The rapid growth of technology undoubtedly has an impact on the education system and on the way knowledge is imparted to students. Teachers need to have sufficient knowledge and skills to integrate technology in a lesson. A challenge which pre-service teachers face is not having sufficient knowledge and skills to integrate technology in their teaching practice. This is due to their lack of exposure to electronic resources as well as skills and opportunities to experiment hands-on with educational technology. This study is a module analysis, regarding the preparation of pre-service teachers’ for educational technology integration in their teaching practice, at a university. Data was collected through an open ended survey which students had to answer based on their experiences of the module as well as a focus group interview conducted with the lecturers of the module regarding the management of the module. The study is based on the model, Synthesis of Qualitative Data: Preparing pre-service teachers for technology use, utilising the proposals of Jo Tondeur and Johan van Braak. The model states the various factors which need to be taken into consideration when designing a training plan for preparing pre-service teachers for technology use in the classroom. These factors include authentic experience, feedback, role model, reflection, instructional design, collaboration, training staff, access to resources, technology planning and leadership and cooperation within/between institutions. Each of these factors was reviewed, and premises were identified. The results demonstrated that for these factors to be successful, the premises need to be considered. The premises include teaching strategies, peer assessment, resources available, student learning, lifelong learners, technology challenges and learning about technology integration among others. The themes of the conceptual framework paired with the premises were utilized to establish guidelines. These guidelines were be split into two sections, namely; planning a module and preparing preservice teachers for technology use. These guidelines may be adapted to apply to other modules. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

No description available.

No description available.

This research study examined the most salient experiences that facilitated the multicultural understanding, development, and practices of effective teachers of diverse students. Field notes collected during four months of participant observation in addition to teacher and student interviews provided the data for this study. Critical race theory was used as a framework for exploring the factors influencing the teachers' educational philosophies and pedagogical practices. The data for this study were analyzed according to emerging themes, depicting each teacher's background experiences, instructional philosophies and practices, and their recommendations for pre-service teacher teacher education. The following themes emerged from the data analysis and interpretations: (1) Teachers' background experiences provoked an awareness of societal influences on race; (2) Teachers' understanding of the sociocultural factors of race influenced their pedagogical decisions; (3) Teachers' critical awareness promoted a comprehensive view of students and their behaviors. The implications from this study suggest that opportunities to critically examine society promote an understanding of how societal messages both implicit and explicit influence thinking which in turn affects how teachers and students participate in the process of "schooling." / Ph. D.

This study aims to investigate and compare in-service and pre-service teachers confidence and knowledge regarding dyslexia. In order to investigate this, two research questions are formulated: 1) We seek to identify differences in the way that in-service and pre-service teachers perceive their own competency in dealing with and accommodating the needs of students with dyslexia in the English classroom. 2) We seek to identify differences in the knowledge that in-service and pre-service teachers have in the areas touched upon in the first research question. In addition to these two research questions two hypotheses are made regarding the expected results. (a) That in-service teachers will have greatly larger knowledge regarding dyslexia while, (b) teacher educations does not provide pre-service teachers with enough information and tools to aid dyslexic students. To find an answer to these research questions, a questionnaire is created and sent to in-service teachers working in southern Skåne and pre-service teachers currently enrolled in Malmö University’s teachers’ education. The results show that pre-service teachers do not feel confident in their ability to detect students with dyslexia. In comparison, in-service teachers feel more confident in this area. However, several of the participants from the in-service teacher demographic present that they, in alignment with the pre-service teacher demographic did not feel confident in their ability to detect dyslexic students in their class. From both demographics the results show that participants feel highly unconfident regarding teaching EFL to dyslexic students.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Tweed R. Ross / The purpose of this research and development study was to design and develop an affordable, computer-based, pre-service teacher assessment and reporting system to allow teacher education institutions and supervising teachers to efficiently enter evaluation criteria, record pre-service teacher evaluations, and generate evaluation reports. The system design supports pre-service teacher evaluators and the data collection, evaluation, and reporting needs of pre-service teacher training institutions. The researcher used a literature review and a needs assessment to determine the need for the system and to define the system prototype’s functional requirements. The researcher used a modified ten-phase development approach (Borg & Gall, 1989) to develop the system. Three separate evaluator groups reviewed the system during development. Teacher licensing officers from private colleges and the Regents Universities in Kansas participated in the needs assessment phase of the study. Past and present National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) evaluation team members served as expert evaluators who provided feedback regarding the validity and functionality of the system prototype. Supervising professors from Regents University colleges of education and from private universities represented the target users and provided feedback regarding the validity, user friendliness, and usefulness of the system. Prior to sending the system prototype to evaluator groups, the prototype was reviewed by a select group of educators and information technology professionals to make sure the prototype was functioning properly and that it could be easily installed by evaluators. The overall results of the needs assessment indicated that the computer-based, pre-service teacher evaluation system that was developed would add value to and improve the evaluation process for teacher training institutions that use spreadsheet and paper-based systems. Survey respondents determined that the system prototype could meet important data collection, analysis, and reporting needs and could increase reporting and data retrieval efficiency for teacher evaluators and teacher training institutions. Target user evaluations found the system to be useable, functionally adequate, and a useful assessment tool.

The following question and sub-question guide this thesis project: 1) How does a service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology? 2.) What are some barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers? A positive service-learning experience provides good learning models which have the potential to address the barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers by influencing their self-efficacy. Included in this thesis is a unit plan which responds to these research questions. There are many barriers to teaching technology for teachers including lack of funds, availability and quality of computer hardware and software, teaching models for using computer technology in instruction, time to learn to use computer technology, and teacher attitude (Rogers, 2000). A service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course could increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology by addressing these needs, the most important of which is providing pre-service teachers with a model for using computer technology in their instruction. Computer hardware and software availability is a problem which the teacher educator can address through writing a grant for funds, computer hardware and software, introducing the pre-service teachers to free and open source software, and negotiating with the partner school's administration and classroom teachers. Equally important is discussing this process with the pre-service teachers so they may learn from that experience. A positive experience teaching using computer technology has the potential to change pre-service teacher attitude about the ability of a teacher to influence students and their personal ability as a teacher (Wade, 1995; Root & Furco, 2001). Through service-learning, K-12 students and pre-service teachers have the opportunity to teach each other about digital art. It is through these unit plans that a mutual relationship is formed, which enables learning to occur on both ends. Throughout the unit plan, pre-service teachers are given time to reflect on their learning experiences and discuss what they are learning by working with the students. When teaching digital art to pre-service teachers, while it is important to give goals, guidelines and some basic instruction to lay the ground work for future discoveries, pre-service teachers and students alike need the opportunity to find the solutions to their own technical and artistic problems. The curricular ideas and unit plans contained within this thesis may serve as idea-generators for teacher educators interested in enriching their computer technology curriculum for pre-service teachers by incorporating service-learning into their practice. The big ideas were chosen to emphasize the idea of a learning community. Students and pre-service teachers develop a relationship over the course of teaching in which both learn from each other through the pre-service teachers' lessons and how the lessons are interpreted by the students. In effect, these unit plans are a beginning for future projects which integrate service-learning and the digital arts.

Dentre os muitos e bem conhecidos problemas relacionados ao ensino de Ciências, a falta de planejamento dos professores vem contribuindo para agravar ainda mais esses problemas. Na prática escolar existe grande dificuldade em compreender a necessidade de um processo de planejamento e de torná-lo real. Atualmente o planejamento é rejeitado por professores que por obrigação se limitam a elaborar seu plano burocraticamente, apenas para atender as exigências da Instituição. Esta pesquisa buscou investigar as concepções sobre planejamento e elaboração do plano de curso de sete professores de Química de escolas estaduais de São Paulo que participaram do Projeto Laboratório Didático Virtual (LabVirt) desenvolvido pela Escola do Futuro da Universidade de São Paulo. Buscou investigar também a possibilidade de uma ação de formação contínua ter efetividade prática na promoção de mudanças significativas na elaboração dos planos de curso destes professores, enfatizando não apenas os conteúdos, mas também os objetivos, os métodos, os recursos e a avaliação. Os dados desta pesquisa foram coletados na forma de questionários, entrevistas e planos de curso pré e pós-projeto e organizados em mapas cognitivos por permitem uma visão idiossincrática de cada indivíduo. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que os professores entendem o processo de planejamento como necessário para organizar os conteúdos conceituais que serão ensinados durante o ano. Seus planos de curso seguem o modelo padrão estabelecido pela maioria das escolas (objetivo, conteúdo, metodologia e avaliação) e não refletem o \"quê fazer\" do professor. As atividades desenvolvidas no LabVirt pouco contribuíram para modificações nos planos de curso, na medida que os planos elaborados pós-projeto são praticamente idênticos aos do pré-projeto. Apesar disso, todos assumem que o fato de ter um plano de aulas bem organizado, facilita e orienta a prática docente mostrando então que perceberam a importância do planejamento no seu dia-a-dia. / Among the many and well-known problems related to science education, the poor preparation of teaching plannings make these problems worse. Most in-service teachers have difficulties to understand the necessity of the planning process, and to bring it to reality. In general, teachers reject planning, for they consider it only as an imposition of the school´s bureaucratic structure. The aim of this research was to investigate the conceptions on planning and the elaboration of course plans of seven Chemistry teachers working in public schools from the state of São Paulo, and which took part in the Virtual Didactic Laboratory Project (LabVirt) developed by the \"Escola do Futuro\" of the University of São Paulo. Another aim was to investigate the effects of an in-service teacher education action designed to promote significative changes in the elaboration of course plans, which should focus not only contents, but also objectives, methods, resources and assessment. Data of this research consisted in answers to questionnaires, interviews and plannings which were collected before and after the LabVirt activities. Data were organized in cognitive maps, which allowed an idiossincratic view the participants. The results suggested that the teachers understand the planning process as necessary to organize the conceptual contents that will be taught during the year. Their annual plannings follow the established pattern in most schools, and do not properly reflects the teachers´ practices. The activities developed in the LabVirt project brought few contributions to the modification of course plans, since the plans elaborated after the project activities were practically the same those made before them. However, most teachers recognized the importance of a well-elaborated class plan. The importance of planning to their everyday practice seemed to have been assimilated by the teachers.

No description available.

In California, 55 teacher preparation programs have embedded a standardized four-task teaching performance assessment (CalTPA) as a requirement for initial teacher licensure. Guided by the frameworks of transactional experience and the theory of formative assessment, this phenomenological study addressed the meaning and role ascribed to the CalTPA by those who complete it. Research questions examined participants' perceptions of their CalTPA experience with respect to preparation, completion of the tasks, feedback, remediation, activities between tasks, and overall experience Data were collected through 3 semi-structured interviews of 8 participants who had successfully completed the CalTPA tasks, chosen by reputational case selection from 1 teacher preparation program. Data were coded for elements of process and overarching themes using inductive descriptive coding in 2 cycles, beginning with discrete codes and then grouping those into themes. Results indicated that the CalTPA played a significant role in the development of completers. Themes included common process elements, emotions, perceptions of tasks, key success factors, and overall influence of the experience. Implications for positive social change include informing stakeholders in teacher preparation programs on best policies and practices to support the development of pre-service teachers into effective in-service teachers, whose future students will benefit from improved educational quality.