The foreign student as a student teacher

Cultural differences appeared to establish a communications barrier between this teacher and her student teacher. Perhaps Mrs. Bloom's experiences will be helpful to other supervisors who work with foreign student teachers.     

The state steers by remote control: Standardising teacher education

This article questions whether the teacher training standards, (Department for Education and Employment Circular 4/98) have made it more difficult for teacher educators to help student teachers to become critically reflective teachers. It is suggested that, following the introduction of the discourse of the three 'e's', efficiency, economy and effectiveness and the teacher training standards, teacher 'education' has been transformed into teacher 'training' within an ideology of technical rationality. Four classroom-based episodes are introduced to form the contexts through which the teacher education standards are interrogated. It is argued that these standards ignore important issues to do with equality in the classroom and the relationship between education and the state. Ideas are suggested for teaching sessions using the episodes to encourage the development of a critically reflective perspective amongst student teachers.     

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.     

Grade Placement of High-School Biology

Abstract

Using 35 elementary schools (3,350 fourth and sixth grade students), 10 secondary schools (3,613 eight and eleventh grade students), and 1,145 teachers, this study presents data summarizing the relationships between student' perceptions of "verified" principal competencies and selected school climate indices and outcome variables. The results indicated that there is a general tendency for positive teacher attitudes towards various dimensions of the school and working environment and higher student standardized achievement test performance to be associated with students' reports of a low frequency of interaction with die principal. A student "independence factor" was hypothesized to account for these results, with the implication being that principal/student interaction is minimized in schools where teacher and student attitudes are positive and student achievement is high. In addition, effective principal performance in dealing with student misbehavior was highly and positively associated with school average daily attendance at the secondary level. Supplementary analyses indicated that teacher and student attitudes "mediating" the school environment were relatively independent for both elementary and secondary samples. General support was found for higher correlations between student assessments of principal competencies and school environment measures than with student performance measures.     

Helping Primary Student Teachers Understand Pupils' Learning: Exploring the student‐mentor interaction

The school-based task is firmly established in teacher education in the UK. In the study reported, primary student teachers carried out tasks exploring children's learning in science and were told to discuss the outcomes with their classteacher-mentors. The tasks and their university-based training followed a "constructivist" approach to learning science. The mentors' role in debriefing school-based tasks has been assumed to be one of "reflective practitioner" able to unpack issues of pedagogy with the student teacher. The research reported here shows that discussions often lacked depth or reflected a superficial or different understanding of constructivism by mentors that conflicted with the student teachers' aspirations. The implications of the research for future practice in teacher education and specifically for the training of mentors in science are discussed.     

Gender positioning in teacher education in England: New rhetoric,old realities

This article presents data from a series of life-history interviews with female student teachers of physical education. The intention is to forge links between the experiences of female student teachers, and their 'gender positioning' within the micro-politics of teacher education and the wider discourse that informs these interactions. On first entering teaching these women tended to adopt or enter 'survival mode', which endorsed particular professional identities that were consolidated by a form of instrumental rationality. These professional identities were closely tied to conventional conceptions of masculinity, and legitimated and contributed to, the reinforcement of particular gender inequalities in teacher education. The analysis suggests that a liberal discourse of equal opportunities masks the institutionalisation of social 'otherness' and inequality and supports the 'essentialisation' of male and female identities.     

How Good Are Our Schools

ABSTRACT

Research suggests a positive relationship between schools’ efforts to engage parents and parents’ involvement in their child's education. The authors investigated school socioeconomic status, school size, grade level, and student–teacher ratio as predictors of schools’ efforts to engage parents of students receiving special education services. The dependent variable was the Schools’ Efforts to Partner with Parents’ Scale, which has been validated for states’ use in their federal accountability systems. Mean school-level scores were calculated for 265 schools in a large southeastern state. Results indicated that student–teacher ratio was the strongest predictor of parents’ perceived school engagement efforts. Implications are drawn for ways in which all schools, including those with high student–teacher ratios, can improve their collaboration with parents of students receiving special education services.     

Trained for isolation: The impact of departmental cultures on student teachers' views and practices of collaboration

Today, isolated practice is regarded by most educators, administrators and policymakers as an inadequate way of performing teachers' work. Most teachers and teacher educators embrace the current dominant discourse on the virtues of teacher collaboration, but these beliefs do not always materialize in the way programs of initial teacher education are organized and in the way student teachers experience their practice training. This paper examines this contradiction by analyzing the network structure and contents of teachers' professional interactions with student teachers and among themselves in two secondary-school English departments. The data show that despite the formal arrangements and the discourses favoring collaborative practice, the student teachers within the two departments were socialized into professional cultures that framed their views of themselves and of teaching in essentially isolated ways. The paper discusses implications of these results for studies of collaborative cultures in teaching and for the training of beginning teachers.     

Political Education in a Democracy: the Implications for Teacher Education

Abstract

The relationship between prior field experience and professional development has been frequently documented in teacher education (Denton, 1982; Calderhead, 1988). There is less research, however, which has explored the relationship between students' prior experiences and their initial images of teaching and professional development. This paper outlines some, findings from a UFC research project into experiential learning in higher education. It concentrates specifically on teacher education and focuses primarily upon the experiences of student teachers prior to their professional training. The paper examines the extent to which prior experiences influence students' images of teaching and professional development. It describes the nature of those experiences and explores the relationship between prior experience and students' preconceptions about professional development.     

Book Reviews

ABSTRACT

Student foundational knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is formed in their elementary education. Paradoxically, many elementary teachers have constrained background knowledge, confidence, and efficacy for teaching STEM that may hamper student STEM learning. The association between teacher preparation to teach STEM and student achievement in STEM motivated the authors' professional development program. The authors created and implemented a professional development program to address K–5 teacher confidence for, attitudes toward, knowledge of, and efficacy for teaching inquiry-based STEM. Using data from 2 independent cohorts the authors found significant and consistent increases in pre- to postinstitute assessments of teacher confidence, efficacy, and perceptions of STEM. Further, they found increased participant attention toward linking STEM curriculum and instruction to learning standards. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The Development of Subject Knowledge in Secondary Initial Teacher Education: A case study of physical education student teachers and their subject mentors

This article presents a case study of student teachers of secondary school physical education (PE) and their subject mentors in subject knowledge development. Grenfell's (1996) application of Bourdieu's notions of 'field' and 'habitus' in relation to initial teacher education (ITE) is applied to interview data to argue that student teachers show varying dispositions to develop subject knowledge at the field sites of university and school. Furthermore, such dispositions are suggested to be enacted by student teachers through the development and exchange of subject knowledge as 'capital'. Thus a dynamic for subject knowledge development, which is neither specific to field site or difference between field sites is conceptualised. The article concludes that student dispositions to learn, in context, should be considered to assist understanding about the development of PE student teachers' subject knowledge. It calls for a redefinition of nationally prescribed subject knowledge in relation to learning how to teach.     

Teacher-student relationship and mathematical problem-solving ability: mediating roles of self-efficacy and mathematical anxiety

Abstract

This study investigated the mediating roles of self-efficacy and anxiety on the effects of teacher–student relationship on mathematical problem-solving ability. A total of 1667 fifth graders from central China participated in the large-scale survey. The findings indicated that (1) teacher–student relationship had a direct and positive effect on students’ mathematical problem-solving ability; (2) the positive link between teacher–student relationship and mathematical problem-solving ability was partially mediated through self-efficacy; (3) the teacher–student relationship affected students’ mathematical problem-solving ability through self-efficacy and maths anxiety, but the effect of self-efficacy on mathematical anxiety was smaller. Implications for the importance of teacher–student relationships in education as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.     

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.     

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.     

A Comparative Study of Achieving and Underachieving High School Boys of High Intellectual Ability

Abstract

The classes of 23 teachers were observed on three different class meetings and the pupil-on-task-performance was recorded for each student. The I. Q. of each student was measured by the California Short-form Test of Mental Maturity. The achievement of each student on the unit being taught was measured by teacher-made tests. A partial correlation, for each class, between pupil-on-task-performance and pupil achievement, partialiing out pupil intelligence, was computed. In those classes where the partial correlation was significant (.05 level or less), the specific teacher behaviors were found to be different from the teachers' behaviors where partial correlations were not significant.     

Teachers as Designers of Learning Environments

Abstract

This study examined how six Singapore teachers approached the design and implementation of a unit of work (topic) to demonstrate exemplary classroom practices that engage learners and use ICT in knowledge-generative rather than presentational activities. After a reflection and feedback session on the first lesson observation involving the researcher and the teacher, the teacher redesigned the lesson to enhance ICT use and involve students more actively in their learning. Our study revealed that there is a difference between students' physical engagement and cognitive engagement in a task and that the teacher, as a designer of the learning environment, needs to make explicit the cognitive processes involved in using the tool to ensure students' effective use of ICT. The teachers' understanding of what constitutes effective learning and their roles in students' learning determine how they design the learning environment. In essence, it is the teacher's skill in managing the “tripartite” partnership of IT tool, learning task, and teacher support that brings about higher levels of student engagement.     

Efficacy of Two Tests in Differentiae Ing Potentially Low from Average and High First Grade Achievers

Abstract

Reports of all published factor analyses of student ratings of college faculty were reviewed to determine what common factors had emerged and to identify items likely to be useful in discrimination between teachers. A 39-item form was administered to students of 18 instructors both at the beginning and end of a semester course. Twenty-four items had been included in the form used earlier by Isaacson et al. (5). The current data and those collected by Isaacson et al. were analyzed by multiple discriminant analysis and the results were compared to those obtained by factor analysis. While results of the analyses were generally similar, the differences between the results of multiple discriminant analysis and factor analysis point to differences between student stereotypes of teacher behavior and differences in actual behavior between teachers. For uses in which the primary concern is to compare one teacher with another, the dimensions derived by multiple discriminant analyses seem likely to be more useful.     

The Effectiveness of Training in the Evaluation of Classroom Instruction as an Aid to Self-Evaluation in Student Teaching

Abstract

This study hypothesized that participation in a training program in the evaluation of classroom instruction prior to student teaching would improve students' ability to evaluate their own classroom performance during student teaching.

Junior education students, 58 classified as trained or Experimental and 53 untrained or Control, were compared during student teaching on their ability to evaluate the lessons they taught. The five areas to be considered were introduction, organization, procedures and techniques, items relating to children, and items relating to the teacher.

Results indicated that in four of the five categories the differences between the groups were in a direction favorable to the trained students and that in two of those categories the difference was significant at the five percent level. It was concluded that the Experimental Training Program was effective in some areas.