Blackboard as an online learning environment : what do teacher education students and staff think?

Abstract: As online learning environments now have an established presence in higher education we need to ask the question: How effective are these environments for student learning? Online environments can provide a different type of learning experience than traditional face-to-face contexts (for on-campus students) or print-based materials (for distance learners). This article identifies teacher education student and staff perceptions of teaching and learning using the online learning management system, Blackboard. Perceptions of staff and students are compared and implications for teacher education staff interested in providing high quality learning environments within an online space are discussed.

English language study abroad program : an investigation of Hong Kong pre-service teachers’ experiences of a language immersion program

There has been minimal research focused on short-term study abroad language immersion programs, in particular, with home-stay families. The importance of authentic intercultural experience is increasingly clear and was acknowledged as central to the process of language learning (Liddicoat, 2004). In Hong Kong, education programs for pre-service language teachers have significantly emphasised language and intercultural training through short-term study abroad, and these short overseas language immersion courses have become a compulsory component for teacher training (Bodycott & Crew, 2001) in the last decade. This study aims to investigate eight Hong Kong pre-service teachers’ and their home-stay families’ experiences of a short-term (two months) language immersion program in Australia. The focus is on listening to commentaries concerning the development of communicative competence, intercultural competence and professional growth during the out-of-class study abroad experience. The conceptual framework adopted in this study views language and intercultural learning from social constructivist perspectives. Central to this framing is the notion that the internalisation of higher mental functions involves the transfer from the inter-psychological to the intra-psychological plane, that is, a progression process from the socially supported to individually controlled performance. From this perspective, language serves as a way to communicate about, and in relation to, actions and experience. Three research questions were addressed and studied through qualitative methodology. 1. How do the pre-service teachers and their home-stay families perceive the out-of-class component of the program in terms of opportunities for the development of language proficiency and communicative competence? 2. How do the pre-service teachers and their home-stay families perceive the out-of-class component of the program in terms of the development of intercultural competence? 3. How do the pre-service teachers and home-stay families perceive the outof- class component of the program in terms of teachers’ professional growth? Data were generated from multiple data collection methods and analysed through thematic analysis from both a “bottom up” and “top down” approach. The study showed that the pre-service teachers perceived that the immersion program influenced, to varying degrees, their language proficiency, communication and intercultural awareness, as well as their self-awareness and professional growth. These pre-service teachers believed that effective language learning centres on active engagement in the target language community. A mismatch between the views and evaluations of the two groups – the pre-service teachers and the home-stay family members – provides some evidence of misalignments in terms of expectations and perceptions of each other’s roles and responsibilities. The study has highlighted challenges encountered, and provided suggestions for ways of meeting these challenges. The inclusion in the study of the home-stay families’ perceptions and commentaries provided insights, which can inform program development. There is clearly further work to be done in terms of predeparture orientation and preparation, not only for the main participants themselves, the students, but also for the host families.

Enhancing professional ethics : service-learning in teacher education

The ethical conduct of professionals has been the focus of increasing scrutiny over the past several decades as members of the public, the media, professional bodies, and legislative authorities have struggled to define ethical behaviour in times of governmental change, increasing internationalisation, globalised communications, threats of terrorism, and the challenges of developments in science and medicine (e.g., Demmke & Bossaert, 2004). National governments and transnational bodies have responded to these concerns about ethics and corruption through measures such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004), Transparency International’s annual corruption index (2010) and Queensland’s Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 (Queensland Parliament 1994). Similarly, academic interest in ethics and its application across a range of domains(e.g., business, health care, social welfare, criminal justice, law, journalism, defence, environment, and media) has also increased. To illustrate, in 1993, a non-partisan, non-profit national umbrella organisation, the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics, was formed following a conference concerned with the teaching of ethics (http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au./aapae/about_aapae/about_aapae.htm), while a recent review of the Excellence in Research for Australian rankings of national and international academic journals revealed that 16 journals related to ethics had received the top ratings of A* or A (Australian Research Council, 2009). In this chapter we examine professional ethics and argue, with specific reference to the context of pre-service teacher education, that Service-learning is one way of enhancing emerging professionals’ understanding of ethics.

Reproducing successful rituals in bad times : exploring interactions of a new science teacher

Teaching is emotional work. This is especially the case in the first years of teaching when new teachers are particularly vulnerable. By understanding changes in teacher emotions in the early years of teaching we hope to identify strategies that might ultimately reduce teacher attrition. As part of a larger study of the transition of new teachers to the profession, this ethnographic case study explores how a new science teacher produced and reproduced positive emotional interaction rituals with her students in her first year of teaching. We show how dialogical interactions were positive and satisfying experiences for the teacher, and how they were reproduced successfully in different contexts. We also illustrate how both teacher and students used humor to create a structure for dialogical interactions. During these successful interactions the students used shared resources to satisfy their teacher that they were engaging in the relevant science content. The implications of what we have learned for the professional development of new teachers are discussed in relation to an expanded understanding of teacher emotions.

Colin Marsh (2010) Becoming a Teacher : Knowledge, Skills and Issues. 5th edition, Frenchs Forrest : Pearson Education Australia, 459 pages. [Book Review]

In the preface to the fifth edition of Becoming a Teacher, Colin Marsh reminds us that teachers need to have passion, energy and a commitment to enhance students’ learning. This most recent edition certainly provides examples of the author’s wide ranging knowledge and depth of insights that reflect his own commitment to inspirational and dedicated teaching practice. The fifth edition shares those characteristics which made previous editions so worthwhile. Most notable is the subtle but significant dual theme of Marsh’s narrative. That is, first, teaching is a vehicle for increasing the life opportunities of students, and second, teaching is profession that requires continual commitment and critical reflection. These are very important messages for any course that develops teaching methodology. Becoming a Teacher continues to be structured in five readable sections, however the 2010 edition has some exciting new features that warrant the attention of teacher educators and their pre-service students.

Teacher's Beliefs and Practices in Early Childhood Education in Singapore

This book contributes to the literature on early childhood education services in Singapore. It evolved from a research study which was carried out to understand the beliefs and practices of three Singaporean teachers through their critical reflection on their professional work. This study was based on research which indicates that any efforts to improve the quality of early childhood services should involve the teachers themselves. Teachers who are capable of critical reflection on their work with children and families will be more effective practitioners.

Locating child protection in preservice teacher education

A recent report delivered by the Australian Centre for Child Protection has highlighted the need for empirical evidence of effective pedagogies for supporting teaching and learning of child protection content in Australian teacher education programs (Arnold & Maio-Taddeo, 2007). This paper advances this call by presenting case study accounts of different approaches to teaching child protection content in University-based teacher education programs across three Australian States. These different cases provide a basis for understanding existing strategies as an important precursor to improving practice. Although preschool, primary and secondary schools have been involved in efforts to protect children from abuse and neglect since the 1970s, teacher education programs, including preservice and inservice programs, have been slow to align their work with child protection agendas. This paper opens a long-overdue discussion about the extent and nature of child protection content in teacher education and proposes strategies for translating research into practice.

Defining and mapping teacher practice in technology classrooms

The indecision surrounding the definition of Technology extends to the classroom as not knowing what a subject “is” affects how it is taught. Similarly, its relative newness – and consequent lack of habitus in school settings - means that it is still struggling to find its own place in the curriculum as well as resolve its relationship with more established subject domains, particularly Science and Mathematics. The guidance from syllabus documents points to open-ended student-directed projects where extant studies indicate a more common experience of teacher –directed activities and an emphasis on product over process. There are issues too for researchers in documenting classroom observations and in analysing teacher practice in new learning environments. This paper presents a framework for defining and mapping classroom practice and for attempting to describe the social practice in the Technology classroom. The framework is a bricolage which draws on contemporary research. More formally, the development of the framework is consonant with the aim of design-based research to develop a flexible, adaptive and generalisable theory to better understanding a teaching domain where promise is not seen to match current reality. The framework may also inform emergent approaches to STEM (Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics) in education.

Outcomes and implications of one teacher's approach to context-based science in the middle years

In Australia, there is a crisis in science education with students becoming disengaged with canonical science in the middle years of schooling. One recent initiative that aims to improve student interest and motivation without diminishing conceptual understanding is the context-based approach. Contextual units that connect the canonical science with the students’ real world of their local community have been used in the senior years but are new in the middle years. This ethnographic study explored the learning transactions that occurred in one 9th grade science class studying a context-based Environmental Science unit for 11 weeks. Outcomes of the study and implications are discussed in this paper.

Personal epistemology and teacher education

A growing body of personal epistemology research shows that personal epistemologies influence student learning, particularly in academic contexts. However, we know little about how personal epistemologies relate to teaching, and even less about teacher education. This introductory chapter sets the stage for this book which brings together a range of international researchers in the field of personal epistemology, teaching, and teacher education. This introductory chapter explores personal epistemology as a construct in the field of teaching and teacher education. In particular, it focuses on teacher education a one contextual influence on personal epistemologies by exploring the nature of teachers' personal epistemologies, teachers' personal epistemologies and learning, teachers' personal epistemologies and teaching, and changing personal epistemology in teacher education programs.

Deep End Teacher Guide : Green

Dr Mills is also the invited author of the Deep End Series Teacher Guides by ERA publications. This 3-volume series for teachers is used in more than 200 schools in Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and South America.

Deep End Teacher Guide : Orange

Dr Mills is the invited author of the Deep End Series Teacher Guides by ERA publications. This 3-volume series for teachers is used in more than 200 schools in Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and South America.

Deep End Purple Teacher Guide

Dr Mills is also the invited author of the Deep End Series Teacher Guides by ERA publications. This 3-volume series for teachers is used in more than 200 schools in Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and South America.