‘The fruit caught between two stones’: the conflicted position of teachers within Aceh's independence struggle†

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the challenging situation faced by teachers as professionals and members of the community in Aceh, Indonesia during the province's civil war. It reveals how teachers’ sense of agency during this period was deeply influenced by the economic/material, political and socio-cultural condition at that time – conditions and experiences which today have bearing on a place for teachers in the post-conflict peace-building process occurring in the province. During the conflict, teachers struggled to balance their strategic societal positioning – as civil servants and community members – and found themselves caught in the middle of a complex range of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces at play. This position of constraint, we argue, limited the ability of teachers to act as peace-builders during the conflict, and continues to influence teachers’ ability to function in such ways today.     

Raising the Bar: Using Coaching Conversations to Address Issues of Low Expectations for Students in Urban Settings

Abstract

Two instructional coaches explore the effectiveness of targeted coaching conversations to address teachers' perceptions of their students' capacities. In this study, the researchers focus on how specific questions can promote teachers' metacognition of underlying biases held toward their students. Researchers also explore the implications for curricular practices when teachers are prompted to address conceptions of ability.     

Teacher efficacy: An investigation of Economics teachers

Abstract

In an era of unprecedented curriculum change it is not surprising that many South African teachers have begun to question their ability to affect learner performance. Teachers have to engage with a changing learner culture, with new curriculum content and are under pressure to embrace different teaching strategies without fully understanding the theoretical principles on which they are based. In this paper the authors explore high-school Economics teachers' beliefs about their capacities to influence learning. This paper is based on a quantitative empirical investigation into Economics teachers' efficacy beliefs about the teaching of Economics. Economics teachers from each of the 45 Department of Education delineated districts in KwaZulu-Natal province were selected to be participants in the study. We argue that while Economics teachers perceive their role as important in the learning process, male teachers in particular see the teacher as the dominant influence on learner performance, and are more confident than female teachers of their knowledge and teaching abilities.     

Taiwanese science and life technology curriculum standards and earth systems education

This research examines whether UK primary teachers are aware of the potential of highly able young 'scientists' and whether they differentiate their teaching accordingly. The support that the National Curriculum gives to highly able children is also examined. A questionnaire was chosen for initial data collection, followed by a semi-structured interview with teachers who sent children to master classes. Analysis would indicate that teachers recognize that children who are scientifically highly able have the capacity to use higher order thinking to perform all aspects of science investigations. There does, however, seem to be a mismatch between theory and practice. The data from the questionnaires suggest that teachers do use a variety of methods to differentiate their science teaching. There was, however, no correlation between teachers' opinions related to scientifically able children's investigative skills and the associated methods of differentiating their teaching. The interview data reinforced this further as many able children had been given limited experience of science investigations in mixed ability groups.     

ICT in European schools: emerging issues from the ValNet project

ABSTRACT

Investigations of aspects of differentiation in primary and secondary schools showed that even teachers believed to be ‘good differentiators' have difficulties in allocating tasks to pupils which are appropriate to their attainment levels. Teachers identified a number of key needs to be met if they were to improve differentiation, in particular the need for detailed, manageable, accessible information on pupils' attainments. Among the needs of learners identified by pupils was a need for more information on their learning goals, problems and the means of their solution. A partnership model of assessment is described which has been developed by teachers to meet the needs of both teachers and pupils.     

Alternative Assessment Portfolios for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Case Study

Abstract

Twenty‐eight classroom teachers identified students in their rooms who were low achievers, at‐risk learners; low achievers, not at risk; average achievers; and special education students. We videotaped these students during reading lessons conducted by their teachers. Using a stimulated recall procedure, we interviewed teachers and asked them to report their thought processes during instruction, especially those that pertained to the target children. We found that teachers reported significantly more negative thoughts about at‐risk learners' than about average achievers' attending behavior and ability‐performance. Furthermore, at‐risk learners received a greater number of comments focused on the need to monitor their performance. Special education students received significantly more positive and negative comments about attending than did average achievers. In addition, they received more miscellaneous positive comments than did low, not at‐risk, and average achievers. Finally, teachers reported making more classroom modifications for this group than for average students. Implications for prereferral classroom interventions are discussed.     

Redefining the importance of children's voices in personal social emotional development curriculum using the Mosaic Approach

ABSTRACT

The research explores the implementation of the Mosaic Approach into a Greek early years’ setting. For the data collection, 21 children were observed using cameras, tours, mapping, and researcher's interviews with teachers and parents. Special consideration was given to the newly added tool of peer-to-peer interviews. Results depicted children's need for quality relationships with peers and adults and their favourite and least favourite places in their school. The authors suggest the adaptation of the Mosaic Approach into the Personal, Social and Emotional Development curriculum as an educational tool of children's rights which empowers their voices, as well as reinforcing their self-esteem and ability to form quality relationships.     

No Man's Land: Caring and male student primary teachers

Sixteen male student primary teachers on a primary Initial Teacher Education course were interviewed and their understanding of 'care' explored. Analysis of the data suggests that male student primary teachers have specific gendered understandings of 'care'. Teacher educators need to take account of this in primary Initial Teacher Education courses and to provide students with opportunities to reflect on their understanding of 'care' in relation to their work as primary teachers, and the part gender plays in shaping that understanding.     

Environmental Pollution: An Ecological Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of participation in a 3-day outdoor environmental education program on preservice teachers' attitudes toward self-efficacy—which is a teacher's belief that he or she can teach environmental education (EE) effectively—and on outcome expectancy—which is a teacher's estimation of his or her influence on student learning. Participants were a convenience sample of 72 preservice elementary teachers taking a science methodology course at a state university. Participants were divided into 2 groups for this modified pretest/2-posttest/control group study. The instrument for all 3 tests was Sia's (1992) Environmental Education Efficacy Belief Instrument. The authors used parametric t tests to compare group means. The results suggested that the preservice teachers' self-efficacy was high before the program and remained unchanged by their teaching experiences but dropped significantly approximately 7 weeks after teaching. The lack of change in self-efficacy from the teaching experience was attributed to the structured nature and success of the teaching experience, but the negative effect of time on self-efficacy was believed to have resulted from the preservice teachers reevaluation of their ability to teach as they learned more about teaching methodologies. In addition, there was no significant change in outcome expectancy as a result of participation in the program or over time (7 weeks).     

Exploring the interplay of leadership and quality improvement in early years settings in England and Hong Kong

Literature on professional development indicates that beginning teachers experience a kind of 'reality shock' in their first professional year. This paper reports an investigation aimed at bridging this gap by introducing aspects of reality shock into the practicum component of an initial teacher education programme. A new student-teaching element, 'The Individual and Independent Final Teaching Period (IFTP)' was developed. In this IFTP the student teachers act on their own for three months, supervised by means of 'long-arm' supervision (involving no classroom observation). The characteristics of the IFTP that contribute to the creation of realistic working situation within a teacher training programme that at the same time help to create a fruitful and guided learning situation are described. Actual short-term learning outcomes perceived by the student teachers and their supervisors are also discussed.     

Financial Delegation: its effect on the school and the role of the head

At the end of a decade of enhanced marketisation in schools, this article considers the subjective meanings attached to educational marketing by school teachers and the ways they construct and interpret teachers' 'idealised' and 'actual' involvement and contribution to school marketing. Through semi-structured interviews with 12 secondary school teachers from the south of England, the study revealed teachers' perceptions of and attitudes towards competition, marketing and education, their awareness of the marketing activities of their schools, the teachers' role in marketing the school and the perceived impact of the market upon teachers' well being. The results show that there is no coherent, organised view of education marketing among teachers in the study but rather that there are a number of inchoate voices amongst teachers concerning their role in school marketing. Broadly, two voices are revealed that reflect a cognitive dissonance which may exist among school teachers in the era of marketisation. This dissonance may stem from teachers' ideology-based difficulty in perceiving marketing as part of school life, while at the same time, they are aware of its importance to the school's success.     

Can cooperating teachers help student teachers develop a vision of education?

Abstract

Research in teacher education is increasingly concerned with teachers' visions of education and their sense of calling, mission, and professional identity. Interviews with outstanding cooperating teachers focused on exploring their beliefs on teacher vision, and what makes a good teacher. The teachers were also asked to discuss their beliefs on whether vision—and the independence of spirit that a strong vision is thought to foster—is relevant in their work with student teachers. The teachers revealed a strong sense of why they teach and shared goals around several themes. They also maintained that reflection is key to developing a vision of education. Teacher education programs can support these teachers' views of quality education by developing conceptual frameworks that foster reflection and the development of a vision for education, particularly in the student teaching experience.     

Rural-Urban Differences In Intelligence

Abstract

This study examined possible divergencies between the way elementary school principals evaluated their performance in carrying out certain administrative practices and an evaluation of the principals' performance as judged by the teaching staff. The principals' performance was evaluated on 46 administrative practices. Teachers and principals in 66 elementary schools participated in the study.

The null hypothesis proposed that there was no significant difference between principals' evaluation of their performance and an evaluation made by teachers. The chi square test of significance was used to test the hypothesis. The results were: (1) the two groups differed significantly on their evaluation of the principals' performance on 22 of the 46 administrative practices, and (2) principals rated their performance as more satisfactory than did the teachers.     

Crossing borders: Learning and teaching primary science in the pre-service to in-service transition

This paper reports on a 4-year longitudinal case study of two Australian primary science teachers during their transition from pre-service to in-service teaching. An analytic framework suggested by Aikenhead (1996) was used to interpret teachers' change and professional growth as instances of sub-cultural border crossing. The same framework provides an opportunity for reflexivity on the part of the researchers in coming to understand their own role in the construction of the borders crossed by beginning teachers. The study examines the hazards encountered by teachers as they cross borders and proposes ways of assisting teachers to manage border crossing into the sub-culture of science teaching.     

Pedagogical influence of interaction with cooperating teachers on the efficacy beliefs of student teachers

Abstract

Cooperating teachers are often identified as some of the most important figures in the preparation of new teachers, and the reasons are not difficult to understand. Surprisingly, however, very little research has been conducted to quantify the effects of cooperating teachers on student teachers. This study examines the impact of student teachers' perceived interactions with their cooperating teachers and the influence that interaction has on student teachers' self‐efficacy for teaching. Results indicate a moderate correlation between perceptions of teaching efficacy and cooperating teacher‐student teacher interactions. Differences were found in the frequency of interaction based on the certification level of the student teacher, with elementary level student teachers perceiving a greater amount of interaction with their cooperating teachers. However, no differences based on certification level were detected in perceived efficacy. Student teachers' perceptions of the level of guidance offered by their cooperating teachers provided the most reliable predictor for their efficacy belief.     

Creative Knowledge: The Centrality of Creativity in Teachers’ Conceptions of Subject English

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the notion of creativity as a core concept in English teachers’ knowledge and valuing of their subject. It draws on research from a broader investigation into teachers as writers and discusses one of the key findings of the study: that creativity is not only crucial to how teachers approach their pedagogy and subject content, but that contexts in which creativity is minimised in English teachers’ lives results in struggle or even a departure from the profession. The paper concludes with a call for teachers and bureaucrats to affirm creative knowledge as foundational to English teachers and their profession, and the ability of teacher narratives to offer a powerful contribution to debates in English teaching.     

Constraints on Development and Change to Science Teachers' Practice in Egyptian Classrooms

This paper addresses the general question of why teachers teach in the way they do. Data collected from Egyptian science teachers both in the UK during an in-service course and on their return to Egypt are reported. The teachers' evaluation of which in-service experiences they thought of most use is contrasted with the changes they were able to bring about in their own teaching on return to Egypt. Follow-up interviews and classroom observations in Egypt showed the teachers to be frustrated in introducing even limited changes to their practice. This paper proposes that Schön's notion of the reflective practitioner may not be suitable for modelling a mechanism of change in classroom practice for all teachers. Teachers in developing countries, with educational systems that Beeby characterises as mechanical or untrained, are more constrained than the notion of the reflective practitioner allows.     

Predicting African American Parents' and Guardians' Satisfaction With Teachers and Public Schools

Abstract

The author used regression analyses to examine variables that predicted how African American parents and guardians rated their children's teachers and the public school system. The results indicated that although several variables were significant, parents' and guardians' satisfaction with their children's elementary school teachers was the strongest predictor of how they rated high school teachers and the public school system. The need for educators and policy-makers to improve their relations with African American parents and guardians is underscored.     

Dilemma-based Cases Written by Preservice Elementary Teacher Candidates: An analysis of process and content

The present paper describes how preservice teachers constructed dilemma-based cases as part of a reflective and inquiry-oriented teacher education program. Twelve elementary education majors wrote dilemma-based cases based on critical incidents experienced during their field placements in Professional Development Schools. Examination of these data reveals that writing cases allowed these teacher candidates to resolve dilemmas they experienced during their internships, which influenced their perceptions of their roles and relationships in elementary classrooms. The process of writing cases also helped these prospective teachers to work through their feelings about these incidents and to understand the value of reflection. Content analyses of these data revealed that all of the cases centered around two typical novice teachers' concerns: (a) the preservice teacher's relationship with their cooperating teachers and students, or (b) classroom management concerns. None of the cases revolved around content or curriculum issues .     

Developing an instrument for assessing students’ concepts of the nature of technology

Background: In Bangladesh, a common science curriculum caters for all students at the junior secondary level. Since this curriculum is for all students, its aims are both to build a strong foundation in science while still providing students with the opportunities to use science in everyday life – an aim consistent with the notion of scientific literacy.

Purpose: This paper reports Bangladeshi science teachers’ perspectives and practices in regard to the promotion of scientific literacy.

Sample: Six science teachers representing a range of geographical locations, school types with different class sizes, lengths of teaching experience and educational qualifications.

Design and method: This study employed a case study approach. The six teachers and their associated science classes (including students) were considered as six cases. Data were gathered through observing the teachers’ science lessons, interviewing them twice – once before and once after the lesson observation, and interviewing their students in focus groups.

Results: This study reveals that participating teachers held a range of perspectives on scientific literacy, including some naïve perspectives. In addition, their perspectives were often not seen to be realised in the classroom as for teachers the emphasis of learning science was more traditional in nature. Many of their teaching practices promoted a culture of academic science that resulted in students’ difficulty in finding connections between the science they study in school and their everyday lives. This research also identified the tension which teachers encountered between their religious values and science values while they were teaching science in a culture with a religious tradition.

Conclusions: The professional development practice for science teachers in Bangladesh with its emphasis on developing science content knowledge may limit the scope for promoting the concepts of scientific literacy. Opportunities for developing pedagogic knowledge is also limited and consequently impacts on teachers’ ability to develop the concepts of scientific literacy and learn how to teach for its promotion.