Browsing by Subject "Teacher education"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

Open Access
Achieving self-reflection through videotaped self-observation
(2007) Hasanbaşoğlu, Burçin
This study was designed to investigate whether videotaped self-observation contributes to self-reflection and whether teaching experience results in differences between teachers in terms of their levels of reflective thinking. Two trainee teachers attending the METU in-service teacher training course – one experienced and one inexperienced – and two teacher trainers conducting the course participated in this study. Data were collected through reflective narratives written after teacher observations, interviews and think-aloud protocols (TAPs). In this study, one of the teacher observations of each trainee was videorecorded, and the trainees were asked to reflect on their teaching before watching their recorded lesson in an interview, while watching it in a think-aloud protocol, and after watching it in a reflective narrative. Each trainee’s pre- and while-video reflections were compared to explore whether videotaped self-observation contributed to the extent and levels of teachers’ reflection. After analyzing each trainee’s oral and written reflections before and after video, the reflections of the two trainees were also compared to examine whether teaching experience was a determining factor in high levels of reflection. All the data in this study were qualitatively analyzed, and in this analysis the framework for levels of reflective thinking devised by the researcher was used to determine trainees’ levels of reflection. The findings of this study indicated that observing their videotaped lesson contributed considerably to the trainees’ self-reflection, both in terms of the extent and levels of their reflective thinking. Both teachers were able to reflect on an increased number of points in their lessons after self-observation and demonstrated a remarkable growth in high level reflections. However, the extent to which the trainees achieved more detailed and higher level reflections did not seem to result from teaching experience, which might suggest that there may be some other factors contributing to self-reflection.
Open Access
Curriculum reform in Turkish teacher education: attitudes of teacher educators towards change in an EU candidate nation
(Elsevier, 2007-03) Grossman, G. M.; Onkol, P. E.; Sands, M.
Educational development is one way through which Turkey enhances progress towards its social goals and prepares itself for European Union membership. A major effort to upgrade the Turkish educational system was made through a multi-phased comprehensive reform of the sector introduced during the 1990s. One part of this reform, perhaps most crucial to the long-term effectiveness of other developments in education, was a transformation of the approach to teacher education. This paper utilizes recently conducted research to assess the nature and extent of that reform as well as identifying the factors which enhanced its effectiveness.
Open Access
Exploring tensions between teachers' grammar teaching beliefs and practices
(Pergamon Press, 2009) Phipps, S.; Borg, S.
This study examines tensions in the grammar teaching beliefs and practices of three practising teachers of English working in Turkey. The teachers were observed and interviewed over a period of 18 months; the observations provided insights into how they taught grammar, while the interviews explored the beliefs underpinning the teachers' classroom practices. Drawing on the distinction between core and peripheral beliefs, the analysis indicated that, while at one level teachers' practices in teaching grammar were at odds with specific beliefs about language learning, at another level, these same practices were consistent with a more generic set of beliefs about learning. The latter, it is hypothesized, constituted the teachers' core beliefs and it was these, rather than the more peripheral beliefs about language learning, that were most influential in shaping teachers' instructional decisions. It is argued that attention to the relative influence of core and peripheral beliefs on teachers' practices allows for more complex understandings of tensions in teachers' work. Claims are also made here for the benefits of grounding the study of tensions between stated beliefs and classroom behaviours in the qualitative analyses of teachers' actual classroom practices. Some implications of this study for language teacher education are also discussed. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Open Access
Exploring the impact of teachers’ past migration experience on inclusive education for refugee children
(Routledge, 2023-06-14) Özçürümez, Saime; Tursun, Özgün; Tunç, Ahmet
Teachers play a key role in shaping students’ experiences in the learning environment. Studies on inclusive education in forced migration contexts, however, rarely examine what determines teachers’ positive behaviour and attitudes toward refugee students. This study examines how teachers’ past migration and occupational experiences impact their attitudes towards students who arrived through forced migration and whether they rely on teaching practices stemming from their past experiences to ensure a more inclusive school climate. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we collected 228 surveys and conducted 9 focus groups with secondary education teachers in 11 public schools in 5 different cities in Turkey where students of Syrian origin who arrived through forced migration are registered. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’ and ‘social capital’, this study argues that teachers’ past migration experiences enable them to create a more inclusive classroom experience for Syrian refugee children.
Open Access
Pre-service elementary teachers' understandings of graphs
(Eurasia Publishing House, 2011) Alacaci, C.; Lewis, S.; O'Brien G. E.; Jiang, Z.
Choosing graphs to display quantitative information is a component of graph sense. An important aspect of pre-service elementary teachers' content knowledge; ability to choose appropriate graphs in applied contexts is investigated in this study. They were given three scenarios followed by four graphs representing the same quantitative data. They rated the appropriateness of each graph and indicated the reasons for their choices. Results showed that pre-service elementary teachers can recognize the situations appropriate for bar graphs, pie charts, and line graphs and match the suitable graphs to these situations. However, they had limited knowledge of scatterplots and did not recognize the situations for which they are typically used. Implications of findings for elementary pre-service teacher education programs are drawn.
Open Access
Promoting field trip confidence: teachers providing insights for pre-service education
(Routledge, 2016) Ateşkan, A.; Lane, J. F.
Pre-service teachers need experiences in practical matters as a part of field trip preparations programmes. For 14 years, a private, non-profit university in Turkey has involved pre-service teachers in field trip planning, implementation and evaluation. A programme assessment was conducted through a case study to examine the long-term effects of pre-service field trip preparation. Through a survey created for the study, teachers shared their field trip activities and reported confidence levels. The survey was administered to 44 alumni of the biology education department with a response rate of 72.7% (N = 32). This study will help researchers learn which programme areas need to be improved and can serve as a model for other institutions interested in evaluating field trip preparation programmes.
Open Access
Restructuring reforms in Turkish teacher education: modernization and development in a dynamic environment
(Elsevier, 2008-01) Grossman, G. M.; Sands, M. K.
The paper examines the effectiveness of recent reforms in teacher education in Turkey, specifically the restructuring of programmes in university faculties of education. It first, briefly, sets the reforms of the 1990s in an historical context, prior to the 1997 Act which increased the length of compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years, and the 1998 restructuring of faculties of education. It considers the national need for the restructuring of teacher education and the issues involved. The thrust of the paper is a study of how teacher educators across the country perceive both the changes and their effect on the quality of teacher education, methodology as a discipline, school partnerships, and relationships with the Ministry of National Education. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Open Access
Service projects and women's agency in Salalah, Oman: a portrait of pre-service Dhofari English teachers
(Elsevier, 2012-03) Martin, R. A.
This research examines the service learning activities and written discourse of pre-service teachers from a cohort of 50 young women who were among the first generation in their community to complete a local university education with BA degrees in English language and literature combined with a subsequent teaching diploma to become English teachers. Based on written reports about service projects completed at the end of teacher training, the dominant theme that emerges is that of women’s agency. Discourse analysis is used to create a portrait of how Dhofari women are learning to take agency and gradually developing their own unique views within student-centered learning.
Open Access
A study of in-service teacher educator roles, with implications for a curriculum for their professional development
(Routledge, 2015) O’Dwyer, J. B.; Atlı, H. H.
In-service educators have a crucial role to play in meeting the professional learning needs of teachers of the future, according to the Council of Europe’s ‘ET 2020’, although it is less clear what that role entails. This empirical study, undertaken in a university school of English language in Turkey, explores the everyday experience of a team of wholly school-based in-service educators and develops a model of their role based on an analysis of questionnaire, interview and focus group data. The results attest to the complexities of the in-service educator’s role, revealing them to be more than simply effective teachers. Catering for affective needs, coaching a broad range of clients, interpreting contextual variables and providing appropriate feedback represent some of the challenges in-service educators are facing in the research context, which set them apart and suggest important lessons for the development of an in-service educator training curriculum. © 2014, © 2014 Association for Teacher Education in Europe.
Open Access
Teacher education accreditation in Turkey: the creation of a culture of quality
(Elsevier, 2010-01) Grossman, G. M.; Sands, M.; Brittingham, B.
Turkey’s experience in developing and piloting accreditation criteria and national standards for teacher education is examined. The full implementation of an accreditation process for teacher education programs was not completed within the time of the development project. However, the effort to do so encouraged the formation of a ‘quality culture’ in the faculties of education. The paper discusses what took place and analyses the later response of teacher educators to the introduction of accreditation criteria and the way in which they were introduced. Educators largely welcomed national standards and accreditation, but wished to have flexible means of implementation.