Sm Pittaway

Students' Perceptions of Written Feedback in Teacher Education: Ideally Feedback is a Continuing Two-Way Communication that Encourages Progress

A small but growing body of research has investigated students’ perceptions of written feedback in higher education but little attention has been brought to bear on students’ emotional responses to feedback. This paper investigates students’ perceptions of written feedback with particular emphasis on their emotional responses within a teacher education programme in a regional Australian university. Online questionnaires were used to gather qualitative data from cohorts of distance students and on-campus students. The study found that students’ emotions strongly mediated their perceptions of written feedback. The paper concludes that in order to accommodate students’ emotional responses, effective written feedback should be aligned with pedagogies which specifically include the development of rich dialogue within the teaching and learning context.

Student identity construction in online teacher education: A narrative life history approach

This paper explores student identity construction through the narrative life history of one non-traditional student, engaged in teacher education in a non-traditional way – a fully online university degree course. The students within this course are all mature-aged. Most are female, and have already developed personal identities as partners, friends and mothers, as well as professional identities such as teacher aides. Adding the new identity of “student” to these already established roles has an impact on these participants’ actions, beliefs, experiences and hence on their identities. Further, the notion that they are now “pre-service teachers” forces students to consider their professional identity in new and sometimes uncomfortable ways. This paper explores the challenges for one student created by the need to negotiate this complexity. Through this exploration using narrative life history methods, the paper considers the implications of the experience of becoming a student and a teacher.

An Historical Exploration of Creativity Research

Teacher understanding of the concept of creativity in relation to the educational context is vital to improved teaching and learning practices aimed at preparing effective thinkers, innovators and problem solvers of the future (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2010).

A Framework of Conditions Supporting Early Career Teacher Resilience and Creativity

While generally treated as independent concepts, there is some commonality in the way in which the character traits of creative and resilient thinkers are described in the literature. For example, both are described as effective thinkers, innovators and problem-solvers (Benard, 2004; Craft, 2005; Galton, 2010; Weisberg, 2006).