No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe Multiple Subject credential preservice teachers' growth in competence toward reading instruction. Study participants were engaged in full-time student teaching in kindergarten through third grade classrooms. Each of the six participants was videotaped teaching three reading lessons, one each at the beginning, middle, and end of the field experience. Two reading specialists used the Checklist of Reading Instruction Behaviors to verify the use of and level of complexity of thirty-five (35) different reading instruction behaviors. The target behaviors were based upon two documents: (1) the Teaching Tasks, Skills, and Abilities ( TKAs ) adopted by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing in 1997, and (2) the content specifications of the Reading Instruction Competency Assessment (RICA). Using qualitative software, N4 Classic , all transcripts of the reading lessons and accompanying lesson plans were coded for the same thirty-five (35) target behaviors. A 15-item survey assessed participants' perceptions of program assignments that contributed to their growth toward competency. Finally, scores from the RICA were compared to the levels of competency observed during the videotaped reading lessons. The findings indicate that all thirty-five reading instruction behaviors were used by the participants as a group. Individually, candidates used an average of 58% of the behaviors in only three lessons. Although all preservice teachers in this study were placed in primary grade classrooms, grade level differences were evident in the behaviors that were used and well-developed, with the most variance between grades K–1 and 2–3. The course assignments reported by study participants as most helpful in creating perceptions of competence were regular classroom experience and evaluations by cooperating teachers. No relationship was established between the scores on reading instructional behaviors observed in the classroom and scores on the RICA. Finally, six suggestions for further study are offered to improve the level of competency in preservice teachers to provide reading instruction. Additionally, the researcher recommended that preservice teachers be directly taught the 40 Reading Instruction Behaviors in their reading methods courses, including the developmental levels of reading instruction behaviors described in the Observation Rubric. Also, the Checklist of Reading Instruction Behaviors should be used in systematic observations of preservice teachers with follow-up use recommended in induction programs.

No description available.

Researchers have determined that field experience is crucial in education preparation programs, yet little information is available about field experience within online early childhood education (ECE) programs. Educators who work in online ECE programs need to understand how to facilitate field experience effectively. The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to understand the processes, procedures, and experiences of instructors who facilitate preservice teachers' field experience in online ECE programs. A constructivist framework was used to examine facilitation practices. Nine instructors from online ECE programs in the United States participated in 2 semistructured interviews that lasted approximately 1 hour each. A combination of a priori and open coding was used to support inductive analysis. Themes included communication, mentoring, collaboration, parity between online and live facilitation of field experiences, roadblocks, innovations, assessment, and reflection. Participants reported that a constructivist approach was crucial for online facilitation. Four key findings included an intentionality of design for parity between online and live facilitation, active engagement in responding to facilitation challenges, embedded constructivism in curriculum design, and a necessity for online options despite preference for live field supervision. Social change implications for ECE instructors include sharing of best practices to improve facilitation of field experience in online ECE programs and acknowledgement of need for research focused on quality of field experience. Enhancing the quality of field experiences could better prepare teachers, which would benefit young children in ECE classrooms.

The purpose of the study was to analyze preservice science teachers at elementary science teaching and secondary science teaching with respect to their self efficacy beliefs, epistemological beliefs, and attitudes towards science teaching. Preservice elementary science teachers and preservice secondary science teachers who enrolled in Middle East Technical University in Ankara were the sample of this study. Participants of this study were third grade of preservice elementary science teachers and preservice secondary science teachers. The instruments which are, efficacy beliefs, epistemological beliefs, and attitudes towards science, were utilized this study. v The analysis indicated that moderately positive self efficacy beliefs, epistemological beliefs and attitudes towards science teaching were expressed by most of the preservice elementary and secondary science teachers regarding science teaching. Moreover, preservice elementary and secondary science teachers believe that effective teaching can influence their teaching abilities and students&#039 / learning. Furthermore, many preservice elementary and secondary science teachers express a positive attitude toward science teaching. The analysis indicated that there is a relationship between self efficacy beliefs and attitudes towards science teaching in preservice secondary science teachers, and there is another relationship between epistemological beliefs and attitudes towards science teaching in preservice elementary science teachers.

Teacher recruitment and retention challenges facing urban school contexts provided the impetus for this study. High percentages of historically marginalized students, plagued by high poverty rates and low academic performance, as well as substandard facilities and inadequate material resources, serve as causative factors inhibiting recruitment and retention of credentialed teachers in urban schools (Education Commission of the States [ECS], 1999; Guarino et al., 2006; Horng, 2009; USDOE, 2003; 2004; Wirt et al, 2004). Schools and districts attempt to meet chronic teacher shortages in hard-to-staff urban schools by creating innovative teacher preparation schemes, such as the Urban Teaching Academy (UTA). This study focuses on teacher identity formation and prospective efficacy beliefs among a group of students enrolled in UTA. The research questions were examined using interpretive phenomenological inquiry (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) through case study methodology (Yin, 2009). Findings show that the precollegiate student teachers in this study made meaning primarily from a student perspective, thus adhering to prototypical images of teaching characterized by identity markers. Salient components of definitions of teacher identity for precollegiate student teachers are Self and Care. Less relevant components for precollegiate student teachers were Emotion and Context. These components appear most influenced by the temporal distance between the precollegiate Urban Teaching Academy and actual teaching experiences during internship/practicum and subsequent teaching in a professional capacity, suggesting a need to determine whether it is possible for precollegiate student teachers to meet the emotional and contextual demands of teaching at such an early stage. Additionally, this study proposes to extend on the teacher efficacy construct by offering a model for prospective efficacy as it pertains to individuals in teacher preparation at the precollegiate and preservice levels. This model contends that beginning with the self as influenced by personal, social, cultural, historical and political knowledge sources, precollegiate student teachers begin to develop an epistemological stance towards teaching. Over time, precollegiate student teachers build identity capital grounded in the skills, knowledge and dispositions gained through access to varied knowledge sources, which develop as precollegiate student teachers learn theoretical principals of teaching, obtain and learn from performance information, and combine the theory and practice into an epistemological framework that provides impetus for ongoing synergy between theoretical and practical experiences. The broader the base of identity capital from which the precollegiate student teacher draws, the greater the likelihood that she will develop prospective efficacy, or the belief that she will be capable of fulfilling teaching roles and responsibilities in the future. This study informs the literature on precollegiate and preservice teacher identity and extends the literature on teacher efficacy.

Across the period in which this research was conducted, there has been an increasing emphasis in government and university policies on the promotion of technology integration in higher education. This emphasis has also become evident in Commonwealth and State government policies relating to preservice teacher education because of the need to ensure that teachers enter the profession with the types of technological skills and competencies that can enhance teaching and learning. The research reported in this thesis describes the experiences and perceptions of computer-based technologies from the perspective of academic staff and graduates from two preservice teacher education courses in a Queensland university. The research was conducted in two phases using a repeated cross-sectional longitudinal design. In Phase 1 of the research conducted in 1997, and in Phase 2 in 2002, questionnaires were used to gather data. In Phase 1 of the research, participants comprised 43 academic staff members involved in two preservice teacher education courses and 72 first or second year graduate teachers from these courses. Items in the academic staff and graduate teacher questionnaires elicited information on a range of issues related to the technologies including knowledge and confidence levels, acquisition of knowledge, current and future usage in teaching, advantages and disadvantages of teaching with the technologies, the importance of the technologies to higher and preservice education and the adequacy of preservice teacher education to prepare new teachers to use technologies. Graduate teachers were also questioned about barriers to their classroom use of technologies. Further questions for academic staff investigated the existence of factors that facilitate usage of technologies and the degree to which the presence or absence of these factors constituted barriers or incentives to technology use. A number of questions also explored attitudes surrounding the valuing of teaching, research and publishing. Results from the first phase of research revealed that both academic staff and new teachers made little use of technologies in their teaching. The most salient barriers to academic staff technology use included lack of technical advice and support, time, and lack of evidence of improved student learning and interest. There was also a widely held perception among academic staff that teaching was not valued by their university and that, in particular, innovation in teaching deserved greater recognition. For graduate teachers, barriers to technology use included lack of computers and resources, lack of school funding, and lack of knowledge and training. In Phase 2 of the research, participants comprised 40 academic staff members and 123 graduate teachers from the same two preservice teacher education courses. Participants were again questioned about knowledge and confidence levels, acquisition of knowledge, current and future usage in teaching, and the adequacy of preservice teacher education to prepare new teachers to use technologies. In light of new research and building on findings from the first phase of data collection, several new questions were added. These questions related primarily to the nature and availability of training and how preservice teacher preparation in technology use could be improved. Results from the second phase of research indicated that, among academic staff and graduate teachers, there had been considerable increases in knowledge and confidence levels in relation to the technologies, along with increased levels of usage. Both groups were also significantly more likely than their earlier counterparts to report that preservice teachers were adequately or well prepared in the use of technologies. For graduate teachers, lack of equipment and resources were ongoing barriers to technology use. Training in technology use appeared to be less of an issue for graduate teachers than academic staff with most reporting access to, and satisfaction with, inservice training opportunities. Encouraging too, was the finding that these graduate teachers were significantly more likely than their 1997 counterparts to attribute their knowledge of the technologies to preservice teacher education. While positive change in technology use was evident across this period, continued efforts to support and integrate technology in preservice teacher education remains important, as does support for the innovative use of technology to promote learning in schools.

Abstract Collaborative teaching is a commonly used, research-based method to support inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. However, there is a lack of research describing current teachers’ experiences with and perceptions of collaborative teaching and inclusion. Results from a survey disseminated to teachers in Northeast TN school systems revealed that 64.3% of respondents have either never co-taught a class or have co-taught only one or two classes. Additionally, respondents agree that collaborative teaching is beneficial to support inclusion, enhance delivery of instruction, improve teacher relations and improve classroom management. However, teachers expressed collaborative teaching is more burdensome to teachers than is helpful to students. Limitations of this study, implementations for practice, and suggestions for future research are also described.

No description available.

Bei der Ausbildung von Lehramtsstudenten stellt sich die Frage, ob die Vermittlung formal-theoretischer Kenntnisse in der Quantentheorie ausreicht, damit zukünftige Lehrer diese modern, interessant und praxisnah ihren Schülern vermitteln können. Es ist zu vermuten, dass fachdidaktische Kompetenzen, wie das Erkennen von Schülervorstellungen, Vermittlung fachspezifischer methodisch-didaktischer Kenntnisse und die Darstellung eines schüleradäquaten Zugangs ebenfalls zu einer soliden Ausbildung dazugehören. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht, wie die Lehramtsausbildung in moderner Physik - spezi- ell am Beispiel der Quantentheorie - durch eine adäquate Gestaltung der fachdidaktischen Anteile verbesserbar ist. Dabei werden sowohl theoretische Überlegungen im Modell der Hochschuldidaktische Rekonstruktion und die Befragung von Lehramtsstudenten und Dozenten einbezogen und aufbauend ein fachdidaktisches Zusatzseminar geplant und evaluiert. Im ersten Teil der vorliegenden Arbeit wird dazu der lerntheoretische Rahmen der Hoch- schuldidaktischen Rekonstruktion innerhalb des pädagogischen Konstruktivismus und der Conceptual Change-Theorie abgesteckt. Die Komponenten der Hochschuldidaktischen Rekonstruktion werden dann für die Quantentheorie analysiert und in Verbindung mit den Untersuchungen der im nächsten Teil folgenden Anforderungsanalyse gebracht. Die große Stärke der Rekonstruktion ist die Möglichkeit, nicht nur Lernprozesse von der Schul- bis zur Hochschulebene zu analysieren, sondern diese auch strukturiert aufeinander auf- bauend planen zu können. Es folgt abschließend die Darstellung des Forschungsstandes zum Professionswissen. Der zweite Teil, die Anforderungsanalyse, beleuchtet die Einschätzung der Inhalte von Quantentheorievorlesungen, deren Ziele und erworbener Kompetenzen sowohl durch Lehr- amtsstudenten wie Dozenten. Hinzu kommen die Einschätzung geeigneter Schulinhalte und wichtiger quantenphysikalischer Konzepte als Bestandteile der didaktischen Rekonstruktion. Als entscheidender Punkt werden schließlich die Anforderungen an die fachdidaktische Ausbildung zu diesem Themengebiet analysiert. Aus den beiden vorangegangenen Teilen kann im dritten Abschnitt ein Seminar zur Didak- tik der Quantentheorie kompetenzorientiert geplant und im vierten Teil die Umsetzung hinsichtlich fachlicher und fachdidaktischer Kompetenzen, insbesondere die Änderung der kognitiven Struktur mit Hilfe von Concept Maps, sowohl quantitativ als auch qualitativ evaluiert werden. Es zeigt sich, dass die Kombination von zunächst fachlicher Ausbildung mit einer fachdi- daktischen Vertiefung des Themengebietes Quantentheorie Verbesserungspotential nicht nur für die fachdidaktische, sondern bemerkenswerterweise ebenfalls stark für die fachliche Kompetenz der Lehramtsstudenten bietet. Dabei zeigt sich außerdem die hohe Praktikabi- lität des Modells der Hochschuldidaktischen Rekonstruktion nach Lohmann (2006) und van Dijk und Kattmann (2007) für die umfassende Planung universitärer Lehrangebote.