Section archive - Theories & Approaches

This article addresses the need for pedagogical approaches to working with open educational resources (OER). The authors found that the blended pedagogical strategy led most students to identify patterns in primary source OERs. The students began to refine personal models of a complex domain, and applied primary and secondary source evidence to reason for claims and solutions to a transfer problem.

In this study, the authors were interested to understand their practice as teacher educators. The authors argue that from their reflections on their own experiences, they now better understand the power of their personal apprenticeships of observation over their teaching practices.

This article aims to examine how sociopolitically conscious teacher educators tailor preparation for teachers of color. The results showed that teacher educators’ pedagogy for teacher candidates of color was characterized by three binding mindsets and practices: 1. The authors found that teacher educators made an intentional choice to work as a change agent for communities of color. 2. The authors also found that teacher educators challenged sociocultural barriers to the academic and professional achievement of teachers of color. 3. It was also found that teacher educators implemented constructivist approaches as an instructional bridge to prepare teacher candidates of color to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

This article describes the results of a multimodal project. The research study centers on participant-generated metaphors and required prospective teachers to capture, produce, and share their selected metaphors through multimodal means. The findings reveal that the participants vary in their metaphorical conceptions of teachers and teaching. They are able to identify and articulate metaphors for teachers and teaching through multimodal means. The participants understood the metaphors and shared through multiple modes they were able to demonstrate and articulate in more than one way. The findings suggest prospective teachers' uses of multimodality enabled individuals, to varying degrees, to more readily and through multiple modes identify, capture and articulate their understanding(s) of teaching and teachers.