The literature concerning pre-service training in music education for generalist primary or elementary school teachers reveals a long-standing problem for teacher educators: low or poor self-efficacy concerning the teaching of classroom music. Concurrently, a critical examination of training programmes has less often featured, with only limited…

Building the capacity of pre-service teachers to work in globalized cross-cultural environments is essential to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. This study establishes the value of internationally paired, authentically collaborative practicums with strong epistemological and positional framing in pursuing such capacity development. It…

This qualitative survey study set out to investigate in-service and pre-service primary school teachers' perceived barriers to and enablers for the integration of children's literature in mathematics teaching and learning in an Australian educational context. While research over the past three decades have documented pedagogical benefits of…

Throughout 2020, the world was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of higher education, the pandemic critically affected professional experience, a core component of teacher education. This paper shares data from a large-scale survey about teachers' sense of self-efficacy and the impact of COVID-19 on professional…

This article aims to contribute new, longitudinal evidence on teacher self-efficacy (TSE) by investigating changes in TSE over the last 2 years of an Australian initial teacher education program. Two hundred and one pre-service teachers were surveyed at three timepoints: (1) after the first professional experience placement (2) before and (3)…

Online learning has radically altered educational access; however, challenges emerge for learning domains relying on practical learning experiences, such as the creative arts. Research shows praxis is vital to effective arts teacher preparation. However, as Australian initial teacher educators, we noted the challenges of engaging online students…

Debates about teaching reading have long been a part of educational vernacular, frequently reduced to polarised views about phonics. This attention can unnecessarily divert from the cumulative skills required for learning to read and comprehensive research, which indicates the positive influence of systematic phonics instruction on students'…

This study compares the psychometric properties of two popular teacher self-efficacy scales, namely, Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) and Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES). This study was quantitative in nature and distributed the two scales to 287 preservice teachers in the USA and in Australia. Findings indicate that the two scales function…

This study examined the effects of using a combination two novel technologies on the development of knowledge and understanding of ecological science concepts for a small of preservice primary teachers, who had self-identified as having low prior background knowledge in science concepts and low confidence in their abilities in teaching science.…

Purpose: The forced shift to online teaching delivery during COVID-19 suppression measures in 2020 was a complex challenge for Australian teachers. Teachers were given very little time to prepare online content and very little professional development to teach online. Their experiences prompted discussion about the abilities of pre-service…

Recognition of the inherent value of the Creative Arts in society seldom extends beyond rhetoric to meaningful action. The powerful ways the Creative Arts are positioned within curriculum documents, for example, stand in contrast to entrenched problems such as poor teacher attitudes, disengaging teaching practices and low status. Initial Teacher…

Raising the quality of initial teacher education can make an important contribution to raising the overall quality of the school system. In Australia, the National Framework for Professional Standards for Teaching is used as a common framework to set standards for the accreditation of teacher education programs. However, institution-wise…

Professional experience plays a vital role in the formation of teaching self-efficacy (TSE), a construct which has attracted much attention from teacher education researchers. This study investigates how 18 preservice teachers (PTs) reported changes in their TSE for their first professional placement. Data were collected via face-to-face…

This study aimed to reignite the discussion of the elusive concept of teacher self-efficacy through the lens of Bandura's social cognitive theory and more specifically the Triadic Reciprocal Determinism model. It examined two commonly used teacher self-efficacy scales that were distributed to 154 Australian preservice teachers. Findings show that…

Transitioning to university can be challenging for many first-year students. This study focusses on a Health and Physical Education (HPE) subject delivered at an Australian regional university and designed to support first-year preservice teachers training to teach in primary schools. The aim of this mixed-methods research was to investigate if a…