Student teacher reflective writing: what does it reveal?

Some researchers claim that reflection helps student teachers to better understand their practice teaching. This study aims to explore how deliberate reflection by student teachers is encouraged as a way to prepare, analyse and evaluate their practice. A total of 104 student teachers in primary education participated in this study during their practicum and produced reflective accounts to identify and think about problems they encountered in their teaching practice. The written reports were analysed for precision or explicitness of statements in relation to types and levels of knowledge generated in reflection. Three main types of knowledge were produced by the student teachers through deliberate reflection (appraisals, rules and artefacts). A relationship was found between producing high levels of knowledge and precision of reflective statements. We interpret this to mean that while deliberate reflection can support the construction of professional knowledge, this only rarely occurs.     

Why do you hit me?

１．Tom’smothergoestoEngland．ShewillstudyEnglishforaboutayear．２．Tom’sfatherisabusiness－man（商人）．Heisverybusyeverydayandhas＿＿＿１＿＿＿timetodohousework．３．Tomandhisfatherdon’tsweepthefloorandwashtheplatesaf－ter＿＿＿２＿＿＿．Theydon’tcleanthetable＿＿＿３＿＿＿twoweeks．Thereismuchdust（灰尘）onthetable．４．OneFridayafternoon，Tomcleansthetableandotherfurniture（家具）＿＿＿４＿＿＿becausehisfriendswillcometohishome．Hewantsthemto＿＿＿５＿＿＿agoodtime．５．Whenhisfath…     

Why do you never Phone me?

MrsHarrislivesinasmallvillage.Herhusbandisdead,butshehasoneson.Heistwenty-oneandhisnameisGeoff.Heworkedintheshopinthevil-lageandlivedwithhismother,butthenhegotworkinatownandwentantlivedthere.ItsnamewasGreensea.Itwasquitealongwayfromhismother's     

Unit 3 Why do you like koalas?

【新课程要求】1.本单元要求从听、说、读三方面认识一些常见的动物,简单区分食肉性动物与食草性动物。2.学会用形容词来正确地描述动物,表     

People,Why do you Do That?

I am a fish. When I was born, I was very small, and my father andmother both loved me very much. My home was in a river, and I had alot of friends.They were all beautiful and healthy fish. We often playedgames together happily. We found that our home——the river was very cleanand beautiful.We all loved her.     

What happens when I write? Pupils�� writing about writing

This article presents pupils?? awareness of writing as elicited through a metawriting task, in other words a task in which pupils from the third, fourth and sixth forms (grades) were required to write about writing. The analysis of the texts revealed the pupils?? increasing ability to write texts focusing on writing and on the subject??s relationship to writing. There are significant differences concerning the number of processes mobilised by the pupils to describe the writing process and the operations that take place within it. The increase in awareness is particularly salient in the case of planning during pre-writing. The pupils from the sixth form also mobilise a significantly higher number of processes concerned with the components of textualising (translating) and revising. The results for awareness of text and of reader do not present significant differences or any gradual increase. On the textual dimension, attention is given predominantly to the formal aspects of the texts, especially in the lower forms, while the emergence of other factors, such as genre, is still limited. As for the reader, this aspect of awareness receives the lowest number of associated processes when pupils write about their writing. The results revealed the dimensions and factors to which pupils in different school forms have conscious access when reflecting on their writing. The outcomes support the strategy of using metawriting as consciousness raising tool to increase pupils?? writing skills.     

Who do you regard as successful people? Why?

In my opinion,the standard of success is being as"stupid"as Forrest Gump(阿甘).I am sure that many peoplesurely think that I must be crazy sinceGump's IQ is only 75. But here,"stupid"I mentioned is akind of attitude towards life,being optimistic and ticking on aims.If Gump     

“Why do you make me hate myself?”: Re-teaching Whiteness,abuse, and love in urban teacher education

Teacher educators are constantly trying to improve the field to meet the needs of a growing urban populace. Inclusion of socially just philosophies in the curriculum is indeed essential, yet it can mask the recycling of normalized, oppressive Whiteness. This reflective and theoretical paper employs critical race theory and critical Whiteness studies to deconstruct Whiteness, abuse, and love in teacher education. Using an interdisciplinary and emotion-based approach to understanding Whiteness, this paper examines how denying race during white childhood via a color-blind ideology leaves lasting emotional scars, impressions that perpetuate the institutional silencing of race in teacher education. This “abuse” is projected onto urban students of color and, more broadly, people of color. This paper asserts that until teacher education programs make confronting and exploring Whiteness a priority, they cannot truly love their urban students of color as complete beings and so deny humanity full and just consideration.     

Why did you do that? Teachers explain the use of legal aggression in the classroom

Teachers (n = 233) who employ aggressive classroom management strategies were asked to theorise about their use. Levels of support for three theoretical explanations for aggressive behaviour were assessed via a 26 item scale. The items loaded to three factors: Attribution Theory; Efficacy Theory and Attachment Theory. Results indicated most teachers, 42%, supported Attribution, 34% supported Efficacy, and 33% supported Attachment as an explanation for aggressive behaviour. Moreover, 14% of teachers support all theories simultaneously, whilst 27% of teachers rejected all theories. The implications of these findings are that many teachers may be theoretically blind when it comes to classroom management: hence re- rather than pro-active. The importance of this finding for professional development providers and future qualitative research design is discussed.     

Exploring the relationship between dialogic teacher talk and students’ persuasive writing

Studies have documented the importance of dialogic classroom discourse for supporting academic outcomes such as reading comprehension and vocabulary development. This study examines the relationship between teacher talk during whole-classroom discussions in 42 classrooms and post-discussion persuasive essays from students in grades four through seven (n = 471). Teacher talk was coded by type of question (contestable, semi-open, or quiz-like) and teachers' follow-ups (prompting, pressing for reasoning, active listening), and further categorized as indicating either high or low levels of dialogic talk. Multilevel modeling that accounts for student participation rate, discussion topic, and students' demographic information shows that high dialogic teacher talk positively predicts students’ persuasive essay scores, while low dialogic teacher talk negatively predicts their scores. The study supports existing hypotheses about the role of teacher dialogic talk in whole-class settings.     

Why does teacher gender matter?

This paper shows that high school math and science teacher gender affects student interest and self-efficacy in STEM. However, such effects become insignificant once teacher behaviors and attitudes are taken into account, thus pointing towards an omitted variables bias. Teacher beliefs about male and female ability in math and science – as well as how teachers treat boys and girls in the classroom – matter more than teacher's own gender. The student fixed effects estimates also highlight that creating a positive learning environment and making math and science interesting are pivotal in engaging students in these subjects.     

What does the teacher do?: Constructivist pedagogies and prospective teachers’ beliefs about the role of a teacher

The constructivist pedagogies that are increasingly part of teacher education course work and expectations emerge from an intellectual world where knowledge is seen as created rather than received, mediated by discourse rather than transferred by teacher talk, explored and transformed rather than remembered as a uniform set of positivistic ideas. Increasingly, teacher educators ask new teachers to learn how to elicit and then use students’ existing ideas as a basis for helping them construct new, more reasoned, more accurate or more disciplined understandings. While the role a teacher plays in developing or shaping students’ thinking via constructivist pedagogies is obvious to teacher educators who advocate such strategies, the case of Taylor, a prospective English teacher, suggests that the role a teacher plays when using these strategies may not be at all clear to prospective teachers. Rather than understanding constructivist pedagogies as techniques for thinking with learners, for teaching them, Tayor saw these strategies as ends in themselves. Faced with models of constructivist pedagogies, Taylor concluded that the teacher's role ends when she has activated learners, invited them to talk, successfully engaged their participation. This article describes how she reached this conclusion and explores the ways in which constructivist pedagogies can lead prospective teachers to project a thin vision of their role as a teacher.     

Why do gestures matter? Sensuous cognition and the palpability of mathematical meanings

The goal of this article is to present a sketch of what, following the German social theorist Arnold Gehlen, may be termed “sensuous cognition.” The starting point of this alternative approach to classical mental-oriented views of cognition is a multimodal “material” conception of thinking. The very texture of thinking, it is suggested, cannot be reduced to that of impalpable ideas; it is instead made up of speech, gestures, and our actual actions with cultural artifacts (signs, objects, etc.). As illustrated through an example from a Grade 10 mathematics lesson, thinking does not occur solely in the head but also in and through a sophisticated semiotic coordination of speech, body, gestures, symbols and tools.

Unit3 Why do you like koalas？

学习要点预热 张老师：Hi,everyone!同学们：Hi．Mr．Zhang!张老师：今天我们开始学习新课。这一课的主要句型有。     

Why go to school? Student,parent and teacher beliefs about the purposes of schooling

This qualitative study explored the beliefs of students, parents and teachers on the purposes of schooling in order to provide a context for understanding beliefs and attitudes to school learning and achievement. Focus groups were conducted with Year 9 and 10 students (aged 13–15 years) and parents and teachers in three secondary schools in different socio-economic areas in an urban district. Four categories were identified in relation to beliefs about the purposes of schooling: (1) to learn and gain self-knowledge; (2) to develop life and social skills; (3) to optimize life chances and quality of life; (4) to enable future employment and economic wellbeing. Comparisons revealed that students, parents and teachers all believed in the learning purpose of schooling, but did not all endorse an economic purpose. Students had the broadest views on school purposes. The greatest alignment between views was found for students and parents. The greatest difference between groups was found for students and teachers from high socio-economic area schools. Findings were considered in relation to national curriculum aims and external pressures from globalization. Overall, findings are conducive to a lifelong learning approach, pointing to belief in the intrinsic value of school learning independent of any economic function it may serve.     

Portfolios: A tool for reflective thinking in teacher education?

Portfolios have often been promoted as a tool for reflective thinking, yet few studies have examined the use of portfolios in reflective teacher education programs. This exploratory study uses interviews, essays, and survey data to examine 212 teacher education students' efforts to think reflectively through the process of constructing portfolios based on their experiences in a community service-learning program. Findings revealed that the portfolio process prompted reflective thinking in many, but not all, students. Recommendations for using portfolios in teacher education programs include: focusing attention on students' initial understanding of the process and its purpose, encouraging student ownership and individual expression, providing some structured aspects to balance the open-ended nature of portfolios, and evaluating the portfolio process and students' responses.