White Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions and their Development of Culturally Relevant Literacy Practices

Existent literature purports that providing White teacher candidates with increased exposure to urban schools in order to create culturally competent educators has failed. These findings reflect the notion that teacher ideologies and overall perspectives about working with diverse student groups must be harnessed in a genuine ethic of care and intentionality for students of color. However, few studies have taken the approach of examining the development of culturally relevant pedagogy through context-specific field experiences using content-specific courses. This study examines the perspectives of twenty-five White pre-service teachers from a predominately White, private university regarding their initial perceptions and gained conceptual understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy while teaching reading at an urban middle school. Findings were consistent with previous literature that White pre-service teachers are more interested and comfortable teaching in suburban and private schools and held implicit about teaching in urban schools. However, through the course and urban field experience, pre-service teachers were able to develop teaching behaviors that were deemed culturally relevant(Ladson-Billings, 1995) for teaching reading, and were better prepared to work with students from diverse backgrounds

Preservice elementary school teachers' knowledge of fractions: a mirror of students' knowledge?

This research analyses preservice teachers' knowledge of fractions. Fractions are notoriously difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach. Previous studies suggest that student learning of fractions may be limited by teacher understanding of fractions. If so, teacher education has a key role in solving the problem. We first reviewed literature regarding students' knowledge of fractions. We did so because assessments of required content knowledge for teaching require review of the students' understanding to determine the mathematics difficulties encountered by students. The preservice teachers were tested on their conceptual and procedural knowledge of fractions, and on their ability in explaining the rationale for a procedure or the conceptual meaning. The results revealed that preservice teachers' knowledge of fractions indeed is limited and that last-year preservice teachers did not perform better than first-year preservice teachers. This research is situated within the broader domain of mathematical knowledge for teaching and suggests ways to improve instruction and student learning

Investigations and explorations in the mathematics classroom

In Portugal, since the beginning of the 1990s, problem solving became increasingly identified with mathematical explorations and investigations. A number of research studies have been conducted, focusing on students’ learning, teachers’ classroom practices and teacher education. Currently, this line of work involves studies from primary school to university mathematics. This perspective impacted the mathematics curriculum documents that explicitly recommend teachers to propose mathematics investigations in their classrooms. On national meetings, many teachers report experiences involving students’ doing investigations and indicate to use regularly such tasks in their practice. However, this still appears to be a marginal activity in most mathematics classes, especially when there is pressure for preparation for external examinations (at grades 9 and 12). International assessments such as PISA and national assessments (at grades 4 and 6) emphasize tasks with realistic contexts. They reinforce the view that mathematics tasks must be varied beyond simple computational exercises or intricate abstract problems but they do not support the notion of extended explorations. Future developments will show what paths will emerge from these contradictions between promising research and classroom reports, curriculum orientations, professional experience, and assessment frameworks and instruments

A Case for Student Teacher Placement as Preparation for Future Urban Educators

Do schools of education effectively train young, white, and middle-class teacher candidates to work in urban classrooms? How can schools of education prepare teachers and future teachers for classrooms that are diverse in terms of race/ethnicity, nationality, social class, language and other differences (Nieto, 2004) Classrooms that used to be homogeneous are now diverse, yet the predominant face and gender of the teacher has remained the same. Dramatic inequalities exist in the access that students around the globe have to an excellent, high quality education; inequalities that are lamentably too frequently based on race, social class, language, and other differences (Orfield, 2001). Using data from a descriptive survey, this paper will draw from the experience of eleven teacher candidates in racially diverse urban elementary schools through their first year of teaching to provide recommendations for future program improvements to strengthen existing teacher education programs internationally. Using both qualitative surveys and descriptive statistics, this research strives to answer the question of how to educate the strongest teacher candidates for urban classrooms worldwide

Infusing social emotional learning into the teacher education curriculum

Research supports the importance of policies and interventions to infuse social emotional curricula in schools. The role of teachers in supporting young children’s social and emotional readiness for classroom learning has been recognized, but instruction in children’s well-being and social emotional competence is a low priority in teacher preparation programs. In this study we, used qualitative methods to examine whether we could successfully infuse an undergraduate curriculum and instructional course with social emotional learning content. The article reports on this effort, and considered the following questions: How can courses infused with SEL content impact prospective teachers’ views on the overall role of emotions in the classroom? What is the influence of the course on preservice teachers’ conceptions of SEL and its association with children’s classroom learning and behavior? How can teacher preparation programs encourage prospective teachers to consider children’s social emotional skills once they enter the classroom as teachers? At course end, the 15 enrolled students responded to predetermined questions as part of a self-reflection assignment. Using grounded theory methods, three themes were identified from participants’ reflections, including the connection between SEL and academic learning, shifting from teacher- to student-centered pedagogy, and the desire for continued learning related to SEL. An in-depth examination of these themes revealed that SEL concepts can be successfully infused in an undergraduate course on curriculum and instruction. Implications for teacher training are discussed and future avenues for research are presented.peer-reviewe

Becoming music teachers: preservice music teachers' early beliefs about music teaching and learning

A major component in the socialisation of teachers is the development of a belief system, which is closely related to their identities. A better understanding of the belief systems and identities of preservice teachers when they begin the process of secondary socialisation could influence approaches to teacher preparation. The purpose of this study was to understand preservice teachers’ initial beliefs about music education as well as their conceptualisations of their identities. Data were drawn from selected assignments completed by students who were enrolled in an introductory-level music education course at a university in the northeastern United States. Through an analysis of the data using a constant comparative approach, three broad themes emerged: A desire to share and develop passion; expressing, feeling, and emotional growth; and providing opportunities for all students. Implications for teacher educators and suggestions for further research are discussed.Accepted manuscrip

Exploring Care in Education

In this article the author highlights three primary results that emerged from his review of the care theory and educational care literature, along with his constructivist grounded theory study of adolescent student experiences of educational care: (1) A clarification and re-articulation of the problem of educational care, (2) a grounded theory of the communication of educational care, and (3) a theory of the establishment of a caring teacher-student relationship. Some possible implications for teachers and educational leaders will also be explored

Perceptions on proof and the teaching of proof: A comparison across preservice secondary teachers in Australia, USA and Korea

Despite the recognised importance of mathematical proof in secondary education, there is a limited but growing body of literature indicating how preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) view proof and the teaching of proof. The purpose of this survey research was to investigate how PSMTs in Australia, the USA and Korea perceive of proof in the context of secondary mathematics teaching and learning. PSMTs were able to outline various mathematical and pedagogical aspects of proof, including purposes, characteristics, reasons for teaching and imposed constraints. In addition, PSMTs attended to differing, though overlapping, features of proof when asked to determine the extent to which proposed arguments constituted proofs or to decide which arguments they might present to students

“You Got To Know Us”: A Hopeful Model for Music Education in Urban Schools

Urban schools, and the students and teachers within, are often characterized by a metanarrative of deficit and crisis, causing the complex realities of urban education to remain unclear behind a wall of assumptions and stereotypes. Within music education, urban schools have received limited but increasing attention from researchers. However, voices from practitioners are often missing from this dialogue, and the extant scholarly dialogue has had a very limited effect on music teacher education. In this article, five music educators with a combined thirty years of experience in urban schools examine aspects of their experiences in the light of critical pedagogy in an attempt to disrupt the metanarrative of deficit, crisis, and decline that continues to surround urban music education. By promoting the lived-stories of successful urban music students, teachers, and programs, the authors hope to situate urban music education as a site of renewal, reform, and meaningful learning. This paper emerged from a panel discussion regarding promising practices in secondary general music with urban youth that took place at the New Directions in Music Education conference held at Michigan State University in October of 2011

The Good Shepherd: Lessons for Teacher Education

Across the continent, the demand for increased student achievement dominates conversation. Teacher education programs are under pressure to ensure that pre-service teachers are able to step into classrooms and improve student achievement. This pressure can invite programs to focus on subject-specific and pedagogical competencies while minimizing ethical and relational aspects of teacher preparation. Yet caring relationships are central to more positive learning experiences. What should these relationships look like? For Christian teachers and teacher educators, the answer to this question lays, in part, in an examination of Jesus. This paper focuses on Jesus the Good Shepherd as seen in the Gospels. What can teachers learn from Jesus? How do these lessons impact teacher education programs