Teaching in a nutshell: navigating your teacher education program as a student teacher [Book Review]

Teacher education programs bridge the interests of two worlds - the world of educational theory and the world of teaching practice. Despite teacher educators’ best attempts to convince pre-service teachers that theory and practice are linked, it is often during their practicum placements when pre-service teachers claim that their ‘real’ learning takes place. It is also on practicum when students teachers face (and are surprised by) the ‘extensive decision-making role of the teacher, the emotional aspects of teaching, and the sheer volume of work’ (p.4). Kosnick and Beck’s new book Teaching in a Nutshell utilises the authors’ extensive research with beginning teachers to help students ‘navigate’ their way through their programs. Identifying what they have found in their research to be the seven key priorities for teachers, each chapter follows a helpful structure beginning with an overview of current thinking in the priority area, followed by a case study of a beginning teacher showing how s/he implements the strategy..

Practice Field Experience Integrated in Quality Improvement of Teacher

Considering on the Indonesian Teacher and Lecturer Act, every Indonesian teacher needs to have a teacher certification. Indeed, it is a good opportunity as well as a challenge for every university, the which is conducting teacher training program, to have qualified graduates. As a qualified teacher, he must have four competencies concerning pedagogy, attitude, personal, and social. The question that may Arise is "How to have such competencies?" Of course, many ways can be done. However, improving the quality of teaching practicum is one of the many possibilities that can be considered. Integrated Student Community Service - Teaching Practicum (KKN-PPL) the which is combining community service and teaching practicum program itself has been developed by Yogyakarta State University (UNY) to have a better models of such teaching practicum

My First Time Teaching English in School

This book, My First Time Teaching English in School, is one of the products of our institution research on Analisis Efikasi Diri Mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris pada Program Magang III. The main part of this book is the compilation of student teachers’ stories of their teaching English experiences during accomplishing Teaching Practicum Program (Magang III) in different schools. The writings are in the form of recount text (telling past events) that had been selected in terms of language and content. The authors start overviewing the theoretical information about teaching practicum in Indonesian university context. Then, the exploration of the students’ experiences were expressed into two types: challenging and frightening. The classification was sorted from the expression or feeling that they put into their full writings. Next, this book collects the pictures of students when they carried out teaching practicum with various poses and partners. In the last part, the authors give conclusion according to the students’ stories in this book connected with the theory of Teaching Practicum for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)

Proper Classroom Management is Essential for an Effective Elementary School Classroom

I am an elementary education major and have a deep love for seeing children make connections, and learn about not only academics but moral values and life lessons. As much as I have learned in different classes over the past four years of my education, I have learned the most during my Practicum and Student Teaching experience as I really have gotten to run my own classroom. I believe that classroom management is the most important tool of strong learning. It provides the atmosphere students need to learn to their best ability. My thesis paper discusses why classroom management is essential to any effective classroom at an elementary school level. I will implement theories of some well-noted authors in the education field, along with sharing my personal experiences in my Practicum and Student Teaching journey. Explored are the reasons behind why a classroom should be managed well, safety issues, relationships, teacher reflection, and more

Creating effective invited spaces : putting the lens on early childhood teacher education practica : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

The teaching practicum offers many opportunities for growth of knowledge, practice and development of new understandings and competencies for student teachers. However, student teachers who are placed within low socioeconomic early childhood settings, if they have little or no knowledge of this habitus, may find this a challenging aspect of their initial teacher education. This study aimed to identify factors that support, facilitate and nurture the positive relationships between associate teachers and student teachers during teaching practicum within low socioeconomic early childhood settings. A qualitative case study approach was used to gather data, including in-depth interviews with two pre-service teacher education coordinators as well as six associate teachers in a range of low socioeconomic early childhood educational settings. The findings provide insights into associate teachers’ pivotal role in allowing student teachers access to the very intimate and specific dispositions and approaches that they implement every day in their practice. In addition, the findings highlight the reciprocal responsibility of student teachers to take advantage of the opportunities to share with their associate teachers during the short passage of time that the teaching practicum allows. The findings from this study led to the development of a conceptual model which reveals the characteristics of an effective ‘invited space’. This invited space is most likely to emerge when both the associate teacher and the student teacher negotiate a respectful and trusting relationship that allows them to share their identity, beliefs, values and practices, and to be prepared to move flexibly between the roles of teacher and learner

Practicum Pairs: An Alternative for First Field Experience in Early Childhood Teacher Education

This paper focuses on partnership between pairs of students in early childhood education during a teaching practicum in preschools and kindergartens. One hundred students enrolled in early childhood preservice teacher education programs at a large metropolitan Australian University were paired and placed in kindergartens and preschools with host teachers. The project aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of host teachers and students involved in the paired practicum which was evaluated qualitatively using semi-structured surveys of host teachers and students. This paper identifies eight practices and two principles making this paired practicum successful or not successful

A complex act—Teacher educators share their perspectives of practicum assessment

Practicum visiting and the assessment of students’ practicum form a significant component of the teacher educator role. Teacher educators are tasked with making judgements regarding the quality of students’ teaching practice, as well as their attributes, dispositions, skills and knowledge, and ultimately their readiness to enter the teaching profession. This paper reports the findings of a doctoral study that examined the assessment of practicum in early childhood initial teacher education and, in particular, the way in which practicum assessment was enacted and experienced by early childhood student teachers, associate teachers, and teacher educators within institutional contexts. The study provides insights into how teacher educators define their role, what they look for and hope for in the assessment process, as well as the challenges faced in making authentic, appropriate and informed assessment decisions. The critical importance of professional judgment within the context of a relational pedagogy is highlighted in response to the complex variables involved in practicum assessment. Implications for future directions in policy and practice related to practicum assessment are proposed

Preparedness to teach : the perceptions of Saudi female pre-service mathematics teachers : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Being well prepared and experiencing a sense of preparedness for teaching is a key learning outcome of any initial teacher education (ITE) program. In order to understand more about the nature, development, and sufficiency of mathematics teacher readiness to teach, this study explores the phenomenon of preparedness. The aim of this study was to investigate how well Saudi pre-service teachers (PSTs) feel prepared to teach mathematics at secondary or middle schools (i.e. to explore their sense of preparedness to teach), delving into the nature and origins of that sense. The participants in the study were a sample of female mathematics PSTs (N=105), who were near the end of their teaching methods course in the final year of their 4-year education degree. The construct of preparedness was operationalized through a survey of PSTs’ efficacy to teach mathematics and an interview-based exploration of the factors influencing these perceptions. The data were collected over 4 months from 2015 to 2016. The quantitative data were analysed in SPSS and thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The key findings of this study indicated that for the PSTs, being prepared to teach means having teaching efficacy, good knowledge for teaching, a sense of preparedness, and professionalism. However, PSTs are not fully aware of all the kinds of knowledge needed for being prepared. The study showed that PSTs were generally confident that they were sufficiently prepared to teach. They felt most confident in the areas of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical knowledge (PK) rather than pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The findings showed that the PSTs felt inadequately prepared in some aspects of their teaching roles, and needed more support and guidance from their university–school communities. The majority felt that classroom and behaviour management was the aspect in which they felt least prepared. They also expressed only a moderate level of general teaching efficacy (GTE), expressing a lower sense of efficacy relating directly to supporting students as learners. These were related to the disjunction between theory and practice that resulted from the two most influential factors shaping PSTs’ sense of preparedness and feelings of efficacy: the practicum experience and the ITE. Although these factors had positive impacts on their perceptions, they also expressed how the classroom environment, challenges, and school culture encountered during the practicum had lowered the PSTs’ sense of preparedness and teaching efficacy. Indeed, half of the PSTs felt that the school was neither sufficiently prepared nor sufficiently resourced to support PSTs learning the work of teaching. The challenge of closing the gap between theory and practice has led to PSTs’ desire to have more time in the mathematics methods course, as well as extra time in the practicum. It is hoped that the findings from this study concerning PSTs’ current perceptions about preparedness, combined with the suggestions for improving their levels of preparedness, will contribute to improvements in ITE and teaching quality in Saudi Arabia

Estudio de los Portafolios en el Practicum: An álisis de un PLE - Portafolio

The specialized literature agrees to notice that even existing some conditions, it is not a generalized methodology at universities. In the new grades and knowledge areas is found the subject of external practices that would be able to show conditions for using the portfolios. Whereas, there are some questions in the educational area: What conditions exist for the use of the portfolios in the Practicum of the education grades in Spain? What level of utilization are evident? What problems of understanding, the students express about the documentation of evidences in portfolios? The research performs a mixed methodology: a first quantitative study with descriptive methodology, interview to 31 coordinators of Practicum of all grades in 10 (20%) Faculty of Education, along with a qualitative study and content analysis of 256 Practicum guides of all grades of 36 (72%) Faculties of Education of public universities in Spain. A second case study, perform a content analysis of 592 annotations of 212 students to show and evaluate the evidences in ePortfolios of the Practicum of the degree of Pedagogy. The results reveal that there are 11 students per tutor 2,88h medium for tutoring and assess ePortfolios. Being mail (between 37.77% and 46.66%) followed by the platforms most used technologies. The eRúbricas and video annotations help document the evidence, however, students still show difficulties in some competencesFunded by Spanish Plan of R+D+i Excellence (2014-16) No. EDU2013-41974P. Project entitled: “Study of the Impact of Federated eRubrics on Assessing Competences in the Practicum”. http://goo.gl/u07aN