Crossing borders: Learning to count

For over a decade I have been involved in state and national Level curriculum and professional development projects that have required of me that I ‘act’. During the same period my research has focused on educational reforms within a social justice framework and on the development of informed numeracy in children and adolescents. In this paper I consider how children, different children learn and understand counting. In doing so, I reflect upon my experiences as a curriculum developer who is constantly uneasy, often frustrated and occasionally made anxious by the disjunction between what she understands and what she does and perhaps more importantly what she doesn't understand but nevertheless does.     

Use root cause analysis teaching strategy to train primary pre-service science teachers

This study examined the Root Cause Analysis （RCA） teaching strategy on pre-service primary science teachers and instinct pre-service teachers to apply RCA teaching strategy to science curriculums. RCA Teaching Strategy is to coordinates 5 Why Method and Fishbone Diagram. The participants included 18 pre-service primary science teachers and the training courses for 4 hours a week and lasted for 18 weeks. The result shows that pre-service primary science teachers are gradually familiar with RCA teaching strategy and can apply it to science curriculums from microteaching classroom observation and teaching-portfolios. For example, in The Influence of Heat on Materials unit, the fifth grade students observed the balloon on the PET bottle soaked in water swelled. Students would brainstorm all causes of balloon swelled with 5-W method, and draw fishbone diagram together. Finally, they found the root cause with Root Cause Analysis.     

Emirates pre-service and in-service teachers' views about the nature of science

This study investigated Emirates pre-service and in-service teachers' views about the nature of science. A questionnaire was developed and administered to 31 female pre-service science teachers, and 224 inservice chemistry teachers. The questionnaire covered five aspects of the nature of science identified by Palmquist and Finley (1997). These are: scientific theories and models; role of a scientist; scientific knowledge; scientific method; and scientific laws. The results indicated that Emirates teachers' views are neither clearly traditional nor clearly constructivist - they held mixed views about the nature of science. The study attributed the existence of the traditional views to historical reasons and the educational system. The presence of constructivist views was attributed to religious factors, where some of students' religious beliefs agree with some constructivist views. The study argued that the traditional view about the nature of science is in conflict with the teachers' religious beliefs. Teaching science in the Arab culture using the traditional view about science creates what Tobin (1996) called 'symbolic violence'. The study concluded that introducing science from the constructivist point of view and using what Jegede (1996) called 'collateral learning' would help to diminish such violence.     

Improving the quality of primary science teaching through a pre-service course

This paper describes a study involving second and third year primary Diploma of Teaching students. It considers their discipline competence, their confidence in teaching particular topic areas and their views of the nature of science teaching in the classes in which they were placed during teaching rounds. It then describes attempts made within the science curriculum course to overcome particular problems. Specializations: Science teacher education, the practicum.     

Continuities and Discontinuities: The transition from pre-service to first-year teaching

The study outlined in this paper is one element of a research project that was designed to determine, from the teachers' perspective, how their teacher preparation program influenced their development as teachers and how this development progressed in their beginning years within the profession. This paper then explores how a group of student-teachers who had completed their Dip. Ed. at Monash University described their own development during their transition into the teaching profession as they re-considered their pre-service teacher preparation program.     

An exploration of issues surrounding teaching the nature of science to pre-service primary school teachers

This article considers the impact of the New Public Management culture on Irish education and calls for a debate in relation to the prevailing bureaucratic model of accountability. The influence of the Lisbon Agenda (2000) on education planning is identified and the 2005/7 Education Strategy Statement is analysed using the relevant OECD framework. This analysis reveals the preponderance of macro policy objectives over individual learning objectives. The implications of this finding are considered in the case of two of the five goals of this Strategy Statement, those dealing with the personal and social goals of education and education quality. The paper calls for alternative indicators that will achieve balance between process and product, between responsive and contractual accountability and between individual and system outcomes. Some hopeful developments are identified.     

Competency disparity between pre-service teacher education and in-service teaching requirements in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to explore whether pre-service teacher education in Taiwan equips in-service teachers with the necessary knowledge and competency to meet the demands of the professional career. A questionnaire was developed to investigate such competency disparity. The questionnaire containing 44 items within six categories was distributed to 305 samples in Taiwan. With a return rate of 92.5%, 282 valid samples were returned and analyzed.     

Cultural identity in teaching across borders: mainland Chinese pre-service teachers in Hong Kong

This study explores transformations in the cultural identities of a group of pre-service teachers from mainland China during their educational experiences in Hong Kong, and how these transformations subsequently impact their professional identity. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with 16 cross-border pre-service teachers from a teacher education institution. Findings demonstrate that 1) the participants recast their extant ideologies and cultural beliefs in response to multiple influences in their new context, enabling them to move beyond pre-established teaching values to re-construct their teaching identity; and 2) some participants constructed a bicultural and multilingual identity to gain legitimacy in the host context. The findings indicate that a more supportive context that provides more room for cultural awareness should be co-constructed by local and non-local pre-service teachers, institutions and policy makers. The study extends understanding of the interconnected relations between teacher identity and historical and social discourses.     

Attitudes of pre-service mature age women students towards teaching primary science: An interview study

During the first semester of their teacher education degree mature age women improved significantly in their attitude towards teaching primary science compared to other sub-groups. The reasons for this difference were explored by interviewing several of the mature age women. An interpretation of these interviews and possible implications for pre-service science education are reported. Specializations: primary science and environmental teacher education.     

Crossing cultural borders into science teaching: Early life experiences,racial and ethnic identities,and beliefs about diversity

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore the development of belief systems as related to racial and ethnic identities of preservice teachers as they crossed cultural borders into science teaching. Data were collected throughout a yearlong teacher preparation program to learn how early life experiences and racial and ethnic identities of preservice teachers influenced both their beliefs about diversity in science classrooms and science teaching pedagogy. Case studies of three preservice teachers from diverse racial and ethnic background are presented: Asian American, African American, and Rural Appalachian. Using Bank's ethnicity typology, findings suggest that racial and ethnic identity, developed in early life experiences of preservice teachers, provided clarity on the rigidity of their beliefs about diversity and how they view science teaching. By learning about the border crossing experiences of preservice teachers in relation to their beliefs about diversity as related to racial and ethnic identities, the researchers hoped to provide insight on preparing preservice teachers for the challenges of working in diverse classrooms. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 119–141, 2004     

Turkish pre-service science teachers' understanding of science and their confidence in teaching it

This study examines Turkish pre-service science teachers' understanding of science concepts and their confidence in its teaching. A total of 299 senior science education major students participated in the study. Data collection instruments included the Science Concepts Test, and the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument. Although findings of the study indicated that majority of the participants held misconceptions concerning fundamental science concepts, they generally felt confident about teaching it. The relationship that might exist among pre-service science teachers' confidence in their effectiveness in teaching and the number of the science courses completed in university is examined.     

Changes in primary boys' and girls' attitudes to school and science during a two-year science in-service programme

A pupils' attitude test was developed to monitor change over the two years of a primary science in-service programme. It explores pupils' views about school in general so that changes in science attitudes can be contextualized within the whole school experience; feelings towards science experiments; and perceptions of real-world science. The test was piloted with schools outside the in-service programme. Approximately 2000 pupils were tested in January 1999, September 1999 or January 2000. A random sample of children were retested in June 1999 and compared with a ‘control’ school. All the children in the project were tested again in July 2000. The results indicate a generally positive attitude towards coming to school, with particular preferences for work with computers and working together. As the pupils get older, their enthusiasm for science falls as they find it less difficult or demanding. This relationship appears to be broken by teacher in-service to some extent. Girls in particular also showed a greater enthusiasm for independent investigative science after the programme.     

Exploring profiles of ideal high school mathematical teaching behaviours: perceptions of in-service and pre-service teachers in Taiwan

This study explored and compared the perspectives of Taiwanese in-service and pre-service high school mathematics teachers regarding ideal teaching behaviours; the perspectives of a nationwide sample of students were taken as the baseline. Fourteen factors contributing to ideal teaching behaviours were identified through exploratory factor analyses. Nine factors, including idea explanation and speedy lecture, were rooted in traditional Chinese culture; five factors, including concrete representation and student activities, were influenced by Western cultures. Three teacher profiles were identified through k-means clustering analysis. The perspectives of in-service teachers were dominated by a painless meaning-emphasised profile; these teachers emphasised meaningful learning for students and avoided the fast pace and demanding requirements that can cause distress in students, whereas pre-service teachers were dominated by an all-round profile, revealing their openness to all factors. Compared with pre-service teachers, in-service teachers’ perspectives were more similar to those of students.     

Learning Study: nurturing the instructional design and teaching competency of pre-service teachers

This paper presents an evaluation study of an innovative and theory-based initial teacher education course entitled Learning Study, the aim of which is to develop the instructional design and teaching competency of pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. The Learning Study course is offered to all second year students as part of the Bachelor of Education programme of the biggest teacher education institute in Hong Kong. The course comprises a series of theory-based tutorials, supportive consultation meetings, and a research lesson practicum. To assess the effectiveness of the course, a framework of representation, decomposition, and approximation of practices was adopted to describe and analyse the teaching of practice. A total of 341 pre-service teachers participated in a quasi-experimental design questionnaire survey. A structural equation model was applied to explore the relationship between the activities of their learning process and their learning outcomes. Theory-based tutorials, consultative support, and research practicums are confirmed to be the predictors of learning outcomes which include instructional design skills, teaching competency, and clinical experience. This paper proposes Learning Study as a model to help pre-service teachers develop their instructional design skills and teaching competency.     

Crossing borders: Research in comparative and international education

Published articles permit mapping international and comparative education research. We reviewed 605 articles published 2004–2008 in four major journals. Using title, abstract, and entire text we explored thematic focus, geographic focus, level/type of education studied, method, and funding. The economic, political, and social context of education receives far more attention than its content. Comparative and international education research reflects more diversity than convergence in approach, theory, and methodology. The research community moves in multiple directions simultaneously, insisting that understanding education requires studying not only what happens within schools but also where the schools sit and who enters their doors.     

Beginning primary science teaching: Entryways to different worlds

This paper reports on a longitudinal interpretive case study of the transtion from preservice to inservice science teaching. We describe four sets of overlapping worlds that provide vantagepoints for the study. Three sets describe the experiences of Katie, the participating teacher. These are the world of the person who is good at science and the world of the person who is not, the world of the student teacher and the world of the novice teacher, and the world of the primary science classroom and the world of the primary classroom during other subjects. The final set describes our development as researchers during this period—the world of the specialist science teacher and the world of the generalist teacher. In our analysis of the transition experience, we employ the term entryways to describe understandings and strategies that helped the teacher and ourselves to move between contrasting perspectives.     

A survey of pre-service primary teachers' experiences of science in schools

In 1990, a large proportion of third year primary trainee teachers at Victoria College had observed or taught very few or no science lessons during the first two years of their course. The students felt that a lack of content knowledge, a crowded school curriculum, and problems associated with managing resources and equipment, were the main factors contributing to the low level of science being taught in schools. By the end of their third year significantly more students had taught science than after the second year. There was also a change in approach to teaching science with more practical activities being included than previously. The science method unit taught to the students in the third year of their course contributed to this increase. The students considered the hands-on activities in class to have been the most effective aspect of the unit in their preparation for the teaching of primary science. Specializations: children's learning in science, primary teacher education. Specializations: student understanding of biology, evaluation of formal and informal educational settings. Specializations: gender, science and technology, environmental education. Specializations: children's learning in science, language and science.     

Learning to teach science: Personal epistemologies,teaching goals,and practices of teaching

The purpose of this study was to understand what personal epistemologies and science teaching goals preservice secondary science teachers of a teacher education program in the USA bring with them to their learning to teach and how they translate such beliefs into actions. A set of essay questions, developed through a pilot study, was used to identify preservice teachers’ personal epistemologies and teaching goals at the beginning of science methods instruction. Classroom observation reports, video recorded teaching episodes, lesson plans and self-video reflections were collected to identify connections between their epistemologies, teaching goals, and practice of teaching. Relational and ontological dimensions of epistemological beliefs were found to be useful for understanding preservice teachers’ personal epistemologies and teaching practices. The data suggests that the participants’ espoused teaching goals were relevant to their personal epistemologies when differentiating naïve personal epistemologies from the sophisticated, and their emerging teaching practices demonstrated shifts in personal epistemologies and potential for further development in teaching practices. Findings indicate sources of how teaching practices are shaped. Implications for teacher education include needs for addressing ways to deal with teaching constraints for constructivist teaching approaches, collaboration with content course instructors, critical reflection on field experience, and developing induction programs that support continuing development of emerging teaching practices.