The development of knowledge about language in teacher training: what works?

Efforts have been made over many years by applied linguists in a number of English-speaking countries to raise awareness of language across the primary and secondary school curriculum, with varying degrees of success (see Denham & Lobeck, 2010). Many of these countries are sites of mass migration from non-English speaking countries, creating linguistic equity issues. In Australia, the new National Curriculum mandates that teachers of all disciplines will be required to provide pedagogy responsive to the language learning needs of English as an Additional Language (EAL) students. However, policy documents do not specify how this goal should be realized, and teachers and researchers are engaged in constant debate about what views of language could inform teacher training (e.g. structural and/or functional). This paper reports on a project which aimed to identify 1) the views of teacher educators on language in the curriculum, and 2) the language-related challenges faced by teachers in training. The current paper focuses on the language awareness of trainee teachers. Ten education students were interviewed about their understandings and experiences of language and language learning. It was found that many students experienced lack of confidence and knowledge about language (KAL), but that awareness of sociocultural elements of language provided them with ways to connect with a broader understanding of language issues. Results were analyzed from the perspective of sociocultural theory and will have implications for teacher training in any educational context where students are learning an additional language in order to integrate into a national schooling system.

Understanding a transitional teacher education in globalized and neoliberal contexts

Many early career teachers commence their transition into the teaching profession in rural and remote schools. Separated from existing interpersonal/professional networks of support, early career teachers rely on new colleagues and school leaders in more complex ways than their peers teaching closer to home. Crucially, their emerging identities, resilience and motivations are therefore influenced and reinforced
through professional interactions. This paper explores the critical turning points and narratives of two early career rural teachers. The narratives were collected through reflect.goingok.com, a digital tool created by one of the authors; that enabled the teachers to engage in regular reflections about their transition from university to the classroom. In conclusion some of the implications of the co-narration of teacher identity, and how this informs a systemic approach that supports early career teachers in rural teaching practice is discussed.

Teacher change in implementing a research developed representation construction pedagogy

The Representations in Learning Science (RiLS) project developed a representation construction approach to teaching and learning in science, which has successfully demonstrated enhanced student learning through sustained engagement with ideas, and enhancement of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and understandings of how knowledge in science is developed and communicated. The current Constructing Representations in Science Pedagogy (CRISP) project aims at wider scale implementation of the representation construction approach. This paper explores a range of issues that confronted four Year 8 teachers in implementing this research-developed approach, such as: preparedness of the teacher in terms of epistemological positioning and positioning as a learner, significant support for planning and modelling by the university expert, and a team ethos where teachers share ideas and plan jointly. The Year 8 teachers implemented a representation construction approach to the teaching of the topic of astronomy. The Interconnected Model of Teacher Growth (IMTG) (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002) was used to analyse the teachers’ experience in planning and delivering the teaching sequence. This model was found to be flexible in identifying the experiences of teachers in different situations and useful in identifying issues for implementation of a research developed pedagogy.

Facilitating reflection and action: the possible contribution of video to mathematics teacher education

In the Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002), change in teacher beliefs, knowledge and practice is mediated by either enaction or reflection. The stimulus for change can be provided by an external source such as a professional development program or it can result from the teacher’s inevitable classroom experimentation and reflection on the consequences of that experimentation. This paper explores the role that video can play in catalysing change and facilitating teacher reflection. In particular, we examine: (i) international research employing video and the capacity of such research to inform practice and stimulate teacher reflection in both pre-service and in-service settings; (ii) the use of video in professional development programs and the choice between exemplary and problematic practice as catalysts for teacher reflection in both pre-service and in-service programs; and (iii) teacher agency and the catalytic role of video in supporting teachers’ reflection on their own practice, through the use of video as the communicative medium to sustain a professional community of reflective practitioners.

School-based approaches to pre-service primary science teacher education resulting in gains in confidence

The quality of science education has been the focus of a number of research projects nationally and internationally, including concerns about primary teachers’ lack of science knowledge and confidence to teach science. In addition, the effectiveness of traditional approaches to teacher education have been questioned. The Science Teacher Partnerships with Schools (STEPS) responds to these concerns by investigating the effectiveness of school-based approaches to pre-service primary science teacher education. It considers established, innovative and successful practices at five universities to develop and promote a framework supporting school-based approaches to pre-service teacher education. An analysis of the five models was conducted in 2013 involving interviews with teacher educators, pre-service teachers, and school principals and teachers. Pre-service teachers at these universities also engaged in pre- and post- online surveys generating data on their expectations and experiences associated with these experiences. This paper reports on the analysis of the survey data, which shows that there are statistically significant gains in pre-service teachers’ responses to several items relating to their confidence to teach science. Analysis of the data also shows interesting differences between universities noted in different confidence items. The school based experience was shown to provide these pre-service teachers with an authentic engagement with the teaching of science while being supported by their university tutors. While raising confidence at university does not automatically translate to confident early career teachers, the gains in confidence are an important step in assisting prospective teachers to approach the teaching of science more positively than they might otherwise. Implications for teacher education and the role that university-school partnerships can play in preparing confident teachers of science will be discussed.

Surf and turf: music education riding the wave and/or planted firmly in teacher education arts courses across two Australian universities

Tertiary Arts educators are exhorted to offer The Australian Curriculum: The Arts (Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts) in their teacher education programs. This paper situates itself across two interstate universities (Deakin in Victoria and Griffith in Queensland) where both authors are music educators at these institutions. They discuss the two different ways that primary Arts education is offered at their universities by focusing on the Bachelor of Primary course (program/degree). The focus at Griffith University is on integrating the Arts whereas at Deakin University, the Arts are taught as a discipline within the unit (subject). Across both universities two teaching units for primary Arts education is core within the four-year program. Drawing on the author’s narrative reflection, observation, student questionnaire data, anecdotal feedback and student end of semester evaluations we discuss two different methods of delivery, assessment and challenges the units present to the authors and students. Though tertiary Arts educators are challenged to be inclusive of a rich and diverse arts curriculum as music educators we question whether the students are merely surfing the crest of the wave or being firmly planted in the ground to effectively implement music education in their future primary classrooms. We invite dialogue with other music educators who face similar situations where the delivery of music education is not located within the Arts and is dependent on staffing, resourcing and time limits and in some situations is almost drowning.

Strangely familiar: teacher-researchers rethinking literacy pedagogies in digital environments

This article reports on a collaborative project between middle school teachers and university researchers exploring the impact of a one to one netbook program on literacy teaching and learning at one Australian primary school. Following the traditions of ethnographic classroom research and practitioner research in literacy, we describe and analyse the evolution of teacher knowledge and understandings informing the processes of reshaping print based literacy pedagogies and practices within digital learning environments. The study sought to explore the possibilities of one-to-one computing through an investigation of the affordances of digital literacy pedagogies within an open plan learning environment. We focus on the richness of ethnographic tools, in particular visual ethnographic methods, for "making the familiar strange" and identify contexts supporting the emergence of innovative digital literacy pedagogies and powerful professional learning in primary classrooms. Drawing on surveys, interviews and conversations with teachers and students and classroom observations, we suggest that dialogues between teachers and researchers provide a forum for co-construction of insights into innovative digital literacy pedagogies and offer rich learning opportunities for students, teachers and researchers.

Teacher preparation in Malaysia: needed changes

The article attempts to present personal views of some changes that are needed to be made within teacher education in Malaysia. It uses one teacher education university as a point of reference to forward concerns. The university remains anonymous as it is not the intent of the article to critique the university but rather to highlight the more general challenges in preparing preservice teachers and to explore some approaches to improve teacher education within this university and its setting. The article starts by drawing together a set of concerns that face the field, arguing that three changes are needed to improve teacher preparation, namely (1) a curriculum that is grounded in the Malaysian context, (2) an improved practicum experience, and (3) to develop and situate practices in the schools. It concludes that the efforts to change within teacher education will not be easy, but needful; else the ultimate losers are the future teachers and their students.

Uncertainty and reluctance in teaching taboo language: a case study of an experienced teacher of English as an additional language

Despite its ubiquitous employment by users of English to achieve authentic communicative goals, taboo language has received little attention in the education literature. Even less focus has been placed on such language in English language teaching - specifically, in teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL). Given the multiplicity of communicative struggles experienced by EAL learners surrounding the use of taboo language in authentic communication, meaningful consideration of this aspect can be seen as crucial in EAL instruction. Classroom learning could prepare learners for navigation and negotiation of taboo language use they will inevitably encounter in social interactions in target language communities of practice. However, EAL teachers' uncertainty or reluctance to introduce taboo language in classroom instruction is a key impediment in developing learners' sociocultural knowledge regarding such language use. We foreground one case of such uncertainty and reluctance surrounding the introduction of taboo language in EAL instruction derived as interview data from an experienced EAL teacher.

Promoting cultural understandings through song across the Tasman: pre-service primary teacher education

As tertiary music educators across the Tasman we argue that music, particularly song, is an effective medium for teaching and learning about non-western music when preparing generalist primary Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs). Using ‘voice’ as a portable and accessible vehicle to transmit cultural understandings, we draw on the Zimbabwean proverb ‘if you can speak you can learn to sing and if you can walk you can learn to dance’ to foster music creativity and enhance literacy development and confidence in our PSTs. Using narrative methodology, we share our teaching and learning experience at Deakin University (Australia) and the University of Auckland (New Zealand) where we include African and Māori music respectively as effective ways to promote cultural understandings. In our experience, the teaching of song goes beyond teaching a tune or something that is ‘fun’. Rather, it is as an effective context for developing knowledge, skills and understandings about multiculturalism and the importance and need to be ‘inclusive of others’. PSTs gained socially, linguistically, cultural and emotionally, to name a few. We encourage other music educators at all education levels to be culturally and linguistically inclusive and to explore non-western music as a positive teaching and learning experience.

Initial teacher education and assessment of graduates in Australia

In this chapter we discuss the impact of recent standards-based legislation and implementation in Australia designed to improve the quality of teacher education and examine the ways in which teacher educators are assessing graduates in relation to beginning teacher standards, the evidence they are using within the context of accreditation of their programs, and the impact this is having on the teacher education curriculum. We report on research into the implementation and evaluation of an authentic teacher assessment approach being used in one Australian university and argue that such an approach not only empowers pre-service teachers but also teacher educators.

Teacher change in implementing a research-developed representation construction pedagogy

The Representations in Learning Science (RiLS) project developed arepresentation construction approach to teaching and learning in science, which has successfully demonstrated enhanced student learning through sustained engagement with ideas, and enhancement of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and understandings of how knowledge in science is developed and communicated. The current Constructing Representations in Science Pedagogy (CRISP) project aims at widerscale implementation of the representation construction approach. This paper explores a range of issues that confronted four Year-8 teachers in implementing this research-developed approach, such as: preparedness of the teacher in terms of epistemological positioning and positioning as a learner, significant support for planning and modelling by the university expert, and a team ethos where teachers share ideas and plan jointly. The Year-8 teachers implemented a representation construction approach to the teaching of the topic of astronomy. The Interconnected Model of Teacher Growth (IMTG) (Clarke and Hollingworth, Teach. Educ., 18 (2001) 947) was used to analyse the teachers’ experience in planning and delivering the teaching sequence. This model was found to be flexible in identifying the experiences of teachers in different situations and useful in identifying issues for implementation of a research-developed pedagogy.

Establishing school university partnerships to teach science – Does what worked for us work for you?

Concerns over the quality and amount of science teaching in Australian primary schools has led to a concentration of research on the methods of delivery of science education. There is a growing interest in both Australian and International contexts on building teacher knowledge and confidence to teach science, how science is taught at the primary school level and also how pre-service teachers are prepared to teach science. The Science Teacher Education Partnerships with Schools (STEPS) project is one response to these concerns. The STEPS project is a collaboration of five Australian universities that each independently set-up their own school-based partnership approaches with schools to deliver their science education programs. Each university aimed to provide pre-service teachers with the genuine experience of teaching science while being supported by university teaching staff. The project has drawn on feedback from pre-service teachers, teachers, principals and teacher educators involved at the five universities to examine the prevailing practices and led to the development of a set of tools and process, referred to as the Interpretive Framework (IF)(Hobbs et al. 2015). The IF describes how to create and maintain effective partnerships with schools, based on this research. This current paper reports on a survey conducted in 2014 which aimed to feedback from teacher educators across Australia to explore the extent to which school-based teaching opportunities in science for PSTs were in use across the country and to identify the range of approaches and theories driving their practices. Some respondents were followed up for interview and key factors were analysed and reported here. These data will be used to further refine the IF.