Investigating changes in pedagogical knowledge and skills from pre-service to the initial year of teaching

This study examined the levels of pedagogical knowledge and skills as perceived by student teachers who were enrolled in the Post Graduate Diploma in Education program at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, from the beginning of their initial teacher preparation program to the end of their first year of teaching. Their perceptions were assessed using the Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills in Teaching (PKST) survey which comprised six factors, namely, Student Learning, Lesson Planning, Instructional Support, Accomodating Diversity, Classroom Management, and Care and Concern. A sample of 812 student teachers participated in the study. The MANOVA conducted showed that there were significant increases in both their pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in all six factors from the start of their initial teacher preparation (ITP) program till the end of their first year of teaching. However, between the exit from the program to the end of the first year of teaching, they only perceived that their level of pedagogical knowledge in classroom management and care and concern continued to increase significantly. In the case of self-perceived skills, their level increased significantly between entry and exit of the program for all factors, except for care and concern, while the increase between the exit and first year of teaching was significant for all six factors. These results may have implications for preservice teacher education and this will be discussed in this article.     

The effects of expressions of fear induced by background music on reading comprehension

Background

Research has suggested that background music can have a positive or negative effect that can influence the affective state of individuals. Although research has demonstrated that fear negatively influences our cognitive performance, there is a research gap in understanding the combined effects of different background music tempo and fear in influencing reading comprehension performance.

Methods

Data were collected from 70 participants enrolled at a public university in Canada. Participants were required to listen to background music of varying speeds with three conditions (no music, slow music and fast music). We adopted a cross-sectional multi-level modelling approach for the main analyses, and further analyses using t-test and ANOVA.

Results

Results indicated that expression of fear was not a significant predictor of participants' reading comprehension performance (Model 1). However, when music condition was added (Model 2) in addition to expression of fear, a significant relationship between reading comprehension performance and music condition was found, showing better reading comprehension performance in the slow music condition than in the no music condition. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect between music condition and expression of fear on reading comprehension performance (Model 3). Importantly, not all individuals were affected by the music to the same extent, with the possibility that baseline level of fear being the key issue in influencing comprehension performance.

Conclusions

Considering both expression of fear and music condition is required to understand the combined effects on cognitive performance. Expression of fear during cognitive tasks such as reading could be an essential signal that interventions should be applied. Such strategies may be especially beneficial for task performers with higher baseline levels of fear and possibly provide us with insights for best practice and research implications in the field of reading comprehension among individuals with special needs.

     

Inclusion in a multi-academy trust: possibilities and perils

In this article we examine how, despite the understanding that a special school is not an inclusive setting, the senior leadership team (SLT) at Forest Academy Trust perceive their special schools as inclusive. Document reviews, interviews and a culminating focus group appear to indicate that possibilities for inclusive education may be related to a shared ethos of inclusion, resources, accessible opportunities, individualised approaches, and collaborative networks. These data also provide a critical insight into the perils related to inclusive education in multi-academy trusts (MATs). The study of this MAT highlights the need for changes to policies, access to and equitable distribution of resources, curricular freedom balanced with accountability, a shift toward collaborative networking and partnership, and a shared vision for enactment, which may be leveraged in order to provide equitable and sustainable system-wide inclusive practices.