Section archive - Teacher Education Programs

This article examines physical education pre-service teachers’ (PTs) self-efficacy and practicum experiences as self-efficacy sources through a mixed-method approach. Results showed a stronger self-efficacy in the relationship with students and discipline promotion. Lower self-efficacy was linked to instructional strategies. PTs with higher self-efficacy reported professional experiences before practicum as mastery experiences. During the practicum they highlighted as mastery experiences: classes’ characteristics, planning and teaching practice; lesson observation as vicarious experiences; and post-lesson conversations as verbal persuasion. PTs with lower self-efficacy reported classes’ characteristics and teaching practice as failure experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of the Early Childhood Training Program. This program was designed to increase the quality of care offered to children age 0 to 5 in a metropolitan area of Southern California. Participants were recruited from six center-based child care programs serving preschool-age children and included program administrators, teachers, teacher aides, and enrolled children. The six participating programs were assessed at four levels: program administration, classroom, teacher, and child. The results demonstrated that the largest effect sizes were seen at the program administration and classroom levels and that smaller effect sizes were found with regard to the teacher and child levels.

This study presents one instructor’s perceptions of her roles, focusing on her activities in a blended course. The results indicated that the instructor saw her roles primarily as pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical. In addition, the instructor indicated that she needed to change and adapt thoughtfully her previous teaching philosophy and methods to her students and the blended environment. As a result, her experiences with this new blended approach helped evolve her own pedagogy and professional practices both in face-to-face and blended course teaching.

This article aims to examine the process of critical professional identity development as it was perceived by the teacher candidates who participated in the service-learning programme. This study presents three main processes that took place in the development of a critical professional identity among teacher candidates during service-learning. These processes included the following: (1) Deconstructing stereotypes through engagement with the ‘other', (2) Coping with difficulties, dilemmas or conflicts that arise from dialogue with the ‘other', and (3) Shifting from a hegemonic professional perception to a dialogic one.