Der Aufsatz befasst sich mit der Frage, was man aus der internationalen Forschung darüber weiß, welcher Unterricht und welches Lehrerverhalten Auswirkungen auf die Lernergebnisse der Schüler/innen hat und welche Möglichkeiten es gibt, solches Verhalten zu verstärken. Berücksichtigt werden nur Forschungsergebnisse, die hohen methodischen Anforderungen genügen, kausale Schlussfolgerungen erlauben und generalisierbar sind. Konsequenzen für die Lehrerbildung werden diskutiert. / Since a long time teacher behavior and teacher effectiveness have been in the focus of research. The paper summarizes the main findings and discusses them taking into account the additional question of research on reinforcement of effective teaching strategies. Only studies with high methodological standards are taken into consideration. Possible consequences concerning teacher training are presented.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and describe the way prospective teachers of social science understand democracy and its conditions, and, on the basis of these descriptions, to discuss the actual and possible forms and contents of teaching democracy both in upper secondary school and in teacher training. The assumption is that students’ conceptions of democracy are influenced by the society they live in and the education they receive. To contextualize students’ conceptions of democracy the theories of Habermas and Dewey as well as some central concepts of contemporary democratic theory are drawn upon. The study primarily focuses on the content of education in democracy. The teachers’ conceptions of their own subject influence the content of their teaching and thus what their students learn. If teachers are aware of various ways of conceiving democracy, and the critical differences between them, their teaching practices may enable students to experience different aspects of democracy and, as a consequence, reach a fuller understanding of it. The empirical data consists of interviews with eight students of political science and eight teacher-students of social sciences. These interviews were carried out before and after they had studied theories of democracy. The study also includes interviews with eight teacher-students who had already finished their theoretical studies in social science and were at the end of their teacher training. In total, 40 interviews were carried out. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. A phenomenographic analysis of the students’ conceptions of democracy was performed, along with a thematic content analysis of their ideas of the conditions of democracy. Three main categories of conceptions of democracy were constituted. In the first democracy was viewed as a possibility to influence political decisions through institutionalized forms. In the second category democracy was seen as a feeling of participation in processes of political decision. In the third category democracy was understood as the possibility to take part in all decisions that concern one’s life. The thematic content analysis showed that the students’ reasoning about the conditions of democracy concerned three main themes: the values of democracy, the individual conditions and societal conditions. Several teacher-students regarded it as their duty to maintain the prevalent forms of democracy in Sweden. Students of political science on the other hand, focused more on developing these forms. Finally, the possible didactic consequences of these different views for the education in democracy in upper secondary schools and in teacher training are discussed.

The focus of this study is to identify important factors affect, how teachers' professional identity and role are shaped and changed during and after teacher training. Study's focus is to identify important factors bearing on how teachers' professional identity and role are shaped and changed during and after a teacher training. Respondents included in study are all teachers in vocational subject in upper secondary school. They also have experience from at practical profession before they began to work as teachers and started the teacher training. Method used in this study is the life stories of narrative nature. The questions revolved around the nature of studies and professional lives. It’s found that teachers experience a noticeable difference between the learning in the former profession and learning in academic studies. By participating in different groups during their training, partly with students in other categories partly with those with similar background. In this context the former professional exercise got a different and more important meaning. The conclusion is that institutional learning is of an entirely different character than learning to a practical profession can be, and this will require time for reflection. The question is whether the gap that seems to exist can be overcome if students' professional experiences are procured in a manner that does not neglect scientific fact.

Video has been used in educational settings for several years by means of videotapes. However, the use of digital video is not very common in schools and training institutions. Moreover, the literature reports not much about using online video in teacher training purposes. This current study presents an online video-based pre-service teacher training environment, offering online video cases for teacher training purposes. The first purpose is to develop an online video-based training system for teacher training. The online teacher training system includes online video cases on various topics in teacher training. The second aim of this study is to understand what student teachers think about the video cases in the online training environment. The first phase of the study was implemented as a pilot study, and the main study included two cycles of action research. The subjects of the study were students of the Faculty of Education at Middle East Technical University who were enrolled to the CEIT321 - Foundations of Distance Education course. The evaluation of video based training questionnaire was administered to the participants and individual interviews were conducted with a selected group of students according to questionnaire scores. The results of the questionnaire proposed that the students had positive attitudes for the online video cases included in the study. In the interviews, the participants indicated their comments and proposed some improvements regarding the technical aspects and the content of video cases. Participants&#039 / reflections about the video cases and course web server logs also provided parallel findings supporting the interviews and the questionnaire.

This thesis’ main theme is the relationship between teacher training, distance education, ICT and community. These aspects of an educational practice are conceptualised within a hermeneutical approach as aspects of edukation. The thesis consists of eight articles. These are all related to one specific teacher training programme, in the thesis considered as being one demarcated social context, and treated as a single case. In articles I-III, different theoretical conceptions are elaborated upon both in relation to the discipline of Education (in Swedish Pedagogik), and in relation to the hermeneutical approach. Articles IV-VIII reports on the analysis of several data-gatherings, understood as being parts of an embedded case study. Teacher trainees on the programme have responded to a questionnaire, and have been interviewed. Teacher trainers organising the programme have been interviewed, and governmental and local policies concerning both teacher training and distance education were included. The data were gathered with the intention of enabling an understanding of the conditions through which the teacher trainees understand their societal commission, as a strive for upholding and developing legislated constitutive values, such as multiculturalism, equity, democracy and freedom. All in all, the aim of the thesis is to present an overall understanding of the process of edukation, the establishment of an educative relationship between the individual and the society in distance-based teacher training. The analysis points towards an understanding that emphasises the possession by trainees of competencies that include self-sufficiency, self-direction in their learning and self-confidence providing independence from their fellow trainees, their trainers and society at large. Being assessed primarily on an individual basis does not seem to encourage the trainees to take a collective responsibility for their learning. The trainees seem to associate the social dimensions in the programme primarily to feelings of being at ease, rather than to aspects of learning. Seen as an overall aspect of a process of edukation, the norms and values developed when the trainees negotiate meaning and values appear, in this context, to promote individuality. Additionally, this understanding seems to apply to aspects of democracy as well. Having been able to regard the teacher training programme from different theoretical positions over time, and to consider the teacher trainees and their studies as belonging to a learning community; the Online Learning Community that intersects the issues of learning and technology with the issues of values and society, one might ask; is this then a story of community? If the trainees’ views on education and learning stem from a sense of community, then it might be that of a community as a place of belonging. This could be why the trainees regard the sense of being at ease in the study-group as being more important than the aspects of learning in the study-group. Learning might incorporate conflicting views and contrasting standpoints that potentially challenge the study-group and their sense of belonging. Feeling at ease and taking an inclusive stance might then be one way of ensuring that the group provides what it promises: a safe and warm place. This could be contrasted with the way community implies a strong normative tendency to embrace while disciplining, or as the trainees put it; you may belong here if you adjust to the norms of the group. This in turn begs the question: what is the ethical stance taken in a community, society or study-group? In this thesis, one possible interpretation of this matter is provided.

ABSTRACT ACCEPTABILITY, INTEGRITY AND PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS OF KINDER TRAINING by Natalya A. Edwards There has been limited research on the effectiveness of kinder training, but those studies that have been conducted show promising results. The majority of past kinder training studies utilized quantitative methods. The current study implemented a qualitative approach to examining the acceptability, integrity and perceived effectiveness of kinder training. The researchers explored the perceptions that a group of elementary school teachers had of the content and process of kinder training, including its impact on teaching beliefs and practices, student behavior, the teacher-child relationship, and classroom management skills. Findings indicated acceptability related to the content and structure of the kinder training model for all teacher participants. The researchers also examined the degree to which participants implemented the kinder training language and skills as originally taught. The results suggested moderate integrity based on the observations of the Principal Investigator. Additionally, the teachers reported an enhanced teacher-child relationship, improved student behavior and improved classroom management skills. Implications for research and practice, as well as the limitations of the study are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine performance of prospective elementary mathematics teachers on answering the items handling the probabilistic misconceptions. The other aim was to investigate the underlying reasons behind these misconceptions of prospective elementary mathematics teachers. To address these aims, qualitative approach was performed. The sample of this study was obtained through convenience sampling. Data were gathered during 2011-2012 spring semester by administering Probability Misconception Questionnaire to 12 senior prospective elementary mathematics teachers studying at faculty of education in Sakarya and through semi-structured interviews conducted with those prospective teachers. None of the participants provided correct answers to items addressing misconceptions regarding time axis fallacy and compound event. Furthermore, less than half of the participants provide the correct answer to items handling misconceptions regarding conditional probability, effect of sample size, conjunction fallacy and representativeness. Also, in this study, reasons behind those misconceptions were determined. Particularly, focusing on the first event was found to be a reason underlying time axis fallacy misconception. Also, another reason behind this misconception was misinterpretation of the problem, which also resulted in misconception regarding conditional probability. Furthermore, focusing on the ratio was found to be a reason underlying misconception regarding effect of sample size. Several participants solely focused on the narrative, which lead to misconception regarding conjunction fallacy. Moreover, seeking representativeness in samples was found to be a reason underlying misconception regarding representativeness. Lastly, in this study, it was found that ignoring order of outcomes resulted in misconception regarding compound event.

This was a case study which aimed to examine how blogging enhanced reflection among pre-service English language teachers in Practicum. 12 pre-service English language teachers enrolled in the undergraduate program of English Teaching Education in the Department of Foreign Language Education at Middle East Technical University participated in the study which comprised a 12-week time span in the 2007-2008 spring term. Data collection consisted of archival records of participants&rsquo / blog posts and comments, pre- and post-study interviews with each pre-service teacher, and field notes taken by the researcher throughout the study. All the blog content was archived and available on the Internet throughout the study. Recurring patterns in pre-service English language teachers&rsquo / blog postings were used as a measure of their reflectivity. Earlier and later blog postings were compared to check evidence of change in the level of the pre-service teachers&rsquo / reflective thinking. Results indicated that: (1) the pre-service English language teachers frequently discussed their personal theories of teaching, the problems that they formulated based on their practicum observation, and topics related to their self-awareness in their blog postings / and (2) they were reflective in their blog postings, to a certain extent, although there were individual differences in the degree of reflectivity in the identified categories. In this respect, this blogging experience provided a different approach to develop reflectivity in Practicum. Therefore, this study may be an example to investigate the effectiveness of blogs in language teacher education, especially in a Turkish context where English is learned and taught as a foreign language.

The main aim of this study is to develop an instructional design model of drama course for preservice teachers in Faculty of Education. Firstly, to reach this aim the models in the literature were reviewed and the model was created as synthesis of them. In addition of this, the drama courses at universities were examined and the last version of this model was shaped. Secondly, the effectiveness of the model was tested through developing a drama instruction to the preservice English Language teachers. The sample was consisted of 16 preservice teachers from the department of English Language Teaching in Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University. The results of the study showed that the instructional design model worked appropriately in constructing a drama education course and this 10-week drama course had a positive effect on the preservice teachers&rsquo / tendency towards drama and basic knowledge about drama. Furthermore, this study revealed the process of drama instruction in universities step by step for the practitioners who works in education field.

The purpose of this study is to explore pre-service science teachers&rsquo / (PST) argumentation in the context of inquiry-oriented laboratory work. Specifically, this study investigated the kinds of argumentation schemes PSTs use as they perform inquiry-oriented laboratory tasks, and how argumentation schemes generated by PSTs vary by tasks as well as by experimentation and critical discussion sessions. The participants in this study were 35 pre-service elementary teachers, who will teach middle school science from 6th through 8th grade students after graduation. In this study, participants were engaged in six inquiry-oriented laboratory tasks. The performance of laboratory tasks consisted of two stages. Through the experimentation stage, PSTs planned and developed their own hypotheses, carried out an experiment and collected data, and processed their data to verify their hypotheses. Through the critical discussion stage, one of the research groups presented their hypotheses, methods, and results orally to the other research groups. Each presentation was followed by a class discussion of weak and strong aspects of the experimentation. The data of this study were collected through video- and audio-recording. The data were the transcribed from video- and audio-recordings of the PSTs&rsquo / discourse during the performance of the laboratory tasks. For the analysis of PSTs&rsquo / discourse pre-determined argumentation schemes by Walton (1996) were employed. The results illustrated that PSTs applied varied premises rather than only observations or reliable sources, to ground their claims or to argue for a case or an action. The interpretation of the frequency data and the kind of the most frequent argumentation schemes can be seen as a positive indication that the inquiry-oriented laboratory tasks that were employed in this study are effective toward promoting presumptive reasoning discourse. Another result of this study, which is worthy of notice is the construction and evaluation of scientific knowledge claims that resulted in different number and kinds of arguments. Results of this study suggest the following implications for improving science education. First, designing inquiry-oriented laboratory environments, which are enriched with critical discussion, provides discourse opportunities that can support argumentation. Second, both the number of arguments and the use of various scientific argumentation schemes can be enhanced by specific task structures. Third, &ldquo / argumentation schemes for presumptive reasoning&rdquo / is a promising analysis framework to reveal the argumentation patterns in scientific settings. Last, pre-service teachers can be encouraged to support and promote argumentation in their future science classrooms if they engage in argumentation integrated instructional strategies.