Short-term developments in student teachers' lesson planning

Research on teacher thinking offers interesting perspectives for studying the process of learning to teach. Research on student teaching, however, would be furthered most by a conception of teaching and of learning to teach that integrates complementary approaches. In this study, the action-oriented interpretation of teaching is used as a heuristic model of such an integration. Both observations and self-reports were used to gather data on two to four successive lessons of 18 student teachers. These different kinds of data were analyzed simultaneously and in their mutual relations by means of a complex system of categories. Results on student teachers' lesson planning and its developments are presented.     

Teaching about ethics through socioscientific issues in physics and chemistry: Teacher candidates' beliefs

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and explain the origins of physics and chemistry teacher candidates' beliefs about teaching about ethics through socioscientific issues (SSI). This study utilized a series of in‐depth interviews, while the participants (n = 12) were enrolled in a 9‐month teacher education program at an urban university in Canada. Our data analysis revealed that beliefs about teaching physics and chemistry using SSI derive from a complex web of fundamental beliefs exemplified by four archetypes representing the subject‐specific identities of our teacher candidates—Model Scientist/Engineer, Model Individual, Model Teacher, and Model Citizen. Furthermore, we found that the justification for belief change required by a particular teacher candidate depends on these subject‐discipline identities. Thus, the presence of each archetype in preservice classrooms has ramifications for the way a teacher educator should encourage his or her students to include SSI in their teaching. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 380–401, 2010     

Pre-service teachers' beliefs about the switch of medium-of-instruction and their influence on lesson planning and teaching practice

Studies suggest that pre-service teachers' existing beliefs often serve as a lens to interpret the subject matter to be taught, guide their thoughts in lesson planning and shape their behaviour in classroom practices during their teaching practicum. This study examines how these beliefs affect pre-service teachers' conceptualization of Putonghua-medium-of-instruction (PMI) and their teaching. The findings indicate that the conceptualization of pre-service teachers about PMI ranged from code switching to curriculum integration. Their focus of lesson planning and teaching practice varied from transmission of Putonghua knowledge and detailed explanation of text information to integration of Chinese Language and Putonghua.     

数学建模优化程序设计与数学原理的综合运用

从符号与数值的转化、同余映射中的周期长度及分阶段执行程序等3个方面,以实际例子研究了如何在实践中运用数学原理来优化程序设计、节约运行时间,达到利于解决数学建模问题的目标。     

Reflective lesson planning in refresher training programs for experienced physics teachers

This paper reports on some aspects of a refresher training program for experienced physics teachers that is based on Dewey's idea of reflective teaching. The program introduces experienced teachers to a reflective lesson planning model, and a more constructivist approach to physics teaching, and provides them with the opportunity to develop and experience their own strategies during micro-teaching sessions. Three instructional strategies developed by participants in the program and the corresponding suggestions/comments made by their peers in follow-up discussions are presented and analyzed in this paper. The authors, who have coordinated or taught the course, are convinced that the program provides considerable impetus for experienced teachers to redevelop their innovative capacity.     

Studying the classroom implementation of tasks: High-level mathematical tasks embedded in ‘real-life’ contexts

Mathematical tasks embedded in real-life contexts have received increased attention by educators, in part due to the considerable levels of student engagement often triggered by their motivational features. Nevertheless, it is often challenging for teachers to implement high-level (i.e., cognitively demanding), real-life tasks in ways that exploit their motivational features without overshadowing the mathematics involved. This paper proposes an analytic framework for describing and explaining the classroom implementation of different kinds of tasks, and uses this framework to analyse a classroom episode where a secondary teacher implemented with low fidelity a high-level, real-life mathematical task. Implications for research are discussed.     

Teacher planning in the development of collaborative cultures

The value of collaborative working practices in schools and other institutions has been studied by a number of researchers, eg Fullan (1991); Hargreaves (1994). Researchers generally agree that collaborative practice is an important factor in teacher development and school improvement.

The significance of planning in primary schools is widely acknowledged. However, limited research has been carried out into the planning of primary teachers in Britain and much of what is written and advocated as good practice has little evidential basis.

This article explores the symbiotic relationship between planning and collaboration. In particular, it discusses the significance of this relationship to the individual teacher and to the school as an institution.     

The effects of recognition and recall study tasks with feedback in a computer-based vocabulary lesson

Should computer-based study tasks use multiple-choice or constructed-response question format? It was hypothesized that a constructucted-response study task (CR) with feedback would be superior to multiple-choice study tasks that allowed either single or multiple tries (STF and MTF). Two additional recognition study task treatments were included that required an overt constructed response after feedback (STF+OR and MTF+OR) in order to control for possible confounding caused by response form mismatch between the recognition study task and recall posttest. Graduate students (N=133) were randomly assigned to one of the five computer-delivered treatments. Relative to STF, posttest effect sizes were: STF 相似文献   

Analysing the Role of the Teacher in Early Reading: A lesson for researchers

This paper describes two parts of a research study that examined the role of the teacher of reading in the child's first year of school. Traditional research into reading has tended to examine the child's reading behaviour or the methods used by teachers. Research into teacher effectiveness tends to be large scale and uses standardised measures of performance and analysis of task design. This paper argues that teaching, particularly with younger children, is a complex process that cannot be easily defined. The design adopted by researchers will influence findings and, above all, if research into teaching does not involve the teachers themselves, then it is unlikely that new definitions of teaching will arise. The author discusses how the inclusion in the research project of teachers' own perceptions of their role revealed different and contradictory findings to those of more established studies .     

Social studies teacher candidates' views on the controversial issues incorporated into their courses in Turkey

Incorporating controversial issues into pre-service teacher education provides teacher candidates with opportunities not only to gain effective civic competence but also to develop skills and experience in their teaching of controversial issues. The purpose of this study was to ascertain social studies teacher candidates' views on the controversial issues involved in their courses in Turkey. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with 15 teacher candidates. It was found that controversial issues were not sufficiently included in teacher candidates' courses and that teacher candidates have difficulty in discussing critical issues in class. This study also introduced the idea that teacher candidates experiencing controversial issues in pre-service teacher education can gain positive attitudes towards teaching such issues in their professional lives and can form their own teaching strategies. Teacher candidates came to believe that good teachers should include controversial issues related to the course content and both teachers and teacher candidates should prepare for their discussion phase.     

The Recognition of Conjunctive and Identity Needs in Teacher Development: their implications for the planning of inservice training

In this article we argue that inservice courses based on commonality of skills, and using management science are an effective way to meet the present needs for and difficulties of inservice education in Ireland. We further suggest that such courses are valid in other situations.

Considerable changes have taken place in the Irish educational system during the last 20 years. These are detailed, and reasons for a substantial programme of inservice training are given. The lessons of in‐company training are applied to teacher inservice programmes. The constraints of identity, experience and security and the way in which they influence individual perception of needs, and therefore of the relevance of particular inservice programmes are discussed. The lack of recognition that many needs are conjunctive leads to unnecessary duplication in course design. The potential of communal course spiral structures for effective utilisation of resources is illustrated by reference to two programmes undertaken by the authors in 1985.

The skills described, should it is argued, be present in any education course, for they are the basis for a sound, effective education.     

The design of tasks in support of teachers’ development of coherent mathematical meanings

We examine the role of tasks that have the intended effect of teachers re-conceiving the mathematics they teach as comprising a coherent body of meaningful ideas. We ground our discussion in ideas of trigonometry and modular functions and draw from a professional development research project to illustrate our approach. In this project, many teachers experienced dissonance that was rooted in their commitments to their curricular knowledge of trigonometry. Teachers who built new meanings into a coherent whole were those who coordinated them at a micro level. Teachers who saw implications of their own reasoning for student learning were also successful at expressing that reasoning in natural language. We saw a similar pattern in the case of teachers' creation of meanings for action and process conceptions of mod(f(x),g(x)). Teachers who gained insight into implications of their own activities for student learning were the teachers who reasoned at a micro level in regard to the meaning of mod, who coordinated that meaning with a covariational perspective on the behavior of functions, and who expressed that coordination in natural language. We conclude that a primary feature of tasks that promote teachers' construction of coherent mathematical meanings is that they support an overall effort to have teachers engage in the coordination of meanings in the context of explaining significant ideas and relationships.     

Teacher perceptions of the mathematical potential of students in special education in the Netherlands

Research has shown that high expectations of teachers about their students’ academic development have a positive influence on how these students actually develop. Therefore, when aiming to improve students’ learning results it is essential to know how teachers think about their students’ abilities. The present study was meant to investigate what perceptions primary school teachers in special education have of their students’ potential in mathematics and what possibilities they see to reveal this potential. Data were collected through an online questionnaire. Surprisingly, the responses showed that, although the teachers teach students with low achievement scores in mathematics, most of the teachers were positive about the mathematical potential of their students. The teachers often attributed unused potential to causes outside the student and they underpinned this view with observations from school practice. The article concludes with discussing the consequences of these findings for the professional development of teachers.     

Accelerated Degrees and their Use in Teacher Education

The origin of accelerated or intensified degrees in general is considered and a digest of writing on such degrees is provided. In particular the author describes the University Funding Council (UFC) and Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council (PCFC) accelerated degree developments in teacher education and cites the limited amount of evaluative writing. OFSTED has carried out a limited evaluation of these routes to qualified teacher status and the principal findings and issues are reported.     

From autopsy to biopsy: A metacognitive view of lesson planning and teacher trainees in ELT

Lesson planning and implementation of those plans are complex and cognitively demanding for English Language Teacher trainees preparing for the profession. Many find it difficult to develop a lesson holistically and to maintain alignment across aims, procedural steps, and evaluation when planning and implementing a lesson. We attempted to address this problem by establishing a model of trainees’ action that included their deliberate metacognitive structuring of a lesson both in planning and review phases. Data from a first exploration of student thinking elicited by the model indicate positive shifts in trainees’ holistic thinking and a student-centeredness in the critical perspectives they took in both planning and review.     

绍兴市旅游业发展的区位分析、形象设计与项目策划

从区位分析入手,阐明了绍兴市旅游业发展的地理区位、经济区位、化区位和旅游区位的特征。根据区位的优势,以“魅力绍兴、人杰地灵为基本理念,设计出了绍兴市旅游总体形象和8个功能区的旅游形象。然后,以旅游形象为基点,以旅游市场需求为导向,为绍兴市确立了26个旅游开发建设项目和10个旅游节庆活动项目,并对每个开发建设项目进行了创意分析,对节庆活动项目进行了组合设计。