This article lays out the proposition that the rapid changes in 21st-century society, in which multilingualism is the norm, have presented new challenges, questions, and resources with regard to the ...roles, tasks, and contributions of language teachers. In line with recent research developments and in keeping with tradition, we believe it helpful to think of language teachers' broader identity role as that of moral agent. We examine implications that such a re-envisioning has for the knowledge base of language teachers and for the purposes and practices of language teacher education and professional development. Drawing on research in language teacher education, language teacher cognition, second language acquisition, and applied linguistics more broadly, we highlight the need to go beyond traditional notions of teachers' knowledge of language, language learning, and language learners. We also subject to critical scrutiny the notions of effective pedagogies and reflective practice as the desired outcomes of language teacher preparation and development. Instead, we introduce critical alternatives that offer creative possibilities for educating teachers able and willing to serve student populations with diverse language learning needs across interlinguistic, sociopolitical, and historical contexts of language teaching.
The purpose of this research is to investigate prospective teachers' learning in the statistical modeling process. To reach this goal, we position the study in a socio-critical perspective of ...modeling that informed the design of a statistical investigation. Participants were 10 prospective teachers from a state university in northwestern Colombia who were taking a methods course in statistics. They worked out a statistical investigation inspired by a news article on global warming. The main source of data was fragments from prospective teachers' speech while working out the statistical investigation. The information was complemented with prospective teachers' narratives in which they reflected on their experience with statistics. The results reveal that the prospective teachers' discourse offers indications to suggest that the participants were in the process of developing statistical knowledge as well as developing awareness as critical citizens. Prospective teachers used statistics tools to (1) make sense of a crisis of society while progressing in the development of their statistical knowledge and (2) reflect on the critical issue while showing signs of social awareness development.
This study investigates how work placement contributes to the integration of practical skills and theoretical knowledge in teacher education. The lack of connection has commonly been criticised in ...teacher education as well as in other professional studies. The aim of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how practicum interacts with the university coursework to enhance professional competencies among student teachers. The context is three different Norwegian teacher education programmes that prepare for secondary school. In focus groups the students describe the placement context and the differences between learning on campus and in the practice field. Furthermore, they explain the outcome of field experiences. The findings show that the learning in practicum should not be taken for granted. The students experience great differences between workplaces related to attitudes, support, facilities, mentoring and possibilities to learn from experiences. Practicum should be recognised as an important part of student teachers' education. It should not be left to chance, but have a binding framework related to the quality of mentoring and the working conditions student teachers are offered.
Digital distraction is a growing problem as students' use of personal digital devices increases. This paper investigates teacher educators’ views of the issue and how they intervened when noticing ...incidents of it. Through a semi-structured interview, the study found that teacher educators recalled numerous examples of digital distraction with some seeing it as a sign of disrespect rather than an unconscious habit. Interventions to address digital distraction varied but tended to be non-disruptive in nature. This paper outlines a hierarchy of interventions employed and discusses the implications of how digital distraction is perceived and responded to by teacher educators.
•Teacher educators recalled numerous examples of digital distraction amongst students while teaching.•Some teacher educators saw digital distraction as a sign of disrespect rather than an unconscious habit.•Interventions to address digital distraction varied but tended to be non-disruptive low level in nature.•The intervention framework presented enables educators to reflect on their responses to digital distraction.
This qualitative study explores key strengths and areas for improvement in arts education within early childhood teacher training programs. For this purpose, twenty-five interviews were conducted ...with experts from ten Ibero-American countries. The results indicate a low level of satisfaction with current training and highlight five priority elements that should be considered for inclusion in early childhood pre-service teacher education. These include increasing their link with the cultural world, incorporating a clear focus on artistic training, including more artistic disciplines, enhancing cross-disciplinarity, and re-evaluating the role of the arts. Incorporating these suggestions into contemporary early childhood education teacher training is essential.
•Artistic training of early childhood teachers is considered insufficient.•Opportunities for connection with arts should be created during teacher training.•For teacher trainees, art education subjects with clear purposes are beneficial.•Universities are encouraged to implement more holistic and cross-cutting initiatives.
Learning how to develop lesson and unit plans is recognised as a priority for teacher education programmes; however, recent empirical research on planning is scarce, particularly in physical ...education. The purpose of this research was to analyse how and why we teach physical education pre-service teachers (PSTs) to plan in the ways we do. A secondary purpose was to consider alternative approaches to teaching about planning based on this analysis. Over one academic term, we used collaborative self-study of teacher education practice methodology and gathered several forms of qualitative data, including reflective journal entries, recorded video conversations, and teaching artefacts. Through sharing and interrogating our assumptions about the nature of planning and how to teach PSTs about planning, we came to see several flaws in the approaches we had typically used, particularly in terms of the emphasis given to the products (i.e. developing and submitting complete lesson plans) over the processes of planning, and how this emphasis did not necessarily support PSTs’ learning. This was partially because we found it challenging to model our processes of planning for PSTs in authentic ways. We agree that planning is and should be a central part of learning to teach; however, this research suggests that the ‘typical’ actions in how we teach PSTs about planning may be ripe for disruption and redesign. This research provides a rationale for a better balance to be struck between teaching about planning-as-process and teaching about planning-as-product.
Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Programmes comprise campus‐based teaching sessions and school practice. This article carries out a systematic review from the context of Initial Teacher Education ...programmes in Higher Education, using the term ‘nexus’ to summarise the various ways research is integrated into campus‐based teaching, and the various forms of research‐informed teaching in school placement within ITE programmes. The review focused on empirical studies, written in either English or Spanish between 2015 to 2022, that report on this nexus—17 articles written in English met all the inclusion criteria, but none written in Spanish. The nexus is manifested on three levels: the intended level (related to courses), the implemented level (concerning campus‐based teaching), and the impact level (among pre‐service teachers). The nexus appears on the intended level through how courses and associated focal points for pedagogical practice are engineered and systematically designed to integrate research and teaching. On the implemented level, the nexus emerges in teacher educators' emphasis on epistemic connections between research and current school practice, and this highlights the identities of teacher educators and their professional development needs. On the impact level, the nexus means achieving harmony between, on the one hand, what pre‐service teachers have learnt from researching and, on the other, real social contexts—cognitively, affectively and self‐efficaciously. Discussion of these results provides a working definition of the research‐teaching nexus: for both teacher educators and pre‐service teachers to use the products and processes of research to enhance the effectiveness of teaching, either in campus‐teaching or school placement practice.
Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) provides a commentary on the manuscripts in this special issue, responding to criticisms of edTPA as an assessment that narrows the ...curriculum, heavily relies on students’ academic writing skills, and creates additional burdens for teacher candidates. The commentary highlights how edTPA is intended to strengthen teacher candidates’ teaching and provides suggestions for educative implementation that could improve teacher education programs.
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