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Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been adopted by schools to equip students with the competencies and language skills needed in today's multilingual and multicultural society. However, teaching content courses through a foreign language requires specific teacher training, both initial and ongoing. This qualitative descriptive study analyses the development of bilingual teaching knowledge in terms of teaching skills among pre-service CLIL teachers (n = 15) at the University of Cádiz in Spain. Two reflective reports written by each pre-service teacher before and after participating in the course CLIL I: Foundations and Curricular Proposals for the Primary School Classroom (2022/23) were analyzed. The responses were categorized using Qualitative Content Analysis. The reflective reports included questions about their conception of bilingual teaching; methods for teaching bilingual courses; and justifications for their teaching methods. In addition, a focus group was conducted with a representative sample of participants. The results reveal a significant development in pre-service teachers' knowledge of the teaching skills required for bilingual teaching. Particularly, there is an increase in contributions related to justifying their teaching methods. Moreover, the findings highlight pre-service teachers' recognition of the differences between foreign language and CLIL teachers, as well as their ability to plan CLIL teaching effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Swedish primary teacher education and the conditions for student teachers’ development of digital competence. Previous research has pointed to the importance of preparing teachers to use digital technology to support pupils’ learning. The aim of this study is to examine the development of course content to enhancing student teachers’ critical awareness of information and communications technology in primary teacher education. Data was collected from groups of primary student teachers consisting of anonymised course materials, a survey and course assignments. The results show that primary student teachers experience that digital technology facilitates the planning and organising of their teaching, digital technology can support the children’s learning and critical pedagogical reasoning is important when using digital technology in the teaching situation. The results have relevance internationally for teacher educators and highlight the importance of promoting a critical awareness of the pedagogical use of digital technology in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay suggests that when an elementary school teacher has an instrumental understanding of the mathematical content, they rely on arbitrary procedures or "shortcuts" to teach. In other words, they resort to mechanical steps to solve problems or operations, often oversimplifying the underlying concepts. Based on the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching framework proposed by Ball et al. (2008) and the Knowledge of Topics (KoT) proposed by Carrillo-Yañez et al. (2018), this essay delves into the domains of knowledge involved in teaching mathematics, emphasizing the specialized content knowledge domain. This domain goes beyond merely solving problems or executing operations accurately; it implies a profound comprehension of the underlying mathematical concepts and their interconnectedness. Through the analysis of some "shortcuts" used by elementary school teachers, the authors seek to promote reflections on the importance of specialized content knowledge in teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines “Laura’s Story: Using Problem-Based Learning in Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education” by Suzy Edwards and Marie Hammer (2006), highlighting its significant impact on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) research. This seminal work is distinguished by its practical focus on teacher education, using the narrative of Laura’s story to demonstrate PBL’s effectiveness in real-world teacher education scenarios. The article employs a slow-reading approach, offering a detailed and reflective examination of the sections of the text from introduction to conclusion. This thorough analysis aims to uncover deeper meanings and assess the text’s influence on the role of PBL in developing essential teaching skills. Through this meticulous process, the article seeks to provide valuable insights into PBL’s application in teacher education, highlight its pedagogical implications, and suggests directions for future research.

The objective of this paper is to assess and improve the impact on reading students' comprehension due to an intervention in two curricular modules, Teorías pedagógicas and Lengua at Teacher's Training of an Instituto de Formación Docente (IFD) in Uruguay. The framework on these studies is based on Academic Literacy, which encompasses the teaching practices needed for reading specialized texts. The method used to quantify changes on reading students' comprehension is a pretest and posttest strategy without control group. Before and after the intervention a reading comprehension test is applied. The results show a statistically significant difference in the mean between the pre and posttest (the difference of 1 and p value equal to 0.003). Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis is accepted which is that the intervention produced change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the admitted students of Finnish primary teacher education programmes from the viewpoint of learning strategies, and academic success. An overall view was derived from national register data, which were supplemented with questionnaire data gathered from three teacher education units (N = 216). Primary teacher programmes currently seem to attract and select mediocre secondary school graduates from academic perspective, contrary to previous studies. Furthermore, women enter the programmes with higher exam scores than men and have more success in their studies. Based on their learning strategies, students were divided into subgroups of deep and independent learners, and reproductive and support-dependent learners. Previous study success was positively associated with first-year study success. It is important for teacher educators to acknowledge that the students are rather mediocre in the academic sense, even reproductive and lacking regulation skills, and thus might need support in developing into professional learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, there are concerns about student teachers’ English language proficiency. Aim: To discuss the first iteration of the PrimTEd English language and literacy test and analyse the results for information about the test instrument and about student teacher attainment. Setting: South African student teachers in BEd programmes preparing for teaching in primary schools, across six public universities, participated in the test from 2020 to 2022. Methods: The student results for the PrimTEd English assessment were analysed using basic statistics, focussing on the largest samples of first-year and fourth-year students who took both the subtests. The items in each subtest were coded according to their underlying language constructs, and each subtest was subjected to Rasch analysis before the test was considered as a whole. Results: The initial test showed the attainment of fourth-year students (mean = 55%, standard deviation [SD] = 21%, n = 731) was only 3 percentage points higher than that of first-year students (mean = 52%, SD = 20%, n = 1177). Conclusion: The similarities between the first- and fourth-year students’ test results is concerning. There remains much work to be done in building student teachers’ English language proficiency in BEd programmes. Contribution: The findings and recommendations should be useful to ITE lecturers in designing programmes that enable progressive development of English language and literacy competence from first year to graduation.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been adopted by schools to equip students with the competencies and language skills needed in today’s multilingual and multicultural society. However, teaching content courses through a foreign language requires specific teacher training, both initial and ongoing. This qualitative descriptive study analyses the development of bilingual teaching knowledge in terms of teaching skills among pre-service CLIL teachers (n = 15) at the University of Cádiz in Spain. Two reflective reports written by each pre-service teacher before and after participating in the course CLIL I: Foundations and Curricular Proposals for the Primary School Classroom (2022/23) were analyzed. The responses were categorized using Qualitative Content Analysis. The reflective reports included questions about their conception of bilingual teaching; methods for teaching bilingual courses; and justifications for their teaching methods. In addition, a focus group was conducted with a representative sample of participants. The results reveal a significant development in pre-service teachers’ knowledge of the teaching skills required for bilingual teaching. Particularly, there is an increase in contributions related to justifying their teaching methods. Moreover, the findings highlight pre-service teachers’ recognition of the differences between foreign language and CLIL teachers, as well as their ability to plan CLIL teaching effectively.

Schooling practices founded upon the principles of Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) do not appear to have attained widespread adoption among teachers, consequently hindering the implementation of didactic measures that foster foreign language acquisition. These measures are closely entwined with the classroom climate, wherein the fundamental element often hinges upon the attitude of the teacher. For the most part, foreign language teachers are better equipped to embrace this attitude after having personally experienced it as learners themselves. To explore this matter further, the present study adopts a mixed-methods research design to gather insights from participants (n = 74) who attended the Didactics of Foreign Language in Primary Education – German course within the Bachelor Degree in Primary Education at the University of Cádiz (Spain) during the last nine editions; that is, from 2014/15 to 2022/23. The research findings reveal a near-unanimous consensus among all participants, regardless of nationality, teaching experience, or age, on the influential role of a classroom climate in shaping their teaching attitude. Based on the results, pre-service foreign language teachers must be allowed to acquaint themselves with effective didactic measures, together with a well-defined classroom climate wherein the significance of teaching attitude is accordingly recognized as one of the most influential factors in motivating learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher education programs have the dual task of teaching specific subject content while also providing examples of how this content can be taught in schools. This task is especially important, and also problematic, when it comes to technology and science education, where hands-on components such as design/construction exercises, laboratory exercises, and excursions are central epistemic practices. When COVID-19 hit, Swedish universities were forced to change from campus-based teaching to online distance education, termed "emergency remote teaching (ERT)." The present study aims to investigate university teachers' experiences of how hands-on components in science and technology education worked in the ERT mode that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis was performed with a social semiotics and community of inquiry framework, and shows that both the type of instruction and the subject content were impacted. In particular, the reduced opportunities for students to apply scientific and technical methods and the reduced ability of teachers to determine whether the students had understood their instruction generated new ways of communicating and supporting the students' learning. Therefore, analysis of meaning making in science and technology online-learning contexts needs to address the topics of the nature of science (NOS) and the nature of technology (NOT). An extended, three-dimensional model of meaning making is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Didasc@lia: Didáctica y Educación is the property of Universitaria de Las Tunas, Centro de Estudios de Didactica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Schools across Europe are experiencing a growing number of multilingual pupils; however, teachers claim to be generally underprepared for dealing with this ever-increasing linguistic and cultural diversity. Initial teacher education often pays insufficient attention to multilingualism, thus there is a call for research on what pre-service teachers learn about the topic during training. Against this background, this small-scale exploratory study sets out to explore pre-service primary teachers’ (a) views of multilingualism in education in general, (b) experiences of multilingualism in education as trainee teachers, and (c) self-perceived knowledge and skills acquired and developed during training, in the context of the Netherlands. Based on 195 survey responses, descriptive statistical analyses indicate that the sampled pre-service primary teachers have slightly positive views of multilingualism in education, specifically regarding their opinions on the role of multilingualism in education, focusing on school and home languages, and their tolerance of multilingualism in the classroom and at school. A qualitative content analysis reveals that several pre-service primary teachers have had general experiences of teaching pupils with migrant backgrounds, such as in transition classes (Dutch: schakelklassen), and of teaching pupils who communicate with each other only in their home languages. Challenges in teaching multilingual pupils are also reported, such as the implications of being unable to understand pupils’ home languages. Regarding their self-perceived knowledge and skills, the content analysis shows that some pre-service primary teachers in this study are aware of how to encourage collaboration between multilingual pupils to involve their languages in their learning, and have knowledge of language comparison and awareness approaches that can be implemented in multilingual classrooms. A concerning finding, however, is that according to pre-service primary teachers’ self-reported communication skills for multilingual pupils, there is a tendency to use simplified language, which may have a negative impact on pupils’ language development. These findings highlight the need for further research that employs a mixed-methods longitudinal approach to gain insights into the depth of knowledge and skills acquired during training and how views of multilingualism in education influence classroom practices. This study further reveals shortcomings of primary teacher education in the Netherlands regarding the topic of multilingualism, which are followed up by preliminary recommendations for improving training programmes; for instance, training institutions should aim to collaborate with more multilingual schools where pre-service teachers can gain first-hand practical experience.

Copyright of Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado is the property of Asociacion Universitaria de Formacion del Profesorado (AUFOP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Pedagogicos (Valdivia) is the property of Estudios Pedagogicos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papeles: Revista de la Facultad de Educación Universidad Antonio Nariño is the property of Universidad Antonio Narino and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Pixel-Bit, Revista de Medios y Educacion is the property of Pixel-Bit, Revista de Medios y Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The St. Vincent Teachers' Training College (SVTC) was founded in 1964 with assistance from The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Unarguably, teacher education in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has evolved slightly from its colonial beginnings. It now includes secondary, technical vocational teacher education, and early childhood education. While still operating within a postcolonial context, the philosophical underpinning of teacher education in SVG is a mirror of its colonial origins. Therefore, I believe that primary teacher education in SVG is yet to cut its colonial "nable string" which is the English creole phrase for the umbilical cord. Set against the backdrop of postcolonial perspectives this paper contends that there is a need to reconceptualise the length of initial primary teacher education to meet the demands of 21st century primary education in SVG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article expands on Aldrich and Woodin’s contributions on the development of primary teacher education at IOE (Institute of Education), UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society (University College London, UK). It focuses on the Primary Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE); the years before it began and its development between 1977 and 1986. Relevant literature and first-hand accounts provide background and progress. Events leading to the establishment of the Primary PGCE at IOE are discussed, before describing the course itself with its vicissitudes and progress, and internal and external politics. Changes in emphasis and structure are reviewed, together with the influences of central government and its education departments. Demographics of population decline and growth are relevant to the progress of the Primary PGCE, which grew numerically and in stature. Key organisational and structural developments of the Primary PGCE are discussed. It will be seen how the IOE itself and Early Years and Primary courses, with its staff, influence policy and practice, internally and externally. The article concludes that the primary initial teacher education remains unfinished business.

Copyright of Aula Abierta. Revista de Investigación, Formación e Innovación en Educación (RIFIE) is the property of Universidad de Oviedo, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this this article we discuss findings from an investigation of whether female student teachers would choose to study mathematics if it were optional for primary teacher education in Malawi. A mixed methods research methodology was used to collect data through survey and focus group discussions (FGDs). Five hundred and twenty three female students from 6 public teacher education colleges completed a questionnaire, and 160 of them participated in FGDs. A descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on the quantitative data while a thematic analysis was conducted on the qualitative data. The findings show that 68% of female students would choose to study mathematics while 32% would not. This correlated with the students' mathematics scores at the end of their secondary school national examination. Those students with high score passes opted for mathematics and those with low score passes did not, suggesting that performance at secondary school influenced their confidence in studying mathematics. Female student teachers' reasons for choosing or not choosing mathematics were it optional are classified into 5 categories: the perceived usefulness of mathematics, inner motivation to study mathematics, the nature of the college mathematics content, how mathematics courses are taught at colleges, and gender stereotype in mathematics lessons. We discuss these in relation to the Malawian government's agenda of increasing participation of females in mathematics, science, technology, and engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study directs attention to the ways in which pre-service teachers' knowledge base are constructed in and through the examination practice in the various subjects of the Primary teacher education programme in Sweden. The empirical material consists of policy material (course plans, study guides and examination tasks). The results show differences between the pedagogic discourses, in the various subjects, concerning examination forms, what is examined in terms of content, and which generic competencies are given importance in and through the examinations. Finally, the result shows that pedagogic discourse primarily shape the primary teacher students into a horizontal discourse, which can make it difficult for them to handle complex teaching situations in their future professional lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For contemporary teaching, teachers need good knowledge of pedagogy, content, subject methodology and assessment. Although subject didactics have become an independent research area with interdisciplinary dimensions, few studies focus on the teaching of subject didactics. With the aim of developing a theoretical model for the systematic treatment of subject didactics, a scoping literature review was carried out to analyse the scientific literature. Twenty-five articles were chosen from different databases in the field of study. Data analyses revealed three domains of subject didactics: content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of subjectspecific assessment. These domains included various components which were used for developing a theoretical model for teaching subject didactics within the framework of primary teacher education. The results indicated how to organise university courses on subject didactics for primary teachers. First, teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge should be treated in an integrated way. Second, integrating pedagogical knowledge with subject didactics enables teacher education to be shaped so that students understand the teaching profession at an early stage. Third, studying subject didactics on both a theoretical and empirical level is the driving force for developing syllabi in primary teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspective paper draws on the interest in ensuring that students who enter primary teacher training programs have a solid background knowledge of mathematics. We describe the access criteria and requirements for admission to the primary education degree programs at the Universidad de Alicante and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in Spain, and the University of Helsinki, in Finland. We present the results of an evaluation of the mathematical knowledge that students bring to their education as teachers at these three institutions. The results show that in each program, the subgroup of students who had followed the longer track of mathematics courses scored significantly higher on the mathematical test, although this was no longer as clear when we compared across universities. We also found that the students who had taken the mathematics section of the entrance examination or the matriculation examination scored higher on the test than those from the same program who had not, but this tendency broke down when cross-university comparisons were made. We also explored how the cap set on the number of students admitted to the three programs – this being the most striking difference in the admission policies – could be an explanatory variable for these discrepancies. The comparison between universities leads us to hypothesize that expecting applicants to have met certain requirements in their academic trajectories prior to university entrance and adjusting the cap set on the number of places could ensure a better mastery of mathematical knowledge among those students admitted to the Spanish programs.

In Primary Teacher Education degree programs, the educational technology laboratories aim to develop future teachers’ digital competence. The article proposes a reflection on assessment of digital competence, based on an exploratory review of the practices adopted by 19 professors in 14 Italian universities. Valutare la competenza digitale: una ricognizione sulle pratiche in uso nei corsi di Scienze della Formazione Primaria Nei corsi di laurea in Scienze della Formazione Primaria, i laboratori di tecnologie per la didattica hanno l’obiettivo di sviluppare la competenza digitale dei futuri insegnanti. Il contributo propone una riflessione sulla valutazione della competenza digitale a partire da una indagine esplorativa sulle pratiche adottate da 19 docenti in 14 atenei italiani.

The aim of this study is to determine the teaching activities of pre-service teachers in the course of mathematics teaching methods. All of the pre-service teachers have selected an attainment content from the primary (1-4) mathematics education curriculum at the beginning of the semester in the scope of mathematics teaching methods course. Data collection tools include prepared lesson plans and presentation notes by the students, as well as field notes of the researchers in addition to an observation form. According to the results obtained with descriptive statistics and content analysis, while the pre-service teachers were successfully performed in timing and taking into account of curriculum requirements, they were not adequately performed in problem posing and problem solving and also using alternative and appropriate evaluation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of multiage class is based on the fact that different groups are taught together by a single teacher. Multiage teaching is applied not only in Turkey but also in many countries of the world. This approach has some advantages and disadvantages for students and their teachers. It is argued that creating quality teaching environments based on constructivist approach can be an advantage for both teachers and students. To achieve this, teachers should be prepared based on the conditions of multiage classrooms. For this purpose, a multiage teaching course is offered to senior primary teacher candidates in Turkey. However, the course is taught theoretically for two hours a week and teacher candidates do not have the opportunity to apply the knowledge learned in this course in real teaching settings. To overcome this and provide experiences, the teacher candidates were offered to observe and apply their knowledge in multiage classrooms in the Spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The candidates were taken to three multiage schools of Kilis for four weeks to observe and practice. The purpose of this research was to explore primary teacher candidate's opinions about teaching in multiage classrooms. In this basic qualitative research, an interview form that has open-ended questions was used to collect the data. The analysis showed that the participants had different views about multiage teaching and how to improve education in multiage classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores one female student teacher's experiences of learning to teach mathematics. Data included weekly emails and an interview through which Kelly expressed her struggle to be recognised as mathematical and to be heard in pedagogical relationships within a subject that is discursively aligned with masculinity. Analysis drew on feminist post-structural understandings of discourse and power relations. I identify an array of discourses of gender, mathematics, ability, confidence and complex micro-relations of power which shaped her 'identity work' and examine how she was able to reposition herself positively as a teacher of mathematics, resisting dominant transmission-based approaches to teaching mathematics. While the course sought to challenge traditional mathematical pedagogies, gendered ways of being mathematical were not confronted. I argue that teacher educators need to pay attention to the way power circulates to marginalise and silence some students and to focus on transformation of their own identity work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study consists of an investigation into the experiences of new teachers in primary education in the province of León, during their initiation into teaching. The objective was to explore how they experience this stage, and to recognize the training needs that exist along with the degree of motivation and satisfaction expressed with the measures designed for integration into teaching. The methodology used is descriptive and interpretive, ex-post-facto oriented towards a search for improvement. Research finding reveals the existence of significant gaps in initial teacher training that bears a negative influence on the subsequent professional development of the teachers involved. In this sense, the training programs designed for teachers who are initiating their career, although valued positively by both novices and experienced teachers; do not overcome their initial shortcomings. Despite the difficulties, however, new teachers show a general feeling of satisfaction with the stage in which they initiate their teaching.initiate their teaching.

This article reports on a study of how a one-year, course-taught, master's level Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme challenged primary student teachers (n = 4) in developing their sense of self-as-teacher. This study examined how the programme's incorporation of video capturing technology impacted on these student teachers' development of reflexivity and adaptive expertise. Student teachers self-selected a community of practice to include two experienced teachers acting as facilitators. Using a secure video capturing system, student teachers collected samples of teaching practice. Then through student teacher led discussions, they and their community of practice examined how they were developing as teachers. Results indicate how video capturing provided the experiences necessary for these student teachers to reflect on teaching practice and learn how to think, know, feel and act like a teacher. Implications of this research highlight the benefits of student teachers actually seeing their own teaching practice and then using these examples of teaching as evidence of how they were becoming reflexive and adaptive teachers.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of creative drama-based instruction on in-service primary teachers’ self-efficacy and teaching and learning conceptions. In this study, sequential explanatory mixed model was used. Questionnaires determining in-service teachers’ self-efficacy and teaching and learning conceptions were administrated as pre-test and post-test. In addition to this, as qualitative data at the beginning of the program, participants were asked to answer open-ended questions to map their readiness for the program, including their expectations. At the end of the program they were asked to what degree their expectations were met, and what they learned from the program. A total of 20 female and 20 male in-service primary teachers participated in creative drama-based instruction that consisted of a total of 48 hours over six days. Results showed that the creative drama-based instruction increased primary teachers’ self-efficacy. Teachers reported that creative drama-based instruction had teachers develop more constructivist approach in teaching and learning. Implications and future research direction were also discussed.

Copyright of Form@re is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Pedagogische Studien is the property of Vereniging Onderwijsresearch and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although the knowledge required by mathematics teacher educators is a relatively recent area of research, there has been significant progress in the field over the last few years. The classic distinction of a teacher’s knowledge into content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge prompts us to reflect in this regard on what should constitute the content of primary teacher education programmes, and how the educator might mediate this content to make it accessible to their prospective teachers. This paper aims to contribute to this progress through a study into the work of Lucas, a teacher educator, during the course of a training session with prospective primary teachers. Critical observation of the video recording brought to the fore salient teaching situations on the topic of symmetry, which led us to explore the pedagogical content knowledge deployed in the session through a guided interview with the educator. Analysis of extracts from this interview enabled us to identify three main categories of this PCK: knowledge about how to teach programme content; knowledge about the characteristics of prospective primary teachers’ learning; and knowledge about the standards and norms of primary teacher education programmes.

The paper discusses how a teaching approach, interdisciplinary design and invention pedagogy, affected primary school student teachers' learning outcomes through the craft design process in pre-service teacher education. This study applies developmental work research (Engeström in J Educ Work 14(1):133-156, 2001; Engeström in Yhteiskehittely ja vaihdon vyöhykkeet tutkijoiden ja elinkeinoelämän välillä 2013; Galison in Image & logic: a material culture of microphysics. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1997; Gorman in Trading zones, interactional expertise and interdisciplinary collaboration 2005) that aims to develop educators' work involved here. To support a craft-designing process and making innovative artefacts, two disciplines—natural science (physics) and drama—as examples of interdisciplinarity were invited to contribute to the craft process. The craft course on 'smart textiles' was carried out in the spring of 2014 and 2015 at the University of Helsinki in pre-service primary teacher education. The aim of the crafts course was to get student teachers familiar with different dimensions of crafts (textile, design and technology), inquiry-based designing and an interdisciplinary teaching approach to be used in a primary school context. The craft task included working in small groups and designing smart textiles. Student teachers documented their designing and implementation processes through photos and videos using applications such as iMovie or Movie maker. In addition, participants wrote comprehensions of their projects in learning diaries. The data consist of student teachers' learning diaries (N = 17) and prototypes (N = 17), which are analysed by qualitative content analysis. As results, first, the paper presents some innovative artefacts that student teachers created. Second, it describes the learning that emerged in pedagogical thinking of student teachers related to the interdisciplinary designing process, including (1) four interdisciplinary contexts, (2) new pedagogic thinking and (3) change of attitude towards integrative teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today teachers and their professional knowledge base have become important, since knowledge has become a pivotal aspect of modern society. This study investigates the shaping of pre-service teachers’ knowledge base by studying the assessment practice in teacher education programmes for primary level teachers. The analytical focus lies on pedagogic discourses and what skills and competencies are legitimized in and through the assessment tasks. The results show that Swedish primary school pre-service teachers are primarily trained to work with subject didactics, and focus is placed on being able to plan, carry out, and evaluate teaching in light of descriptive and normative learning theories, as well as the current curricula. One possible effect of this strong subject didactic focus is that teachers are not sufficiently trained to critically analyse the conditions determining their work, especially in view of current global and local policy trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation between home and school benefits pupils’ wellbeing in many ways. Hence, it is of utmost importance that teachers are able to cooperate with families in early childhood education as well as in primary and secondary education. In order to work effectively with the diversity of families, teachers need to develop their skills and knowledge while in teacher education programmes. Earlier research has suggested that teacher education programmes do not address this issue adequately. In this article, programme managers in Finnish teacher education programmes are asked to reflect on how cooperation is covered in their programmes. Based on the data, collected through an online survey, home-school cooperation can be considered an integral part of teacher training: most of the programmes surveyed offered modules that concentrated either solely on the issue or as part of other modules. Cooperation was also discussed from various perspectives during the modules. Respondents considered their graduates to be either competent or somewhat competent to cooperate with families. According to programme managers, modules should be developed in relation to strengthening the theoretical basis of cooperation, and especially in enabling pre-service teachers to practise their skills in cooperation while they are having their practical training at schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]