Section archive - Programs & Practicum

This investigation of physics teacher education in Ethiopia reveals a significant gap between the physics knowledge of pre-service teachers (PSTs) attained during training and that of the intended curriculum setting out expectations for their knowledge. Data were obtained by a test probing PSTs’ physics knowledge (attained curriculum); analysis of teacher education curriculum documents (intended); and video-recording, observation and analysis of lectures delivered to pre-service teachers at four Colleges of Teacher Education (implemented). These illustrate that implementation focuses on high-level, abstract knowledge delivered mainly via mathematical approaches, offering limited opportunities for learning basic concepts by debate. An outcome of current practice is that physics teachers lack the necessary subject knowledge to teach effectively, leading successive generations of Ethiopian students to under-achieve. The paper argues for change to enable Ethiopia to achieve its aim of raising educational achievement and societal productivity to become a low-middle income nation by 2025.

Human-in-the-loop simulation is a valuable tool that can support novice teachers in learning how to lead classroom discussions. The authors ground their use of simulation in a theory of practice-based teacher education, examining how authenticity is theorized around approximations of practice. They then illustrate the use an approximation of practice approach, discussing guiding principles of project work in which novice teachers learn to facilitate small-group discussions with digitally simulated fifth-grade students. Several provocative vignettes illustrate the complexity of authenticity, suggesting additional theorization to help use authenticity as more a malleable attribute than as simulation’s end goal. One implication is that more study is needed, in the context of using virtual environments and humans in teacher education, addressing authenticity, participant perception of authenticity, and their interaction.

As part of the requirements for Residency I, a clinical-based course to prepare undergraduates for teaching, teacher candidates (art, music, physical education, agriculture, English, history, math, and science) participated in ATLAS video case analysis activities to examine the instructional strategies of accomplished teachers. Before watching the videos, candidates read lesson summaries and created possible questions to promote student discussion and higher-level thinking. Through peer group discussions, reflection questions, and interviews, candidates explained how the accomplished teachers 1) incorporated higher-order thinking questions; 2) probed and guided student thinking; 3) encouraged peer-to-peer interactions; 4) gave oral feedback; 5) provided wait time after questioning students; and 6) created classroom environments conducive to the use of questioning strategies. After the video case analysis activities, many candidates chose to revise their original questions to emulate the types of questions used by the accomplished teachers in the videos.

This ethnographic case study looks at the emerging teacher identities of pre-service teachers by examining their service learning experiences in a literacy programme for pre-school children from an urban poor community in the Philippines. Specifically, constructs of teacher’s roles, understandings of the goals of education, sense of self-efficacy, and identification to the teaching profession are explored from their situated encounters in a literacy programme. The relevance of reflection and mentoring during the teaching-learning process of service learning is likewise considered. Thematic analysis of observation notes, submitted portfolios, and interview transcripts revealed how pre-service teachers can learn more about themselves and their pivotal role in society particularly when their service learning is deliberately oriented towards social justice. Such findings on these situated encounters in service learning can provide valuable insights as to how a social justice approach to service learning is important to curriculum design and implementation of teacher education.