The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of the "professional journey" of elementary teacher candidates (ETC) both as learners and as teachers by exploring their learning experiences and practices regarding the virtual reality (VR) platform called Second Life (SL). Using the grounded theory approach, we designed an insider-led work-based study, synthesizing an outsider perspective. We collected data from 229 ETCs enrolled in science methods course over three academic years including semi-open ended reflective questionnaire, science journal notebooks, 5E science lesson plans, peer teaching classroom observations, and instructor's semester notebooks. Results indicate that as a VR platform, SL provided unique learning experiences that encourage discovering, problem solving, or accidental learning for these mostly first-time user ETCs. Three themes emerged in terms of perceptions of integrating VR into science teaching: (1) skeptical integrators (29%), (2) observant integrators (59%), and (3) innovative integrators (12%). However, none of the ETC collaborative groups integrated a VR platform during their 5E science lesson planning activities, demonstrating the gap between learning experiences and practices. Finally, we converged analysis results with related literature to develop a theory. This study contributes to the discussions on preparing teachers for the 21st century in which all will live in a technology-accelerated society.
We followed the journeys of two bilingual mathematics teachers during their student teaching experiences. Both bilingual teachers initially expressed the high anxiety they experienced when speaking English as a Second Language speakers during their student teaching. As they interacted with supportive co-operating teachers, along with culturally and linguistically diverse students, both teachers showed how they underwent a crucial shift in their thinking from deficit views to asset-rich views in terms of their own cultural and linguistic identities. The results of this case study suggest that teacher preparation programs should integrate ways of supporting bilingual teachers to help foster a positive cultural identity and to bring enriching linguistic backgrounds into future classrooms.
Surprisingly, newspapers contain wide-ranging physics topics available for narrative-style teaching in the classroom. Topics of newspaper articles we have covered over the years include physicists (obituaries of Hans Bethe, etc.), art or music that involve physics (color and standing waves), forensics (auto accidents and art forgeries), archeology (dating and satellite imaging), human folly (accidents), public policy (nuclear weapons, tasers, and earthquake prediction), and random events (statistics).
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