An investigation into mentor teacher-preservice teacher relationship and its contribution to development of preservice teachers’ professional identity

Research suggests that preservice teachers’ professional identity is dynamic and many factors contribute to the formation of teacher identity including prior experiences, learning communities and context. One of the parties preservice teachers have closest interactions with are mentor teachers and they might leave an impact on preservice teachers’ professional identity. However, less research seems to be done in this area. The proposed research study tried to address this gap by investigating the relationship between these two parties and its impact on the development of preservice teachers’ professional identity. The data collection occurred during a one-year Graduate Diploma of Education-Secondary (GDE-S) course in one of the universities in Western Australia. The participants in this qualitative case study were seven preservice teachers taking part in the GDE-S and their mentor teachers during their professional practice unit (practicum). The preservice teachers attended three rounds of semi-structured interviews: at the outset of the first placement, at the end of the first placement, and at the end of the second placement. The mentor teachers comprising 16, also attended semi-structured interviews before and after each placement. In addition, the researcher conducted two classroom observations and two observations of debriefing sessions in each placement on each preservice teacher. The preservice teachers were also invited to keep a reflective journal, with a total of 24 gathered over the course of the program. The findings of this study revealed that when the mentoring relationship was positive and the preservice teachers’ expectations of their mentors were met, they felt more confident as a teacher and developed a teacher voice. However, the confidence declined in some preservice teachers and they felt they did not improve when they experienced a partially negative mentoring relationship. This study provides implications for preservice teacher education and offers guidelines for improving mentor teacher-preservice teacher relationship with a view to enhancing preservice teachers’ professional identity and increasing teacher retention

Teacher Educators as Role Models: A Qualitative Examination of Student Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Views towards Their Roles

Teacher Education is considered to be the first and perhaps the most important stage in the professional development of student teachers (Wideen, Mayer-Smith, & Moon, 1998) as teacher educators who work with student teachers during these programs exert significant influence on who students are and will become (Caires, 2007; Chalies, Ria, Bertone, Trohel, & Durand, 2005). This article highlights the impact of language teacher educators’ ideas and beliefs with regard to Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and their teaching practices on their student teachers’ beliefs and perceptions about their role as language teachers. 20 Iranian language student teachers and ten teacher educators teaching at five universities in Tehran were interviewed. The interviews were coded and analyzed in order to develop themes. Considerable similarities were found between student teachers and their teacher educators in terms of their ideas and beliefs about language teaching

From swan to ugly duckling? Mentoring dynamics and preservice teachers\u27 readiness to teach

This study focuses on two preservice teachers who experienced significantly different mentoring relationships in their two placements during a one-year teaching degree in a university in Western Australia. Data were collected through three rounds of semistructured interviews, reflective journals and classroom observations. The findings indicated that mentor teachers\u27 mentoring styles considerably informed the preservice teachers\u27 perceptions of themselves as teachers and facilitated or inhibited their professional development. Implications for practice include teacher education programs invest more time and rigour in selecting and preparing mentors for their crucial role

The Effect of Accruals Quality on the Incentive Contracting Role of Earnings in Tehran’s Stock Market

In this paper, the effect of accruals quality on the role of profit in negotiating an incentive contract has been examined. For this purpose, a sample that contains 153 accepted companies in stock market since 2003 until 2010 has been considered. For measuring the total accruals quality, method of Dechow and Dichev (2002) has been used. According to Francis et al (2005) the accruals have been separated in optional and compulsory components. Additionally, for testing hypothesis the two methods of multivariate linear regression from Peng (2011) have been used, adopting the method of combined data. The results showed that the quality of accruals has no significant relationship whith usefulness of profit for negotiating incentive contracts neither in total level nor in level of each optional or compulsory component. Nevertheless, quality of accruals in total level and in levels of each optional or compulsory component has a direct relationship with the changes in director’s reward. Also, the other results of the research have showed that stability and informational content of the profit have a direct relationship whit the usefulness of profit for negotiating incentive contracts

A Comprehensive Investigation of Performance Characteristics, Mechanical Properties and Durability Parameters of Self-compacting Concrete Containing Iron Slag as Coarse Aggregate

In this paper, iron slag is used as partial coarse aggregate substitution in Self-compacting concrete (SCC). The SCC samples tests were conducted after 28 days of water curing for samples with 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 60% iron slag as coarse aggregate substitutes. This paper evaluates slump flow, V-funnel, L-box, compressive strength, flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, surface water absorption, capillary water absorption, electrical resistance, acid resistance, and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) of concrete samples. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of samples was investigated for evaluating cement paste microstructure. Samples containing 20%, 60%, and 60% iron slag as coarse aggregate substitute have higher compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile strength than control samples (about 18.4%, 28.6%, and 16.9% higher, respectively). In addition, using 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% iron slag as coarse aggregate increased the compressive strength. Moreover, incorporating iron slag as a coarse aggregate decreased the mass loss of samples which were exposed to the acid environment compared to control specimens. Using iron slag as partial coarse aggregate substitution reduced the porosity of the cement matrix compared to control samples (based on SEM images)

A Parametric Study on the Flexural Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete Beams with Near Surface Mounted FRP Bars

FRP rods as lightweight materials with extraordinary properties of high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance, potentially high overall durability, tailor ability and high specific attributes are one of the most favorable materials to strengthen existing reinforced structures. The present study aimed to identify the behavior of reinforced concrete flexural beams strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) rods through near surface mounted method (NSM). The results of the current study were based on nonlinear finite element software ABAQUS which can accurately simulate the experimental investigations on flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with NSM FRP rods. Validation of the proposed model was confirmed first by making a comparison with the experimental study presented in the literature. A parametric analysis was conducted on validated specimens to investigate the effect of FRP rod diameters, rod arrangements, FRP materials, as well as rods groove intervals on flexural behavior of strengthened reinforced beams. The numerical results of mid-span bending moment deflection, ultimate bending moment, failure deflection and ductility index were reported. For the sake of simplicity to be used by engineers, the results of the current study were drawn in the form of design charts and tables