Preservice Teachers

A video-based program on lesson analysis for pre-service mathematics teachers was implemented for two consecutive years as part of a teacher education program at the University of Lazio, Italy. Two questions were addressed: What can preservice teachers learn from the analysis of videotaped lessons? How can preservice teachers' analysis ability, and its improvement, be measured? Two groups of preservice teachers (approximately 140 in total) participated in the program. A three-step lesson analysis framework was applied to three lesson videos: (1) goal(s) and parts of the lesson; (2) student learning; and, (3) teaching alternatives. Preservice teachers' ability to analyze lessons was measured through an open-ended pre-and post-assessment. In the assessment, preservice teachers were asked to mark and comment on events (in a lesson not included in the program) that they found interesting for: teachers' actions/decisions; students' behavior/learning; and, mathematical content. A coding system was developed based on five criteria: elaboration, mathematics content, student learning, critical approach, and alternative strategies. In both studies, the ability to analyze instruction improved significantly on all five criteria. These data suggest promising directions for the development of both an instrument to measure lesson analysis abilities and a model for teacher learning.

Picture books appeal to readers of all ages for many different reasons. As instructors of child development, we use them as one strategy to help students conceptualize the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional growth of children. We use picture books to introduce principles, explain vocabulary, and encourage students to make connections between theory and practice in early childhood education. In this article, we provide examples of picture books that can be used to understand children from infancy (birth-2 years) to early childhood (2-6 years). Twenty-four suggested titles accurately narrate and illustrate early development.

In this article I take seriously the call for recruiting and retaining more preservice teachers of color by critically considering some of the pressing challenges they might encounter in teacher preparation programs. I draw from critical race theory (CRT) in education to review the extant literature on preservice teachers of color and teacher education in the US. I excavate how the dominant, (dis)embodied and normalized culture of Whiteness, White privilege and White hegemony pervades contemporary
teacher education, and presents a formidable challenge to the goal of preparing teachers (of color) to teach in a manner that is relevant, critical and humanizing while also socially and individually transformative. I conclude by envisioning how teacher education programs might address these challenges in such a way that more effectively meets the needs of preservice teachers.

This interpretivist qualitative study used a life history method to analyze the foundational tenets of experiential learning in agricultural education and determine if the tenets are common to the components of authentic learning. The four tenets of experiential learning in agricultural education were: learning through real-life contexts , learning by doing (Knapp, cited in Lever, 1952), learning through projects , and learning through solving problems . The four tenets of experiential learning were conceptually aligned with the three criteria of authentic learning because experiential learning engages students to solve problems inductively, actively use and explain knowledge through solving problems, and make connections and apply knowledge beyond the classroom and school, based on real-life problems. Teacher educators, preservice teachers, and in-service teachers of agriculture should base their instruction on an experiential learning model that is grounded on the philosophies of Dewey, Knapp, Stimson, and Lancelot, and aligned with Newmann and Associates (1996) authentic learning standards because it is likely to provide a sound psychological framework for learning.

The purpose of this study was to describe the levels of cognition modeled and the alignment among the levels of cognition modeled via course objectives, instructional strategies, and assessments in preservice teacher preparation courses. The accessible sample consisted of seven teacher educators teaching courses for secondary and middle school-level education majors at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Higher levels of cognition

Kristopher M. Goodrich, Karla V. Kingsley, Carlos LópezLeiva & Douglas Daugherty (2016) The Lived Experiences of LGBTQQIAA Advocates in Education, The Teacher Educator, 51:3, 211-229, DOI: 10.1080/08878730.2016.1173156

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and ally (LGBTQQIAA) students are not commonly discussed in teacher education programs. Issues related to LGBTQQIAA learners need to be addressed in schools and in teacher education programs. Extant research shows that LGBTQQIAA students often face hostile school climates, with few resources and little support, which can lead to higher levels of absence and truancy, lower levels of academic achievement, and numerous negative health outcomes. This article uses autoethnographic methods to examine the experiences of an activist group working with preservice teachers, teacher educators, and other social justice advocates on a long-term service project for undergraduate teacher candidates aimed at increasing recognition of and giving voice to K–12 LGBTQQIAA students’ experiences. Issues related to agency and resistance are addressed, and implications for teacher preparation programs are discussed.

A well defined line of research has been conducted on the role of self-efficacy . Selfefficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, in teaching and learning environments. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Laboratory-Based (LB) and Field-Based (FB) practicum experience on pre-service teachers' efficacy levels within one Physical Education Teacher Education program. The participants were 59 undergraduate students who were placed into two groups, LB design (n ¼ 31) and FB design (n ¼ 28). A quasi-experimental design with two levels of treatment and no control group was implemented. Both groups were administered a version of the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES) adapted for physical education teachers at four stages of their preservice program: (1) at or near entry; (2) at the start of their methods course sequence; (3) at the end of the methods course sequence, just prior to student teaching; and (4) at program completion. Results from a Repeated Measures ANOVA indicated significant differences between groups on one facet of teacher efficacy at Stages 2 and 3. Those differences are attributed to the differing levels of authentic teaching practice between groups, and the challenges posed to each group of preservice teachers prior to student teaching. By the end of student teaching, both groups' efficacy levels were essentially equal, perhaps due to the similarly high level of authenticity across all subjects in that key experience. This study also highlights the importance of on-going, appropriate and authentic challenges in eventually establishing strong and stable efficacy levels among preservice teachers Ó

This study describes the perspectives of five pairs of preservice teachers and their experienced mentor teachers who engaged collaboratively in planning, implementing, and evaluating action research projects during a semester-long internship experience in their professional development school sites. The views of novice and experienced teachers about the costs and benefits of doing collaborative action research are presented, and the authors elaborate on the development of the mentor/mentee relationship between the preservice and experienced teacher pairs. The authors also offer guidelines for successfully engaging preservice and experienced teachers in collaborative action research.

We have taken to heart the call of critical race theorists and critical Whiteness scholars to open up a White discourse on White racism. As White, female, teacher educators, we endeavored to openly address Whiteness and White racism with our White students to help them become more aware of the advantages and biases inherent in their positionality as White teachers. As we did this, we were critically aware of both the negative and positive possible outcomes of our endeavors. Throughout our work with our students and our subsequent reflections on the results, we were able to establish ways of speaking about Whiteness that moved our students, and ourselves, to a more critical, more empowered understanding of race and Whiteness.

Learning to teach is a highly complex and multidimensional process. This self-study, conducted collaboratively by a preservice teacher and a teacher educator, traces one preservice teacher's development and growth over a 2-year period. The study examines the complexities of learning to teach, as well as the complexities of assisting preservice teachers on their journey to becoming teachers. The data were derived from multiple sources including observation notes, journal reflections, dialogue journals, and the student's action research/self-study paper. The results provide insight into how preservice teachers think, the conflicts they experience, the fears they encounter, and the benefits they derive from systematically examining their teaching and their students' learning. The article describes specific attitudes and dispositions that can impact growth and development. In addition, it discusses a variety of activities to foster reflection and inquiry. r

This study investigates how four prospective teachers interpret and use textbooks while learning to teach mathematics during university coursework and practicum teaching. Results indicate that prospective teachers had varied approaches to using textbooks ranging from adherence, elaboration, and creation. Factors influencing how they engaged with texts include their practicum classroom setting, access to resources, and their understanding of mathematics. Preservice teachers' attempts to modify textbook lessons raised pedagogical, curricular, and mathematical questions for them that were not easily answered by reference to the textbooks or teacher's guides. Findings indicate that the practicum can, however, challenge preservice teachers to be creative and flexible users of curriculum materials. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 KEY WORDS: curriculum materials, elementary teacher education, mathematics education, preservice elementary teachers, textbooks 15 16

We investigated a theoretical model including an instructional intervention and systematic processing to account for change in preservice teachersÕ epistemological beliefs about teaching and learning in mathematics. General and subject-specific epistemological beliefs and systematic processing were assessed in 161 preservice teachers, randomly assigned to an experimental group whose epistemological beliefs about mathematics were activated and challenged through augmented activation and refutational text or to a control group who read a traditional expository text. The model was partially supported. The treatment group receiving the instructional intervention demonstrated greater change in implicit epistemological beliefs than the control group, and partial support for systematic processing as a mediator of the relationship between general epistemological beliefs and change in specific epistemological beliefs was obtained.

Meslek seçiminde, öğrencilerin çıkarcı gerekçelere sahip olmaları ve ülkemizin eğitim sisteminden dolayı
kendilerine uygun meslekleri seçmek yerine ilgi alanlarının dışında bulunan mesleklere yönelmek zorunda
kalmaktadırlar. Birçok meslek alanında olduğu gibi öğretmenlik mesleğinin seçiminde de bu durum karşımıza
çıkmaktadır. Öğretmenlik mesleğini seçen kişilerin nitelikli bir öğretmenin olabilmeleri için, öğretmenlik
mesleğini bilinçli olarak seçmeleri, mesleğe karşı olumlu tutum geliştirmeleri ve kişisel özellikleri ile öğretmenlik
mesleğinin gereklilikleri arasında uyum olması gerekmektedir. Fen Bilgisi öğretmeni bilgiyi aktarmak yerine
bilgiye ulaşma yollarında rehber olmalı ve öğrenciyi aktif kılmalıdır. Bunun yanı sıra, öğrenciler tarafından olumlu
tutum geliştirilmeyen bu derse karşı da öğretmenler dersi sevdirmeli ve fennin hayatın her alanında karşımıza
çıkabilecek bir bilim dalı olduğuna vurgu yapmalıdır.
Bu çalışma, Fen Bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının, Fen Bilgisi öğretmenliği mesleğini seçme nedenleri ve
bölümlerindeki memnuniyet düzeylerini araştırmak amacıyla yapılmıştır. Özel durum çalışması yönteminin
kullanıldığı bu araştırma da, Fatih Eğitim Fakültesi İlköğretim Bölümü Fen Bilgisi Öğretmenliği Programında
öğrenim gören otuz gönüllü öğretmen adayı yer almıştır. Veri toplama aracı olarak araştırmacılar tarafından
oluşturulan yarı yapılandırılmış mülakat kullanılmıştır.
Yürütülen çalışmalardan elde edilen veriler doğrultusunda katılımcılar lise hayatlarında fen bilgisi öğretmenliği
bölümünde eğitim görmek istemediklerini, Fen Bilgisi öğretmenliği programını da çıkarcı ve içsel sebeplerden
dolayı tercih ettikleri görülmüştür. Ayrıca katılımcılara yöneltilen sorular ışığında fen bilgisi öğretmenin sahip
olması gereken özellikler ile öğretmenin sahip olması gereken özellikleri tam olarak ayırt edemedikleri
görülmüştür. Öğretmen adaylarının görüşleri doğrultusunda öğretmenlik eğitiminde uygulamaya yönelik derslerin
son sınıfta verilmek yerine sürece dağıtılarak uygulanması gerektiği önerilmiştir.

Recent reforms in mathematics education have encouraged teachers to engage their students in various forms of communication. Scholars have begun to consider questions such as: In what ways do teachers facilitate and guide classroom discourse? How does the quality of students' reflections impact the development of rich mathematical understanding? In order to address these and similar questions, the authors provide a framework of four constructs that can be used to analyze various forms of classroom communication: uni-directional communication, contributive communication, reflective communication, and instructive communication. Throughout the article, the authors both develop and use these constructs as they consider two preservice teachers concepts of communication and their corresponding classroom practices.

In the present study, 82 undergraduate students in a teacher education program responded to 6 written vignettes describing school bullying incidents. Scenarios described physical bullying, verbal bullying, and relational bullying events. Respondents rated relational bullying as the least serious of the 3 types. Participants had the least empathy for the victims of relational bullying and were least likely to intervene in relational bullying incidents. When asked to describe interventions they would use in these cases, the preservice teachers proposed the least severe actions for both perpetrators and victims of relational bullying compared with other forms of bullying. Results were compared with those of practicing teachers in a previous study. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed. Two supplemental studies, conducted to address concerns about seriousness of bullying scenarios, are also described.

The purpose of this study was to determine preservice science teachers metacognitive awareness levels and to investigate whether their metacognitive awareness levels differ in terms of gender and grade level. A total of 188 preservice science teachers participated in the study. Personal Information Form and the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) developed by Schraw and Dennison (1994) were utilized as data collection tools in the study. The data obtained were analyzed using the PASW Statistics 18 (SPSS Inc.). According to the results, preservice science teachers metacognitive awareness levels were determined generally high. However, a significant gender difference favoring female preservice science teachers was found in terms of debugging sub-component. When the total and sub-component scores of MAI were examined by grade level, a significant difference was found in the sub-components apart from conditional knowledge and debugging. Suggestions were made based on the findings obtained from the study.

Reading disabilities such as dyslexia, a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process written language, are estimated to affect 15-20% of the general population. Consequently, elementary school teachers encounter students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. However, recent evidence may suggest that teacher preparation programs are not providing preservice teachers with information about basic language constructs and other components related to scientifically based reading instruction. As a consequence preservice teachers have not exhibited explicit knowledge of such concepts in previous studies. Few studies have sought to assess preservice teachers' knowledge about dyslexia in conjunction with knowledge of basic language concepts. The purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school preservice teachers' knowledge of basic language constructs and their perceptions and knowledge about dyslexia. Findings from the present study suggest that preservice teachers, on average, are able to display implicit skills related to certain basic language constructs (i.e., syllable counting), but fail to demonstrate explicit knowledge of others (i.e., phonics principles). Also, preservice teachers seem to hold the common misconception that dyslexia is a visual perception deficit rather than a problem with phonological processing. Implications for future research as well as teacher preparation are discussed.

The need to integrate technology into education has made necessary a thorough examination of teachers' technopedagogical competencies. While training preservice teachers, it is of particular importance that they acquire technopedagogical education competences during their preservice education. Practical and theoretical course content and Instructional Technology and Material Design (ITMD) courses are thought to be essential for preservice teachers' technopedagogical education competency acquisition. However, the role of ITMD courses in preservice teachers' technopedagogical education competency acquisition has remained obscure in the literature. As such, the study aims to describe the effect that ITMD courses have on technopedagogical education competency acquisition. The research was conducted with a total of 186 preservice teachers studying in the departments of classroom teaching and preschool teaching in a Faculty of Education in Turkey. The research data were gathered using the Technopedagogical Education Competency Scale (TPACK-deep), developed by Kabakci Yurdakul, Odabasi, Kilicer, Coklar, Birinci, and Kurt. This five-point Likert type scale consists of a total of four factors, i.e. design, proficiency, ethics, and exertion. The internal reliability coefficient of the 33-item scale was .95. The scale was applied by faculty members in-line with the course description designated by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) as a pre-and post-test at the beginning and end of the semester that the course was given. A paired samples t-test and CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) analysis were incorporatedly employed to analyze the data. The research showed that ITMD courses influenced preservice teachers' acquisition of technopedagogical education competencies. The following were observed to be critical predictor variables in technopedagogical education competency acquisition: having received computer training prior to taking the ITMD courses and the average time one spends using a computer per day.

To prepare teachers who will be able to draw on caring to build a strong foundation for their professional practices, teacher education programs must be created specifically focused toward this goal. This article discusses the use of dialogue journals in a course designed to enrich preservice elementary teachers' understandings of caring. Quite unexpectedly, the dialogue journals demonstrated some of the preservice teachers developing negative, judgmental, and adversarial attitudes toward the parents of the children in their placement classrooms. A close examination of the dialogue journal activity revealed that the weak link was not the activity itself but the specific details of the teaching-learning interactions occurring within the activity. The findings suggest that the core of caring teacher education lies in the nature of the interactions between the teacher educator and her students.

Students in US schools are required to make meaning from linguistically complex texts. Teachers are often inadequately prepared to create language-focused instruction because they lack a deep knowledge of language (KOL) themselves. Therefore, teacher educators must apprentice pre-service teachers in developing their KOL and demonstrate how to use that linguistic knowledge to inform their pedagogy. The theory of Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) has been introduced into some teacher preparation programs across the English-speaking world to enhance new teachers' KOL. This study examines the pedagogy used to introduce SFL theory to future teachers and highlights some of the challenges pre-service teachers experience as they explore SFL theory. Findings suggest that the incorporation of SFL theory within the course deepened pre-service teachers' KOL and confidence in using that knowledge to design effective instruction for linguistically diverse students, but that difficulties remained in transferring that linguistic knowledge to robust language focused instructional practice. Implications for teacher education and suggestions for successfully introducing the theory are discussed. Teacher education program standards such as the Interstate New Teachers Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) require new teachers to develop content knowledge of their subject matter which includes understanding how academic language works in the disciplines they teach. In spite of this demand for teachers to have a deep knowledge of academic language, teacher preparation programs in the US have not typically integrated linguistic theory within their courses in ways that adequately support the new teachers' KOL (Brisk, Homza & Smith, 2014; Gebhard, Chen, Graham, & Gunawan, 2013). To address the gap in pre-service teachers' (KOL), some teacher educators have begun to integrate SFL into their teacher preparation course sequences for pre-service teachers (Gebhard & Willett, 2015; Schulze, 2015). How to integrate SFL theory effectively into teacher preparation programs so that new educators develop a linguistic awareness and use that KOL to develop robust language-focused pedagogy is an area that needs further exploration. The purpose of this article is to illuminate the effective pedagogical practices used to increase pre-service teachers KOL and shed light on the challenges and benefits of integrating SFL into teacher education programs. Namely, it addresses the following question: How does integrating SFL into a literacy methods class for pre-service teachers enhance their knowledge of language? 1. Systemic Functional Linguistics The functional perspective of language introduced during the course was derived from Halliday's theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). SFL is a sociocultural-based view of language that contends that language users construct meaning by making linguistic choices and employ language to accomplish tasks in particular contexts (Halliday & Hasan, 1989).

A variety of public critiques, reports and government
reviews into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Australia and globally
have called for a rethink on teacher education. Similarly, key
researchers such as Hattie (2011), Smith and Lynch (2010) and
Ingvarson et al. (2014) have argued for new, innovative approaches to
ITE that are able to provide alternative pathways to the training of
teachers. From this perspective the current article examines several
models and features of ITE in terms of innovation. This examination
provides clarification concerning the nature and role of ITE reform,
as well as a series of arguments highlighting the need for ITE
innovation, in order to illustrate and suggest how initial teacher
education might move forward in a way that best supports the aims
and goals of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

This article explores 21st century skills, nonlinear thinking skills, and the need for student reflection-which, taken together, serve as an essential foundation for digital-age teaching of today's hypertext learners. The authors discuss why preservice teachers need to use multimedia technologies within the context of students' familiar, technology-rich living spaces to develop their own teaching skills and the technology skills of their students. Exemplary multimedia samples are offered as demonstrations of ways to develop essential technology-related skills in the next generation of teachers.

In this article, we use activity theory to frame the redesign of an urban teacher education program. Some of the contradictions that we had to deal with are endemic to traditional teacher education programs while others were particular to this program that has as its goal to prepare teachers to work in urban (inner city) schools. As a result of our intervention,

In this study, White preservice teachers engaged in a dialogue circle around issues of race and racism in the classroom. Evidence indicated a need to reevaluate and diversify the ways in which each participant embodied and enacted Whiteness. The participants are compared to generalizations of White preservice teachers found in the literature. Findings are presented in the form of racial development biographies cowritten with the participants. Implications include being more specific and individual in the preparation of White preservice teachers and rethinking assumptions in the field of Multicultural Teacher Education.

There is a growing effort to make proof central to all students' mathematical experiences across all grades. Success in this goal depends highly on teachers' knowledge of proof, but limited research has examined this knowledge. This paper contributes to this domain of research by investigating preservice elementary and secondary school mathematics teachers' knowledge of proof by mathematical induction. This research can inform the knowledge about preservice teachers that mathematics teacher educators need in order to effectively teach proof to preservice teachers. Our analysis is based on written responses of 95 participants to specially developed tasks and on semi-structured interviews with 11 of them. The findings show that preservice teachers from both groups have difficulties that center around: (1) the essence of the base step of the induction method; (2) the meaning associated with the inductive step in proving the implication P(k) ) P(k + 1) for an arbitrary k in the domain of discourse of P(n); and (3) the possibility of the truth set of a sentence in a statement proved by mathematical induction to include values outside its domain of discourse. The difficulties about the base and inductive steps are more salient among preservice elementary than secondary school teachers, but the difficulties about whether proofs by induction should be as encompassing as they could be are equally important for both groups. Implications for mathematics teacher education and future research are discussed in light of these findings.

This article presents a thread of discussion posted to a web-based forum in the context of a children's literature course in one teacher education program in the USA. Participants in the virtual discussion include three preservice elementary teachers and the course instructor (author) on the subject of bringing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) literature into the elementary classroom. Classroom teachers who lead discussions about race, gender, class, sexuality and inequality are encouraged to create and maintain a safe environment for dialogue. In this article, the author explores how the need to maintain a culture of safety around discussions of sexuality shaped the participants’ views on teaching LGBT literature written for children. Applying the tools of critical discourse analysis, the author demonstrates how events in the discussion unfolded that left normative constructions of sexuality unexamined.

Demographic data show a trend toward increasing racial and ethnic diversity among students in public schools, but the teaching population is projected to remain largely White and female. Without proper training, teachers will be ill equipped to meet the educational needs of these diverse students and run the risk of unwittingly perpetuating prevalent stereotypes and discriminatory practices about certain racial and ethnic groups. This preliminary study offers a theoretically driven model for training, the Racial and Ethical Sensitivity Training KIT (REST-KIT), which is designed to (a) increase preservice teachers' ability to recognize ethical dilemmas related to intolerance in schools and (b) provide preservice teachers with techniques and skills for handling these dilemmas. The REST-KIT is unique in that it ties cultural competence to ethical principles based on professional codes of ethics accepted by school professions and emphasizes that cultural competence is a professional requirement, not a personal choice. Pre-and posttests were given to ascertain the program's effectiveness. Both a self-report and a behavior-based measure indicated that participants showed more cultural competence after completing the workshop. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

This study aimed to delineate the factors mediating the translation of preservice teachers' conceptions of the nature of science into instructional planning and classroom practice. Additionally, the study assessed the in¯uence of temporally separating teaching preservice teachers about the nature of science and teaching them how to address it instructionally. This latter intervention was based on the results of a previous investigation. Prior to student teaching, the 13 participants responded to an open-ended questionnaire designed to assess conceptions of the nature of science. Throughout student teaching, daily lesson plans, classroom videotapes, portfolios, and supervisors' weekly clinical observation notes were collected and searched for explicit instances of nature of science planning and/or instruction. Following student teaching, participants were interviewed to validate their responses to the open-ended questionnaire, identify factors that mediate the translation of their conceptions of the nature of science into classroom teaching, and explicate their pedagogical preferences for teaching the nature of science. Participants possessed adequate understanding of several aspects of the nature of science and, contrary to the results of the earlier investigation, most did not con¯ate the nature of science with science processes. Furthermore, several participants explicitly addressed some aspects of the nature of science during classroom instruction. Participants, however, failed to include the nature of science among their instructional objectives and did not make a concerted effort to assess student understandings. ß

Research suggests that there is a need for better training of prospective teachers on information and communication technologies (ICTs) in order to encourage their use for teaching and learning in schools. This paper presents findings on the self-perceptions of competence by pre-service teachers to use ICTs for teaching science content. A mixed method approach was used where 103 final year pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire on their competence to use ICTs for teaching and 21 of them participated in focus group interviews concerning their experiences with ICTs during teaching practice. Results show that pre-service teachers seem to be more competent in the non-technology related skills compared to the technology related knowledge fields and that there are significant variations in their ICT competences. These variations largely result from the uneven opportunities to learn that are provided to the pre-service teachers. More significantly, the directional trend shown by the correlations indicates that the more lecturers or mentor teachers use ICT tools to teach, the more pre-service teachers learn to use ICT tools in their own teaching. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implication of these findings for policy and practice and specifically suggests that there is a need to review the policy guidelines on the development of the teacher education programmes to be more deliberate in their inclusion of ICTs. The key recommended contribution is for teacher preparation programmes at universities to be restructured in order to improve the training of future teachers on the use of ICTs to teach science.

Nowadays, it is not enough for future teachers if they are only equipped with abilities and scientific skills, they need to apply their knowledge to real-world inside and outside the classroom. In fact, the previous studies report their low knowledge in understanding science. This research aims to improving students' academic achievement and Science Process Skills (SPS) through Problem Solving Instruction (PSI), and analyzing the correlation between both dependent variables. A quasi-experimental design was conducted for six weeks at Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo, Indonesia. Forty-eight prospective elementary teachers completed Academic Achievement Test (AAT) and SPS Test (SPST). The reliability coefficient Cronbach's alpha of both tests was .81 and .86, respectively. Data were analyzed by using N-gain score, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's rho correlation at significance level .05. The findings indicate that there is significant difference on academic achievement and science process skills between experimental and control groups in favor of experimental group students, and there is a high positive and significant correlation between both dependent variables. We recommend to the lecturers to use PSI as a tool to promote students' scientific skills and abilities to satisfactory performance in order to respond fast changes in 21st century learning.

insights into the classroom learning environments of beginning science teachers. In the first year of the study, the CLES was used with 290 upper elementary, middle, and high school science teachers and preservice teachers. As part of a larger study of the classroom environments and teaching practices of beginning science teachers, data also were gathered through classroom observations of and interviews with some of the participating teachers. Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency reliability analysis, as well as examination of each item and of participants' questions and comments about them, led to a shortened, revised version of the CLES, named the CLES 2(20). The five original scales were retained, but the number of items in each scale was reduced from six to four. The single negatively worded item was eliminated. Some of the original items were rephrased. The revised CLES was then used in the second, third and fourth years of the study. Examples of feedback based on CLES data is provided to researchers to assist them in writing teacher profiles.

A great deal of research on multiculturalism looks at different approaches to multicultural education and visions of multicultural teaching and learning. Though some research theorizes about how preservice teachers might learn about race or gender, there is very little work that helps teacher educators understand what learning about diversity more broadly, might look like. This study uses the conceptual framework developed by Paine to raise questions about and illuminate differences in the learning outcomes of preservice teachers who participated in two similar yet notably different service-learning experiences. Through examinations of writing tasks we find that teacher learning did indeed depend on the opportunities to learn provided by service-learning placements. Service-learning experiences that facilitated non-traditional power dynamics, engaged out-of-school contexts, and connected to teaching pedagogy were associated with more complex understandings of diversity. We suggest that attention to the relationships between service experiences and learning will help us better manage service learning limitations, better understand the impact of service-learning, and better understand the opportunities to learn inherent in such activities.

The purpose of this study was to examine certain characteristics of teachers (e.g., ethnicity, gender, relationship history) and children (e.g., gender, ethnicity) that are unique to the child-teacher relationship. One hundred thirty-eight preservice teachers reported on their relationship with 903 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Results indicated that the preservice teachers' perceived attachment history was a significant predictor of the quality of child-teacher relationships as reported by the teacher. Gender and ethnic differences were found in teachers' reports of the quality of relationships with students. Results are examined in terms of their relation to theory concerning child-adult relationships and their practical significance. Implications for teacher education are also discussed.

Writing is a highly valued skill that is often neglected in the classroom; one reason is that teachers often do not receive adequate training in writing assessment and instruction. Teachers, particularly preservice teachers, need practice making detailed assessments of student writing and to build their confidence for assessing student writing, but practical issues of time and resources often constrain the frequency and quality of training they receive. This mixed method study focused on the design and evaluation of an online tool for building preservice teachers' writing assessment skills and self-efficacy for writing assessment. In the study, teacher education students interacted with actual 4th-graders' writing samples via a Web-based critical thinking tool. They received scaffolded practice in assessing multiple student papers and justified their assessments using analytic criteria. After each paper, they received feedback that included access to expert assessments and those of their peers, along with both teacher and peer rationales for their ratings. Participants significantly improved in ability to accurately assess student writing using an analytic approach and in knowledge of the writing traits. They also showed significantly greater self-efficacy for assessing student writing and high levels of satisfaction with the Web-based tool and their overall learning experience.

This study was designed to develop more effective ways to address culture and cultural differences in the preparation of preservice teachers. Its purpose was to provide a more adequate preparation for working in high-need schools by assisting educators in the development of "habits of mind" that incorporate an understanding and valuing of students' cultures and a recognition of the need to consider those cultures in teaching practices. This paper reports data from the second year of a five-year study that examined the experience of six preservice teachers. The data indicate that using ethnography as an observational tool helps preservice teachers become more aware of cultural differences.

The purpose of the study was to examine how team shared mental model (SMM), team performance, and students' course satisfaction change over time and how Team-SMM affects team performance and students' course satisfaction. Forty-eight preservice teachers from two undergraduate blended courses participated in this study. The data were obtained via two online questionnaires (shared mental model instrument and Course Satisfaction Scale) administered throughout Spring 2010. Data analysis was conducted using repeated measures ANOVA and multiple linear regression techniques. Results indicated that Team-SMM and students' course satisfaction changed slightly over time but the change was not statistically significant. Team performance increased significantly over the courses. Additionally, attitudes towards teammates and task were closely linked with effective team performance and students satisfaction. In the early stage of the courses, general team knowledge, resource, and environment explained a significant amount of variance in students' course satisfaction.

This research investigates the preservice teachers' senses of efficacy about their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in terms of some variables, and the association between their perceived efficacy and frequency of computer use. It was designed based on a baseline descriptive survey method, followed by associational models of casual-comparison and correlation. The research group comprised 365 senior preservice teachers. The data were collected using TPACK survey developed by Şahin . Results suggested that participants had favorable perceptions of efficacy in terms of TPACK and its domains. While no statistical differences were observed for gender, significant differences were established with regard to department and computer possession variables. Low-to-medium level of positive significant correlations were found between preservice teachers' frequency of computer use and perceived efficacy of TPACK. Finally, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Technological Pedagogical Knowledge, Technological Content Knowledge, and Pedagogical knowledge were found to be the significant predictors of TPACK.

Nurturing reflective teaching and improving critical-thinking instruction are two important goals in teacher education, but these are only achievable when teachers-in-training are provided with opportunities for building professional knowledge and for exhibiting reflective teaching practices. A computer simulation program (CS-TGCTS) was therefore developed here, and its effectiveness is explained in this study. From 149 preservice teachers participating in this study, a pretest-posttest control group design was defined by four student groups and two treatments. The central hypothesis was that increasing participants' self-awareness of teacher behaviors and enhancing mindful learning in professional knowledge would provoke reflective teaching and further bring about improvements in teacher behaviors. The findings support the hypothesis and suggest that the CS-TGCTS simulation is an effective vehicle for improving preservice teachers' reflective teaching in critical-thinking instruction.

Trying to understand the complexity of computer-mediated problem-based learning environments is not easy. Sociocultural theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding such environments because it emphasizes the socially situated nature of learning and the critical role of tools in mediating learning. To examine how different aspects of discourse relate to each other, as well as to the tools being used in the collaborative learning process, it is important to understand how collaborative knowledge building unfolds and how these processes are mediated. This requires going beyond coding individual speech acts. The use of Chronologically-Ordered Representations of Discourse and Tool-Related Activity (CORDTRA) diagrams is one way of achieving this understanding. We use this to study contrasting cases of more and less successful groups using the STELLAR learning environment. STELLAR is an integrated online PBL environment for preservice teachers, containing a learning sciences hypermedia, a library of videocases, and online personal and collaborative spaces. Our analyses suggest that an important locus of differences is how students use resources and engage in different kinds of metacognitive talk and knowledge transforming activities, sometimes to the group's detriment. Frequency analyses provided an easily interpreted snapshot of each group's activity. The CORDTRA analyses provide a more dynamic view that helps researchers and teachers better understand how collaborative learning unfolds. Such analyses have implications for understanding new learning environments as well as helping identify where interventions might be needed.

At Australian Catholic University and Monash University, preservice mathematics teachers are required to conduct and analyse one-to-one mathematics assessment interviews with primary-aged children. The assessment tool is drawn from the Early Numeracy Research Project, where it was used with over 11,000 children in Victorian schools. The interview assesses content from Number, Measurement and Geometry, in an interactive, hands-on format, with children's responses and strategies determining the path through the interview protocol. Follow-up discussion in class enabled preservice teachers to explore appropriate pedagogies that build upon what had been learned from the interviews. The research described in this chapter sought to investigate the effectiveness of this process. Interviews and written questionnaires were the data sources. Analysis of the data suggested that teachers were more aware of the kinds of strategies that children use including their variety and relative level of sophistication, and that the interview and subsequent discussion stimulated preservice teachers to reflect upon appropriate classroom experiences for young mathematics learners. r

In this paper, critical re#ection refers to deliberation on the moral and ethical dimensions of educational practice. Critically, re#ective teaching is instructional practice predicted on such re#ection. For a more through explanation of these terms, refer to Methodology section.

The study investigated educational values of mathematics in relation to gender and attitudes toward mathematics among 480 Nigerian preservice mathematics teachers from four universities in Southwest, Nigeria using the quantitative research method within the blueprint of the descriptive survey design. Data collected were analysed using  the  descriptive  statistics  of  frequency,  percentage,  mean,  and  standard deviation  and  inferential  statistics  of  independent  samples  t-test,  Pearson  moment correlation,  and  multiple  regression  analysis.  Findings  revealed  that  preservice mathematics teachers showed high level of educational value of mathematics. There were  significant  possible  correlations  among  preservice  mathematics  teachers‟ practical  value,  aesthetic  value,  cultural  value,  social  value,  moral  value, disciplinary  value,  recreational  value,  and  attitudes  toward  mathematics.  While gender  differences  in  some  dimensions  of  educational  value  of  mathematics (practical  value,  disciplinary  value,  social  value,  and  cultural  value)  are  no  longer important and are declining there are subtle gender differences in attitudes toward mathematics  and  educational  values  of  mathematics  in  this  study.  In  addition, 73.7%  of  the  variance  in  preservice  teachers‟  attitudes  toward  mathematics  was accounted for by the eight predictor variables (gender, practical or utilitarian value, disciplinary  value,  cultural  value,  social  value,  moral  value,  aesthetic  value  and recreational  value)  taken  together.  Based  on  this  baseline  study,  it  was  thus, recommended  that  future  studies  in  Nigeria  should  investigate  the  educational value  of  mathematics  of  in-service  teachers  with  varied  ethnicity  and  socio-economic background so as to generalise the results of this study.