A digital storytelling project in a multicultural education class for pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT

This paper, against the background of trends in the development of initial teacher training in Europe as a whole, identifies and explains some of the recent, radical reforms which were introduced in France by a socialist government. These include the need to raise the status and the competence of the teaching profession; the creation of new teacher‐training institutions of university status (Instituts universitaires de formation des maitres); the introduction of common entry qualifications at degree level for both primary and secondary levels; the harmonisation and the extension to 2 years of the post‐degree teacher‐training course and the increase in emphasis placed on professional training, both theoretical and practical. These reforms provoked a storm of protest and an examination of the reasons for this reveals a multiplicity of crucial questions which have far‐reaching implications.     

Personal voices in higher education: A digital storytelling experience for pre-service teachers

Digital storytelling (DST) has recently emerged as a new tool in instructional environments. DST involves the combination of media and technology with traditional storytelling to help students learn. This paper examines the use of DST in a university course and pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their learning experiences using this tool. Thirty-eight pre-service teachers participated in the study, in which DST was employed as a learning activity. In the course, the participants created personal digital stories about their careers. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used for data collection and analysis. The findings indicate that DST is very useful for learning. The pre-service teachers perceived DST as an attractive way to share ideas and feelings, and valuable for using in lessons. DST served as a practical learning tool to present the students’ personal experiences to others, and the process encouraged emotional interactions. Implications regarding these findings are discussed.     

Forms of Discourse: a typology of teachers and commitment

An attempt is made in this paper to arrive at a typology of teachers within the specific context of two forms of discourse, ideological and educational, which constitute a particular school in India. It is suggested that the mode of recruitment, the teachers’ perspectives on and adaptations to the particular ideology and the role, and their commitment to the same are significant factors contributing to the shaping of a teacher typology. In this particular context, the teacher is thus both defined by and perpetuates the two forms of discourse in the school.

The data on which this paper is based was collected in 1981 through the use of questionnaires, interviews (both structured and unstructured) and observation.     

Integrating storytelling and quantitative career assessment

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Combining quantitative career assessment with narrative career counselling is a career counselling challenge. The Integrative...     

Digital storytelling and the nature of knowledge

While storytelling pedagogy presents novel perspectives and affordances to educators, a fundamental question that bears attention is the match between storytelling pedagogy and the nature of knowledge. Quite simply, the problem may be posed thus: is storytelling the optimum means for teaching all forms of knowledge? While rather obvious matches occur for knowledge in the social science, humanities, languages and literacy education, would storytelling pedagogy ‘work’ for the natural sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics classrooms? If so, what may be optimum means to integrate storytelling instruction in these latter kinds of classrooms? In this study, we report on the results of an implementation of digital storytelling in a grade five science classroom. Using what we termed the ‘edu-tainment’ approach, we asked students to design a digital story that communicated a scientific concept embedded within the narrative structure—characters within the narrative would experience the effects of the concept, the quality of the story being proxy indicators of students’ understanding of the scientific concept. We propose that this pedagogical strategy presents a strong challenge to discern students’ understanding, and we also discuss the effect of knowledge forms on the success of this pedagogy.     

试析教育期刊对中小学教师专业发展的促进作用

当代教育改革对中小学教师专业发展提出了新的要求,各类教育期刊如何在促进中小学教师专业发展方面发挥更大的作用,是需要探讨的一个新课题。分析教育期刊对中小学教师专业发展有哪些作用,存在哪些问题,会促进我们改进办刊思路,正确定位,充分发挥教育期刊对中小学教师专业发展的促进作用。     

Design and development of a smart storytelling toy

Because computers generally make children passive listeners, new technological devices need to support children's storytelling activities. This article introduces the StoryTech, a smart toy that includes a virtual space comprised of computer-based graphics and characters as well as a real space that involves stuffed animals, background cards and a receiver panel. When children put real objects on the receiver panel, the computer displays related backgrounds and characters. Through this flexible context, children are expected to tell a story about what they see on the screen. The aim of this article is to present the development period of the StoryTech and to provide design principles for smart toy technologies based on the usability study. The article focuses on attributes of new technology and the significance of supporting storytelling activities to find the best combination of and moderation between real and virtual spaces.     

字形与字谜——跟小学语文骨干教师谈谈字谜的构成与猜解

以小学生语文新课标"必读丛书"《字谜500则》的例证为例,进行研究分析,认为字形是构成字谜的工具和猜解字谜的工具,字形的变化是构成字谜和猜解字谜的方法,拆字法是最活跃的构成字谜、猜解字谜的手段;同时认为字谜里蕴含着大学问,体现了汉字文化的显著特色。     

Social justice storytelling and young children's active citizenship

This paper examines empirical data with regard to recent theorizing and conceptualizing of children's citizenship. It draws on a doctoral study where the author told social justice stories to one class of children aged five to six years to investigate the active citizenship that the stories set in motion. By imagining this action research study rhizomatically, organic and tangent pathways were mapped of what the stories set in motion. Analysis was informed by poststructuralist discourse theory and critical theory on political action, which enabled identification of enablers and constrainers of young children's actual practice of citizenship. A case is argued for acknowledgement of young children's political identities and capacity to act as communitarian citizens.     

Teaching Spilling by Column and Context Forms

Abstract

Two groups of undergraduate students participating in a field experience as part of the undergraduate teacher preparation program were compared on the basis of the supervisory practice of the cooperating/mentor teacher. Both groups received a traditional orientation to student teaching and supervision. In addition, the experimental group had teachers that received an in-depth training in supervision using a specific framework, Praxis III/Pathwise (Educational Testing Service, 1995). Results demonstrated statistically significant differences in favor of the experimental group on 11 of the 19 variables investigated.     

The characteristics of effective english teachers as perceived by high school teachers and students in Korea

This study investigated the characteristics of effective English teachers as perceived by 169 teachers and 339 students in high school in Korea, with a self-report questionnaire consisting of three categories: English proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, and socio-affective skills. Overall, the teachers perceived significantly different characteristics than the students in all three categories with the teachers ranking English proficiency the highest in contrast to the students who ranked pedagogical knowledge the highest. The student subgroups also held different perceptions of effective teaching. High achieving students reported different characteristics than low achieving students in pedagogical knowledge and socio-affective skills, whereas the male students demonstrated different characteristics from the female students in socio-affective skills. The findings have implications for knowledge-based teacher education for current and prospective English teachers.