Search results for: Misconceptions

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the causes of communication difficulties and misunderstandings between Western supervisors and Asian students in relation to their cultural and educational differences. The authors analyzed three implicit misunderstandings in this study occurred due to mismatched and unspoken expectations about the learning goals and learning behaviors between the supervisor and the student, largely reflecting their educational and cultural background differences. The learning patterns they previously had developed became a natural source for them to understand the teaching and learning of international education in the beginning.

This study examines how preservice teachers perceived homelessness and children experiencing homelessness. It focuses on preservice teachers’ experiences with the dominant discourses about homelessness and addresses how early childhood educators can support preservice teachers in preparing to teach children experiencing homelessness in their future classrooms. The data showed that the images of homelessness held by the preservice teachers closely overlapped with public discourses of homelessness. The image of children as being homeless even did not exist in the conception of homelessness that the preservice teachers initially held. Their knowledge of homelessness was very limited and inaccurate, such that children experiencing homelessness and their families were initially interpreted as being dysfunctional and abnormal.

This research study explored student teachers’ perceptions of rural teaching from a qualitative research paradigm. The findings revealed that the participants failed to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the uniqueness and consequences of teaching in a rural area. For some of the participants, the rural teaching offered a unique opportunity for the realization of an idealistic mission for their country. However, other participants were particularly fearful of adjusting to an unfamiliar rural context.

The goal of this study is two-fold: 1) to examine the role content knowledge plays in prospective teachers’ (PSTs) ability to recognize children’s conceptual understanding of mathematics, and, 2) to examine examined PSTs' ability to recognize evidence of children’s conceptual understanding of mathematics in three content areas before and after an instructional intervention designed to support this ability. The results of this study suggest that content knowledge is necessary but insufficient in supporting PSTs’ ability to recognize evidence of children’s conceptual understanding of mathematics.