Constructing Professional Knowledge From Teaching And Learning Experiences In A Preservice Teacher Education Course

This study demonstrates the power of deliberate and explicit attention to teacher candidates' prior views of teaching and learning. Focus-group and individual interviews of five individuals document their development of professional knowledge in response to the experiences of a physics methods course and their practicum placements in an 8-month preservice teacher education program. This study also explores and interprets the development of a teacher educator's professional knowledge through a collaborative self-study between the teacher of the methods course and the researcher. While teacher candidates can readily mimic surface-level features of teaching that they have witnessed over many years, they have rarely considered the complex pedagogical decisions made by teachers. This study demonstrates that teacher candidates' prior views of school can be challenged and extended by carefully enacting a pedagogy of teacher education that contrasts with the cultural tradition of teaching as telling. Such a pedagogy helps candidates develop authority over teaching and learning experiences in ways that facilitate the construction of principled knowledge about teaching grounded in personal experiences. As explained in the literature review, a purely propositional view of teachers' professional knowledge cannot explain how individuals learn to teach. Epistemological arguments about the role of experience in shaping professionals' knowledge-in-action frame the qualitative analysis of interview data. One focus-group interview and five individual interviews were conducted at four points in the preservice program; Atlas.ti software facilitated identification of patterns and metaphors in the verbatim transcripts of the 24 interviews. The changing metaphors used by participants reveal the ways in which their understandings of teaching and learning developed through their preservice program. The pedagogy of teacher education enacted in the physics methods course had a major positive influence on the five participants. Although all had the same learning opportunities during the course, each candidate constructed a unique way of thinking about teaching and learning and developed different messages from the way they were taught. Some focused on how they would later enact the active-learning pedagogies they experienced; others focused on broader issues of teaching and learning. Each candidate also valued the relationship of mutual trust that developed between the professor and the class. Three principles for guiding preservice teacher education emerge as broad conclusions to the study. First, tensions experienced by teacher candidates during the practicum cannot be expected to challenge the dominant culture of schooling. Second, providing a coherent set of learning experiences within a methods course can encourage teacher candidates to confront and revise their assumptions about teaching and learning. Third, collaborative self-study can provide a powerful way for teacher educators to focus on enacting pedagogies that help candidates to identify, reframe, and extend their assumptions about teaching and learning.

Learning to teach is complex. Teacher candidates begin a preservice program with powerful tacit assumptions about how teachers teach based on lengthy apprenticeships of observation over many years as students. Virtually all teacher education programs provide a mixture of coursework and classroom experience. Much has been written about the theory-into-practice approach in teacher education, an approach that assumes teacher candidates who have been provided with instructions about how to teach will be able to recall and apply them in a school setting. In reality, teacher candidates report considerable difficulty enacting theory in practice, to the point that many question the value of coursework. This book takes an in-depth look at five future teachers in one teacher education program, analyzing and interpreting how they and their teacher educators learn from experience during both coursework and practicum experiences. Many assumptions about the complex challenges of teaching teachers are called into question. Is the role of a teacher educator to synthesize research-based best practices for candidates to take to their field placements? Does the preservice practicum experience challenge or reinforce a lifetime of socialized experiences in schools? Must methods courses always be seen by most teacher candidates as little more than sites for collecting resources? Where and how do candidates construct professional knowledge of teaching? The data illustrate clearly that methods courses can be sites for powerful learning that challenges tacit assumptions about how and why we teach.

Explores how individuals' identity and personal practical knowledge are being formed, shifted or interrupted through moments in teacher education.

This book provides a unique insight into the learning experiences of career change professionals in teacher education. Many studies have provided a brief glimpse into the experiences of people making a career change into teaching, but this book offers an in-depth analysis of the day to day struggles and triumphs of a small group of career change students studying teacher education in Australia. This study locates teacher professional learning within a sociocultural research paradigm, highlighting the importance of social, cultural and institutional contexts in learning. Learning to become a teacher is not merely the acquisition of a set of technical skills and propositional knowledge, but a far more complex personal struggle to construct a new professional identity. This book uncovers some of the trials, tribulations and joys of becoming a teacher for those who have already worked in other careers. It examines the impact of previous career experiences on the construction of a new professional identity as a teacher. This process is discussed using the conceptual framework of learning within communities of practice. Firstly, a broad-brush picture is presented through analysis and discussion of extensive quantitative data obtained via an on-line survey, after which a small group of survey respondents provide a more nuanced exploration of their experiences as student teachers. This is followed by three case studies that delve more deeply into the experiences, frustrations and joys of being an ‘expert novice’ in teacher education. These case studies examine the stories of three career changers who provide personal insights into what it is like to be an experienced professional embarking on a new journey as a novice student teacher.

* examples of research conducted on 15 different teacher education programs * the impact the research had on the development of the program is included * the text systematically describes 15 teacher education programs * engaging stories of teacher educators working to renew their programs * The studies include a description of the research methodology used

The complexity of the various forms of knowledge and practices that are encountered by teachers, university lecturers, teacher trainers, student teachers, policy makers and researchers, demands careful thought and reflection. Professional Knowledge in Music Teacher Education focuses on how knowledge is understood, what theories are held and the related assumptions that are made about teachers and learners, as well as how theory and practice can be understood, with useful and imaginative connections made between the two in music teacher education. Internationally renowned contributors address a number of fundamental questions designed to take the reader to the heart of current debates around knowledge, practice, professionalism, and learning and teaching in music as well as considering how all these elements are influenced by economic, cultural and social forces. The book demonstrates how research can inform pedagogical approaches in music teacher education; methods, courses and field experiences, and prepare teachers for diverse learners from a range of educational settings. The book will appeal to those interested in the development of appropriate professional knowledge and pedagogic practices in music teacher education.

The development and implementation of effective teacher education programs requires evaluating current processes and optimizing them for future improvements. This ensures that a higher quality of education is delivered to the next generation of students. Formative Assessment Practices for Pre-Service Teacher Practicum Feedback: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an innovative source of academic information on the establishment of formative feedback processes in teacher education programs. Including perspectives on relevant topics such as video feedback, accreditation, and student literacy, this book is ideal for students, researchers, academics, and professionals actively involved in the education field.

Self-study research is making an impact on the field of science education. University researchers employ these methods to improve their instruction, develop as instructors, and ultimately, impact their students’ learning. This volume provides an introduction to self-study research in science education, followed by manuscripts of self-studies undertaken by university faculty and those becoming university faculty members in science teacher education. Chapter authors range from those new to the field to established researchers, highlighting the value of self-study research in science teacher education for every career rank. The fifteen self-studies provided in this book support and extend this contemporary work in science teacher education. They, and the subsequent reflections on professional knowledge, are organized into four sections: content courses for preservice teachers, elementary methods courses, secondary methods courses, and preparation of future teacher educators. Respondents from various locations around the globe share their reflections on these sections. A culminating reflection of the findings of these studies is provided at the end of the book that provides an overview of what we have learned from these chapters, as well as a reflection on the role of self-study research in the future of science teacher education.