Subject matter knowledge in Primary Education teacher training

An examination of preschool prospective teachers' subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge on basic geometric shapes in Turkey

Summary In light of the growing diversity in European and Slovenian schools, equity-centered plurilingual pedagogies have gained prominence across the political, educational, and scientific spectrum. This gives particular weight to this study, which aims to contribute to the understanding of the complexity of factors that promote the mainstreaming of plurilingual pedagogies. The concept of Linguistically Sensitive Teaching (LST) was used as a lens to study pre-service teachers’ perceptions of plurilingual pedagogies in their educational context. More specifically, the study aims to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the relevance of plurilingual pedagogies for their future profession and their understanding of the teachers’ competence in regard to the implementation of plurilingual pedagogies in Slovenian schools. Data from 27 pre-service primary education teachers from the University of Ljubljana of the Faculty of Education were examined. Reflection prompts were used to stimulate and guide the critical engagement of participants within the context of LST: a video, a document, and a SWOT analysis template. The findings illustrate pre-service teachers’ awareness of the relevance and the benefits of plurilingual pedagogies for their profession and their understanding of the complexity of factors, specifically in relation to teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills that promote the mainstreaming of plurilingual pedagogies. The study highlights how the reflections of pre-service primary education teachers can support the development of future pre-service teacher training within initial teacher education. As such, it has positive implications for developing teacher education to better respond to the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse classes in today’s schools.

This study provides evidence of the effect of video analysis of real classroom situations as a support for promoting the professional vision among primary education pre-service teachers. Specifically, it focuses on the Science Process Skills involved in scientific inquiry when teaching through this method. This quasi-experimental study (n = 90) analyzes a didactic strategy based on the noticing and coding of inquiry teaching practices in school contexts. It aims to encourage pre-service teachers’ knowledge of the Science Process Skills. The quantitative results show a significant improvement in all these skills in the experimental group, mainly with regard to the proficiency of Planning and Experimentation and Interpretation skills. These data are congruent with the results obtained from the qualitative analysis of the codification engaged in by this group. The results of this study contribute to responding to the need for resources in the scientific inquiry education of pre-service teachers in primary education. Video analysis was observed to help mobilize a wide range of concepts involving knowledge of the Science Process Skills that are studied in the initial stages of teacher education.

Self-regulation in mathematical problem solving is of particular importance in the initial training of Primary Education teachers as it can contribute to improving their own competence in mathematics and at the same time enable them to teach effectively and in a personalized way. With this idea in mind, this study identifies self-regulation profiles present in university students in mathematical problem-solving contexts based on data from the application of a validated scale on a sample of 402 pre-service teachers of primary education at University of the Basque Country. The cluster analysis carried out made it possible to identify and characterize three profiles, labelled according to the level of self-regulation represented by each of them (low, medium, high). In view of the results obtained, we perceive a need to design didactic proposals that allow these profiles to evolve from the lowest to the highest levels.

Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975. However, as a developing nation, PNG has continued to depend on external assistance for its development programs. Extensive foreign aid has been expended primarily to enhance the quality of education. To explore the issue of foreign aid and its impact on PNG as a postcolonial society, the dependency and postcolonial theories were adopted to guide the discussion. The theorist Beeby argues that in order to improve the quality of education, the level of general education and training of teachers in developing countries must be raised. This has occurred in PNG but it has not significantly enhanced the quality of education. Consequently, the issue explored concerns the type of educational change occurring in PNG primary teachers' colleges (PTCs) and its leadership. Globalization processes were adopted to guide the exploration of the education reform and its impact on the quality of education in primary teacher education in PNG. T he following questions focused the content of the study:1. What is the quality of education being experienced in the Catholic Primary Teachers' Colleges? 2. What are the lecturers', students', and recent graduates' perceptions of the recent Primary and Secondary Teacher Education Project innovations occurring in the teachers' colleges? 3. How is the curriculum in the teachers' colleges perceived by the lecturers, students and recent graduates? 4. How is leadership demonstrated in the three Catholic Primary Teachers' Colleges? The epistemological framework of the research was constructionism adopting an interpretivist approach. The specific interpretivist perspective employed was symbolic interactionism because symbolic interactionism places emphasis on the importance of understanding, interpretation and meaning. A case study approach was adopted as the methodology for this research because of the nature of the research purpose.;This study involved a total of 166 participants consisting of staff and students from the three Catholic primary teachers' colleges, representatives from the Catholic Church, National Department of Education (NDOE), Primary and Secondary Teacher Education Project (PASTEP) and other education officers. The data was gathered through a variety of methods including in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus groups, and documentary analysis. The major conclusions that emerged from this study revealed that educational change in primary teacher education has been implemented. However, the study concluded that the quality of leadership demonstrated to lead the educational change was disappointing. Inadequate leadership at the administration and curriculum levels had a negative influence on the quality of education. Achieving quality education was also hampered by inadequate funding, scarcity of resources and inappropriate infrastructure in all the institutions. The two-year trimester program has improved access and quantity but at the expense of quality. To assist primary teacher education implement the reform agenda, foreign aid was required. PASTEP was introduced and the contribution made by PASTEP was substantial. However, the study concluded that some of the strategies adopted by PASTEP to conduct its programs were questionable because there was evidence of hegemonic and colonial practices found among some of its workforce. In accepting foreign aid projects, PNG needs to establish strategies to ensure equitable partnerships with all stakeholders for sustainable development in education. In this respect, the findings of this study may serve as a guide for future decisions about educational leadership, curriculum innovation, donor funding agencies and policy generation.

This study aims to analyze the level of teacher training and education on climate change received by future Social Science teachers in Primary Education. Based on a questionnaire completed by 1224 pre-service teachers from five Spanish universities and one Colombian university, the main results indicate that the majority received training on this phenomenon during their school years (78.3%), though the percentage nearly halves in higher education (44.0%). In addition, future Social Science teachers have a moderate level of preparation—half of the participants selected “3” on a Likert scale (1 to 5), accounting for 54.2% of responses. For this reason, it is necessary to expand climate change education in higher education in order to equip teachers for addressing future environmental issues in the classroom. Education represents one of the most important factors in adapting to climate change, helping present and future societies build resilience to climate change scenarios.

Self-efficacy beliefs are defined as context-specific assessments of one's competence to perform specific tasks, influence one's efforts, persistence, and resilience to succeed in a given task. Such beliefs are important determinants when considering agricultural science teachers' subject matter knowledge, teaching comfort levels, and their likelihood for success in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to assess selectedTexas pre-service agricultural science teachers' knowledge and comfort for teaching state-mandated general agricultural science and technology objectives. Selected pre-service agricultural science teachers representing fourTexas teacher education programs responded. Respondents' summed knowledge and teaching comfort scores revealed perceptions of "adequacy" in seven of the eight general agricultural science and technology areas. However, they had low levels of knowledge and teaching comfort for the soils and soil formation objectives. A moderate positive association existed between overall knowledge and teaching comfort, supporting previous self-efficacy research. The findings indicated that pre-service teachers need additional preparation in the eight areas essential to every agricultural education classroom. Additional research in pre-service teacher self-efficacy, confidence, and competence is needed to identify causal factors affecting the less-than-desired levels of knowledge and teaching comfort for state-mandated general agricultural science and technology objectives.

Implementacija inkluzivnog obrazovanja za učenike oštećena vida i dalje predstavlja izazov. Rezultati prethodnih istraživanja pokazali su da redovni nastavnici obično imaju pogrešne predodžbe o učenicima oštećena vida i njihovom poučavanju. Slični rezultati mogu se naći i kod budućih nastavnika. Cilj ovog rada bio je ispitati izazove, pitanja i dileme budućih nastavnika glede uključivanja učenika oštećena vida u redovnu osnovnu školu. Ispitivanjem su obuhvaćeni budući nastavnici (N = 152) preddiplomskih (predškolski odgoj, razredna nastava) i diplomskih studijskih programa (razredna nastava, predmetna nastava). U istraživanju je korištena Skala za ocjenjivanje pouzdanja u vlastito znanje i vještine poučavanja učenika oštećena vida u redovnoj osnovnoj školi. U promatranim područjima budući nastavnici ocjenjuju svoje profesionalno znanje i vještine za poučavanje učenika oštećena vida u redovnim školama nedovoljnima. Rezultati analize razlika u samopouzdanju budućih nastavnika s obzirom na nezavisne varijable nisu pokazali značajne razlike u pogledu osobnog iskustva i programa studija. Međutim, značajna razlika pokazala se glede njihove pozitivne, neutralne i negativne prve misli. Metodom glavnih komponenata čestica na skali ekstrahirane su dvije dimenzije: prva se odnosi na ‘planiranje nastave i poučavanje’, a druga se odnosi na ‘prilagodbu i modificiranje okoline učenja’.

The Elementary School Journal Volume 84, Number 4 S1984 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 001 3-5984/84/8404-0004$01.00 Assumptions, even assumptions that seem logical and reasonable, can make it difficult or impossible for people to understand scientific concepts. Everyone makes assumptions about the way the world works, assumptions like "When the sky is cloudy and dark, it will probably rain" or "Bits of wood float in water." People often use those assumptions to explain how things work: "I can see myself in a mirror because light bounces off me to the mirror and off the mirror to my eyes." Such explanations or conceptions are often based on experience and common sense; however, experience and common sense can sometimes

Little emphasis has been given on the pre-service mathematics teachers’ learning needs on the required subject matter knowledge and skills for which they have been expected to possess at their final level of graduation, as a basis for teaching secondary school mathematics. This study employed qualitative research design, in which 30 pre-service mathematics have been interviewed on their mathematics learning needs. The finding of the study revealed that learning experiences of the training was adequate, but there is disconnection between the training curriculum and school mathematics subject matter for which the pre-service teachers have been train to teach. The pre-service mathematics teachers have viewed lecturer of the program as non-supportive which prevent them from active learning. This suggests that the program should include school mathematics curriculum in the training to enable the pre-service mathematics teachers to acquire the subject matter knowledge for which they have been train to teach. Lecturers of the program should change their attitude and behavior which might have adverse effect on pre-service mathematics teachers’ learning.

This study arose from a desire to investigate initial teacher education for primary school mathematics teachers in Hong Kong. A conceptual framework for analyzing pre-service teachers’ mathematical knowledge and beliefs informed this qualitative investigation. The purpose of the study was to scrutinize both the cognitive and affective domains in mathematics teaching of pre-service primary teachers within the analytical framework. This paper seeks to capture three cases of Hong Kong pre-service primary teachers holding different views about mathematics teaching and learning as revealed by a beliefs survey. Their mathematical knowledge was examined along with a questionnaire, individual interviews, and an analysis of the lesson plans they provided. Through triangulation, it was found that these pre-service teachers’ beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning correspond to their pedagogical content knowledge to some extent. The results of lesson plan analysis were mostly consistent with those in the questionnaire and interviews although some of the interview data were inconsistent with the questionnaire results. Such inconsistency seemed to suggest that pre-service teachers’ reform-oriented mathematical beliefs were impacted by some traditional values such as Confucianism. Implications are discussed regarding the relationship between knowledge and beliefs in mathematics education as well as the theory of teacher competencies.

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.

The problem statement of this study is the contribution to science-teacher training based on playful learning and the use of ICT tools. The research question is: How can teacher training programs best contribute to science-teacher training and foster playful-learning approaches while motivating the use of ICT tools? The aim of this study is to stimulate teachers in training to design and conduct educational approaches based on playful learning for science education, promoting the use of ICT as educational tools. With this objective, a teaching-innovation project was financed and developed for the higher education of kindergarten, primary, and secondary pre-service teachers, at the University of Granada, Spain, from 2015 to 2017. For kindergarten pre-service teachers, three teaching proposals were developed, the first in a course concerning formal and non-formal contexts, the second related to their practical professional training, and the third at their end-of-degree project. The proposal for primary pre-service teachers was also related to their internship training during the last semester of their degree. For secondary teachers in training, a proposal was made regarding the end-of-Masters project. By the end of the proposals, teachers in training were able to design and develop educational approaches based on playful learning for scientific literacy, together with cross-curricular skill development. They also showed an improved ability to use ICT tools as educational resources. It can be concluded that the teaching-innovation project presented is composed of successful proposals devoted to spreading playful learning for science education among pre-service teachers of different educational stages.

This research tracked the confidence of 16 undergraduate and postgraduate pre-service geography teachers as they completed a single semester, senior phase geography curriculum course. The study focused specifically on the pre-service teachers' confidence in geographical subject matter knowledge and their confidence in teaching geographical skills. Data were gathered from participants through two surveys (one at the start of the semester and one at the end of the semester), interviews following video-taped micro-lessons in which participants taught a geographical skill to the class, and focus group discussions. Undergraduate students were more likely to have completed a larger number of geography discipline courses than the postgraduate students – a consequence of the program structure and selection process into the program. Results indicate that undergraduate students were also more likely to report higher levels of confidence in geographical subject matter knowledge and teaching geographical skills. Participation in microteaching activities appears to have had a positive effect on most participants' level of confidence in teaching geographical skills. These results have implications for geography curriculum courses taught in initial teacher education programs, particularly shorter graduate entry programs.

This paper explores the development of pre-service teachers during a one-year programme of initial teacher training and education (ITTE) of secondary physical education (PE) in England. It concentrates in particular on the interpretation and development of different dimensions of subject knowledge during different phases of their ITTE programme. Interviews conducted at the beginning, middle and end of their ITTE programme with a total of 18 pre-service teachers over the period of three academic years were analysed using a grounded theory methodology. The analysis revealed that a combination of contextual and personal factors influenced the pre-service teachers' approach and strategies towards the development of their subject knowledge. Notably, many pre-service teachers demonstrated a shift in the perception of their own roles, marking a transition from a more content-focused predisposition at the beginning of their course towards a more learner-centred one at the end. Pre-service teachers' learn...