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Eric.ed.gov – Technology in Mathematics: Issues in Educating Teacher Candidates for Rural Math Classrooms

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper examines the reality of teaching math in the rural southeast. Rural districts have low student expenditures and high transportation costs, due in part to the limited tax-base available. This leaves limited funds for technology. Universities prepare preservice teachers to teach math using the latest technology, however, many of these preservice teachers will return to classrooms with limited or out-dated technology. This paper presents a case-study of preservice students’ education and field experiences in rural northern Mississippi. Further, implications for changes in how we teach technology to preservice students who will likely return to rural settings are discussed. (Contains 3 figures.) Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – The Needs for Successful Chemistry Teaching in Diverse Classes: Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The aim of this case-study was to understand how chemistry teachers experience their work in diverse classes where the needs of differentiated teaching practices are constantly growing. The deeper intention was to perceive new information in order to develop supportive methods that could better correspond to teachers’ reality. Eight voluntary Finnish secondary school chemistry teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. Four categorial distinctions for successful chemistry teaching were found according to their beliefs: 1) to have more support and resources, 2) to be able to recognize students’ problems, 3) to use supportive materials and methods, and 4) to connect theory and practice with inspiring and meaningful activities. This study presents new insights about teachers’ beliefs of diversity and what is needed for successful chemistry teaching. Directions for further… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Developing a Collaborative Model in Teacher Education — An Overview of a Teacher Professional Development Project

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The article discusses the development of an educational model intended to support teachers’ professional development in science education. In this research and development project, LumaLähetit, pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators formed teams to collaboratively plan teaching and produce material for inquiry-based and integrative science instruction in primary schools. The results are based on three design cycles of the model. Thus far, ten schools, 24 in-service teachers, 30 pre-service teachers, and 560 pupils have participated. The results, which are based on the qualitative content analysis of participants’ open answers to a questionnaire, indicate that the developed collaborative model for science education supported preservice teachers and in-service teachers’ professional development in many ways. Several processes mediating the embodiment of the designed model were identified, especially during the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Creating Effective Video to Promote Student-Centered Teaching

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Training and investing teachers at all career levels in student-centered practices is widely recognized as a significant challenge. Various studies document the failure of student-centered teaching practices to take hold in K-12 mathematics classrooms in significant ways, including collaborative work; problems that are cognitively demanding or that encourage connections, inquiry-based approaches; teacher questioning to enhance student understanding; classroom-based performance assessments; and student choice. While pre-service math-teacher education is not solely to blame for this failure, it is also the case that pre-service training has been relatively unsuccessful at promoting nontraditional teaching practices in new mathematics teachers, in spite of the efforts and intentions of university-based teacher educators. Overcoming resistance to student-centered methods has been the author’s major challenge in teaching the secondary-level mathematics-methods course in her institution’s… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – An Action Research Project by Teacher Candidates and Their Instructor into Using Math Inquiry: Learning about Relations between Theory and Practice

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper reports on what two teacher candidates and their instructor learned from an action research project into the use of inquiry to teach mathematics. We use a model of the relation between theory and practice in teacher education to interpret what we learned about inquiry. This model describes three modes for teacher candidates to learn about teaching: (1) applying theory to practice; (2) interpreting theory and practice, and (3) building/refining personal, practical and professional theories. We learned to (1) apply the 4D-Cycle Model of inquiry, (2) interpret what it means for inquiry to be flexible, and (3) build a theory of teaching with inquiry based on non-linear and community-based dispositions of teachers toward learning. We conclude by suggesting that this model could constitute a developmental pathway… Continue Reading