Well-designed educational Augmented Reality (AR) experiences support collaboration, transferability to the real world, situated, and experiential learning. Nevertheless, envisioning engaging yet ...effective learning and teaching experiences is a challenge. Most teachers are not technologically ready to create AR experiences and rely upon closed products often regarded as fun activities but whose learning affordances might remain unnoticed and whose integration within the course activities is often shoehorned. End-User Development tools empowering not technical users like teachers to create their own AR experience could contribute to spread the use of this technology in educational settings. In this paper, we analyze whether a EUD AR tool based on mobile technology can have positive effects on the educational experience from a teaching and learning perspective. We performed qualitative and quantitative research in a high school analyzing the tool in a focus group with teachers and assessing its effects on the educational experience by using it in two real classes. Results show that even if using the tool implies an additional workload for teachers, results can be rewarding for both, teachers and students that are skilled enough to use AR as far as it is based on easy, familiar, and affordable devices like mobile devices.
Teachers' knowledge for implementing constructivist instruction with technology is termed as their constructivist-oriented technological pedagogical content knowledge. There are currently no ...available surveys for understanding teachers' perceptions in this aspect. Therefore, teachers' perceived knowledge gaps in terms of constructivist-oriented technology integration are not well understood. Using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Meaningful Learning Survey, this study examines the constructivist-oriented technological pedagogical content knowledge perceptions of 354 practicing teachers. The survey was first validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Regression analysis found that teachers' perceptions of technological pedagogical knowledge, technological content knowledge, and technological knowledge had the largest positive relationships with their constructivist-oriented technological pedagogical content knowledge. It was not related to teachers' age and gender but primary school teachers and those with more teaching experience tend to be less confident of their constructivist-oriented technological pedagogical content knowledge. These results show that when teachers develop intermediate forms of technological pedagogical content knowledge, it contributes to their confidence for constructivist-oriented technology integration. The specific challenges faced by experienced teachers and primary school teachers need to be better understood and considered when designing teacher technology professional development.
The purpose of the present study was to examine and compare Singaporean physical education teachers’ attitudes towards information and communication technologies in physical education across ...different demographic groups that included gender, age, teaching experience, and school level. A total of 422 Singaporean full-time physical education teachers (mean age = 38.47 years, standard deviation = 8.31) completed the Physical Education Teachers’ Subjective Theories Questionnaire to assess their perspectives towards the integration of information and communication technologies into physical education teaching practice. Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis H tests were conducted to examine the differences in participants’ attitudes across different demographic groups. Results revealed that attitudes towards information and communication technologies significantly differed between teachers of different gender, age, and teaching experience. However, no significant difference was found in attitudes towards information and communication technologies among teachers of different school levels. The findings of this study can inform policy-makers and stakeholders with an interest in promoting the integration of information and communication technologies in physical education.
COVID-19 has put additional stress on teachers, whose levels of psychological distress are concerning. However, studies that look at teachers’ work experiences and their association with ...psychological distress during the pandemic are lacking. This study aims to draw a portrait of psychological distress (i.e., symptoms of depression and anxiety) and work-related experiences (i.e., work engagement, workplace discrimination, interpersonal conflicts at work and quality of relationships among school staff) in a sample of preschool, primary and secondary school teachers in Quebec during the pandemic across socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, years of teaching experience, school level, region, immigrant status). In addition, we investigated whether work-related experiences were associated with psychological distress. A total of 818 teachers (Mage = 44.5; SD = 9.04; 82.8% women) responded to an online questionnaire. Linear and logistic regression analyses were implemented. Results showed concerning levels of both anxiety and depressive symptoms in our sample. Gender, immigrant status and school level differences in the perception of the work environment emerged. Higher reported work engagement, fewer interpersonal conflicts at work and a better quality of relationships among school staff were all independently and statistically significantly associated with lower psychological distress. Promoting a cohesive school climate among school personnel can protect teachers from psychological distress in times of adversity. A socio-ecological approach to research and intervention that considers work experiences in terms of both engagement and quality of relationships is warranted to improve teachers’ well-being and contribute to a positive learning environment in schools for adults and students alike.
This study aims to validate Western-based distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism scales in the Malaysian primary school context. This study further examined the relationships between ...distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism as well as each dimension of teacher academic optimism. Data were collected from 442 primary school teachers in Penang, Malaysia. This study used exploratory factor analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling for data analyses. Findings revealed that both distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism scales were applicable in the Malaysian primary school context. Distributed leadership has a significant positive relationship with teacher academic optimism by controlling teacher gender and teaching experience. Likewise, distributed leadership has a significant positive relationship with academic emphasis, teachers’ trust in students and parents, and teacher sense of efficacy. Implications and future studies are presented.
Background
Individuals pursue teaching careers for numerous reasons, such as for instrumental or prosocial purposes.
Aims
This study examined the personal (instrumental motivation) and social ...(prosocial motivation) utility of teaching as predictors of teaching quality in terms of clarity of instruction, classroom management, and cognitive activation.
Sample
We used data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, which included 50,595 teachers from 1252 schools in 10 countries and regions.
Methods
We performed a series of regression analyses to test a model of instrumental and prosocial motivation to predict three indicators of teaching quality (clarity of instruction, classroom management, and cognitive activation) while controlling for demographic characteristics (age, sex, educational level, and teaching experience). We examined this model in countries and regions from Eastern (Japan, Korea, Singapore, Shanghai and Taipei) and Western (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America) cultures.
Results
Results demonstrated that instrumental motivation predicted clarity of instruction in the East and classroom management in both the East and West; prosocial motivation, however, was a more consistent predictor of all indicators of teaching quality, except classroom management in the West, across cultures.
Conclusion
Teachers' prosocial motivation to benefit others and contribute to society must be considered to understand teaching quality across various cultural contexts. Implications for theory, practice and policy are discussed.
In the past, sociologists have provided keen insights into the work of teaching, but classic studies by scholars like Dan Lortie and Willard Waller are now decades old. With the current emphasis on ...teacher evaluation and accountability, the field is ripe for new sociological studies of teaching. How do we understand the work of teaching in this new context of control? In this article, I use the case of an urban, "no-excuses" charter school to examine how teachers responded to the school's intensive effort to socialize them into a uniform set of disciplinary practices. Drawing from 15 months of fieldwork at a no-excuses school, I found that teachers varied in their responses to school control based on their cultural toolkits—their preferences and their capacities. Based on teachers' adaptation strategies, I introduce four ideal types: conformers, imitators, adaptors, and rejecters. This article makes the following contributions. First, I extend classic theories of teacher self-socialization to a new context of control. Second, I offer new ways beyond sensemaking theories to analyze how and why teachers adopt (or fail to adopt) new teaching practices. Finally, I provide timely insight into teacher experiences in no-excuses schools—and into these schools' efforts to redirect teacher education toward a more prescriptive, skills-based approach.
This article reports on a study into student teachers' perceptions about their professional development during practicum. Framed within a symbolic interactionist perspective, the study examined to ...what extent, and how effectively, one group of student teachers was able to integrate theory and practice during a three-week practicum in the first year of their degree. The context for this mixed methods study was a Master of Teaching, graduate-level entry programme in the Faculty of Education at an urban Australian university. Although there is a strong field of literature around the practicum in pre-service teacher education, there has been a limited focus on how student teachers themselves perceive their development during this learning period. Further, despite widespread and longstanding acknowledgement of the 'gap' between theory and practice in teacher education, there is still more to learn about how well the practicum enables an integration of these two dimensions of teacher preparation. In presenting three major findings of the study, this paper goes some way in addressing these shortcomings in the literature. First, participants in this study largely valued both the theoretical and practical components of their programme, which stands in contrast to the commonly identified tendency of the student teacher to privilege practice over theory. Second, opportunities to integrate theory and practice were varied, with many participants reporting the detrimental impact of an apparent lack of clarity around stakeholders' roles and responsibilities. Third, participants overwhelmingly supported the notion of linking university coursework assessment to the practicum as a means of bridging the gap between, on the one hand, the university and the school and, on the other hand, theory and practice.
This study of early-career teachers identified a significant relationship between upper-elementary teachers' mathematical content knowledge and their students' mathematics achievement, after ...controlling for student- and teacher-level characteristics. Findings provide evidence of the relevance of teacher knowledge and perceptions for teacher preparation and professional development programs.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected all aspects of human life, with significant impacts on education, as higher education institutions across the world were forced to make rapid transition to a fully ...online education format with no time to prepare. This qualitative study applied the narrative approach to examine the stories of six university instructors regarding their experiences with promoting student engagement during the COVID-19 emergency remote teaching. The study findings present the instructors' feelings during the transition to distance education, the challenges they faced, and their efforts to promote their students' engagement by using various strategies and assessments and by providing the students with emotional support. The findings also present the effect of local culture and millennial generation student status on students' engagement.
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