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JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

Volume 14, Number 1, 2010From the Editor Sybil Wilson.....................................................................................................................................4From the Secretary GeneralForrest Crawford...............................................................................................................................5

Articles

Weber State University Department of Teacher Education – Student Achievement:Teachers, Students, and Communities Working Together

Jack Rasmussen and Forrest Crawford............................................................................................. 6Challenges to Teacher Education in Brazil and Worldwide: Keeping the Dream of Bringing the Best Education for AllMarta Luz Sisson de Castro..............................................................................................................11Promoting Preservice Teachers’ Critical Thinking in an Educational Measurement CourseMinghui Gao and Xu Zhao...............................................................................................................19Faculty and Students’ Awareness and Challenges of E-learning in a College of EducationKhamsum Kinley..............................................................................................................................27Mathematics Anxiety and Teaching Self-Efficacy of Preservice Elementary TeachersKristin Hadley...................................................................................................................................34A Study of Teachers' attitudes Towards the Use of Cooperative Learning inTeaching Liberal StudiesJacky Pow and Louisa Yan...............................................................................................................41Metacognitive Development in Undergraduate and Graduate Students inTeacher Education and Business AdministrationLouise Richards Moulding, Penée Wood Stewart, and Susan Sunny Cooper...................................49Travelling Together: Narrative Biographies from Israeli Professional Doctorate StudentsInforming our TeachingJulia Ibbotson, Sandra Morgan, and David Davies...........................................................................56Teacher Complicity in Students’ Academic Success: The Need for Critical StudiesSally M. Hunter................................................................................................................................66

Trading Ideas

Partners in Teacher Professional Development: Science Associations, Industry,School Districts and Universities Working Together for National ImpactAnn Benbow and Colin Mably.........................................................................................................75Publication Guidelines......................................................................................................................77Future Submissions...........................................................................................................................78Submission Requirements.................................................................................................................79Copyright © 2010 by the International Society for Teacher EducationISSN 1029-5968

Weber State University Department of Teacher Education: Teachers, Students, andCommunities Working Together for Student Achievement

Jack RasmussenForrest Crawford

Weber State University (Ogden, Utah, USA) is a coeducational, publicly supported university offering professional, liberal arts and technical certificates, as well as associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The university prides itself in its excellent teaching, extraordinarycommitment to meeting the needs of students at every stage of life and ongoing service to thecommunity. Emphasizing its strength as a teaching college, the university’s faculty and staff are noted for preparing students to understand, work, and participate as citizens in a growing diverse and global society (Weber State University Fast Facts, 2009).

Challenges to Teacher Education in Brazil and Worldwide: Keeping the Dream of Bringing the Best Education for all

Marta Luz Sisson de Castro

This paper discusses teacher education from a Brazilian perspective by initially presenting some general data about the Brazilian educational system and data about the characteristics of Brazilianteachers. It brings to the topic data from two studies that looked at the conditions of work of municipal teachers in the South Region of Brazil and a Case Study of distance teacher education in Nova Prata do Iguaçú in Paraná. The key issues highlighted are that elementary teachers in Brazil are poorly paid, have poor working conditions and are under educated for the important work of teaching. Improvement in conditions is needed to attract and retain good teachers in the profession.

Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Critical Thinking in an Educational Measurement Course

Minghui GaoandXu Zhao

This study investigated the effects of a teacher education course on promoting pre-service teachers’ critical thinking abilities. Participants (n = 124) included junior and senior pre-service teachers whotook an Educational Measurement course at a southern university in the United States. The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test was administered at the beginning and end of a fall semester and the following spring semester. The results showed that, in general, pre-service teachers taking the Educational Measurement course witnessed significant growth in their ability to recognize the lack of reasons or evidence in an argument. Those who majored in language, arts and general sciences alsowitnessed significant growth in their ability to evaluate

the irrelevance/relevance of reasoning inothers’ arguments.

Faculty and Students’ Awareness and Challenges of E-learning in a College of Education

Khamsum Kinley

This study explored the use of e-learning by student teachers and faculty members at the ParoCollege of Education, Royal University of Bhutan. It provides an overview of the current status of e-learning at the College including the challenges faced by both the faculty members and studentsteachers, and the influence of ICT resources on the use of e-learning by the lecturers and student teachers. The results indicated that there exist challenges in exercising e-learning at the College for teaching and learning. The data indicated that the Internet connection is slow and revealed that most of the lecturers have average computer competency. This study strongly recommends that the Collegedevelops a strategic plan for ICT infrastructure and resources that includes policy and guidelines for use. This study also suggests that lecturers and student teachers use freely available e-learning management software.

Mathematics Anxiety and Teaching Self-Efficacy of Pre-service Elementary Teachers

Kristin Hadley

This study investigated the relationships among pre-service teachers’ math anxiety, anxiety about teaching math, math teaching self-efficacy beliefs, and adherence to NCTM Standards-based instructional practices. Sixty preservice teachers were surveyed regarding their mathematics anxiety,anxiety about teaching mathematics, mathematics teaching self efficacy, and instructional practices.The results indicated that teachers with higher mathematics anxiety tended to be anxious about teaching mathematics and had lower mathematics teaching self efficacy. No relationship was found with instructional practices. When separated into high and low mathematics anxiety groups, therelationship with anxiety about teaching mathematics was similar for both groups, but therelationship with mathematics teaching self efficacy only existed with the low mathematics anxiety group. Teachers with higher mathematics anxiety showed no relationship with teaching self efficacy.There is an implication here for preparing mathematics teachers in order to improve mathematicsteaching in schools.

A Study of Teachers' attitudes Towards the Use of Cooperative Learning in Teaching LiberalStudies

Jacky POWandLouisa YAN

As part of the recent education system transformation in Hong Kong, Liberal Studies has been added to the senior secondary education curriculum. In this cross-disciplinary subject students are required to adopt an issue-enquiry approach to learning and are encouraged to work in groups to investigatecontemporary social issues. To prepare our student teachers for teaching this subject, we tried toexplore attitudes which might affect their use of cooperative learning, a strategy adept for groupwork. In this study, in-service student teachers from a part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme were invited to engage in cooperative learning activities. Data were generated throughobservations and interviews. The initial findings showed a mixed attitude with regard to the use of cooperative learning in teaching Liberal Studies.