Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Inclusion: Factors Influencing Classroom Practice

Effective collaboration between early childhood teachers and social workers is now considered critical to providing children with adequate psycho-social supports and services in early childhood settings. In order for this interdisciplinary collaboration to be more effective, opportunities for each discipline to learn about each other's knowledge, skills, roles, and responsibilities need to occur well before these professionals enter early childhood settings. This pilot study engaged 2nd-year, preservice, graduate early childhood education and social work students in an interprofessional training and collaborative activity as part of their graduate coursework. Following this training and activity, the early childhood education graduate students and the social work graduate students were invited to participate in uni-professional focus groups as a way to explore their experiences. Findings suggest that although there is general agreement among graduate students that interdisciplinary training and learning activities during coursework provide an important foundation for collaboration, there are several challenges. These challenges include a lack of clarity around professional roles and responsibilities, differences in understandings of children's behavior, and a perception that there will be little opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration in early childhood settings. Implications are discussed for strengthening relationships between professional preparation programs as a way to improve collaborative teaming and increase early childhood teacher retention.     

Effect of Peer Coaching on Teachers’ Practice and Their Students’ Scientific Competencies

Research in Science Education - This study aimed to explore the effect of peer coaching on science teachers’ practice and their students’ scientific competencies. The mixed method...     

A Mathematics Teachers’ Perspective and its Relationship to Practice

In this paper we try to characterize the pedagogical approaches that mathematics teachers are developing to meet the challenges posed by education reforms. A key aspect is the identification of the perspectives that underlie those pedagogical approaches, using the term perspective to include a broad pedagogical structure composed of multiple conceptions that are related to some aspects of a teacher’s practice. Through the study of the practice of a secondary mathematics teacher, we try to explore how his/her pedagogical approaches on mathematics, mathematics learning, and mathematics teaching are related to the relational architecture that is established in the classroom during the development of an instructional unit of similarity at a secondary school level, and we examine if that relationship can be explained in terms of the underlying perspective. The results of the study have shown the characteristics of that relationship, and the important role that the teacher’s knowledge of the students’ difficulties plays both in making decisions and in developing the teachers’ actions.     

South African Primary Mathematics Teachers’ Experiences and Perspectives About Lesson Study

This study aims to investigate the perspectives of primary school teachers in South Africa, who participated in a Lesson Study (LS) project, on this professional development process and about their professional learning. The study followed a mixed approach, with data collected through a questionnaire, followed up by interviews. A novel approach in this study was to source teachers’ experiences of the individual stages of LS as well as of the integrated process. Teachers’ perspectives on LS were categorised into 5 themes: collaboration — commitment and the free rider effect, confidence issues, teachers’ knowledge and skills, misconceptions about the LS approach, and external issues including concerns over time of teachers and learners, systemic challenges and school management. Using teachers’ individual and focus group inputs in the questionnaire and the interviews, we report about their experiences.

     

An Interview Study of Gender Difference in Preschool Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Children’s Play

The aim of this study was to investigate, identify and describe different ways that female and male preschool teachers conceive, understand and experience play. The research questions addressed are: What perspectives do female and male preschool teachers have on play? Are there differences in play experiences related to gender? The interview study is inspired by phenomenographical research. The sample consisted of ten female and ten male preschool teachers’. The results show differences between female and male preschool teachers’ play willingness. This study found that male preschool teachers contribute with more playfulness, and this is something that both female and male preschool teachers noticed. Female preschool teachers tend to value calm play and emphasize the importance of social development while male preschool teachers accentuate the significance of physical development. All preschool teachers in the study emphasized that it is important to create inspiring environments for play and outdoor play.     

Incorporating Informational Texts in the Primary Grades: A Research-Based Rationale,Practical Strategies,and Two Teachers’ Experiences

This article highlights the literacy practices of two second grade teachers—one in an affluent suburb of a major metropolitan area and the other in a large urban school district. The article describes how these teachers use informational texts to engage their students, to provide children with opportunities to learn about the world around them, and to immerse them in literacy learning. The article also shares the teachers′ insights into the value of informational texts in primary classrooms.     

Investigating Omani Science Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Teaching Science: the Role of Gender and Teaching Experiences

A 30-item questionnaire was designed to determine Omani science teachers’ attitudes toward teaching science and whether or not these attitudes differ according to gender and teaching experiences of teachers. The questionnaire items were divided into 3 domains: classroom preparation, managing hands-on science, and development appropriateness. The questionnaire was administered to 139 randomly selected science teachers who teach science in grades 5–10. The sample consisted of 72 male teachers and 67 female teachers, 57 teachers with teaching experience between 1 and 5 years and 82 teachers with teaching experience of 6 and more years. The sample was selected from 7 schools in 1 Educational Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman. The questionnaire reliability was calculated by an internal consistency method, using Cronbach’s alpha, which gave the value of 0.73 for all the items. The findings indicated that science teachers’ attitudes toward teaching science were positive. Furthermore, the results showed that there were statically significant differences in teachers’ attitudes due to gender in favor of the female teachers and in teaching experience in favor of teachers with long experience. The study proposed some recommendations to improve the science teachers’ attitude, especially male teachers towards science teaching. Paying more attention to in-service professional development programs, encouraging new teachers to attend some classes to observe experienced colleagues, and finally rewarding teachers morally, socially, and financially are some of these recommendations.     

Pakistani Teachers’ Perceptions of Kindergarten Children’s Learning: An Exploration of Understanding and Practice

This paper considers perceptions of children’s learning and classroom practice to support learning in the Pakistani early years educational context. In Pakistan, there is a growing focus on quality provision of early childhood education and building early childhood education teacher capacity. Over the course of one academic year, data were collected from kindergarten teachers in a Pakistani urban school through interviews and classroom observations as part of a larger study. Findings presented in this paper are based on the interview data of two teachers in the sample, a novice and an experienced teacher. Data analysis examined their perceptions of kindergarten children’s learning and of their practice to support kindergarten children’s learning, taking into consideration the gender perspective. The results showed tensions in the teachers’ perceptions which contrasted between a constructivist approach and a teacher-directed skills approach. Perceptions of their practice reflected a formal, teacher-directed approach rather than a constructivist approach and a teacher-directed skills approach to teaching. Several factors, including deep-rooted perceptions as well as curriculum structure, time, number of staff and resources, contributed to this.     

Assessment of Greek University Students’ Counselling Needs and Attitudes: An Exploratory Study

The present study is concerned with an exploration of counselling needs of students at two Greek universities as well as their attitudes to utilizing a university counselling centre. The sample consisted of 312 students who completed a Greek version of the Rutgers Needs Assessment Questionnaire as well as a subscale on Attitudes towards the Counselling Centre. The analysis of the data indicated that issues about relationships, goal setting and problem-solving were the main concerns of the participants. It was also found that students, especially those who faced some kind of psychological difficulties, held a negative attitude towards visiting a university counselling centre.     

Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Multiculturalism in Relation to General and Diversity-Related Burnout

This study focuses on teachers’ general and diversity-related burnout in relation to teachers’ attitudes toward multiculturalism. Results are based on the responses of 120 teachers working at five different urban, ethnically diverse junior vocational high schools in the Netherlands. Analyses indicated that teachers with assimilative attitudes exhibited higher levels of general and diversity-related burnout, whereas there was no relationship between pluralistic attitudes and burnout. In addition, there were no relationships between teacher background variables and attitude and burnout, besides the finding that native teachers experienced less general burnout, and had less pluralistic attitudes, than nonnative teachers.     

Relaxing Design Students’ Sketch Inhibition: Experiences with Theoretical Grounding and Impermanent Media

This article reports about a study developed to understand the effectiveness of instructional strategies to manage sketch inhibition in design students through studio-based pedagogy. Sketch inhibition among students and recent graduates of design programs is a prominent aspect of the prevailing digitization of the design industry and education. While traditional and digital media are ideally complementary tools to facilitate the complex process of designing, studio instructors struggle to effectively integrate both into their students’ conceptions and practices. Primary data sources were ethnographic fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews, and students’ responses to open-ended survey questions. Whiteboards used as an impermanent medium, requests for quantity of sketches, and gentle enforcement of time limits were incorporated into studio practices on the foundation of theoretical grounding. Students understood the purpose and advantages of using hand sketches at strategic moments during the design process. Inhibited students responded to this combination of interventions by relaxing enough to focus on engaging with the relevant design tasks rather than focusing on how best to avoid them. Production of rich records, documenting their projects’ progression, served as supporting evidence that sketching had become a more normal and accepted part of the design process than for previous studio cohorts. The authors suggest more experimentation with these strategies and propose that sketching instructors prioritize and nurture ‘thinking sketches’ over ‘persuasive sketches’ to transfer attention from the representation of design solutions toward the design process and the development of mature design solutions.     

Teaching Students from Other Cultures: An Exploration of Language Teachers’ Experiences with Ethnic Minority Students

This article reports on a qualitative study investigating a group of novice ESL teachers’ teaching experiences with ethnic minority students in secondary schools in Hong Kong. It finds that, while teachers argue that society has not been tolerant enough of ethnic minorities, they nonetheless believe that ethnic minorities should comply with societal expectations in order to gain respect and more opportunities. In passing judgement on ethnic minority students’ learning style and life attitudes, and in urging that they be changed, the teachers have, perhaps unconsciously, perpetuated and reified underlying societal stereotypes. It is found that the accented English spoken by ethnic minority students has been devalued and delegitimized, which may disempower them in educational settings and prevent them from expressing and defending their ideas. Implications for education pre-service and novice ESL teachers working with ethnically diverse students are discussed.     

Secondary Social Studies Teachers’ Experiences Planning and Implementing Inquiry Using the Inquiry Design Model

While the use of inquiry-based instruction has been encouraged for many years, it continues to be the exception rather than the norm. The publication of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, as well as the Inquiry Design Model that provides structure for its implementation, offer support for teachers to use inquiry in their social studies classrooms. This phenomenological study used semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analyses to explore three secondary social studies teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge as they planned and implemented inquiries. Findings indicate that teachers found a structured method of designing inquiries useful and that their approaches to planning and implementing those inquiries varied with individual context and personal pedagogical stances. There is no one-size-fits-all inquiry, even when teachers used the same support tool.     

Steps to Opening Scientific Inquiry: Pre-Service Teachers’ Practicum Experiences with a New Support Framework

This qualitative multiple-comparative case study investigates (1) The reported experiences and impressions of four pre-service teachers (PTs) on practicum placement in four different classrooms (grades 1–9) where a new Steps to Inquiry (SI) framework was being utilized to support students conducting open inquiry; (2) The relative dispositions of the PTs toward conducting open inquiry, as indicated by their core conceptions regarding science, the purpose of education, effective teaching, and the capacity of students. Findings indicate that (1) although there were differences in the experiences of the four PTs, all four had an opportunity to observe and/or facilitate students conducting open inquiry with the SI framework, and after the practicum, all of them reported that they would like to include open inquiry in their own classrooms in the future; (2) one PT already possessed core conceptions indicative of a favorable disposition toward open inquiry before the placement; another altered her core conceptions substantially toward a favorable disposition during the placement; a third altered her conceptions regarding the capacity of students; and one PT maintained core conceptions indicative of a disposition that was not favorable to open inquiry despite the pronouncements that she would like to conduct open inquiry with students in their own future classroom. Possible reasons for the differences in the responses of the four pre-services teachers to the practicum placement are discussed.     

An Empirical Study: To What Extent and In What Ways Does Social Foundations of Education Inform Four Teachers’ Educational Beliefs and Classroom Practices?

Within the state selected for this study, teacher preparation programs and state certification criterion require that educators examine the relationship between school and society within social foundations of education (SFE) coursework. Using observations and interviews, this study examines to what extent four experienced, urban classroom teachers both speak in belief and exhibit in classroom practice an understanding of SFE. Two sets of measures, rooted in the social foundations and curriculum traditions, were devised to examine the degree to which teachers’ beliefs and practices matched to the tenets of SFE. Inconsistencies were evident within each teacher's beliefs and practices. Also, among the four respondents, there was minimal uniformity. From this study, when teaching even with a limited understanding of SFE, instructors engendered practices essential for a democracy. Students composed critical works, combining academic content as well as skills essential for life in a self-representative government. Use of these particular measures could be applied to inform pre-service teacher education programs as well as professional, in-service development.     

South African Teachers’ Attitudes toward Learners with Barriers to Learning: Attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder and little or no functional speech

This study examined teachers’ attitudes toward learners with two types of barriers to learning: a learner with attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a learner with little or no functional speech (LNFS). The results indicated that although teachers reported that the learner with ADHD would be more disruptive in class and have a more negative effect on the classroom climate, they overwhelmingly favoured including this learner over the learner with LNFS. The data indicated that teachers were concerned about the ability of the learner with LNFS to participate academically and socially in the classroom. They also were significantly more concerned about their own ability to cope with the learner with LNFS. The article concludes with the need for ongoing inclusive education training for all teachers in South Africa if successful inclusive education is to become a reality.     

Recognizing and Managing Countertransference in the College Classroom: An Exploration of Expert Teachers’ Inner Experiences

Teacher countertransference refers to conscious and unconscious, negative or positive emotional reactions to certain students that arise from the teacher’s own areas of personal conflict. Our investigation of 14 expert teachers’ countertransference experiences in the college classroom, yielded several themes. Countertransference triggers included challenging behaviors (e.g., student disengagement from learning, hostility, manipulation). Countertransference reactions included frustration, the questioning of one’s own judgment, and identification with students. Participants managed countertransference by seeking social support, maintaining their professionalism, thinking before responding, practicing self-reflection, building relationships with students, and drawing upon personal characteristics (values, empathy, conceptualization skills) and teaching experience. We suggest implications for teaching and recommendations for research.     

Student Teachers’ Team Teaching during Field Experiences: An Evaluation by their Mentors

Since collaboration within schools gains importance, teacher educators are looking for alternative models of field experience inspired by collaborative learning. Team teaching is such a model. This study explores two team teaching models (parallel and sequential teaching) by investigating the mentors' perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to map their attitudes, the advantages and disadvantages they observe and the conditions for implementation. Results indicate that mentors adopt an open attitude toward team teaching. They observe advantages for all actors involved, especially for student teachers (e.g. support, professional growth) and learners (e.g. rich and varied lessons). The study corroborates the findings retrieved in the literature, enlarges and refines them, and gives a clearer view on the importance of each (dis)advantage.     

Teachers’ Implicit Meaning Systems and Their Implications for Pedagogical Thinking and Practice: A Case Study from Finland

This qualitative case study examines teachers’ implicit meaning systems built around their core beliefs on the malleability of human qualities. Previous research has demonstrated the influence of students’ implicit theories on motivation and achievement and has presented successful interventions for students. However, research on teachers’ implicit theories and, in particular, their actualization in natural environments is lacking. The data for this study include observations and stimulated recall interviews with two Finnish teachers whose opposing implicit theories were first indicated in 2000 by Carol Dweck . The results depict how these teachers’ implicit meaning systems influence their ways of interpreting students’ behavior, learning, and achievements, which in turn guide teachers’ pedagogical thinking as well as their practices for motivating the students. However, these Finnish teachers’ implicit theories also appear to be intertwined with culture-bound assumptions, and the classroom implementation of these theories was observed to vary situationally.