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This study aims to explore how university language students evaluate different sustainability themes and examine the overall relevance of ecological, social, cultural and economic sustainability dimensions in language education.

A questionnaire was designed to study Finnish university language students’ (n = 55) order of priority for sustainability dimensions and their sub-themes and the justifications for the priority orders using a mixed methods design. Qualitative content analysis was conducted using NVivo software, and weighted rankings were used to analyse the quantitative data.

The findings of the study showed that language students evaluated the social and cultural dimensions as the most relevant in language teaching. In all dimensions, students approached sustainability mainly by prioritising larger issues and advancing towards smaller ones. Most non-directional responses appeared in the economic dimension. In addition, individual prioritising and justification approaches varied between different sustainability dimensions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have examined language students’ evaluations of and justifications for all four sustainability dimensions. The results highlight the need to use multiple, holistic approaches and systems thinking to incorporate education for sustainable development.

The purpose of this study is to explore decision-making of elementary teachers (n = 5) specific to US/American history content and curricular resources. More specifically for this study, the author asks the following broad research question: When presented with a collection of social studies instructional resources, how do elementary teachers describe the choices they do make/may make?

In this comparative case study, fifth-grade teachers were interviewed using verbal protocol methodology, they discussed their curriculum, teaching and instructional decisions as each was presented with history/social studies resources associated with newly adopted state standards.

Findings indicate these elementary teachers have professional freedom to make instructional decisions in the ways they interpreted the standards, design instruction and select materials for social studies.

This study contributes to and extends the research in elementary social studies. Teachers' voices and decisions are presented as intellectual and pedagogical actions associated with teaching elementary school social studies.

This research investigated how students are becoming teachers of primary school (ages 5–11) physical education (PE), using a physical literacy (PL) approach (Whitehead, 2010). Primarily methodological, the purpose was to disrupt how to investigate this topic since research highlights that the philosophy underpinning PL makes the concept difficult to operationalize (Shearer et al., 2018).

PE settings are inherently lively, and the author retained this in the analytic insights from what she called a “methodological meshwork” (Law, 2004; Ingold, 2006). Informed by phenomenology, posthumanism and sociomaterialism, data gathering included observations, interviews with artefacts, with humans, and tweets as part of the methodological meshwork. Diagrammatic presentations accompany written text, whilst also doing work in themselves (Decuypere and Simon, 2016). The author followed the actors (Adams and Thompson, 2016), thus entered the middle of data, such as lesson plan or physical education equipment.

Onto-epistemological entanglements (Barad, 2007) are presented in an interweaving format. Thus, theory is discussed alongside the empirical and shows that a PL informed approach to PE is evident in multiple places-spaces.

Broader issues are raised about methodological assumptions that inform investigations of PL and practice generally. It is hoped that these may be relevant to a wider professional audience as well as those in physical and teacher education.

The previous coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced pre-service English teachers to conduct their teaching simulation virtually. In the context of online teaching, social presence is vital for effective learning. This skill is perceived as a way to humanize the online learning process. This article explores how social presence is represented in the pre-service teacher's synchronous online classroom and how the development of social presence enables the pre-service teachers to develop their students' well-being and thus humanize online classrooms.

The current study draws upon case study research. The data were collected from (1) synchronous online teaching simulation recordings of pre-service English teachers from the Language Classroom Management course and (2) interview transcripts from three participants. Both data sources were transcribed, coded and analyzed. A two-step coding scheme for pre-service English teachers' social presence was adapted from the Community of Inquiry (CoI) coding template.

This study reports that all the three social presence categories (i.e. cohesive, affective and interactive) emerged from their online teaching simulation. In addition, the development of social presence to humanize online classrooms from the pre-service teachers was found in these stages: (1) having a role model for teaching, (2) showing respect and being friendly and (3) adjusting the language of instructions to the students' level.

This study has been limited to the pre-service teachers in one university only. Therefore, this needs to be tested in wider settings and contexts.

Theoretically, this study has added students' well-being as the element that connects social presence to the humanizing online classroom. Meanwhile, practically, in relation to teacher education, this paper also recommends the teaching stages leading to a more humanized online learning.

Current studies tend to describe social presence in experienced teachers' asynchronous online classrooms. Rarely did the studies explore social presence as practiced by pre-service teachers in the context of synchronous videoconferencing class. Furthermore, there has also been limited research connecting social presence with humanized classrooms.

This study reports on changes made within the study, plan, teach and reflect steps of lesson study with pre-service teachers who were learning to teach within a disciplinary literacy course.

Using methods associated with formative experiments and design-based research, this study gathered data over four iterations of the disciplinary literacy course. Data included the course materials, pre-service teachers’ written work, observational notes from research lessons, transcripts of post-lesson discussions and teacher-educators’ analysis sessions and pre-service teachers’ post-program interviews. Data were analyzed within and across iterations.

Initial adjustments to the lesson study process focused on the reflect step, as we learned to better scaffold pre-service teachers sharing of observational data from research lessons. Later adjustments occurred in the study and plan steps, as we refined the design of four-day lesson sequences that better supported pre-service teachers’ attention to disciplinary literacy while providing room for their instructional mentors to provide specific team-based feedback. Adjustments to the teach step included reteaching and more explicit attention to literacy objectives.

This paper contributes to the literature by explicitly applying formative experiment and design-based research methods to the implementation of lesson study with pre-service teachers. Furthermore, it contributes examples of lesson study within a disciplinary literacy context, expanding the examples of lesson study’s applicability across content areas.

Validation of the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) for use with teachers in Macao (SAR) was undertaken to determine its usefulness as a measure of teacher self-efficacy for inclusive education. This paper discusses the results found by analyzing various versions of the TSES and TSES-C in a Chinese format with 200 pre-service teachers in Macao (SAR). Psychometric analyses were undertaken to investigate the validity of the existing scales and the three and two factor solutions. The results indicated a preferred 9-item version that produced improved factor loadings and reliabilities. The use of a relatively quick and short scale to measure such a complex phenomenon as teacher self-efficacy is discussed. Issues are raised regarding generalizability of scales and the impact of culture, demographics, and edifying issues that may impact on the usefulness of such scales.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of using structured reflection via the critical incident analysis method to develop multicultural awareness and intercultural empathy in undergraduate-level pre-service teachers. This research is important, given the striking demographic mismatch between students and teachers in US schools.

This study adopts a convergent parallel mixed methods research design that combines both qualitative analysis of completed written critical incident analysis assignments and quantitative analysis of responses from a brief survey.

In most cases, engaging with the critical incident analysis method did lead participants reexamine their own experiences and develop a better understanding of their own biases and actions. While students followed different pathways with the assignment, participants were able to better understand the crucial role that teachers play in creating a space that values and welcomes diversity for the benefit of all students.

This study diverges from future research on the critical incident analysis method by asking students to examine specific moments from their past in the process of deep, targeted self-reflection.

This study explored the mathematical dispositions of Hong Kong mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs). It also constructed a mathematical disposition framework comprising their affective, cognitive and functional dispositions towards the subject.

Thirty-one participants completed three structured metaphor tasks and one open-ended metaphor task in which they shared their views on mathematics. Responses were examined qualitatively and quantitatively. Coding based on thematic analysis was utilized to summarize the specific contents of the mathematical dispositions expressed by the PSTs, and a 5-level scoring scale was employed to evaluate the strength of the dispositions as represented by different metaphor types.

The findings suggest that the mathematical dispositions of pre-service mathematics teachers were generally positive. However, the overall level was not high. The most prevalent metaphors used to describe mathematics were “rice”, “blue” and “dog”.

Hong Kong mathematics PSTs' mathematical dispositions are examined by using metaphorical tasks. Three categories are identified: affective, cognitive and functional dispositions towards mathematics.

This study has proposed an original framework for describing mathematical disposition.

This paper presents the results of my learning using my expertise in teacher-research mentoring to address the needs of pre-service teachers and the requirements of the action research course in English language teaching. It reflects on the different procedures of my mentoring model, enriched by the dialogic research mentoring strategies informed by Freire's dialogic pedagogy.

Through this first-person action research, the author aims to improve her teacher-research mentoring practice. As an inquiry into her own actions, the author examines her experiences, her understanding of them, and the potential meaning for her work as a teacher-research mentor during the two years she tutored the action research course. The author explores the procedures of the mentoring model she developed and the effectiveness of dialogic research mentoring in promoting critical consciousness and taking positive action in pre-service English language teachers.

Effective actualization of the teacher-research mentoring process facilitates mentors' refinement and understanding of their roles during teacher-research mentoring. Perceived barriers can be overcome by adopting nine relevant strategies, which can be grouped into three themes: community-building, nurturing competencies, and fostering growth. Accordingly, the research mentoring model incorporates these strategies.

The insights enriched the existing knowledge of the dynamics of mentoring in general and of teacher-research in particular. Additionally, the study offers strategies developed based on my informed actions as the researcher to attain more effective outcomes during the research mentoring process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the coaching and mentoring supervision of the Lesson Study to enhance preservice mathematics teachers' research competencies.

The researcher employed a multi-case study design to describe the internship experiences of practicing coaching and mentoring supervision while preservice teachers engaged in Lesson Study. A total of six preservice teachers were the samples, and they were teaching six lessons. A classroom observation evaluation form was used to collect data from 60 observers, with a proportion of 10 observers to each sample to assess and provide feedback on the samples' research competencies. This was followed by 12 individual, semi-structured interviews using interview protocol. The participants included 60 Lesson Study group members and six mentors from the three research schools, together with the samples' internship advisors from Suratthani Rajabhat University, totaling to 72 assessors. Data were examined using the thematic analysis method.

The results of 60 observation evaluations revealed that coaching and mentoring supervision of Lesson Study can develop samples' research competencies in four capabilities, namely, instructional planning, classroom management, instructional delivery and professional development. The 12 interview results indicated that the six samples' research competencies were improved in these four aspects, namely, data collection and analysis, collaboration, reflection and pedagogical content knowledge.

Mentoring and coaching supervision of Lesson Study holds great potential for collaborative professional development and continuous improvement of mathematics teachers' research competencies.

This article suggests meaningful professional benefits of participation in mentoring and coaching supervision.