Early Literacy Intervention Programs by Esther S A Y A G Cohen
The study examines types of feedback pedagogical counselors write in response to preservice teach... more The study examines types of feedback pedagogical counselors write in response to preservice teachers ’ reflective writing in Teaching Journals during their practicum. The study also examines variables that can affect written feedback on reflective writing: year in the college, preservice teachers ’ levels, changes in feedback over time and personal differences among counselors . 689 comments written by five counselors from 74 Teaching Journal entries were explored. The results showed eight feedback types, in which asking for clarifications and leading preservice teachers to infer from pupils ’ responses, were the most frequent. Differences of feedback types written to student teachers was affected by year in the college, by levels of the student teachers and by the context of the practicum. The discussion will focus on the eight feedback types and the linguistic aspect of the feedback.
The Journal of Effective Teaching, 2016
The study examined the connection between writing competency and writing feedback experiences thr... more The study examined the connection between writing competency and writing feedback experiences through academic writing course for student-teachers across the curriculum. The aims of the course were to prepare student-teachers to their role as writing facilitators and to improve their writing. Experimental and control group differed in course plan focused on writing feedback as the depended variable. A significant improvement was found in writing formative feedback. Interaction effect between formative feedback, writing composition and time was significant, but the expected advantage of writing feedback course was not found. This study examined feedback from the giver point of view and points at the importance of writing formative feedback among SL writers as prospective teachers but also puts some questions on the relations between writing feedback and writing competency.
Pedagogical Counselors’ Self-exploration of Writing Feedback on Preservice Teachers’ Teaching Journals, 2021
The study examines types of feedback pedagogical counselors write in response to preservice teach... more The study examines types of feedback pedagogical counselors write in response to preservice teachers' reflective writing in Teaching Journals during their practicum. The study also examines variables that can affect written feedback on reflective writing: year in the college, preservice teachers' levels, changes in feedback over time and personal differences among counselors. 689 comments written by five counselors from 74 Teaching Journal entries were explored. The results showed eight feedback types, in which asking for clarifications and leading preservice teachers to infer from pupils' responses, were the most frequent. Differences of feedback types written to student teachers was affected by year in the college, by levels of the student teachers and by the context of the practicum. The discussion will focus on the eight feedback types and the linguistic aspect of the feedback.
‘THERE IS NO WRITING THAT IS WRITING WITHOUT TEACHERS.’1 TEACHERS’ ROLE IN THE WRITING PROCESS OF A SEMINAR PAPER, 2020
This article is part of a larger study dealing with different aspects of seminar courses in acade... more This article is part of a larger study dealing with different aspects of seminar courses in academic colleges of education during 2014-2015, in which teachers are supposed not only to share knowledge of their expertise in a subject matter but also accompany their students through the academic writing process. This study examines teachers' presence, roles in the writing-inquiry process in a seminar course. Our aim is to portray the complexity of this presence and consequently, to provide the basis for a tool that could (should) be developed, that has the potential to enable seminar teachers to diagnose strengths and weaknesses in their teaching and accompaniment of students. Our research questions were: What is the nature of teachers' presence in the seminar course, and How do they cope with the challenges of accompanying students writing? We interviewed 26 seminar course teachers in six teacher education colleges. Our findings portray these teachers as multi-tasking 'acrobats': planners; instructors; coaches; assessors, and models. The importance of this research is that it provides a broad and complex picture of teachers' involvement as well as a basis for a tool for self-reflection.
Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education, 2013
This study examines how student-teachers in the final stage of their teacher education program, p... more This study examines how student-teachers in the final stage of their teacher education program, perceive the role of feedback and how they write feedback on children's writing. Towards this end, student-teachers wrote compositions, answered a questionnaire, and wrote feedback on compositions written by 6th grade students. 10 student-teachers were also interviewed. Findings are that student-teachers perceive writing as a functional and technical process; they mainly edited the texts, they did not relate to the content, and were critical towards the expression of feelings and opinions in the children's compositions. These findings contradict their stated preferred roles which are motivating students and promoting rewriting.
These results are discussed from two perspectives: the tension between "ideal text" concept and the purpose of writing feedback; and feedback writing as self-assessment tool in teacher education.
This study examines changes in feelings of school belonging and social engagement of Israeli-Ethi... more This study examines changes in feelings of school belonging and social engagement of Israeli-Ethiopian pupils, linking them to achievement and inclusive-supportive school environment. The study brings forward the pupils' voice, the home class teacher's assessment and the school's head master conceptions, on inclusion and support in one elementary school in Israel. The school's environment is focused on social-emotional support, aiming to promote achievement, by enhancing feelings of school belonging and social engagement.
The study examined the connection between writing competency and writing feedback experiences thr... more The study examined the connection between writing competency and writing feedback experiences through academic writing course for student-teachers across the curriculum. The aims of the course were to prepare student-teachers to their role as writing facilitators and to improve their writing. Experimental and control group differed in course plan fo-cused on writing feedback as the depended variable. A significant improvement was found in writing formative feedback. Interaction effect between formative feedback, writing composition and time was significant, but the expected advantage of writing feedback course was not found. This study examined feedback from the giver point of view and points at the importance of writing formative feedback among SL writers as prospective teachers but also puts some questions on the relations between writing feedback and writing competency. Writing feedback is an assessment tool as well as instructional approach to teaching writing named "learner-centered instruction", which focuses on individual feedback, used by language teachers and subject matter teachers as well. This approach is differed from "content-based" approach to writing which involves explicit instruction of writing, focus-es on grammar, syntax, text structure and style of writing used by language teachers (Kasanga, 2004, p.65). Individual feedback is based on learning to write through practice in a process based on between-draft comments, focused on the process and leads to improve the writing product and writing competency as well. Writing feedback is the most common strategy used among teachers across the curriculum, but only few programs of teacher education suggest deep learning and practice in writing feedback. But most of the studies on writing feedback refer to language teachers in English, only few of them refer to across the curriculum teachers. This study examined how across the curriculum student-teachers can improve their feedback writing and how this improvement in corrective and formative feedback affects their writing competency. The focus of this study is on feedback givers-student-teachers learning to write feedback and on the relation of writing feedback to writing competency.
Abstract
This study examines how student-teachers, in the final stage of their teacher education ... more Abstract
This study examines how student-teachers, in the final stage of their teacher education program, perceive the role of feedback and how they write feedback on children's writing. Towards this end, student-teachers wrote compositions, answered a questionnaire, and wrote feedback on compositions written by 6th grade students. 10 student-teachers were also interviewed. Findings are that student-teachers perceive writing as a functional and technical process; they mainly edited the texts, they did not relate to the content, and were critical towards the expression of feelings and opinions in the children's compositions. These findings contradict their stated preferred roles which are motivating students and promoting rewriting.
These results are discussed from two perspectives: the tension between "ideal text" concept and the purpose of writing feedback; and feedback writing as self-assessment tool in teacher education.
Keywords: Writing assessment; Feedback writing; Feedback analysis; Teacher education
This literature review presents a systematic analysis of the empirical research pertaining to fou... more This literature review presents a systematic analysis of the empirical research pertaining to four aspects of practicum in teacher education, namely, rationales and goals, activities, personal and institutional relations and practicum' outcomes.
To locate information relevant to these aspects we conducted an extensive web-based search in refereed journals that reported on empirical studies on teacher education from 1996 to 2009. This search yielded a database of 113 articles.
The rationales for the practicum referred mostly to the student teachers' expected application of their instructional skills in mentored settings while they are still learning in the teacher education program. The second rational was to reduce the gap between theory and practice. The third rational was to enable close acquaintance with the realistic diverse settings of the student teachers' future worksite. And to a lesser extent, the fourth rational, referred to the development of students' personal and professional identity.
The largest student teachers' activities were planning and teaching particular subjects to whole classrooms for whole class periods and reflecting on diverse aspects of the practicum or personal issue. To a lesser extent were different activities of observations, and school community activities.
The institutional relations between the school and the teacher education were mostly asymmetric based on the educational-instructional approach of the teacher education adopted by the school and the mentor teachers. The second kind of relations was asymmetric slanted toward the school-in which the teacher education shaped the practicum to abide by the school teachers' requirements and constraints and fulfill their needs. Few studies described collaboration in the institutional relations.
The individual relations among mentors, supervisors and students were accompanied by tensions and conflicts ensued from the different interests, educational perceptions, and status which were not bridged. The largest classes of outcomes were the student teachers' mentored teaching, focused on improvement of instructional competences and skills which were mostly favorable. But the outcomes regarding the student teachers' implementation of teaching methods were partly disappointing. The outcomes regarding the student teachers' reflective thinking were mostly favorable, and were derived from the student teachers' reports and the researchers' analyses of these documents. The review discusses several methodological problems and disadvantages of the studies and presents some implications for further studies in the practicum of teacher education programs.
Papers by Esther S A Y A G Cohen
Perspectives on Language and Language Development
... Hebrew vocabulary and its place in Hebrew language teaching. Mixlala, Mexkar, Yiun ve-Yitzira... more ... Hebrew vocabulary and its place in Hebrew language teaching. Mixlala, Mexkar, Yiun ve-Yitzira 5, p. 1325 (in Hebrew). Olshtain, E. & Cohen, E. (2000). Cohesion in instructional texts. ... Discourse Processes, 15, 135. Sarel, Z. (1991). Introduction to discourse analysis. ...
Uploads
Early Literacy Intervention Programs by Esther S A Y A G Cohen
These results are discussed from two perspectives: the tension between "ideal text" concept and the purpose of writing feedback; and feedback writing as self-assessment tool in teacher education.
This study examines how student-teachers, in the final stage of their teacher education program, perceive the role of feedback and how they write feedback on children's writing. Towards this end, student-teachers wrote compositions, answered a questionnaire, and wrote feedback on compositions written by 6th grade students. 10 student-teachers were also interviewed. Findings are that student-teachers perceive writing as a functional and technical process; they mainly edited the texts, they did not relate to the content, and were critical towards the expression of feelings and opinions in the children's compositions. These findings contradict their stated preferred roles which are motivating students and promoting rewriting.
These results are discussed from two perspectives: the tension between "ideal text" concept and the purpose of writing feedback; and feedback writing as self-assessment tool in teacher education.
Keywords: Writing assessment; Feedback writing; Feedback analysis; Teacher education
To locate information relevant to these aspects we conducted an extensive web-based search in refereed journals that reported on empirical studies on teacher education from 1996 to 2009. This search yielded a database of 113 articles.
The rationales for the practicum referred mostly to the student teachers' expected application of their instructional skills in mentored settings while they are still learning in the teacher education program. The second rational was to reduce the gap between theory and practice. The third rational was to enable close acquaintance with the realistic diverse settings of the student teachers' future worksite. And to a lesser extent, the fourth rational, referred to the development of students' personal and professional identity.
The largest student teachers' activities were planning and teaching particular subjects to whole classrooms for whole class periods and reflecting on diverse aspects of the practicum or personal issue. To a lesser extent were different activities of observations, and school community activities.
The institutional relations between the school and the teacher education were mostly asymmetric based on the educational-instructional approach of the teacher education adopted by the school and the mentor teachers. The second kind of relations was asymmetric slanted toward the school-in which the teacher education shaped the practicum to abide by the school teachers' requirements and constraints and fulfill their needs. Few studies described collaboration in the institutional relations.
The individual relations among mentors, supervisors and students were accompanied by tensions and conflicts ensued from the different interests, educational perceptions, and status which were not bridged. The largest classes of outcomes were the student teachers' mentored teaching, focused on improvement of instructional competences and skills which were mostly favorable. But the outcomes regarding the student teachers' implementation of teaching methods were partly disappointing. The outcomes regarding the student teachers' reflective thinking were mostly favorable, and were derived from the student teachers' reports and the researchers' analyses of these documents. The review discusses several methodological problems and disadvantages of the studies and presents some implications for further studies in the practicum of teacher education programs.
Papers by Esther S A Y A G Cohen
These results are discussed from two perspectives: the tension between "ideal text" concept and the purpose of writing feedback; and feedback writing as self-assessment tool in teacher education.
This study examines how student-teachers, in the final stage of their teacher education program, perceive the role of feedback and how they write feedback on children's writing. Towards this end, student-teachers wrote compositions, answered a questionnaire, and wrote feedback on compositions written by 6th grade students. 10 student-teachers were also interviewed. Findings are that student-teachers perceive writing as a functional and technical process; they mainly edited the texts, they did not relate to the content, and were critical towards the expression of feelings and opinions in the children's compositions. These findings contradict their stated preferred roles which are motivating students and promoting rewriting.
These results are discussed from two perspectives: the tension between "ideal text" concept and the purpose of writing feedback; and feedback writing as self-assessment tool in teacher education.
Keywords: Writing assessment; Feedback writing; Feedback analysis; Teacher education
To locate information relevant to these aspects we conducted an extensive web-based search in refereed journals that reported on empirical studies on teacher education from 1996 to 2009. This search yielded a database of 113 articles.
The rationales for the practicum referred mostly to the student teachers' expected application of their instructional skills in mentored settings while they are still learning in the teacher education program. The second rational was to reduce the gap between theory and practice. The third rational was to enable close acquaintance with the realistic diverse settings of the student teachers' future worksite. And to a lesser extent, the fourth rational, referred to the development of students' personal and professional identity.
The largest student teachers' activities were planning and teaching particular subjects to whole classrooms for whole class periods and reflecting on diverse aspects of the practicum or personal issue. To a lesser extent were different activities of observations, and school community activities.
The institutional relations between the school and the teacher education were mostly asymmetric based on the educational-instructional approach of the teacher education adopted by the school and the mentor teachers. The second kind of relations was asymmetric slanted toward the school-in which the teacher education shaped the practicum to abide by the school teachers' requirements and constraints and fulfill their needs. Few studies described collaboration in the institutional relations.
The individual relations among mentors, supervisors and students were accompanied by tensions and conflicts ensued from the different interests, educational perceptions, and status which were not bridged. The largest classes of outcomes were the student teachers' mentored teaching, focused on improvement of instructional competences and skills which were mostly favorable. But the outcomes regarding the student teachers' implementation of teaching methods were partly disappointing. The outcomes regarding the student teachers' reflective thinking were mostly favorable, and were derived from the student teachers' reports and the researchers' analyses of these documents. The review discusses several methodological problems and disadvantages of the studies and presents some implications for further studies in the practicum of teacher education programs.