Teaching beliefs: a comparison between Italian primary and secondary school trainee teachers

This paper presents research which compares the teaching beliefs of primary and secondary school trainee teachers. Participants were 177 trainee teachers, 92 enrolled in a primary school teacher degree course, and 85 enrolled in a postgraduate teacher training course specifically for music teaching at secondary school level (middle and high school). A questionnaire was employed for assessing beliefs. By performing factor analysis, the following four dimensions were extracted: innovative teaching and cooperative learning, teacher-centred approach, learner-centred approach and working collaboratively. Data were subjected to analysis of variance for each factor of the questionnaire. Significant differences between primary and secondary trainee teachers in the way they think about music teaching were found. The relevance of these factors and differences was discussed in considering how to improve the education of teachers.     

Comparative study of the evaluation of professional competencies by experienced and trainee Spanish primary teachers

Taking as reference the proposals of the European Higher Education Area, the aim of this study is to identify the competencies which a wide sample of teachers in Spanish primary schools (6–12 age group) consider to be important for their professional performance and which they use in their everyday teaching, and to what extent their university training prepared them for their practising professional development. To do this, an ad hoc instrument was devised and applied to experienced practising teachers and to teacher trainees who were on teacher training placements during the last semester of their course. The results of the study show that initial teacher training should deal in depth with the competencies related to the organisation and management of teaching–learning, the use of new technologies in the primary classroom, the involvement of the families, education in values, social skills and skills for working in professional groups. Finally, proposals are made for training based on the articulation between theory and practice, to allow the professional competencies mentioned to be developed and used in practice, as well as encouraging close collaboration between teacher trainers and experienced practising teachers.     

Assessment,and the literacy practices of trainee PCET teachers

Drawing on concepts of learning as socially situated within communities of practice and of literacy as social practice (the New Literacy Studies), this paper seeks to explore the assessment practices of a part-time teacher training course for teachers working in the post-compulsory education and training sector. This paper argues that the ways in which student teachers make sense of the assessment requirements of their course is not related to their prior experiences as students or as teachers, contradicting notions of transferable study skills. This paper also posits a conceptual framework for exploring the assessment process that seeks to reconcile assessment and pedagogy with the community of practice model.     

Exploring relationships among TPACK constructs and ICT achievement among trainee teachers

Teaching in the classroom today can no longer sustain the interest of students and be effective if the process involves traditional approach - teachers as sole provider of content information. In recent years technology has played a significant role in transforming education to more progressive and interactive activities. However the use of technology itself does not produce positive results in quality of learning and students’ achievement. Teachers must be competent in subject knowledge, pedagogical skills and technological know-how. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge or TPACK as a conceptual framework can guide teachers to understand the complex relations between the six components of the model. There has been numerous studies on TPACK in international contexts beyond cultural and language boundaries. This paper examined recent studies on TPACK in various countries and reports findings from a study conducted with student teachers in the UAE.     

Patriotism and National Education: Perceptions of trainee teachers in Singapore

The effective teaching of national education requires from the teacher a sense of commitment and personal conviction. The teacher has to demonstrate confidence in what is said and taught in class and, more importantly, through his or her personal values and convictions. In other words, the teacher is required to be patriotic. This paper examines the different types of patriotism among trainee teachers in Singapore, and how these types of patriotism influence their perceptions of citizenship values, the importance of national education, and the extent to which national education is viewed as government propaganda. The results revealed four homogenous clusters that differed significantly in terms of their perceptions.     

The experience of black African religious education trainee teachers training in England

This study addresses issues surrounding the recruitment and training of black African religious education teachers within the context of the government’s intention to make the teaching profession more representative of the wider community. In relation to this there is a strong emphasis in the Teacher Training Agency’s Qualifying to Teach on selection procedures which promote equality of opportunity and the recognition of individual training needs. The study is informed by the work of Sikes and Everington who have highlighted the place of religion and culture within the personal histories of religious education teachers. Black African members of two successive cohorts of PGCE students are tracked to identify their training needs in relation to their cultural and religious backgrounds. The data identifies four cultural and religious factors which impact on their training to teach religious education in the UK. Finally, as advised by the Carrington Report, recommendations are made for the practice of teacher educators.     

Diary-based strategy assessment and its relationship to performance in a group of trainee teachers

Our work is based on the study of learning strategies used by a group of trainee teachers in a real learning situation, and how this use of strategies influences the results of the learning process. We use a diary as a tool to assess the learning strategies and compare the results obtained with those using an inventory. Our findings indicate that the deliberate use of strategies (measured by diaries) has a positive effect on knowledge acquisition, with the qualitative analysis method of the verbal protocols noted in the diaries proving more valuable than the use of traditional inventories.     

远程教育、网络教育与虚拟游戏世界的教育

远程教育的研究已经有了相当长的历史, 并且对于远程教育机构教师的职能也非常熟悉.博客、维基以及播客的应用弥补了电子邮件、虚拟学习环境、计算机会议等的不足.到目前为止, 在三维多用户虚拟环境下的远程教育的研究已经问世.远程教育专家可能会问远程教育和网络教育的经验能否应用到与这种虚拟学习环境不一样的环境中去.为论证哪些在三维多用户虚拟环境下可行或不可行, 通过由莱斯特大学跨距离联盟创设的虚拟游戏世界岛屿来解释虚拟游戏世界的教育.此外, 还分析虚拟游戏世界的教育怎样才能满足学生的需求, 并且探讨老师和学生适应该环境存在的机遇和挑战.     

Professional knowledge learned and professional knowledge applied: A case study of two trainee English teachers

This article reports on one strand of a collaborative research project undertaken at the Faculty of Education, which sought to explore trainee teachers' development of assessment understandings and practices during their PGCE, and over the following two years. Using two case studies of English trainees, we explore the ways in which they seek to bring together effective assessment principles embedded in the research literatures they encountered in their training with the classroom focused, 'tried and tested' approaches in their placement schools. The resulting demands on professional knowledge 'pure' and 'applied', and some resulting tensions are investigated though interviews with the trainees concerned.     

Coping,confidence and alienation: the early experience of trainee teachers in English further education

Summer 2009 saw the introduction in England of the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL). Funded in full by the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the MTL aims to improve the quality of teaching and to raise standards in schools. In this paper we discuss what the MTL might mean both for in‐service teacher education and initial teacher training. We explore issues relating to the structure and delivery of MTL including the tension between standardisation and personalisation of its content as well as the lack of focus on research and the costs of this to its reputation and appeal of the qualification. Furthermore, we question the extent to which newly qualified teachers are ready to benefit from undertaking the MTL and consider how availability criteria may give rise to equity issues. With these concerns in mind we discuss the future of the MTL and whether this Labour initiative will have a chance to prove itself under a Conservative‐led coalition government at a time of severe austerity.     

Peer Tutoring

An analysis of the ubiquitous but taken-for-granted term “rigorous academic curriculum” reveals that by definition it is not an academically rigorous term. The term contains multiple meanings, negative connotations, and a constricted conception of the school curriculum. It is associated with a discredited learning theory and in practice tends to function more as a status marker than as a substantive educational experience. We should shift our thinking and teaching away from the imprecise and potentially miseducative notion of a rigorous academic curriculum and toward the ideal of a vigorous educative curriculum.     

Research and the training of primary teachers

Elementary education is an ideal field for educational research, not only because of the special difficulties that are inherent in it—such as the problem of communication with the children and resistance to change on the part of the teachers—but also because the advance of knowledge is bound up with the revision of its foundations and because a child's early training has a vital influence on the subsequent development of his mental powers and particular talents. Research into elementary education is rendered still more valuable and urgent by two additional factors: changes in the child's family and social status, and advances in the sciences which shed light on the various aspects of those changes. Research at this educational level—important, urgent, but also difficult—promises to be rewarding and the results should lead to considerable changes in teacher training. However, the author is not concerned with this aspect; he is trying to examine to what extent an introduction to educational research and participation in it should be included in teacher training, and how this can be done. Nevertheless, the close relationship thus established between such research and training also implies that we are concerned with training as a subject of research. Raymond Lallez, Director of the Centre for Research and Training at the école Normale Supérieure in Saint-Cloud and a member of the French National Commission for Unesco, worked in child psychology at the University of Montpellier before becoming an adviser to the Minister of National Education of Cambodia. He has taught at several universities in the United States and is currentlyrapporteur for the National Centre of Scientific Research, in addition to his other functions in French national educational planning.     

Mathematical belief change in prospective primary teachers

The development and influence of beliefs in teacher education has been a topic of increasing interest for researchers in recent years. This study explores the responses of a group of prospective primary teachers to attempts to facilitate belief change as part of their initial teacher education programme in mathematics. The students’ responses seemed to fall into three categories: non-engagement; building a new set of beliefs and; reforming existing beliefs. In this article the participants’ responses are outlined and illustrated with stories from three individuals. This study suggests that belief reform is complex and fraught with ethical dilemmas. Certainly there is a need for further research in this area, particularly given the pervasive influence of beliefs on teaching practice.

浅析小学英语教师的课堂评价

课堂评价是课堂教学的关键环节,要使课堂教学评价发挥作用,教师课堂评价方法的应用是最为重要的。教师运用正确的课堂评价方法不仅会调动学生学习积极性,而且有利于培养小学生学习英语的兴趣。因此,在小学阶段的英语教学过程中,教师应该运用正确的课堂评价方法,充分发挥教师在课堂评价中的重要作用。     

How teachers express their knowledge through narrative

The study we carried out deals with how teachers express their practical knowledge. The main objective was to classify how it is expressed, so that we can see its components, its limits, and how close it is to theoretical knowledge, understanding as such that which is based on research and aimed at explaining phenomena by looking for regular features.     

Learning to teach: some perceptions of trainee teachers of mathematics on working collaboratively in the classroom

This paper examines trainees' perceptions of the impact, on secondary mathematics trainees, of collaborative school‐based work involving small groups of trainees, a university tutor and a class teacher. The findings suggest that trainees' become better able to plan and deliver a coherent yet diverse sequence of lessons, that their awareness of children's learning styles and misconceptions was raised and that preconceived notions about teaching and learning were challenged and mediated. A few trainees found the experience unhelpful and threatening. The role of the tutor was found to influence trainees' responses to the program and, to an extent, moderate the effects of variations in teacher involvement. Some implications are discussed.     

Can primary teachers still be subject generalists?

Within the teaching profession a crisis of competence is developing, one that affects both primary and secondary schools but is especially acute at the primary level. This paper seeks to (a) identify and characterize this crisis, (b) explain why the crisis has arisen at this time, and (c) suggest how we might alleviate it. It is argued that we can no longer reasonably expect primary teachers to be subject-matter generalists; they must specialize.     

Mentoring beginning primary teachers for exemplary teaching practices

In exploring the potential for mentoring to support novice teachers’ use of effective teaching practices, we conducted a grounded theory analysis about change potential. Themes emerging from cross-case analysis of survey, interview, and observation data from six beginning primary teachers in the US and their mentors revealed factors, other than type of mentoring programme, that related to beginning teachers’ success in improving classroom practices. More effective beginning teachers’ mentors had more experience as mentors and were more effective teachers than other mentors. More effective beginning teachers communicated more with mentors, more accurately self-reported use of effective teaching practices, and were more open to mentoring.