Programs & Practicum (367 items)To section archive

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This paper analyses the forms of, and the reasons for developing extracurricular activities by fellow participants in an alternative teacher preparation programme in China. The authors frame the paper through Bourdieu’s sociology. Their interviews with 16 fellows reveal that fellows manoeuvre their capital portfolio to develop both academic and non-academic forms of extracurricular activities. Reasons for developing extracurricular activities include using available resources through capital conversion, expanding students’ horizon through contemptuous habitus; and taking into account the local needs. Despite fellows’ good intention to compensate local students, the authors call for reflexivity to transform their contemptuous habitus into one that realises local values.
Published: 2022
Updated: Aug. 09, 2022
Responding to mathematical problems is a core activity in classrooms. The problems that teachers select determine the mathematical content, processes and nature of mathematical inquiry occurring in classrooms and thereby contribute to the development of mathematical skills and dispositions. Selecting, designing or reformulating mathematical problems is a critical skill, then, for prospective and practising teachers. This study explores the influence of a mathematical letter writing initiative in developing the problem posing skills of 28 prospective primary teachers. We examine the characteristics of mathematical problems designed by prospective teachers, and their understandings of what constitutes a good mathematical problem, prior to and following completion of a 12-week letter writing initiative with 10–11-year-old children. Analysis of the data reveals the benefits of engaging in the initiative as evidenced in improvements in several problem characteristics. There was an increase in the number of multiple approach and multiple solution problems and in the level of cognitive demand of problems posed. The challenge of posing non-traditional problems, alongside the competing demands of building in opportunities for success, may have diminished participants’ ability to evaluate and attend to the cognitive demand of problems.
Published: 2022
Updated: Aug. 02, 2022
Providing support to student teachers to implement participatory pedagogies is vital for understanding the importance of listening to children’s voices and involving them in decision making. At a local university in the Western Cape, South Africa, ten final year Foundation Phase student teachers studying toward the Bachelor in Education who enrolled in the Reception Year module participated in a project during work integrated learning using Harry Shier’s Pathways to Participation model in support of a participatory pedagogy. After the first session of work integrated learning, student teachers participated in focus group interviews guided by open-ended questions on their experiences using Shier’s model. Findings reveal that whilst student teachers were open to listening to children’s voices, they did not have the necessary opportunities in their training to listen to children. Students were restricted to the confines of a Grade R class dominated by mentor teachers who adopted a transmissive pedagogy. Student teachers also noted that children were not accustomed to having their voices heard and making decisions.
Published: 2022
Updated: Aug. 01, 2022
Teachers’ sense of efficacy refers to the beliefs held by teachers (pre-service and practicing) for completing the tasks associated with teaching. This belief is bound by the nature of tasks which includes, but is not limited to, the content, students, and context that frame teachers’ practice. In this investigation, the authors explored 25 pre-service early childhood teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching children with autism in inclusive settings as they participated in a course on the nature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants reported changes in their perceptions of ASD and of children diagnosed with ASD and they attributed their change in understanding to lessons learned from course activities. In addition, participants’ self-efficacy for teaching and self-efficacy for teaching children diagnosed with ASD in inclusive settings increased over the course of the intervention.
Published: 2022
Updated: Jul. 26, 2022