Transformations in learning and teaching through Initial Teacher Education

In England, little research has been carried out into how pre‐service secondary English teachers transform what they know as they learn to teach. They are seldom asked to reflect explicitly on the connections between the pedagogy of their undergraduate studies and their pedagogical experiences as student teachers. The initial teacher education committee of the National Association for the Teaching of English decided to explore these connections by asking student teachers on English Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in five different university departments of education to respond to a series of questions at the start and end of the academic year 2004–2005. The questions fall into four broad areas: student teachers' experiences as learners at undergraduate level and developing ideas about teaching; the nature of the subject English; tensions encountered during the PGCE course; new learning about teaching. The purpose of this article is to discuss some patterns emerging from the research. The most prominent of these is student teachers' realisation that good teaching comes from teachers seeing themselves as learners. We argue that ‘reflexivity’ ( Moore, 2004 ) is a valuable way to help student teachers begin to understand this transformation from learner into learning teacher.     

The Use of Analogies in Science Communication: Effectiveness of an Activity in Initial Primary Science Teacher Education

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - This article presents a study focused on analysing the effectiveness of an activity about the use of analogies in science communication....     

The Costs of Reflection in Initial Teacher Education

Reflection is a popular slogan in both teacher education and professional education. Inevitably, through usage, the word has come to take on a variety of meanings and manifestations. This article describes the influence that the reflective paradigm has had on one initial teacher education curriculum course and provides some evidence that it has made some difference to the views of the students. However, it goes on to argue that reflection has its costs, most particularly in the stresses and tensions created as novice professionals examine the efficacy and worth of their classroom teaching. Thus students need a great deal of emotional support to examine their practice. Finally some comments are offered on the compatibility of the reflective paradigm with some aspects of the Government's teacher education reforms     

Art Education in Initial Teacher Education: A Negotiated Education

In this article we aim to highlight the issues we have encountered in teaching art curriculum courses on the primary BAEd degree programme. The main issues addressed are student self-confidence and the conditions which form barriers to active engagement in art activities. These we have addressed in the context of the wide changes taking place since the Education Reform Act of 1988. Our concern is that students develop the confidence to implement change in accord with their own convictions. We describe how we support them in their developing autonomy through the various strategies we have developed including the recognition and transfer of prior knowledge and reflection on the process of their own learning.     

The Use of Reflective Journals in Initial Teacher Training

The intention of this article is to examine the role of reflective journals in Initial Teacher Training courses, and, in particular, how they can enable students to develop critical independence for professional self-appraisal. It explores the value of journal writing in the process of learning about teaching by reproducing an edited extract of one PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education) student's course journal, and by offering both a student's and a tutor's perspective of the significance of the journal.     

Pastoral Care in Initial Teacher Education: A Survey of Secondary Teacher Education Institutions

The study reported in this paper was undertaken to discover the extent of pastoral care training carried out during secondary initial teacher education. Questionnaires were sent to heads of initial teacher education institutions in England and Wales. It was found that institutions were likely to provide some form of training in pastoral care but the extent and method of training varied greatly between institutions. However, training in actual practical skills such as basic counselling skills was much less likely to be available. The authors conclude that there is still some considerable way to go before newly qualified teachers are likely to feel adequately prepared for their pastoral roles.     

The Complexities of Effective Mentoring in Initial Teacher Education

Mentoring is now widespread in initial teacher education. However, it is by no means clear that research identifying the complexities of the role, the demands it places on teachers, and what they seem able and unable to do is either keeping pace with, or informing, change. This paper attempts to identify both problematic and unproblematic issues related to the role through the development of case studies of mentors working with students on a one year secondary mathematics PGCE course. The research points to a need for all those engaged in initial teacher education to support mentors in recognising students as learners who are best served by discussing with them the realities and difficulties of practice in school rather than presenting them with idealised views of teaching.     

英国新教师培养模式

英国的新教师培养（ITE）十分强调师范性、社会性和实践性，突出师范生个性和创新意识的培养，并将其贯穿于师范教育的全过程，探讨英国ITE的特点，以及其运用的一些相关的教育方式方法，将有助于拓宽我国高师教育改革的思路。     

实践取向:职前教师教育模式的重构

实践取向的教师知识观强调教师实践性知识在课堂教学中的重要作用,在教师教育观上主张在实践场景下,创设学习共同体,帮助未来教师形成和发展实践性知识。本研究基于实践性知识的性质、内容、来源及获得途径,以小学教师职前教育为例,重建职前教师教育模式——"理论-实践交融"模式。这一模式的特点是:理论与实践相互渗透、交融。在理论-实践共同体中,未来教师的理论学习与"主题见习"结合,真实情景下的学习而理论总是"在场"。     

Initial Teacher Education in Spain: a critical analysis

ABSTRACT

Initial teacher education of primary and secondary teachers in Spain is discussed. Recent developments are described with particular reference to the new curriculum, the institutional framework in which it is developed, the education level required, professional education, its structural coherence and rigour and the innovation it involves. These developments and current provisions are critically appraised and alternatives proposed.     

Walking the Talk in Initial Teacher Education: Making Teacher Educator Modeling Effective

This self-study investigated student teachers' perceptions of teacher educators modeling practices within a large lecture class in an initial teacher education program. It also studied factors that affected student teachers' developing ideas and practice. Phase 1 collected data from student teachers through focus group interviews and course and teaching evaluations, as well as data from lecturers. Phase 2 collected further qualitative data from teacher educators to inform questions arising from Phase 1 findings. While student teachers' perceptions of critically reflective processes and teaching models modeled by lecturers were varied, they affirmed the positive value of lecturer modeling. Data highlighted gaps between lecturers' intentions and the student teachers' perceptions. Data confirm that effective modeling is difficult to achieve, particularly in large lectures. Student teachers were challenged by the demands of engaging critically with new content while also being attentive to modeling. Recommendations include explicitly unpacking our teaching practices, using training strategies to support student teachers in developing the ability to reflect critically, and increasing opportunities for student teachers to practice various teaching models and strategies.     

Primary Connections: Simulating the Classroom in Initial Teacher Education

The challenge of preparing novice primary teachers for teaching in an educational environment, where science education has low status and many teachers have limited science content knowledge and lack the confidence to teach science, is great. This paper reports on an innovation involving a sustained simulation in an undergraduate science education course as a mediational tool to connect two communities of practice—initial teacher education and expert primary science teaching. The course lecturer and student teachers role-played the expert classroom teacher and primary students (Years 7/8) respectively in an attempt to gain insights into teaching and learning through authentic activity that models good practice in primary science teaching and learning. Activity theory was used to help frame and analyse the data. Findings from the first trial indicate that the simulation was very effective in initiating science pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development of primary student teachers.     

The Use of Journal Clubs in Science Teacher Education

This qualitative study explored how in a 7-month-long journal club pre- and inservice science teachers engaged with education research literature relevant to their practice to reduce the theory–practice gap. In the journal club they had the opportunity to critique and analyze peer-reviewed science education articles in the context of their classroom practice. Data sources included audio recordings of the meetings; semi-structured pre- and post-interviews of the teachers; focus groups; and artifacts (e.g., journal articles, reflective paper, email exchanges, and researcher’s field notes). Data were analyzed using the techniques of grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss in Basics of qualitative research, 3rd ed. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2008). In addition we used some preconceived categories that we created from existing literature on journal clubs and communities of practice (Newswander & Borrego in European Journal of Engineering Education 34(6): 561–571, 2009; Wenger in Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998) and from our previous research (Tallman & Feldman, 2012). We found that the journal club incorporated the three characteristics of a community of practice (Wenger in Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998) into its functioning (mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire). The teachers mutually engaged around the joint enterprise of reading, critiquing, and understanding the research studies with the goal of improving practice. The teachers also asked each other analytical questions, which became a shared repertoire of the journal club. They reflected on their practice by presenting, reading, and discussing the articles, which helped them to determine whether and how the findings from the articles could be incorporated into their teaching practice. In doing so, they learned the skills needed to critique the research literature in relation to their practice as classroom teachers.     

Initial Teacher Education: the pedagogy is the message

This paper addresses the need to increase the coherence between educational theory and pedagogical practices at the level of initial, or preservice, teacher education. It provides a case study of pedagogical practices within the context of a third‐year unit/subject on the psychology of teaching and learning in a four‐year Bachelor‐of‐Education course. These practices were developed and implemented within the framework of a constructivist view of teaching and learning, a framework which was itself a central component of the theory base of the unit. The case study includes student responses to these practices.