Curated Conversations

Social responsibility is one of the most critical issues expected to be included in education programs today, as the need for socially responsible individuals is ever-increasing. Education is vital in transferring values to students that align with societal ideals. Teachers are the most essential component of values education and transmission, since teachers are the ones who represent and lead values education. It is stated that values education programs carried out through social activities significantly affect the social skills of individuals. In this context, teachers who attach importance to and model social skills will contribute positively to their students’ social skills. Students are considered to learn more through extracurricular educational experiences than through experiences in the traditional classroom. This also applies to teacher candidates. In this regard, the university is critical in terms of the effectiveness of institutions that train teacher candidates, who will in turn impact the future by teaching new generations. The teacher candidates cannot learn these abilities solely through formal schooling. Hence, individual effort and research, participation in group activities, and getting support from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now essential to learn the skills. This study, which was prepared based on this approach, is based on the findings of several social responsibility exercises for future teachers as part of the “Teachers of the Future Project”. Social responsibility activities implemented within the scope of the project that has been carried out can be summed up as teacher candidates engaging in educational activities for the underprivileged, marking down the positive experiences that experienced teachers have had throughout their careers, meeting with secondary and high school students during social activities and informing them about the universities and departments they are currently enrolled in. The social responsibility activities in this project aim to increase teacher candidates' sense of responsibility. This research aims to reveal the effect of this project, which teacher candidates participated in, on their acquisition of values. Accordingly, the study aims to investigate the impact of the social responsibility activities that teacher candidates participate in within the project’s scope on gaining the necessary skills for values education and the social responsibility activities they will implement while teaching. The study used an experimental methodology and involved 174 teacher candidates enrolled in several university departments in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 2021. The research used two scales and a semi-structured interview form to reveal the effect of social and cultural activities on the acquisition of values. The research’s findings showed that the teacher candidates’ participation in social responsibility projects led to considerable improvements in their values, which are believed to be associated with social responsibility. These values are honesty, responsibility, patience, respect, helpfulness, unity, patriotism, and the importance of family. The increase in these values shows that the collaborative and project-based training and practices organized within the scope of values education are effective. One of the most important results of the research is that education, activity and project-based practices applied beyond the courses in the faculty increase the acquisition of values of teacher candidates. In addition, it has been revealed that values acquisition is more effective and higher for teacher candidates who have participated in similar practices and training before. The reason for this is a reflection of previous positive experiences. In the interviews, pre-service teachers said that the social responsibility activities they participated in within the project’s scope led to an awareness of values education and positively affected the acquisition of values. Another result that emerged from the interviews was the statement that it was beneficial for them to see model applications. In addition, if they are still university students, they also said that participating in activities with secondary school students gave them an empathetic perspective. Pre-service teachers emphasized that thanks to the project, they developed both personally and professionally, and could better understand students and find the correct methods. It may be suggested that in addition to their formal education at the university, teacher candidates take part in unofficial training, social responsibility initiatives, and values-based activities. In addition, it is recommended that university teacher training departments carry out more joint projects with other educational institutions and NGOs that provide education-related services and even include these activities in their training programs.

The purpose of this study was to address the question as to how teacher preparation programs can modify their curriculum to include authentic experiences with the integration of technology that will support the teaching and learning practices of special education teacher candidates. Additionally, this study investigated whether the inclusion of authentic assignments would facilitate the transfer of skills and knowledge of teacher candidates to teaching practices and reduce the disconnect between what strategies are used in special education teacher preparation programs and those strategies that special education teachers are using in the classroom.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain how a course, Teaching of Reading and Writing, uses its key course assessment to enhance preservice teacher candidates' appropriation of diverse children's literature. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the Teaching of Reading and Writing course and the key course assessment, an interactive read-aloud with a diverse book. Additionally, the authors provide a rationale for why exploring and using high-quality diverse literature is intentionally embedded within the assignment. The chapter also includes a description of how the authors support their teacher candidates' appreciation of diverse children's literature through scaffolded instruction and text evaluation. The authors share their candidates' experiences with the interactive read-aloud as well as successes, challenges, and next steps for this assignment.

Intense pressure from multiple stakeholders has forced teacher preparation programs (TPPs) to investigate better methods to prepare teacher candidates to enter classrooms and instruct students on day one. Part of this increased level of accountability has resulted in the formation of teacher evaluative assessments as state licensure exams. One licensure exam sweeping across TPPs in the United States is edTPA. This portfolio-based assessment has garnered an assortment of national support from top policy makers, educators, and teacher accountability advocates, but it has also raised concerns over the potential racial bias that standardized assessments have against teacher candidates of color. This concern comes at a juncture where the nation is seeing modest gains in the number of Black male teacher candidates entering the teaching profession. Building upon prior research (2019) findings, our study provides tangible approaches and a framework for TPPs to utilize to better support Black male teacher candidates in completing edTPA. Additionally, we intend to present explicit recommendations for TPP decision makers and university faculty regarding how both employ edTPA support services to bolster the number of highly effective Black male teacher candidates who enter and successfully matriculate through a teacher preparation program.

Online teaching and learning and the need for qualified online teachers are on the rise across the United States. Currently, the majority of teacher preparation programs do not formally prepare teacher candidates to teach online. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the ways teacher preparation programs are responding to the increasing need for K–12 teachers to be proficient in online teaching. A Web-based, national survey gathered data from 215 participants, mainly deans and associate deans. Participants recognized the need for online teaching, but reported there are too many state requirements from their traditional teacher preparation programs, leaving limited or no room to incorporate new curriculum on online and blended teaching methods. While undergraduate teacher preparation programs have limited or no room for other courses or initiatives, deans of graduate programs were generally more likely to support the inclusion of graduate degrees, optional courses, and/or certificates that prepare teacher candidates to teach online. Implications for teacher education are discussed. (Keywords: online teaching, online teaching methods, teacher candidates, teacher preparation, teacher preparation program deans)

As the P-12 student landscape continues to grow in cultural and linguistic diversity, teacher preparation programs have yet to adequately prepare teacher candidates' teaching and learning skills in meeting the academic and socio-emotional needs of diverse student demographics. This article examines teacher candidates’ cultural competence and cultural responsiveness to enhance candidates' educator preparation and stimulate candidates' personal growth development as developing culturally and linguistically responsive new teachers. While many teacher preparation programs require one multicultural or diversity education course, the authors examine a minority serving institution's integration of a cultural immersion experience for teacher candidates as one way of supporting their development as culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogues. This paper aims at supporting school districts' need of culturally competent new teachers who have the content knowledge and pedagogy to teach and support culturally and linguistically diverse children. Recognizing this need, this qualitative analysis highlights the importance of and a need for cultural and linguistic competence among teacher candidates. Findings from this study provides a means by which universities can implement cross-cultural coursework and field-based experiences to prepare culturally responsive teacher candidates.

Drawing on critical literacy as a theoretical framework, this paper explores how a children’s book writing assignment designed to center the experiences of underrepresented communities in children’s literature contributed to shifts in awareness among predominantly White teacher candidates. The study occurred at a large urban university in California and included 77 participants who all participated in a required Literacy Methods course in a teacher preparation program. Teacher candidate surveys and critical content analysis of candidate-authored books revealed that candidates: (1) selected topics to write about because they had a personal connection to the issue or because of its relevance to their students; (2) created books that evidenced their ability to apply traditional literacy concepts through a critical lens, (3) evidenced a deepened understanding of representation and diversity in children’s literature. Findings highlight the importance of critical literacy experiences in teacher preparation as a way to develop teacher candidates’ critical lens. Implications include the importance of integrating critical literacy with traditional literacy content – it is not something “extra;” the need for a critical perspective to be an integral part of Teacher Performance Expectations and standards; and the need for ongoing professional development for both teachers and teacher educators.

This chapter discusses the findings of a self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) conducted to investigate the ways the author supported teacher candidates, and first year teachers who were teaching emergent bilinguals in planning reading and writing activities around authentic texts. The purpose of the study was to determine in what ways the researcher supported the candidates’ planning, in what ways the teacher candidates implemented the activities, and how the self-study informed the researcher as a teacher educator. The study looked at how the teacher candidates and first year teachers implemented the activities with their own students. Teacher candidates were supported by the researcher through a methodology class, class observations, informal meetings, and emails and text messaging. The teacher candidates and first year teachers reported that all of the activities and strategies that they learned from the researcher and then implemented with their own students were effective. Both the teacher candidates and the first year teachers modified many of the strategies in order to meet the needs of their emergent bilingual students. Through this self-study investigation of how students used and modified the strategies and activities, the researcher gained valuable information that will inform work with future students. She will introduce fewer strategies and activities and explain how each one can be used to teach different content. In further study, the researcher will provide student teachers with a rubric to evaluate the effectiveness of each strategy or activity with different types of students.

Knowledge transfer is important for urban development, but far from automatic. Instead of being passive receivers of technologies, an active and flexible role is required in a process of learning by doing and doing by learning. This chapter studies knowledge and skill transfer on light rail transport from China to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A knowledge transfer policy and decentralised authority policy have led to the successful transfer of knowledge and skills. The knowledge transfer policy includes a knowledge transfer structure, ratio plans and streams combined with practical approaches such as the pairing of staff. The plan sets targets, whereby a ratio is given to the knowledge to be transferred every year. Costs are controlled in time management, financial management and human resource management. Second, responsibilities are decentralized in order to allow for adaptive decision-making processes and conflict resolution.

This study considers the questions, “How do teacher candidates conceptualize the relationship among historians, history teachers, and history students?” and “How is this understanding revealed in candidates’ representation of the work they do in classrooms as history teachers?” Using a case study approach, researchers gathered data from fifteen teacher candidates in a teacher preparation program in the Midwestern United States. The data consisted of participants’ responses to three questions (What do historians do? What do history teachers do? What do history students do?) and their selections of and rationale for including artifacts in a portfolio designed to showcase “who they are” as history teachers as represented by their developing pedagogical content knowledge in history. The researchers’ findings reveal a discrepancy exists between teacher candidates’ emerging beliefs about their responsibilities as teachers and the work that they chose to highlight after having completed clinical experiences. Specifically, the findings suggest a critical disconnect exists between what teacher candidates are taught about teaching history, what they believe about teaching history, and the opportunities that they have in clinical experiences to enact these ideas. This research highlights the central yet often unexamined role of emerging teachers’ epistemic understandings in shaping opportunities for pedagogical reform in history.

The teaching profession is characterized by academic competence, interaction skills, the transfer of knowledge and skills to individuals, and conveying emotions and thoughts using appropriate language. It is a special profession that requires a common ground and interactions between children, parents, and school administrators, in short, all segments of the society. Therefore, among the questions that need to be answered is how a technology-oriented lifestyle affects teacher candidates’ speaking skills, which is a sensitive issue that should be emphasized in university education. Accordingly, this study aimed to describe the role of problematic internet use and speaking self-sufficiency in predicting prospective teachers’ reading habits. The study was designed in a relational survey model, and the sample consisted of prospective teachers of a foundation university in Gaziantep in the 2020-2021 academic year. An appropriate sampling method was used for the selection of the participants. The data were collected using a "Personal Information Form," and "Attitude Scale Towards the Teacher Candidates' Reading Habit," "The Scale of Pre-service Teachers' Self-sufficiency Perception of Speaking Skills," and "The Problematic Internet Usage Scale." Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The study results revealed that improving university students' speaking self-sufficiency increases positive attitudes towards reading habits. An increase in problematic internet use undermined speaking self-sufficiency but increased the attitudes towards reading habits.

A strong focus on teacher performance is resurfacing in teacher-preparation programs across the US. EdTPA, a teacherperformance assessment designed to determine K-12 teacher candidates’ readiness for the classroom, has become central in teacher-preparation programs in several states and promises to be implemented in more states in the coming months. A multidimensional portfolio compilation, the edTPA requires candidates to submit teaching artifacts (e.g., lesson plans, samples of students’ work) along with narrative writing tasks that detail a teacher’s instructional approach and teaching reflections. This article highlights 3 ESL teachers’ experiences with and perspectives about the New York State requirement of edTPA for English as an Additional Language (EAL) certification over 2 semesters of a student-teacher practicum. These teachers’ experiences provide insights into the nature of certification assessment and the perceived benefits and challenges of completing the edTPA portfolio. This article also offers suggestions for the growing number of educational programs that will experience the impact of edTPA during the coming decade.

Teacher education in 2022: Teacher candidates’ echos of the past with a pathway for future preparation

Almost 2 years ago the editors of Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) announced a special themed issue of the journal on evidence, efficacy, and effectiveness in teacher education. Our goal was to gather a set of manuscripts about some of the current efforts in our field to generate empirical evidence about teacher education programs and pathways and/or to assess the efficacy and effectiveness of teacher candidates and graduates. This double issue of JTE (January/February 2006 and March/April 2006)--the final issues of the journal under the editorship of the Boston College group--includes ten articles on this topic. One way to think about these is in terms of four loose groupings: (1) empirical studies of the impact of differing teacher preparation programs and pathways, drawing on large-scale databases; (2) institutional or cross-institutional efforts to use performance and other outcomes data to assess and improve local practice; (3) analyses that take stock of the state of teacher education regarding the collection and use of evidence; and (4) articles that theorize research in and on teacher education's effectiveness and recommend new directions for the field. The first group--empirical investigations of the impact of programs or pathways--includes three articles. Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, and Michelli describe the New York City Pathways study, which uses the New York City teacher workforce database as well as survey and interview data to examine how the features of different pathways lead to different outcomes, including performance, retention, and student achievement. Lasley, Siedentop, and Yinger discuss the Ohio Teacher Quality Partnership, which is based on the efforts of Ohio's 50 colleges and universities, state education authorities, and private corporations. Five studies examine the impact of teacher preparation on student achievement as well as how teachers add value and foster learning within the classroom. Noell and Burns report on data from the pilot study of the Louisiana Teacher Quality Initiative. This project assesses the value teacher preparation adds to pupils' achievement based on a massive multivariate longitudinal database, which is part of the statewide teacher preparation redesign effort. The second group of articles includes descriptions of systematic institutional or cross-institutional efforts to make evidence collection an internal teacher education activity that drives local practice and policy. Pecheone and Chung describe results from California's 2-year, statewide implementation of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT); they discuss how this can be used to support teacher candidates' learning and improve teacher preparation within and across institutions. Castle, Fox, and Souder compare the efficacy and performance of teachers prepared in professional development schools (PDSs) and non-PDS teacher preparation programs at the same university, based on analysis of student teaching evaluations and portfolio presentations. Darling-Hammond reports on the collection and analysis of a number of different forms of evidence gathered at one institution; she describes how these multiple assessment strategies are used to evaluate and improve the teacher preparation program and critiques the possibilities and limits of each. Articles in the third group take stock of the state of the teacher education profession regarding the collection and use of credible and persuasive evidence. Wineburg reports the results of a survey by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) to find out what kinds of data were being collected by teacher education institutions to meet the current demand for evidence; she calls for professional frameworks to guide the collection of teacher education evidence nationally. Fallon argues that there is too little research on teacher education that uses pupil learning growth as the measure of effectiveness. …

This review examines the past 25 years of empirical research on social justice in teacher education, focusing on the question of how researchers in the field, who demonstrate a long-standing aspirational commitment to preparing new teachers for diversity and equity, address students’ and teacher candidates’ multiple social markers of identity, and in particular the complexity of their identities. Using the framework of intersectionality, we illustrate how teacher education researchers position student and teacher candidate identities and their complexity. Findings indicate that identity is typically addressed in a unidimensional manner, with little acknowledgment of students’ or teacher candidates’ complex, multiple, and intersecting identities. We conclude our analysis by exploring the potential of intersectionality as a framework for identity considerations when preparing equity-minded new teachers who are committed to social justice.