Search results for: Attitudes of teachers

This study addresses the research question about preservice teachers’ perceptions toward online learning after completing an elementary science methods course. Specifically, their perceptions about utilizing an online science methods curriculum versus a traditional methods curriculum. Survey and focus group data indicate that the preservice teachers valued and wanted more online experiences, but not as a total replacement of traditional methods experiences. Furthermore, using the video cases made improved comprehension possible because all preservice teachers could watch the same learning experience. The author concludes that online video cases will likely continue to provide instructors with the ability tangentially to capture elementary classroom learning environments and elementary student learning while working with preservice teachers.

This article describes a two-year longitudinal study of two “at-risk” US teenagers who successfully transformed their unusually challenging high school experiences into motivation to become classroom teachers. Results suggest (1) memories of personal adversity in school may have a profound impact on an individual’s orientation to teaching, and (2) these memories can be used advantageously by pre-service teachers. Implications for teacher educators are discussed.

In this article, the author argues that there is a lack of research into the role of the facilitator of discussions of video for professional development. A key purpose of this article is to expose aspects of the role of the facilitator of teacher learning, not reported in previous research in the use of video. Hence, the author documents research he undertook into the use of video as a tool for teacher learning. In analysing empirical data from one school, he suggests five key aspects or decision points in working with teachers on video: selecting a video clip, setting up the discussion norms, re-watching the video, moving to interpretation, and metacommenting. The author argues that having presented key aspects of the role of the facilitator of video use, a further look at the detail of the data from discussions serves to highlight some of the complexities involved in just one of the categories.

This study was an exploration of the conceptions of inquiry science held by exemplary elementary teachers. The study explored the ideas, understandings, and the recommendations for teaching inquiry science of exemplary elementary teachers and the ways that they use inquiry science in their classrooms. The findings reveal that the six exemplary teachers held ideas about inquiry as ‘‘finding things out’’ and all described themselves as having been children who explored and experimented with the world around them. The teachers in this group all recommended that when encouraging other teachers to implement inquiry, they need to first recognize its importance, and certainly this will take involving teachers in authentic inquiry experiences as learners so that they will be able to begin to view themselves, as these focus group teachers did, as problem-solvers and experimenters.