Browsing by Subject "Student teachers--Attitudes"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item "Easier said than done": pre-service teachers and multicultural education(2007-08) Braud, Hillary Nicole, 1974-; Reifel, Robert StuartThis qualitative dissertation explores the beliefs of 15 pre-service teachers who completed their apprentice teaching semester in diverse early childhood classrooms. The pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching in diverse early childhood classrooms and the experiences the pre-service teachers attributed to having influenced and/or challenged their prior beliefs are of particular interest in this study. An analysis of interview data resulted in four themes. The first theme explores the participants' focus on their beliefs about how students learn, the role of the teacher in students' learning, and the importance of building a classroom community when asked to describe teaching in diverse early childhood classrooms. The ways in which the participants marginalized multicultural education by limiting what it included and by reserving it for particular subject areas, grade levels, and groups of children is described in the second theme. The third theme details the experiences that altered the participants' prior beliefs about teaching in diverse early childhood classrooms, including seeing difference, confronting prejudices, observing teachers, and refining beliefs. In the final theme, I examine the instability found in the participants' beliefs with regard to language, difference, families, and holidays. A second phase of research, including interview, observation, and document data, resulted in two themes: adopting pedagogical approaches and reflecting on practice. These findings lead to three conclusions for this study. First, pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching in diverse classrooms are more complex than previous research has suggested. Second, reflecting on beliefs and practice is essential to the development of multicultural education practices. However, reflection about diversity, by itself, does not help pre-service teachers with their practice during field placements. Pre-service teachers need opportunities to observe multicultural education practices to connect beliefs and theory to practice. Finally, teacher educators need to understand the prior experiences and beliefs of the pre-service teachers in their courses in order to plan a range of activities that meet pre-service teachers where they are and then take them where they need to go with regards to their beliefs about teaching in diverse classrooms, so that these activities are effective for providing an interruption of prior beliefs.Item The impact of Japanese Lesson Study on preservice teacher belief structures about teaching and learning science(2009-05) Fortney, Brian Scott, 1968-; Barufaldi, James P.This study investigates how preservice teachers make sense of student-centered instruction with existing traditional beliefs about teaching. Teacher educators assume that university instruction translates directly into practice, yet, research is clear that beginning teachers revert to traditional teaching practice. For elementary teachers, one science methods course is assumed to be sufficient instruction in contemporary methods to successfully guide practice in their beginning years. Two main research questions are addressed: 1) Do preservice teacher belief structures change during the implementation of a Japanese Lesson Study cycle? 2) To what extent are preservice teachers teaching behaviors consistent with their belief structures? [...] To answer these questions, a case study methodology consisting of three preservice teachers, selected from a collective case study of 25 preservice teachers, was performed. The time periods of data collection were set with Lesson Study episodes. The time periods included pre-lesson study, during lesson study episodes, and post lesson study, with a conceptual framework synthesized from beliefs literature, Rokeach (1968), Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), and operationalized within the context of a Science Methods course using Richardson et al (1991) and Pajares (1992) as a guide. Findings indicate that even if preservice teachers have similar experiences with elementary science instruction, and have developed a traditional frame of reference (Kennedy, 1999) that guides their learning about teaching, each understands information idiosyncratically. When viewed in terms of Green's (1971) metaphor of belief structures, preservice teachers have widely differing frames of reference; thus, an individual's sensemaking about inquiry lessons within lesson study groups and the meaning conveyed within conversations are completely different. Ultimately, the participants in this study can be described, metaphorically, as having a Crisis of Belief (Green, 1971), an approach of Quiet Introspection, and a Crisis of Practice. For teacher educators, understanding preservice teacher understanding, and using that understanding in constructing lessons that facilitate evaluation of existing beliefs requires different lenses. The three lenses used are, Epistemological (Hewson [and] Hewson, 1984; Posner, Strike, Hewson, [and] Gertzog, 1982), Social/Affect (Pintrich, Marx, [and] Boyle, 1993; Tyson, Venville, Harrison, [and] Treagust, 1997), and an Expectational lens (Chi, Slotta, [and] de Leeuw, 1994). The selection of lenses is dependent upon the idiosyncratic nature of each preservice teacher's belief structure.