Practicing What We Preach in Teacher Education: A Critical Whiteness Studies Analysis of Experiential Education

In this article I problematize the reasons for and methods through which I incorporated an opportunity for experiential learning, via a Community Inquiry Project, into my own teaching. I take the stance of a teacher-researcher to closely analyze the specific documents and tasks used to introduce pre-service teachers to the project. I draw on sociocultural approaches to teacher development and literature on experiential education in teacher education to provide a background for the project and the self-study and offer critical whiteness studies as an appropriate lens through which to analyze the various elements of the project. Findings from this study suggest that the project limited the pre-service teachers’ characterizations of community, understandings of sociocultural approaches to learning, relationships to the community, and perceptions of the role of community in teaching. I draw on these findings to suggest that teacher educators share their reflective practices with their students and learn about the diverse experiences of the pre-service teachers themselves to better prepare them to inquire into and draw on knowledge of communities as they work with diverse populations of students.     

Do We Practise What We Preach?: putting policy into practice in teacher education

There are substantial pressures for changes in teaching practice which are now clearly reflected in government policy. It is argued that these pressures have emerged from changes in the culture of technologically based societies and the resulting changes in the needs of all students in schools. The implications of recent theories of learning and new needs for learners are discussed with respect to teacher education. An attempt to change the way in which students are prepared in mathematics education is reported. Data collected as part of the study indicate the need for a system‐wide approach to change.     

Practicing What We Teach: Trauma-Informed Educational Practice

This article presents the starting case for applying the elements of trauma-informed care (TIC) to education and outlines the authors’ initial efforts to develop guidelines for what they call trauma-informed educational practice. To this end, the article starts with a literature review related to the potential for vicarious traumatization and retraumatization among students in clinical training, followed by a discussion of the TIC framework and past efforts to be trauma sensitive in social work education. The authors then describe what drew them to this perspective and inspired them to apply it to educational practice. They then present guidelines for implementing the trauma-informed principle of safety in the classroom in several domains.     

Practicing What We Teach: A Self-Study in Implementing an Inquiry-Based Curriculum in a Middle Grades Classroom

A science teacher educator returned to teaching adolescents after more than 10 years in the professoriate. We studied his beliefs, practice and daily use of inquiry pedagogy while implementing a reform-based curriculum. Reflection on practice was evidenced by a weekly journal, classroom observations and debriefings, and extensive interviews. Newly developed practical knowledge from this experience shifted the science teacher educator’s beliefs away from the Piagetian structuralism espoused in prescribed curricula towards a more culturally responsive, student-driven approach to teaching science to middle grades students. The merits and limitations of curricula attempting to follow traditional scientific practices are discussed.     

Practise What you Preach: an Undergraduate Course in Curriculum Studies

Although articulated in different terms at different times, some understanding of ‘the nature of science’ and, more particularly, of ‘scientific method’ has been a central and enduring feature of the rhetoric of school science education. However, it is now clear that many of the assumptions about the nature of scientific activity which have traditionally underpinned school science teaching are no longer tenable. This paper outlines the rhetorical and political importance of method as a unifying element of the sciences, reviews some of the themes evident in recent scholarly debates about the nature of scientific activity, and considers some of the difficulties which arise from the incorporation of the ‘nature of science’ within school science curricula. It is suggested that among these difficulties are fundamental issues relating to objectivity and rationality and to the claims made about the status of science and its role in everyday discourse and action.     

Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do

This article discusses how integrating technology into microteaching exercises within teacher education programs can help develop reform-oriented and reflective teacher leaders.     

语文课堂,我们要让学生收获些什么

语文教学改革的关键在于观念的改革。陈旧的以“教”为主的观念已经滞后于时代的要求。时代要求“终身学习能力”和“自我教育能力”,围绕这些能力的培养,语文教师该怎么做呢?     

Educational Psychology: What Do We Teach, What Should We Teach?

Teacher education students sometimes question the value of educational psychology courses even though educational psychology textbooks are primarily concerned with understanding and improving classroom teaching and learning. A survey of current educational psychology textbooks and instructors reveals that (a) most texts cover a wide variety of topics, (b) instructors rate most of these topics as important, (c) there are large variations in depth of coverage among texts, and (d) all texts contain numerous classroom applications. The questionable reputation of the educational psychology course may stem from its broad coverage. A dozen or more topics in one semester may decrease the probability that most students will achieve a solid grasp of any one topic, leaving students uncertain about the course's meaning and applicability. A proposed solution is to offer the introductory course as a two-semester sequence, with the second course offered as an elective.     

数学教学让学生感受怎样的乐趣

数学学习真正快乐吗?当前的小学数学课堂教学中,教师都比较重视让孩子们充分参与,积极营造活跃热闹的课堂气氛。但是,在这热闹活跃的背后,孩子们有多少时间在静静地思考、深深地思考,真正体会了数学学习的快乐吗?     

What We Know,What We Still Need to Know: Teaching Adolescents to Write

The purpose of this study was to uncover any differences in the early reading and spelling processes of children learning to read in a first language (L1) and children learning to read in a second language (L2). The reading and spelling development of native Dutch-speaking children and minority children in the first two grades of elementary school were compared. The children were given a number of tasks to test their vocabulary knowledge and the efficiency of their word decoding (including grapheme knowledge and word blending), word spelling (including cipher knowledge and phonemic segmentation), and reading comprehension processes. Analyses of variance were used to test for differences between the L1 and L2 learners. LISREL analyses were used to explore the components underlying the reading and spelling processes in the 2 groups of children. The results showed that the minority children kept up with the native Dutch-speaking children on word blending and word decoding tasks. On word spelling and reading comprehension, however, the minority children were found to be less efficient than their monolingual Dutch peers. The structural models for word decoding and word spelling were highly comparable for the 2 groups. For reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge was found to have more of an impact on the L2 learners than on the L1 learners. This finding suggests that children learning to read in an L2 should be helped to build their lexical knowledge and that reading instruction should be matched to this knowledge.     

Practice What We Preach: Differentiating Instruction and Assessment in a Higher Education Classroom as a Model of Effective Pedagogy for Early Childhood Teacher Education Candidates

Teacher education faculty are experiencing increasingly diverse higher education classrooms. In many ways, the diversities present in collegiate classrooms mirror the differences in classrooms of young children. The diversity may be a result of a range of ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic differences. Or it may be differences resulting from previous experiences, background knowledge, learning style, needs, or interests. In this article, two university colleagues present challenges related to meeting a plethora of learner needs in a course with participants from three different programs of study. The authors describe the challenges faced, steps taken to use the challenges as opportunities for growth, and the outcomes of their efforts. The authors candidly describe how they used the principles of Differentiated Instruction to model effective pedagogy for their early childhood teacher educator candidates.     

What Do We Know About Artistically Talented Students and Their Teachers?

This paper contextualises and summarises five research projects concerned with the education of artistically talented students in the United States. It reports on over ten years of research and describes the hypotheses, methods and findings of studies linked by their concern for the special needs of the artistically able. Finally, the paper points towards the next stages of the research.     

Wellness as the Paradigm for Counseling and Development: The Possible Future

Wellness refers to the maximizing of human potential through positive life-style choices. This holistic paradigm offers a philosophical base for counseling and development that provides guidelines for intervention and at the same time emphasizes the uniqueness of our approach as counseling and development professionals to mental health concerns. The author advocates a wellness paradigm rather than the illness-oriented medical model as being most reflective of our profession.     

Students We Don't Refer:

Students search at college for a sense of personal specialness and for "new soIutions" emotional concerns. Colleges often encourage an expectation of this in their marketing phrases a d in their orientation programs. Students are inevitably disappointed as they learn that tbe college cannot really be their new family and that "old soliutions" are recalcitrant. Some students weather this disappointment and turn it to their advantage for personal growth. For many "relationally fragile" students this is not possible without psychotherapeutic help. Old emotional wounds when opened overwhelm them, and for a variety of reasons, we propose that referring these students for private treatment is not appropriate. We discuss some of the issues involved in working with these students. We especially focus on the difficulties in hearing and responding to their anger and fears sf being destructive. Numerous clinical examples are included.