Search

While pre-service teachers' beliefs about different dimensions of English language teaching have been widely researched, little is known about their beliefs related to English for Specific Purposes (ESP). This article reports on three Vietnamese pre-service teachers' beliefs about ESP teaching, captured over a six-month period. Data from semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall interviews, observations, and reflective journals were collected at two critical points in the teacher education programme: the methodology course and the practicum. The findings add fresh insights into pre-service teachers' beliefs, particularly how these beliefs may change over time. The three case studies presented in this paper illustrate how participants developed their beliefs. The six belief changes identified are then discussed in terms of levels (from no to significant change) and the underlying motives. Implications are also discussed for teacher educators in designing or improving teacher education programmes and for researchers interested in pre-service teachers' belief change. • Beliefs of pre-service English for Specific Purposes teachers change in six ways. • Fluctuation, as a belief change, is a new contribution to the literature. • Belief change categories differ in their degree of stability or changeability. • Belief changes are impacted by the consistency of existing beliefs and new input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a mixed-method study to explore how effective reflection supported by 360° video VR technology is improving classroom management self-efficacy and reducing the stress levels of student teachers. Furthermore, it examined how participants evaluated strengths and weaknesses of 360° video VR. Upon examining the results of the study that compared three different groups (360° video VR, 360° video, and 2D video), it can be said that using 360° video VR to encourage discussions and reflections has the potential to be more effective in reducing stress levels, compared to using other types of videos for the same purpose. • Inadequacies negatively affect student-teachers' classroom management self-efficacy and increase their stress levels. • Watching 360° video with VR headsets offerrealistic sensory and imaginative experiences. • The experience offered with 360° video VR significantly reduce the classroom management stress of student-teachers. • 360° video VR technology has different educational and technological strengths and weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing and describing children's mathematical thinking in humanizing ways, especially when students engage in confusion, productive struggle, and mistakes, is a complex and challenging process. This paper describes an exploratory, mixed-methods study about how elementary teacher candidates (TCs) describe children's thinking as a right to exercise and to value their humanity when learning mathematics. The study analyzed transcripts from 64 TCs' summative assessments, which consisted of mock parent-teacher conferences (MPTC). Findings suggest that TCs described children's confusion, productive struggle, and mistakes (RotL 1 and 2) as: a teacher's observation, an opportunity for students to correct or clarify their thinking, an opportunity for teachers to adjust instruction or provide support, and as a normal part of the learning process. More importantly, some TCs reassured children that learners have fundamental rights when learning mathematics, especially when feeling confused and claiming a mistake. Implications for research and teacher education are discussed. Keywords: Elementary, teacher education, mathematics, mixed methods, rehumanizing, Torres' rights of the learner • Topic modeling and sentiment analysis helps to quantify and describe valence that arises from large amounts of text. • 32 TCs identified children's confusion, generalized struggle, and mistakes (Torres' RotL 1 and 2) in their MPTC across 50 instances. • Some TCs described children's confusion and mistakes as rights to exercise, a potential rehumanizing stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistence in teaching is a crucial matter all around the world, as teaching is related to a high level of attrition. In this paper, we are interested in how persistence in teaching may be predicted by 1) teacher emotions and 2) their self-perceived competence as well as the value placed on the teaching profession. Using self-reported questionnaires, we collected data on 655 pre-service teachers. Results revealed that value allowed to teaching and teaching self-perceived competence significantly predict emotions felt when teaching. Moreover, results highlight that value and enjoyment are positively related to the propensity to persist in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers are leaving the classroom at greater rates while traditional teacher pathways are not yielding enough teacher candidates. These factors create a need for teachers that is especially evident in rural communities. Paraprofessionals (e.g., teaching assistants, instructional aides, paraeducators) who provide classroom support are uniquely positioned to fill these vacancies. In this paper, we examine the experiences of paraprofessionals prior to applying to a teacher residency program. Based upon the experiences shared by the participants, intrapersonal characteristics needed to become a teacher were highlighted, and policy requirements identified, surfacing challenges paraprofessionals encounter impacting their desire to become a teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study conducted within an online community (OC) of pre-service teachers. Our aim is to better understand the relation between: community members' motivations in participating in these types of communities, their behavior within the community used as part of their training, as well as the quality of their learning design contributions. Two iterations of data gathering (several sources) were performed with a total of 91 participants. They reported their motivations to participate in these types of communities through questionnaires. Log data from their use of a particular platform was collected to quantify the behavioral engagement and the quality of the shared learning designs. Furthermore, the assessment of experts was also gathered as an additional measure of quality. A cross-case analysis leads us to problematize previous work suggesting relations between self-reported motivations and participants' behavior within the community, or with the quality of their contributions. In contrast, the results show that behavior and the contributions' quality are affected by the incentives and the features implemented in the supporting platform of the online community. The study results have practical implications for teacher OC platforms, for example about the importance of offering and using features that provide self-awareness indicators about their actions and the quality of their contributions. • Lack of research studying correlations of teachers dynamics in Online Communities. • A data analytics approach to quantify motivation, behavioral engagement and quality. • Correlations between teachers' motivations and their behavioral engagement found. • No significant correlations between content quality and teachers' behavior found. • Correlations between metadata quality and teachers' desire to collaborate found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Establishing an empowering learning environment. • Utilising culturally responsive teaching in multicultural classrooms. • Criticism of content integration. • Significance of prejudice reduction interventions. • Fostering an environment of trust for successful family-school cooperation. The pupil population has become more diverse in Icelandic schools. However, there remains a need for teachers to be better prepared to work in this changing context. Drawing on critical multiculturalism, multicultural education theory, and tenets of culturally responsive teaching, this paper explores student teachers' perspectives on various methods which support cultural and linguistic diversity, challenge prejudice, and promote cooperation with parents from diverse cultural backgrounds. The findings indicate that the student teachers value culturally responsive teaching methods and have been able to utilise them to some extent in practice. However, despite the preparation received from their teacher education programmes, their understandings of the theoretical constructs are inconsistent and influenced by personal interests and specialisation within the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective language–content teacher collaboration is beneficial when teaching content to English language learners through the medium of English. Preparing preservice teachers (PSTs) for collaboration is increasingly common, but there is still a perception that the English language teacher's role is more supportive than collaborative. In this paper, we report on research that provided English language PSTs with a more agentic, collaborative role. For data collection, we audio-recorded English language and content PSTs' collaboration activities as part of preservice programs at an Australian university and interviewed the PSTs after they completed the collaboration activities. We used a framework of distributed knowledge base and positioning theory to analyse the data. The findings showed that English language PSTs positioned themselves and were positioned by the content PSTs as leading in the shared domains and language-related domains and as supporting in content-related domains of professional knowledge. We discuss implications for theory, research and practice in preparing language teachers for collaboration with content teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, the investigation of inclusive education in foreign language teaching and foreign language teacher education is a relatively new phenomenon. Part of this imperative has been the pressing need to research how teachers perceive inclusion and learn to support a diverse range of students. Responding to this challenge, this paper reports on the results of a case study that investigated the perceptions and attitudes toward inclusion of a group of Chilean preservice teachers of English (n = 6) enacting the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in ELT. The study drew on qualitative data generate through interviews, focus group discussion and an artefact analysis, and was conducted within a remote teaching context due to COVID pandemic during 2020 and 2021. The outcomes suggested that preservice teachers conceptualised inclusion as 'not-segregation', expressing positive attitudes toward diversity and a commitment to principles of inclusion in their teaching. The enactment of UDL allowed participants to diversify the representation of contents and making language more comprehensible. However, participants also experienced frustration and anxiety as they felt their practices were sometimes ineffective. The findings also made visible the complex challenges and struggles preservice teachers confront as they attempt to teach inclusively, particularly in remote learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anyone involved in mathematics education will at some point encounter a classroom situation in which a student's statement provides an opportunity for the teacher to enhance students' mathematical understanding. This paper aims to characterize such classroom situations, known as critical events, as noticed by pre-service mathematics teachers during classroom observations and teaching. Analysis of 80 critical events reported by 20 pre-service mathematics teachers during a field-based teaching preparation program yielded a model that enables teacher-educators and researchers to characterize critical events while reflecting on the wide variations within these events. The model comprises three axes: the participants in the event, the focus of the event, and the dimensions in learning and teaching mathematics (i.e., cognitive, affective and social). The paper discusses the theoretical and empirical construction of the model and demonstrates its potential contribution using examples taken from our research. • Pre-service teachers identified critical events during classroom observations. • A model for characterizing critical events was constructed theoretically and empirically. • The model affords eliciting the multidimensional nature and complexity of critical events. • The model's potential contribution is presented using examples from our research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opportunities to investigate the emotionality and sensitivities of teaching are limited in initial teacher education (ITE) programs. Using the hero's journey structure, this paper reports the experiences of sixteen first-year preservice teachers (PSTs) in a 6-week pilot program. Participants volunteered at a community homework club as mentors and tutors of students who had experienced domestic violence. The PSTs' learning path was captured through a range of reflection activities undertaken before, during and after the program. Thematic analysis exposed trust and relationships as important allies on the journey, and reflective practice became an authentic tool to examine an emerging teacher identity. • Investigating the emotionality of teaching during ITE contribtes to teacher identity and self-care. • Trust is a non-negotiable contextual feature of ITE to promote authentic reflection. • Scaffolded work integrated learning programs help to counter the theory-practice divide within ITE. • Authentic opportunities that promote creativity, reflexivity, critical thinking and self-reflection enhance teacher agency. • All ITE stakeholders need to value the function of reflection in ITE beyond an assessment device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents results from a quasi-experimental study which explores collegial video-based reflection on teaching of pre-service teachers (N = 83; 54 female (65.1%); M age = 24.64), during their practical semester in a teacher education program in Germany. Findings reveal an improvement in attitudes toward reflection on teaching in general. An improvement in attitudes toward feedback and video-based reflection was achieved in the intervention group reflecting on their own teaching videos. Findings indicate that collegial reflection on own teaching videos offers a benefit for the development of reflection related attitudes in teacher education. • The Setting Re FLECT ing T eams offers an innovative approach to foster video-based peer reflection. • There is a general willingness for (video-based) reflection on teaching among pre-service teachers. • Reflection-related attitudes can especially be improved by the collegial reflection on one's own teaching videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe the design and outcomes of a community-engaged, service-learning, travel study course that used digital storytelling and structured critical reflection. The course, which was influenced by the pedagogy of discomfort, became an odyssey experience for undergraduate students, who embraced the challenges of ambiguity and navigated communication barriers to form appreciative relationships with fourth graders from an economically depressed yet relationship-rich fishing village in the Azores. In this paper, we draw on qualitative data from to explain students' growth in communication skills, self-confidence, appreciation for interpersonal relationships, and self-awareness. We conclude with implications for practice and research. • Preservice teachers benefitted from embracing ambiguity and vulnerability in a short-term service-learning travel study course. • Making digital stories with fourth graders in the Azores helped preservice teachers develop meaningful relationships and examine their own assumptions. • Preservice teachers became better communicators and gained confidence from this travel study course. • Participating in this travel study course strengthened preservice teachers' appreciative stance and helped them gain deeper knowledge of themselves. • Short-term travel study courses should include meaningful service-learning opportunities in which to embed critical reflection self-discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Embodied activities as shared and distinct material←→discursive itineraries. • Discourse itineraries as part of our evolving ways of doing, knowing, and being. • Embodiment supporting disciplinary specific ways of doing and knowing. • Embodiment supporting critical engagement with dominant discourses and practices. • Embodied activities creating sites of engagement for possible social actions/changes. Over the past two decades, embodiment has been seen as valuable in the field of language and literacy education. Drawing on a six-month long ethnographic case study conducted at an R1 university in the U.S., this paper examines how a range of embodied activities, as part of the shared and distinct material←→discursive itineraries (Barad, 2007; Scollon, 2008), were mediated into culturally and linguistically diverse students' (pre-service teachers') doing and be(com)ing across time and place. Data analysis includes a mediated approach and theory-informed thematic analysis of classroom discourse and two individual interviews with the students. Findings point to the affordances of using embodied activities to (1) support students from diverse backgrounds in (un)making sense of theories and practices in connection to their lived experiences and identifications, and (2) create critical and dialogic spaces for students to engage with and contest dominant discourses in both school context and society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify the role and nature of spatial visualization in the problem solutions of pre-service teachers solving school-mathematics tasks requiring measurement reasoning. The nuances in the pre-service teachers' strategies were examined for the role of spatial visualization in the solution process. The findings suggest that inadequacies in visualizing the spatial configurations of the tasks led to incorrect numerical solutions despite the presence of conceptual knowledge. Furthermore, the tendency to rely on formula-based approaches appeared to have suppressed the preliminary spatial processing of the configurations. Theoretically, the paper offers insights into the mechanism that may be involved in the solution of spatially-related mathematical tasks. The findings imply that pre-service teachers need to be sufficiently engaged in spatial reasoning activities. • Spatial manipulation on mathematical tasks influences numerical solutions. • Spatial visualization is an enabler in solving spatially-related mathematical tasks. • Formula-based thinking may suppress the preliminary spatial inspection of the tasks. • Spatial reasoning needs to be explicitly taught to pre-service teachers. • Pre-service teachers should be empowered to analyze spatially-related tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on changes in preservice teachers' reflections and metaphorical professional identities during the teaching practicums in China using dialogical-self and positioning theories. Drawing upon 66 written metaphorical accounts, reflective journal entries, and three rounds of semi-structured group interviews, this study identified that the participants continually enacted their multiple I-positions, which encompass four trajectories: (1) promoter position (confirmation/consolidation of I-positions), (2) meta-position (elaboration and expansiveness of I-positions), (3) re-positioning and third position (contradiction and disequilibrium of I-positions), and (4) reflexive positioning (stability and minor change of I-positions). Additionally, this study confirms that metaphors act as powerful cognitive frameworks in gaining in-depth insights into preservice teachers' dynamic and evolving professional identities in learning-to-teach settings. Implications for facilitating preservice teachers' metaphorical professional identity (trans)formation and reflection in the teaching practicum context are discussed. • Preservice teachers' reflections and metaphorical professional identities were examined.. • Preservice teachers enacted multiple I-positions in the practicum context. • Preservice teachers' I-positions encompass various positioning strategies. • Metaphors act as powerful cognitive framework in understanding preservice teachers' professional identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers investigating the experiences of novice teachers highlight the importance of easing their transition from study to work, including by strengthening their personal resources through active experimentation with future practices. Based on survey data from a large-scale programme evaluation, this paper reports on associations found between the adoption of a hands-on, student-centred approach – playful learning-based teaching (PLT) – during initial training of future professionals in care and education and three key outcomes: students' happiness with their studies, perception of competence and professional readiness. Results showed that PLT was positively associated with all three outcomes, and further, that PLT can feasibly be promoted by equipping lecturers with material resources and peer support to adopt playful elements in their teaching. • Playful teaching raises study happiness and professional readiness among student teachers. • Lecturers perceive benefits of playful teaching for teacher students' learning outcomes. • Lecturers are more likely to use playful teaching given access to resources and competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to theorize an alternative, non-linear conceptualization of beginning teacher development based on critical posthumanism, which we illustrate through analysis from three in-depth case studies of first-year science teachers in the U.S. Drawing on the conceptual tools of assemblage, distributive agency, and intra-action, we examine three complex, relational processes that first-year teachers engaged in to construct their teaching practices: translating their pre-professional learning into practice, negotiating with students, and forming their teacher subjectivity. We argue that this framework offers potential for better preparing and supporting new teachers in diverse national settings as well as interrupting the patterns of inequities that are perpetuated through structures of schooling, dominant forms of pedagogy, and deficit-based interactions with students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to critically explore the opportunities, complexities, and tensions of invoking students' everyday experiences as resources in educational activities. We analyze data from teacher interviews, instructional work in classrooms, and parent–teacher conferences taking place at a lower secondary school. The analysis shows how teachers reflect upon the relationship between students' lives outside and inside school, some of the complexities and tensions that emerges when students' everyday knowledge is invoked in instructional work in classrooms, and how students' everyday lives are activated as resources in parent–teacher conferences by the participants for building meaning together. We discuss issues teachers may reflect upon when planning and conducting educational activities that are sensitive to students' learning lives and everyday experiences. • Teachers define students' everyday experiences as important resources for engaging students as learners in school. • Some aspects of students' activities from outside school are defined as more relevant for classroom learning than others. • Invoking everyday experiences in whole-class conversations requires teachers to maneuver among the different learning lives of students. • Students need guidance in making connections between everyday experiences and academic practices in schools. • Parent–teacher conferences can be used to identify students' interests that can be used in instructional work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formative assessment practices map neatly onto many frameworks for high-quality teaching. Yet, in teacher preparation programs these practices are often left out of discussions of instruction because formative assessment practices may be considered separate from teaching practices. In this paper, we introduce a model of "practice progressions" for formative assessment to illustrate how formative assessment practices can gain in sophistication when considered an integral part of teaching. We provide an example of a preservice teacher's growth in formative assessment practices over the course of a practice-based program and map the growth to the practice progressions. • Formative assessment can and should be considered in frameworks for high-quality instruction. • Practice progressions can be used to model increasing sophistication of formative assessment. • Illustration of a preservice teacher's progression in formative assessment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As culture is the core concept in multicultural education, this paper focuses on teachers' understanding of culture, which is a factor in implementing multicultural education successfully. The present study investigates 231 generalist and bilingual pre-service teachers' definitions of culture and whether or not there is a difference in the number of descriptors used by the groups. To analyze the data collected through a survey, I conducted a qualitative content analysis and then ran a 2 × 2 factorial ANOVA. Although there is no statistical difference between the groups, bilingual pre-service teachers showed a deeper understanding of culture. • This study investigates 231 generalist and bilingual pre-service teachers' definitions of culture. • This study employs a mixed methods design in which transforms qualitative data into quantitative data. • The data is analyzed through qualitative content analysis (QCA) and 2 × 2 factorial ANOVA. • Culture is individual and described in more practice terms and perspective terms than product terms. • A deeper understanding of culture is necessary to approach multicultural education effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study uses a Multimodal Conversation Analysis to examine 'enhanced' English Conversations-for-Learning. • Enhanced Conversations-for-Learning are formally divided into a discussion phase then a focus-on-from phase. • After students' L2 errors in the discussion phase, instead of correcting the student teachers subtly construct notes. • In the focus-on-form phase, the notes are used to initiate a series of deferred correction sequences. • The notes - constituted by and constitutive of the interaction - become a personalized resource for reviewing L2 errors. Conversations-for-Learning (CfL) have long been understood to provide various opportunities for second language (L2) learning. This study, however, investigates one language school's effort to boost the potential of CfL by adapting their structure. Enhanced Conversations-for-Learning (ECfL) begin with an unstructured discussion phase then a focus-on-form phase in which the teacher initiates several correction sequences on errors uttered during the prior phase. Tying these two phases together and fulfilling key objectives within each phase are real challenges for participants. This Conversation Analysis study investigates video-recordings of ECfL and shows the ways teachers and students collaboratively construct then draw upon written notes (that include details of 'inscribed correctables') to achieve the objectives of each phase, link the two phases, and promote key skills. Finally, this paper discusses implications for research on E/CfL settings and deferred correction practices, and then explores some ways that inscribed objects can facilitate L2 learning and teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher education often under-theorizes race. The field of teacher education and technology integration is also complicit in assuming a race-neutral space into which technologies are integrated. This paper explores what pre-service teachers' (PSTs) technology integration reveals about racialized assumptions. The research applies theoretical frameworks from teacher preparation, Whiteness and Critical Race studies, and technology integration. This study points toward a relationship between PST development, beliefs about technology, and an intersection with race awareness. The PSTs made assumptions about learning deficits, appropriate behaviors, and classroom environment, based on Whiteness, which impacted how they integrated technology. These findings complexify current educational technology narratives of technology integration which emphasize the relationship between teacher beliefs about knowledge acquisition and technology integration, but often divorce those beliefs from assumptions about race. Implications for practice include the need to confront white supremacy concealed within the technologies and pedagogies that teacher educators choose in the classroom. • Intersection between PST development, technology beliefs, and racial awareness. • Tech integration impacted by assumptions based in Whiteness. • Confront white supremacy concealed within technologies and classroom practices. • Complexifies current race-neutral educational technology narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Dutch language student teachers have difficulty reasoning about grammar. • Student teachers do not outperform 14 year old pre-university students on grammatical reasoning. • Student teachers show several signs of conceptual confusion for basic grammatical categories. • Student teachers' level of grammatical understanding can predict their reasoning ability. • The elaborateness of their reasoning also predicts their reasoning ability. Grammatical knowledge is an important part of L1 language education. Nevertheless, teachers find it challenging to convey an in-depth understanding of grammar to their students. Previous research suggests that understanding might be stimulated by focusing on grammatical reasoning. The current mixed-methods study explores the grammatical reasoning of 108 Dutch L1 student teachers' in odd one out tasks, showing that student teachers struggle with such reasoning tasks. A multilevel regression analysis indicates that their level of grammatical understanding as measured by a Test of Grammatical Understanding (TGU) and the elaborateness of student teachers' argumentation significantly predict the quality of their grammatical reasoning. Student teachers' performances were also compared to 14 year old pre-university students' performances (N = 120). Contrary to what was hypothesized, senior student teachers did not manage to outperform junior student teachers, nor did student teachers outperform pre-university students. The paper discusses plausible reasons for these findings and explores how teacher education might need to shift focus to better develop student teachers' grammatical reasoning skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]