Preparing to teach emergent bilinguals

Introduction: Although there is ambiguity about the elements of teacher knowledge, all researchers accept that being able to anticipate what errors can be made, the reasons for and the strategies to overcome these errors, in short, the knowledge of students is important for student achievement. In this study, knowledge of students refers to being aware of students’ possible errors and underlying reasons for these errors and knowing how to overcome these errors. Based on this consideration, the purpose of this study is to investigate pre-service elementary teachers’ knowledge of students on the subtraction topic. Methods: Considering the purpose, the data were collected from 118 pre-service elementary teachers who were enrolled in a four-year Elementary Teacher Education program via a task-based questionnaire related to the topic of subtraction and semi-structured interviews following the questionnaire. The task-based questionnaire included three completed incorrect subtraction tasks and was prepared considering the related literature and the elementary school mathematics curriculum of Turkey. Each task in the questionnaire contained a different type of error. The pre-service elementary teachers’ answers to the task-based questionnaire were categorized as correct, partially correct, wrong, or no answer by means of categorical analysis. The pre-service elementary teachers who gave correct and partially correct answers to the tasks were asked to participate in the second part of the study to learn their possible strategies to overcome the errors made in the tasks. Results: As a result of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the pre-service elementary teachers’ responses, it was found that their knowledge of students for subtraction is limited. Specifically, although the pre-service elementary teachers were partially able to identify the errors in the first and second task, they were not able to identify the error in the third task. Furthermore, they were better able to determine a more commonly occurring subtraction error compared to the uncommon ones. The pre-service elementary teachers could not identify the underlying reasons that led the students to the errors. They could not explain what conceptual knowledge related to the topic of subtraction the student lacked that resulted in the errors. As the pre-service teachers did not attain these reasons, they were not able to provide strategies to overcome these errors different than restating the rules or procedures to overcome students’ errors. Discussion: Only being able to identify the errors is not enough to make the instruction effective. Teachers also need to know and provide a rationale for why the errors happen and how to overcome them (Even & Tirosh, 1995). Contrary to this statement, the pre-service elementary teachers in this study could not attempt to understand the students’ thinking or could not explain the reasons behind students’ errors with the notion of subtraction. Son (2013) emphasizes that pre-service teachers tend to explain the reasons for students’ errors as procedural. Similar to this emphasis, the pre-service teachers identified the errors as resulting from not applying procedures carefully or not enough knowing algorithms to find correct solutions. However, without addressing the reasons or focusing on procedures does not promote students’ understanding of the related topic (An, Kulm, & Wu, 2004). The pre-service teachers’ difficulties in identifying the possible conceptual reasons may result from deficits in knowledge of students (Fennema & Franke, 1992; Ball et al., 2008). Limitations: The findings were limited with the responses of the pre-service elementary teachers participating in this study. Moreover, the pre-service elementary teachers’ knowledge of students was investigated within the scope of subtraction. Conclusions: Although the pre-service elementary teachers could identify students’ errors on subtraction, they had difficulty in identifying the reasons and suggesting strategies to overcome the errors. Therefore, it can be concluded that the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of students for the topic of subtraction is limited. An implication of this is that teacher educators need to include error-analysis tasks to help pre-service teachers be aware of the importance of their knowledge of students.

Todays’ teacher education needs to provide pre-service teachers with readiness to integrate ICT in education. Teacher educators are expected to serve as role models for pre-service teachers, providing them with examples and meaningful experiences of learning with ICT. The aim of this study is to provide an insight into teacher educators’ and pre-service teachers’ confidence toward using ICT in education. In this study, both groups assessed their Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK). The aim was to study the possible differences between teacher educators’ and pre-service teachers’ TPK assessments, and based on their assessments, to provide insights into teacher educators’ readiness to act as role models for pre-service teachers. The participants of the study were 123 pre-service teachers and 83 teacher educators. The results indicate that the assessments of teacher educators were higher than pre-service teachers’ assessments at the sample level. The results also indicate that pre-service teachers and teacher educators can both be divided into two aligning sub-groups, with higher and lower assessments. However, the comparison of these sub-groups showed that the assessments of the pre-service teachers in the higher sub-group were higher than with the assessments of the teacher educators in the lower (modest) sub-group. This study provides evidence for variation among teacher educators and pre-service teachers in terms of their TPK. This implies a need for more tailored ways to develop TPK in teacher education.

Background Although preservice teachers bring well-established views of teaching to their teacher education programs, Tabachnick and Zeichner (1984) claimed that it is possible to amend preservice teachers’ views. They portrayed the learning of teachers as a negotiated and interactive process rather than as one that is predetermined by teachers’ prior experiences. Feiman-Nemser (2001) suggested that having preservice teachers examine their beliefs in light of images of good teaching should be one of the central tasks of preservice teacher education. Purpose The study reported in this manuscript was conducted in an effort to document and examine the interplay between novice teachers’ personal theories, their mathematics education coursework, and their field experiences. Research Design Using all four methods of data collection attributed to ethnographic research (Eisenhart, 1988)—artifact collection, participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, and researcher introspection—this interpretivist study (Zeichner & Gore, 1990) attempted to document and examine the learning of seven preservice elementary teachers as reflected in their mathematics methods coursework and subsequent field experiences. Findings This manuscript describes three tasks from the mathematics methods course—critiquing an essay written by a teacher as she reflected on her teaching practice; working one-on-one with a child in mathematics for an extended period of time; and observing an experienced teacher teach an elementary mathematics lesson—that provided preservice elementary school teachers with opportunities to learn and grow as teachers by making their beliefs explicit and then reflecting on their beliefs and linking these beliefs to the practice of teaching mathematics. The tasks described engaged the preservice teachers in examining beliefs critically in relation to visions of good teaching, developing an understanding of learners and learning, and developing the tools and dispositions to study teaching. Conclusions While an analysis of the data showed evidence that the preservice teachers became aware of their beliefs, reflected on their beliefs, and began to change their beliefs, the purpose of this manuscript is not to claim that the teachers changed for the good and that this change was enduring. Rather, the goal is to illuminate the tasks, provide the preservice teachers’ responses and reactions to the tasks, and to argue that these tasks constitute a form of learning to teach mathematics through assisted performance.

Accepted: 05.06.2014 Many authors agree that community service learning should be integrated into pre-service teacher education in order to achieve the maximum positive impact on the next generation of teachers. This study aims at inquiring the experiences of pre-service English teachers gained through community service learning. The study is based on qualitative case study design. Qualitative data were collected using participant portfolios from 40 pre-service English teachers in ELT Department who kept portfolios throughout their observations of eleven weeks. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis method by coding and creating categories/themes. Results showed that pre-service teachers faced some problems during the process of community service. However, their practices through community service learning in kindergartens helped them gain various experiences which will contribute a lot to their future teaching careers. The evaluative feedback stressed marked improvement in the quality of the student learning and engagement experiences. It is hoped that the experiences of preservice English teachers engaged in the portfolio development process will help other educators who are implementing portfolios within teacher education programs. The results of this study also provide important information for both policy-makers interested in the reform of pre-service teacher education and practicing teacher educators focused on achieving the goals of pre-service teacher education through the use of community service learning.

Teacher identity has become an issue in teaching and teachers’ professional identity development since the identity influences teachers’ teaching pedagogies and teachers’ development. Many studies have explored teachers’ identity from in-service teachers’ perspectives. Somehow, small attention has been paid to teachers’ identity construction from pre-service perspectives in Indonesian context. To fill this gap, this research investigated how Indonesian pre-service teachers constructed and reconstructed their identities through peers’ feedbacks in a micro-teaching class. There were three pre-service teachers from Sanata Dharma University who participated in this study. The data were obtained through field observations and interviews. Using Yuan and Lee’s (2015) theory, the study investigated the cognitive, social and emotional processes of their teacher identity construction. The findings of the study suggested that pre-service language teachers developed and modified their identities through peers’ feedbacks in a teaching practicum. The findings also showed that feedbacks delivered positive and negative impacts to pre-service teachers’ identity construction. Although some of the pre-service teachers did not change their beliefs, they still used the feedbacks to prepare for their next teachings. The study supported the theory that teacher identity affected to pre-service teachers’ teaching pedagogies. This paper suggested some implications for policy makers, language teacher education, and pre-service teacher education. A further research with a longer duration is expected.

Despite recent recommendations urging stronger connections between teacher education programs and their communities, few studies have examined the potential of community service learning (CSL) within science teacher education. The paper aims to: understand how CSL is conceptualized in preservice science teacher education contexts; identify the various ways that CSL is integrated within courses; examine stated outcomes for preservice science teachers, and; explore how research on CSL has been carried out in science teacher education. To better inform science teacher education, the authors embarked upon a research synthesis of relevant articles within preservice science teacher education. Six main findings emerged from the synthesis: 1) different science teacher education programs define CSL similarly, 2) preservice science teachers’ engagement with CSL is primarily reported as being beneficial, 3) mixed outcomes are reported in preservice teachers’ self-efficacy, confidence, and attitudes toward teaching science, 4) challenges, if reported, tend to be from the perspective of preservice teachers, 5) several common teaching strategies are employed to support the CSL experience, and 6) case study is the most typical research methodology for studying CSL, where the researchers are the instructors of their own CSL courses. These findings are significant for the ongoing development of science teacher knowledge and programmatic directions for the integration of community in science teacher education.

This study investigated pre-service and in-service English teachers’ efficacy beliefs about teaching English at primary schools in Turkey by revealing the teaching aspects that they felt most and least efficacious. The study also attempted to understand pre-service teachers’ views about the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education and explore which major problems in-service teachers encountered while teaching English at primary schools. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 170 pre-service and 129 in-service teachers through a questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis, respectively. According to the findings, both groups held similar positive or negative efficacy beliefs about most teaching aspects: while they reported feeling most efficacious in ‘using visual materials’, ‘giving simple instructions’, and ‘using gestures, facial expressions and body language effectively’, they reported feeling least efficacious in ‘using mainly kinaesthetic activities’, ‘managing class time effectively’, and ‘knowing how each language skill can be developed’. Pre-service teachers agreed that the ‘teaching practicum’ was the most ineffective aspect of the programme, followed by ‘lack of practice-based courses’, ‘inadequate number of teaching English to young learners courses’, and ‘language courses’. In-service teachers reported having problems because of ‘limited class hours’, ‘poor textbooks’, ‘lack of technological resources’, ‘lack of learner preparedness’, ‘lack of learner motivation’, and ‘large classes’. In the light of these findings, implications were generated to improve the effectiveness of pre-service and in-service teacher education, which could increase the quality of education for English language students at primary schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the level of pre-service primary school teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in science teaching and their level of determining taxonomy, strategy, and teaching methods-techniques for the curriculum’s objectives in primary science education. A total of 101 pre-service teachers who were enrolled in the third and fourth grade of the department of primary school teachers in the 2017–2018 academic year at a private university in Gaziantep, Turkey participated in this study. The level of teacher candidates’ self-efficacy beliefs toward science teaching was determined through the “Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument.” In addition, teacher candidates’ levels and reasons for determining the appropriate taxonomy, strategies, methods, and techniques while teaching the objectives in the science curriculum were examined through “form of determining suitable taxonomy, strategy, and method-techniques for objective.” Therefore, qualitative and quantitative data were examined together. This was a correlational study but it was enriched through qualitative data. Results showed that pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs toward science teaching and determination levels of appropriate taxonomy, strategy, and teaching methods-techniques were relatively high. In addition, a statistically weak but positive relationship was found between these two variables. As a result, it is recommended to give more importance to these courses in teacher education of pre-service primary school teachers.

Virtual exchange (VE) projects in pre-service language teacher education are increasingly being recognized as an innovative practice due to their affordances for providing teacher learning opportunities in technology-rich environments. This study aims to report these opportunities based on results from a VE project consisting of diverse teacher education activities, including lectures, webinars, asynchronous tasks, and synchronous video-mediated interactions. This project provides a medium for pre-service teachers to collaboratively design a lesson to be implemented in hybrid language learning environments. We specifically deal with the video-mediated interactions of the transnational groups of pre-service language teachers using multimodal conversation analysis (CA) as the research methodology and investigate VE phases to explore how their interactions become consequential for the final pedagogical design. The findings show that the pre-service teachers retrospectively orient to shared practices in the earlier phases of the VE project, and the deployment of retrospective orientation as an interactional resource creates interactional space for collaborative decision-making related to their pedagogical designs. We argue that tracking the video-mediated pedagogical interactions of the pre-service teachers using CA is a methodological innovation that allows researchers to collect interactional evidence for the emergent teacher learning opportunities. The findings bring new insights to the role of the technology-mediated settings (e.g. VEs and telecollaboration) in language learning, teaching, and teacher education and in bridging different cultures, curricula, and physical spaces.

Pre-service Teachers and Teacher Education

The 21st century has emerged as an era of accountability and standardisation for the teaching profession (Mikulec & Miller, 2012). The current research is comprised of 4 interrelated empirical studies which measure and explore individual differences in perceptions of teacher-student boundaries in the secondary school context from an ethical perspective. This research is timely given it has been 8 years since the Teacher Code of Conduct was introduced in Victoria (The Institute, 2008). While the relationship between teachers and their students has been recognised as a powerful contributor to learning, engagement, and development, the professional limitations of teacher-student interactions have been relatively unexplored. Further, technological advances in the last decade have created new environments that potentially expose teachers to new possibilities and vulnerabilities such as Social Networking Sites (SNS). Within a contingency framework for ethical decision-making (Ferrell & Gresham, 1985) the current research employs a mixed-methods approach and a cross-sectional design. Participants were preservice secondary teachers (N = 288) enrolled at a Victorian university and early career secondary teachers (N = 227) registered in Victoria. All participants completed a questionnaire during class time (preservice) or online (early career) which took approximately 40 minutes. In the absence of a measure of attitudes towards teacher-student interactions and behaviours, the Professional Interactions and Behaviours Scale (PIBS) was developed and validated in Study A. Based upon the Victorian Teacher Code of Conduct, (The Institute, 2008), 5 types of teacher-student interactions were educed from the items; emotional support, physical support, teacher disclosure, connectivity, and befriending. Although average endorsement was modest, early career teachers reported higher endorsement of teacher disclosure and preservice teachers provided greater approval of connectivity and befriending. An opportune international collaboration enabled further comparisons with preservice secondary teachers in Norway (N = 227), who demonstrated greater endorsement of the provision of physical support to students than Victorian preservice teachers. Differences in reported ethical training provided during teacher education are also noted and considered as a context for the development of attitudes toward professional behaviour. Utilising a person-centred approach, Study B explored profiles of trait-like characteristics among the Victorian preservice teachers through cluster analysis. This study proposed that individual differences in personality (Mc Crae & Costa, 2003) and attachment style as defined by Bartholomew (1990) may relate to other personal characteristics such as the need for popularity, domains of contingent self-worth and perceptions of professional behaviour as measured by the PIBS. Preservice teachers described as “responsive resilient” in personality were more likely than “curious & sensitive ambiverts” to endorse teacher provision of emotional support to students. Further, securely attached individuals were more likely to endorse the provision of physical support than dismissive individuals. Study C utilised a mixed-methods approach to explore profiles of teacher-student interactions styles in early career secondary teachers and their responses to ethical dilemmas relating to teacher-student boundaries. Four profiles emerged; “sparing investors”, “reserved professionals”, “relational enthusiasts”, and “supportive ambitious” and in terms of interpersonal goals, professional expectancies and values, burnout, career satisfaction and career aspirations. Few quantitative differences were observed between profiles in terms of ethical decision-making, yet thematic analysis highlighted contextual considerations and protective behaviours as key considerations of early career teachers. Study D explored current and prospective social networking behaviour and found both preservice and early career teachers were highly engaged with SNS, with preservice teachers reporting greater usage. Almost half of participants in both the preservice and early career samples reported negative experiences as a result of online social networking such as bullying or workplace issues. In relation to connecting with students, early career teachers were more likely to accept a friend request from a past student than preservice teachers. Taken together, these studies explore individual differences in teacher-student boundaries as they are perceived by preservice and early career teachers in Victoria. The PIBS is presented as a valid contemporary measure of perceptions towards teacher-student interactions, and differences of experience and culture considered. Implications of the findings are considered in relation to teacher selection processes, the ethics curriculum in teacher education, and regulation of the teaching profession in Australia.

Research-based learning (RBL) is a useful tool for combining theory and practice in teacher education. However, pre-service teachers struggle with the idea of teacher as researcher. One popular (meta)methodology considered in educational research (and that is well suited to school research) is design-based research (DBR). Incorporating this approach into RBL as a method for developing teaching innovation in schools could be one way to include RBL in teacher education and place pre-service teachers in the position of teacher as researcher. This study explores the potential of using digital concept maps to support the conceptualization phase (during the literature review) of an RBL process based on DBR in a pre-service teacher-education course prior to the design of a teaching innovation strategy for schools. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from a questionnaire administered to pre-service teachers and from the semantic evaluation of the concept maps of these teachers. Our results show an overall consensus among pre-service teachers that concept maps are useful for structuring small-scale literature reviews. Pre-service teachers also believe there is a strong possibility that they will use concept maps when they become teachers. We use our findings to make recommendations for university lecturers to use digital concept maps to design RBL activities based on literature reviews and with emphasis on teacher education.

The purpose of the study was to reveal the relationships among teaching concerns, their sense of efficacy and their preferences of a classroom environment of pre-service science teachers. Data were gathered from 623 pre-service science teachers. Based on the structural equation modelling results, the pre-service science teachers’ sense of self-efficacy was negatively associated with their concerns. In addition, the pre-service science teachers’ sense of efficacy was positively associated with the constructivist learning environment. Moreover, pre-service science teachers’ concerns were positively related to their constructivist learning environment. The findings shed light on pre-service teacher and teacher education experiences and outcomes.

Little research attention has been paid to the relationship between preservice teachers and their school‐based teacher educators, although many writers argue it is central in preservice teachers’ development. In this paper, I discuss dilemmas experienced by participants in preservice supervision, as highlighted at recently conducted supervision workshops, where preservice teachers and school‐based teacher educators compiled portraits of their ideal ‘other’ in the supervisory relationship. The dilemmas focus on conceptions of ‘good’ teaching, issues of compliance and initiative, and commitments of time and priority to the supervision relationship. These dilemmas are related to the general literature on supervision, and more specifically to that on preservice supervision. Consideration of the ideal portraits also revealed several major impediments to successful supervision in preservice teacher education. Finally, the paper highlights the need for long and short term reform, calling for cultural changes to school and university, improved resourcing of the practicum, a focus on shared long term goals, and for research and critical examination of supervisory practices and lived out experiences in preservice teacher education.

Instruction-giving (IG) is central to classroom interaction in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), yet it is rarely taught explicitly in pre-service CLIL teacher education. In response, the authors redesigned a CLIL practicum course and introduced targeted IG training in the second year. This study (a) described the redesign of an IG-focused training component and (b) examined whether the redesigned course was associated with differences in student teachers’ IG practices across cohorts. Fifty-two pre-service teachers in an eight-semester Primary English Language Teaching program (PELT) in Germany implemented CLIL-based projects with 180 pupils (ages 9–10) across two consecutive cohorts (2024, n = 25; 2025, n = 27). The study compared a baseline course implementation (2024) with a redesigned implementation that included explicit IG training (2025) informed by previous research. Audio-recorded classroom discourse from a randomly selected subsample of STs (n = 20; 10 per cohort) was segmented into CLIL-related IG episodes and analyzed using eight IG principles rated on a four-point scale. Quantitative comparisons were complemented by qualitative classroom discourse analysis and field notes. Mean overall IG scores were higher in 2025 (M = 3.16) than in 2024 (M = 2.79). The largest differences concerned clarity, responding to non-understanding, and strategic L1 use. Differences were smaller for sequencing and multimodality, and modeling did not differ across cohorts in this dataset. The findings suggest that explicit IG training is a teachable component of pre-service teachers’ instructional repertoire. While the cross-cohort design does not support causal claims, consistent descriptive and qualitative differences suggest that explicit IG training holds pedagogical promise for CLIL teacher education. • Instruction-giving (IG) is a teachable component of student teachers' (STs ) instructional repertoire. • Explicit IG training improved STs' clarity, sequencing, multimodality, and strategic L1 use in CLIL classrooms. • Cohort comparison revealed medium-to-large practical gains for the explicitly trained group. • High-quality IG was characterized by micro-sequencing, modeling, and multimodal scaffolding. • Findings underscore the value of embedding explicit IG practice in pre-service CLIL teacher education.