B. Robert Tabachnick

Are the Effects of University Teacher Education 'Washed Out' by School Experience?:

or college is absolved from any responsibility in the development of the traditional perspectives that eventually emerge, and the major source of socialization influence is the schools (Fuller & Bown, 1975). Given the highly consistent results of numerous longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of education students and teachers at various points in their professional careers, this view seems highly plausible. However, a number of investigators both in the United States and the United Kingdom have recently begun to raise many questions about it. This paper will summarize the evidence related to three different interpretations of the data on college and school impact on the socialization of teachers, and will discuss the implications of these interpretations for practice in teacher education and for research on the processes of occupational socialization.

Educating prospective teachers of biology: Findings, limitations, and recommendations

This article summarizes the findings of a complex study of a science teacher education program whose goal was to graduate teachers who held conceptual change conceptions of teaching science and were disposed to put them into practice. The findings are based on the description and analysis of two major course components—methods courses for prospective elementary and secondary teachers, and an action research seminar—and on case studies of six prospective elementary and secondary teachers as they progressed through the program. The article identifies several important issues with respect to the development of prospective elementary and secondary teaches that arise from the case studies of individual teachers and discusses the relationship between the professional component of preservice science teacher education—the focus of the study—and other components of teacher preparation. It concludes that there are influences on prospective teachers from their content coursework that have significant implications for how they view science and how they teach. Thus, there need to be large changes in the ways in which these content courses are conceptualized and taught. Finally, the influence of cooperating teachers, curricula, and school environment on prospective teachers is considerable. This suggests the need for much closer cooperation between schools and universities, such that the professional development of both prospective and practicing teachers can be integrated: learning to teach should be a coherent, life-long experience.

Educating prospective teachers of biology: Introduction and research methods

This article, the first of a six-article set, introduces a complex study of a science teacher education program whose goal was to graduate teachers who held conceptual change conceptions of teaching science and were disposed to put them into practice. The set of articles includes: (1) an introduction to the theoretical foundations and research methods of the study; (2) the description and analysis of science methods courses at the elementary and secondary levels; (3) the description and analysis of an action research seminar held in conjunction with student teaching; (4) case studies of three prospective elementary teachers; (5) case studies of three prospective secondary teachers; and (6) a summary of the findings of the study and a discussion of its implications. This article presents a framework for considering science teacher education in the context of constructivism, teaching for conceptual change, and reflective practice and action research. It describes the context of the study, including its focus on biology, and outlines the research methods used to address the following research questions: What is the character of key components of the program, viz., methods courses and action research seminar?; How do prospective teachers develop with respect to their practice of teaching over the course of their teacher education program? The answers to these questions allow discussion of broader issues of science teacher education in terms of the following question: What influences do other program components have on the developing practice of prospective teachers? The article finally discusses the data gathering methods including: (1) interviews with prospective teachers on their conceptions of teaching science and conceptions of biological themes; (2) interviews with methods course instructors about the nature of their course (both its content and pedagogy) and their goals and expectations for students; (3) observations of both methods classes and the action research seminar; and (4) observations of prospective teachers’ teaching in practicum and student teaching settings.

The belief systems of university supervisors in an elementary student‐teaching program

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted to determine the range of supervisory‐belief systems that existed among a group of nine university supervisors in an elementary student‐teaching program at a large midwestern university in the USA. In the present study, supervisory‐belief systems refer to the ways in which university supervisors think about their work with student teachers, within the context of a specific teacher‐education program. Interviews were conducted with the supervisors to assess the purposes and priorities they held for their work with student teachers, and to ascertain the ways in which they carried out their supervisory roles. The results indicated that there were three distinct supervisory‐belief systems (technical ‐ instrumental, personal growth‐centered and critical) which guided the daily actions of these supervisors. The characteristics of these belief systems are discussed together with the implications of this study for research on student‐teacher supervision and for ...

Women and education in sub-Saharan Africa : power, opportunities, and constraints

This volume focuses on gender and education in sub-Saharan Africa, considering in particular the impact formal and non-formal education have had on African women. A variety of country studies illustrate theoretical debates and the authors provide historical and cultural context.

Intern-Teacher Roles: Illusion, Disillusion and Reality.

Interns in a field-based teacher-education program expected to improve teaching of children from low-income families. Their powerlessness in the face of what they perceived as harsh, ineffective teaching led to disillusionment. Later, most accepted teaching practices they had formerly rejected, though a few resisted institutional pressures from school and university to acquiesce. Intern perspectives on teaching can be explained as being formed by a hidden curriculum of teacher education which undermines public rhetoric favoring change; alternatively, intern perspectives can be explained as unintended consequences of the program. Further research is needed to understand the interplay of individual purposes and institutional constraints.

Teaching for conceptual change in elementary and secondary science methods courses

This article describes and analyzes two science methods courses at the elementary and secondary levels. The courses were components of a larger study of a science teacher education program whose goal was to graduate teachers who held conceptual change conceptions of teaching science and were disposed to put them into practice. The methods courses and their accompanying practicum experiences were analyzed in terms of how they dealt with four related ideas: (1) how students learn science; (2) how teachers teach science to students; (3) how prospective science teachers learn about the first two ideas; and (4) how methods instructors teach prospective science teachers about the first two ideas. Data were gathered by observing the methods courses, interviewing the course instructors, and observing prospective teachers teach in practicum settings. The study found that, within the constraints of a three-semester-credit course, each course considered the first three ideas in significant depth, but did so with different emphases on teaching for conceptual change. The elementary instructor modeled complete science lessons followed by pedagogical discussions; the secondary instructor provided extensive written materials and modeled components of conceptual change science lessons. Opportunities for prospective teachers to practice teaching for conceptual change were constrained by their practicum placements.

Useful Educational Research in a Transforming Society

Since independence in 1990 Namibia has undertaken the monumental task of transforming a society rooted in the oppressive forms of apartheid into an equitable and open society in which all citizens can enjoy opportunities for economic and social development. The urgent need to create inclusive schools has been guided by qualitative targets enunciated in the seminal paper Toward Education for All. Research in this context is closely interactive with particular schools and communities, its quantitative and qualitative character controlled by teacher and community researchers and answering questions about how to achieve both qualitative and quantitative goals of schooling.

Needed for teacher education: Naturalistic research that is culturally responsive

Abstract Teacher education is a social enterprise and has the dynamic qualities of social events. Each incident of social interaction is embedded in a social context that is broader than the boundaries of an observers vision, reaching back into the history that led up to it and reaching out to a constellation or network of related and impinging social events and social forces. At the same time, each incident of social interaction is constantly in the process of changing , of becoming something else. This future is never precisely foreseeable. To study such a dynamic event requires methods that can describe both their background or surrounding general social context and that can describe the shifting, changing event as it evolves. These descriptions make deeper interpretations possible. Interpretations suggest meanings for an event that are plausible within the cultural context in which they happen. A combination of survey data and naturalistic data may provide the descriptions needed to make plausible interpretations. These provide rich illumination of the few instances being studied. Generalization is possible only with great caution. “Exporting” generalizations across cultures is even more difficult than applying insights within a culture but in a different social context. The mediating intelligence and understanding of the user may make such cautious application possible.