Developing Understanding: the use of teaching portfolios in preservice education

The premise that underlies the preservice‐teacher‐education programme at Monash University is the need to focus on the nature of learning (for example, Gunstone et al., 1993). One approach currently being used to enhance this process is the use of portfolios. The portfolio is an open‐ended task designed to explore teaching from many different vantage points. It is organised as a dynamic assessment task through which the student teachers work on developing their understanding of what it means to be a science teacher, and the teaching portfolio itself is a mixture of artefacts designed to help student teachers demonstrate this to others. This paper reports on the effectiveness and value of portfolios in helping preservice teachers learn about learning and teaching.     

Teaching portfolios: their role in teaching and learning policy

Teaching Portfolios are now common in higher education. They are used both developmentally and summatively in spite of the fact that many academics find them generically quite unfamiliar. This paper explores, primarily conceptually, the experience of one institution as to the ways in which portfolios have functioned in its processes and its practice. The paper introduces a small empirical sample of portfolios in an attempt to give concrete meaning to some of the points made. Ultimately, it questions whether portfolios can have a mixed developmental/summative mode of existence and still meet the purposes the institution intends. This raises the issue of the extent to which a summative mechanism can become an end in itself and can actively limit progressive potential.

Les dossiers d'enseignement (teaching portfolios) font maintenant partie de la vie courante en enseignement supérieur. Ils sont utilisés dans une double optique de développement et d'évaluation sommative en dépit du fait que de nombreux universitaires les jugent généralement assez étranges. Cet article explore, d'un point de vue conceptuel, l'expérience d'une institution en ce qui a trait à l'utilisation des dossiers d'enseignement dans le cadre de ses processus et de sa pratique. L'article présente un échantillon empirique limité de dossiers d'enseignement dans le but d'illustrer, de façon concrète, l'argument présenté. Ultimement, l'article remet en question l'idée que les dossiers d'enseignement peuvent à la fois avoir une existence mixte de développement/d'évaluation sommative et atteindre les objectifs visés par une institution. Ceci soulève la question de savoir dans quelle mesure un mécanisme sommatif peut devenir une fin en soi et ainsi limiter activement le potentiel progressif.     

Working for learning: teaching assistants developing mathematics for teaching

This article derives from a case study of 10 secondary school teaching assistants (TAs) who did not have conventional pre-qualifications in mathematics but who undertook an honours degree in mathematics education studies at a Higher Education Institution in England whilst continuing to work as TAs in school. Work-based learning was thus undertaken in parallel with advancement through the hierarchical undergraduate mathematics curriculum. Lave and Wenger’s work on communities of practice is used as a framework to explore the TAs’ learning of mathematics alongside their professional work in schools. This case illustrates how and where institution-based undergraduate teaching relates to work in school, and where it does not, thus signalling the importance of the TAs’ informal learning strategies in bringing together these experiences.     

Learning environment and anxiety for learning and teaching mathematics among preservice teachers

Learning Environments Research - The learning environment has been found to be related to mathematics anxiety at a variety of educational levels, including higher education, but to date has not...     

Teaching portfolios: Developing quality learning in pre-service science teachers

The premise that underlies the pre-service science teacher education program at Monash University is the need to focus on the nature of learning in ways that encourage student-teachers to reconsider their conceptions of learning and how this relates to their view of teaching. The purpose of teaching portfolios is to act as a prompt for student-teachers to reconsider these conceptions and as a way of helping them to better articulate their professional knowledge. The Science (Stream 3) student teachers construct a portfolio of teaching strategies, episodes, ideas, etc. that demonstrate how they see their role as science teachers. The portfolio is ungraded, openended and organised as a dynamic assessment task, not just a static end product. This paper reports on student-teachers' understanding of, and approach to portfolios as they come to understand its purpose and value. Specializations: chemistry and science education, technology and industry links with science curriculum Specializations: science education, reflection, curriculum and evaluation     

Cooperative learning: A successful college teaching strategy

Based on a review of the literature, cooperative learning strategies seem to be effective in raising the level of university student achievement and attitude. The few studies on commitment and retention show positive anecdotal evidence of the importance of small group structures with those undergraduates surveyed. Six features were found to be present in effective cooperative learning methodology: positive interdependence, individual accountability, a rationale for grouping, structured student interaction, instructor facilitation, and attention to social skills. Further study and review of the attitudinal and achievement potential of cooperative learning structures compared to traditional teaching methodologies seems indicated.She received her Ed.D. in 1989 from Pepperdine University, and her B.S. in 1963 from the University of Utah. Dr. Cook's research and writing focus on cooperative learning, the promotion of positive attitudes toward reading, and creating literate communities by infusing multicultural literature into secondary English courses.     

A learning model for science education: Deriving teaching strategies

A learning model for science education was proposed by Appleton (1989), based on Osborne and Wittrock’s generative learning theory (1983) and the Piagetian notions of disequilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation. The model incorporated many aspects of difficulties in learning science experienced by students, as revealed in the LISP projects and similar research. This paper examines how the model may be used to derive teaching strategies: components of the model are analysed in terms of specific types of teacher interventions which could facilitate students’ progress to accommodation. Some established teaching strategies are analysed in terms of these interventions. Specializations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science.     

Case records as personal teaching texts for study in preservice teacher education

Drawing on insights from the use of journals and portfolios in teacher education and cases in nursing, the author describes an approach using case records as Personal Teaching Texts to facilitate beginning teacher development. Data are drawn from a study of 20 secondary teacher education students enrolled in a year-long certification program. Results indicate that the students valued the approach and that for the majority it enabled development, particularly of reflectivity, and was a means for providing program coherence. Suggestions are made for designing useful texts, weaknesses in the approach are identified, and suggestions made for improvement.     

Teaching portfolios in higher education and their effects: An explorative study

Although many authors claim benefits of teaching portfolios for use in higher education settings, there are few empirical studies that investigate these benefits.This article deals with the question of whether teaching portfolios are used in higher education, and if so, which effects they bring about. Furthermore, the attitude of teachers towards the use of teaching portfolios is examined. The study shows that currently not very many teachers are using teaching portfolios. When used, a teaching portfolio is an instrument that can bring about some important positive effects. Respondents report that, due to the use of portfolios, they were stimulated to reflect on their own teaching, to actualise the learning content, to improve their course materials, to search for alternative educational methods, etc. When teachers are using teaching portfolios it is important that, besides any negative effects, they also experience positive effects. If this is not the case, teachers will see the teaching portfolio only as an extra administrative inconvenience.     

Teaching and Research: New relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education

In order to bring teaching and research together, a fuller understanding of how academics conceptualise research and scholarship is needed. The paper discusses different ways in which research and scholarship are conceptualised and then provides two alternative models of the relationship between teaching and research based on different conceptions of teaching and different ideas about the nature of knowledge. The paper suggests that if the relationship between teaching and research is to be enhanced it is necessary to move towards a model based on the notion of academic communities of practice. The implications for higher education of doing this are then examined. It is argued that there is a need to reconceptualise the role of higher education and to renegotiate relationships between teachers and students.     

Teaching and research: new relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education

In order to bring teaching and research together, a fuller understanding of how academics conceptualise research and scholarship is needed. The paper discusses different ways in which research and scholarship are conceptualised and then provides two alternative models of the relationship between teaching and research based on different conceptions of teaching and different ideas about the nature of knowledge. The paper suggests that if the relationship between teaching and research is to be enhanced it is necessary to move towards a model based on the notion of academic communities of practice. The implications for higher education of doing this are then examined. It is argued that there is a need to reconceptualise the role of higher education and to renegotiate relationships between teachers and students.     

Language,literacy and learning: modelling integration and reflective practices in preservice teacher education

This paper reports on the attempts to integrate literacy strategies across several strands (Pedagogy, Curriculum Studies and Study of Teaching) of a new Graduate Diploma of Education for preservice secondary school teachers. This paper focuses on the literacy demands the program placed on English majors, and the outcomes demonstrated by them throughout the one-year program. At the time that these data were collected, the writer was the inaugural Director of Teaching for the whole program, but with specific responsibility for Study of Teaching and English Curriculum Studies.     

The development,trial and evaluation of a constructivist teaching and learning approach in a preservice science teacher education program

This paper reports on the use of a constructivist teaching/learning approach to improve first year pre-service primary teachers' confidence in, and attitude to, teaching science. The two-semester program was based on allowing the students to explore science concepts in detail during the first semester and then developing constructivist pedagogy in the second semester. There were many benefits reported by students including ownership of knowledge, the development of pedagogic skills and the use of group work to develop ideas. However, a number of concems were raised such as uncertainty of knowing what to do when exploring knowledge for themselves and the lack of note taking which occurred. A number of issues that need to be considered when re-implementing the program are discussed.     

Increasing the effectiveness of learning how to teach in preservice education

Interchange - In the context of re-examining teaching practice as an integral part of teacher education, two hypotheses were tested by a year-long experiment in preservice education of elementary...     

Style and effectiveness in education and training: A model for organising teaching and learning

In the fields of education and training, there is nowadays an increasing recognition of the need to be effective. In order to be effective it is necessary, however, to ensure that both the content of one's teaching and its style of presentation are suitably matched to the needs and interests and abilities of the persons being taught. This in turn calls for a broadly based ecological approach in which careful attention is paid to the social and psychological conditions under which teaching and learning occur. By drawing on the pertinent literature in business management and organisation theory, the author indicates how the ecological approach might be applied to problems of style and effectiveness in education and training. A conceptual framework is developed within which it is possible to identify 4 broadly distinguishable and commonly occurring styles of teaching. The framework is then applied to an experiment in which the styles of three teachers were compared and contrasted. The paper ends with a presentation of 4 detailed hypotheses concerning the conditions under which each of the 4 proposed teaching styles is most likely to prove effective.     

Advancement towards the scholarship of teaching and learning through the writing of teaching portfolios

This study explores the impact academic teachers’ writing of a teaching portfolio can have on their professional learning. Through an open-ended questionnaire, 26 academics from three faculties reported on insights, effects on teaching practice, and effects on collegial exchange that the portfolio writing entailed. We discuss how the experienced impact relates to the three competence levels excellence, expertise and scholarship of teaching and learning. With regard to academic development, we conclude that the writing of reflective teaching portfolios has the potential of contributing to an emerging academic community of practice characterised by a scholarly approach to teaching and learning.     

The judgement of observed teaching by preservice science education students

The ability of preservice physics education students to make judgements of observed teaching during two differently structured education courses was investigated. The first part of each course, irrespective of its content, resulted in changes in students' evaluation of teaching, with greater and fairly stable individual differences in judgement emerging. Students' knowledge of pedagogical theory was found to be related both to their judgements of observed teaching and to the quality of their own teaching.