Assessment of Teacher Trainees

Deciding whether a teacher trainee is ready to become an effective member of the teaching profession is an expected responsibility of any teacher training institution. In many cases, more is expected. Discrimination is required toward teacher trainees in deciding who is able, who is adequate, or better or best. These expectations have necessitated institutions formulating and improving a number of methods for making such decisions. As part of the commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Institute of Education, this paper is being presented as a focus on the assessment of teacher trainees for accreditation in becoming part of the task force of teachers in Singapore.     

Why Teacher Trainees Choose the Teaching Profession: Comparing Trainees in Metropolitan and Developing Countries

International Review of Education -     

Teacher investment in learner identity

From a sociocultural perspective, teacher identity is constructed in relation to others, including other teachers and students. Drawing on positioning theory and the concept of investment, this study analyzed the case of a secondary English teacher who negotiated his teacher identity in relation to English language learners (ELLs). Findings indicated that the teacher made an investment in ELLs' identity by positioning them as like any other student. The desired return on the teacher's investment was a strengthened self-positioning as a natural and highly competent teacher. The implications of teacher investment in learner identity for teacher practice, learner identity construction, and teacher education are discussed.     

Young women's scientific identity formation in an urban context

In this article we examine the scientific identity formation of two young women of color who attend an urban vocational high school. One young woman lives in an urban setting, while the other lives in a suburban setting. We describe how these young women's identities influence and respond to experiences in school science. In particular, we describe how the experience of marginalization can make membership in a school science community impossible or undesirable. We also describe the advantages that accrue to students who fit well with the ideal identities of an urban school. Finally, we describe some of the difficulties students face who aspire to scientific or technological competence yet do not desire to take on aspects of the identities associated with membership in school science communities. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 965–980, 2001     

Becoming Teacher: Student teaching as identity construction

This article presents an autobiographical qualitative study. A former elementary school teacher describes how her work as a university supervisor gave her an opportunity to examine her own construction of self as a teacher and teacher educator during two semesters of undergraduate student teaching. Research related to teacher individualism and isolation provides a lens through which to explore socialization experiences of both the author and her students. The analysis finds that some programs and schools do not allow for or value the critical dialogue and narrative discourse essential for the formation of the self. The author makes several suggestions for teacher education programs which will help prepare teachers to take advantage of agentive moments, creating spaces for discourse and collaboration.     

Primary School Teacher Training in the European Community: an overview of recent developments

The colleges of education for primary school teachers in The Netherlands have gone through several mergers in the space of just a few years. Many colleges of education became part of a polytechnic. The authors studied how the specific characteristics of the education of primary school teachers can show to full advantage in a large institute of higher vocational education. In the Dutch situation as well as that of the other countries of the European Community (England and the Federal Republic of Germany in particular) the phenomena ‘integration’ and ‘differentiation’ have been studied. The authors concluded that mergers of primary school teacher training colleges can be a serious threat to the educational identity of teacher training as a whole. Holding to as well as giving up the educational identity does not guarantee that the specific characteristics will be kept.     

Teaching in the periphery: Teacher identity in community language schools

Community language schools are unique educational language providers developed as grassroots initiatives by immigrant communities worldwide. However, little is known about community language school teachers’ work or their sense of identity. The present study uses narrative inquiry to explore the experiences and challenges of one Swedish community language school teacher in Australia. Key findings show that community language school teachers’ sense of teacher identity is situated and negotiated in the intersection of people, power relations, and language ideologies which can lead to a lack of job satisfaction, a sense of failure, and marginalisation in wider educational contexts.     

Teacher professional identity: competing discourses,competing outcomes

This paper focuses on issues of the professional identity of teachers in Australia under conditions of significant change in government policy and educational restructuring. Two discourses, democratic and managerial professionalism are identified which are shaping the professional identity of teachers. Democratic professionalism is emerging from the profession itself while managerialist professionalism is being reinforced by employing authorities through their policies on teacher professional development with their emphasis on accountability and effectiveness. The second part of the paper examines the types of professional identity emerging from these discourses. The two identities identified are the entrepreneurial and the activist identity. While these identities are not fixed, nevertheless at various times and in various contexts teachers may move between these two professional identities.     

Teacher agency and identity commitment in curricular reform

This study explores how teachers enact agency to facilitate their professional development during curricular reform at a Chinese university. An analysis of data derived from life history interviews with eight language teachers complemented with field notes reveals differential agentic choices and actions. The teachers' learning, teaching and research endeavours in relation to the new curriculum are directed by various identity commitments and enacted in highly individualised ways, as mediated by their prior experiences. By situating teachers' agency in their individual professional trajectories, this study conceptualises interaction of teacher agency and identity commitment to professional development during curricular reform.     

Co-constructors of data,co-constructors of meaning: Teacher professional development in an age of accountability

This research examines how engaging teachers in collaboratively constructing situated assessments enhances teacher professional development, fosters meaningful shifts to practice, and supports productive conceptions of accountability. We conducted case studies of six teachers engaged as partners in investigating new approaches to assessing and fostering literacy. Findings suggested that supporting teachers to generate, interpret, and act upon assessment data within instructional change cycles assisted them in monitoring student performance, grounding instructional decisions in data, and enacting changes to practice. We also document how collaboratively constructing assessments with teachers supported conceptions of accountability considered meaningful by individuals adopting differing socio-political perspectives.     

A Feedback Procedure for Teacher Trainees Working with Parent Tutors of Reading

Abstract In this pilot study, four third‐year teacher trainees were trained to give feedback to parents who were tutoring their own children in reading using the Pause Prompt and Praise procedures. The trainees learnt to teach the procedures to the parents and then to give feedback by prompting parents to remember and explain their own tutoring behaviours. Baseline measures showed that when trainees were asked to help parents in any way they could to implement the procedures, they used very intrusive forms of prompts. Following training trainees used much less intrusive forms of prompts, giving parents more opportunity to remember and explain their own tutoring behaviours. It was argued that less intrusive forms of prompting when giving feedback may have been of more assistance to parents in learning the procedures than more intrusive forms of prompting, since parents may have learned to become more independent of trainee support. This, in turn, may have contributed to the substantial gains in children's reading levels which occurred.