This thesis concerns the process of student teachers´ learning to teach primary science and is based on four studies involving primary science student teachers during their teacher education program. The overall question that the thesis intends to investigate is in which ways student teachers’ learning about teaching can be illustrated and understood in terms of the critical aspects that are experienced within their teaching and learning practices. The four papers in the thesis purposefully explore student teachers’ complex journey from learners to teachers and illustrate the processes of learning to teach by highlighting important aspects within that process. In the thesis the concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is used as the knowledge a teacher needs to construct and implement science learning experiences for pupils. Further to this, the thesis brings into focus the importance of teacher educators’ professional knowledge and how that knowledge must impact teacher education practice. In making explicit student teachers’ experiences and concerns for teaching and learning science, the practices and processes highlighted in this thesis help to inform how to involve student teachers in developing a knowledge base for primary science teaching. / Syftet med denna avhandling är att bidra till förståelsen av hur lärarstudenter utvecklar ämnesdidaktisk kunskap (PCK) för att undervisa yngre elever i naturvetenskap. Avhandlingen belyser och diskuterar lärarutbildningens komplexitet samt olika aspekter av den resa lärarstudenten upplever under sin väg från lärarstudent till lärare. Avhandlingen är en sammanläggningsavhandling med fyra artiklar och en kappa. Den övergripande frågeställningen är: På vilka sätt kan lärarstudenters lärande om undervisning i naturvetenskap för grundskolans tidigare år illustreras och förstås i termer av de kritiska aspekter de erfar i sin undervisningspraktik? De fyra artiklarna bygger på empiriska studier av lärarstudenter (F-5) i interaktion med barn och VFU-lärare i undervisning i naturvetenskap. I samtliga artiklar samt i kappan analyseras och diskuteras vilken kunskap som behövs för att undervisa små barn i naturvetenskap. Resultatet i artiklarna visar bland annat på: Hur såväl lärarstudenter som VFU-lärare utvecklar sin förmåga att undervisa naturvetenskap genom att planera, undervisa och reflektera tillsammans; vikten av olika metoder för att stimulera reflektion och därmed utveckla lärarstudenters och VFU-lärares förmåga att undervisa yngre elever i naturvetenskap; de kritiska aspekter som lärarstudenter erfar i sin undervisning samt hur dessa aspekter bidrar till en ökad förståelse för komplexiteten i såväl den undervisning och lärande i naturvetenskap; betydelsen av olika kunskapselement samt hur (behovet av) dessa identifieras i undervisningssituationen; exempel på hur lärarstudenter "lär sig" om naturvetenskaplig undervisning genom att undervisa (lär från eleverna).

Students generally spend more than ten years interacting with teachers in a classroom and thus, such interactions can have a positive or negative impact on students’ academic self-concept and educational goals (Rosenthal, Folse, Allerman, Boudreaux, Soper, & Von Bergen, 2000). The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant relationship between student-teacher interactions and academic self-concept. Participants in the study include African American male high school students in an urban school district. The independent variable is the student-teacher interactions, as measured by the Student-Professor Interaction Scale (Cokley et al., 2004). The dependent variable is the students’ academic-self-concept, which is measured by the Academic Self-Concept Scale (Reynolds, Ramirez, Magrina, & Allen, 1980). The data was analyzed by using Pearson’s correlation and hierarchical multiple regression to determine if there was a statistically significant relationship between the two variables. Findings, study limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.

No description available.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This qualitative case study combined teacher and student interviews with observations of one physical education class to facilitate understandings of physical education learning communities. Watkins’ (2005) definition of a learning community was used as a framework to conceptualise the study. I found that physical education teachers in this study do actively develop their classes as learning communities. Five key findings are discussed. Physical education learning communities exist in a number of different forms that can be related to a learning community continuum. The learning community’s positioning on the continuum is directly related to student agency in learning. It was found that student agency is promoted through a discourse of inquiry. In this study inquiry is a central tenet of a learning community as learning is viewed as a cognitive and socio-cultural constructivist function resulting in knowledge generation (Brown, 1997 cited in Alton Lee 2003; Sewell, 2006; Watkins, 2005). As inquiry learning is a social process in a learning community, it is concurrently supported by a discourse of community, promoting students’ ability to work altruistically and collaboratively, learning together. It was found that the explicit teaching of socio-moral outcomes through socio-cultural pedagogies enhance positive peer relationships and is essential to the promotion of an altruistic discourse of community. The discourses of community and inquiry are dialectically related and communicate clear messages to students about the expectations of behaviour and learning within an altruistic community. The early stages of a physical education learning community are based on the genuine and altruistic student-teacher relationships which provide a springboard to allow opportunities for teachers to have further conversations about learning. Finally, evidence in the study suggests that philosophy plays a significant role in both the growth and oppression of the evolution of a learning community. This study suggests that the relationship between the philosophy of the New Zealand Curriculum (2007), the physical education teachers and the economic neoliberal context influences the development of learning communities in physical education.

This dissertation analysed the interactions between instructors and students in a language classroom in Russia. Using video-recorded data, instructor interviews, and student assessments from English classes at a private language school for children in the Urals region of Russia, a Conversation Analytic [CA] framework was employed to determine: how the talk (specifically turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and repairs) was sequentially organised; if and how the institutional setting constrained the talk; and if previously determined 'universal' structures of talk applied to this Russian academic discourse. This research also tested the hypotheses that the 'universal' structures of talk would apply regardless of gender, but would be used differently by the boys and girls, and by the instructors interacting with them. The relevance of the participants' institutional identities or gender to the interaction was also examined. The analysis showed that the participants did orient to their institutional identities of instructor or student, and the institutional setting did constrain the organisation of talk. The instructors' responses to the interviews and 'student assessment' questionnaires showed that they generally had positive attitudes toward girls and mixed attitudes toward boys. While the underlying sequences, the universal 'rules' of interaction, applied to interactions with both boys and girls, how (and how frequently) the sequences were used did vary by gender (i.e., typically 'male' and 'female' speech styles). Also, some of the organisation of talk showed that the instructors did orient to the students' genders in the classroom. This research is significant as the first CA study of the sequential organisation of talk in an institutional setting in Russia. In general, this research contributes to the CA findings on the organisation of talk in different languages, cultures, and settings; specifically, it provides the first point of comparison of Russian classroom interactions, from a CA perspective, with the large corpus of data already collected in classrooms in the Western tradition of education. Finally, this research is significant as it provides a thorough microanalysis of the relativity of gender-specific verbal behaviour; the analysis also shows how the instructors behave verbally, and in this way produce gender-specific communication styles. / Slavic Linguistics

abstract: I examined the role of children's or teacher's effortful control (EC) in children's academic functioning in early elementary school in two separate studies. In Study 1, I tested longitudinal relations between parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions in kindergarten, children's EC in first grade, and children's reading or math achievement in second grade (N = 291). In the fall of each school year, parents reported their positive or negative reactions and parents and teachers reported on children's EC. Standardized achievement tests assessed achievement each spring. Results from autoregressive panel mediation models demonstrated that constructs exhibited consistency across study years. In addition, first-grade EC mediated relations between parents' reactions (i.e., a difference composite of positive minus negative reactions) at kindergarten and second-grade math, but not reading, achievement. Findings suggest that one method of promoting math achievement in early school is through the socialization of children's EC. In Study 2, I examined relations between teachers' EC, teachers' reactions to children's negative emotions, the student-teacher relationship (STR), and children's externalizing behaviors or achievement among 289 second-graders and their 116 teachers. Results from mixed-model regressions showed that negative reactions and teacher-reported STR mediated relations between teachers' EC and math achievement. In addition, teacher-reported STR mediated links between teachers' EC and externalizing problems across reporters and between teachers' EC and reading achievement. Tests of moderated mediation indicated that a high-quality STR was negatively associated with externalizing problems and high levels of teachers' negative reactions were negatively related to math achievement only for students low in EC. In tests of moderation by social competence, teachers' reports of high-quality STRs tended to be negatively associated with externalizing problems, but relations were strongest for students not high in social competence. For students low in social competence only, children's reports of a high-quality STR was related to lower reading achievement. These results highlight the utility of considering whether and how teachers' own intrinsic characteristics influence classroom dynamics and students' academic functioning outcomes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Family and Human Development 2011

In Lesotho, there are no formal opportunities for professional training of teacher educators. Consequently, the majority of teacher educators have not received a training that could equip them with professional knowledge base that is foundational to any profession. Therefore the question: what are the sources and application of professional knowledge among teacher educators appeared justifiable. Arguably, the teacher educators’ professional knowledge is intricately linked to education practice. Teacher educators have to address the discrepancy between education policy and practice through the training of student teachers who, in turn, have to contribute to the quality of the Lesotho education system. An interpretivist approach was followed in undertaking this study. Data was collected through: narratives, observations of teacher educators and analysis of the curriculum and assessment documents. The unit of analysis was eight teacher educators who are based at the National University of Lesotho’s Faculty of Education. Verification of the extent to which the topic was researchable was through undertaking a pilot study with six teacher educators who were based in the department of Educational Foundations in the same faculty. The analysis of the data revealed an immersion in the teacher educators’ professional landscape provides them ample opportunities to learn from an array of experiences. They accumulated experienced-based professional knowledge relevant to their world of work as they learn to teach, construct, apply and model it in the context that is uniquely teacher education. They have learned to teach teachers mainly from existing education practices which perpetuate what already exists. They face numerous challenges; their teaching is biased towards conventional teaching techniques of a transmissive nature and to a less extent interactive techniques; construction of professional knowledge remains a complex and challenging undertaking. Opportunities to construct own teaching research-based knowledge and supervision of student research are limited. In practice teacher educators have to rethink their pedagogy. Engaging in research adopting a “self-study” approach is unavoidable. Research will enhance their professional development and the quality of the student teachers. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Humanities Education / unrestricted

Lövgren, Marlene (2021). Det där relationella är ju så viktigt. Specialpedagogprogrammet, Institutionen för skolutveckling och ledarskap, Lärande och samhälle, Malmö universitet, 90 hp. Syfte och frågeställningar  I detta arbete är avsikten att belysa hur lärare uppfattar och uttrycker relationskompetens i yrkesrollen och hur detta uppfattas av elever. Arbete fokuserar på vilka relationella aspekter som hjälper elever och frågeställningarna är. • Hur upplever lärare detta?• Vad anser eleverna? Teori  Arbetet utgår från begreppet relationell pedagogik och de teorier om människan som subjekt som dessa bygger på. Metod  Studien är inspirerad av grundad teori och två olika undersökningsmetoder har använts. Enkäter till både elever och lärare samt efterföljande intervjuer. I arbetet pågick analys och inhämtande av data samtidigt eftersom intervjuerna grundade sig på enkätsvaren. Resultat  Resultatet tyder på att skolan behöver arbeta vidare med fördjupad förståelse av det komplexa begreppet relationskompetens. Lärarna behöver fördjupad kunskap både när det gäller hur yrkesprofessionell relationskompetens utvecklas och hur det praktiska relationella arbetet med elever kan utvecklas. Lärarna behöver även fördjupad kunskap om varför det relationella mötet är viktigt för ett framgångsrikt lärande Specialpedagogiska implikationer  Inom specialpedagogiken har de relationella aspekternas vikt för lärandeprocessen varit välkända länge. Därför är det lämpligt att använda sig av skolans specialpedagog i den kompetensutveckling som lärarna är i behov av.

In Swedish schools, teachers are expected to aid their students through feedback to help them develop their different abilities. The feedback itself can be provided differently depending on several different factors in and out of teachers’ control. Most commonly, teachers provide input either through written or oral feedback. Today, with the fast progression of digital tools, teachers also have the opportunity to provide feedback digitally. Therefore, it was of interest to conduct a study examining what feedback methods Swedish teachers of English choose and the reason for their choice. It was also of interest to examine if the teachers’ methods could be backed up by current research. To understand the teachers’ perceptions and experiences, a qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with five Swedish upper secondary school teachers who currently teach English. The results showed that the teachers work in different ways regarding feedback on students’ written production. While all respondents work digitally with written comments for shorter assignments, some respondents also print out students’ text to mark by hand regarding confidential essays. Further, results showed that all respondents provide written feedback. However, one teacher provides oral feedback through one-to-one conferences as routine, and an additional three teachers give their students the option to receive oral feedback if needed. Moreover, the most common reasons for the teachers’ methods were student appreciation, gaining a positive student-teacher relationship, and available time. All teachers’ methods could be backed up by current research. What can be concluded from this study is that all methods for feedback are more or less efficient and that efficiency sometimes has to do with factors other than the method. Further, Swedish teachers seem to lack time for feedback, especially oral feedback. / I svenska skolor förväntas lärare att vägleda sina studenter genom återkoppling för att hjälpa dem utveckla sina olika färdigheter. Återkopplingen kan ges på olika sätt beroende på flera olika faktorer inom och utom lärares kontroll. Vanligast är att lärare ger kommentarer genom antingen skriftlig eller muntlig återkoppling. Idag, med den fortlöpande utvecklingen av digitala verktyg, har lärare även möjlighet att ge återkoppling digitalt. Därav var det av intresse att utföra en studie som utforskar vilka metoder för återkoppling svenska engelsklärare väljer att jobba med, och anledningarna till deras val. Det var även av intresse att utforska ifall lärarnas metoder kunde stödjas av relevant forskning. För att förstå lärarnas perspektiv och erfarenheter genomfördes en kvalitativ studie genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem svenska gymnasielärare som nuvarande undervisar i engelska. Resultaten visade att lärarna arbetar olika gällande återkoppling på elevers skriftliga produktion. Medan alla deltagare arbetar digitalt med skriftlig återkoppling för kortare uppgifter, så skriver även vissa deltagare ut elevernas texter och markerar dem för hand när det gäller konfidentiella arbeten. Vidare visade resultaten att samtliga lärare arbetar med skriftlig återkoppling. Dessutom ger en lärare muntlig återkoppling genom individuella samtal som rutin, och ytterligare tre lärare ger sina elever möjligheten att få muntlig återkoppling om så behövs. Vidare var de vanligaste anledningarna till lärarnas metoder elevuppskattning, att bilda en positiv relation mellan elev och lärare, och tillgänglig tid. Samtliga lärares metoder kunde stödjas av relevant forskning. Vad föreliggande studie visar är att alla metoder för återkoppling är mer eller mindre effektiva, och att effektiviteten ibland har att göra med andra faktorer än metoden. Vidare tolkas det som att svenska lärare har brist på tid för att genomföra återkoppling, speciellt muntlig återkoppling.