Helena Rasku-Puttonen

This study examined the amount and quality of educational dialogue in relation to student math performance in Grade 2. Domains of teacher occupational stress were considered predicting variables for dialogue and math performance. Video-recorded lessons (N = 151) of 50 teachers were analysed in terms of dialogic episodes to determine the amount (length and number of episodes) and quality (four patterns) of dialogue. Multilevel modelling showed that the amount of educational dialogue associated positively with student math performance. In addition, teacher cynicism was related to math performance via the amount of educational dialogue. Regarding dialogue quality, moderate-quality dialogue linked positively with student math performance, but no indirect associations were found when considering teacher cynicism. The findings provide important new knowledge by investigating the effect of educational dialogue on young students’ achievement and by mapping indirect associations between teacher occupational stress, dialogue, and student math performance.

Teacher–student relationship and students’ social competence were investigated in relation to the quality of educational dialogue. The data consisted of 151 video-recorded Grade 2 lessons. The teachers (N = 50) also rated their students’ (N = 664) social competence and the teacher–student relationship. In terms of teacher–student relationships, closeness associated positively while conflict associated negatively with high quality dialogue. Regarding students’ social competence, cooperation skills and empathy linked positively while disruptiveness linked negatively with high quality dialogue. The findings provide new knowledge on how different student-related factors may support or prevent the building of educational dialogue.

This study aimed to investigate the significance of informal learning contexts in physical education (PE) student teachers’ professional identity construction. It addressed two research questions: How do informal learning contexts contribute to the construction of PE student teachers’ professional identity? What forms of relationships can be identified between the informal and formal contexts of learning in PE student teachers’ professional identity construction? The data consisted of 20 semi-structured interviews with PE student teachers during the final teaching practice period. The data were analysed using structural and pattern coding methods. The analysis revealed that informal learning contexts contributed to three elements of professional identity construction: professional ambitions, professional values and principles, and professional knowledge and competencies. Three distinct forms of relationships between informal and formal learning contexts in the construction of professional identity were also discovered: complementary, reconstructive and disconnected. Informal learning contexts appear highly influential in the construction of professional identity. The results also point towards a holistic notion of professional identity, where professional and personal aspects of identity merge and overlap in the construction of professional identity.

This study examined the occurrence and quality of educational dialogue in the preschool classrooms of teachers with low, moderate and high stress levels. Video-recordings of 21 preschool teachers were analysed based on episodes of educational dialogue and categorised with respect to patterns of dialogic teaching and shared knowledge building. The teachers’ level of stress was determined based on their self-reporting of work-related stress and well-being. The findings showed that moderately stressed teachers conducted educational dialogue the most, whereas teachers with low stress conducted dialogue the least. Patterns of teacher-initiated dialogue of a high quality and patterns involving factual knowledge sharing prevailed in the sample. The study contributes to knowledge on teacher stress levels and the occurrence of educational dialogue in preschool.

A teacher supervising the school practice of student teachers is regarded as an expert who sets an example of good teaching to future teachers and chooses teaching practices that support pupils’ cognitive and social development. This study examines the implementation of teaching practices and the interpretation of these practices by school-based teacher educators who supervise school practice of student teachers at universities’ innovation schools. Teaching practices were examined using observation and video-stimulated recall interviews. The school-based teacher educators widely used and described in detail individual teaching practices that supported pupils’ cognitive development. However, observations indicated a more limited use of collaborative teaching practices that promote pupils’ social and cognitive development. Setting a good example of teaching gives school-based teacher educators the opportunity to develop both student teachers’ and their own teaching competence.

Educational classroom talk is beneficial for children’s learning and communicative development (Alexander 2018); however, current research has focused predominantly on classroom talk starting at the primary school level. This study explored types of educational classroom talk between teachers and children as early as in early childhood education (ECE) in the United Arab Emirates. It also examined variations in the occurrence of different types of classroom talk, depending on activities and content areas. Twenty-nine video-recorded and transcribed sessions from 11 ECE classrooms serving three- to four-year-old children were analysed; the analysis was partly theory driven and partly data driven with respect to communicative acts, events, and situations. Four types of educational classroom talk were identified: initiation–response–feedback (IRF), open naming, open informal discussion, and teacher-directed exploration. IRF dominated the interactions across all content areas and activities. More extended exchanges between teachers and children occurred predominantly in small-group activities. No strictly defined educational teacher–student dialogue was found. The study showed variations in educational classroom talk in ECE settings and suggests that there is an urgent need to increase extended educational classroom talk between teachers and children in the early stages of pre-primary education to support children’s development and learning.

School-based teacher educators (SBTEs) should be able to set goals in two roles – as a teacher and as a supervisor of student teachers. The purpose of the study was to investigate school-based teacher educators’ teaching and supervising goals and to identify how teachers in the role of supervisors perceived university expectations. Thematic analysis indicated that teachers have difficulty establishing goals for themselves as teachers and supervisors. Their teaching goals proceeded from curricula and focused on their pupils’ cognitive development, whilst their perceptions about supporting pupils’ social development were vague. Teachers were unaware of what exactly universities expected of them as supervisors, and believed that providing teaching models for student teachers as a main supervisory goal. It is necessary to offer options to encourage cooperation between teachers and universities and maintain supervisors’ professional development.

In this study, we investigate the role of physicality in the professional identities of physical education (PE) student teachers. Twenty PE student teachers participated in semi-structured interviews during their final teaching practice. Data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis and typologies. The results showed substantial diversity in the student teachers’ conceptions of physicality and the ways these conceptions were embedded in their developing professional identities. The results also brought to light criticism directed at traditional notions of the body and physicality in PE and PE teacher education (PETE). We suggest that conceptions of the body and physicality represent a central element of PE teachers’ professional identity. The results also indicate a relationship between conceptions of physicality and pedagogies implemented in the future. Time and place for student teachers to discuss body-related matters should be provided in PETE.