Description:
This paper describes an innovative cross-institutional learning partnership that was designed to foster the learning of both Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) and students and teachers from a local regional Secondary College. Around 150 Grade Nine (13-14 year old) students took part in a purpose-designed activity day at the university that was organised and conducted by 34 second year PSTs as part of their teacher education program. This project was designed as an authentic teaching experience for PSTs that would enable them to translate theory from their teacher education course into teaching practice. At the same time the secondary students were offered a range of learning experiences informed by school-derived curriculum. These specifically focused activities contributed to the students’ school based learning programs whilst also encouraging them to think of university as a future option. In this paper reflections, utilizing a self-study methodology, are provided by the lecturers who developed and implemented the program. The lecturers describe and discuss what they observed about the learning of the PSTs. Many of the PSTs indicated strongly that they were able to engage in a scaffolded, authentic teaching experience as preparation for their initial school placements. Overall, the evidence suggests that the initiative offered a powerful learning experience that enabled PSTs to connect theory with teaching practice.
Description:
This paper describes an innovative cross-institutional learning partnership that was designed to foster the learning of both Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) and students and teachers from a local regional Secondary College. Around 150 Grade Nine (13-14 year old) students took part in a purpose-designed activity day at the university that was organised and conducted by 34 second year PSTs as part of their teacher education program. This project was designed as an authentic teaching experience for PSTs that would enable them to translate theory from their teacher education course into teaching practice. At the same time the secondary students were offered a range of learning experiences informed by school-derived curriculum. These specifically focused activities contributed to the students’ school based learning programs whilst also encouraging them to think of university as a future option. In this paper reflections, utilizing a self-study methodology, are provided by the lecturers who developed and implemented the program. The lecturers describe and discuss what they observed about the learning of the PSTs. Many of the PSTs indicated strongly that they were able to engage in a scaffolded, authentic teaching experience as preparation for their initial school placements. Overall, the evidence suggests that the initiative offered a powerful learning experience that enabled PSTs to connect theory with teaching practice.
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:
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:
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:
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.
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.
Description:
In this paper we canvass a shift in professional practice for teachers and teaching and learning as it focuses on Design Education. We acknowledge that changes in formal educational settings result from the scope and rapidity of changes in emerging technologies and understandings of pedagogical influences on teaching and learning. In canvassing the changes, in this paper we identify issues that emerge in relation a number of proposed solutions in dealing with gaps in teacher education in the field of Design Education. We suggest that these same solutions draw on traditional disciplines which ignore the possibilities of Design to engage 21st Century problems in teaching and learning. We draw attention to a neglect in current teacher education programs in relation to teachers of design and what this may imply for classrooms, teachers, and their work.
Description:
In this paper we canvass a shift in professional practice for teachers and teaching and learning as it focuses on Design Education. We acknowledge that changes in formal educational settings result from the scope and rapidity of changes in emerging technologies and understandings of pedagogical influences on teaching and learning. In canvassing the changes, in this paper we identify issues that emerge in relation a number of proposed solutions in dealing with gaps in teacher education in the field of Design Education. We suggest that these same solutions draw on traditional disciplines which ignore the possibilities of Design to engage 21st Century problems in teaching and learning. We draw attention to a neglect in current teacher education programs in relation to teachers of design and what this may imply for classrooms, teachers, and their work.
Description:
Since the 1960s, concerns for beginning teachers have attracted extensive attention. High attrition rates among beginning teachers have been an international challenge, which is costly for a nation's budget. To improve the retention of new teachers, it is imperative to understand what beginning teachers have experienced in their professional practice. This qualitative research examined the career development trajectories of beginning kindergarten teachers in China. The experiences of 23 kindergarten teachers from Nanjing were investigated through semi-structured interviews. Using grounded theory, this research identified four main themes and four career development trajectories. Themes include orientation, mastery, re-examination and self-validation, while career development trajectories reveal that teacher career development is not unilinear, but diverse. These findings are crucial in raising the awareness of researchers and practitioners about the diversities and possibilities of teacher career development trajectories. Further implications for researchers, teacher educators and kindergarten teachers are discussed.
Description:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant Number: 17YJA880025), The 13th Five-year Plan for Educational Science in Jiangsu Province (Grant Number: B-a/2016/01/34), and Excellent Preschool Teacher Preparation Program of MOE.
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.
Description:
This article stems from our participation in the Wild Pedagogies colloquium on Tasmania’s Franklin River in December 2017. The two authors embarked on the 10-day rafting trip with a group of nine other educators and academics from Australia, Canada and England, engaging in extensive conversations about wild pedagogy principles in education. Conceived and developed by some of the Franklin river participants on earlier colloquiums in North America and Scotland, wild pedagogy thinking and practice is constituted by six key touchstones, including: (1) agency and the role of nature as co-teacher; (2) wildness and challenging ideas of control; (3) complexity, the unknown, and spontaneity; (4) locating the wild; (5) time and practice; and (6) cultural change. The touchstones framed our group’s discussions pre-, during and post-colloquium. Drawing on the colloquium’s conversations and engaging with a number of the main touchstone ideas post-colloquium, in this paper the teacher educator authors use two distinct case studies (regional and online contexts) to locate the wild within their initial teacher education practice. They do this by initially making links between current teacher education practice and the touchstone ideas, before re-engaging with the touchstones to collaboratively envisage future wilding possibilities. In conclusion the authors advance the touchstone ideas as particularly relevant to those teacher educators seeking to wild their teaching practice in challenging times.
Description:
This article stems from our participation in the Wild Pedagogies colloquium on Tasmania’s Franklin River in December 2017. The two authors embarked on the 10-day rafting trip with a group of nine other educators and academics from Australia, Canada and England, engaging in extensive conversations about wild pedagogy principles in education. Conceived and developed by some of the Franklin river participants on earlier colloquiums in North America and Scotland, wild pedagogy thinking and practice is constituted by six key touchstones, including: (1) agency and the role of nature as co-teacher; (2) wildness and challenging ideas of control; (3) complexity, the unknown, and spontaneity; (4) locating the wild; (5) time and practice; and (6) cultural change. The touchstones framed our group’s discussions pre-, during and post-colloquium. Drawing on the colloquium’s conversations and engaging with a number of the main touchstone ideas post-colloquium, in this paper the teacher educator authors use two distinct case studies (regional and online contexts) to locate the wild within their initial teacher education practice. They do this by initially making links between current teacher education practice and the touchstone ideas, before re-engaging with the touchstones to collaboratively envisage future wilding possibilities. In conclusion the authors advance the touchstone ideas as particularly relevant to those teacher educators seeking to wild their teaching practice in challenging times.
Description:
This paper explores some of the possibilities and dilemmas that have arisen for us as tertiary teachers of future teachers as we attempt a critical pedagogy through literacy. We are interested in problematising both the so-called 'literacy problems' of current preservice teachers, and also the orthodox canonical understanding of academic literacies. Grounded in the constraints of contemporary neo-conservative socio-political circumstances of life, including education, we imagine the possibility that education could be otherwise. Our critical literacy pedagogical approach seeks to disrupt our students' taken-for-granted understandings of themselves, their world and what it is, and could be like, to be teachers in schools. The material on which this paper is based is derived from our reflections on students' written responses to our pedagogy as we engage in on-going action research about our teaching. Through the language used in the responses, we see evidence of students' engagement (or not) in the critical enterprise. Contradictions emerge regarding the varying discourses about learning, knowledge, teaching and academic literacies that the students and we, as teachers, live out in the tertiary classroom. In making visible our struggles to explore with our students that which is 'not yet', we foreground and celebrate tertiary teaching.
Description:
This paper explores some of the possibilities and dilemmas that have arisen for us as tertiary teachers of future teachers as we attempt a critical pedagogy through literacy. We are interested in problematising both the so-called 'literacy problems' of current preservice teachers, and also the orthodox canonical understanding of academic literacies. Grounded in the constraints of contemporary neo-conservative socio-political circumstances of life, including education, we imagine the possibility that education could be otherwise. Our critical literacy pedagogical approach seeks to disrupt our students' taken-for-granted understandings of themselves, their world and what it is, and could be like, to be teachers in schools. The material on which this paper is based is derived from our reflections on students' written responses to our pedagogy as we engage in on-going action research about our teaching. Through the language used in the responses, we see evidence of students' engagement (or not) in the critical enterprise. Contradictions emerge regarding the varying discourses about learning, knowledge, teaching and academic literacies that the students and we, as teachers, live out in the tertiary classroom. In making visible our struggles to explore with our students that which is 'not yet', we foreground and celebrate tertiary teaching.
Description:
This article focuses on Big Picture thinking about 21st-century teacher education and presents a conceptual shift as the result of two decades of research and practice centred around an understanding that we live in a world troubled by a massive breakdown in relationships. Through reflection within four specific educational contexts and with the recognition of a need for the personal and social development of teachers, a person-centred model of teacher education, the transformism model, has been developed. The transformism, or evolution of teacher education, seeks to use a different mind-set, or a changed psychology, which moves away from a focus on the control of others by those who think they know what is best. Rather it is about transformative learning, achieved through reflection within a landscape of transformation. Effective teacher education, using this model embraces Gardner’s Five Minds for the Future and the embedding of Glasser’s choice theory. The conceptual shift occurs through a major change in consciousness and the concomitant development of a worldview rather than a me view
Description:
Abstract: This study examined the experiences of three primary teacher education students participating in early childhood-focused community play sessions, as well as their perceptions of early childhood and primary philosophy and pedagogy. The purpose was to explore perceived differences in primary and early childhood preservice teacher courses, which may then translate to differences in approaches to pedagogy in the field. Three pre-service teachers participated in a weekly community play session on a rural university campus in NSW, Australia. As these students had been educated in primary education pedagogy, a focus group interview was conducted to gain insights to their experiences in the play sessions, which had an early childhood emphasis in theory and practice. Qualitative analysis suggests that these students found several major differences in their early childhood and primary experiences. Themes and properties that emerged included Pedagogy (curriculum, parents, play) and Foundational Knowledge (developmental theory, discontinuity of development). These primary students found the idea of developing curriculum based on observations and interests rather than mandated Syllabus outcomes, challenging. Also, they found the role of play and parent-teacher relationships in early childhood and primary to differ. Students also noted a lack of foundational developmental theory, specifically in the birth-two period, in their teacher education course, and expressed the idea that younger children are discretely different from older children, rather than seeing development as a continuous process. Implications for teacher education courses and children’s transition to school are discussed
Description:
Abstract: This study examined the experiences of three primary teacher education students participating in early childhood-focused community play sessions, as well as their perceptions of early childhood and primary philosophy and pedagogy. The purpose was to explore perceived differences in primary and early childhood preservice teacher courses, which may then translate to differences in approaches to pedagogy in the field. Three pre-service teachers participated in a weekly community play session on a rural university campus in NSW, Australia. As these students had been educated in primary education pedagogy, a focus group interview was conducted to gain insights to their experiences in the play sessions, which had an early childhood emphasis in theory and practice. Qualitative analysis suggests that these students found several major differences in their early childhood and primary experiences. Themes and properties that emerged included Pedagogy (curriculum, parents, play) and Foundational Knowledge (developmental theory, discontinuity of development). These primary students found the idea of developing curriculum based on observations and interests rather than mandated Syllabus outcomes, challenging. Also, they found the role of play and parent-teacher relationships in early childhood and primary to differ. Students also noted a lack of foundational developmental theory, specifically in the birth-two period, in their teacher education course, and expressed the idea that younger children are discretely different from older children, rather than seeing development as a continuous process. Implications for teacher education courses and children’s transition to school are discussed
Description:
This article explores community (primary) school teacher education in the subject, English, at a Papua New Guinea (PNG) teachers' college as manifested in end-of-year English lessons in practicum rounds of pre-service community school teachers. English is the official language overlaid on 700 indigenous languages in this country where reconstructionism informs policy decisions. Given this, the importance of success in English in schools is not to be underestimated. The research focuses on the implementation the knowledge, skills, strategies and materials acquired by pre-service English teachers in a coastal province in PNG in the context of a number of public statements on educational policy and practice. It examines the impact of these as indicated in lesson plans and supervisors' reports
Description:
This paper will examine Pre-Service Teachers’ (PSTs) perspectives on their learning through their involvement in one of three workplace-based initiatives undertaken as part of their teacher education program. Research conducted by Darling-Hammond and colleagues (2008) confirms that highly effective teachers support meaningful learning in a number of ways, including ‘creating ambitious and meaningful tasks’ that reflect how knowledge is used in the field, by engaging students in active learning and by encouraging the type of thinking that enables students to learn to evaluate and guide their own learning (p. 5). The three school-based initiatives selected for this research project have been designed accordingly in an attempt to promote meaningful learning for PSTs. The initiatives that are examined are The Youth Festival, undertaken as part of the Graduate Diploma of Education Secondary (GDE Sec); Pathways to the Adult World (PAW); and, several Small Group Learning Projects in the Bachelor of Education (Physical Education). The study has been conducted as a University of Ballarat Institute of Professional and Organisational Learning (IPOL) teaching and learning fellowship. While the researchers employed a qualitative, self-study methodology in the research, this paper focuses on the PSTs self-study on their learning through their involvement in the various initiatives. Data were derived from an assessment task that was completed by the PSTs after their involvement in one of the work-place based initiatives and subjected to thematic analysis by the researchers. The research attempts to interrogate and reveal what students say that they are learning through their authentic experience in a professional education setting as part of their teacher education coursework.
Description:
This paper will examine Pre-Service Teachers’ (PSTs) perspectives on their learning through their involvement in one of three workplace-based initiatives undertaken as part of their teacher education program. Research conducted by Darling-Hammond and colleagues (2008) confirms that highly effective teachers support meaningful learning in a number of ways, including ‘creating ambitious and meaningful tasks’ that reflect how knowledge is used in the field, by engaging students in active learning and by encouraging the type of thinking that enables students to learn to evaluate and guide their own learning (p. 5). The three school-based initiatives selected for this research project have been designed accordingly in an attempt to promote meaningful learning for PSTs. The initiatives that are examined are The Youth Festival, undertaken as part of the Graduate Diploma of Education Secondary (GDE Sec); Pathways to the Adult World (PAW); and, several Small Group Learning Projects in the Bachelor of Education (Physical Education). The study has been conducted as a University of Ballarat Institute of Professional and Organisational Learning (IPOL) teaching and learning fellowship. While the researchers employed a qualitative, self-study methodology in the research, this paper focuses on the PSTs self-study on their learning through their involvement in the various initiatives. Data were derived from an assessment task that was completed by the PSTs after their involvement in one of the work-place based initiatives and subjected to thematic analysis by the researchers. The research attempts to interrogate and reveal what students say that they are learning through their authentic experience in a professional education setting as part of their teacher education coursework.
Description:
At the University of Ballarat, pre-service teachers (PSTs) in their second year of the Bachelor of Education (P-10) are required to plan community-based teaching and learning in conjunction with school students, their teachers and schools along with community organizations. These requirements are in synergy with curriculum developments in schools and appear to be valued by them. In this paper, the implementation of community-based teaching and learning programs developed by PSTs is examined for educational and organizational issues that shaped the outcomes for PSTs. The paper highlights a number of consistent themes that throw light on factors that appear to affect the success of such pre-service courses. These insights contribute to the understanding of community-based PST education curricula and pedagogies as an important and emerging area of interest.
Description:
At the University of Ballarat, pre-service teachers (PSTs) in their second year of the Bachelor of Education (P-10) are required to plan community-based teaching and learning in conjunction with school students, their teachers and schools along with community organizations. These requirements are in synergy with curriculum developments in schools and appear to be valued by them. In this paper, the implementation of community-based teaching and learning programs developed by PSTs is examined for educational and organizational issues that shaped the outcomes for PSTs. The paper highlights a number of consistent themes that throw light on factors that appear to affect the success of such pre-service courses. These insights contribute to the understanding of community-based PST education curricula and pedagogies as an important and emerging area of interest.
Description:
Standardized literacy assessments that place emphasis on testing and attainment of results have caused many students, particularly in middle years schooling to be disenfranchised by literacy teaching and learning practices. This study employed an action research methodology to investigate whether an outdoor learning experience in a Year 7/8 English Writers Workshop course (including students aged 13–14 years) at a secondary school in Victoria, Australia enhanced creative writing capacity and engagement. This study was conducted in three stages, with qualitative and quantitative data collected. Wilcoxon signed-rank and Mann-Whitney U tests demonstrated significant improvement in creative writing from pre-intervention to post-intervention (z =