Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne.https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit.Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'Université de Montréal, l'Université Laval et l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. ABSTRACT. Experience may influence beliefs and beliefs may influence practices. Following these premises, we investigated teacher candidates' post experience reflections nine months after an international practicum where they taught for three weeks in rural Kenya. Teacher candidates were placed in non-governmental organization (NGO) sponsored schools on the Maasi Mara southwest of Nairobi. They taught in both elementary (Standard) and secondary (Form) classrooms. Eleven of these candidates responded to a questionnaire with open-ended prompts requiring reflective responses about the perceived impact of their experiences both personally and professionally. Responses were analyzed using qualitative methods to identify common themes and recurring ideas. Examining participants' responses allowed us to consider how teacher candidates perceived their personal beliefs to impact their personal and professional practices. The significance of the international practica on personal and professional beliefs and practices was evident in responses. Concerns and advantages about the impact of the international experience are explored and directions for further research are identified.

In March 2009, seventeen preservice teachers and their Faculty of Education supervisors spent three weeks living in rural Kenya and teaching in the schools built and supported by a well-known NGO. The impact of this experience on the preservice teachers was studied nine months after the trip. Now, over four years later, we have conducted a further phenomenological investigation with two of the original participants to examine their perception of the longevity of impact of this experience on their lives, their careers, and the personal and professional choices they make as a result of their Kenyan experience. Purposive sampling was used to illuminate the richness of individual experience and the philosophical synthesis each participant has undertaken to make strong commitments in their current choices and practices. It is evident that long-term impacts can be realized in relation to teachers' curriculum views, world views, and sense of personal empowerment from the experience of international practicum experiences in developing countries. Proposals for action by Faculties of Education are recommended.

Complex concepts that relate to planning lessons, teaching them, and assessing learning may be very difficult for some teacher candidates. Relationships among ideas are difficult to name and identify as new teacher candidates begin learning about teaching. Five visual organizers have been prepared to support teacher preparation program goals in relation to the planning, teaching, and assessment skills of new teachers. These organizers have been used in both consecutive and concurrent teacher education programs. Teacher candidates’ reflections about these visual supports show that they value their ability to facilitate understanding of complex concepts. The purpose of this paper is to present and explain these organizers and how they are used in one teacher preparation program. Research related to their perceived value is mentioned but is peripheral in this theoretical conceptual paper.

Recent professional development efforts in literacy have highlighted the role of the teacher as a model for students using direct instruction.  Direct instruction is a lesson methodology taught to teacher candidates. We developed a schematic to represent the confluence of evidence found in the research and analysis of several lesson planning templates in order to create a visual representation of the elements of instruction that could be used to plan lessons. Previous research has demonstrated that modeling was not used frequently in classrooms. We were interested in determining if teachers were still using modeling infrequently. To investigate this, we identified three questions we would pursue through action research and mixed methods of analysis in local classrooms. These questions focused on determining the amount of time spent modeling in classrooms and the actions used after modeling to determine the extent these actions were reflected in the research literature. We found that teachers are using modeling much more frequently than was found to be the case in the previous study, but that the instructional actions following modeling are often inconsistent with research literature conceptions.   Key Words: direct instruction, modeling, gradual release of responsibility, models for teaching

This study examined teacher candidates’ reflections about the use of two graphic organizers referenced in their teacher education program. Fourteen themes were identified relating to teacher candidates’ instructional focus; awareness of the value of the organizers to improve focus on their students’ learning, growth, and independence with instructional tasks; and their focus on professional growth. Data from this study provides information to allow future comparison of teacher candidates’ diversity in reflections with their teaching evaluations. Connections with brain development are identified to support the use of complex graphic organizers in professional contexts for teachers.