No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Prospective teachers’ conceptions and values about learning from teaching
Abstract
Although researchers and educators have suggested teaching prospective teachers (PTs) to investigate and learn from their own teaching over time, little research has investigated PTs’ beliefs about such an approach. This qualitative study examines prospective elementary teachers’ conceptions and values about systematically studying and improving their own teaching. Participants (N = 6) were students at a university in the USA enrolled in a semester-long mathematics methods course designed around one model for systematically improving teaching (learning-from-teaching [LFT], also known as lesson experiments). Interview results show that the PTs had a high level of procedural knowledge about the LFT skills and reported liking and intending to use all or part of the LFT model. However, results also reveal that four of the six PTs held multiple misconceptions and all six PTs placed less value on improving teaching than on other teaching goals. PTs’ conceptions and values about improving teaching may limit their ability to successfully learn from their own teaching, which has implications for how teacher educators teach PTs about lesson experiment skills such as writing learning goals or examining student learning.
... Similarly, PSTs can be prompted to make use of their prior English language learning experiences to develop conceptions of what works and does not work in effective English language teaching, which might impinge on their professional learning. "Learning from teaching" was reported to be important to PST learning in Phelps and Spitzer's (2015) research. Likewise, "Practice-embedded designs" were highlighted as tools for teacher professional learning in Gibbons et al.'s (2021) research. ...
... This finding is consistent with the ones in the research by Hourigan and Leavy (2019) because the contribution of lesson planning to PST professional learning was reported in it, too. In the same vein, Gibbons et al. (2021) and Phelps and Spitzer's (2015) research indicated the importance of learning by engaging in teaching in teacher professional learning. Preparing a lesson plan for teaching a speech act made the PSTs feel like teachers and comprehend the significance of teaching speech acts. ...
Pre-service teacher professional learning could be affected by a range of factors such as pre-service teachers’ prior schooling experiences and the effectiveness of the courses offered in the pre-service teacher education program. The absence of research in the literature carried out to examine second-year pre-service English teachers’ perceptions concerning their experiences of planning a lesson to teach a speech act and giving a presentation on it encouraged the researchers to conduct this investigation. This qualitative case study investigates 25 sophomore pre-service English teachers’ perceptions with regard to the effect of preparing a lesson plan for the teaching of a speech act they selected and the presentations they made on it in online Pragmatics and Language Teaching course to their professional learning. The data was collected from a qualitative survey and semi-structured telephone interviews. The inductive analysis of the gathered data revealed that the pre-service English teachers contended preparing a lesson plan to teach the speech acts they chose and giving a presentation on it enhanced their professional learning. The findings also indicated the pre-service English teachers’ desire for more hands-on work starting from the first year in the pre-service English teacher education program.
... However, Naylor et al. (2015) are of the opinion that most of the EMS subject mentors are not certain about what is expected of them when mentoring pre-service teachers because they have not been trained for the job. As a result, the majority of newly-qualified teachers do not possess adequate EMS content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and positive attitude/values towards their teaching career (Phelps & Spitzer, 2013), despite the fact they may have been given the opportunity to go to schools and learn how to teach under the guidance of their subject mentors. It would, thus, appear that EMS subject mentors tend to overlook the content and pedagogical knowledge of pre-service teachers and, hence, they consider their performance to be excellent. ...
The majority of existing literature focus on the perceptions of pre-service teachers' readiness to teach. However, there has been little research conducted into the perceptions of subject mentors of pre-service teachers' readiness to teach Economics and Management Sciences (EMS). Twelve subject mentor teachers were purposefully selected to participate in a focus group interview in order to collect data during pre-service teachers' teaching practice period. The researchers used the content analysis method to analyse the data which had been collected. The findings revealed that most of the subject mentors were confident that pre-service teachers are ready to teach EMS in schools when they graduate upon completion of the requirements. However, this finding contradicted the university supervisors' observation reports which indicated that 242 most of the pre-service teachers who were deemed to be ready to teach EMS were in fact not ready to do so. Thus, the results may point to weaknesses on the part of the subject mentors in assessing the readiness of pre-service teachers to teach. The study recommended, inter alia, that the university should provide support in the form of short courses for EMS subject mentors in order to equip them with the requisite knowledge on how to mentor and assess the teaching performance of pre-service teachers.
The problem of this research can be defined by the following research question: what is the dynamics of values held by future sport pedagogues in the last decade? The study in 2004 documented number characteristics of values among future sport pedagogues. The study conducted in 2014 aimed to answer the question of whether the changing social environment and educational reform in the last decade is related to the future sports pedagogues’ values change. It was presumed that students in 2004 and students in 2014 have different values. Three surveys used were the Rokeach Value Survey for identification of the most important personal values, Leontiev Life Meaning Orientations Test for the evaluation of values pertaining to the meaning of life (defined as ideas about life goals, processes, results and control of life circumstances), Sniras Moral Value Survey for identification of the most important moral values. Not the same first year students were investigated twice: the first time in the year 2004 (N = 168) and the second time in the year 2014 (N = 163). The research findings revealed that ‘material well-being’ (financially secure lifestyle) and ‘public recognition’ (respect and authority) were the most important values among future sport pedagogues in the year 2004 compared to them in year 2014. ‘Clear life goals’ was the value pertaining to the meaning of life that was most significant to future sport pedagogues in 2014 compared to them in 2004. Forgiveness (not to diminish, not to revenge) was a significantly less important value for the first-year future sport pedagogues in 2014 than it was for them in year 2004. Keywords: personally most important values, values of life, moral values, future sport pedagogues. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/p.2016.05
To improve classroom teaching in a steady, lasting way, the teaching profession needs a knowledge base that grows and improves. In spite of the continuing efforts of researchers, archived research knowledge has had little effect on the improvement of practice in the average classroom. We explore the possibility of building a useful knowledge base for teaching by beginning with practitioners’ knowledge. We outline key features of this knowledge and identify the requirements for this knowledge to be transformed into a professional knowledge base for teaching. By reviewing educational history, we offer an incomplete explanation for why the United States has no countrywide system that meets these requirements. We conclude by wondering if U.S. researchers and teachers can make different choices in the future to enable a system for building and sustaining a professional knowledge base for teaching.
In this paper, we describe a model for systematically improving the mathematics preparation of elementary teachers, one lesson at a time. We begin by identifying a serious obstacle for teacher educators: the absence of mechanisms for developing a shareable knowledge base for teacher preparation. We propose our model as a way to address this challenge, elaborating the principles that define the model to show its relevance. We then provide an example of the model in action, detailing how the model was used to gradually but steadily improve a single mathematics lesson for prospective elementary teachers. We conclude by presenting data indicating that the model is effective in generating and vetting knowledge that helps to improve our mathematics program over time. Although our discussion is situated in the mathematical preparation of prospective elementary teachers and draws on examples from mathematics, we argue that the model could be applied to build knowledge and improve teacher preparation in any discipline.
The authors propose a framework for teacher preparation programs that aims to help prospective teachers learn how to teach from studying teaching. The framework is motivated by their interest in defining a set of competencies that provide a deliberate, systematic path to becoming an effective teacher over time. The framework is composed of four skills, rooted in the daily activity of teach- ing, that when deployed deliberately and systematically, constitute a process of creating and test- ing hypotheses about cause-effect relationships between teaching and learning during classroom lessons. In spite of the challenges of acquiring these skills, the authors argue that the framework outlines a more realistic and more promising set of beginning teacher competencies than those of traditional programs designed to produce graduates with expert teaching strategies.
A video-based program on lesson analysis for pre-service mathematics teachers was implemented for two consecutive years as
part of a teacher education program at the University of Lazio, Italy. Two questions were addressed: What can preservice teachers
learn from the analysis of videotaped lessons? How can preservice teachers’ analysis ability, and its improvement, be measured?
Two groups of preservice teachers (approximately 140 in total) participated in the program. A three-step lesson analysis framework
was applied to three lesson videos: (1) goal(s) and parts of the lesson; (2) student learning; and, (3) teaching alternatives.
Preservice teachers’ ability to analyze lessons was measured through an open-ended pre- and post-assessment. In the assessment,
preservice teachers were asked to mark and comment on events (in a lesson not included in the program) that they found interesting
for: teachers’ actions/decisions; students’ behavior/learning; and, mathematical content. A coding system was developed based
on five criteria: elaboration, mathematics content, student learning, critical approach, and alternative strategies. In both
studies, the ability to analyze instruction improved significantly on all five criteria. These data suggest promising directions
for the development of both an instrument to measure lesson analysis abilities and a model for teacher learning.
The study describes teachers' collective work in which they developed deeper understanding of their own students' mathematical thinking. Teachers at one school met in monthly workgroups throughout the year. Prior to each workgroup, they posed a similar mathematical problem to their students. The workgroup discussions centered on the student work those problems generated. This study draws on a transformation of participation perspective to address the questions: What do teachers learn through collective examination of student work? How is teacher learning evident in shifts in participation in discussions centered on student work? The analyses account for the learning of the group by documenting key shifts in teachers' participation across the year. The first shift in participation occurred when teachers as a group learned to attend to the details of children's thinking. A second shift in participation occurred as teachers began to develop possible instructional trajectories in mathematics. We focus our discussion on the significance of the use of student work and a transformation of participation view in analyzing the learning trajectory of teachers as a group.
To investigate benefits and challenges to engage teacher candidates in Japanese lesson study, defined as a collaborative, reflective, and iterative teacher development process, we analyzed reflective papers submitted by 60 teacher candidates studying at an Ontario faculty of education, engaged 20 practicum associate teachers in a group discussion, and considered the reflective notes of the course instructor (first author). Findings suggest that Japanese lesson study provides opportunities for teacher candidates to build professional learning communities, to deepen understanding of curriculum and pedagogy, and to develop habits of critical observation, analysis, and reflection. Although benefits of lesson study are numerous and significant, our research identified implementation challenges related to time, practicum placements, and the professional development of associate teachers. © 2009 Canadian Society for the Study of Education/Société canadienne pour l'étude de l'éducation.
Researchers have advocated building a knowledge base for teacher education based on practitioner knowledge. In this article, the authors, two teacher educators, present knowledge gained from their systematic study of two lessons to help prospective teachers learn to study teaching. They offer a detailed look at the lessons' successes and shortcomings as well as potential revisions. They also reflect on their use of a model for systematically studying lessons, sharing details about their learning during this process. This article attempts to provide a visible, tangible product for other teacher educators interested in helping prospective teachers examine evidence of student learning.
This paper was written to stimulate discussions and debate about what a professional learning continuum from initial preparation through the early years of teaching could be like. Drawing on a broad base of literature, the author proposes a framework for thinking about a curriculum for teacher learning over time. The paper also considers the fit (or misfit) between conventional approaches to teacher preparation, induction and professional development and the challenges of learning to teach in reform-minded ways and offers examples of promising programs and practices at each of these stages. The paper is organized around three questions: (a) What are the central tasks of teacher preparation, new teacher induction, and early professional development? (b) How well do conventional arrangements address these central tasks? (c) What are some promising programs and practices at each stage in the learning to teach continuum that promote standards-based teaching and enable teachers to become active participants in school reform?
The goal of this study is to uncover the successes and challenges that preservice teachers are likely to experience as they unpack lesson-level mathematical learning goals (i.e., identify the subconcepts and subskills that feed into target learning goals). Unpacking learning goals is a form of specialized mathematical knowledge for teaching, an essential starting point for studying and improving one's teaching. Thirty K-8 preservice teachers completed 4 written tasks. Each task specified a learning goal and then asked the preservice teachers to complete a teaching activity with this goal in mind. For example, preservice teachers were asked to evaluate whether a student's responses to a series of mathematics problems showed understanding of decimal number addition. The results indicate that preservice teachers can identify mathematical subconcepts of learning goals in supportive contexts but do not spon- taneously apply a strategy of unpacking learning goals to plan for, or evaluate, teaching and learning. Implications for preservice education are discussed.
Contrasts the naturalistic research paradigm with the scientific model, noting that the naturalistic paradigm assumes multiple reality, subject-object interrelatedness, and contextuality. Skills required for the pursuit of naturalistic inquiry are described. (JEG)
The implications of research on teacher belief for the nature of teaching and teacher education are discussed. In addition, ignored or minimally addressed issues that could provide avenues for future research are raised. Teacher belief is defined broadly as tacit, often unconsciously held assumptions about students, classrooms, and the academic material to be taught. After summarizing the heterogeneous research on teacher belief, I point out that we lack direct evidence concerning the processes that effect change in teacher belief. However, we can assume that they are similar to those needed to effect conceptual change in other kinds of personal belief. This leads to a discussion of research on conceptual change and its relevance to teacher education. I next suggest that the need for an elaborate personal belief system among teachers arises out of the many uncertainties endemic to classroom teaching: In a landscape without bearings, teachers create and internalize their own maps. The need for a personal belief system also suggests that teachers engage in problem finding, an activity characteristic of all forms of creativity. Teaching, like any form of creative invention, is situated in person, and professional growth is an intensely private affair. Finally, I raise several relatively ignored issues, including transfer mechanisms that may explain how teachers' beliefs become less contextualized, the possibility that key instructional activities are the vehicles that translate teacher belief into classroom instruction, and the value of a curriculum script as a Rosetta stone—a concrete historical record of how one teacher's belief evolved.
The primary audience for the "Handbook" consists of mathematics education researchers and others doing scholarly work in mathematics education. This group includes college and university faculty, graduate students, investigators in research and development centers, and staff members at federal, state, and local agencies that conduct and use research within the discipline of mathematics. . . . The "Handbook" should also be a useful textbook for graduate research seminars. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Students are frequently exposed to and required to remember unfamiliar or incongruent information. In some cases, students choose to modify their current knowledge and beliefs about topics, and in other cases they do not. The questions of importance in this chapter are how, under what circumstances, and in what ways do individuals choose to modify what they know or believe? Although central to education and the learning process, studies of changes in what people know or believe have varied greatly, depending on whether researchers examined learning from the perspective of conceptual change or persuasion. Despite the shared philosophical roots and the theoretical similarities among key constructs, researchers have historically focused on either conceptual change or persuasion. Consequently, we synthesize findings across these distinct bodies of literature to identify potential models for assessing and promoting change in educational settings. To address this overarching purpose, the chapter is divided into four sections. In the first section, we briefly explore definitions of knowledge and beliefs synthesized from the philosophical and educational psychology literatures. We also offer our own working definitions of these constructs. By explicitly defining the constructs of knowledge and beliefs, we hope to bring some clarity to our discussion of change. In the second section, we overview change models pertaining to knowledge or beliefs. In so doing, we discuss psychological issues central to contemporary research traditions relative to conceptual change and persuasion. We then offer some recommendations for future research and educational practice. Finally, we close the chapter with a brief discussion of a model of belief change that draws on historical philosophical and psychological literature in which knowledge and beliefs have been characterized as reciprocally influential constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Based on rapid advances in what is known about how people learn and how to teach effectively, this important book examines the core concepts and central pedagogies that should be at the heart of any teacher education program. This book was edited in collaboration with Pamela LePage, Karen Hammerness, and Helen Duffy. It is the result of the National Academy of Education's Committee's work on teacher education. It was written for teacher educators in both traditional and alternative programs, university and school system leaders, teachers, staff development professionals, researchers, and educational policymakers, the book addresses the key foundational knowledge for teaching and discusses how to implement that knowledge within the classroom. This book recommends that, in addition to strong subject matter knowledge, all new teachers have a basic understanding of how people learn and develop, as well as how children acquire and use language, which is the currency of education. In addition, the book suggests that teaching professionals must be able to apply that knowledge in developing curriculum that attends to students' needs, the demands of the content, and the social purposes of education: in teaching specific subject matter to diverse students, in managing the classroom, assessing student performance, and using technology in the classroom. The ideas and suggestions outlined in this book have far-reaching implications for educational policy, classroom practice, and staff development and will go a long way toward informing the next generation of teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study investigated the effects of a classroom intervention on prospective elementary teachers’ ability to evaluate evidence
of student achievement of mathematical learning goals. The intervention was informed by a framework for teacher education
which aims to provide prospective teachers (PTs) with the skills needed to systematically learn from their own teaching practice.
Prospective teachers (N=160) participated in an intervention aimed at addressing their misconceptions about evidence of student learning. Results
revealed that after the intervention, PTs were less likely to consider teacher behaviors to be evidence of student learning
and more likely to discount student responses that were irrelevant to a specified learning goal. However, PTs were still likely
to take procedural fluency as evidence of conceptual understanding and may have become overly skeptical of student understanding.
Implications of the study suggest new ways of developing prospective teachers’ ability to systematically study and improve
their teaching.
KeywordsProspective teachers–Evaluating teaching–Analyzing teaching–Analyzing student work–Learning to teach–Teacher preparation
This paper describes a model for generating andaccumulating knowledge for both teaching andteacher education. The model is applied firstto prepare prospective teachers to learn toteach mathematics when they enter theclassroom. The concept of treating lessons asexperiments is used to explicate theintentional, rigorous, and systematic processof learning to teach through studying one's ownpractice. The concept of planning teachingexperiences so that others can learn fromone's experience is used to put into practicethe notion of contributing to a sharedprofessional knowledge base for teachingmathematics. The same model is then applied tothe work of improving teacher preparationprograms in mathematics. Parallels are drawnbetween the concepts emphasized for prospectiveteachers and those that are employed byinstructors who study and improve teacherpreparation experiences. In this way, parallelsalso are seen in the processes used to generatean accumulating knowledge base for teaching andfor teacher education.
As clusters utilizing commercial off-the-shelf technology have grown from tens to thousands of nodes and typical job sizes have likewise increased, much effort has been devoted to improving the scalability of message-passing fabrics, schedulers, and storage. Largely ignored, however, has been the issue of predicting node failure, which also has a large impact on scalability. In fact, more than ten years into cluster computing, we are still managing this issue on a node-by-node basis even though available diagnostic data has grown immensely. We have built a tool that uses the statistical similarity of the large number of nodes in a cluster to infer the health of each individual node. In the poster, we first present real data and statistical calculations as foundational material and justification for our claims of similarity. Next we present our methodology and its implications for early notification of deviation from normal behavior, problem diagnosis, automatic code restart via interaction with scheduler, and airflow distribution monitoring in the machine room. A framework addressing scalability is discussed briefly. Lastly, we present case studies showing how our methodology has been used to detect aberrant nodes whose deviations are still far below the detection level of traditional methods. A summary of the results of the case studies appears below