Teacher knowledge: What is it? How do we uncover it? What are its implications for schooling?

This paper follows the ways in which publications in TATE, that focus on teacher knowledge, provide insights into the development and growth of scholarly understanding of teacher knowledge. Relevant questions are: How is teacher knowledge defined? What modes of inquiry are adopted by the researchers? What are conceived as the implications of teacher knowledge for schooling? In order to answer these questions, nine papers were chosen from TATE according to the following criteria:

1.

distributed over a period of 20 years from 1988 to 2009

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representing an international group of scholars

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reflecting modes of inquiry

4.

focusing on a variety of themes related to teacher knowledge

These papers were analyzed according to the following aspects:

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Definition of teacher knowledge

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Mode of inquiry

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Emphasis on one or more of the commonplaces of education - subject matter, learner, teacher, milieu (Schwab, 1964)

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Emphasis on one or more of the kinds of teacher knowledge suggested byShulman (1986)

The analysis of each paper is presented followed by a discussion.Several tendencies in the development of the concept of teacher knowledge are noted. There is the extension of the term to include societal issues. As well, one finds a growing focus on the personal aspects of knowledge. The role of context in shaping teacher knowledge plays a crucial role in the analyzed papers, reflecting changes in the milieu of schooling. The main mode of inquiry in the analyzed papers is qualitative, interpretative. The authors of the various papers were interested in the concrete experiences and views of student teachers, and teachers, concerning their knowledge and its acquisition. This approach yields important insights but leaves open several questions. First, the curricular question: what concrete opportunities for gaining knowledge are offered to student teachers? Another question concerns the modes of teachers’ use of their professional knowledge. This question requires detailed observations and documentation of teachers’ actions in classrooms, trying to link their knowledge and practice.The papers analyzed in this review share a common scholarly language and are based in Western culture. It is important to see, as well, studies conducted in other cultures, which might have a different view of teacher knowledge.     

Jewish Day School Wounds and What We Can Do About Them

This article is based upon a qualitative research study that examined 95 school stories written by Jewish female teacher candidates in an undergraduate education course. Many candidates wrote inspirational or humorous stories about growth and development or a special teacher. However, over one third of the narratives described painful Jewish day schooling episodes with insensitive teachers, stinging rebukes, or public shaming. The findings argue for the enhancement of Jewish educator preparation with attention to professionalization of classroom management and interrogation of assumptions from schooling biographies. This study challenges teacher educators in the liminal space of educator preparation as teacher candidates shift from personal lived schooling experience into professional practice.     

Preparing Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants for Their Roles as Instructors: An Assessment of Institutional Approaches

The inconsistency of professional development (PD) in teaching for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) is a widespread problem in higher education. Although GTAs serve an important role in retention of undergraduate science majors and in promotion of scientific literacy in nonmajors, they often lack preparation and ongoing support for teaching. Given the recent national focus on instructional quality in introductory courses, our goal was to use an online survey to identify current practices of teaching PD for biology GTAs and compare these results with the last national survey on this topic. In responses from 71 participant institutions, 96% reported some mandatory teaching preparation for biology GTAs; however, 52% of these programs required 10 or fewer hours per year. Respondents wanted to change their programs to include more pedagogical information and teaching observations with feedback to their GTAs. Programmatic self-ratings of satisfaction with GTA PD were positively correlated with the number of topics discussed during PD. Although more schools are requiring GTA PD for teaching compared with the last national survey, the lack of program breadth at many schools warrants a national conversation with regard to recent calls for improving undergraduate instruction.     

Performance of gymnastics skill benefits from an external focus of attention

The present study was designed to fill a gap in the literature on attentional focus and sports performance. Specifically, in contrast to most previous studies in which an external focus was directed at an implement, we used a gymnastics skill that did not involve the use of an implement. Furthermore, while most studies used only outcome measures of performance, we also assessed movement quality. Twelve-year-old gymnasts performed a maximum vertical jump with a 180-degree turn while airborne, with their hands crossing in front of their chest during the turn under three different focus conditions. Under the external focus condition, participants were asked to focus on the direction in which a tape marker, which was attached to their chest, was pointing after the turn. Under the internal focus condition, they were asked to focus on the direction in which their hands were pointing after the turn. Under the control condition, no focus instructions were given. The external focus condition resulted in both superior movement form and greater jump height than did the other two conditions, which produced comparable results. The present findings show that, similar to other tasks, the performance of form-based skills can be enhanced relatively easily by appropriate external focus instructions.     

Understanding Parenting Stress Among Young, Low-income, African-American, First-Time Mothers

The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model that examined the extent to which cognitive readiness to parent, perceived difficult child temperament, observed parenting behaviors, and positive coping styles predicted parenting stress among young, low-income, first-time, African-American mothers. One hundred and twenty African-American, first-time mothers who applied to the Early Head Start program were selected to participate in this study. Results based on structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) observed positive parenting behaviors were negatively related to parenting stress; (2) difficult child temperament was positively related to parenting stress; (3) positive coping styles did not buffer the relationship between difficult child temperament and parenting stress; (4) difficult child temperament was not directly associated with observed parenting behaviors; (5) cognitive readiness to parent was only indirectly related to parenting stress; and (6) observed parenting behaviors mediated the link between cognitive readiness to parent and parenting stress. Future research directions and implications of these findings for professionals working with young mothers are discussed.     

Geht’s auch mit der Maus? – Eine Methodenstudie zu Online-Befragungen in der Jugendforschung

While internet based surveys have gained importance in recent years, their use in adolescent related research is rare at best. The present paper offers an overview of advantages and disadvantages of online surveys and discusses their use in regard to the questioning of adolescents. In a comparison between two random samples of 13 to 17 year olds, we examine how differences between a telephone (N?= 1,784) and an online (N?= 1,652) survey materialize in regard to the coverage rate, discontinuation behavior, and item-non-response. The sampling is analyzed further with regard to sociodemographic differences. While there are no expected coverage problems for the adolescent target group, the results show that adolescents from educated families, as well as those with a migration background, took part more often in the online survey as opposed to the telephone survey. Also, a more intensive mobile use of the internet, as well as in part greater sports activity, is connected to a higher willingness to take part in the survey which suggests that the survey topic influences the willingness to participate.     

Fourth grade follow-up of reading and spelling skills of French immersion students

Twenty-one French immersion and traditional English program students, originally assessed in first grade, were retested on single-word reading and spelling in fourth grade. The immersion students, who had shown equivalence with the control students on most written language measures in first grade, maintained their equivalence in fourth grade. Furthermore, they demonstrated slight superiority over the English program students in reading non-words. Their first-grade advantage in linguistic analysis ability may have helped their written English skills to develop comparably to those of the control subjects despite much less exposure to, and instruction in, written English. It is suggested that although no other advantage was seen at this time from their early heightened linguistic analysis ability, the French immersion subjects may surpass the English program students once they can join their linguistic analysis skill to greater expereince with written English.This research was funded by Grant A2008 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. We would like to thank Dr. Barry Vail and the principals, staffs, and students of the Durham Board of Education, Ontario, for their generous cooperation in this study.     

Impact of simulator-based instruction on diagramming in geometrical optics by introductory physics students

We examine the conceptual development resulting from an instructional experiment with an interactive learning environment in geometrical optics for introductory high school physics. How did teaching-learning processes come to change the ways in which students depicted various everyday optical situations in paper and pencil graphical representations? We view conceptual development as a process resulting in part from increasingly aligning one's practices to a target community by means of participating in a community of practice that uses the target concepts. For formal science learning, this participation requires changes in concepts, epistemological attitude, and in the development and use of representational tools, including diagrams and technical language, as a means of communication. Results of our instructional experiment indicated that students went through major conceptual developments as reflected in the diagrams they constructed and supported by other representational tools and as judged in terms of several perspectives: in identifying the formation of shadows and images, in recognizing the eye as a participating factpr in the optical system, and in changing the types of justifications they provided in their optical reasoning from presuppositional to causal.