Section archive - Teacher Education Programs

This article aims to describe Singapore’s dual education system as well as teacher preparation in a country that educates many students with disabilities in a separate environment. The focus will be on three of the factors critical to understanding comparative work: the goals and purposes of inclusive education and inclusive policy, the past and present state of Singapore with regard to policy and governance, and teacher training in the context of dual education.

This article describes the process used by cross-department faculty to develop the program design and components and how program evaluation led to revisions that strengthened the program. After five years the quest to develop strategic teachers with the versatility to meet the learning needs of all secondary students continues. Next steps include: developing more field placements that support program goals, building a program portfolio of how candidates and graduates in different disciplines meld differentiation with subject-matter pedogogy, and documenting how principals have created hybrid positions to utilize SDEP graduates in school reform. The authors' experience suggests that merging secondary and special education pedagogy into one coherent program that is co-led and co-taught can result in teachers with a different approach to and skill set for secondary teaching.

This study aimed to explore the nature of changes in pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) self-efficacy beliefs toward science teaching through a mixed-methods approach. The findings revealed that microteaching sessions provided pre-service teachers experiences in a controlled and supportive environment. The microteaching process also provided vicarious experiences to the PSTs through observation of teaching performance of teammates and other participants. The a collaborative peer microteaching (Cope-M) process created a practice of discussion-based and supportive teaching to shift the PSTs’ teaching practice to a more robust understanding. Furthermore, the findings suggested that the level of self-efficacy beliefs toward science teaching were positively affected by the Cope-M and were affected slightly negatively after early field experiences.

This study explored the role that participating in a critical inquiry project (CIP) played on the development of new educators who aspire to teach from a social justice perspective. The study also examined how relationships between the first- and second-year teacher participants shaped their development as social justice educators, learners, and leaders. The findings revealed that members were able to reflect on their journey of developing as social justice educators, seeing where they started and where they were still heading. This ongoing reflection and their own perception of their development kept them committed to the group and to the goal of social justice education (SJE). The findings also showed how members learned to have each other’s backs. A third result was that CIP gave members opportunities to teach SJE to others. Finally, members felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment.