these 11 factors as making them more willing to teach sexual health education. Teachers who were middle school teachers, had received training to teach sexual health, had more experience teaching SHE, and felt more knowledgeable about sexual health topics were more likely to regard all of these factors as enhancing their willingness to teach SHE. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for training designed to increase teachers' willingness to teach sexual health.     

Attitudes of a sample of English,Maltese and German teachers towards media education

Media education forms part of the National Minimum Curriculum of England, Malta and Germany. Teacher training courses differ greatly in how teachers are prepared to teach media education. In this paper we shall investigate the attitudes of a sample of teachers trained in England, Malta and in Germany towards their perceived importance of media education and the teachers' preparedness to teach the subject. This preliminary study had a sample of 132 participants, 33 teachers from England, 47 from Germany and 52 teachers from Malta. The tool used to collect data was an online questionnaire. The results show that teachers taking part in this study were not given enough training, or any training at all to be able to teach media education with the result that they do not feel sufficiently prepared to teach the subject. It is suggested by the authors that media education becomes a compulsory component of the initial teacher training courses as well as advanced training for teachers.     

Connections between learning and teaching: EFL teachers’ reflective practice

This study explores six Vietnamese, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ reflections on their experiences of English language learning during the early 1980s to the late 1990s. Data collected in narrative interviews with the participating teachers revealed a wide range of issues that arose during their EFL learning, central to which was the prevalence of grammar-focused practices in all EFL classes. From their perspectives as EFL teachers today, the participants see their learning experience as a way of learning to teach. In particular, they pinpoint the negative aspects of language teaching at that time in the hope that their teaching practice today will not repeat the same mistakes. However, they also reflect on positive aspects, especially their influential teachers, to inform their teaching. Based on the findings, the study suggests that language teachers’ experience of language learning should be considered part of reflective teaching as well as of teachers’ trajectories of learning to teach.     

Effects of subject-area degree and classroom experience on new chemistry teachers’ subject matter knowledge

Science teachers need to understand the subject matter they teach. While subject matter knowledge (SMK) can improve with classroom teaching experience, it is problematic that many secondary science teachers leave the profession before garnering extensive classroom experience. Furthermore, many new science teachers are assigned to teach science subjects for which they do not hold a degree. This study investigates the SMK of new secondary science teachers assigned to teach chemistry in their first three years of teaching. These new teachers do not have the advantage of years of experience to develop their SMK and half hold a degree in biology rather than chemistry. This qualitative study explores the effects of holding a degree in the subject area one teaches as well as classroom teaching experience on teachers’ SMK for two chemistry topics, conservation of mass and chemical equilibrium. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews indicated that the SMK of teachers who had a chemistry degree and more extensive classroom experience was more coherent, chemistry-focused, and sophisticated than that of teachers who lacked this preparation and experience. This study provides evidence that new science teachers’ SMK is influenced by both holding a degree in the subject area and having classroom experience.     

Reframing one's teaching: Discovering our teacher selves through reflection and inquiry

Learning to teach is a highly complex and multidimensional process. This self-study, conducted collaboratively by a preservice teacher and a teacher educator, traces one preservice teacher's development and growth over a 2-year period. The study examines the complexities of learning to teach, as well as the complexities of assisting preservice teachers on their journey to becoming teachers. The data were derived from multiple sources including observation notes, journal reflections, dialogue journals, and the student's action research/self-study paper. The results provide insight into how preservice teachers think, the conflicts they experience, the fears they encounter, and the benefits they derive from systematically examining their teaching and their students’ learning. The article describes specific attitudes and dispositions that can impact growth and development. In addition, it discusses a variety of activities to foster reflection and inquiry.     

Discovering Plate Boundaries in Data-integrated Environments: Preservice Teachers' Conceptualization and Implementation of Scientific Practices

Drawn from the norms and rules of their fields, scientists use variety of practices, such as asking questions and arguing based on evidence, to engage in research that will contribute to our understanding of Earth and beyond. In this study, we explore how preservice teachers' learn to teach scientific practices while teaching plate tectonic theory. In particular, our aim is to observe which scientific practices preservice teachers use while teaching an earth science unit, how do they integrate these practices into their lessons, and what challenges do they face during their first time teaching of an earth science content area integrated with scientific practices. The study is designed as a qualitative, exploratory case study of seven preservice teachers while they were learning to teach plate tectonic theory to a group of middle school students. The data were driven from the video records and artifacts of the preservice teachers' learning and teaching processes as well as written reflections on the teaching. Intertextual discourse analysis was used to understand what scientific practices preservice teachers choose to integrate into their teaching experience. Our results showed that preservice teachers chose to focus on four aspects of scientific practices: (1) employing historical understanding of how the theory emerged, (2) encouraging the use of evidence to build up a theory, (3) observation and interpretation of data maps, and (4) collaborative practices in making up the theory. For each of these practices, we also looked at the common challenges faced by preservice teachers by using constant comparative analysis. We observed the practices that preservice teachers decided to use and the challenges they faced, which were determined by what might have come as in their personal history as learners. Therefore, in order to strengthen preservice teachers' background, college courses should be arranged to teach important scientific ideas through scientific practices. In addition, such practices should also reflect the authentic practices of earth scientists such as use of historical record and differentiating observation versus interpretation.     

Success in Science Learning and Preservice Science Teaching Self-Efficacy

This study examined relationships between conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy beliefs as preservice teachers learned science in a constructivist-oriented methods class. Participants included 49 preservice elementary teachers. Analysis revealed that participants increased in self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and conceptual understanding. Engaging preservice teachers in hands-on, minds-on activities and discussion were important contributors. Participants reported that they would be inclined to teach from a constructivist perspective in the future. One implication from this study is that increasing the quantity of science content courses that preservice elementary teachers are required to take may not be sufficient to overcome their reluctance to teach science if some of their learning does not take place in a constructivist environment. In our teaching, we have tried to integrate pedagogy with learning science content.     

Pedagogical shift in the twenty-first century: Preparing teachers to teach with new technologies

ABSTRACT

The expectation in education today is that pre-service teachers should graduate from teacher education adequately prepared to teach with Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) that have potential to enhance curriculum delivery, hence improving quality of education. However, research shows that pre-service teachers are graduating from teacher education underequipped to teach with ICTs. The aim of this study is to understand why, given the deployment of ICTs for teaching and learning in teacher education, the new teachers remain underprepared to teach with ICTs. Qualitative research approach was employed in this study, whereby randomly selected pre-service teachers were interview respondents. Written reflections on their preparation to teach with ICTs also formed part of the data collected. Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) theory was embraced to guide the study. Analysis of the data shows that the main contributing factor of the new teachers’ under-preparedness to teach using ICTs is the quality of instruction they receive during their training.     

Research mathematicians as teacher educators: focusing on mathematics for secondary mathematics teachers

We believe that professional mathematicians who teach undergraduate mathematics courses to prospective teachers play an important role in the education of secondary school mathematics teachers. Thus, we explored the views of research mathematicians on the mathematics that should be taught to prospective mathematics teachers, on how the courses they teach can serve teachers in their work with school students, and on the changes they would implement if their courses were designed specifically for prospective teachers. We constructed profiles of the four mathematicians based on their responses to a clinical interview. We employed the construct of mathematics teacher-educators’ triad in the reflective analysis of our findings and extended the construct based on the results of this study. In conclusion, we commented on potential ways to draw stronger connections between university mathematics and the mathematics taught in schools.     

Career plans of final-year South African student teachers: migration to ‘greener pastures’?

Teacher loss due to migration is a global phenomenon that impacts both developed and developing nations the world over. The aim of this study was to find out about the career plans of final-year South African student teachers. A group of final-year Bachelor of Education student teachers from a South African university responded to a questionnaire on intra- and intercontinental migration. The responses were analysed quantitatively and/or qualitatively. The findings showed that 79% of the students indicated that they would be teaching in South Africa, 8% were planning to teach in another country, while 8% were undecided. More than a third of the students (38%) said that they would like to teach in another country in five years’ time. Just more than a quarter of the students (27%) preferred Australia as a destination country. The student teachers’ most important motive to teach in a foreign country was the opportunity to travel, followed by earning a higher salary, and professional development. The student teachers indicated that their most important migration needs before leaving South Africa were information about health care, accommodation, and banking assistance.     

Bodies as objects of pedagogic power relations

This paper is based on a study titled ‘Enacting Feminisms in Academia’, which engaged five feminist lecturers teaching English at five different multilingual universities in Southern Africa. The study explored: (1) the complexity of sociolinguistic and feminist identity construction in multilingual seascapes, and by extension (2) how feminist educators' interpretation and enactment of their personal world-view informs their language teaching in terms of what they teach, how they teach, and why they teach what they do. The participants who hail from a diverse range of ideological landscapes were identified either by themselves or others as feminist teachers. Through a suite of data sources which comprised autobiographical essays, interviews and lecture observations, this paper explores how the female teacher's educative and pedagogic expertise and interactions are framed in relation to her race, gender, and age. Accepting the fluidity and complexity of identity positionalities, the paper explores the identity constructions of the feminist teachers in their communities of practice.     

Classroom teachers as mentors: Possibilities for participation in a professional development school context

This paper describes how five classroom teachers make sense of their role as mentors in support of novices as they learn to teach. These teachers interact within a context that provides possibilities for participation with a teacher education program and professional development research. The main aim of the study was to gain insights into ways in which the five mentors talk about their theories of how novices learn to teach, use different sources of knowledge to help novices learn to teach, and model and encourage critical reflection about issues and practices in teacher education. Findings reveal that four of the five mentors played prominent roles as teacher educators, and developed collaborative relationships within the professional development school context between mentors, prospective teachers, and university faculty through sustained interactions, shared professional responsibility, and respect.     

The problem with English: the exploration and development of student teachers' English subject knowledge in primary classrooms

This paper explores the relationship between student teachers' behaviour and their underlying thoughts and beliefs as they learn to teach English in the primary school. It draws on data from a study involving student teachers at a range of points in their Initial Teacher Education programmes at a university in England. It uses these data to explore the knowledge frameworks that appear to underpin the actions that participants take in the classroom as they teach primary English. This is related to an exploration of the values, beliefs and professional identity held by the student teachers, and conclusions are drawn concerning key factors to be considered in the construction of Initial Teacher Education programmes.     

Latino bilingual teachers: the struggle to sustain an emancipatory pedagogy in public schools

This study examines how socially conscious bilingual Latino educators, specifically prepared to teach underserved children, resist multiple layers of hegemonic structures. The participants are five beginning Spanish bilingual teachers who teach in urban and semi-rural elementary schools. The study explores how their resistance unfolds as they develop and become critical educators and how their presence in schools provides children with the potential to develop social consciousness. This participatory research design uses dialogue as a tool to identify the problem, to facilitate the emergence of voice, to construct new knowledge, and to take action. Several themes surface: (1) the isolation of bilingual teachers, (2) the manifestations of power relations among students, (3) the use of a culturally bound pedagogy, (4) the countering of hidden curriculum through critical pedagogy, and (5) development of identity and voice for both students and teachers. The participating Latino teachers linked their social consciousness with an emergent critical pedagogy, which sustained them as they encounter many obstacles in their new profession.     

The specific skills required of teachers who deliver K–12 distance education courses by synchronous videoconference: implications for training and professional development

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to identify the specific skills required of videoconference teachers who teach K–12 distance education courses. Many schools and educational districts worldwide are using videoconference technology to deliver courses to students as an economic solution when they cannot afford specialised teachers at remote locations. However, teachers are rarely trained to use this instructional technology and must therefore translate their experience in face-to-face and/or online teaching to this alternative medium. The collective case study used observations and interviews of eight teachers across five schools to identify the specific skills required to teach in a way that they perceived as successful in a videoconference class. It was found that teachers are largely under-prepared with strategies to project presence, develop relationships, foster interaction, manage the course and teach content across a distance when the screen is the main tool of connection. The authors offer a path to improvement that involves supporting teacher action research, creating communities of inquiry and developing teaching quality standards specific to videoconference.     

Third and fourth grade teacher’s classroom practices in writing: a national survey

A random sample of teachers in grades 3 and 4 (N = 157) from across the United States were surveyed about their use of evidence-based writing practices, preparation to teach writing, and beliefs about writing. Teachers’ beliefs included their efficacy to teach writing, their orientations to teach writing, their attitude about teaching writing, and their attitudes about their own writing. The teachers’ responses raised some concerns about the quality of writing instruction third- and fourth-grade students receive, as teachers reported spending only 15 min a day teaching writing and students spend only 25 min a day at school writing. While teachers indicated they used a variety of evidence based writing practices in their classroom, a majority of these were applied infrequently. Further, three out of every four teachers reported that their college teacher preparation programs provided no or minimal instruction on how to teach writing. They further rated their preparation to teach writing lower than their preparation to teach reading, math, science, or social studies. On a more positive note, a majority of teachers asked students to write multiple paragraph texts relatively frequently (4 times a month or more often) and complete at least one narrative, informative, and persuasive writing assignment monthly. Teachers were also generally positive about teaching writing, their efficacy to teach writing, and their beliefs about their own writing. Finally, efficacy to teach writing and philosophical orientations to teaching writing each made a unique contribution to predicting teachers’ use of evidence based practices, whereas teacher preparation did the same for reported time spent teaching writing and reported time students wrote at school and home.     

Secondary Preservice Teachers’ Development of Teaching Scientific Writing

Educators have argued the need for greater attention on how teachers learn to teach writing in science (Kelly and Bazerman in Appl Linguist 24(1):28–55, 2003; Martin in Writing science: literacy and discursive power. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, pp 166–202, 1993). This article summarizes the findings of a qualitative study of five science preservice teachers as they experienced a unit of study, an inquiry-based instructional framework for the teaching of writing. Results found initially the science preservice teachers did not have knowledge of specific instructional approaches to teach writing. The science preservice teachers engaged in critical and analytical reading and writing, which enhanced their knowledge of writing and how to teach writing. The unit of study approach to writing may offer teacher educators a way to engage science preservice teachers in a method to teach scientific writing.