Voices on Data Literacy and Initial Teacher Education: Pre-service teachers’ reflections and recommendations

The purpose of study was gain insight into pre-service teachers’ experiences in using classroom data to make learning and teaching decisions. The qualitative study is based on the reflections and recommendations of three pre-service teachers’ that participated in a data-driven decision-making intervention whilst on an immersive 10-week professional learning experience. This study is underpinned by an action research framework. There are many understandings of action research, here the approach is understood to be a systematic investigation into one’s own practice with the aim of improving teaching and learning. From the thematic analysis of the reflections, several recommendations were put forward by the pre-service teachers. They advocated for dedicated time to develop data collection, analysis, and visualisation skills and that these skills should be embedded in their degrees. Their reflections articulate the need to have a strong set of data related skills and competencies in order to be able to engage with professional practice

iScience: a computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning project for science students in secondary and tertiary science education.

Pre-service teachers come to teacher education programs with a range of experiences and understandings about inquiry in Science. The iScience project aims to assist pre-service teachers develop their understanding of the issues and skills required to guide students through an open inquiry process. In addition, the project provides opportunities for pre-service teachers at the beginning of their teacher training to develop their skills in mentoring high school science students in an open-ended inquiry process. Wikis were used to support the interactions among the pre-service teachers and school students from several different geographical locations to enable collaboration on an open inquiry project. The impact of the project on the pre-service teachers’ understanding of how to teach science by inquiry will be discussed

Unrealised expectations: managing multiple stakeholders in the development of the NSW Primary Curriculum Foundation Statements

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: Pages 217-246.Chapter 1: Introduction and study overview -- Chapter 2: Literature review -- Chapter 3: Research methods and design -- Chapter 4: Reporting the findings: analyses of stakeholder interactions -- Chapter 5: Discussion -- Chapter 6: Conclusion and recommendationsThis thesis explores issues of stakeholder power within a curriculum development context: who has it, who does not, why and to what effect this power is exercised. The focus is on the interplay between key educational stakeholders involved in the curriculum decision-making processes related to the shaping of the NSW Primary Curriculum Foundation Statements(2005b). The 'stakeholders' central to the study are educational groups and their nominees who have been elected or appointed to represent the interests of their group. This research represents the first substantive account of the perspectives of the educational stakeholders involved in the development of the Primary curriculum statements. It provides important insights into the role of stakeholder representatives in the development of the curriculum with specific reference to their competing perspectives, ideologies, personalities and agendas.Interest group theory is the theoretical lens used to examine the people and politics involved in decision-making processes of curriculum development. In doing so, the research design used qualitative approaches with sources of evidence gathered from public and private records, media accounts, data obtained through semi-structured interviews, and the researcher's own participant-based observations. Seventeen members of the NSW Board of Studies Primary Curriculum Committee were interviewed, each representing the varying interests of stakeholder groups in education across the state. Using a grounded theory approach (Corbin& Strauss, 2008) and content analysis, documentary sources and interviews were coded and categorised according to the main themes grounded in the data. The themes that emerged from the data were analysed to highlight the nature and patterns of stakeholder interactions during the curriculum decision-making processes. Crical incident analysis was then used to group and classify stakeholder involvement along a historical timeline in the development of an outcomes-based approach to the Primary curriculum.This study builds on Pross (1992) and Freeman's (1984, 1999, 2007) assertion that stakeholder groups influence the policy community through deliberate and careful networking interactions within a decision-making processes. At the time of this study, federal and state government education reforms in the late 1980s and 1990s had significantly affected the development of the Primary curriculum in NSW through the instigation of an outcomes-based framework. Major concerns regarding the workload associated with outcomes resulted inteacher stakeholder groups becoming more politically engaged with the policies and procedures in curriculum-related matters.The incentive for stakeholder participation in educational decision-making processes is the potential to influence what and how students learn. Some individuals, despite claiming to represent the collective view of their group, sought to promote and secure their own agendas. In doing so, they shaped the Foundation Statements to reflect their own world views. This research extends our understanding of the manner in which people exercise power within decision-making processes. It also provides important insights into the effective management of curriculum development processes and the inherently political nature of such undertakings.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xv, 273 pages) diagrams, table

Using action research to develop data literacy in initial teacher education

There is a call for higher education institutions and professional learning providers to support pre-service teachers (PST) in developing competency in data literacy through clinical (classroom) practice. However, PST rarely have the opportunity to collect and analyze data that is relevant to their own classroom practice. In this paper, we put forward the results of a study that centered on PST conducting their own action research project during a ten-week professional experience placement in a high school. The aim of the PST’s action research studies was to demonstrate that their data-driven pedagogical decisions had a positive impact upon their students’ learning outcomes. It was found that while all of the PST could develop a research question and collect data, they needed more explicit training in action research and data literacy skills to develop a range of competencies that would support them in making nuanced data-driven learning and teaching decisions in the classroom

Developing authentic data literacy in pre-service teacher education programs through action research

In this paper, we discuss the results of a study that investigated how best to prepare Pre-Service Teachers (PST) for professional experience in an Australian university. Recently, there has been a gathering interest in data literacy in the higher education system. In order to develop the PST’s data literacy, we developed an online module of work whereby PST worked together to produce a range of data driven visualisations. Forty-four PST participated in the study. Data sources discussed include PST post-intervention surveys and deliverable action research projects. The preliminary results of the study indicated that the perceived benefits of the data literacy initiative for PST was that it improved their teaching and understanding of what works in a classroom

Teaching Teachers for the Future: Exploring the different interpretations, applications and experiences of TPACK

Abstract and Symposium Plan As part of the national Digital Education Revolution (DER) all pre-service teachers need to develop both understanding and competency in embedding information and communication technologies (ICTs) into the content areas through a TPACK framework (Department of Education, 2008). A Government scoping study indicates that the most common forms of ICT currently used in classrooms are PowerPoint and basic Internet searches (Education Services Australia, 2010). These forms of ICT do not make best use of the potential learning possibilities of ICT. This project is aimed at developing the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of pre-service teachers via sustainable integration of ICT in pre-service teacher education programs for both primary and secondary teachers. Each of the speakers will discuss their understanding of TPACK and their areas of research: Vilma Galstaun will provide a broad overview of curriculum re-design using a TPACK framework at the University of Sydney Shannon Kennedy-Clark will provide examples of embedding ICT into History and Science units of study across the pre-service teacher degrees and will report on survey findings on pre-service teachers' TPACK