EFL teacher educators’ experiences in teaching critical reading: evidence from Indonesia

While extensive studies have explored issues of teaching critical reading in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes, there is a paucity of research that examines teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching critical reading in the EFL contexts. To fill the gap, this phenomenological study probes into EFL teacher educators’ experiences in teaching critical reading. It specifically looks at teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching critical reading and how their teaching practices contribute to the development of students’ critical reading skills. Data were generated through in-depth interviews with nine teacher educators in a private university in Malang, Indonesia. Findings suggest that the teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching critical reading, as geared by their lived experiences, involve basic conceptions of teaching critical reading, teaching critical reading from a philosophical lens, and critical thinking empowerment in reading classes. The study also documents that teaching critical reading encompasses higher order thinking skills enacted in the process of reading. Practically, the study’s findings call for the enactment of pedagogic trainings for teacher educators in order to construe their basic tenets of teaching critical reading, the philosophies behind such a teaching practice, and the empowered learning activities in the reading classes.

Tendências e perspectivas da formação continuada de professores da área de ciências da natureza e suas tecnologias: um panorama das pesquisas brasileiras no período de 1997 a 2018

Resumo: Neste estudo, realizamos um levantamento bibliográfico das teses e dissertações presentes no Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia, referentes à formação continuada de professores de Ciências da Natureza e suas Tecnologias (CNT). Em nossa investigação, analisamos as concepções de ensino/formação e as principais temáticas que permeiam estas pesquisas desenvolvidas em nosso país, no período de 1997 a 2018. A partir da análise temática do conteúdo, categorizamos a priori as concepções de ensino/formação, sendo que as temáticas foram construídas a posteriori. A partir dos referenciais da área, discutimos as concepções e as temáticas identificadas, destacando a formação continuada pela via compartilhada, na perspectiva da investigação-formação-ação, como modelo possível de desenvolver a concepção emancipatória na área de CNT.Palavras-chave: Formação continuada; Concepções de ensino; Investigação-ação; Reflexão crítica. Trends and perspectives of continuing formation for teachers in the nature sciences area and its technologies: a panorama of brazilian research in the period 1997 to 2018 Abstract: In this study, we carried out a bibliographic survey of the theses and dissertations present at the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia, referring to the continuing education of teachers of Natural Sciences and their Technologies (NST). In our investigation, we analyzed the teaching/formation conceptions and the main themes that permeate these researches developed in our country, from 1997 to 2018. From the thematic analysis of the content, we categorize the teaching/formation conceptions as priorities, and the themes were built later. Based on the references in the area, we discuss the conceptions and themes identified, highlighting continuing education through the shared path, from the perspective of research-formation-action, as a possible model to develop the emancipatory conception in the NST area.Keywords: Continuing education; Conceptions of teaching; Action research; Critical reflection.

Teachers’ Conceptions of Teaching Chinese Descriptive Composition With Interactive Spherical Video-Based Virtual Reality

Phenomenographic research about teachers’ conception of teaching has consistently revealed that teachers’ conception of teaching influence their classroom practices, which in turn shape students’ learning experiences. This paper reports teachers’ conceptions of teaching with regards to the use of interactive spherical video-based virtual reality (ISV-VR) in Chinese descriptive composition writing. Twenty-one secondary teachers in Hong Kong involved in an ISV-VR-supported Chinese descriptive writing program participated in this phenomenographic study. Analyses of the semi-structured interviews establish seven conception categories that are specifically related to the use of ISV-VR for descriptive Chinese composition writing: (1) offering students more observational opportunities; (2) improving students’ writing skills; (3) promoting students’ learning participation and motivation; (4) shifting learning from teacher-centric to student-centric, (5) enhancing collaborative learning among students; (6) cultivating students’ positive values and moral character, and (7) shaping students’ self-identity as “writers.” The concurrent and convenient access to the ISV-VR resources was for the teachers an enriched and supportive environment for them to cultivate students’ writer identity. In addition, it was discovered that the structural relationships of the conceptions may be better organized along three axes of continuum: conception’s orientation, teaching attention locus, and understanding of writing. These categories form a hierarchy from skill-oriented to community-oriented, and finally to identity-oriented conception. The findings may provide researchers and practitioners with novel insight into the teaching of composition writing in the contexts of L1 acquisition supported by virtual reality technology.

Exploring Change and Continuities in Internationally Mobile Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptualisations of Effective Teaching

This qualitativestudy investigatesthe changes and continuities in conceptions of teaching and learning from course commencement to course completion for a group of international pre-service teachers undertaking a two-year Masters-level degree in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Data were collected through a series of graphic elicitation activities and ranking tasks at baseline and endpoint. Findings indicate that there was:a growing emphasis on student engagement and its linkages to student learning; a shift from viewing teaching as the transfer of knowledge to learning as anactive process; and a more developed repertoire of professional language to explain what is valued and why. This study provides valuable insights into international pre-service teachers’ evolving conceptions of teaching and learning. These findings suggest that international pre-service teachersneed many opportunities to interrogate and refine their understanding of teaching and learning and how this appliesto the contexts in which they will teach.

Ensino de Ciências e Matemática no projeto Pró-Rural em Rondônia (1983-1987)

The Pro-Rural project was implemented in Rondônia in 1983 to serve the rural school student. He had specific teaching materials, called booklets, in module format. In this sense, the question arises: what conceptions of teaching science and mathematics were disseminated through the didactic materials of this project? In order to try to answer these and other questions, this article aims to analyze the conceptions of science and mathematics teaching spread in Pró-Rural. For discussion and analysis, some Pro-Rural booklets that had access, notably part of Sciences and Mathematics, as well as the pilot project for this project, were used as sources. The results that the contents of the Pro-Rural Project were allowed by the ideals of the Movement of Modern Mathematics (MMM) in the field of mathematics and by a simulation of sciences aimed at caring for problems related to rural men. As final considerations, there are for the Teaching of Accounting Sciences that discuss the main problems of the region (ex. Malaria), step by step for the Teaching of Mathematics, strong conceptions of the Modern Mathematics Movement.

Dialogic Learning, Interactive Teaching and Cognitive Mobilizing Patterns

The current conceptions of teaching and learning and the educational actions based thereon place the key to learning in the interactions that take place in educational spaces, highlighting the need to increase the quantity, diversity, and quality of these interactions as a condition to improve learning. With this purpose, this paper proposes a series of criteria that optimizes the quality of the interactions and characterizes the dialogical interaction style of the teaching staff. These are Cognitive Mobilizing Patterns (CMP), which constitute a systematic set of guidelines for dialogic interaction that may be used for both the analysis of interactions and for teacher training in the criteria that define interactive and dialogical teaching.