The effects of a social studies teacher training program, emphasizing global education, on the teaching behaviors of secondary level preservice teachers

Authors

Barbara C. Cruz, Florida International University

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Educational Administration and Supervision

First Advisor's Name

Jan L. Tucker

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

James E. Huchingson

Third Advisor's Name

Loriana Novoa

Fourth Advisor's Name

Mark B. Rosenberg

Keywords

Training of Social science teachers, International education, Study and teaching

Date of Defense

8-28-1990

Abstract

This study investigates the effects that enrollment in a year’s social studies teacher training program emphasizing global education has on preservice social studies teachers’ teaching behaviors.

A qualitative research effort supported by quantitative approaches was employed. A researcher-made questionnaire, the Social Studies Internship Inventory (SSII), was utilized along with classroom observations by a participant-observer.

Subjects taking the SSII included all student teachers completing their internships in secondary social studies education during the 1988-1989 academic year. For the observational portion of this study, six subjects were selected from among the aforementioned group. Their student teaching placements were in a mixture of urban, suburban, and inner-city schools at both the junior and senior high school levels.

Findings include:

• much of global education relies on the ability of the teacher to recognize a "critical teaching moment";
• a curriculum that emphasizes a global perspective may depend more on the teacher than other curriculums;
• daily newspaper reading increased significantly between the beginning of the academic year and the end of the internship;
• a reversal occurred in the popularity of the television and newspaper as the main source of information over the course of the academic year (television news was watched more at the beginning? newspapers consulted more by the end);
• at the beginning of the study, 20% of the future teachers belonged to a professional organization; by the end of the program, 96% had memberships; though both the discrete and infusion approaches to global perspectives in education have their respective merits, a blending of the two was most effective;
• the role of the cooperating teacher seems to be crucial in imparting global perspectives to the student teacher;
• the university supervisor, who was trained in global perspectives, had an effect on the interns’ teaching;
• an unexpected finding was the great amount of student-talk observed;
• teachers who were most successful in teaching from a global perspective emphasized critical thinking skills and civic responsibility.

Identifier

FI14061550

Comments

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Recommended Citation

Cruz, Barbara C., "The effects of a social studies teacher training program, emphasizing global education, on the teaching behaviors of secondary level preservice teachers" (1990). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2674.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2674