A Task-oriented Approach to the Pre-service Teacher Education in the Classroom of English Teaching Methodology （ETM）

This paper concerns itself with a task-oriented approach to the pre-service teacher education in the Classroom of English Teaching Methodology （ETM）. We attempt to use an explicit theoretic framework to guide the practice of ETM classroom in teacher education. The basic assumption is that we can use methodology which we use in teaching language, and apply those techniques and methods to train student teachers. By this approach the student teachers can adopt a research orientation to their own classrooms and their own teaching, an inquiry-based and discovery-oriented approach to learning is greatly emphasized, and they also can form the habit of generating theories and hypotheses and reflecting critically on teaching.

Three Subjects and Seven Duties Model:Empowering Informatization Teaching Ability of Pre-Service Teachers

By constructing a model,this study seeks to provide suggestions for strengthening pre-service teachers’informatization teaching ability.It aims to answer the following research questions:(1)What do the pre-service teachers know about informatization instruction?What is their level of informatization teaching ability?(2)What factors influence pre-service teachers’ability to deliver informatization instruction?How to overcome the obstacles?The inquiry focuses on the theoretical exploration of informatization teaching ability,questionnaire,and interview analysis on the current condition and improvement of pre-service teachers’informatization teaching ability.The data from the questionnaire and interview of the pre-service teachers were evaluated from three dimensions:awareness and attitude towards informatization teaching,knowledge of informatization teaching,and the ability to apply informatization teaching skills innovatively and comprehensively.The 3S-7D(Three Subjects and Seven Duties)model consisting of three subjects and the seven duties that go with them is established.The three subjects include pre-service teachers,teacher educators,and higher education schools.The seven duties involve pre-service teachers demonstrating learning motivation,cross-discipline thinking,and information and communications technology mastery;teacher educators actively constructing informatization teaching practice and formative assessment;and higher education schools providing adequate hardware and software equipment while offering cooperative opportunities with primary and junior schools through institutionalization.

A Research of Pre-service Teachers' Lead-in Strategies in English Teaching

Lead-in, referring to the teaching activities at the very beginning of a class, is one of the most basic steps in English classroom teaching. Short though it is, it plays an essential role in arousing students' attention, stirring up students' interest, enhancing their motivation, activating the atmosphere of classroom teaching, and achieving teaching objectives. Based on the previous literature about lead-in, the author first discusses the importance and functions of lead-in, and then analyzes some lead-in strategies on the basis of the 17 teaching cases of pre-service English teachers.

Pre-Service Teachers Attitude towards Teaching Environmental Education (EE) during Practicum in Malaysian Primary Schools

Environmental Education (EE) has been introduced into the Malaysian Curriculum since 1992. Related to that, EE was found to be an important subject that must be known by the teachers, prior to teach EE indirectly in the classroom. Problems occurred while implementing EE in schools such as;less knowledge about EE an extra burden among teachers to teach. At Teachers Training Institute (TTI), EE is a compulsory subject due to complete their training and this study carried out to identify the attitude of teaching EE among pre-service teachers’. The reliability of the items showed 0.830 cronbach’s alpha. One hundred and twenty five respondents among pre-service teachers’ were analyzed and the result shows pre-service teachers’ have positive attitude towards teaching EE in classroom. Analysis of data shown that there are significant differences between male and female pre-service teachers’ in attitude of teaching, with t = 0.036 (p 0.05).

Systematizing Teacher Development:A Review of Foreign Language Teacher Learning

Foreign language teaching practice is developing rapidly,but research on foreign language teacher learning is currently relatively fragmented and unstructured.The book Foreign Language Teacher Learning,written by Professor Kang Yan from Capital Normal University,published in September 2022,makes a systematic introduction to foreign language teacher learning,which to some extent makes up for this shortcoming.Her book presents the lineage of foreign language teacher learning research at home and abroad,analyzes both theoretical and practical aspects,reviews the cuttingedge research results,and foresees the future development trend,painting a complete research picture for researchers in the field of foreign language teaching and teacher education as well as front-line teachers interested in foreign language teacher learning.This is an important inspiration for conducting foreign language teacher learning research in the future.And this paper makes a review of the book from aspects such as its content,major characteristics,contributions and limitations.

Development and validation of a novel questionnaire regarding vision screening among preschool teachers in Malaysia

AIM:To develop and evaluate the validity and reliability of a knowledge,attitude,and practice questionnaire related to vision screening(KAP-VST)among preschool teachers in Malaysia.METHODS:The questionnaire was developed through a literature review and discussions with experts.Content and face validation were conducted by a panel of experts(n=10)and preschool teachers(n=10),respectively.A pilot study was conducted for construct validation(n=161)and test-retest reliability(n=60)of the newly developed questionnaire.RESULTS:Based on the content and face validation,71 items were generated,and 68 items were selected after exploratory factor analysis.The content validity index for items(I-CVI)score ranged from 0.8-1.0,and the content validity index for scale(S-CVI)/Ave was 0.99.Internal consistency was KR^(2)0=0.93 for knowledge,Cronbach’s alpha=0.758 for attitude,and Cronbach’s alpha=0.856 for practice.CONCLUSION:The KAP-VST is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing knowledge,attitude,and practice in relation to vision screening among preschool teachers in Malaysia.

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Overweight and Obesity among Public Secondary School Teachers in Parakou, Benin, in 2021

Introduction: Overweight and obesity represent a public health problem in Africa due to the epidemiological transition. The objectives of this work were to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to identify associated factors among public secondary school teachers in Parakou, Benin in 2021. Methods: We conducted a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study. Teachers working in public secondary schools in Parakou during the 2020-2021 academic year, present at work and who gave their written informed consent, were included. A two-stage random sampling was carried out. Data were collected during an individual interview using a questionnaire followed by the measurement of anthropometric parameters and blood pressure. Overweight and obesity were defined by a body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m2. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify associated factors. Results: A sample of 325 teachers, including 88.6% of men, was recruited with an average age of 36.2 ± 6.8 years. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 43.7% (95% CI [38.1%-44.8%]). It increased significantly with income (p Conclusion: The results show a high prevalence of overweight and obesity. Actions are necessary to prevent overweight and obesity among secondary school teachers in Parakou, in Benin.

ESL pre-service teachers＇ views of Teaching Practice supervision and assessment in Nigeria

This paper suggests that English as a Second Language （ESL） pre-service teachers＇ views and opinions about Teaching Practices be used by faculty to make TP more effective and interesting for the professional development of teachers. The main objective was to study the motivational dimensions of Teaching Practice （TP）, analyze trainees perception of the strength of their content courses （knowledge base） and pedagogy programme （psychology, teaching methods）, and investigate the quality of TP orientation program supervision and assessment by faculty （teacher trainers）. A survey was carried out to determine procedures and processes for minimizing anxieties and fears concerning TP and the relationship between faculty and trainees, mentoring and monitoring procedures, the giving of feedback and utilization of the views of students. Questionnaires were used to obtain information on the content courses or subjects which students found difficult, irrelevant or not adequately taught, what faculty should do to make TP experience better and rewarding to make them become professional teachers. Participants in the study found pedagogy courses relevant to their training and quite enjoyable. They also acknowledge that the courses help them to develop learner centered instructional skills and competence in classroom management. On the contrary, participants confessed they were weak in grammar and spoken English because these were not adequately taught, they also limited exposure to reading and writing. Focused group discussion with students revealed that TP Orientation Programs were too crowded and ill-organized to meet their needs and reduce their anxiety. The points of focus of the orientation-dress code, comportment in schools-were not as crucial as some issues-mentoring, relationship between faculty and students-which were left out. Respondents rated TP supervision and assessment very low because of inadequacies in the number of visits, lack of feedback and low level interaction with their trainers. Some of the students used peer interaction, self-development and self-study skills to improve their skills and cope with TP. The results suggest that knowledge base of students in ESL courses need to be strengthened and enriched. Orientation program should be geared towards trainee＇s needs. Also supervision and assessment require a lot of improvement while faculty should give prompt feedback and utilize trainees＇ opinions and views for meeting students＇ needs and improving TP.

How to Cultivate an Excellent English-Teacher-in-Future?-A Study on the Changes on Pre-service Language Teacher Identity During the Practicum

For the teacher’s professional development,identity plays a crucial role in promoting the teacher’s maturity and skills.For pre-service teachers,the level of identity determines whether they are willing or even determined to take teaching as their future career,and also represents whether their professional development is smooth.Therefore,the research on pre-service teachers’identity is of great significance.Combining quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis,this study aims to explore whether the identity of pre-service English teachers changes before and after the practicum and the influencing factors during the practicum through questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews.Based on the four dimensions of identity proposed by Xun,Sun,and Peng(2014),this study investigated the juniors before their practice and the seniors who had practiced for two months.It is found that the scores of careers belonging,foreign language teaching belief,English proficiency,work involvement,professional behaviour tendency,and foreign language teaching reform are higher than those of the students before the practicum.Through semi-structured interviews,it can be concluded that the factors affecting identity include personal factors,mentor factors,job content,and organizational support factors.According to the survey results,this study puts forward corresponding suggestions to improve the positive impact of practicum on students’identity.

Pre-service Early Childhood Teachers’ Attitude Towards Mathematics: A Jamaican Inquiry

The purpose of the study was to evaluate Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers’attitudes towards mathematics.The study is designed according to the quantitative survey model in the descriptive type.In this study,a modified version of the Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitude scale was used to measure the mathematics attitude of 144 early childhood pre-service teachers in four different categories of the attitude scale(mathematics usefulness,confidence in learning mathematics,mathematics anxiety,and mathematics motivation).The data were collected from participants in the five teachers’colleges that offer the early childhood education program in Jamaica.The findings revealed that Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers generally have a more positive attitude towards mathematics.A comparison among the different year groups revealed that a significantly greater percentage of the Year two group of participants possessed a more positive mathematics attitude than the other year groups.A significantly higher percentage of the Year three group indicated that they do not want to teach the subject in the future.The findings have implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics in the early childhood education program in Jamaica and,by extension,the teaching and learning of mathematics at the early childhood level of the education system.

Pre-service Early Childhood Teachers’Attitude Towards Mathematics:A Jamaican Inquiry

The purpose of the study was to evaluate Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers’attitudes towards mathematics.The study is designed according to the quantitative survey model in the descriptive type.In this study,a modified version of the Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitude scale was used to measure the mathematics attitude of 144 early childhood pre-service teachers in four different categories of the attitude scale(mathematics usefulness,confidence in learning mathematics,mathematics anxiety,and mathematics motivation).The data were collected from participants in the five teachers’colleges that offer the early childhood education program in Jamaica.The findings revealed that Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers generally have a more positive attitude towards mathematics.A comparison among the different year groups revealed that a significantly greater percentage of the Year two group of participants possessed a more positive mathematics attitude than the other year groups.A significantly higher percentage of the Year three group indicated that they do not want to teach the subject in the future.The findings have implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics in the early childhood education program in Jamaica and,by extension,the teaching and learning of mathematics at the early childhood level of the education system.

The Influence of Preschool Teachers’Social Skills on Job Burnout:A Moderated Mediation Model

Background:Teacher burnout is a serious issue in the field of education,particularly in early childhood education,where teachers face high levels of work stress and emotional labor,leading to emotional exhaustion and job burnout.However,past research has not sufficiently explored the mechanisms of social skills,empathy,and mindfulness in mitigating teacher burnout.Therefore,this study aims to investigate the relationship between preschool teachers’social skills,empathy,and mindfulness with job burnout,in order to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for reducing teacher burnout.Methods:This research utilized a convenience sampling approach to target preschool teachers for a questionnaire survey.A total of 1109 questionnaires were collected.To ensure the quality of the data,we excluded questionnaires that were not carefully filled out in terms of lie scale questions,those with abnormal demographic variables,and outliers identified based on response time.Ultimately,901 valid questionnaires were obtained,achieving a valid response rate of 81.2%.Participants’levels of social skills,empathy,mindfulness,and job burnout were assessed using the Social Skills Scale(SKS),Empathy Scale(Measure of Empathy,ME),Mindful Attention Awareness Scale(MAAS),and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey(MBI-ES),respectively.Data analysis was conducted using SPSS.Results:After controlling for gender,age,teaching experience,educational level,grade taught,and location of the kindergarten,the study found:(1)There is a negative correlation between preschool teachers’social skills and the level of job burnout(r=−0.238);(2)Empathy has a dual-track effect on job burnout,where cognitive empathy negatively affects job burnout(r=−0.245),while emotional empathy has a positive effect(r=0.045);(3)Cognitive empathy partially mediates the relationship between social skills and job burnout(β=−0.124);(4)Mindfulness significantly impacts social skills,cognitive empathy,and job burnout(r=0.278;r=0.286;r=−0.539),and plays a moderating role in the mediation model(β=0.003;β=−0.023).Conclusion:These findings provide theoretical support for the development of burnout prevention and intervention strategies targeted at preschool teachers.They also point out new directions for future research and potential intervention targets,suggesting that enhancing preschool teachers’social skills and cognitive empathy,as well as increasing their mindfulness level,can help them cope with work-related stress and emotional labor,thereby alleviating job burnout.

An attention-based teacher-student model for multivariate short-term landslide displacement prediction incorporating weather forecast data

Predicting the displacement of landslide is of utmost practical importance as the landslide can pose serious threats to both human life and property.However,traditional methods have the limitation of random selection in sliding window selection and seldom incorporate weather forecast data for displacement prediction,while a single structural model cannot handle input sequences of different lengths at the same time.In order to solve these limitations,in this study,a new approach is proposed that utilizes weather forecast data and incorporates the maximum information coefficient(MIC),long short-term memory network(LSTM),and attention mechanism to establish a teacher-student coupling model with parallel structure for short-term landslide displacement prediction.Through MIC,a suitable input sequence length is selected for the LSTM model.To investigate the influence of rainfall on landslides during different seasons,a parallel teacher-student coupling model is developed that is able to learn sequential information from various time series of different lengths.The teacher model learns sequence information from rainfall intensity time series while incorporating reliable short-term weather forecast data from platforms such as China Meteorological Administration(CMA)and Reliable Prognosis(https://rp5.ru)to improve the model’s expression capability,and the student model learns sequence information from other time series.An attention module is then designed to integrate different sequence information to derive a context vector,representing seasonal temporal attention mode.Finally,the predicted displacement is obtained through a linear layer.The proposed method demonstrates superior prediction accuracies,surpassing those of the support vector machine(SVM),LSTM,recurrent neural network(RNN),temporal convolutional network(TCN),and LSTM-Attention models.It achieves a mean absolute error(MAE)of 0.072 mm,root mean square error(RMSE)of 0.096 mm,and pearson correlation coefficients(PCCS)of 0.85.Additionally,it exhibits enhanced prediction stability and interpretability,rendering it an indispensable tool for landslide disaster prevention and mitigation.

LDAS&ET-AD:Learnable Distillation Attack Strategies and Evolvable Teachers Adversarial Distillation

Adversarial distillation(AD)has emerged as a potential solution to tackle the challenging optimization problem of loss with hard labels in adversarial training.However,fixed sample-agnostic and student-egocentric attack strategies are unsuitable for distillation.Additionally,the reliability of guidance from static teachers diminishes as target models become more robust.This paper proposes an AD method called Learnable Distillation Attack Strategies and Evolvable Teachers Adversarial Distillation(LDAS&ET-AD).Firstly,a learnable distillation attack strategies generating mechanism is developed to automatically generate sample-dependent attack strategies tailored for distillation.A strategy model is introduced to produce attack strategies that enable adversarial examples(AEs)to be created in areas where the target model significantly diverges from the teachers by competing with the target model in minimizing or maximizing the AD loss.Secondly,a teacher evolution strategy is introduced to enhance the reliability and effectiveness of knowledge in improving the generalization performance of the target model.By calculating the experimentally updated target model’s validation performance on both clean samples and AEs,the impact of distillation from each training sample and AE on the target model’s generalization and robustness abilities is assessed to serve as feedback to fine-tune standard and robust teachers accordingly.Experiments evaluate the performance of LDAS&ET-AD against different adversarial attacks on the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets.The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a robust precision of 45.39%and 42.63%against AutoAttack(AA)on the CIFAR-10 dataset for ResNet-18 and MobileNet-V2,respectively,marking an improvement of 2.31%and 3.49%over the baseline method.In comparison to state-of-the-art adversarial defense techniques,our method surpasses Introspective Adversarial Distillation,the top-performing method in terms of robustness under AA attack for the CIFAR-10 dataset,with enhancements of 1.40%and 1.43%for ResNet-18 and MobileNet-V2,respectively.These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in enhancing the robustness of deep learning networks(DNNs)against prevalent adversarial attacks when compared to other competing methods.In conclusion,LDAS&ET-AD provides reliable and informative soft labels to one of the most promising defense methods,AT,alleviating the limitations of untrusted teachers and unsuitable AEs in existing AD techniques.We hope this paper promotes the development of DNNs in real-world trust-sensitive fields and helps ensure a more secure and dependable future for artificial intelligence systems.

A Lonely Journey:An Autoethnography of the Fifteen-Year Identity Construction of a Female ESP Teacher in China

This autoethnographic study explores from a sociocultural perspective the author’s identity construction journey as a female English-for-specific-purposes(ESP)teacher at a university in China for more than 15 years.It delves into the author’s evolving exercise between teacher agency and language policy within both institutional and national contexts.The author aims to voice for marginalized ESP teachers and create a space for them to better negotiate with English-for-general-purposes(EGP)colleagues,academic staff,and policy makers.This study highlights the significance of autoethnography in teacher identity research,particularly for niche ESP teachers who direct novel enterprises through bottom-up implementation.Furthermore,the author emphasizes humanism behind ESP instruction,which significantly expands the view that the ESP features instrumental value.She also advocates for comprehensive support to sustain ESP teaching innovation,ESP teachers’identity construction,and their professional development.These insights have implications for all accountable parties in the context of educational reform to enable constructive negotiation,for ESP teachers to develop their sense of empowerment,and for inclusive education to become more accessible.

Understanding the Process of Pre-service EFL Teachers＇ Reflective Thinking on Classroom Interaction

Based on Dewey＇s （1933） connotation on reflection, this study focuses on the process ofpre-service EFL （English as a foreign language） teachers＇ reflective thinking. There are eight teachers participating in the study during their practicum. Their reflective diary, the interviews between the researchers and the teachers, and classroom observation data are triangulated each other. The features of their reflection process are concluded： （1） Their reflections tend to be spontaneous interpretation; （2） their reflective thinking is partly ＂reasoning＂ phases; and （3） they depend on the authorities in the process of reflective thinking. Some implications are made for the guidelines in EFL teachers＇ practicum

Mathematics Knowledge of Proof in Geometry： Pre-Service Teachers＇ Perspectives

This article is based on research on pre-service teachers＇ perspectives on their mathematics knowledge of proof in geometry. The study was framed using tile mathematical knowledge for teaching framework. This qualitative study employed the use of a task-based worksheet, focus group sessions and semi-structured individual interviews. The task-based worksheet was completed by 180 pre-service mathematics teachers （second, third and fourth year mathematics education students）. Pre-service mathematics teachers are student teachers who have not yet completed their training to become teachers. After the analysis of the task-based worksheet, 20 participants were invited to participate in focus group sessions and individual interviews. The findings of the study reveal that the participants possess peripheral mathematics knowledge of proof in geometry. The study aims at assisting pre-service teachers and interested educationists to explore innovative methods of acquiring and imparting mathematics knowledge of proof in geometry. The study proposes possible changes in curriculum at school and university level.

The Emergence of Loving Pedagogy in the L2 Affective Domain:How Affective Pedagogy Accounts for Chinese EFL Teachers’Professional Success and Job Satisfaction?

The success of teachers in professional environments has a desirable influence on their mental condition.Simply said,teachers’professional success plays a crucial role in improving their mental health.Due to the invaluable role of professional success in teachers’mental health,personal and professional variables helping teachers succeed in their profession need to be uncovered.While the role of teachers’personal qualities has been well researched,the function of professional variables has remained unknown.To address the existing gap,the current investigation measured the role of two professional variables,namely job satisfaction and loving pedagogy,in Chinese EFL teachers’professional success.To do this,three validated scales were provided to 1591 Chinese EFL teachers.Participants’answers to the questionnaires were analyzed using the Spearman correlation test and structural equation modeling.The data analysis demonstrated a strong,positive link between the variables.Moreover,loving pedagogy was found to be the positive,strong predictor of Chinese EFL teachers’job satisfaction and professional success.The findings of the current inquiry may help educational administrators enhance their instructors’professional success,which in turn promotes their mental and psychological conditions at work.

Teachers’Perception for Evaluation of the Primary School Students With Final Grade

The most difficult and delicate part of the learning process is assessment.Assessment is difficult because during his/her accomplishment the teacher has to consider not only the acquisition of knowledge from students,but also the overall degree of development of their competencies.It is delicate,because through assessment we can influence the emotional side of students and their“willingness”to learn.Despite these facts,teachers need to evaluate students during the learning process.The purpose of the research is to find out what is the perception of teachers about the level of evaluation of students with final grade.The overall results showed that 89%of teachers agree,9%of them have a neutral attitude,and 2%do not agree that the evaluation of students with a final grade is done taking into account many aspects and using many methods,the overall average of the results,M=4.36.Based on the empirical results,it was found that teachers who have completed assessment training have a more positive approach to student assessment,as the average score is higher than teachers who have not completed assessment training.From the qualitative results it was understood that the Teachers did not encounter any difficulties during the assessment of the students.

Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs of Competence With Teaching Socially Sensitive Issues

This paper is part of a larger cross-sectional, phenomenological study that examined pre-service teachers’ belief of the competencies they possess to teach socially sensitive issues at secondary level in Trinidad and Tobago. Purposive sampling resulted in 39 pre-service social studies teachers (Years 2 to 4) who were exposed to a methodology course in a social studies specialisation programme and nine social studies lecturers, at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. The study is located in the mixed methods paradigm, with a quan/QUAL design. This paper represents discussions and findings from two questionnaires and four focus groups analysed through the IBM SPSS Statistics 22 software for the quantitative analysis and content and micro-interlocutor analyses for the qualitative analysis. The findings show that pre-service teachers believe they have the competencies to teach socially sensitive issues;yet they had not obtained these from the designated methodology course. Further that both contextual and personal factors affect the teaching of socially sensitive issues. Six themes, with accompanying competencies emerge from the data and frame affective teaching of socially sensitive issues. Arising out of the findings, the author developed a competency-based framework that has implications for curriculum development and transformational pedagogy.