Section archive - Preservice Teachers

The purpose of this study was to examine prospective elementary teachers’ conceptions and values about the learn-from-teaching (LFT) skills and model hold about these skills. The authors argue that PTs had a high level of procedural knowledge. However, their conceptions were not always productive in terms of promoting systematic lifelong learning. In The authors try to explain why PTs may have held these conceptions by suggesting three conjectures.

This study aimed to examine the preservice teachers’ reflections on the contingent situations of a microteaching experience based on exploratory talk, in order to better understand preservice teachers’ emerging awareness of teaching and learning in mathematics. The findings suggest that the experience had impacted on the preservice teachers’ professional development in some ways. All the participants seemed to have valued the experience, and so may have been sensitised to work with their students in an informed way. However, some preservice teachers said that the experience had changed their beliefs in using talk as a teaching approach; and even that the experience had changed the way they wanted to teach mathematics. Others argued that the experience had raised awareness of the difficulties in working this way.

This study aims to examine relationships between preservice teachers’ science self-efficacy beliefs and science content knowledge in the context of a specialized physics course designed for elementary preservice teachers. The findings indicated statistically significant gains in participants’ science self-efficacy beliefs and science conceptual understandings. Furthermore, it was found that there was a positive moderate relationship between gains in science conceptual understandings and gains in personal science teaching efficacy beliefs. These results strongly suggest positive changes in participants' science self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, participants felt confident in the science content learned in the course and felt comfortable teaching it.

This article discusses findings from a longitudinal study of the levels of moral reasoning of student teachers in an Irish university. While comparing theses students' results to international findings, it was found that the levels of moral reasoning of these students’ were higher than those of their international peers.