Developing professional expertise of prospective teachers not only in terms of theoretical knowledge but also in terms of competencies of designing challenging and cognitively activating learning opportunities in the mathematics classroom is certainly one of the key aims of internship phases in pre-service mathematics teacher training. As mathematics-related theoretical contents of teacher training and practice-related learning opportunities of school internships are not always linked in an optimal way, this paper aims at discussing a model of an intensive internship phase combined with a triple coaching approach partly integrated in a course accompanying the internship phase.

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Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Micro-teaching provides a framework for teachers’ professional development with emphasis on the teach and re-teach cycle as a practical procedure for the development of micro-teaching skills. One fundamental element in this teach and re-teach cycle is the use of digital technology tools as a recording device which may help aid the understanding and application of micro-teaching skills. This study explores micro-teaching skills with the use of digital technology (cell phone) in B.Ed. programmes at a Western Cape university. The study aims to merge the past and present strategies to initiate the development of a simple model to improve micro-teaching methodology using a simple and mostly available digital technology tool which can allow for self-evaluation and personal reflection. The study seeks to investigate how a digital technology, through a cell phone, can guide practical learning to support pre-service teachers in the micro-teaching presentation. The underpinning theories that frame this study were Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Theory, Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and Mishra & Koehler’s Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Theory. These theories emphasize social interactions, modelling and the use of technological tools as a significant aspect of skills development. The combination of these theories informs the conceptually developed knowledge acquisition, knowledge construction and the implementation with technology (KACIT) model with the aim to encourage the construction and implementation of micro-teaching knowledge with available digital technology tools. The study employs a sequential explanatory design, using a case study approach, which draws on both quantitative and qualitative methods as sources of data collection. The quantitative procedure adopted video recording as a form of data collection, using a conceptually developed teaching skills rubric, with a three level Likert-scale rating. SPSS version 25 was used to get the aggregated descriptive statistical values of each teaching skill. The qualitative procedure employed unstructured interviews, lesson plan observation, and thematic and content analysis was used to interpret and analyse the interviews and lesson plans respectively. The sample size of this study is drawn from the B.Ed. students in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Two hundred and sixteen (216) participants were involved in the quantitative data collection phase, while the qualitative data collection phase consisted of twelve (12) participants for the focus group discussion, five (5) school-based supervisors, five (5) pre-service teachers and (5) five lesson plans from the students-portfolio documents. The findings attest to the general context of micro-teaching as a strategy for developing pre-service teachers‟ teaching skills. It further highlights the high theoretical knowledge levels of micro-teaching of the B.Ed. students, and the relative lack of practical knowledge of micro-teaching of the students. In addition, the findings reveal the high technological knowledge levels of the participants and the need to deepen the professional knowledge of the B.Ed. students along the lines of authentic teaching experiences within the university environment. As part of the recommendations, the study emphasises the use of a digital video platform as a complementary strategy and as a form of reflective practice in micro-teaching presentations. Importantly, the study further recommends that the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ) policy document, on the knowledge mixes for teaching competences in terms of the observation outcome, should be re-considered with a clear guideline for South African universities to have a uniform framework and a clear picture of its implementation.

The purpose of this study is to compare how pre-service teacher students describe historical consciousness, concerning if they are studying their first or last history course. The concept historical consciousness was chosen because of its central role in the Swedish curriculum for the history subject. To achieve the study’s purpose eight pre-service teacherswere qualitatively interviewed. Five of the eight students studied their first history course, while the remaining three studied their last history course. The two theories that made up the theoretical framework of the study was Rüsen’s three principles for narrative competence as well as Jensen’s five processes of historical consciousness. The result of the studyshows that a clear majority of the students described historical consciousness as a method of learning from historical mistakes. This trend was clear with both groups of students. This study also shows that a majority of students had difficulties with the future’s role in historical consciousness. One out of the eight students made clear and continuous references between the three tenses past, present and future. The result reveal that the teacher education should focus more on the three tenses past, present, and future in relation to practical teaching situations. This to make historical consciousness more practical for the student teachers.

This study aims to contribute to knowledge about to what extent pre-school teacher students feel ready to work with digitalization in pre-schools after completing their teacher education. The participants are Swedish pre-school teacher students from the last two semesters in their teacher education programme, since we searched for students who will soon start to work in pre-schools. The method for this study is a digital semi-structured survey with both open and closed questions. The study is therefore a qualitative study with quantitative elements. The result of this study shows that the students claims that they have a good knowledge about how pre-schools work with digitalization and that they are ready to work with this subject after completing the teacher education programme. This study however shows that the majority of the respondents only have a moderate knowledge about the concept “adequate digital competence” and this knowledge depends on which university they belonged to. This is an interesting finding in this study because of the writing in the Swedish pre-school curriculum that claims that the pre-service teachers will be responsible to give the children opportunities to develop their adequate digital competence. How will the future pre-school teachers succeed in their new role as pre-school teachers if they don’t have the skills and knowledge themselves regarding this subject. / Denna studie syftar till att bidra med kunskap om i vilken utsträckning blivande förskollärare känner sig redo för att arbete med förskolans digitaliseringsarbete efter avklarad förskollärarutbildning. Studiens urval är förskolllärarstudenter som studerar i slutet på sin förskollärarutbildning för att säkerhetsställa att de tagit del av någon form av undervisning om ämnet under sin förskollärarutbildning. Metoden för denna studie är en digital semistrukturerad enkät med både förkodade och öppna frågor. Denna studie är en kvalitativ studie med kvantitativa inslag. Resultatet i studien visar att de blivande förskollärarna själva upplever att de har goda kunskaper och kompetenser om förskolans digitaliseringsarbete och att de är redo att arbeta med detta efter avklarad förskollärarutbildning. Något som denna studie dock visar är att majoriteten av respondenterna inte har tillräckligt med kunskaper för vad adekvat digital kompetens handlar om samt att vilken kunskap studenterna fått med sig beror på vilket lärosäte de tillhört. Detta blir en intressant utgångspunkt för denna studie då det står tydligt i förskolans läroplan, Lpfö18 (Skolverket, 2018) att det är förskollärarens ansvar att ge barnen möjlighet att utveckla sina adekvata digitala kompetenser. Hur ska då de blivande förskollärarna lyckas med sitt uppdrag om det själva inte har den kompetens samt kunskap som behövs för deras blivande profession.

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.

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This research study was motivated by a hypothesis, generated on the basis of formal and informal observations, personal and professional experiences, discussions with prospective teachers and a pilot study conducted by this author; that pre-service teachers have a high level of mathematics anxiety and negative attitudes about mathematics. The primary purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between mathematics anxiety and pre-service teachers. The secondary purposes of this study were to examine the relationship between anxiety and performance and to examine the relationship between math anxiety, test anxiety, and stereotype threat. A quantitative experimental research design was used to investigate the research questions. The population consisted of prospective teachers at colleges and universities in Louisiana. The sets of data are mathematics anxiety of prospective teachers, a test anxiety inventory and a mathematics performance task. A personal data questionnaire was used to gather demographic information and attitudinal information about the participants. The implications of this study for elementary teacher education programs point to increased attention on the mathematics anxiety of pre-service teachers. This process is two-fold. One, it is recommended that pre-service teachers be made aware of their mathematics anxiety level and their attitudes about mathematics and two, it is recommended that teacher education programs acknowledge and address the importance of these affective variables and their role in pedagogy.

The focus of this research project was to determine whether thematic unit instruction or traditional, single-subject instruction was perceived to be the more effective and engaging way of teaching as decided by pre-service teachers. Research has shown that incorporating multiple subjects into one unit or topic of study helps to create more engagement and connections to which students can relate. In creating these connections, students can relate the content to their real life and in turn, better comprehend and retain the material. The pre-service teachers attend the University of Central Florida's College of Education and Human Performance. They voluntarily participated in completing a survey about their perceptions of single subject instruction versus thematic unit instruction. In the survey, the pre-service teachers seemed to be varied on what they believed was a better method of instruction for their future students. The pre-service teachers were split 50/50 as to whether they will teach traditionally, single-subject, or thematically. The pre-service teachers were unanimous in the idea that if they had the support of other teachers and administration as well as resources and research to guide them, that thematic instruction is a method of teaching that they would consider using. Nearly all of the teachers surveyed referred back to doing what is in the best interest of their students.

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