Preparing to teach: Perceptions of graduate entry teacher education students

International reviews of teaching and teacher education have highlighted the importance of quality teachers in improving the outcomes of students. Teachers may enter the teaching profession through a variety of pathways. Currently in Australia, one pathway is through graduate entry teacher education programs in which people who already hold university degrees outside of education can undertake one-year formal teacher preparation programs. It may be argued that graduate entry teachers value add to the teaching profession as they bring with them a range of careers and wealth of experiences often beyond those of teachers who enter the profession through traditional four-year Bachelor of Education programs. This paper reports on a study that investigated the preparedness to teach of a group of graduate entry teacher education students as they prepared to exit from university and enter the teaching profession. The study concluded that this group of graduating teachers perceived that the field experience components in their formal teacher education programs contributed most to their beginning professional learning. The study revealed also that this group of graduating teachers sought further professional learning opportunities in the canonical skills of teaching. These findings may be used to inform the design of future teacher education programs

A1c Reduction and Weight Loss in a Veteran Population Using GLP-1-RAs

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder defined by high blood glucose. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1-RAs) are a newer class of medications that offer potential 2 to 3 kg weight loss and a 1% to 1.5% decrease in A1c. At the Indianapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), GLP-1-RAs are non-formulary. Objectives: Primary outcomes included mean change in weight, body mass index (BMI) and A1c in VAMC patients. Secondary outcomes included the comparison to published values, analysis of insulin needs, and analysis of GLP-1-RA discontinuation reasons. Methods: Indianapolis VAMC patients ages 18-80 with type 2 diabetes who started a GLP-1-RA from January 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016 were identified. The following data points were gathered at monthly intervals before spreading out to biannual: specific GLP1-RA and dose; weight; BMI; A1c; other diabetes medications; insulin requirements; and any reason for discontinuation. This report is an analysis of the baseline, 24 week, and 48 week data. Results: With a mean age of 62.2 years and a 90.2% male population, the cohort decreased their weight from baseline by 2.5 kg at 24 weeks of use and 3.6 kg at 48 weeks. A1c decreased by 1.3% in the first 24 weeks and was maintained at 48 weeks. Insulin use decreased during the study. Seven percent of patients discontinued GLP-1- RAs due to GI intolerance. Conclusion: GLP-1-RAs have a similar effect on weight and A1c in the veteran population compared to previous study populations. Based on this and further research, GLP-1-RA use may be expanded in the future

Teacher Induction: What is Really Happening?

Retention rates and stress levels of beginning teachers are of concern. There is evidence to suggest that well-planned induction programs can assist beginning teachers to make the transition successfully into the profession, which may increase retention rates. This qualitative, year-long study aims to explore and describe the induction experiences of eight beginning teachers as they negotiated their first year of teaching. The participants of this study represented 10% of the final cohort who attended the same regional university and completed a four-year Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree. Data were gathered through email correspondence at the commencement of term one and then at the end of each of the four school terms. Data also included telephone interviews and a questionnaire at the conclusion of term four focusing on these first-year beginning teachers’ perceptions of their induction into the profession. At the beginning of their first year of teaching these beginning teachers indicated they may require assistance in teaching to cater to individual difference, assessing in terms of outcomes, relating to parents, relating to the wider community, and understanding school policies; yet most commented they would not require assistance in relating to students and understanding legal responsibilities and duty of care. At the conclusion of their first year only one beginning teacher was assisted by a mentor (veteran teacher) on whole school programming, and planning for improving teaching with opportunities to visit classrooms of more experienced teachers. This was also the only beginning teacher who received a reduced workload in order to meet with the mentor to discuss pedagogical developments. The inadequate support provided to beginning teachers in this study highlights the need for principals and school staff to re-assess their contribution to beginning teachers’ development within the school context, which includes providing time, funding, and clear guidelines for a quality induction

A way forward to managing the transition to professional practice for beginning teachers

The high attrition rate of beginning teachers in Australia and overseas is well-documented. This trend is easily understood as many beginning teachers enter the profession with little support or mentoring (Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), 2002; Herrington & Herrington, 2004; Ramsey, 2000). Continual calls for more comprehensive approaches to teacher induction in which universities and employing bodies share the responsibilities of the transition to professional practice (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, 2007) have, to date, largely been ignored. This paper reports on a trial project conducted at a university in south-east Queensland, Australia that addresses these shortfalls. The aim of the project is to facilitate and support the development of high quality teachers and teaching through an extended model of teacher preparation. The model comprises a 1+2 program of formal teacher preparation: a one-year teacher education course (the Graduate Diploma in Education), followed by a comprehensive two year program of workplace induction and ongoing professional learning tailored to meet graduate and employer needs. This paper reports on graduating students’ perceptions of their preparedness to teach as they transition from the Graduate Diploma in Education program to professional practice. The study concludes that innovative programs, including university-linked, ongoing professional learning support for teacher education graduates, may provide the way forward for enhancing the transition to practice for beginning teachers

ACCAMS: Additive Co-Clustering to Approximate Matrices Succinctly

Matrix completion and approximation are popular tools to capture a user's preferences for recommendation and to approximate missing data. Instead of using low-rank factorization we take a drastically different approach, based on the simple insight that an additive model of co-clusterings allows one to approximate matrices efficiently. This allows us to build a concise model that, per bit of model learned, significantly beats all factorization approaches to matrix approximation. Even more surprisingly, we find that summing over small co-clusterings is more effective in modeling matrices than classic co-clustering, which uses just one large partitioning of the matrix. Following Occam's razor principle suggests that the simple structure induced by our model better captures the latent preferences and decision making processes present in the real world than classic co-clustering or matrix factorization. We provide an iterative minimization algorithm, a collapsed Gibbs sampler, theoretical guarantees for matrix approximation, and excellent empirical evidence for the efficacy of our approach. We achieve state-of-the-art results on the Netflix problem with a fraction of the model complexity.Comment: 22 pages, under review for conference publicatio