Search results for " teacher."

2014

Biological evolution still lacks representation in school, especially below high school level. In order to find new implications that could help achieve significant improvement in teaching evolution, twelve expert interviews with both renowned researchers and experienced science teachers were conducted. Results of the comparison between the mindsets of scientists and teachers yield the five recommendations that could significantly improve the teaching practices of biological evolution: (1) Evolution should be taught as early as possible and should be exposed as the central concept of biology. (2) Despite the large theoretical framing of biological evolution, many occasions occur for hands-o…

Overcoming acculturation: physical education recruits' experiences of an alternative pedagogical approach to games teaching

2015

Background: Physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes have been identified as a critical platform to encourage the exploration of alternative teaching approaches by pre-service teachers. However, the socio-cultural constraint of acculturation or past physical education and sporting experiences results in the maintenance of the status quo of a teacher-driven, reproductive paradigm. Previous studies have reported successfully overcoming the powerful influence of acculturation, resulting in a change in PETE students' custodial teaching beliefs and receptiveness to alternative teaching approaches. However, to date, limited information has been reported about how PETE students' accu…

DIGITAL COMPETENCIES FOR DIGITAL IN-SERVICE TEACHERS

2016

The broad diversification of media products, the increasing digitization and globalization of the media with the value-and ethical issues that it raises, proposes and confirms the reasons why media education is to be considered as an indispensable task for anyone involved in education. The media competence enhances teachers’ ability to creatively modify learning spaces and to design a variety of stimulating activities in order to promote their pupils’ independent and aware work. Teachers play a decisive role in the uptake and use of technology in classrooms, and experience from teacher education programs is a crucial factor influencing new teachers’ use of technology (Drent & Meelissen,…

Online or offline – Does it matter?: A study of in-service teachers' perceptions of learning outcomes in Norway

2020

Policymakers and scholars are scaling up online professional development programmes for teachers. We studied how in-service teachers in Norway perceived their learning outcomes for professional development programmes conducted either as campus-based or online courses. Based on survey data, we found teachers studying online and in campus-based settings have relatively similar perceptions of the learning outcomes. This changes when indicators of collaboration and support from teachers are controlled for, suggesting that these factors are more strongly related to learning outcomes for those in campus-based studies than those in online studies. Our findings contribute new insights on how percei…

2019

This research clarifies how a collaborative team teaching model (CTTM) can support both pre-service and in-service teachers’ professional development in using inquiry-based science teaching in primary schools. The data were collected via a questionnaire-based survey approach after inquiry projects implementation at public schools in four Finnish cities. In total, 98 pre-service teachers and 51 in-service class teachers were involved in the research. According to their experiences collaborative team teaching was seen as an adequate teaching approach in primary school science lessons. Both in-service and pre-service teachers experienced inquiry-based science teaching enthusiastically and rece…

Sustainable service-learning in Physical Education teacher education: examining postural control to promote ASD children’s well-being

2021

As classrooms become more and more diverse, it is imperative to provide physical education teacher education (PETE) students with opportunities to develop competencies that promote quality education for all students. In this study, PETE students applied a physical education servicelearning (SL) program aimed at enhancing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children’s motor domain and general well-being—objectives that are connected to the third focus of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Traditionally, research on SL has focused on students’ outcomes, and there is a call to examine SL’s effects on service receivers, which is the gap this paper aspires to fill. The aim of t…

Student teachers' experiences of participating in mixed peer mentoring groups of in-service and pre-service teachers in Finland

2017

This article examines from the student perspective a new Finnish model of teacher development that uses the peer group mentoring (PGM) method for combining pre-service and in-service teacher education. Reflective reports of student teachers (N = 19) who participated in PGM were analyzed using the phenomenographic method. The results show that students' experiences varied from considering the activity as (1) a coffee break or (2) peer-support, to seeing it as (3) identity construction or (4) a way of participating in a professional community. In further development of the model more emphasis should be placed on the integration of theory and practice. peerReviewed

An Inquiry-Based Approach to Physics Teacher Education: the Case of Sound Properties

2014

In this paper we describe some results of an experimentation on Pre-Service Physics Teacher Education performed with a group of non-Italian Trainee Teachers engaged in one-month mobility activities at University of Palermo, in the framework of the EU Project “Move’in Science”. Some preliminary results of the experimentation of a Teaching/Learning Unit about Mechanical Wave propagation are presented, with particular reference to mental models about wave propagation evidenced by Trainee Teachers. Their understanding of the relevance of pupils’ mental model knowledge, in the framework of what a teacher should do to be an “effective” teacher, is also discussed.

Challenges in Primary and Secondary Science Teachers Education and Training

2010

The Girep Seminar of 2003 made an important contribution to the problem of Quality Development of Teacher Education and Training, following the Barcellona Girep Conference of 2000 on Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000. A number of important problems are still unresolved and a broad research study has been carried out and documented (Abell, 2007). Group 3 of the EU-Project STEPS2 is now dealing with this topic and discussing the main open problems. The Symposium will contribute by analyzing and discussing some of the main problems of teacher education and training in physics both with an institutional perspective, and in relation to curriculum through updating and school reform. The study…

Quattro nodi maggiori del Sistema nazionale di istruzione in Italia

2021

Teacher training, professional qualification and recruitment. Rethinking of school autonomy as part of a more ambitious administration reform. The birth rate as an opportunity to use economies in challenging policies. The strengthening of post-secondary but not university higher technical training. There are four goals on which the Italian school needs urgent re- form measures to improve its performance. However, it is necessary not to pay attention only to the “internal voices”.