Preparing Educators
Developing Culturally Responsive Secondary Educators: A Four-Year Study of a Teacher Education Program View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tracy Pelkowski
This longitudinal, qualitative program study investigated the impact of a four-year curriculum designed by the lead author to prepare Secondary Education Preservice Teachers (PSTs) to engage in culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). Participation was voluntary and included six (n=6) White students enrolled at a small Catholic liberal arts college in the U.S. attended by a majority of White (74.0%) female (70.0%) students. Data collection took place over the course of three and one-half years and included student and instructor interviews, analysis of student work, and Helms’s Racial Identity Attitude Scales (pre-and post). Findings confirm that the development of PST’s critical consciousness and culturally responsive practices must be developmental, spiraled, and open to consistent change. The importance of educating PSTs in antiracist teaching practices in addition to CRP, as well as implications for undergraduate teacher education programs, are also discussed.
Co-teaching: An Instructional Strategy in Teaching Training Programs View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Evelyn Valverde
Co-teaching as an instructional strategy in teaching training programs can generate multiple benefits for pre-service teachers. This strategy refers to having two teachers working together with the same group of students. Co-teachers who participate in this type collaborative approach are not only obtaining feedback from their supervisors but also from their peers and students. Working in pairs to teach a class increases the learning experiences pre-service teachers encounter prior to their future jobs as it might develop interpersonal competencies that boost their negotiation, assertive communication and leadership skills. I present the findings of a qualitative research project that analyzed the experiences of co-teachers in an English as a Foreign Language teaching program in a public university in Costa Rica. The over-arching research question was: What are pre-service English teachers’ experiences when engaged in co-teaching practices at a language mentoring project? The answers to this question came from the perceptions of nine pre-service teachers working in a project that offers free English classes and tutoring sessions to high schoolers. Students in the English Teaching major co-teach classes to teenagers on a weekly basis throughout the school year. The findings of this case study provided information on the role of co-teaching in their development as future teachers. The pre-service English teachers’ perspectives were gathered through three instruments: an interview, a reflective log, and a journal. The findings reveal that co-teaching: promotes the development of teamwork, builds a strong sense of community, helps students develop assertive communication skills, and builds self-knowledge.
Examining the External Markers' Experiences of Online Marking: Is There Alignment with the Reports Generated from the Invigilator App? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thembeka Shange
This study explores the experiences and views of external markers on e-proctoring when the Invigilator app was used during online exams at a mega open and distance e-learning (ODeL) university in South Africa. It also sought to examine some of the cheating behaviours detected by the Invigilator App. Current research indicates that the few proctoring technologies that are available on the market remain largely untried and untested, thus the amount of research available on the external markers’ experiences with the Invigilator app is limited. The study seeks to fill that gap by exploring the external markers’ views on the app, and some of the student cheating detected by the Invigilator App. A qualitative approach was used involving seven (n=7) external markers who participated in semi-structured interviews. Additionally, some documents were also downloaded from the Invigilator App to track some of the cheating behaviours detected by the App. The principal findings indicate that from the side of the external markers, there was support for e-proctoring even though they had little or no exposure to the Invigilator App. The screenshots taken from the Invigilator App confirmed some incidents of cheating on the side of the students, although in other instances the similarity reports from the Invigilator App showed inaccuracies. Future research should focus on how to reinforce a Virtual Professional Learning community between lecturers and external markers so that the two groups work together on maintaining online examination integrity.
