Cultivating responsive teaching with AI: exploring preservice teachers’ questioning patterns with student-emulating agents

This research examines the correlation between pre-service mathematics teachers' perceptions of ethnomathematics-based instructional design and the quality of educational tools they produce during a university course. Employing a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, quantitative data were gathered from 22 participants through a perception questionnaire utilizing a Likert scale. Descriptive statistics indicated generally positive perceptions, with a mean score of 42.36 and a standard deviation of 4.07, reflecting low variability among responses. Additionally, the final project assessments demonstrated moderately high performance, with a mean score of 37.77 and a standard deviation of 3.96. Qualitative analysis of lesson modules and student worksheets—evaluated via a rubric emphasizing cultural integration, mathematical coherence, and pedagogical quality—revealed diverse levels of success in incorporating local cultural elements into mathematics instruction. While many projects showcased innovative applications of ethnomathematical concepts, notable gaps persisted in aligning cultural contexts with explicit mathematical learning objectives and maintaining systematic lesson progression. The findings suggest that although pre-service teachers generally hold positive perceptions of ethnomathematics-based teaching design, these attitudes do not consistently translate into the development of high-quality, culturally embedded instructional materials. This discrepancy underscores the necessity for structured design training and reflective practice within teacher education programs. Such initiatives are essential to convert favorable perceptions into pedagogically sound and culturally responsive teaching tools. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on integrating ethnomathematics into teacher education curricula. It highlights the importance of targeted curriculum development in culturally diverse educational settings and offers specific implications for enhancing instructional design through comprehensive training and reflective practices. Implementing these strategies can facilitate the effective translation of positive perceptions into practical, culturally relevant pedagogical approaches, ultimately enriching mathematics education in diverse cultural contexts.

The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to assess preservice teachers’ perceived ability to teach Native American (NA) children and youth. Focus on NA students was needed because they have been among the nation’s worst-performing ethnoracial groups. These students have often been taught by teachers unprepared to respond to their unique circumstances and statuses. The first phase of the study involved collecting quantitative data to examine the nature of preservice teachers’ (n = 60) culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy beliefs. In this phase, a modified and extended version of Siwatu’s (2007) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self- Efficacy Scale was used to explore preservice teachers’ ability to teach NA students. The second phase involved interviewing a subsample (n = 3) selected from Phase 1 participants. The interviews examined teachers’ descriptions of culturally responsive teaching forming behaviors. Qualitative data were analyzed through the culturally relevant pedagogy continuum and TribalCrit lens, especially concerning the uniqueness of NA statuses, such as tribal sovereignty and cultural contributions. The findings were consistent with Bandura’s (1977, 1997) theorizing about the nature of self-efficacy and the factors that influenced the formations of self-efficacy beliefs. Moreover, the tenets of TribalCrit explained some of the teachers’ perceptions in connection to Bandura’s social cognitive theory. The study showed that preservice teachers did not feel confident and were not adequately prepared to teach NA students in K–12 schools. Recommendations include faculty development in teacher training programs and a preservice teacher self-efficacy intervention course for teacher education students before contacting their NA students. Other theoretical and practical implications of this study, such as teachers’ “deficit views” of NA culture, were discussed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Abstract"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><strong></strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Many scholars have made the call for teacher educators to provide experiences that can lead preservice teachers to embrace a culturally responsive pedagogy. We investigated the use of brief autobiographies during an internship as a tool (a) for preservice teachers to examine their multidimensional culture; and (b) for teacher educators to assess preservice teachers' developing understandings about cultural responsive pedagogy and then further design curriculum to enhance these understandings. Using qualitative methods, we analyzed the preservice teachers' (N=24) autobiographies and an interview with the professor of this course. Based on the findings of this study, we suggest teacher educators need to develop experiences and opportunities that will enable preservice teachers to reflect on how culture impacts teaching and learning behaviors. Therefore, preservice teachers will be better prepared to teach all students. </span></p>

This qualitative study investigated the perceptions of 4th-year Foundation Phase preservice teachers at one Higher Education Training (HET) institution in South Africa, regarding their preparedness to teach inclusively in diverse Grade R classrooms. Convenient and purposive sampling techniques were used to recruit participants. Qualitative data surveys, individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups with six preservice teachers were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, which revealed four overarching themes: (i) perceived critical importance of Grade R teaching and learning, (ii) self-perceptions of preparedness for inclusive teaching, (iii) understanding of key inclusive education concepts, and (iv) preservice training experiences. The study revealed that while preservice teachers recognize the significance of Grade R teaching and learning, value their school-based attachments or training, their preparedness for enacting truly responsive pedagogy remains a concern. Preservice teachers' understanding of diversity and differentiation appears to be theoretical, whilst practical application in diverse classroom contexts requires further development. The study highlights the need for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes to more practically and explicitly equip future teachers to effectively address the diverse learning needs at Grade R teaching and learning, thereby potentially mitigating the serious challenge of underprepared learners progressing to Grade One.

Culturally competent teachers are in high demand as the English learner (EL), culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student population increases in the U.S. However, the teaching force continues to be predominantly female, White, and monolingual, inexperienced in dealing with diverse populations. Typically, teacher preparation to teach ELs and CLD students consist mainly of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses that teach pre-service teachers to become linguistically competent and earn their ESOL endorsement certifications but do not ensure that they will be prepared to be culturally competent and responsive in their practices. In this study, an instrument was designed in Qualtrics to measure pre-service teachers’ perceptions of cultural competence in teaching CLD students. On the one hand, the results indicated pre-service teachers’ high disposition, openness, and comfort levels when learning about different cultures and languages and their students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds. On the other hand, the respondents acknowledged having limited training to prepare them to teach and interact with diverse student populations and having limited experiences interacting with them. The study reinforces the importance of providing pre-service teachers with ongoing opportunities during their teacher preparation programs to develop cultural competence and culturally responsive teaching skills before graduating.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) provides a framework for teachers to include students’ ethnic-cultural identities in class, aiming to tackle issues of educational and societal inequity. This quasi-experimental mixed methods intervention study tested whether pre-service teachers attending a seminar based on an ethnic-cultural identity school intervention, the Identity Project, would show greater CRT self-efficacy and more positive beliefs about teaching in ethnic-culturally diverse classes, compared to a control group. Repeated measures ANCOVAs of survey data from 606 pre-service teachers in Germany indicated a stronger T1-T2 increase in confidence for interacting with ethnic-culturally diverse students and engaging in culture- and ethnic-related conversations in the intervention group. No significant time-by-group interactions emerged for other CRT facets. A content analysis of brief texts of pre-service teachers in the intervention group revealed they became more self-reflective about their own beliefs, learned about CRT practices for their own teaching, and gained confidence for including issues of ethnicity and culture in class. Yet, the complexity of ethnic-cultural diversity-related topics left some pre-service teachers feeling overwhelmed about how to adequately address ethnic-cultural diversity in the classroom. Overall, the Identity Project seminar raised pre-service teachers’ awareness and self-efficacy for engaging in CRT in the future.

The purpose of this study was to describe the qualities of preservice early childhood teacher response to a multicultural children's literature project, and to evaluate the project as a means for developing culturally responsive teaching practices in preservice early childhood teachers. Surveys and reflection papers on the project from two reading methods education courses were analyzed, utilizing Irvine's (2003) description of culturally responsive teachers. Student written responses fell into six categories: awareness of teaching materials and culturally specific learning differences, an increase in their own personal cultural knowledge, and a commitment to foster cultural competence in children, build a classroom community and teach for social justice. The responses indicated that the reading of multicultural children's books enabled the future early childhood teachers to identify more closely with people of a culture other than their own and to develop knowledge, empathy, and commitment to improving the well-being of their future students.

Beliefs and emotions are intricately connected. This study first investigated changes in pre-service teachers’ emotional intelligence (EI) over three years of initial teacher education. It then examined the relationship between EI and cultural beliefs (i.e., multicultural and egalitarian beliefs), and the stability of these associations across time. The study used data collected from two cohorts in eight Finnish universities using an online survey at the beginning of the first study year (N = 2141) and in the third study year (N = 654). The results suggested that the cohorts differed in the mean scores for managing emotions and using emotions , but there was no meaningful change in any of the ability EI branches over time. Further, the initial positive association between EI and multicultural beliefs had weakened by the third study year. These associations can be explained by the stability the constructs exhibited over time. This study underscores the intentional integration of EI training and culturally responsive pedagogy into teacher education curricula.

The framework of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) provides a promising pathway for preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools. Important elements of culturally responsive teaching are critical reflection, valuing cultural diversity, and efficacy in teaching in a diverse classroom. The present study explores whether the Identity Project (Umaña-Taylor & Douglass, 2017), an eight-week classroom-based intervention, changes pre-service teachers’ (1) critical reflection, (2) diversity beliefs, and CRT efficacy. Using a qualitative, quasi-experimental design, we conducted semi-structured interviews (M t = 75 min.) with eight pre-service teachers (three identified as female, five identified as male), in Eastern Germany at two time points: before and after an eight-week teaching experience at school. During the teaching experience, four participants in the intervention group (M age = 22.3) facilitated the Identity Project, while the remaining four participants (control group, M age = 25.5) taught regular lessons as part of the compulsory internship in their teacher-training degree at university. One out of eight participants is of immigrant descent. Using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), findings suggest that implementing the Identity Project intervention promotes pre-service teachers’ quality of critical reflection, contributes to valuing cultural diversity beliefs, and promotes CRT efficacy. The findings help to identify approaches for reflexive critical education in a migration-diverse society.

This case study investigated how middle-school mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) help Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) understand cognitively demanding problems while they received a set of EB-focused interventions. Three PSTs, who had no prior experience of teaching mathematics to EBs, worked with EBs in a one-on-one setting while receiving individual interventions. As time evolved, the PSTs began to integrate content from students’ cultures and applied various alternative methods related to the given mathematical situations. This study suggests that preparing PSTs require an infusion of practical experiences and examples in order to teach EBs with effective culturally responsive teaching strategies.

ABSTRACTCulturally responsive teaching is an essential component of reframing educator preparation for equity and has particular resonance when working in partnership with indigenous communities. As teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand, we continually seek to enhance our practices to ensure that Māori cultural values, pedagogies, and epistemologies inform all aspects of our teacher education curricula and support Māori educational aspirations. In this article we describe a preservice teacher education program co-constructed with our local Māori community that foregrounds Māori cultural knowledge. We focus particularly on two signature features of the program, a co-constructed framework for teacher growth and development and community-based learning experiences, highlighting the ways that these features engage preservice teachers in learning through Māori epistemological perspectives and pedagogies. We conclude by reflecting on the generative nature of engaging community expertise and knowledge to create contextually meaningful learning experiences for preservice teachers that support their development as culturally responsive teachers.

Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) are the fastest-growing group in the U.S. K-12 system, offering opportunities to enrich mathematics classrooms and highlighting the need for pre-service teachers (PSTs) to adopt culturally responsive pedagogies. Despite progress in valuing EBs’ linguistic and cultural strengths, many PSTs still graduate with deficit-oriented beliefs that hinder effective mathematics instruction. This study explores the intersection of PSTs’ beliefs about mathematics and EB education, using survey data from 84 PSTs. Results reveal belief clusters, including traditionalist perspectives paired with moderate equity views and constructivist beliefs linked to stronger equity support. Findings can inform teacher preparation programs to foster inclusive, language-responsive mathematics pedagogy.

The growing diversity of America's public schools has created pressure for universities and teacher preparation programs to develop strategies to aid novice teachers in meeting a variety of student needs. In addition to cultural and linguistic differences, special education teachers must also be prepared to meet the variety of academic, social, and emotional needs of students identified with disabilities. To accomplish this, studies investigating the potential of video based reflection to impact novice and preservice teachers' ability to implement pedagogical theory into practice have increased. This chapter examines the use of video as a tool to engage novice special education teachers' reflection on the implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), differentiated instruction (DI), and universal design for learning (UDL).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which preservice elementary teachers integrated culturally responsive pedagogy into their perspectives on effective teaching and being an effective teacher and if these perspectives changed over time. Data were collected from 53 preservice teachers in the form of a perspective paper written in two consecutive semesters at the end of field experience courses. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings indicated that preservice teacher integrated issues of cultural and linguistic diversity into their perspectives minimally. Linguistic diversity was more integrated than cultural diversity. Their perspectives included less integration of cultural and linguistic diversity over time.

This study draws on research conducted with participants of a professional development project focusing on serving the needs of English language learners in U.S. public schools. We analyze the reflections of two preservice teachers as an assessment of our ability to meet our goal for social justice in teacher education. Qualitative analysis of the data reveals a view of teaching as a nonlocalized activity, beliefs that teaching is a neutral act, superficial acknowledgment of cultural issues, and contradictory attitudes about ESOL/bilingual education. We identify areas for enhancement in our teacher-education program to move beyond reductionist views of teaching and work toward culturally responsive pedagogy. There are many strategies to help students who are ESOL. Many of the strategies I learned about, I believe are good instructional practices for all students in the classroom, not only ESOL students. Sandy, a preservice teacher