scholarly journals Compassion-based mindfulness training in teacher education: The impact on student teachers at a South African university

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L.J Draper-Clarke
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-81
Author(s):  
R. J. Nico Botha ◽  
Jean-Pierre Hugo

Teachers leaving the profession before age of retirement is an ongoing problem in schools worldwide. While fewer teachers enter the profession each year, the number of teachers leaving the profession has increased. Many teachers listed lack of job satisfaction as a reason for leaving the education profession, while citing the lack of mentoring as a main cause of job dissatisfaction. This study explores the impact of an effective mentoring program at primary schools in the province of Mpumalanga, South Africa to support and improve job satisfaction among beginner teachers entering the profession. This study follows a quantitative approach, consisting of a Likert-scale questionnaire. The sample of the study was a number of 550 teachers (principals, deputy principals, heads of department, teachers and student teachers) from different races and cultures from 50 randomly selected state and private primary schools in Mpumalanga. After comparing the literature with the respondents' data, the researchers found that the development and implementation of a mentoring program in the province of Mpumalanga would positively impacts beginner teachers' job satisfaction, thus indicating a definite need for such a mentoring program.


ReCALL ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Dooly ◽  
Randall Sadler

AbstractThis article presents a pedagogical design for teacher education that combines flipped materials, in-class instruction, and telecollaboration (also known as virtual exchange) for foreign language teacher education. The context of this study is a course on technology and language learning for future teachers in which the flipped classroom concept was applied to technology-infused collaborative teacher training between future ESL/EFL instructors located at two partner universities (one in the USA, one in Europe). The three main teaching approaches (flipped materials, in class, and telecollaborative, or “FIT”) were symbiotic in that each structure reinforced the other through reception, discussion, and reflection as a means to help the student teachers bridge the gap between theory and practice. We apply classroom ethnographic discourse analysis to data sources (face-to-face and online discussion groups, student e-portfolios) to look at uptake of ideas, conceptual understanding, and successful transfer of new knowledge, and thereby identify whether the design provides significant learning opportunities for the future teachers. Although most studies of telecollaboration in language teacher education look principally at output, this approach allows an in-depth look at the learning process as knowledge is developed collaboratively between the participants.


2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-360

07–615Dogancay-Aktuna, Seran (Southern Illinois U, USA), Expanding the socio-cultural knowledge base of TESOL teacher education. Language, Culture and Curriculum (Multilingual Matters) 19.3 (2006), 278–295.07–616Gonçalves, Maria de Lurdes (U Aveiro, Portugal) & Ana Isabel Andrade, Connecting languages: The use of theportfolioas a means of exploring and overcoming frontiers within the curriculum. European Journal of Teacher Education (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 30.2 (2007), 195–213.07–617Kurihara, Yuka & Keiko Samimy (Ohio State U, USA), The impact of a U.S. teacher training program on teaching beliefs and practices: A case study of secondary school level Japanese teachers of English. JALT Journal (Japan Association for Language Teaching) 29.1 (2007), 99–122.07–618Poulou, Maria (U Patras, Greece), Student-teachers' concerns about teaching practice. European Journal of Teacher Education (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 30.1 (2007), 91–110.07–619Santoro, Ninetta (Deakin U, Australia), ‘Outsiders’ and ‘others’: ‘Different’ teachers teaching in culturally diverse classrooms. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 13.1 (2007), 81–97.07–620Vacilotto, Silvana & Rhoda Cummings (U Nevada, Reno, USA; [email protected]), Peer coaching in TEFL/TESL programmes. ELT Journal (Oxford University Press) 61.2 (2007), 153–160.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 273-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Costa Ribas ◽  
Cristiane Manzan Perine

AbstractThis paper aims to investigate the beliefs of student teachers on a distance teacher education course about being an English teacher in Brazil. The theoretical framework of this paper is based on studies about beliefs in language teaching and learning (Barcelos and Kalaja 2011. Introduction to beliefs about SLA revisited. System 39(3). 281–289), and distant teacher education (Borg et al. 2014. The impact of teacher education on pre-service primary English language teachers. London: British Council). Data were collected in a supervised teaching practicum course in an English Language and Literature Distance Programme provided by a federal public university in Brazil. The data stem from visual narratives and meta-narratives posted on two online discussion forums. It is expected that the results of this study will contribute to advancing research on the use of visual materials in the investigation of beliefs, and that they will foster the debate on the contributions of visual narratives to teachers’ reflections, particularly in distance teacher education settings.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Fonseca ◽  
Nadine Petersen

This study reports on an intervention that was aimed at improving the content knowledge of first-year intermediate-phase education students at a South African university. The study gives some insight into preservice teachers’ perceptions of an online programme for the development of mathematics common content knowledge for teachers of mathematics in the intermediate grades. The effectiveness of the intervention programme was analysed according to Shapiro’s evaluation criteria for intervention research. The findings show that there has been a positive shift in preservice teachers’ common content knowledge but that there is much room for further development. The student teachers found the programme to be of great benefit with regard to the development of their mathematics knowledge as well as their confidence as future teachers of mathematics. The findings highlighted their disturbingly limited knowledge of mathematics content knowledge and pointed to the responsibility of teacher education departments at universities to implement sufficient maths content courses that will address the status quo of poor mathematics teaching in South African primary schools. The authors conclude that the students need to spend much more time on ‘catching up’ before they become teachers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-117
Author(s):  
Benjamin Dreer

PurposeTo support student teachers' well-being and ensure that they flourish during teacher education, it is necessary to examine the relationship between student teachers and their mentors during field experiences. Previous research has identified a connection between the quality of the mentor–mentee relationship and facets of student teachers' well-being. However, to date, this link has been insufficiently corroborated using longitudinal empirical data. This study aims to investigate the impact of mentor–mentee relationship quality on the well-being and flourishing of student teachers.Design/methodology/approachA cross-lagged panel design with two intervals (six weeks apart) was applied during a 15-week field experience with a sample of 125 German student teachers. Well-being and flourishing were captured using the positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement (PERMA) framework. Relationship quality was assessed by adapting a questionnaire from the field of mentoring in medicine.FindingsRelationship quality at the outset significantly predicted all five PERMA dimensions at the end of the assessment period. The impact of relationship quality was especially strong on the dimensions of relationships (R) and meaning (M). Conversely, the PERMA dimensions (except achievement) did not significantly impact relationship quality.Originality/valueThese results provide longitudinal empirical evidence underlining the beneficial effects of a healthy relationship between mentor and mentee in the field of teacher education. The findings clearly suggest that the relationship quality significantly influences student teachers' well-being and capacity to flourish during practical phases.


Author(s):  
Anni Loukomies ◽  
Nadine Petersen ◽  
Jari Lavonen

In this study, we examined student teachers’ learning during their teaching placement period in Finland and South Africa. The setting of the inquiry in both countries was a ‘teaching’ school, affiliated to a university teacher education programme. The teaching school is also referred to as an educational innovation that was transferred from the Finnish context to the South African context. Data were collected through an interview protocol. The findings show that the students, like many of their counterparts in different parts of the world, focused on teaching tools and methods as well as classroom management as a gateway to their teaching career. The extended teaching placement period at both the university teaching schools was expected to yield some findings about the intersection of teaching practice and its supporting theories because of the close collaboration of the schools and the universities. Some of the findings satisfied this expectation while other parts did not, confirming that initial teacher education may be regarded as a platform for learning to be teachers, but it has its own limits even in a pedagogical ‘laboratory’. The transfer of the educational innovation was regarded as successful.


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