Section archive - Preservice Teachers

This case study examines preservice teachers’ K–12 memories, their initial educational beliefs, and the changes in those beliefs over their teacher education program. The findings reveal that the preservice teachers initially believed that students were similar to themselves, that teaching was simple and autonomous, that students perform uniformly within grade levels, and that teaching ensures learning. At program’s end, the participants believed that students differ from one another and from themselves, that teaching is complex, that classroom freedom has limits, that differentiation is essential, and that teaching does not ensure learning.

This study aims to examine Turkish pre-service teachers’ experiences related to a two-month international teaching and cultural experience in United States. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers perceived the international teaching experience helped them develop professionally and personally.In this programme, the participants had a chance to observe student-centred teaching approaches and collaborative/cooperative learning strategies while observing their mentor teachers. Later, the participants were able to teach lessons that were observed by their mentors. The opportunity to practice in US helped the participants to improve their teaching confidence and skills during the internship.

The case study aimed to discover the influence of student teachers on student achievement in an elementary school and explore how teachers perceived the influence of student teachers on their students' growth and achievement. Furthermore, the participants argued that student teachers needed to possess characteristics and qualities of highly effective teachers. Although the teachers perceived their experience of working with student teachers as positive, they considered themselves to be an important factor in the equation for impacting student achievement. The teachers said that even when the student teacher was in control, the teacher was available to work with individual students as needed.

This study aimed to determine the attitudes of pre-service teachers toward co-teaching and inclusion. It also explored the impact of the systematic approach on participating teacher candidates’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward co-teaching. The authors argue that their approach combines faculty co-teaching of pre-service classes with seminar and field experiences to develop a specific knowledge base and skill set around collaboration and co-teaching. These results indicate that curriculum development must consider and respect the developmental trajectory of pre-service teachers such that their learning is meaningful and deep.