Action in Teacher Education

Chiodo, John J.

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559420pmid: N/A

Feuerstein, Abe

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559421pmid: N/A

In an effort to understand some of the ways that accountability-based reform efforts have influenced teacher education, this article details the politics of accountability in Pennsylvania that motivated sweeping changes in the policies governing teacher preparation in 2006. This case study provides a poignant example of the kind of complex accountability systems now being constructed across the United States in an effort to change teacher preparation. By analyzing primary documents including the legal statutes governing teacher preparation in Pennsylvania, correspondence from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, related newsletters, memos, reports, transcripts of meetings, and testimony before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the complex nature of the conflicts underlying the development and implementation of teacher education reform is brought into focus. The study's findings suggest that a deep and uncritical acceptance of accountability-based teacher education reform on the part of educational policy makers is likely to do more harm than good. The article concludes by outlining a framework for developing more intelligent measures of accountability that might preserve professional autonomy and judgment.

Gordon, Mordechai

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559423pmid: N/A

This article examines one attempt to empower teacher candidates to become researchers in their own classrooms through an integrated research course sequence in the Masters of Arts in teaching program at Quinnipiac University. The author first outlines a number of teacher education programs that have shown some success in preparing new teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills to engage in action-based teacher research. The author then describes the three-semester research course sequence at Quinnipiac while highlighting what students learn and are expected to do in each semester. The author analyzes the surveys and interviews he conducted with some recent graduates of this program who reported that they had already began doing action research in their own classrooms, while highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the research course sequence. The final part of this article discusses some implications that can be gleaned from this example of those teacher education programs that are attempting to cultivate teacher-researchers.

Baum, Angela C.; Powers-Costello, Beth; VanScoy, Irma; Miller, Erin; James, Ulanda

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559429pmid: N/A

Although the work of the internship supervisor is vital to the teacher preparation process, little attention has been paid to supervisors in research or practice. In response to this issue, the authors implemented a collaborative professional development experience for internship supervisors. Data were collected through focus group interviews and an open-ended survey to determine how participation in the professional development experience impacted supervisors' work and experiences in their teacher education program. Findings included strengths and weaknesses of the project, as well as suggestions for future endeavors. The data indicate that such groups are potentially beneficial for participants.

Jiang, Binbin; DeVillar, Robert A.

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559437pmid: N/A

As student diversity becomes the norm in U.S. schools, future teachers must be comprehensively prepared to work with the increasingly diverse student population through application of informed instruction that enhances general and individual student learning and outcomes. Teacher-education programs increasingly promote student teaching in international settings as a substantive step in serving to develop teachers who embody these new competencies and instructional practices. This study offers a framework and analysis highlighting similarities and differences among three student-teaching abroad settings—Belize, Mexico and China—associated with a state university in the southeastern United States. The study's research findings support the general research literature in international student teaching and introduce new, pattern-based, evidence that relates the comparative impact of country and school-site contexts on specific cultural, professional, and character development influences on student teachers.

McGrail, Ewa; Tinker Sachs, Gertrude; Many, Joyce; Myrick, Cecilia; Sackor, Sharry

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559443pmid: N/A

Changes in reading and reading comprehension precipitated by the emergence of the Internet and related to information and digital communication applications have been noted in the reading and literacy fields for some time now. Teacher-education programs play a special role in preparing teachers for instruction that capitalizes on such changes. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which teacher-education programs help teachers to embrace and critique technology, and literacies they engender, in teaching reading at the middle-school level. The study found the middle-grades teacher-education programs in this study encourage the use of a range of technology tools. Although traditional technology was viewed and used frequently for the purpose of teacher and student productivity (e.g., to record, display, or deliver information), information/communication as well as multimedia applications were viewed more often as sources of multimodal and interactive texts and as tools for meaning representation. Although the new generation web tools such as blogs, Google tools, or webcasting applications were recognized as new types of texts, many of the multimodal texts and media that preservice teachers were exposed to or explored for classroom use in this study were, however, older-generation applications such as PowerPoint presentations, magazines, or environmental signs and symbols. Additionally, teacher educators' and their students' access to basic reading software, including fluency and comprehension programs, was limited. Implications from these findings are further discussed.

Doppen, Frans H.; Feinberg, Joseph R.; O'Mahony, Carolyn; Lucas, Ashley G.; Haeussler Bohan, Chara; Lipscomb, George; Ogawa, Masato

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559445pmid: N/A

Teacher educators from six states invited their social studies methodology students to complete an abbreviated version of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Naturalization Test. The preservice teachers were also asked to share their conceptions of citizenship and evaluate the naturalization test. The findings from this study indicate that although this sample of preservice teachers had limited conceptions of citizenship, most were able to get a satisfactory score on the test. The authors discuss the implications of these results and suggest ways to broaden citizenship education in teacher preparation programs.

Milligan, Elizabeth; Ragland, Rachel G.

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559446pmid: N/A

Grounded in the historical and philosophical perspective of social reconstructionism, current work in citizenship education, as well as an actual experience of recent student activism in the antigenocide movement, the “4E” framework described in this article provides a way for educators to actualize goals for civic empowerment. This 21st-century model for citizenship education provides a clear path to student empowerment by activating civics in an authentic way. The framework proposes a four-step process for student learning: educate, equip, engage, and empower. In addition, the framework provides a structured way of integrating a recommended method for citizenship education into preservice teacher education.

Olafson, Lori; Schraw, Gregory; Vander Veldt, Michelle; Ponder, Jennifer

doi: 10.1080/01626620.2011.559447pmid: N/A

This goal of this mixed-methods study was to examine teachers' beliefs about citizenship and citizenship education in a social studies methods course that emphasized social action. Nineteen graduate students participated in the study and completed two pre- and posttest surveys that measured three citizenship worldviews and self-reported civic knowledge. Qualitative data sources included document collection and individual interviews. Results showed increased scores on indices of justice-oriented citizenship and civic knowledge, and that the implementation of a social action project changed beliefs and practices. The participants overcame initial concerns and constraints and recognized the value of a social action project in terms of student learning and their own teaching practices.