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Teacher Preparation Program (teacher + preparation_program)
Selected AbstractsListening to Students, Negotiating Beliefs: Preparing Teachers for Urban ClassroomsCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 2 2008KATHERINE SCHULTZ ABSTRACT Learning to teach in urban schools is difficult, particularly when prospective teachers come from different racial, ethnic and/or class backgrounds than their students. The task of urban-focused teacher education programs is to prepare prospective teachers to learn and enact practices that enable them to teach successfully in under-resourced districts that offer both opportunities and constraints. In this article, we report on a 2-year ethnographic study designed to investigate how new teachers enacted a listening stance in teaching that was introduced in their preparation program. Taking a listening stance implies entering a classroom with questions as well as answers, knowledge as well as a clear sense of the limitations of that knowledge (e.g., Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Lytle & Cochran-Smith, 1992; Schultz, 2003). The article focuses on how four teachers attempted to adopt a listening stance in their classroom practice, while also responding to the constraints of the standardized curriculum of their district. We conclude that the process of negotiating among teachers' beliefs, practices introduced in a teacher preparation program and district mandates is a critical practice for teachers to learn. We further suggest that in the current climate of high-stakes testing and mandated curriculum, explicit teaching of negotiation skills is likely to support more teachers to enter into and remain in classrooms. [source] Making formative assessment discernable to pre-service teachers of scienceJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 4 2010Gayle A. Buck Abstract The purpose of this pragmatic action research study was to explore our re-conceptualization efforts in preparing pre-service teachers to guide the inquiry process with formative assessment and subsequently use the understandings to improve our teacher preparation program. The process was guided by two questions: to what extent did course re-conceptualization efforts lead to a more informed understanding of formative assessment by pre-service teachers and did strategies enacted in the re-conceptualized methods course foster or hinder pre-service teachers' understanding of formative assessment? Data from this study support the following findings: (1) a substantial pre- to post-methods course difference was realized in the pre-service teachers' understanding of formative assessment; (2) explicit and contextualized approaches to formative assessment in the methods course led to increased understandings by pre-service teachers; (3) an implicit approach led to improvements in course structure but did not foster pre-service teachers' understanding of the reflexive nature of formative assessment; and (4) a field-based case study on elementary science teaching both hindered and fostered our efforts with formative assessment. This study yields implications for pre-service teacher education on formative assessment. To foster pre-service teachers' knowledge and skills, we suggest explicit instruction on formative assessment combined with case studies, field experiences, and ongoing reflection. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 402,421, 2010 [source] A cultural perspective of the induction of five reform-minded beginning mathematics and science teachersJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 7 2004J. Randy McGinnis The purpose of this empirical study was to present a detailed description and interpretation of what happens in schools to beginning teachers who are prepared to enact reform-based practices in mathematics and science. The focus was on a select sample of graduates from the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation [MCTP], a statewide reform-based undergraduate teacher preparation program funded by the National Science Foundation. Interpretative research methodology was used to conduct a cultural case study of the beginning teachers' first 2 years of practice (first year, N,=,5; second year, N,=,3). We documented differential experiences and perceptions of the beginning teachers from both inside (emic) and outside (etic) perspectives. Documented discussion centered on an analytical framework suggested elsewhere. Findings were framed in two components: the individual's intentions, needs, and capabilities; and the institutional demands, affordances, and constraints. The major insight was that the beginning teachers' perception of their school culture was a major factor in whether reform-aligned mathematics and science teaching was regularly implemented by the beginning teachers. In instances where the beginning teachers' perceived that their school cultures offered a lack of support for their intent to implement reform-based practices the beginning teachers exhibited differing social strategies (resistance, moving on, and exit). Therefore, to sustain reform (and, by extension, to retain beginning mathematics and science teachers), a key implication is to place additional attention on the use of the school culture perspective to improve teacher preparation and induction experiences. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 720,747, 2004 [source] Undergraduates' attitudes and beliefs about subject matter and pedagogy measured periodically in a reform-based mathematics and science teacher preparation programJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 8 2002J. Randy McGinnis This study describes the design and use of a valid and reliable instrument to measure teacher candidates' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and science and the teaching of those subjects. The instrument, Attitudes and Beliefs about the Nature of and the Teaching of Mathematics and Science, was developed for the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP), a statewide, standards-based project in the National Science Foundation's Collaborative in Excellence in Teaching Preparation (CETP) Program. We report on two applications of the instrument: (a) a contrast between MCTP teacher candidates' and non-MCTP teacher candidates' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and science as they initially encountered reform-based instruction in their undergraduate courses, and (b) a landscaping of how the MCTP teacher candidates' attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematics and science evolved over a 2.5-year period. In support of current reform in science and mathematics teacher education, we determined that over an extended period the MCTP teacher candidates' attitudes and beliefs moved substantively and significantly in the direction intended. However, we also found that the non-MCTP teacher candidates in the same reform-based courses did not mirror this improvement in their attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and science or the teaching of those subjects. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 713,737, 2002 [source] Case-based pedagogy as a context for collaborative inquiry in the PhilippinesJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 5 2001Elvira L. Arellano The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential for using case-based pedagogy as a context for collaborative inquiry into the teaching and learning of elementary science. The context for this study was the elementary science teacher preparation program at West Visayas State University on the the island of Panay in Iloilo City, the Philippines. In this context, triple linguistic conventions involving the interactions of the local Ilonggo dialect, the national language of Philipino (predominantly Tagalog) and English create unique challenges for science teachers. Participants in the study included six elementary student teachers, their respective critic teachers and a research team composed of four Filipino and two U.S. science teacher educators. Two teacher-generated case narratives serve as the centerpiece for deliberation, around which we highlight key tensions that reflect both the struggles and positive aspects of teacher learning that took place. Theoretical perspectives drawn from assumptions underlying the use of case-based pedagogy and scholarship surrounding the community metaphor as a referent for science education curriculum inquiry influenced our understanding of tensions at the intersection of re-presentation of science, authority of knowledge, and professional practice, at the intersection of not shared language, explicit moral codes, and indigenization, and at the intersection of identity and dilemmas in science teaching. Implications of this study are discussed with respect to the building of science teacher learning communities in both local and global contexts of reform. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 502,528, 2001 [source] Exploring Whiteness and Multicultural Education with Prospective TeachersCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2002Alice McIntyre In this article, I describe how I initiate an examination of whiteness with predominantly white students in teacher preparation programs by the use of group collages,a pedagogical tool that combines visual, textual, and oral representations of subject matter. In doing so, I illustrate one of the ways teacher educators can provide students with opportunities to (1) "see" whiteness as an integral aspect of educational discourse, (2) fix their gaze on themselves as a collective racial group, and (3) engage in processes aimed at changing beliefs, stereotypes, and practices that reproduce social and educational injustice. [source] Preparing teachers to create a mainstream science classroom conducive to the needs of English-language learners: A feminist action research projectJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 9 2005Gayle Buck A feminist action research team, which consisted of a science educator, an English-language learner (ELL) educator, a first-year science teacher, and a graduate assistant, set a goal to work together to explore the process a beginning teacher goes through to establish a classroom conducive to the needs of middle-level ELL learners. The guiding questions of the study were answered by gathering a wealth of data over the course of 5 months and taken from the classroom, planning sessions, and researchers and students. These data were collected by observations, semistructured interviews, and written document reviews. The progressive analysis ultimately revealed that: (a) successful strategies a beginning teacher must utilize for teaching middle-level ELL children in a mainstream classroom involve complex structural considerations that are not part of the teacher's preparation; (b) learning increases for all children, but there are differences in learning achievement between ELL and non-ELL children; and (c) student and peer feedback proved to be an effective means of enhancing the growth of a beginning teacher seeking to increase her skills in teaching ELL learners. The experiences and findings from this project have implications for teacher preparation programs committed to preparing educators to teach science to all children. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 1013,1031, 2005 [source] | ||||||||||