Enacting a pedagogy of reflection in initial teacher education using critical incident identification and examination : a self-study of practice
- Authors: Brandenburg, Robyn
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Reflective Practice Vol. 22, no. 1 (2021), p. 16-31
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- Description: This article examines what it means for a teacher educator to enact a pedagogy of reflective practice in an initial teacher education classroom using self-study methodology. The focus of the article is the examination of a critical interaction that occurred in a third-year Bachelor of Education mathematics education tutorial (N = 15). The critical incident prompted further reflection through collecting and analysing data that included pre-service teacher (PST) oral feedback during the tutorial; structured written feedback that was based on peer presentations during tutorials; and mid-semester and post-semester ‘freewrites’. Teacher educator journal reflections provided further data for analysis. Thematic analysis together with teacher educator critical incident analysis, revealed key understandings for both the PSTs and the teacher educator. These learning outcomes included the importance of identifying PST perceptions and practices associated with participating in peer assessment; the incongruities between oral and written feedback; the crucial need for PST scaffolding when providing feedback; the impact of the learning environment; and the role of the teacher educator in explicitly facilitating discussions associated with critical incidents, conversations and interactions. Using self-study methodology to examine teaching surfaced unspoken and assumed beliefs, and through examination, led to authentic, negotiated learning and improved outcomes for PSTs and teacher educators. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Building resilience in times of uncertainty and Complexity: Teacher educator perceptions of Pre-service teacher resilience
- Authors: Mansfield, Caroline , Papatrainaou, Lisa , McDonough, Sharon , King, Laura
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Teacher education in and for uncertain times Chapter 6 p. 83-98
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- Description: An emphasis on teacher quality in Australia has resulted in many changes in teacher education including a recent emphasis on non-academic capabilities (such as resilience) of prospective teachers. Reporting data obtained through an online survey of 73 teacher educators, this chapter presents their views about pre-service teacher resilience and the role of teacher educators and education programs in promoting resilience for pre-service teachers. Findings illustrate the multiple contexts important in the development of teacher resilience and how resilience can be demonstrated during the pre-service years. Barriers and supports for embedding resilience in teacher education programs are discussed. We argue that in times of uncertainty and complexity in teacher education, resilience is critical for sustained effectiveness and growth.
Freedom and constraint in teacher education : Reflections on experiences over time
- Authors: McGraw, Amanda
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 43, no. 3 (2018), p. 154-167
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- Description: Teacher education programs in Australia increasingly comply with new and narrowing accountabilities so that they can be approved by diverse regulatory authorities and accredited. This is an auto-biographical narrative study which draws upon the memories of a teacher educator who contrasts her experience of learning to teach in the early 1980s with her recent experience as a Program Leader working with colleagues to design a new Master of Teaching program. She interviews Professor Bernie Neville who was responsible for the design and implementation of the teacher education program she completed in 1983. He reflects on the principles guiding his practice at a time when greater freedoms were possible. She contrasts this with an interview her colleagues conducted with her during the program accreditation phase and highlights tensions in the current process of program design related to an increasing performance-orientation, greater levels of compliance, and managing an over-crowded curriculum.
Cross-cultural communication in teacher education : A case study of an Australian pre-service teacher placement in Liaoning, China
- Authors: Jin, Aijing , Cooper, Maxine , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 41, no. 6 (2016), p. 20-34
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- Description: This paper presents a case study of the experiences and reflections of four fourth year pre-service teachers from Federation University Australia who completed their three-week teaching placement in Anshan, Liaoning Province, China, in April 2014. The study also explores the perspectives and opinions of both the Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students towards the Australian preservice teachers. The research confirms the mutual benefits of crosscultural teacher education professional experiences for pre-service teachers, Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students. The teaching experiences revealed major differences in educational concepts and teaching strategies and approaches between the two systems because of the different social and cultural contexts. The evidence from the voices of the participants indicates that the professional experience in these two Chinese schools fostered the Australian pre-service teachers’ cross-cultural communication skills, developed their confidence and skills as teachers and generally enriched their personal and professional lives.
Preparing pre-service teachers for professional engagement through place/community pedagogies and partnerships
- Authors: Green, Monica
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 41, no. 11 (2016), p. 44-60
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- Description: There is an expectation that Australian teachers engage professionally in all aspects of teaching and learning, including engagement with teaching networks and broader communities. This paper reports on a partnership between a teacher educator and an environmental educator who set out to expand pre-service teachers' professional knowledge, engagement and practice in an undergraduate Bachelor of Education (primary) course. The paper reports on a study about teacher education students' perspectives of fieldwork-based learning and its potential to inform students' future engagement with the broader school community. Using a conceptual framework of place- and community based education, the study examined data from an electronic survey and student teacher fieldwork reflections to better understand how pre-service teachers interpret the benefits of working with local schools, and communitybased representatives. Findings suggest pre-service teachers' professional engagement was significantly enhanced as a consequence of partnership fieldwork. The implications for teacher education and future teacher practice are discussed.
Using an instructional design model to evaluate a blended learning subject in a pre-service teacher education degree
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal of Learning Vol. 17, no. 2 (2010 2010), p. 65-80
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- Description: Over 2007-2008, a pedagogy subject in a pre-service teacher education degree was (re)designed to help students develop their understandings and skills and a wider, more critical appreciation of the work of teachers and approaches to curriculum. The rationale for designing and including the online modules in the subject was to develop information and communication technology (ICT) skills, and to deliver a blended learning approach, argued by some to be more effective, that is, have more advantages than traditional approaches. In this paper, the face-to-face teaching alongside the eLearning that occurred in the blended learning approach is analysed using Tom Reeves and John Hedberg's model (2003) for evaluating interactive learning systems. Arguably, this evaluation model can be usefully applied to higher education teaching that is not fully online, and can help to comprise an integral part of an action research approach. This paper is a 'proof of concept' piece, demonstrating the applicability of the model to a blended learning course. Demonstrating the application of Reeves and Hedberg's model fills a knowledge void on the literature surrounding blended learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Roundtable reflections: (Re) defining the role of the teacher educator and the preservice teacher as 'co-learners'
- Authors: Brandenburg, Robyn
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Education Vol. 48, no. 2 (2004), p. 166-181
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- Description: This paper is an account of one aspect of a self-study - the 'roundtable reflections' - conducted over two semesters with two cohorts of Bachelor of Education preservice teachers at the University of Ballarat. An innovative approach to learning and teaching mathematics based on negotiation, 'commuting' teaching experience, and systematic reflection was introduced with each cohort and roundtable sessions provided the reflective space for the systematic 'unpacking' of the learning. Analysis of these roundtable sessions has developed understandings of the impact and effectiveness of this approach in redefining the role of both the preservice teacher and the teacher educator as 'co-learners'. The implications for those involved in teacher education are explored as a means of further understanding the nature of teaching and learning about teaching.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000762
Teacher research and democratic educational reform
- Authors: Lankshear, Colin , Knobel, Michele
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Mexican Journal of Educational Research Vol. 8, no. 19 (2003), p. 705-731
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- Description: In Teachers as Researchers (2003: Ch 1), Joe Kincheloe advocates teacher research as a means by which teachers can resist and overcome a trend emanating from the United States toward domination of curriculum and pedagogy by ‘technical standards’ based on ‘expert research’ and imposed in a ‘top-down’ manner by educational administrators and policy makers. This is a trend where curriculum has become highly standardized. Teachers within the same subject areas in the same grades are required to ‘cover the same content, assign the same importance to the content they cover, and evaluate it in the same way’ regardless of the diversity of school communities, school settings, student needs and backgrounds, and so on (Marzano and Kendall 1999; Kincheloe 2003: 4). Teachers are strongly encouraged to teach to the tests that are used to measure student outcomes because schools are compared on the basis of the scores their students achieve. This regime of measuring and reporting outcomes is promoted in the name of ‘accountability,’ and is very difficult for schools to resist. On one hand, if schools do not make an effort to compete they are likely to lose students to other schools whose achievement scores impress parents/caregivers. On the other hand, if schools can show their scores are improving—by teaching more and more rigorously to the content-laden tests and enlisting parents/caregivers in this culture as overseers of student homework and preparation for tests, they can maintain and improve their enrolments.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000531