Stories about teaching: Using qualitative data to promote reflective practices

Abstract

In this article two teacher educators describe an approach they have used with preservice early childhood and early childhood special education majors. They explain how the approach that they call “stories about teaching” resembles, yet differs from case study methods. The authors explain the process they used to develop, pilot, and use stories derived from qualitative data that they gathered in various early childhood settings. They explain how discussions based on the stories have provided their students opportunities to explore real‐life teaching situations from multiple perspectives, increase the depth of their reflections, and link theory to practice. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.     

PREDICTING SUCCESS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of standardized tests (ACT, Preprofessional Skills Test) as predictors of student success in early childhood studies. Success was measured as grade point average at the time of graduation. The sample consisted of students enrolled at a four‐year public institution in the United States (N = 129). Data analysis indicated the standardized measures, including ACT and the Preprofessional Skills Test, were significantly related to success in early childhood studies. In addition, both tests, along with high school rank and student age, were useful in the prediction of grade point average at graduation, but did little to predict success during the student teaching experience.     

Transformative Curriculum: “I Felt like an Artist”

Contemporary early childhood teacher education is situated in a knowledge and policy environment where on the one hand preservice educators have the opportunity to connect with unlimited knowledge sources and, on the other, are expected to conform to standardized outcomes. This situation is compounded by increasingly inequitable learning outcomes for children in many countries. In this paper, we argue that this context demands different ways of teaching and learning in early childhood teacher education and that in order to address increasing inequity, preservice educators must experience a transformative university curriculum. This paper uses the example of an arts topic, with a particular focus on music, to examine ways of positioning preservice educators that open up, rather than restrict opportunities to reconceptualize early childhood curriculum. The authors examine data from curriculum documents and student reflections in order to discuss the intended (planned), enacted (implemented) and experienced university curriculum.     

PREPARING PERSONNEL FOR INTEGRATION: NEEDS AND STRENGTHS OF EARLY INTERVENTION AND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS

Abstract

One early childhood teacher preparation program includes “Aesthetics As Learning,” a course which emphasizes that aesthetics is another way of knowing—another domain of development. The course has a reading, writing, discussion and experiential component—and all are integrated, but the experiential component (weekly arts activities) is showcased in this article.

One significant and innovative component of the experiential approach is that the students do not react to the use of the arts from a child's perspective but respond as an adult. This provides for an authentic experience with the arts. The college classroom uses a constructivist approach in which students construct their own meaning from their experiences and a feminist pedagogical approach that develops a classroom community of learners. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.     

Phonemic Representation and Early Spelling Errors in Bilingual Children

The relationship between linguistic experience and phonemic representations in spelling was investigated in two groups of Mandarin–English bilingual children (aged 5–6 years) who spoke mostly Mandarin-L1 (n = 23) or mostly English-L1 (n = 27) at home. A 60-item cloze task including high- and low-frequency words with word-initial and word-final target phonemes that are either common to Mandarin and English (/f/ and /p/), or found only in English (/v/ and /b/), was developed and administered to both groups. With performance for a neutral control phoneme /m/ matched, spelling accuracy for the common phonemes was equivalent but the Mandarin-L1 children's performance for /v/ and /b/ was significantly poorer than that of their English-L1 classmates in low-frequency words. For both groups, performance on word-final targets was poorer for English-only phonemes than common phonemes. If early literacy development depends on stored phonological representations of the first language, these findings have implications for language minority communities.     

From the Editors: Math Achievement and Early Childhood Teacher Preparation

The researchers conducting this study investigated the relationship between early childhood teachers' educational levels and their beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate practices by examining the differences between lead teachers and teacher assistants in publicly funded prekindergarten classrooms. For this purpose, the researchers analyzed self-reported teachers' beliefs using analysis of variance and examined 26 individual items. Findings of this study suggest that lead teachers endorsed developmentally appropriate practices more strongly than did teacher assistants. Teacher assistants were more likely than lead teachers to agree with developmentally inappropriate practices. Despite the significant differences between the two groups of teachers, it is important to note that there was a general tendency for both lead teachers and teacher assistants to endorse developmentally appropriate practices. Thus, although there appears to be a link between teachers' educational levels and teacher beliefs, teachers' educational levels alone may not be sufficient for understanding their beliefs and practices in the classroom. Implications for practice and future research in teacher education are also discussed.     

Successful Strategies for Transfer of Learned Leadership

To support organizational efforts in leadership development, performance improvement professionals must be prepared to use a variety of development methods along with the right mix of strategies that enhance learning transfer. Regardless of the development methods used, leadership development programs that incorporate strategies to enhance learning transfer in the areas of leadership support, evaluation, and organizational issues are likely to be more successful than development programs that ignore transfer barriers in these critical areas.     

The Impact of Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention on University Resident Assistants

Resident assistants (RAs) can serve as important suicide prevention gatekeepers. The purpose of the study was to determine if training improved RAs’ crisis communications skills and suicide‐related knowledge and to determine if the knowledge elements predicted crisis communications skills. New RAs showed significant improvement in all areas from pretest to posttest, whereas returning RAs showed no significant increase in any of the areas. None of the knowledge areas predicted communications skills for either group.     

An Instructional Strategy to Introduce Pedagogical Content Knowledge Using Venn Diagrams

This paper describes the use of a three-circle Venn diagram as a vehicle for introducing pre-service elementary teachers to pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Each circle of the diagram represents pedagogy, content and context individually. The overlap of any two circles represents the interaction between the circles. For example, the overlap of pedagogy and context relates to the ways that each of these general topics influences the other. The overlap of all three circles represents a complete lesson that is an integration of the three major components of PCK. The Venn diagram is an easily remembered graphic illustration of PCK that can be useful in planning lessons. The use of this graphic organizer in a science capstone course required of all pre-service elementary teachers is described.     

Scaffolding Infants’ Play Through Empowering and Individualizing Teaching Practices

Research Findings: Using a qualitative research approach, this article explores teachers’ roles as scaffolders of infants’ play and the changing nature of their individualized support for infants’ learning and development through play in an infant group care setting. Three infant teachers in a child care center were followed over 3 months. Observations, interviews, ongoing conversations, e-mails, and reflective notes were used as data sources. Findings revealed that the teachers thought deeply about their roles as supporters of infants’ play, and they made intentional choices in scaffolding infants’ play. Each teacher's ways of empowering infants in play were grounded in her views of infants as learners and were individualized to accommodate children's unique learning styles and personalities. Practice or Policy: This study provides a window into the ways in which teachers working with the youngest children can set the stage for later learning.