The Participation in Successful Educational Actions as an Opportunity for Excellent Initial Teacher Training
Author(s):
Oriol Rios (presenting / submitting) Vladia Ionescu (presenting) Carme Garcia Yeste Regina Gairal Casadó
Conference:
ECER 2016
Network:
10. Teacher Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 01 A, School Based Teacher Education and University-School Partnerships (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 10 SES 02 A

Time:
2016-08-23
13:15-14:45
Room:
NM-G107
Chair:
Susann Hofbauer

Contribution

Teacher education is clearly a key factor in achieving school success. A wealth of research shows that teachers’ education influences students’ learning and academic performance (Cochran-Smith and Zeichner 2005; Baker et al. 2008; Mutton, Burn and Hagger 2010; Russell 2015; Achinstein and Athanases, 2005). Furthermore, research has suggested that teaching experience can have a stronger effect on a student’s academic outcomes than, for example, the student’s socioeconomic status (Darling-Hammond, 2010; 2012). In addition, teacher education that is based on quality standards generates a higher sense of efficacy in student teachers, which can also have an impact on their professional experience (Moulding, Stewart and Dunmeyer 2014). The search for strategies and interventions to improve teacher education presents an urgent need that research should further address. 

Various governmental bodies have considered the importance of teacher education. For instance, the Council Meeting on Education, Youth, Culture and Sport on Effective Teacher Education (Council of European Commission 2014) reiterated the importance of providing high quality initial teacher education, early career support and continuous professional development. Through these resources, teachers can acquire and maintain the necessary competencies to offer quality teaching to their students. Quality teaching is defined by the European Commission as enabling students to achieve: "successful learning outcomes, by developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that learners need in order to realise their full potential both as individuals and as active members of society and the workforce" (Council of European Commission 2014, 1). However, given the many components involved in quality teaching, there is still much more to be explored in terms of identifying which aspects of teachers’ education are effectively contributing to these successful learning outcomes.

Experience as a volunteer in education has been identified as an element that reinforces university students’ training and their future professional skills as well as the quality of their education (Baker et al., 2008; Chamberlain, Slavin, and Madden, 2001). Most of the experiences reviewed in the literature are primarily concerned with two aspects of volunteering: community involvement and reading comprehension. There are some initiatives regarding community involvement that have achieved a large impact thanks to the volunteers, such as the Highlander Educational and Research Centre (Baker et al. 2008) and the La Verneda-Sant Martí School (Sánchez 1999).

The present paper aims to contribute to this ongoing debate by providing insight into the benefits reported by student teachers and their supervisors in a volunteer in-service programme developed by the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) (Spain). This programme places students in schools located in highly socio-economically deprived areas to implement successful educational actions (SEAs) and progressively improve their students’ achievement. Our research shows that student teachers highlighted the importance of being exposed to practices that are rooted in findings from current research; volunteering in a school in which students’ achievements were positively progressing; and finally, learning not only from the professionals but also from other volunteers present in the classrooms.  

Method

Drawing on the aim to identify the benefits of student teacher’s involvement in an educational volunteer in-service programme, this research was conducted using communicative methodology (CM) following a qualitative design, which includes three different instruments: semi-structured interviews, communicative observation and unstructured questionnaires with open-ended questions (Gomez 2014). During the three years of the volunteering programme, a total of 129 student teachers and 7 schoolteachers were involved. The students participated in three schools in the area of Tarragona (Spain) including pre-primary and primary education. All of these schools fulfilled four criteria: a) part of the Learning Communities project, b) high percentage of migrant and Roma students, c) low socio-economic status, and d) located in urban areas (with the exception of one, which was in a village). Data collection was conducted using three different strategies, which enabled the triangulation of the extracted results. The first strategy utilised was semi-structured interviews with a communicative orientation. These interviews were conducted with teachers of the schools and students teachers who participated as volunteers. In total, 25 interviews were conducted, 18 with student teachers and 7 with teachers. The second strategy was communicative observations, which were performed in each academic year of project implementation. A total of six observations were collected in the two required meetings with volunteer students each year. In the first meeting, volunteers mentioned the difficulties, challenges and learning experiences that they were facing, and in the second meeting, a general evaluation of their participation was conducted. Finally, the third strategy used open-ended questionnaires, which were circulated to several student teachers and requested their feedback and suggestions regarding the programme. A total of 34 questionnaires were collected.

Expected Outcomes

This paper explored the ways in which a volunteer programme contributed to improve teacher education. The volunteers and teachers interviewed corroborated the benefits of connecting theory, taught at the university, with practice, i.e., what happens in schools (Hobjilă 2012; Korthagen et al. 2006). They also confirmed the positive effects of volunteering in children’s and families learning processes that have previously been found (Lazar 2007; Butcher et al. 2010). However, the scientific approach of the SEAs and the involvement in the Learning Communities project enabled student teachers’ training to be more connected with the dialogic turn that educational systems are demanding (Racionero and Padros 2011). Our research contributes to the discussions about quality teacher education. First, we provide evidence about how SEAs foster student teachers’ critical capacity through their exposure to educational actions that are informed by theory and research. Second, the volunteer programme provides an appealing opportunity to begin a professional career in which student teachers are exposed to effective teaching. Finally, this study showed how student teachers transformed their prejudices against families from diverse cultural backgrounds because of the feeling of solidarity that emerged from the SEAs. This supportive environment is important because it fostered profound learning from family members. These new contributions have also practical implications regarding teacher education and children’s learning. Regarding teacher education, our analysis suggests that we reconsider the design of teachers’ curriculum at the theoretical and practical level. The results support the construction of teacher education programmes to include theories and practices that have been shown to be scientifically effective. Regarding children’s learning, the implementation of SEAs with student teachers as volunteers created new venues that can shed light on new perspectives in teachers’ education. Therefore, exposing student teachers to SEAs during their initial education could enable an important improvement in children’s educational outcomes

References

Achinstein, B., and S.Z. Athanases. 2005. Mentors in the making: Developing new leaders for new teachers. New York: Teachers College Press. Ariza, E. N. 2003. Tesol tutor time homework center a collaboration of volunteer preservice teachers in the public elementary schools. Urban Education 38(6): 708-724. Baker, C., G.S. Johnson, L.Williams, D.G. Perkins and S.A. Rainey. 2008.“The highlander research and education center: Utilizing social change-based models for public policy. Race, Gender & Class 15(3-4): 308-334. Butcher, J., P.Howard, E.Labone, M. Bailey, S.Groundwater, M. McFadden, and M. McMeniman et al. (2003). Teacher education, community service learning and student efficacy for community engagement. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education 31(2): 109-124. Chamberlain, A., R. Slavin, and N. Madden. 2001. Effects of Success for All on TAAS Reading: A Texas statewide evaluation. Baltimore, MD: Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk. Cochran-Smith, M. and K. Zeichner. 2005. Studying Teacher Education. The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Council of European Commission. 2014. Conclusions on effective teacher education. Brussels: European Commission. Darling-Hammond, L. 2010. "Teacher education and the american future." Journal of Teacher Education 61 (1-2): 35–47. Darling-Hammond, L. 2012. Teacher education around the world. London & New York: Routledge. Gómez, A. 2014. “New developments in mixed methods with vulnerable groups”. Journal of Mixed Methods Research 8(3): 317-320. Hobjilă, A. 2012. "Effective/ineffective in pedagogical practicum – mentors´ considerations on the initial training of pre-school teachers." Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 33: 318–322. Korthagen, F., J. Loughran and T. Russell. 2006. "Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices." Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (8): 1020–1041. Lazar, A. M. 2007. “It's not just about teaching kids to read: Helping preservice teachers acquire a mindset for teaching children in urban communities”. Journal of Literacy Research, 39(4): 411-443. Moulding, L. R., P.W. Stewart and M. L. Dunmeyer. 2014. Pre-service teachers´ sense of efficacy: Relationship to academic ability, student teaching placement characteristics, and mentor support. Teaching and Teacher Education 41: 60–66. Mutton, T., K. Burn and H. Hagger. 2010. Making sense of learning to teach: learners in context. Research Papers in Education 25 (1): 73–91. Racionero, S., and M.Padrós. 2010. The dialogic turn in educational psychology. Journal of Psychodidactics 15(2): 143-162. Sánchez, M. 1999. Voices inside schools-La Verneda-Sant Martí: A school where people dare to dream. Harvard educational review, 69(3): 320-336.

Author Information

Oriol Rios (presenting / submitting)
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Pedagogy
Tarragona
Vladia Ionescu (presenting)
UNIVERSITY ROVIRA I VIRGILI
PEDAGOGY
Alcover
Carme Garcia Yeste
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
Regina Gairal Casadó
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Reus

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