An implementation study of a TPACK-based instructional design model in a technology integration course

The purpose of this study was (a) to develop an instructional design model for preservice teachers’ learning of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in multidisciplinary technology integration courses and (b) to apply the model to investigate its effects when used in a preservice teacher education setting. The model was applied in a technology integration course with fifteen participants from diverse majors. Data included individual participants’ written materials and TPACK survey responses, group lesson plans, and the researchers’ field notes. The data analysis results revealed that: (1) the participants had difficulties understanding pedagogical knowledge (PK), which hindered their learning of integrated knowledge of TPACK and (2) their learning of TPACK was the combination rather than the integration of PK, technological knowledge, and content knowledge. Suggestions and implications for refining the model and future research possibilities are discussed.     

Preservice and Inservice Teachers’ Challenges in the Planning of Practical Work in Physics

Practical work in school science plays many essential roles that have been discussed in the literature. However, less attention has been paid to how teachers learn the different roles of practical work and to the kind of challenges they face in their learning during laboratory courses designed for teachers. In the present study we applied the principles of grounded theory to frame a set of factors that seem to set major challenges concerning both successful work in the school physics laboratory and also in the preparation of lessons that exploit practical work. The subject groups of the study were preservice and inservice physics teachers who participated in a school laboratory course. Our results derived from a detailed analysis of tutoring discussions between the instructor and the participants in the course, which revealed that the challenges in practical or laboratory work consisted of the limitations of the laboratory facilities, an insufficient knowledge of physics, problems in understanding instructional approaches, and the general organization of practical work. Based on these findings, we present our recommendations on the preparation of preservice and inservice teachers for the more effective use of practical work in school science and in school physics.     

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.     

The complexities of participatory action research and the problems of power,identity and influence

This article highlights the complexity of participatory action research (PAR) in that the study outlined was carried out with and by, as opposed to on, participants. The project was contextualised in two prior-to-school settings in Australia, with the early childhood professionals and, to some extent, the preschoolers involved in this PAR project seen as co-researchers. This article explores the author’s journey to PAR, which she considered a socially just mode of inquiry. However, it is not without its complexities and challenges. This article makes transparent these complexities and explores issues of ‘power’, identity and influence in collaborative research. Questions often reflected upon by researchers are re-visited in this article: What theoretical underpinnings align with the investigation? Why undertake such a demanding research design as PAR? What does this research design involve? Where does the university researcher fit? How does a PAR team ‘work’ when there are so many different personalities involved? What are the challenges that are faced by participatory action researchers and how might these be overcome? While these challenges are not new to PAR researchers, the solutions and discussion put forward in this article may generate further reflection and debate.     

Teaching Thinking Skills in Context-Based Learning: Teachers’ Challenges and Assessment Knowledge

For an educational reform to succeed, teachers need to adjust their perceptions to the reform’s new curricula and strategies and cope with new content, as well as new teaching and assessment strategies. Developing students’ scientific literacy through context-based chemistry and higher order thinking skills was the framework for establishing a new chemistry curriculum for Israeli high school students. As part of this endeavor, we developed the Taste of Chemistry module, which focuses on context-based chemistry, chemical understanding, and higher order thinking skills. Our research objectives were (a) to identify the challenges and difficulties chemistry teachers faced, as well as the advantages they found, while teaching and assessing the Taste of Chemistry module; and (b) to investigate how they coped with teaching and assessing thinking skills that include analyzing data from graphs and tables, transferring between multiple representations and, transferring between chemistry understanding levels. Research participants included eight teachers who taught the module. Research tools included interviews, classroom observations, teachers-designed students’ assignments, and developers-designed students’ assignments. We documented different challenges teachers had faced while teaching the module and found that the teachers developed different ways of coping with these challenges. Developing teachers’ assessment knowledge (AK) was found to be the highest stage in teachers’ professional growth, building on teachers’ content knowledge (CK), pedagogy knowledge (PK), and pedagogical-content knowledge (PCK). We propose the use of assignments designed by teachers as an instrument for determining their professional growth.     

Developmental Brain Research With Participants From Underprivileged Communities: Strategies for Recruitment,Participation, and Retention

Challenges associated with recruitment and retention of participants from underprivileged social communities, in addition to neuroscience researchers' unfamiliarity with these communities, possibly explain the limited number of individuals from these communities who participate in neuroscience research studies. The consequence is a scarcity of data in this fast‐growing segment of the population. In particular, developmental research involving children from ethnic minorities has yet to catch up with the number of studies available for middle‐class White children (Flores et al., 2002). This underrepresentation can lead to disparities in health and social services for children from these communities, as well as to a nonrepresentative knowledge base of child neurodevelopment. Developing and utilizing innovative and culturally sensitive approaches to recruiting participants from underprivileged communities can maximize their participation in research, as behavioral researchers have known for some time. Here, based on our experience recruiting low‐socioeconomic status (SES) Latino children from Los Angeles, we offer strategies to improve recruitment, involvement, and retention. We have a special focus on techniques relevant to recruiting for neuroimaging, which is associated with new challenges not faced to the same degree in research historically. Better inclusion of underrepresented children in research can ultimately lead to the development and improvement of effective public polices to support their needs, ranging from education to health care.     

Curriculum change and climate change: Inside outside pressures in higher education

In higher education today, institutions are facing a number of challenges—including the challenge to create future-proof graduates. Higher education institutions have a particular mandate to develop future leaders and decision-makers capable of understanding and providing solutions to complex, global issues. Education programmes that focus on multi-disciplinary thinking are required to prepare future leaders to solve problems not yet known to be problems. Using a case study of a postgraduate climate change programme, this study illustrates the challenges addressed and resulting rewards when reforming the curriculum. Two theoretical curriculum models informed the re-imagination of the programme: objectives-based and action research following the process inquiry model. The reformation was undertaken by the programme teachers as researchers of their practice. To future-proof graduates, this study discusses how curricular intentions are aligned with the institution’s capacity for action towards change. Avoiding a business-as-usual scenario when faced with complex, politicized and global issues such as climate change requires both programme and course curricula continuous evaluation and revision. Alignment with internal (university and teacher-level) goals and external directives is required.     

Negotiating the teaching of history in times of curriculum reform: the narrative accounts of four Australian primary teachers

This research investigates the understandings of four teachers who teach history in primary and early childhood settings. Data were gathered from participants through semi-structured interviews. The participants were experienced teachers who were in the process of curriculum change – from teachers of studies of society and environment to teachers of history, under the auspices of the Australian Curriculum: History. The focus of the study was on their understandings of content knowledge and the pedagogies involved in classroom teaching, using a pedagogical framework, which sought to identify and categorise the nature of their knowledge base in the implementation phase of the Australian Curriculum: History. The study used narrative inquiry to show how temporality, sociality, and place play out in the lives of these teachers of history. The findings from this study indicate the challenges and opportunities for teachers’ professional knowledge landscapes in times of curriculum reform. Whilst there are a small number of participants in this study, their stories provide insight into how teachers responded to the challenges and opportunities of teaching history and how these teachers have shaped the implementation of the history curriculum.     

Identifying and Overcoming Challenges in STEM Reform: a Study of four National STEM Reform Communities of Practice

In this article we report on our examination of the challenges faced by four successful and long-standing national STEM reform communities. Drawing primarily on interview data from a large-scale, multi-year study informed by literature on “communities of practice” (CoPs) (Wenger et al. 2002), we describe five categories of challenges faced by the communities and the solutions employed to overcome them in order to sustain themselves and meet their goals. We chose to focus on these large and dispersed CoPs because, although on-campus CoPs have received some scholarly attention, no research has been conducted on national or regional CoPs. Based on our findings, we conclude that the solutions used to address these challenges reflected a meta-theme of flexibility in matters of design, leadership, and decision-making that contributed to the communities’ success and longevity.     

Challenges of Virtual School Leadership

The purpose of this case study was to examine challenges faced by virtual school leaders in the United States. Through semistructured interviews, the researchers explored challenges faced by eighteen leaders of fully online or blended online programs. Analysis revealed six main challenges: funding, staff, accountability, time, parents, and professional development. The researchers found virtual school leaders face many of the same categorical challenges as leaders in brick-and-mortar schools. The nuances of the challenges, however, are distinct. The researchers concluded that the field of educational leadership must respond to the needs of these leaders through preservice training, in-service professional development, policy reform, and additional research.     

Preservice Teachers’ Research Experiences in Scientists’ Laboratories

To promote the use of scientific inquiry methods in K-12 classrooms, departments of teacher education must provide science teachers with experiences using such methods. To comply with state and national mandates, an apprenticeship course was designed to afford preservice secondary science teachers opportunities to engage in an authentic, extended, open-ended inquiry. This study describes three teachers’ apprenticeship experiences with a research scientist. Our model included placing preservice teachers with scientists in expert/novice roles where each teacher would be actively engaged in constructing knowledge. From triangulating interview, laboratory notebook, and reflective summary data resources, we identified common themes from re-occurring statements. Findings indicated that participants acquired scientific skills and content knowledge; however, they expressed limited use of these in their classrooms.     

Developing pre-service teacher knowledge using online forums: supporting confident and competent teaching practices

ABSTRACT

This small study examines how one group (n = 59) of first-year undergraduate students developed their knowledge through co-construction using an online forum as a platform as part of a three-year Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme. Professional dialogue at the online interface supported them to cope with the challenges they faced during teaching practice. The data showed that there were gains in student subject and pedagogical knowledge, observed to a greater extent among the peripheral learners. The data presented provide an alternative view from that published in the existing literature about the size and type of both peripheral and core online interactions that were useful in building the confidence and competence of students in the role of teachers in a primary classroom. Ultimately, the online knowledge exchange among peripheral participants provided agency in learning over actions and the ability to cope during teaching practice. This was corroborated by student self-assessment using post-online reflective brainstorms. Sixty-four per cent of the students concluded that they would use this new subject and pedagogical knowledge when in school as part of their teaching practice.     

Digital natives and digital media in the college classroom: assignment design and impacts on student learning

The use of multimodal learning techniques is becoming more widespread, however, the pedagogical discourse surrounding its implementation into classroom and course design is complicated as these technologies are either demonized or viewed as the panacea for curriculum ills. Educators are faced with unique challenges when investigating how to experiment with the best ways to produce classroom experiences that use digital media. This case study examines the implementation challenges and learning outcomes related to such an experiment by reviewing and assessing the use of digital media in a health communication course, specifically through the development of documentaries. Creating an effective assignment requires addressing the development of technical skills along with course content and providing guidance and feedback throughout a semester-long project. Creating an effective assignment is pointless without sufficient learning outcomes. Because this assignment engaged students with both the course content and digital media, their learning experiences were enhanced and improved their group collaboration, critical thinking and media literacy skills.     

The Influence of Teacher Development on Secondary Content Area Supervision Among Preservice Teachers

This study addresses the issues and challenges faced by university supervisors when providing content-specific and general pedagogical feedback to preservice teachers. Study data highlight the perspectives of six preservice teachers as they reflect on their supervisory experiences over the course of a licensure year. Survey, interview, and written observation data from preservice teachers and university supervisors reveal the influence of teacher development and content area conventions on how preservice teachers view their teaching abilities and their expectations of university supervisors. Findings will inform how others may approach mentoring, support, and the evaluation of beginning teachers.     

How Many Brains Does It Take to Build a New Light: Knowledge Management Challenges of a Transdisciplinary Project

ABSTRACT— The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Center for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) carried out the Learning Sciences and Brain Research project (1999–2007) to investigate how neuroscience research can inform education policy and practice. This transdisciplinary project brought many challenges. Within the political community, participation in the project varied, with some countries resisting approval of the project altogether, in the beginning. In the neuroscientific community, participants struggled to represent their knowledge in a way that would be meaningful and relevant to educators. Within the educational community, response to the project varied, with many educational researchers resisting it for fear that neuroscience research might make their work obsolete. Achieving dialogue among these communities was even more challenging. One clear obstacle was that participants had difficulty recognizing tacit knowledge in their own field and making this knowledge explicit for partners in other fields. This article analyzes these challenges through a knowledge management framework.     

Intersecting identities and positionality of U.S.-based transnational researchers in second language studies

ABSTRACT

Despite a growing number of Second Language (L2) researchers working in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic settings, issues related to these uniquely situated researcher identities have only scantily been addressed. In order to close this gap, we investigated three U.S.-based Korean female researchers in L2 studies. We sought to understand (1) the ways in which these researchers chose research topics, contexts, and participants; (2) how they related themselves to their research participants; and (3) to what extent and how they negotiated identities in conducting and reporting their research. With theoretical frameworks of positionality and intersectionality of researcher identities, we drew upon a few salient points from multiple data sources such as interviews, published papers, and field notes. We found not only that their research interests stemmed from their life experiences and graduate training, but accessibility, familiarity, and researcher’s self-identification also influenced their research topics, contexts, and relationships with their research participants. Furthermore, researchers’ active positioning themselves in relation to research content, contexts, and participants using their intersecting identities proved to be beneficial to their research. What our findings further suggest is that researchers embrace hybridity and multiplicity of subjectivities and identities in order to make a fair contribution to knowledge construction.     

Challenging moments of novice teachers: survival strategies developed through experiences

The main objective of this qualitative research study is to demonstrate Norwegian and Turkish novice teachers’ reflections on bumpy moments and which strategies they use to cope with the challenges they have faced in practice. The participants of the present study are novice teachers (n = 17) with a maximum of five years’ teaching experience. The logbook and interview were the main data collection tools used to reflect novice teachers’ challenging moments. The data were recorded and transcribed separately in the two countries, and then the categories across the data were identified and the codes compared. The results mainly indicate that the novice teachers in both contexts are learning from their bumpy moments and using their problem-solving skills, based on either their repertoire gained during school practicum or their own strategies developed over time to find solutions to their challenging experiences.     

A technological pedagogical content knowledge based instructional design model: a third version implementation study in a technology integration course

This paper presents the third version of a technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) based instructional design model that incorporates the distinctive, transformative, and integrative views of TPACK into a comprehensive actionable framework. Strategies of relating TPACK domains to real-life learning experiences, role-playing, and teachers as designers were developed based on the three views and integrated into the third version of the model. The model was then applied in a teacher education undergraduate course on technology integration. A case study approach was used. Data were collected from the participants’ discussion worksheets, lesson designs, and the researchers’ field observation notes. Data analysis results suggest that the strategies integrated into the model helped the participants deepen their understanding of student-centered technology applications and practice TPACK. Findings, implications, and future research possibilities are discussed.