Enhancing Mathematics and Science Teacher Education in Regional Australia: Pedagogical Interactions and Their Affective Outcomes

Abstract

This report outlines particular aspects of a three-year project funded across six regional universities in eastern Australia, designed to enhance the pre-servicer education and training of mathematics and science teachers. The project research and implementation uses iterative processes to trial and develop modules for teacher education and other university curriculum. Trial iterations draw together, through targeted interactions, the strengths of university mathematicians, scientists, and specialist educators in a collaboration pedagogy that is directed at grounding pre-service teacher education in contexts that are part of daily life in regional Australia. Importantly, the trials utilise enhanced emotional feedback whereby the critical affective states of pre-service teachers (PSTs) are analysed both objectively and subjectively, and where the PSTs learn to self-analyse their own critical affective states from recordings made while they are undertaking classroom teaching. This feedback is directed at improving PST performance through the development of emotional literacy as an aspect of teaching competence and teaching confidence. The report discusses these aspects of the project, in particular the importance of emotional literacy and emotional regulation to self-reflective professional development, how affective measures were constructed for the project, and how these measures are conceptually related to improving competence and confidence for pre-service STEM teachers. An overview of the research methods designed to connect emotional literacy to the overall project goals is also provided.



Author Information
Tony Yeigh, Southern Cross University, Australia
Geoff Woolcott, Southern Cross University, Australia

Paper Information
Conference: ACE2014
Stream: Disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches

This paper is part of the ACE2014 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon