Description:
This study investigated how student expectations, experiences and involvement in physical education teacher education impacted upon and shaped identity development. The research focused on student social interactions and identified a range of behaviours and practices which reinforced student notions of what it means to be a physical educator. [...] The research itself was conducted within a creative analytical practice framework resulting in the following research products: the thesis text; a collection of one act plays titled, 'Plays from the identity playground', written about student social experiences; a CD which includes the filmed production of one of the plays 'Boys' training', and 'I can be this: a phototext', which presents key 'photographic' themes as insights into PETE student social events and activities.
Description:
The move to local school management (LSM) in its various formations is one of the most significant educational policy moves to occur in recent times in western countries. Although something is known about the effects on governance, budgeting and resource decision making, relatively little is known about the rhetorical and actual ways teachers' work is affected. Even the proponents admit this, albeit in terms of the little known relay effect on student learning. Drawing on the narrative biography of a single high school teacher, as part of a larger multi-sited ethnography, this study revealed the level of policy incoherence to be such that most of the worst excesses of accountability and marketisation accompanying LSM were minimised. Emerging from a deeply held set of pedagogical values and convictions, this instance confirmed a robust view of teacher identity as lying beyond those of victim construction.
Description:
Among the many changes occurring across Chinese society in the early phase of Y2K is the construction and implementation of a new physical education (PE) curriculum. Not unlike recent changes in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, this process has seen a heightening of the profile of health. Presented within a wider framework for making the school curriculum more relevant, PE is more closely aligned with China's emerging health concerns around young people. Foremost here are burgeoning social anxieties about decreased levels of physical activity, dietary practices, risk-taking tendencies, and a general decline of social cohesion/connection across the profile of contemporary youth. This paper reports on a study undertaken to explore the experiences of Chinese PE teachers as they engage with the new curriculum.The data reveals a number of structural, personal and cultural factors that work against teachers taking up the opportunities presented in the new curriculum. Prominent here are; low professional status, an expanding generation gap, lack of training and the grip of deeply rooted cultural values. Juxtaposed against the like experiences of PE teachers in Australia and the UK the paper concludes with practical recommendations for nurturing curriculum change in China.
Description:
Among the many changes occurring across Chinese society in the early phase of Y2K is the construction and implementation of a new physical education (PE) curriculum. Not unlike recent changes in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, this process has seen a heightening of the profile of health. Presented within a wider framework for making the school curriculum more relevant, PE is more closely aligned with China's emerging health concerns around young people. Foremost here are burgeoning social anxieties about decreased levels of physical activity, dietary practices, risk-taking tendencies, and a general decline of social cohesion/connection across the profile of contemporary youth. This paper reports on a study undertaken to explore the experiences of Chinese PE teachers as they engage with the new curriculum.The data reveals a number of structural, personal and cultural factors that work against teachers taking up the opportunities presented in the new curriculum. Prominent here are; low professional status, an expanding generation gap, lack of training and the grip of deeply rooted cultural values. Juxtaposed against the like experiences of PE teachers in Australia and the UK the paper concludes with practical recommendations for nurturing curriculum change in China.
Description:
Within this chapter we have focused almost exclusively on the actions of teachers of HPE. Every state version of the national curriculum in Australia makes reference to students learning about themselves and caring for the wellbeing of themselves and others. Our intention here is to suggest that in providing safety education and involving students in considering this safety lens, teaching HPE can help prevent foreseeable and immediate injury. The basis of this chapter has been to suggest that changes in community beliefs and the development of a risk society has created a new risk framework regarding injuries in which teachers of HPE must work.
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:
Background: Physical educators are faced with trying to provide motivating and enjoyable experiences in physical education. Sport Education is an instructional model that aims to provide positive motivational sport experiences by simulating the features of authentic sport. Research support for Sport Education is positive, however, the effects on student motivation and the motivational climate are not well understood. Purpose: To investigate the influence of the Sport Education model on student motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, goal orientations, and perceived motivational climate) in secondary physical education. Setting: Six classes were selected according to teacher and class availability in the sports of soccer, hockey, and football codes in a co-educational government school. Participants: Participants were 115 (male = 97, female = 18) Year-8 students (aged 13-14 years), in a Sport Education condition (n = 41) and a Traditional condition (n = 74).Measures: At pre- and post-test, all participants completed three questionnaires: the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, and the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire. Intervention: Participants completed either a Sport Education condition or a Traditional condition for one double period (100 minutes) one day per week for 10 weeks (Sport Education condition) or for five weeks (Traditional condition). The Sport Education condition incorporated six distinctive features: seasons, affiliation, formal competition, record keeping, festivity, and a culminating event. The Traditional condition used whole-group instruction led by the teacher. Research design: The study used a non-equivalent control group design with pre- and post-test procedures. The independent variable was teaching condition and the dependent variable was student motivation (assessed by intrinsic motivation, goal orientations, and motivational climate). The groups were already established and selected for convenience purposes. Data collection and analysis: Participants completed pre-test measures and then participated in their pre-established classes. Post-test measures were completed in the last class in each condition. A reliability analysis on measures was conducted using Cronach's alphas. A pre-test manipulation check was performed to check for any initial differences in motivation. To compare the difference in changes between conditions on motivation, a series of 2 × 2 repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted. A comparison of the relationship between motivation measures was conducted using Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients. Findings: There was a significant difference between the conditions on changes in perceived competence, task orientation, and mastery climate, with the Traditional condition decreasing significantly from pre- to post-test compared with the Sport Education condition. There were no significant differences on interest/enjoyment, effort/importance, pressure/tension, ego orientation, or performance climate. A mastery climate was positively related to task orientation and intrinsic motivation and a performance climate was related to ego orientation. Conclusions: The Sport Education condition was more successful in maintaining high levels of intrinsic motivation, task orientation, and mastery climate than the Traditional condition. That is, the Traditional condition was associated with a decrease in adaptive aspects of motivation for students, whereas the Sport Education condition maintained existing levels of motivation.
Description:
A sample of 311 primary school teachers completed the Spiritual Health in Four Domains Index alongside the abbreviated revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and measures of religiosity. The data demonstrate that higher levels of spiritual health are found among older teachers who record low scores on the psychoticism scale and who practice religious faith through church attendance and personal prayer.
Description:
A sample of 311 primary school teachers completed the Spiritual Health in Four Domains Index alongside the abbreviated revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and measures of religiosity. The data demonstrate that higher levels of spiritual health are found among older teachers who record low scores on the psychoticism scale and who practice religious faith through church attendance and personal prayer.
Description:
This book provides an international review of the current state of teacher education, with chapters from an international group of teacher educators. It focuses on major issues that are confronting teacher educators now and in the next decade. These include the impact of globalization on the profession of teaching, and how teacher education must deal with changing accountability requirements from governments and establish a set of minimum standards acceptable to enable a person to teach. The work also considers aspects of the three major phases of teacher education: the period prior to commencing in the profession, successful induction into the profession, and the ongoing professional development of teachers. Finally, it identifies ways in which new technologies can be used to improve the training and ongoing development of teachers. Cases from different countries are used to provide a rich base of data to help us understand how the profession is moving onwards.
Description:
Preparing teachers to work effectively within increasingly diverse contexts is a key goal of teacher education programs. This study analyses the extent to which a semester unit within a teacher education course provided pre-service teachers with the understanding and practices required to teach in low socio-economic status (SES) contexts. The results suggest that a unit, which emphasises links between theory, historical perspectives and practice, can effectively provide pre-service teachers with the key understandings and skills associated with improving equity outcomes in education. However, when the ideas being presented conflict with pre-existing, strongly held ideas about the role of schooling, practices associated with equity will not be sustained.
Description:
The author works in a partnership between a regional secondary college and the University of Ballarat. She discusses an initiative that allows teachers to work in collaborative learning partnerships. Teachers observe one another in classrooms and reflect in conversation on emerging ideas, thoughts, and patterns. She draws on some of these conversations as teachers make sense of their learning and what it is that is helping them to see their practice differently. [Author abstract, ed]
Description:
This thesis examines the role of teachers’ emotions in their work, particularly during times of school reform and highlights the important role they play during change processes.
Description:
This thesis examines the role of teachers’ emotions in their work, particularly during times of school reform and highlights the important role they play during change processes.
Description:
The reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect is a mandated role of medical doctors, nurses, police and teachers in Victoria, Australia. This paper reports on a research study that sought to explicate how mandated professionals working in rural Victorian contexts identify a child/ren at risk and the decisions they make subsequently.
Description:
In Australia, the teaching profession is faced with the prospect that teacher education is no longer a popular choice among young people. This is problematic as the teaching workforce is at an average age of 43.4 years, with the proportion of teachers aged 50 or above at 39 per cent. Thus for the profession, retention of teacher candidates in ITE programs is critical to ensuring sustainability. At present retention rates in ITE programmes from year 1 to 2 ranges from 67 to 83 per cent. More alarming are graduate attrition rates of 30-40 per cent within the first five years. The literature draws attention to notion that retention to a profession has to extend beyond assessment of candidates’ competency against a range of set standards. In particular, data from other professions indicate that quality of a professional induction received by newcomer professions is predictive of retention and perceptions of success. This presentation will report on the development of a theme based WIL placement designed to provide a professional induction for teacher candidates as a means of increasing their perceptions of satisfaction with their WIL experiences and decreasing their intention to quit.
Negotiating policy - renegotiating practice : Understanding language, literacy and numeracy teachers' professional identities within discursive weather systems
Description:
This thesis examines the professional identities of teachers in light of Australian vocational educational policy reform since the late 1980s. Although the reform has been national, this study is located within Victoria. It is specifically interested in the professional identities of Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) teachers who work within the Vocational Education and Training sector. This study brings the voices of LLN specialists to the forefront. Poststructural theory, with particular emphasis on the work of Michel Foucault and narrative inquiry, is used to make sense of these voices, collectively known as the ‘voice of practice’. This study treats professional identity as a multiple term encompassing a range of assigned roles and chosen identities; as such, it argues that professional identity should be seen as fluid and dynamic and as something that continues to evolve. The teachers involved in this study actively negotiated various discourses related to the shaping of professional identity. The effects of this were threefold: LLN teachers ascribed to certain identity positions in line with government policy and institute directives; they preserved other identities; and they forged new identities based on opportunism and a resistance to policy discourse. While there has been a decline in the Adult and Community Education voice in policy development, within practice, this study found that teachers have retained a voice through the maintenance and creation of teaching practices that sit outside policy. Further, this study found that although numerous stakeholders invest in the provision of LLN, it is learners who hold a lot of the power; indeed, the needs of learners, feedback from learners and their transformative learning experiences are the primary drivers in teacher motivation and identity. Finally, this study found a misalignment between policy discourse and the voice of practice that requires attention if LLN policies are to be successfully implemented.
Description:
This thesis examines the professional identities of teachers in light of Australian vocational educational policy reform since the late 1980s. Although the reform has been national, this study is located within Victoria. It is specifically interested in the professional identities of Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) teachers who work within the Vocational Education and Training sector. This study brings the voices of LLN specialists to the forefront. Poststructural theory, with particular emphasis on the work of Michel Foucault and narrative inquiry, is used to make sense of these voices, collectively known as the ‘voice of practice’. This study treats professional identity as a multiple term encompassing a range of assigned roles and chosen identities; as such, it argues that professional identity should be seen as fluid and dynamic and as something that continues to evolve. The teachers involved in this study actively negotiated various discourses related to the shaping of professional identity. The effects of this were threefold: LLN teachers ascribed to certain identity positions in line with government policy and institute directives; they preserved other identities; and they forged new identities based on opportunism and a resistance to policy discourse. While there has been a decline in the Adult and Community Education voice in policy development, within practice, this study found that teachers have retained a voice through the maintenance and creation of teaching practices that sit outside policy. Further, this study found that although numerous stakeholders invest in the provision of LLN, it is learners who hold a lot of the power; indeed, the needs of learners, feedback from learners and their transformative learning experiences are the primary drivers in teacher motivation and identity. Finally, this study found a misalignment between policy discourse and the voice of practice that requires attention if LLN policies are to be successfully implemented.