This study sought to understand how a group of pre-service teachers in a combined secondary science and mathematics teaching methods course conceptualized and experienced interdisciplinary approaches to teaching. Although knowing how to plan interdisciplinary activities is an essential teaching practice in Quebec, these pre-service teachers faced many challenges during the process of learning to teach with this approach. By using two interdisciplinary frameworks (Nikitina, 2005; Boix Mansilla & Duraising, 2007), I qualitatively analyzed the development of the pre-service teachers' prior and emerging ideas about interdisciplinarity and their ability to plan interdisciplinary teaching activities. The provincial curriculum and issues related to time greatly shaped students' conceptions about interdisciplinarity in the classroom and constrained their ability to plan for and envision the enactment of interdisciplinary lessons in secondary science and mathematics classes. In addition, images of themselves as content-specialists, self-efficacy beliefs in relation to interdisciplinary teaching, and student learning as a source of teacher motivation emerged as key factors promoting or interrupting the development of interdisciplinary teaching approaches. Examination of these factors highlights the need for teacher-education programs to provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to explore how they see themselves as educators, increase their instructional self-efficacy beliefs, and motivate them to teach in an interdisciplinary fashion. Keywords: interdisciplinary teaching, student-teachers, curriculum, teacher-education program, self-efficacy, motivation / Cette étude a cherché à comprendre comment un groupe d'enseignants en formation qui suivaient un cours sur les méthodes d'enseignement combiné de science et de mathématique au secondaire conceptualisaient les démarches d'enseignement interdisciplinaire et en faisaient l'expérience. Même s'ils savent que le fait de planifier des activités interdisciplinaires est une pratique d'enseignement essentielle au Québec, ces futurs enseignants faisaient face à nombre de défis pendant le processus d'apprentissage de cette démarche d'enseignement. À l'aide de deux structures interdisciplinaires (Nikitina, 2005; Boix Mansilla & Duraising, 2007), j'ai réalisé une analyse qualitative de la progression des concepts antérieurs et émergents des enseignants en formation à l'égard de l'interdisciplinarité et de leur capacité à planifier des activités d'enseignement interdisciplinaire. Le cursus provincial et les enjeux relatifs au temps ont permis de donner une structure solide aux conceptions des étudiants quant à l'interdisciplinarité dans la classe, et ont freiné leur capacité de planifier et d'imaginer la réalisation de cours interdisciplinaires en science et en mathématique au secondaire. En outre, leur perception d'eux-mêmes à titre de spécialistes de contenu, le sentiment d'efficacité personnelle en lien avec l'enseignement interdisciplinaire et l'acquisition des connaissances des étudiants comme source de motivation pour l'enseignant ont émergé comme les facteurs clés faisant la promotion ou interrompant le développement de démarches d'enseignement interdisciplinaire. L'examen de ces facteurs met en lumière le besoin de programmes d'éducation qui offriraient aux futurs enseignants l'occasion d'explorer la façon dont ils se perçoivent en tant qu'éducateurs, d'augmenter leur sentiment d'efficacité personnelle et de les motiver à enseigner dans un mode interdisciplinaire. Mots clés : enseignement interdisciplinaire, étudiant-enseignants, cursus, programme d'éducation à l'intention des enseignants, sentiment d'efficacité personnelle, motivation

<p> This qualitative study focuses on how beginning teachers attain skills to engage families in the educational process. Historical rationale, theoretical frameworks, and key research findings for family engagement training during the last three decades were reviewed, studied, and analyzed for themes. A review of scholarly literature is incorporated into this inquiry to provide a lens into the scope of existing family engagement research regarding the ways in which teachers are trained how to partner with families. This study also includes discussion and analysis of state and federal policies and mandated reporting to support new teachers in engaging families, the identification of theoretical frameworks that provide insight and rationale for teacher-family partnerships, and the inclusion of pre-service beginning teacher training focusing on partnering with families in the elementary school. Data for this case study includes beginning teacher training, interviews, document analysis, and anecdotal accounts, including teacher reflective journals. Utilizing case study and participant action research (PAR) methodology, the author identifies how providing professional development opportunities for beginning teachers supports increasing teacher-family engagement. The study focuses on beginning teacher training, as well as identifying attitudes and interactions with families, emerging patterns, and further research themes. Utilizing research in this case study, I set out to identify trends in the literature, research, and participant training modules to enhance training for beginning teachers in engaging families in the educational process. </p>

<p> Teaching writing has long been neglected as in schools. Findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicated that most students have basic writing skills, but cannot write well enough to meet the needs of employers or for college. The writing programs in prescriptive literacy programs, which were adopted to ensure student achievement have not proven to be effective for developing proficient student writers. This design study is an attempt to provide teachers trained to teach in a prescriptive literacy program with the writing content and pedagogical knowledge necessary to engage elementary students in writing as a complex, intellectual activity so that they become proficient writers. </p><p> From the literature on effective writing instruction and on teacher learning, I developed a theory of action to guide the design. A key feature of the design was to situate teacher learning in the context of a study group led by a facilitator with knowledge about writing instruction. The design emphasized teachers learning from writing themselves, reviewing student work, learning effective strategies and procedures of writing instruction, and developing knowledge through collaborative talk and reflections. Seven teachers, Grades 2 to 5, from a Title I urban school that required teachers follow the script of <i>Open Court Reading </i> (<i>OCR</i>) participated in the study. At the time of this study a window of opportunity had opened up to modify the <i> OCR</i> writing component. </p><p> I framed teacher learning in two dimensions&mdash;Dimension 1: Instructional Strategies and Procedures, and Dimension 2: Writing as a Process. I investigated the impact of the design and the process of the design's development. Overall teachers' knowledge about writing content increased; their knowledge about writing pedagogy increased to a lesser degree; however their level of growth varied. Moreover growth in the elements of instructional strategies also varied. Growth ranged from 15% for teacher modeling writing and 109% for teacher referring to literature to teach writing strategies. Thus, I found the design basically sound but recommended modifications for future iterations.</p>

<p> This study examines the impact of cultural competency training and an equity agenda on teacher beliefs and expectations as they relate to student achievement. Despite excessive investment in education reform, prevailing efforts continue to produce inequitable outcomes. I want to advance a theory of action that promotes embedding discourse and training to build understanding of the diverse student populations in our public schools as a strategy to improve student outcomes. </p><p> I used a mixed methods research design to study the impact of cultural competency training on teachers' beliefs about the students they teach and to examine the relationship between the training and the achievement of those students. Methods included a web-based questionnaire, interviews of teachers, leaders, and consultants, document review, and analysis of student achievement scores in one school. Quantitative findings suggest a relationship between teacher beliefs and student outcomes: as teachers participated in cultural competency training, student achievement on the statewide reading test increased for all student groups and the gaps between groups decreased. Qualitative findings show an increased understanding of diverse student and family needs and improved understanding of personal bias changed teachers' beliefs and perceptions about their students and led teachers to hold higher expectations academically for their students. </p><p> While the scale of this study was small (one school in one district), findings support the need for cultural competency training in schools and districts experiencing a gap in achievement between more affluent and white students and culturally or linguistically diverse student populations.</p>

The study presented in this dissertation examines the process of change in 39 elementary schools as they participated in the implementation of a board-wide balanced literacy initiative. The study focuses specifically on the perspectives of school personnel—teachers, principals, and literacy facilitators—after one year of implementation as staff engaged with the requirements of new pedagogical practices and increased collaboration. The study has several goals: (a) to better understand the nature and role of teacher agency in a change process; (b) to examine the role of professional collaboration in teacher learning and acceptance of change; (c) to add to our understanding of resistance to change processes; and (d) to examine what factors seem to be consistently present in schools that embrace change more easily. The study made use of complexity theory and structuration theory as a way of framing an understanding of the change—or the lack of change—that occurred within the complex social environments of schools. Findings suggest that teacher agency played a notable role in the change process where it occurred, but also demonstrated the need to consider teacher agency in more complex ways. Teacher resistance to the changes that were being implemented was less significant than was expected, but, like agency, showed a complexity that suggests attention to this area is a vital component of school-based change. The study also found that participants felt more positive about change in environments characterized by professional collaboration, and environments in which administrators were active learning partners with teachers. / L'étude présentée dans cette thèse porte sur le processus de changement initié dans 39 écoles primaires alors qu'elles participaient à la mise en œuvre d'une initiative en littératie équilibrée lancée par la commission scolaire. L'étude se concentre spécifiquement sur le personnel de l'école – enseignant(e)s, directeur(trice)s et facilitateur(trice)s – à la suite de première année de mise en œuvre de l'initiative alors que le personnel impliqué fait face aux exigences de nouvelles pratiques pédagogiques et aux attentes d'une collaboration accrue. L'étude a plusieurs buts: (a) mieux comprendre la nature et le rôle de l'enseignant(e) en tant que vecteur de changement; (b) examiner le rôle de la collaboration professionnelle dans la formation continue et l'acceptation du changement; (c) parfaire nos connaissances quant à la résistance face aux processus de changement; (d) identifier les facteurs présents dans les écoles qui réagissent mieux au changement. L'étude s'est inspirée de la théorie de la complexité et de la théorie de la structuration pour guider la compréhension du changement – ou l'absence de changement – survenu à l'intérieur du complexe tissu social des écoles. Les résultats suggèrent que les enseignant(e)s, en tant que vecteurs de changement, ont joué un rôle notable là où des transformations se sont produites, mais cela soulignent aussi le besoin de considérer ce rôle de façon plus détaillée. La résistance manifestée par les enseignant(e)s face aux changements mis de l'avant a été moins importante qu'escompté, mais au même titre que le concept de vecteur de changement, elle s'est avérée être un élément essentiel dans le processus de changement en milieu scolaire. L'étude a aussi démontré que les participant(e)s réagissaient de façon plus positive face au changement dans des milieux où la collaboration professionnelle était présente et où les administrateur(trice)s participaient au processus d'apprentissage, aux côtés de leur enseignant(e)s.

<p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the concepts of praxis and locus as they pertain to teacher education practices and novice learning in the Denver Teacher Residency Program. The term locus was meant to suggest a nuanced and comprehensive way to consider the K-12 school and classroom as the essential location for learning to teach. The term praxis referred to adaptive expertise, or practical reasoning, problem solving, and wisdom informed by theory in practice. An analytical case study investigated two research questions: 1) In what ways is teacher learning deliberately located in the clinical setting of a K-12 classroom? 2) In what ways do clinical practices, learning experiences, and curricula develop the capacity for praxis in residents? An emergent research design for this case study included extended fieldwork and interim data analysis. Data collection included interviews with, and observations of program participants (residents, instructors, field coordinators, mentor teachers, program administrators), as well as document review (e.g., curricular documents, assignment descriptions, assigned texts).</p>

The development of reflective thinking in student teachers has been gaining greater attention in the teacher education literature. Nevertheless, some of the multiple factors involved in this process have not yet been examined. This study focused on the perceptions that student teachers have of their relationship with their cooperating teachers in the context of a practicum. More specifically, it attempted to determine if and how cooperating teachers trigger student teachers' reflective thinking. Seventeen student teachers, who made up the first cohort to experience the four-year undergraduate program in teaching English as a second language, participated in this exploratory study. Three sets of data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and reflective logs. Two phases of analysis followed, allowing the categorization of results and patterns into five distinct categories that corresponded to the research questions. The quantitative phase provided the results to the Likert-type questionnaire using two statistical management softwares: SPSS 10.0 and Excel. The qualitative phase used a coding system to identify the emerging patterns in the interview and in the reflective log data. The first phase of analysis provided descriptive statistics indicating that it is the cooperating teachers' verbal communication that most triggers student teachers' reflective thinking. The second phase revealed that student teachers attribute the triggering of their reflective thinking more to themselves and to class incidents than to their cooperating teachers. Based on the findings, Taggart's (1996) Reflective Thinking Model was enhanced by a socio-constructivist micro-model designed to help cooperating teachers better support student teachers' reflection. The study contributes to teacher education research by elucidating the relationship between student teachers and cooperating teachers with regards to the development of reflective thinking.

This self-study of becoming a critical teacher educator extends the research on blogs as a vehicle of critical self-reflection in teaching and teacher education. While the primary focus of this thesis is a self-study of the process of becoming a teacher educator, the author presents findings based on discursive data collected from blogs produced by teacher candidates in two case studies, which inform this process of becoming. The case studies are represented as two "strands": one carried out in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, at McGill University, and the other carried out near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Like prior studies involving the use of blogs in teacher preparation, this study examines pre-service teachers' critical engagement with topics and issues endemic to their current field experiences and future careers in K-12 classrooms. The instructional techniques deployed in the case studies adhered to principles of modeling technology integration in order to transform teaching and learning activities by facilitating a learning environment for pre-service teacher candidates informed by the tenets of critical pedagogy. In this vein, this study examines the implementation of a particular instructional strategy, problem-posing pedagogy, as a practice that integrates the use of blogs to aid the achievement of pre-service teacher candidates' "critical self-engagement" as well as contribute to the author's development as a critical teacher educator. / Cette étude d'autoethnographic de devenir un éducateur d'enseignant critique étend ce champ de recherch e sur l'utilisation des blogs comme des véhicules de réflexion pour les enseignants. L'autoethnographie présentée dans cette thèse inclut des conclusions basées sur les données discursives recueillies de blogs produit par les candidats d'enseignant dans deux études de cas. Les deux études de cas sont représentées comme deux "strands": un réalisé à Montréal, Québec; Canada, à l'Université McGill, et l'autre exécuté près de Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, l'Afrique du Sud, à l'Université de KwaZulu-Natal. Cette étude examine l'engagement critique d'enseignants de pré-service avec les réflexions de leurs expériences actuelles de terrain, et carrières futures dans les classes K-12. Les techniques éducatives déployées dans les études de cas ont adhéré aux principes du fait de modeler l'intégration de technologie pour transformer l'enseignement et l'apprentissage des activités en facilitant un environnement d'apprentissage pour les candidats d'enseignant de pré-service, informés par la pedagogie critique. Cette étude examine l'implémentation d'une stratégie éducative particulière, "problem-posing," qui intègre l'utilisation des blogs pour aider la réalisation de candidats d'enseignant de pré-service "l'engagement de soi critique," aussi bien que contribuer au développement de l'auteur comme un éducateur critique.

This inquiry sought to examine the effects of participating in an online discussion forum on the development of knowledge for teaching mathematics. The participants of this study were among the pre-service teachers from a large urban university, chosen as they were completing their mathematics pedagogy course in their teacher-education program and entering a field experience for that academic year. A qualitative analysis of the online discussions of my participants was done under the framework of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and Ball et.al's (2008) understanding of the knowledge for teaching mathematics. These theories allowed for themes to emerge that shed light on the development of pre-service teachers as they moved from student to teacher. Pre-service teachers struggle to shed their student-perspective as they move from theory to practice, which ultimately affects their development of knowledge for teaching mathematics. / Cette recherche a voulu étudier les effets d'une participation à un forum de discussion en ligne sur le développement des connaissances pour l'enseignement des mathématiques. Les participants de cette étude sont des étudiants en formation des maîtres du primaire d'une grande université urbaine. Ils ont été choisis en raison de leur cheminement dans leur formation, c'est-à-dire après avoir complété un cours de didactique des mathématiques et en étant en stage dans une classe du primaire. Une analyse qualitative des discussions issues du forum de discussion a été réalisée à l'aide du cadre théorique de la communauté de pratique (Wenger, 1998) et à l'aide du cadre de Ball et al. (2008) portant sur la compréhension des savoirs pour l'enseignement des mathématiques. Ces théories ont permis l'émergence de thèmes qui ont mis en lumière le développement des futurs maîtres lorsqu'ils passent d'une posture d'étudiant à une posture d'enseignant. Les futurs maîtres semblent préoccupés par la perte de leur posture d'étudiant lorsqu'ils passent de la théorie à la pratique, lequel passage affecte ultimement leur développement des connaissances pour l'enseignement des mathématiques.

University teacher education programs struggle to find or create contexts where, rather than risk constituting a "weak intervention", (Burant &amp; Kirby, 2002; Wideen, Mayer-Smith &amp; Moon, 1998), such settings can help students develop a teacher identity that represents their "talents, choices and actions" (Pinnegar, 2005, p. 271). Education students need opportunities before graduation to live, reflect on, tell and learn from the stories teachers experience (Doyle &amp; Carter, 2003), to experience from the beginning of their teacher education program, being "beginning teachers." My study significantly extended the degree of autonomy available to Education students through personally meaningful alternative field experiences. The research question emerged from concerns I heard reiterated over the years by students seeking greater autonomy as "beginning teachers" within their university programs: What kinds of contexts can be created that offer Education students real life, real time, community-based teaching and learning experiences to help them construct their beginning teacher identity? Research contexts involved community partnerships within the framework of a university program but outside of its traditional boundaries, and were self-initiated by beginning teachers. Three Education students (hereafter "beginning teachers") developed pedagogical relationships in 'real life, real time' situations with elementary children who saw them as their real teachers. A community-based learning approach provided time and space for participants to negotiate identities so that "becoming a teacher could be widely recognized as an ongoing process that involves moments of instability and uncertainty" (Farnsworth, 2010, p. 1488). The LiLi/ABC Project brought together aspects of narrative inquiry, intrinsic case study and community-based learning within an action research project that sought to make sense of the distinctive voices and stories that emerged from conversation interviews with beginning teachers. Narratives emerged from audio taped, open-ended conversation interviews with beginning teachers, and audio/videotaping of at least one of their sessions plus beginning teachers' self selected Portfolios of video/audiotapes, photographs, and student work. My study found that the kinds of contexts that helped the beginning teachers construct their identities were the ones they chose, on their own, intuitively, emotionally, pragmatically; where they created distinct pedagogical relationships with distinct students; where they were treated and listened to as real teachers; where the choices they made and the stories they told belonged to them; where their work was their way of becoming a beginning teacher. This study holds out important theoretical and practical implications for the theory and practice of teacher education. Beginning teachers can benefit from: 1) opportunities to create self-initiated projects in alternative contexts and work with small groups of children away from formal observations and assessments; 2) living out their "beginning teacher" stories with a degree of autonomy not usually found in traditional education programs; 3) telling their beginning teacher stories in open-ended sessions that allow them to highlight emotions and discuss pedagogical relationships with their students in unrehearsed situations; 4) discovering who they are as teachers in unrehearsed situations and relationships where they can learn that uncertainty is an inevitable and natural part of their beginning teacher story. The research further contributes to the theorizing of "autonomy" and "self initiated contexts" in teacher education, particularly with respect to the field experience and its relationship to university courses. It also supports the place of narrative and arts-based methods of inquiry in both teacher education as well as research on teacher education and with beginning teachers. / Les programmes universitaires de formation des maîtres s'efforcent de trouver ou de créer des contextes où, plutôt que de risquer d'offrir une « intervention faible » (Burant et Kirby, 2002; Wideen, Mayer-Smith &amp; Moon, 1998), le cadre d'ensemble peut aider les étudiants en éducation à construire une identité d'enseignant qui représente leurs propres « talents, choix et actions » (Pinnegar, 2005, p. 271). Les étudiants en éducation, avant d'obtenir leur diplôme, ont besoin d'occasions de faire eux-mêmes l'expérience de ces épisodes que vivent les enseignants, d'y réfléchir, de les relater, de s'en instruire (Doyle &amp; Carter, 2003). Mon étude a donné un degré d'autonomie considérablement plus grand à des étudiants en éducation en leur permettant de vivre des expériences sur le terrain différentes, plus personnellement significatives. La question de recherche est née des préoccupations qu'au cours des années j'ai plusieurs fois entendu exprimer par des étudiants en éducation désireux d'avoir plus d'autonomie comme « enseignants débutants » dans le cadre de leurs programmes universitaires : Quels genres de contextes peut-on créer pour permettre aux étudiants en éducation de vivre des expériences d'enseignement et d'apprentissage dans la vie réelle, dans le temps réel, dans la communauté, pour les aider à structurer leur identité comme enseignant débutant? Les contextes de la recherche en faisant dans le cadre d'un programme universitaire mais à l'extérieur de ses limites traditionnelles, et ont été complètement auto-initiés par les enseignants débutants. Trois étudiants en éducation (« enseignants débutants ») ont élaboré des relations pédagogiques dans des situations vécues dans la « vraie vie » et le « vrai temps » avec des enfants de niveau primaire qui les considéraient comme leurs vrais enseignants. L'étude LiLi/ABC a réuni aspects de recherche narrative, étude de cas intrinsèque et apprentissage dans la communauté; j'ai également enregistré et filmé au moins une session de chaque étudiant. Les enseignants débutants ont aussi colligé, partagé et expliqué leur propre choix de bandes audio et vidéo, de photographies et de travaux d'élèves pour le portfolio professionnel. Mon étude a fait apparaître que les genres de contextes qui aidaient les enseignants débutants à structurer leur identité étaient des contextes choisis par eux, selon leurs intuitions et leurs émotions, de façon pragmatique ; où les étudiants avaient créé une relation pédagogique distincte avec des élèves distincts ; où les étudiants avaient été traités et écoutés comme de vrais enseignants ; où les étudiants s'étaient approprié les choix qu'ils avaient faits et les récits qu'ils avaient narrés ; où leur travail était leur façon de devenir un professeur débutant. Voici des points qui peuvent être bénéfiques pour les enseignants débutants : 1) occasions de créer des projets auto-initiés dans des contextes différents, et de travailler avec des enfants loin des évaluations et des observations formelles ; 2) vivre leurs histoires d'enseignant débutant avec d'autonomie; 3) relater leurs histoires d'enseignant débutant dans des entretiens non directifs; 4) découvrir qui ils sont en tant qu'enseignant dans des situations et relations spontanées, où ils peuvent apprendre que l'incertitude est et un élément inévitable et naturel de leur histoire d'enseignant débutant. La recherche apporte une nouvelle contribution à l'élaboration des théories de l'« autonomie » et des « contextes auto-initiés » en formation des maîtres, en particulier en ce qui a trait à l'expérience sur le terrain et sa relation avec les cours universitaires. Elle renforce également la place des méthodes narratives et basées sur les arts aussi bien en matière de formation des maîtres que de recherche sur la formation des maîtres et avec les enseignants débutants.