The relationship between conceptions of teaching and approaches to teaching

The relationship between conceptions of teaching and approaches to teaching was explored in a study of 18 secondary school art teachers in Hong Kong. Conceptions of teaching approaches were fitted to a four‐category model. Each of the categories was distinguished by reference to six relevant dimensions. As is the case in higher education, approaches to teaching lower forms, with little pressure from external examinations or school ethos, followed logically from conceptions of teaching. There was also evidence that contextual influences, if they were sufficiently strong, could play a part in teachers’ approaches to teaching in the lower forms. For senior forms, the most marked contextual influence on approaches to teaching came from the external examination syllabus. Of the 13 teachers who taught senior form students, eight reported using approaches to teaching that were significantly different from those they used for lower forms. The remaining four used essentially the same approach for junior and senior forms because these were consistent with the orientation of examinations that measure skill and knowledge acquisition. Finally, the data suggest that both the educational background of the teachers and the banding levels (designation of the school as high or low achieving) of the schools they were teaching in were related to the combined conceptions and approaches. The influence of banding levels could be due either to teachers choosing a type of school consistent with their beliefs or the environment of the school influencing teachers’ beliefs and practices.     

Major influences on the teaching and assessment of graduate attributes

Efforts to systematically integrate graduate attributes across university curricula have relied on academic staff acceptance and ability to translate top-down policy into teaching practice. The literature and anecdotal reports over the past two decades show limited success in the area using this approach. Why is this so? Teaching staff across 16 Australian universities were surveyed, as part of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council-funded grant, regarding their beliefs about graduate attributes and their willingness and confidence to teach and assess them. The study found that although 73% of academic staff surveyed believed graduate attributes were important, there was a substantial difference between beliefs and actual emphasis reported in practice. We consider the major influences on the teaching and assessment of graduate attributes, the implications for policy development and implementation, and propose a rethink in relation to how to work towards improved graduate attribute outcomes in universities.     

Making sense of teaching through metaphors: a review across three studies

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from three studies that have addressed the conceptualization and application of the metaphor construct to the study of teachers and teaching. With respect to the perspectives of elementary and secondary preservice teachers, we specifically examined how the particular metaphors they used indicated conceptualizations of and orientations to classroom life, and how these metaphors influenced teachers' approaches to teaching, curriculum, and their work with pupils. We frame the discussion in light of the larger literature on the relationship of teachers' beliefs and practices as it relates to learning to teach and teacher education. The paper provides implications for linking the research reported with contemporary ideas for teaching and teacher preparation.     

Teaching efficacy: exploring relationships between mathematics and science self-efficacy beliefs,PCK and domain knowledge among preservice teachers from the United States

This mixed-methods study investigated the relationships among preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and their domain knowledge (DK) as related to mathematics and science teaching. Quantitative results revealed that participants’ PCK was significantly correlated with their mathematics and science efficacy beliefs. Additionally, participants’ mathematics and science DK did not predict their mathematics and science personal efficacy beliefs, however, their PCK score predicted participants’ outcome expectancies. Interview analysis revealed five inter-related key themes, labeled as: Previous academic experiences, Mathematics and science PCK beliefs, Personal efficacy, Outcome expectancies and Emotions. These common themes describe participants’ views of their quality teacher training and thinking about planned instruction. Educational implications are discussed in relationship with study findings.     

Teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and its relationships to self-reported teaching practices

This study surveyed Chinese middle school (n = 951) teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and examined the relationship of those conceptions to their self-reported teaching practices. Responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. These teachers identified one examination-oriented dimension and four interactive, pedagogical dimensions of excellent teaching and four dimensions of teaching practice. The structural model indicated a high consistency rate (83%) between teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and the corresponding self-reported practices. Implications for teaching standards, teacher professional development, and examination system are discussed.     

Teachers using annotations to engage students in assessment conversations: recontextualising knowledge

Assessment for Learning practices with students such as feedback, and self- and peer assessment are opportunities for teachers and students to develop a shared understanding of how to create quality learning performances. Quality is often represented through achievement standards. This paper explores how primary school teachers in Australia used the process of annotating work samples to develop shared understanding of achievement standards during their curriculum planning phase, and how this understanding informed their teaching so that their students also developed this understanding. Bernstein's concept of the pedagogic device is used to identify the ways teachers recontextualised their assessment knowledge into their pedagogic practices. Two researchers worked alongside seven primary school teachers in two schools over a year, gathering qualitative data through focus groups and interviews. Three general recontextualising approaches were identified in the case studies; recontextualising standards by reinterpreting the role of rubrics, recontextualising by replicating the annotation process with the students and recontextualising by reinterpreting practices with students. While each approach had strengths and limitations, all of the teachers concluded that annotating conversations in the planning phase enhanced their understanding, and informed their practices in helping students to understand expectations for quality.     

Taking the next step: Connecting teacher education,research on teaching,and programme assessment

We cite four disconnections among teacher education programmes, research on teaching, and programme assessment that contribute to a paucity of systematically collected evidence and the inability of teacher educators to fully address the “outcomes question” [Cochran-Smith, M. (2003). Assessing assessment in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 54, 187–191] now central to the conduct and future of teacher education programmes. To reduce those disconnections, we present the Development, Research, and Improvement model of programme assessment [Metzler, M. W., & Tjeerdsma, B. L. (1998). PETE program assessment within a development, research, and improvement framework. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 17, 468–492] that has guided a comprehensive, longitudinal, and research-based assessment project at Georgia State University in the United States for 13 years. We situate this work in the framework of Self-Study of Teacher Education, now gaining attention worldwide as a legitimate approach to bridging the methodological and evidentiary gap between teacher education programmes, research on teaching, and programme assessment. Examples of data collected in the longitudinal programme are described, along with illustrations of how those data have guided decisions about our teacher education programme, and how those findings can add to the empirical knowledge in teacher education.     

论互动教学中的师生关系

互动教学中师生关系存在状态：尊重理解的和谐关系；体验生命的共生关系；融合智慧的践行关系。     

Assessment for equity: learning how to use evidence to scaffold learning and improve teaching

Abstract

This article examines evidence regarding the assessment learning of preservice teachers (PTs) in a new Master of Teaching designed to prepare teachers to address the less than equitable outcomes of certain groups of students in New Zealand. The assessment curriculum was integrated across all of the courses and the in-school experiences as one of six interconnected facets of practice for equity. Evidence about the assessment learning of 27 preservice teachers was collected using a survey, interpretive analysis of three assignments and a focus group interview. The findings demonstrated that preservice teachers combined theory and practice encountered in many contexts to build the assessment understanding and competence needed to address equity issues. We argue that this was facilitated by incorporating the assessment curriculum within each course, intertwining university and school experiences, and the specific focus on addressing equity throughout the programme.     

Item and testlet position effects in computer-based alternate assessments for students with disabilities

Item positions in educational assessments are often randomized across students to prevent cheating. However, if altering item positions results in any significant impact on students’ performance, it may threaten the validity of test scores. Two widely used approaches for detecting position effects – logistic regression and hierarchical generalized linear modelling – are often inconvenient for researchers and practitioners due to some technical and practical limitations. Therefore, this study introduced a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach for examining item and testlet position effects. The SEM approach was demonstrated using data from a computer-based alternate assessment designed for students with cognitive disabilities from three grade bands (3–5, 6–8, and high school). Item and testlet position effects were investigated in the field-test (FT) items that were received by each student at different positions. Results indicated that the difficulty of some FT items in grade bands 3–5 and 6–8 differed depending on the positions of the items on the test. Also, the overall difficulty of the field-test task in grade bands 6–8 increased as students responded to the field-test task in later positions. The SEM approach provides a flexible method for examining different types of position effects.     

论体育教学中师生关系及对学校体育教学的影响

本文采用文献法、问卷调查法、数理统计法等,针对体育教学中师生关系及对学校体育教学的影响,对泉州市3所大学、3所中学和3所小学的300名学生和60名体育教师进行了调查研究。结果表明：体育教学中师生关系总体评价较好;在影响师生关系因素和体育教师的职业认知上体育教师和学生存在差异。建立良好的师生关系是学校体育教学顺利进行的前提。     

试论当代语文教育的现状及其对策

近些年来，中学语教育问题一直成为社会广泛关注的一大热点，语难教，难学，难考，难提高的严峻现实是目前制约语教学的基本因素，尤其是语教育的泛政治化和语教育的标准化更是制约语教育的两大弊端，因此，语教育要适应新时代的要求，必须从根本上加以改革，即对语学科的性质进行再认识，改革陈旧的教学方法和单一的教学手段，改革语课程，教材和考试方法，进一步提高语教师的综合素质，以语教育的现代化带动整个教育的现代化。     

以情表达用心交流——高师语文教学培养学生表达与交流能力感悟

语文新课程标准对学生的表达与交流能力也提出了新的要求：要求学生能在口语交际中树立自信,尊重他人,说话文明,仪态大方,善于倾听,敏捷应对,而且能够借助语调和语气、表情和手势,增强口语交际的效果。同时在演讲时做到观点鲜明,在讨论或辩论中积极主动地发言,恰当地应对辩驳。本文依据这一要求,从语文的性质和教学任务出发,从三个方面阐述了高等师范学校如何培养学生的表达与交流的能力。     

Helping students with cognitive disabilities improve social writing skills through email modeling and scaffolding

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of email modeling and scaffolding on the social writing quality of students with cognitive disabilities. Ten students from a university-affiliated lab school (mean age = 19.3; SD = 1.2) with an average of IQ of 55.30 (SD = 5.98) and 10 teacher candidates in a university teacher education programme participated in the study. The results suggest that all students with intellectual disabilities were able to holistically improve their social writing quality after exchanging emails with mature writers over a period of 15 weeks. Specifically, the students progressively showed various degrees of improvement in the areas of writing mechanics, lexical and syntactic complexity, writing cohesion, pragmatic propriety and writing motivation. However, the figurative use of language remained unaffected by the email modeling and scaffolding. Taken together, this study suggests that Internet-mediated formats, such as email, can reduce the anxiety of students with intellectual disabilities. Students feel more motivated to engage in writing and do so more actively in social media exchanges, thus improving their virtual social communication skills through writing. Teaching implications of this study are discussed.     

英语写作教学中的师生面谈反馈研究及实践

师生面谈反馈指的是师生之间一对一的关于学生作文和写作过程所进行的写作会议。写作师生面谈被认为是一种高效并有效的写作反馈方式(Ferris,2003;Williams,2004)。以往对于写作教学中的师生面谈反馈更多是一语的语境下;即使是二语的语境下,研究的重点更多的是放在对于教师或学生某一方在互动中的表现。本研究基于交互假说(Long,1981,1985,1996)和注意假说(Schimdt,1990)搭建起的沟通和辅助相结合的理论框架,根据对某中国大学的两位英语写作老师和五位大学一年级学生为期两个学期的调查和数据采集,针对老师和学生双方在互动中的表现以及其效果进行分析,作者发现利用师生面谈反馈对低水平学生的英语写作进行辅导时效果明显,并整理出一套师生面谈反馈的谈话模式以供其他老师实际操作英语写作教学中的师生面谈。     

Formative assessment and teaching practice: the point of view of Italian teachers

Over the years the debate on the aims, approaches, and impacts of formative assessment has never stopped to grow. Parallel to this growth is the awareness that it is crucial to understand what conceptions teachers have of assessment in order to guarantee more effective teacher education. This paper tries to connect these two fields of research: formative assessment and teacher education through an analysis of teachers’ conceptions: What do teachers think about assessment? What aims do they pursue through it? Do teachers really distinguish between formative and summative assessment? On the backdrop of the formative assessment literature, the article reports on an exploratory research study. Limitations and issues are analysed in order to shed light on teacher education implication and on future educational research paths in the educational assessment field.     

The Interplay of School Readiness and Teacher Readiness for Educational Technology Integration: A Structural Equation Model

Decades of research have shown that technological change in schools depends on multiple interrelated factors. Structural equation models explaining the interplay of factors often suffer from high complexity and low coherence. To reduce complexity, a more robust structural equation model was built with data from a survey of 349 Swiss primary school teachers. It confirms that educational technology integration is dependent on individual teachers' readiness, which is in turn influenced by school readiness. Teacher readiness to integrate educational technology is based on perceived skills and beliefs. Facets of school readiness include educational technology resources in classrooms, perceived importance of technology integration, goal clarity, head teacher support, as well as formal and informal exchange among teachers.     

Multimodal approaches to reflective teaching and assessment in higher education

Reflection is not a new concept in the teaching of higher education and is often an important component of many disciplinary courses. Despite this, past research shows that while there are examples of rich reflective strategies used in some areas of higher education, most approaches to, and conceptualisations of, reflective learning and assessment have been perfunctory and inconsistent. In many disciplinary areas, reflection is often assessed as a written activity ‘tagged onto’ assessment practices. In creative disciplines, however, reflective practice is an integral and cumulative form of learning and is often expressed in ways other than in the written form. This paper will present three case studies of reflective practice in the area of Creative Industries in higher education – Dance, Fashion and Music. It will discuss the ways in which higher education teachers and students use multimodal approaches to expressing knowledge and reflective practice in such a context. The paper will argue that unless students are encouraged to participate in deep reflective disciplinary discourse via multi-modes then reflection will remain superficial in the higher education context.     

Examining a program designed to improve supervisory knowledge and practices of cooperating teachers

This article reports on how a program based on educative supervision supported the supervisory knowledge and practices of three cooperating teachers. The program was planned as a kind of practicum: the cooperating teachers participated in the program while working with a student teacher. The program included activities where the cooperating teachers reflected on their supervisory beliefs and practices in collaboration with each other. The case study method was used, where the case was the designed program. Data analysis indicated some changes in the supervision styles of the participating cooperating teachers toward educative supervision. First, the percent of speech given by the student teachers in the post-lesson conferences increased after the discussion of educative supervision in the program. Secondly, the amount and depth of talks on mathematics pedagogy increased. Thirdly, the cooperating teachers moved away from conveying their feedback directly to the student teachers; they started asking more open-ended questions to have the student teachers reflect on their teaching.     

What contributes to low achievement of middle school students: Evidence from multigroup structural equation modeling

The authors' purpose was to examine the degree to which low achievement is related to ontogenetic factors (i.e., personal psychological traits expressed as attention and depression) or microsystemic factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, parenting, relationship with peers and teachers), using a total of 721 middle school students in South Korea. Based on the percentile rank, low-achieving students (bottom 15%; n = 323) and high-achieving students (top 15%; n = 398) were grouped, and a multigroup structural equation modeling was employed to determine which ecological factor(s) contribute to predict low achievement of middle school students. Results from multigroup structural equation modeling showed that 3 of the 6 ecological and ontological factors had significant direct or indirect effect on low achievement: socioeconomic status (direct effect), attention (direct effect), parenting (indirect effect). The findings are discussed in terms of the intertwined influences of ecological factors on low achievement, finally leading to the discussion on the limitations and future directions for research.