Challenging changes in a secondary teacher education programme

We report research and development work with STEP (Secondary Teacher Education Project) Web, an innovative and complex web site designed to support learning through facilitated video case discussions in secondary teacher education programs. The goal of instruction with STEP is to help pre-service teachers acquire useful scientific knowledge about cognitive psychology and other learning sciences. STEP Web is currently being used and evaluated in connection with psychological foundations courses taught for teacher education majors at UW-Madison and Rutgers University. We report user preference data on web site design and related instructional formats, and provide evidence that the STEP approach can produce transfer and flexible use of course concepts.

This paper focuses on recent and innovative moves towards flexible learning in initial teacher education programmes in England and Wales, as part of the ‘widening participation’ agenda in higher education and in response to changes in teacher recruitment patterns. We take as our perspective our own experience as two course tutors in a higher education institution that introduced flexible routes into its secondary teacher education programme at the beginning of the academic year 2002/2003. Using the university's model for our case study, we have undertaken a small‐scale research project and reviewed the literature describing flexible learning discourses in higher education, to consider the extent to which concepts of flexibility are being translated into practice. In particular we highlight some implications for pedagogy and practice that have become apparent at this early stage in the development of flexible courses and which will have an impact upon their progress in the future.

Reflection is a mysterious concept to many of the students who enter our graduate-level, secondary teacher education program at a large, Southeastern university. Although all already hold degrees in their subject areas and many have extensive life and work experience, few have written—or perhaps even thought—reflectively during their academic careers (King & Kitchener, 1994). The purpose of this study was to identify pedagogical strategies that helped preservice secondary teachers improve their reflective thinking via journal writing during the 1st semester of a yearlong professional program. A secondary purpose was to study the effectiveness of our own practices as teacher educators. We present brief case studies of four preservice teachers who met our criteria for growth in reflection and report their views of how and why they became more reflective over the course of the semester. We found that no single pedagogical strategy was best and that students responded differently to different strategies. These preservice teachers benefited from spending class time on defining, discussing, and viewing models of reflection. Overall, personalized feedback on their journals and their relationships with their instructors were most important in helping them grow. We must actively teach and model reflective skills in a variety of ways if we are to demystify reflection.

In this paper the authors explore two pedagogical moments that occurred within a diversity‐focused secondary teacher education course, giving specific attention to Genevieve's and Debra's reflections as course instructors. We explore the ways in which instructors find themselves challenged, engaged and provoked to rethink taken for granted ideas and beliefs about their pedagogies as teacher educators. We conclude the paper by ‘thinking forward’: challenging teacher educators to be responsible and to be vulnerable with respect to their own teaching stances and to take the time to critically examine their own lived experiences in order to connect with their students' emergent understandings.

The quality of pre-service secondary teacher education is critically dependent on the adequacy of infrastructural facilities, human resources, and learning resources available in training institutions. This study was undertaken to (i) analyze the infrastructure facilities in pre-service secondary teacher education programs in Rajasthan in relation to the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) Regulation 2014, and (ii) examine the availability of human and learning resources within these programs against the same regulatory framework. Adopting a mixed-method approach, data were collected from a sample of 60 teacher educators and 250 student teachers drawn from 11 teacher education institutions affiliated with four universities in Rajasthan. Structured questionnaires designed for teacher educators and student teachers formed the primary tools of data collection. The findings reveal several critical gaps. A significant shortage of qualified teaching and non-teaching staff was observed, leading to high pupil–teacher ratios and inadequate academic support. Nearly one-third of faculty members were perceived as lacking in subject mastery, language proficiency, and pedagogical clarity, with a notable absence of method teachers for languages, vocational subjects, arts, and physical education. Learning resources were found to be insufficient, with libraries poorly stocked with updated reference materials and journals, while information and communication technology (ICT), education technology (ET), and language labs were either non-functional or missing. Infrastructural facilities such as smart classrooms, hostels, playgrounds, and common rooms were either inadequate or below prescribed standards. Furthermore, institutional linkages with state-level educational bodies like Cluster Resource Center, Block Resource Centers, and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan were minimal, restricting practice-oriented exposure for student teachers. The study concludes that pre-service secondary teacher education institutions in Rajasthan fall short of the NCTE (2014) requirements in infrastructure, human, and learning resources. Strengthening these dimensions is imperative for ensuring quality teacher preparation aligned with contemporary policy expectations.

This study is based on data from a national survey of generalist student teachers specialising in music in the new five-year primary and lower secondary school teacher education programme in Norway. The study aims to map students’ backgrounds, experiences of the educational programme and visions for their future practice as generalist music teachers in schools. The theoretical perspective is cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). The findings suggest that generalist teacher education music programmes reproduce patterns of inequality. These patterns should be addressed in the future development of the programmes; however, the current lack of diversity may inhibit conditions for transformation and change.

In this paper, I investigate a group of student-teachers’ insights into an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automatic question-detection tool designed for reflective practice: Question Bot (QBot). Six student-teachers (STs), who were enrolled in a secondary school teacher education program in Sweden, volunteered to use QBot to analyze their own classroom discourse and to reflect on their teaching. Findings based on the thematic analysis of interviews show that QBot promotes noticing and pattern identification. Furthermore, it facilitates reflection on and for action. STs reported that AI assistance is desirable, and some even argued that AI input should precede human feedback in post-observation feedback sessions. STs also reported a need to develop other AI features for detecting gaze, gestures, silence, feedback, voice pitch, and code-switching.

This study attempted to present a specific case of blended Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in teacher education course to enhance the field competency of pre-service teachers. The participants were first-year adult learners majoring in Early Childhood Education who were enrolled in the educational psychology course. The blended PBL process was organized by appropriately combining face-to-face and online sessions, following the sequence of 'Course Introduction,' 'Problem Presentation,' 'Subsequent Problem Steps,' 'Presentation of Results and Discussion,' and 'Review and Evaluation of Learning Outcomes.' Five PBL problems were developed, and during the initial five weeks, students were assigned to individually contemplate one problem per week. In the 10th week, a face-to-face group discussion session was conducted. Subsequently, continuous online communication through Learning Management System (LMS) and Social Networking Services (SNS) was maintained, leading to the group presentation of the final project at the end of the semester. The analysis of reflection journals submitted by students after the class was conducted to assess the effectiveness of a blended PBL course. The case presented in this study proposes a form of instructional design that integrates real-world experiences, suggesting a hybrid approach to PBL in education. Furthermore, the application of blended PBL in educational psychology courses suggests the potential to enhance field competency in teacher education courses.

O artigo trata da evolução do ensino superior brasileiro e sua relação com os modelos de formação de professores para escola secundária, ou seja, as séries finais do ensino fundamental e ensino médio. As análises concentram-se nos textos e documentos que abordam a genealogia da regulamentação do ensino superior, e, de modo particular, os cursos de formação de professores, tomando como base territorial de análise o Estado de São Paulo. Na medida em que se considera a educação como um fenômeno histórico, destacou-se o contexto político econômico a contar de 1930, quando a formação de professores foi elevada a nível superior e o ensino expandiu-se fortemente em função do aumento sensível da demanda social por educação. A faculdade de filosofia, inspirada na investigação científica e, inicialmente, concebida como núcleo integrador da nascente universidade, transmutou-se, constituindo--se em primeiro lócus institucional de ensino superior responsável pela formação de professores. Demonstraram-se a desarticulação da faculdade de filosofia no âmbito da universidade, que foi sendo substituída por outras formas de organização, e sua expansão como instituições isoladas de caráter privado, aqui denominada de novas faculdades de filosofia. Com o advento das licenciaturas curtas, essas instituições apresentaram um crescimento significativo, contribuindo com o processo de evolução do ensino superior para a consecução do binômio expansão/privatização.

The paper begins with an overview of migration-related diversity in Austria and Ireland, both countries with high levels of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity in schools. Research in Europe indicates that migration produces a new context for teaching, for which many teachers do not feel sufficiently prepared. Hence, teacher education is at stake and rarely looked at systematically in migration-related research in education. Therefore, in this article secondary teacher education courses are analysed to ascertain how higher education institutions in these two countries are preparing secondary teachers for culturally responsive teaching. After describing the methodology used to examine the Initial Teacher Education curricula of the two countries an analysis of the research findings is provided. It turns out that relevant courses in the compulsory sections of the curricula are largely missing in both countries. Finally, based on an analysis of the literature and research findings, a discussion of the consequences for teacher education together with recommendations for improvement are formulated. It provides countries with a foundational discourse to equip student teachers with the necessary skills to embed cultural responsivity into their classrooms upon completion of their apprenticeship for teaching.

This mixed methods study examined non-Indigenous teacher candidates’ disposition towards a mandatory Aboriginal Education course in teacher education from teacher candidates’ and course instructors’ perspectives. Results from a pre- and post Likert Scale survey of two sections of an Aboriginal Education course at a small Canadian University indicated that teacher candidates felt more knowledgeable by the end of the course, and maintained a fairly strong interest in, and positive attitude towards, the course. Results from course instructors provided additional and, at times, contradictory information, describing the course as limited and, at best, an introduction to the issues and perspectives within Indigenous education. The results suggest the need for mandatory Indigenous Education courses and for faculties of education and school boards to provide further learning opportunities with Indigenous education content and resources.

A skillful magician always considers the audience’s perspectives, then refines their magic performance to create a sense of wonder in the minds of their audience. Similarly, an effective teacher considers the needs and identities of their students and customizes their pedagogy to the needs of their students. This teacher-educator reflective narrative illuminates our use of magic tricks as a vehicle for pre-service teachers to learn about Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (CSP) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in a middle-grades disciplinary literacies teacher education course in a large research-intensive university in the Southeast United States. The process of learning and doing magic also serves as an analogy to contextualize the student’s learning of CSP and UDL principles. We show other teacher educators how CSP and UDL can be embodied and modeled in teacher education classrooms for all students through magic by (1) illustrating the magic-based learning activities designed collaboratively by the authors, a literacy teacher educator, and a magician, (2) sharing reflections of our PSTs and ourselves in these pedagogical moves, and (3) offering suggestions for how teacher educators can help their students to become creative and empathetic teachers for the myriad forms of diversity of the students they will eventually teach.

With a view to attracting more students and offering flexible learning opportunities, online teaching and learning is becoming increasingly widespread across the higher education sector. It is now found across a wide range of disciplines (e.g., business, health, psychology, accounting, information technology) and program levels (e.g., from associate degrees to doctorate degrees). Online delivery is also strongly represented in the teacher education sector at many universities. Research of online delivery in higher education generally and teacher education specifically has pointed to a range of benefits and challenges associated with this mode of learning. Within the teacher education literature, many aspects of the online preparation of teachers remain poorly understood. More specifically, there is scant literature on the experiences and beliefs of teacher educators in relation to their readiness and preparation for online teaching as well as their beliefs in relation to the appropriateness of online education for preservice teachers. This article responds to this gap in the literature and reports on an exploratory study that worked with academic staff, teaching in a fully online teacher education course, at a mid-size Australian university. Twenty-seven teacher educators completed a 34-item questionnaire that consisted of closed and open-ended questions. With regards to readiness and preparation for teaching online, the majority of teacher educators reported lacking confidence and competence in the technological and pedagogical skills required to teach online. By and large, the study participants were welcoming of individualized “at-elbow” support that seemed to abate some of their fears of online teaching. The teacher educators were generally divided on whether the online classroom was an appropriate method for preparing preservice teachers. This article concludes with several recommendations for consideration by teacher educators who work in an online environment and sets the stage for a more ambitious study.

This contribution aims at presenting the underlying construct and the research design of a study carried out by the Roma Tre University unit of a 3-year national research project (PRIN), as well as the findings about English language (EL) teachers’ attitudes towards English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as they emerge from the study and from the in-service teacher education course designed and implemented during the project. The study investigated native and non-native teachers’ understandings, beliefs and attitudes towards ELF and the challenges brought about by the notion of ELF awareness in English Language Teaching (ELT). This investigation was carried out through the online administration of two questionnaires, one for Italian non-native teachers of English teaching in the Italian school system, and one for native English language assistants working at university level. The survey findings informed the design of a post-graduate blended EL teacher education course, with a special focus on developing English language teachers’ awareness of the emerging realities of English, while providing an ELF-aware reflective approach to revisit the EL teachers’ syllabus design, lesson planning and implementation. Course participants’ feedback is presented and pedagogical implications for EL teacher education are illustrated and discussed.

This article grew out of a study of four preservice teacher education courses available in New South Wales for the secondary music specialist. Although the secondary syllabuses prescribe an integration of the activities of performing, composing and listening, tertiary teacher education courses are for the most part are based on the conservatoire model that compartmentalises aural, performing and musicology studies and almost entirely neglects composition. There also appears to be a lack of knowledge of and interest in general teacher education trends and their application to the above courses. It seems that the general structure of these curricula is out of step with current research in music and teacher education and desperately needs reviewing as we continue to produce teachers that perpetuate the model, both in high schools and at a tertiary level.