ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Professional Development of Teacher Educators through a &quot;Transitional Space&quot;: A Surprising Outcome of a Teacher Education Program
Author: Margolin, Ilana
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teacher Education,Teacher Education Programs,Teacher Educators,Educational Environment,Elementary School Teachers,Educational Practices,Outcomes of Education,Foreign Countries,College Students

The challenges facing teacher educators to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to solve the problem of curricular fragmentation necessitate the creation of a more coherent program, the establishment of partnerships with schools, and the building of new educative spaces. In order to provide students with rich learning opportunities, and enhance their learning about teaching, teacher educators are required to serve as models and as change agents, and to engage in an ongoing exploration of their practice. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze an innovative learning space that teacher educators created for themselves, affording them the possibility of building a new teacher education program while changing the educational environment and transforming their conceptions as well as their actions. The project focused on shifting the curricula from the conventional stand-alone course format to one in which there is curricular integration that facilitates a meaningful connection between college-based courses and students' experience of the field. Four years before initiating the project described here, the head of the elementary school department with a team of four teacher educators from that department implemented changes in the teacher preparation program for elementary school teachers (Margolin, 2007a). The changes were established on three main principles: (1) integration of the curriculum; (2) partnerships with cooperating schools; and (3) action research as an integral part of the curriculum. This study is a self-study conducted by the leader of an innovative teacher preparation program. It draws upon data sources that are appropriate for examining issues of practice, and is a unique form of research that is responsive to the demands of the practice context.
Preservice Teachers' Conceptions of Effective and Ineffective Teaching Practices
Author: Sandholtz, Judith Haymore
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Classroom Techniques,Preservice Teachers,Teacher Education Programs,Learning Activities,Beginning Teachers,Teaching Methods,Educational Practices,Instructional Effectiveness,Teacher Effectiveness,Student Teacher Attitudes,Teaching Experience,Performance Factors,Knowledge Base for Teaching,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Educational Strategies

Given the focus on developing highly-qualified teachers to improve education, teacher education programs face increasing responsibility to prepare new teachers who can effectively enhance learning in all students. Standards and assessment criteria developed by national organizations in the United States address the qualifications of beginning as well as experienced teachers and all emphasize student learning. The aim is that beginning teachers will not just manage classroom activities but assess and promote student understanding. However, the extent to which novice teachers can focus on instructional outcomes before mastering classroom management is a matter of debate. Whereas some researchers propose that beginning teachers need years to move from concerns about management to concerns about student learning, others contend that a shift can occur during teacher preparation. This study explores this issue by examining preservice teachers' descriptions of effective and ineffective teaching experiences near the end of their preparation program. Using written documents collected over five years, the study specifically investigates the extent to which preservice teachers (1) focused on instruction or classroom management; (2) identified student understanding in their descriptions; and (3) considered factors related to student learning in their reasoning about their actions. (Contains 1 table.)
Planning for What Kind of Teaching? Supporting Cooperating Teachers as Teachers of Planning
Author: Norman, Patricia J.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teacher Education,Mentors,Cooperating Teachers,Teacher Educators,Teacher Collaboration,Planning,Student Teacher Supervisors,Field Experience Programs,Teacher Role,Elementary School Teachers

Planning is a central task of teaching and a central focus in learning to teach. But what does planning entail, and how is planning best learned? What challenges do experienced teachers serving as school-based teacher educators face in becoming teachers of planning? What role can university teacher educators play in helping mentor teachers learn to teach planning? As John (2006) notes, "How to plan well remains a knotty but crucial topic for teacher education research and practice." This article examines these questions by drawing on empirical data from a larger study where the author examined how to reconfigure her role as a university field supervisor to support classroom teachers in learning the practice of field-based teacher education over a one-year period. (Contains 1 figure and 2 notes.)
Self-Awareness and Enactment of Supervisory Stance: Influences on Responsiveness toward Student Teacher Learning
Author: Bates, Alisa J.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Teachers,Student Teacher Supervisors,Teaching Methods,Observation,Comparative Analysis,Learning,Student Attitudes,Influences,Interaction,Elementary Education

This study closely examined the stated and implicit philosophical stances of student teacher supervisors from their own perspectives as well as from the perspectives of the student teachers with whom they worked. Written and audio documentation of the interactions and conversations between each of the participating student teachers and his or her individual supervisor after classroom observations of teaching practice allowed the authors to explore the perceptions of stances in comparison to their enactment in actual supervision. Their goal was (1) to determine the nature of supervisors' philosophical stances and whether student teachers and supervisors perceived their enactment in practice as matching or contradicting the stated stance, and (2) to explore the possible relevant causes for the stance (origin and development) and participants' perceptions about the stance. Further, they explored the influence of stance on supervisors' practice and on their student teachers' learning, including how the supervisors' self-awareness of stance influenced their practice, consistency in enactment, challenges to enactment, and influence on student teachers. (Contains 1 table.)
Expanding Police Educators' Understanding of Teaching, Are They as Learner-Centred as They Think?
Author: Shipton, Brett
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Learning Theories,Problem Based Learning,Foreign Countries,Faculty Development,Reflective Teaching,Teaching Methods,Police Education,Police,Adult Education,Teacher Surveys,Adult Educators,Open Education

Police educators, that is, police and non-police teachers involved in recruit education and training, have traditionally suffered from a lack of organisational focus on developing their teaching and learning practices. The New South Wales (NSW) Police College, which is currently implementing Problem Based Learning (PBL), has begun to take a more active role in developing staff to improve the uptake of learner-centred teaching approaches. Drawing on the current literature in relation to teaching approaches and conceptions, this paper outlines the findings from a survey of NSW Police College staff to determine their dominant teaching approach prior to extensive staff development that commenced in 2010. The paper highlights contradictions in the survey findings, with responses to closed questions indicating a majority favouring learner-centred approaches, while responses to open-ended questions suggest staff tend to be more teacher-centred. Discussion of these results highlights several possible reasons for this contradiction and suggests that further development of staff teaching conceptions is required to encourage reflective practice and the use of learner-centred approaches crucial to the facilitation of PBL. This discussion provides a basis for suggestions in relation to the design of staff development programs for police educators based on variation learning theory. (Contains 7 tables and 1 figure.)
Improving the Quality of Elementary Mathematics Student Teaching: Using Field Support Materials to Develop Reflective Practice in Student Teachers
Author: Hertzog, Hillary S.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Evidence,Feedback (Response),Student Teaching,Student Teachers,Mathematics Education,Teacher Education Programs,Program Improvement,Supervision,Program Effectiveness,Mathematics Teachers,Elementary Secondary Education

This article presents an "evidence-based" program improvement effort that sought to strengthen student teachers' implementation of subject-specific pedagogy for teaching mathematics in a K-8 multiple subject teacher education program. The authors report the process of how they used a research-based approach to gather evidence about "status quo" of the mathematics student teaching component that prepared elementary level teachers, changes that were made in the program to better prepare pre-service teachers to be reflective mathematics teachers who plan and implement effective subject-specific pedagogy, and how they measured levels of effectiveness. Specifically, they investigated whether mentoring strategies and materials designed to engage student teachers in applying aspects of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) during the lesson planning/teaching/feedback cycle of student teaching would impact pre-service teacher reflective practice and teaching performance. In addition, they studied how they should change the supervision process used to develop the reflective thinking of student teachers as they engaged in teaching mathematics. (Contains 6 tables.)
Support for Professional Collaboration in Middle School Mathematics: A Complex Web
Author: Slavit, David
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Grounded Theory,Teacher Collaboration,Cooperation,Mathematics Teachers,Mathematics Instruction,Middle Schools,Data Analysis,Case Studies,Educational Research,Inquiry,Secondary School Teachers,Educational Change,Intervention

How does teacher change get conceptualized, supported, and realized? The authors address this far-reaching question by exploring how teacher collaboration, centered on examining student learning data, can result in changes in instructional perspectives and practices. Their case study consists of a middle school mathematics teacher group working with administrators and professional developers. A grounded theory approach is used to discuss their five-year journey, which includes two years prior to their formal beginning, and the various factors that impacted individual and group teacher change. They specifically address the following research question: What influences the long-term trajectory of a collaborative teacher inquiry team, and what is the nature of the changes that define this trajectory? (Contains 2 figures.)
A Framework for Determining the Authenticity of Assessment Tasks: Applied to an Example in Law
Author: Burton, Kelley
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Performance Based Assessment,Models,Summative Evaluation,Learner Engagement,Tutorial Programs,Advocacy

Authentic assessment tasks enhance engagement, retention and the aspirations of students. This paper explores the discipline-generic features of authentic assessment, which reflect what students need to achieve in the real world. Some assessment tasks are more authentic than others and this paper designs a proposed framework supported by the literature that aids unit co-ordinators to determine the level of authenticity of an assessment task. The framework is applied to three summative assessment tasks, that is, tutorial participation, advocacy exercise and problem-based exam, in a law unit. The level of authenticity of the assessment tasks is compared and opportunities to improve authenticity are identified. (Contains 2 tables.)
Outside In and Inside Out: Using a Case Study Assignment in a Reading Methods Course
Author: Kindle, Karen J.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Classroom Techniques,Preservice Teacher Education,Urban Schools,Instructional Design,Methods Courses,Teacher Education Curriculum,Teacher Education Programs,Case Studies,Elementary Education

Teacher education programs that focus on preparing urban elementary school educators face a daunting task. In a relatively short time, roughly four semesters of coursework, students are prepared to be transformed into teachers who are certified to meet the challenges of urban schools. This transformation occurs from the outside in as they learn culturally responsive pedagogy, effective strategies for classroom management, instructional design, assessment, and develop strong content knowledge in literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies. At the same, they must be transformed from the inside out, developing the dispositions and identity of an urban educator. To maximize development within program confines, it is essential that every assignment in every course be relevant and powerful with elements that facilitate both content and disposition development. The authors decided to study how this happens with pre-service teachers in the context of a reading methods course. Accordingly, the authors' purpose was to examine the use of a case study assignment in a reading methods course for elementary and early childhood pre-service teachers preparing to be urban educators. They sought to identify elements that resulted in outside in/inside out development as well as those that were not functioning as designed. (Contains 1 table.)
Metaphorical Reasoning and Design Expertise: A Perspective for Design Education
Author: Casakin, Hernan
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Expertise,Advanced Students,Design,Educational Methods,Problem Solving,Figurative Language,Foreign Countries

The use of metaphors in design can help students reflect over a problem situation under an innovative point of view. During their design studies, students are supposed to acquire design skills, gain knowledge and enhance their level of expertise. This research explores the aid provided by metaphors in design problem solving, and its relationship to the development of design expertise. Empirical results showed that the level of expertise has no significant effect in the aid supplied by the use of metaphors in the earlier stages of the design process, concerned with the definition of design concepts and framing of design situations. In contrast, when expertise develops, the use of metaphors has a significant effect in the final stages of the design process, dealing with mapping, transfer, and application of structural relationships to the design problem. Although in the group of novices the use of metaphors was found to have a more significant effect in the earlier stages of the process, no differences between the different phases of the metaphorical process were found in the group of the advanced students. Metaphors are proposed as an educational method in the design studio, alternative to traditional education approaches. (Contains 1 table.)
&quot;An Effective and Agonizing Way to Learn&quot;: Backwards Design and New Teachers' Preparation for Planning Curriculum
Author: Graff, Nelson
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Curriculum Development,Teacher Effectiveness,Planning,Teaching Models,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Data Collection,Data Analysis,Teacher Education,Teacher Attitudes,Universities

Some research on new teachers suggests that new teachers feel &quot;lost at sea&quot; when confronting the complexities of planning curriculum (Kaufman et al., 2002). In the tradition of self-study and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), this article describes a pedagogical approach that has met with some success in the author's own work with pre-service teachers. Although he began with a broad inquiry into the effectiveness of his own preparation of future teachers, he discusses here a narrow range of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to effective teaching--the ability to design and plan curriculum. He suggests that using the Wiggins and McTighe &quot;Backwards Design&quot; framework has helped his former students develop the skills to plan curriculum. The backwards design framework as described by Wiggins and McTighe (1995, 2005) provides a structure with which to help prospective teachers in a content methods course to begin to transform their content knowledge into pedagogical content knowledge and to develop sensitivity to both the horizontal and vertical curriculum. (Contains 1 table.)
A Tale of Six Fish: Achieving Social Presence through Discussion Forums in an Offline Learning Environment
Author: Lloyd, Margaret
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Asynchronous Communication,Distance Education,Educational Environment,Higher Education,Case Studies,Foreign Countries,Computer Mediated Communication,Social Networks,Content Analysis,Models,Educational Technology

It is widely held, through the Socratic tradition, that discussion is at the heart of learning. Moderated discussion forums have been shown to replicate the debate, argument and verbal defence of viewpoints that we have come to expect in face-to-face learning environments and that we generally accept to underpin learning. While much has been written about discussion forums in educational settings, particularly in how to moderate and promote effective interaction with students at a distance, this paper takes a different approach. It looks at how forums may be used to support face-to-face learning in the contemporary context of the massification of on-campus classes. Further to this, it will argue for discussion forums as an indicator of social presence in the learning environment. It will cautiously conclude that, through purposeful design, this form of asynchronous communication has a valuable role to play in creating a positive and supportive environment for students entering university. Discussion forums are tools with a versatility yet to be fully exploited. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)
Self-Monitoring: Confidence, Academic Achievement and Gender Differences in Physics
Author: Sharma, Manjula Devi
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Models,Academic Achievement,Learning Strategies,Self Esteem,Metacognition,Gender Differences,Physics,Undergraduate Students,Computer Assisted Testing,Teaching Methods,Learning Processes

Metacognition is the higher-order monitoring that deals with a person's regulation of thought processes and governs learning strategies and understanding in an instructional setting. The ability to appraise and judge the quality of one's own cognitive work in the course of doing it is self-monitoring. If the work needs to be done within a short time frame then rapid assessments of how confident a person is that their answer is accurate provide means of self-monitoring. The aim of this study was twofold, first, to investigate physics students' self-monitoring, and second, to investigate gender differences in self-monitoring. The study was carried out with 490 first year university physics students who were administered an online mechanics quiz that contributed to assignment marks. Results indicate that classes with higher academic achievement exhibit better self-monitoring capability. Gender differences were found on confidence but not on self-monitoring. Theoretical models of self-monitoring are explored, as are implications for teaching and learning. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)
Research Writing in the Sciences: Liminal Territory and High Emotion
Author: Ross, P. M.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Expertise,Focus Groups,Intellectual Disciplines,Scientific Literacy,Writing Skills,Writing Instruction,Writing Research,Interviews

Academic and scientific literacy experts agree that becoming literate in an academic discipline involves coordinating language learning, and thinking in increasingly sophisticated ways to enable participation in discipline practices of knowledge construction. Despite this knowledge, understanding of writing pedagogies in tertiary science are in their infancy, and in the absence of universal methodologies of support there are potential consequences for research students as they progress from novice to expert in their discipline. We investigated the writing experiences of Science research students in an Australian university, with a focus on the writing needs of these students. Using a mixed method approach, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 65 individuals (29 supervisors and 36 students) in an online questionnaire and in seven follow-up focus groups and interviews with 28 supervisors and nine students. The key themes which emerged from the data were the key role of supervisors, the relative importance and degree of difficulty of doctoral writing tasks and the anxiety, stress, struggle and high emotion, associated with "learning to write", experienced by both students and supervisors. Despite considerable diversity, many supervisors were focussed on the product and outcome of writing, while many students struggled with the process of writing. Such struggles centred around the scatter gun of idiosyncratic, and sometimes good ideas which supervisors and students used to transition through liminal space to emerge with new writing skills and discipline understandings. There was a clear sense that the final product was the responsibility of the supervisor. Even to the extent of writing the thesis for the student. This indicates the time and publication pressures that students and supervisors are under with the rise of the enterprise university. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)
Walking a Mile in Their Shoes: Non-Native English Speakers' Difficulties in English Language Mathematics Classrooms
Author: Mallet, Dann G.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,College Mathematics,Mathematics Instruction,English (Second Language),Foreign Students,English,Spanish,Native Speakers,Language of Instruction,Computer Software,Translation,Student Needs,Educational Strategies

This autoethnographic investigation considers an English-speaking lecturer's observation and consideration of the predicament of non-native speakers of English in an English language mathematics classroom based on that same (non Spanish-speaking) lecturer's experience in a Spanish language mathematics classroom. Difficulties of understanding a course of mathematics instruction in a particular language for mathematically competent but language deficient students are outlined, and a number of guidelines for lecturers to improve the experience for such students are presented.