“Thinking About Thinking: It's not Just for Philosophers:” Using Metacognitive Journals to Teach and Learn About Constructivism

This article describes how Metacognitive Journals were used to teach prospective early childhood educators about constructivism. We emphasize the importance of modeling constructivist pedagogy and cultivating students' metacognitive potential. We share the effects on our students' learning and on our teaching. We also offer recommendations for teacher educators to incorporate Metacognitive Journals in their practice     

Fostering partnerships with families: academic service-learning in the Little Village

ABSTRACT

Strong family-teacher partnerships increase family engagement, promoting positive outcomes for children. Early childhood educators need knowledge, skills, and dispositions for establishing strong, meaningful partnerships with diverse families. This research investigated the impact of academic service-learning (ASL) on undergraduate students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions for partnering with culturally and linguistically diverse families to promote young children’s early academic learning. Participants included nine undergraduates in an early childhood teacher preparation course, ten culturally and linguistically diverse families, and thirteen 2- to 5-year-old children. In this mixed-methods study, written student ASL reflections, pre- and post-ASL student surveys, and parent evaluations were analyzed. Three themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Students entered the ASL experience with excitement and a mostly positive approach; (2) Early to mid-semester, students articulated a high degree of nervousness and discomfort as well as challenges to partnership-building, yet also noted family interest and engagement; and (3) Mid- to late semester, most students expressed their growing confidence in their own skills for relating to diverse families, and identified family strengths. Our findings support ASL as an effective teacher-preparation pedagogy to help students build family-teacher partnerships.     

Is It DAP? American Preschool Teachers’ Views on the Developmental Appropriateness of a Preschool Math Lesson from China

Planned instruction is an important teaching form in early childhood mathematics education, but some educators are concerned about its developmental appropriateness. The present study was undertaken to address this issue. One hundred and seven American preschool teachers participated in the study: They watched a video-taped math lesson that was conducted in a 4-year-olds’ classroom in China and answered video-cued questions in a questionnaire. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was used in analyzing the data. Research Findings: Results show that on average, participants rated the quality and developmental appropriateness of the lesson as high. They acknowledged children’s active learning, teacher’s careful preparation, and use of different learning methods. But, they also identified inadequate elements such as lack of peer interactions and lesson differentiation. Practice or Policy: A relief of American preschool teachers’ current beliefs regarding the developmental appropriateness of math lessons provides critical reference for professional preparation/development programs. American preschool teachers’ high value of children’s active learning in a planned math lesson and their appreciation of teacher’s skillful guidance imply an imperative need to promote American preschool teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching mathematics to young children.     

An Examination of Black Science Teacher Educators’ Experiences with Multicultural Education, Equity, and Social Justice

Diversity, multicultural education, equity, and social justice are dominant themes in cultural studies (Hall in Cultural dialogues in cultural studies. Routledge, New York, pp 261–274, 1996; Wallace 1994). Zeichner (Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 737–759, 2005) called for research studies of teacher educators because little research exists on teacher educators since the late 1980s. Thomson et al. (2001) identified essential elements needed in order for critical multiculturalism to be infused in teacher education programs. However, little is known about the commitment and experiences of science teacher educators infusing multicultural education, equity, and social justice into science teacher education programs. This paper examines twenty (20) Black science teacher educators’ teaching experiences as a result of their Blackness and the inclusion of multicultural education, equity, and social justice in their teaching. This qualitative case study of 20 Black science teacher educators found that some of them have attempted and stopped due to student evaluations and the need to gain promotion and tenure. Other participants were able to integrate diversity, multicultural education, equity and social justice in their courses because their colleagues were supportive. Still others continue to struggle with this infusion without the support of their colleagues, and others have stopped The investigators suggest that if science teacher educators are going to prepare science teachers for the twenty first century, then teacher candidates must be challenged to grapple with racial, ethnic, cultural, instructional, and curricular issues and what that must mean to teach science to US students in rural, urban, and suburban school contexts.     

Impact of a Statewide Collaborative on Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education

Research Findings: Research suggests that early care and education programs are most effective when they include strong components of family involvement. The Center for the Study of Social Policy recommended that early care and education programs build family-centered practices to strengthen families and reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. This article summarizes a statewide effort to implement this strategy, called Strengthening Families through Early Care and Education. We analyzed program self-assessments submitted by 186 early care and education programs. Analyses revealed that Head Start programs had better support systems in place for families than did “mainstream” (non–Head Start, non-accredited) early care and education programs. Results also showed that a small amount of state and local funding provided enough incentive for programs to improve their family-strengthening practices. Commitment and collaboration at the state level led to a sustainable impact by infusing “strengthening families” concepts into the early care and education field statewide.     

Mediation of Consultee's Conceptual Development in New Teacher Groups: Using Questions to Improve Coherency

This qualitative study applied methods used in discourse analysis to investigate how a consultant's questioning supported the goal of group consultation to empower beginning teachers to become effective problem solvers in their work environment. The focus of the study was on the process of questioning and communicative coherency as the group evolved over the course of the school year. The participants in this study were 7 White elementary school teachers in their first year of teaching. There were 12 sessions held over an 8-month period. The investigators found evidence of a parallel process between the coordinate consultation process and coherency in consultative discourse, such that as the coordinate process developed and improved, so did the coherency of group discourse. Implications for practice, training, and future research are discussed.     

Context in Methods Course Learning: Lessons for partnership work

Teacher education programs are being encouraged to collaborate with K‐12 partners to develop and implement contextually rich field experiences that integrate methods course instruction with public school practices. As a result, we outline four models of integrating methods instruction and field experiences and raise the question “How does the classroom and school context of the field experience influence what prospective teachers learned in the methods courses?” This study examines the way two different cohorts of prospective elementary teachers who learned to teach in two different contexts define their own social studies pedagogical content knowledge. The students' espoused philosophies of education offer insight into how different models of integrated field experiences may impact on their beliefs about social studies teaching. Through this study we raise questions that should be considered in constructing methods courses linked to field experiences and suggest Bronfenbrenner's model as a tool for looking at these contextual influences.     

Changing academic identities in changing academic workplaces: learning from academics’ everyday professional writing practices

In this article we examine issues of academic identity through the lens of academics’ everyday workplace writing, offering a complementary perspective to those already evident in the higher education research literature. Motivated by an interest in the relationship between routine writing and aspects of professional practice, we draw on data from interviews with 30 academics across three different universities. Our discussion is illustrated with excerpts from interview data, and is organised around three emerging themes: ‘reconstructing academic identities in a shifting academic workplace’, ‘considering new articulations of disciplinarity’, and ‘moving on from the golden age’. We conclude that the reconstruction of academic identities, through engagement with established and emerging workplace documents, may well be enabling academics to build new identities within the changing university.     

对爱上瘾还是真爱?

Love is an intense feeling that can easily be confused with love addiction.You've been together for a while now.That euphoric (神愉悦的),queasy (令人眩晕的),sign of true love has settled down only slightly and you know this is your one and only love,your heart's desire.