Section archive - Preservice Teachers

This paper examines how Chinese (n = 11) and Spanish (n = 11) preservice teachers reflect on their learning-to-teach experiences during the teaching practicum period through the lenses of transformative learning theory and third space conceptualisation. Specifically, the authors adopted the five-stage transformative learning model and collected reflective journals from the participants. Framed by this model, the authors traced the Chinese and Spanish preservice teachers’ transformative professional learning experiences evidenced by (1) disorienting dilemma, (2) reflection and exploration of assumptions, (3) gaining confidence in a new role, (4) behaviour changes, and (5) integration of new perspectives. Implications for fostering a third space, namely hybridity and boundary-crossing between university and schools, during teaching practicum are discussed in this paper.

English is vertically distributed in the socioeconomic layers of Turkish society as there has been a discrepancy between English learning opportunities in public vs. private educational institutions and developed vs. underdeveloped regions. Attracting qualified English teachers to work in unprivileged regions and public schools would be one of the solutions for the social inequity caused by unbalanced access opportunities to satisfactory English proficiency. Collecting and analysing questionnaire data from pre-service teachers from 13 English Language Teaching departments (N = 583), and conducting semi-structured interviews with 88 participants, this study aims to understand regional and institutional plans of pre-service English teachers with a focus on factors affecting their plans. Majority of the participants plan to work in public institutions as they offer job security and moderate workload; on the other hand, professional development opportunities in private institutions are quite attractive for many teacher candidates. Participants seem to have a tendency to work in developed regions. Cultural concerns, geographical concerns, altruistic concerns, opportunities and beliefs derived from others’ experiences are found to be effective on their regional plans.

This article reports on the perceptions and expectations of pre-service teachers (PSTs) on the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) taught as part of a teacher preparation course. The research was conducted across core units in first and fourth years of an undergraduate education degree in an Australian university. The researchers used a mixed method study. Online survey data from 208 students were analysed, using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and thematic analysis for open-ended responses. Results indicate that PSTs’ understandings of EI included awareness and management of emotions in oneself and others. They perceived EI as highly important to teachers in various aspects of teaching such as classroom management, student well-being and classroom pedagogy. Additionally, first year students stated that they expected to learn about EI in their teacher education program, however fourth year students expressed that they had not learnt about EI during their course.

The present study explores Finnish preservice subject teachers’ perspectives and experiences with movement integration in academic classrooms. In the study, 44 subject teachers applied an integrated approach to infuse physical activity into a required teacher-preparatory course. The program’s framework is the constructivist learning approach. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations and field notes. The findings show that movement integration was a new concept for the preservice teachers and that their experience positively influenced their beliefs regarding the use of that concept in academic lessons. Thus, it is possible to support implementation of movement integration into secondary academic classrooms.