This study is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the social dynamics of Chinese English teacher education and the process of its change as viewed from the perspective of teacher education faculty. Chinese English teacher education is a product of diverse and conflicting socio-cultural influences, among which Marxism, Confucianism, Russian linguistics, and Western teaching practices feature prominently. Chinese English teacher training is adopting a more modern approach in response to a burgeoning population of English students, economic demand, technological advances, increased focus on the communicative aspects of language learning, and international exchange. The principal research was conducted as a case study at China's largest teacher training university, Hebei Teachers' University, from 1997 to 1999. The study presents the results of 54 in-depth phenomenological interviews with 20 English teacher education faculty. The analysis of data from the faculty interviews reveals recurrent themes about the process of English teacher education. Among the dominant influences on English teacher training are an academic culture favoring theory above practice; a default teacher training strategy of learning by imitation; a cultural ethic mandating harmony in collegial relations; and the bureaucratic structure of the university, which inhibits innovation. The process and prospects of modernizing teacher education are explored and presented. Among the influences of modernization effecting faculty are increased exposure to alternative teacher training strategies, study abroad, international professional development, university recruitment practices, foreign teachers, and the growing availability of teaching technology. For historical perspective, the study explores the history of English teacher education in China from the beginning of the missionary era up to the modern period in which the study was conducted (1664–1997), suggesting cultural, institutional and political precursors to the context of the study. The study also explores a philosophical foundation for the faculty perspectives with a discussion of phenomenology as it relates to the exploration of meaning in individual undertaking. Making meaning is a process that takes place within a landscape of one's own personal, social and cultural experience, which in turn serves as a constant referent. The study offers recommendations for modernizing teacher education as a response to the faculty perspectives.

This study collected information from 100 student teachers participating in programs at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst between 2001–2004. The data was gathered by using a combination of surveys, interviews, and notes from seminar discussions. The information about the experiences of these new teacher candidates in the schools was used to determine the critical decisions that student teachers must make each day. The responses have been separated into five areas or spheres of influence. These five spheres are teacher education, school setting, educational policy, teen culture, and individual experience/personality . Each critical decision or choice made by these new teacher candidates was influenced by one or more of these spheres of influence. Based on the study's findings, five critical choices have been determined, the consideration of which may help student teachers prepare for their experience. Five critical choices. (1) How to successfully implement classroom management strategies and teaching methods together in the classroom. (2) How to address “high stakes” tests and other standardized testing concerns. (3) How to build productive working relationships with a cooperating teacher and other school colleagues. (4) How to motivate and relate to adolescents. (5) How to manage the stress and uncertainty of the student teaching experience. Listed below are some additional findings from this study that could impact teacher education. (A) Combining classroom management and lesson planning proved to be crucial to successful lessons and to a successful student teaching experience. (B) Understanding one's lesson planning role as it applies to assessment and preparation for standardized tests has become an important component to successful teaching. (C) Nearly all new teacher candidates stated that establishing relationships with students was the most rewarding aspect of their student teaching experience. (D) The majority of new teacher candidates reported that managing stress (combining teaching, college obligations, and a job search) was one of the most difficult aspects of student teaching. It is hoped that with additional research, teacher education programs can continue to determine how to best prepare new teacher candidates to make the best decisions when faced with these critical choices.

This study was undertaken to assess outcomes of a teacher training program whose goal was application of the 4MAT Learning Style Model (McCarthy, 1987) to the design of lessons which foster student creativity. Results derived from the analysis of data in this study indicate that the training program met its objectives of content mastery, attitudinal change, and application of theory, within the context of a case study involving 27 subjects undergoing 36 hours of training. Goals of the training program included: (1) developing understanding of basic learning style and creativity concepts; (2) increasing positive attitudes regarding the significance of diversity and creativity; and (3) applying concepts taught through construction of 4MAT lesson plans. Training program content was based on topics covered in the introduction and literature review including the importance of accommodating diversity and developing creativity in society today; an explanation of the 4MAT Model; an overview of typology and creativity research; and examination of implications for education. Outlined in detail are scope and sequence of the training program, as well as measures of evaluation which included a content pre/post-test, a retrospective attitudinal survey, a lesson rating scale, and anecdotal commentary. Results were analyzed quantitatively not only in terms of new learning acquired, degree of attitudinal change, and quality of lesson plans, but also with regard to patterns of performance emerging among sub-groups categorized according to sex, grade level taught, work experience, previous training, learning styles, and attendance. Results indicate that (1) during the course of the training there was a significant increase in positive attitude regarding the importance of accommodating diversity and creativity in educational settings; (2) that the training program prepared the majority of participants to develop lessons which integrated creativity and learning style theory, while satisfying 4MAT criteria; (3) that performance on lesson plan design correlated more closely to attitude than to content; and (4) that gender and learning style of participants appeared to significantly affect assessment scores.

This research study presents data on three pre-service elementary teachers in an ethnographic study outlining the experiences of the pre-service elementary teachers during the semester of their first education internship. During the first internship semester, the three pre-service teachers completed a 12-week internship placement, 6-weeks at a hospital-based school program and 6-weeks at a brick-and-mortar public school, and three co-requisite courses (i.e., elementary mathematics methods, diagnostic and corrective reading, and teaching exceptional students). The data collected includes the pre-service teacher applications to participate in internship at the hospital-based school program, pre-interview questionnaire, end-of-day reflections, post-interview questionnaire, and background information questionnaire. The questions of study were: (1) How prepared do pre-service teachers feel to educate children with critical illness and address the needs of children with critical illness in the classroom as a result of completion of a 6-week internship at a hospital-based school program? (2) How prepared do pre-service teachers feel to teach mathematics to children with critical illness after completing a 6-week internship at a hospital-based school program? The results show that the participants' reported an increase in preparation to teach children with critical illness and teach them mathematics, but their views about the education of children with a critical illness and mathematics remain consistent. Thus, the results illuminated two themes across all participants: 1) children as a homogenous group 2) procedural mathematics. Study implications include the need to add specific professional learning on the educational impacts of a critical illness and the need to involve pre-service teachers in reflective practices of what they learn and observe and how that informs actions in the classroom.

Currently includes only Volume 1 as primary file. Volume 2 is waiting to be digitized.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship among variables which are integral to the \role of the bilingual-bicultural instructional aide and reflect the perceptions of teachers, instructional aides, and administrators working in bilingual classroom settings The study concerned itself with: (1) the role functions of the instructional aide, (2) the frequency of occurrence of these functions, and (3) the effectiveness of the instructional aide ·in performing these functions. The study also investigated two significant relationships: (1) assumed role functions and frequency of occurrence of these and (2) assumed role functions and effectiveness of role performance. From the results of the investigation, it was hoped that the following objectives would be accomplished: (l) the development of a more precise consensus role definition fol" the bilingual-bicultural instructional aide~ (2) the reduction of discrepancies between the ideal and actual role functions of these paraprofessionals~ and (3) the evaluation of weak areas of job performance in order to recommend specific training. The need for the study was reviewed in the education literature which pointed out diversities in the legal status of aides, inconsistencies regarding their role functions and a scarcity of research that has dealt with their perceived role functions and effectiveness of role performance.

In the early 1980?s teacher induction programs were introduce widely in the US in order to support novice teachers, and to stem the rising trend in teacher attrition. However, 9.5% of all teachers continue to leave teaching within the first year, and up to 50% leave within five years. Mentoring is the basis of most induction programs therefore, in order to understand the impact of induction programs, it is important to understand the role of mentoring within induction. Induction programs tend to be generic in their approach and do not specifically, and intentionally acknowledge the individual and diverse needs and expectations of novice teachers as autonomous, rationale self-directed adult learners. This phenomenological case study research utilized adult learning as the theoretical framework to explore novice teachers? perceptions of mentoring supports as they learned to teach. This research focused specifically on their perceptions of the formal and informal mentoring and interactions that they experienced in their first four months of teaching. The analysis revealed that the supports received by novices could be conceptualized as a mosaic of mentoring interactions that take place in a number of conceptual spaces, two formal (formal induction programs and schools as ecological systems or school ecologies) and one informal (informal networks and interactions within and between two formal conceptual spaces). The analysis also revealed that each conceptual space comprised three levels where mentoring took place namely, the macro (systemic and institutional) level, the meso (departmental and school geographic) level, and the micro (individual or interpersonal) level. The findings indicate that induction is a multi-faceted process that should include all stakeholders, both district and school, in order to provide initial and sustained support to novices. School ecology is an untapped resource in providing support to novice teachers. The strategic use of physical space, the physical presence of people and systematic organizational inclusion of strategies such as creative scheduling, all provide additional organic support for novice teachers. Both formal induction programs and school ecology should be strategically structured to allow informal networking to occur, as these networks emerged as the most effective ‘mentoring’ support experienced by the participants.

This study explores the process of planning, implementing, and following-up teacher professional development programs (TPDPs) in Palestine focusing on the programs that are directed to mathematics teachers. It also describes teachers’, supervisors, principals’, and policy makers’ beliefs about mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning, and the beliefs that TPDPs have about mathematics teaching and learning. The study used qualitative methods, including interviews and document analysis, to collect data. The participants were chosen from two district areas in West Bank and included five policy makers, eight supervisors and training developers, four principals, and six teachers. In addition to interviews, training materials and policy documents related to teacher training and supervision were studied for the purpose of this study. The data obtained from these documents integrated and validated the data which were collected through the interviews. The findings of the study suggest the necessity to improve the methods used in teacher training in a way that activates the role of the trainee teachers and reflects the content of the training in the process of teacher training. In addition, there is a need to provide teachers with better follow-up methods through and after their participation in TPDPs. Most importantly, TPDPs should be based on a clear vision of their objectives that is based on understanding the problems in student learning and current teaching practices as well as the desired behaviors and actions that help to mitigate problems. The findings also indicated that most of the participants hold the instrumental view of mathematics where mathematics is viewed as a body of facts and procedures. Furthermore, their views about mathematics teaching and learning and the curriculum correspond with the instrumental view or with the content-focused approach in teaching mathematics. The researcher concluded that there should be more emphasis on TPDPs that are planned on the district and schools level or what is called job-embedded professional programs. In parallel, trainers’ competences should be upgraded so that they are more able to respond to teachers’ needs in their contexts. Improving the way in which TPDPs is planned and implemented will have a greater influence on teachers’ beliefs and practices.

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This study explores the experience of student teachers working in a track-system, and the meaning they make of that experience. A track-system purportedly separates students according to ability and interest. Most studies of tracking focus on the impact on students. This study focuses on tracking's impact on student teachers. In order to gain access to the meaning and understanding of the student teachers' experience with tracking, three, ninety-minute, phenomenologically based, in-depth interviews are conducted with each participant. This model of interviewing operates on the assumption that a person makes meaning of his or her experience after reflecting on the constitutive details of that experience. Of thirty-one participants, twenty-nine work in a track-system, while two teach in heterogeneous classrooms. The interviews reveal how student teachers' prior experiences with a track-system in high school influence their relationships with students. Some student teachers are uncomfortable working with students in the lower tracks. Some talk about how they do not understand the students in the lower track but feel more comfortable with students in the upper tracks. Student teachers discuss how their cooperating teachers inform them about the kinds of teaching tasks and activities students in different tracks are capable of. The cooperating teachers identify for student teachers those students who will succeed and those who will fail. The classroom students also affect the student teachers' attitudes. In the student teachers' eyes, students exhibit and model the "expected" behaviors of that track. These behaviors become the basis for how some student teachers respond to students. Student teachers often work in schools in which the policies of tracking remain hidden. These policies affect the content of their courses and their evaluation schemes. The two student teachers' experience of working in heterogeneous classrooms offer a qualitatively different experience from the participants working in a track-system. Their experience calls into question the role of the organizational context and the student teacher's biography in understanding student teacher socialization. This study shows how the track-system impacts on the emerging pedagogical practices of student teachers and has implications for teacher education programs.