Mentoring preservice teachers: identifying tensions and possible resolutions

Tensions can occur in the mentor–mentee relationship during school-based professional experiences that require problem solving. What are the tensions for mentor teachers in preservice teacher education and how might these tensions be resolved? This qualitative study collected data from 31 high school mentor teachers about tensions experienced with preservice teachers during professional experience programmes. Three themes emerged around the causes of tensions (low- to high-level conflicts) within the mentor–mentee relationship, namely: (1) personal issues (i.e. incompatibility, personality differences, language); (2) pedagogical issues (i.e. lack of pedagogical and content knowledge, differences in teaching styles); and (3) professional issues. Strategies to resolve these tensions include: maintaining a positive professional relationship, regular feedback as a way to address issues, sharing responsibility and empowerment, and using empathy for specific situations. As a theoretical contribution, this study provides a model around low- and high-level conflict associated with personal, pedagogical and professional (3Ps) issues. The study focused on mentors only and further research is required about the tensions preservice teachers experience with their mentors and ways in which these tensions can be resolved.     

Correlation between performance in physics and prior mathematics knowledge

The final grade of 1403 students enrolled in the first semester of the introductory, pre-professional physics course has been correlated with performance on a precourse diagnostic test of mathematical skills. The students were from a total of eight different sections taught by six separate instructors over a three year time span. The student population has been separated into two groups, those who completed the course (913 students) and those who dropped (490 students). The drops were assigned a “projected final grade”based on performance up to date of withdrawal. The Pearson product-moment correlation for students who completed the course is 0.418 and correlation for the drops is 0.232. Both correlations are significant at the p < 0.001 level. This study suggests that prior mathematical ability is a primary influence on performance in the course, and has a secondary influence on the tendency to drop out of the course.     

Educational Reform in Russia and the USA: where are the troops?

To determine the level of support that differing concepts of educational reform had among the actual practitioners of public education in the former Soviet Union and the USA, a sample of teachers was surveyed to measure the value they placed on divergent educational goal statements as well as their respective philosophical orientations. This study found that US teachers were most committed to educational goals related to basic skills development and critical thinking and least supportive of goals related to creativity and enculturation; Russian teachers on the other hand were most supportive of interpersonal understanding and human relations, moral and ethical well‐being, and critical thinking, and least supportive of the goal related to citizenship and civic responsibility. With regard to educational philosophical orientation, US teachers were divided between maintaining order and stability, developing individual interests and abilities, and improving society. Russian teachers were more united in their belief that the purpose of education is to develop individual interests and abilities, with a significant minority selecting the ‘transforming society’ orientation.     

Music learning and education: contributions from neuroscience / Aprendizaje musical y educación: aportaciones desde la neurociencia

Traditionally, the teaching of music has tended to be a professional subject within the training of virtuosos in conservatories or a playful subject taught in schools, without due consideration given to the potential it offers to developing cognitive capacities. Advances in neuroscience highlight the importance of learning music in relation to the cognitive benefits derived from its practice. Brain exploration techniques show that practising music places a significant demand on the most developed cognitive functions of the human being, confirming the intervention of different cerebral areas involving a large portion of the brain and an increase in attention and concentration levels. After carrying out a literature review of the current state of the question, some of the most common findings in all fields of musical education are cited, considering aspects that are of particular relevance today, such as interdisciplinarity, emotion, cooperative learning, self-regulation and creativity.     

The role and the training of teacher-counsellors

The example of teachers not seeking counselling was used. Some reasons for this situation were given as well as one possible way to change it by providing early information and training during the students' regular studies. My hope is that if teachers have the necessary information, abilities and positive experiences, when they have problems, it should be easier for them to use counsellors than it is for other today.Teachers were used as an example of how one group could be encounraged to make use of counsellors. However, similar strategies could be used with other groups whose jobs involve high personal stress (for example social workers, medical doctors etc.). The example of teachers was also used to show how change can be introduced within a system. Here it might be useful to develop the ability to work with a counsellor during the regular education, so that it becomes part of their understanding of their professional role.     

Developing an Instrument to Examine Preservice Teachers’ Pedagogical Development

National and international reform documents have forged blueprints for advancing science education. Coursework for preservice teachers needs to correspond to these documents by providing learning experiences that develop preservice teachers’ capabilities to plan and implement reform measures. Using a pretest–posttest design, responses from 59 2nd-year preservice teachers from the same university were compared after involvement in an elementary science pedagogy coursework. The survey, which was linked to the course outcomes (constructs) and multiple indicators, measured the preservice teachers’ perceptions of their development towards becoming elementary science teachers. A pretest–posttest survey linked to course outcomes can be employed to assess perceived pedagogical development of preservice teachers, which can inform further teaching practices for implementing science education reform agendas.     

Re-conceptualising authority relations in education: a micro-situational approach

ABSTRACT

This article explores the conception of authority relations in the classroom that are implicit in some examples of related policy documentation in Scotland and England. We argue that the importance of the constitutive role of the micro-dynamics of face-to-face interaction in classroom settings is neglected in documentation of this type. We explore this claim with reference to examples of policy in two jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, namely The Donaldson Review and The Standards for Registration in Scotland, and policy-related guidance from England on improving discipline in schools and pupils’ behaviour. We also consider how authority relations are conceptualised in a recent article that has made a significant contribution to the literature in the field. Finally, we present a theoretical account that counterbalances prevailing approaches to authority relations in the classroom. We suggest that authority is continuously negotiated, challenged, accepted, defined and ultimately constituted in and through the dynamics of interaction amongst pupils (and between pupils and teachers).