ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

Healthy food essay Good nutrition can help prevent disease and
promote health. Consumption of important fruits and vegetables
ensures lower level of mortality and reduces various degenerative
diseases,During lifetime an individual consumes 30 tons of food on
average in seemingly endless dietary varieties.Nutrition is deemed
functional on condition that it beneficially influences various body
functions. Weight issues have always influenced American society,
involving health, psychological and socio-emotional considerations.
Recent Teaching and Teacher Education Articles
How teachers become teacher researchers: Narrative as a tool for
teacher identity construction
Highlights
Instructor and teachers constructed identities as teacher researchers
through talk.
Instructor used narratives as a tool to co-construct the teacher
researcher identity.
Narratives were also used to discursively position teachers as teacher
researchers.
Abstract
While scholarship on teacher research suggests the value of this work for
teaching and learning, there are challenges in sustaining it beyond teacher
education, in part because teachers may not envision themselves as
researchers. Drawing on sociocultural theories of identity, this paper uses
discourse analysis to consider how an instructor in a graduate course on
teacher research supported inservice teachers in constructing identities as
teacher researchers. The analysis identifies the ways the instructor used
personal narratives as a tool to intentionally position teachers as teacher
researchers as participants discursively negotiated these identities.
Keywords
Teacher professional identity; Teacher researchers; Discourse analysis;
Inservice teacher education

Leveraging the community context of Family Math and Science Nights to

develop culturally responsive teaching practices
Highlights
Culturally responsive teaching lens focused attention on experiences in the
course.
Family Math and Science Nights emphasized focus on cultural specificity of
context.
Repeated practice is required to disrupt assumptions about teaching
science and math.
Reconceptualized methods course allowed for moments of introspection
and awareness.
Teacher candidates worked with children/families in non-evaluative ways.
Abstract
This paper examines how elementary teacher candidates experience Family
Math and Science Nights with culturally and linguistically diverse children
and families. Weekly reflections were analyzed using Gays (2002, 2013)
Culturally Responsive Teaching framework to highlight the process of
enacting and thinking in key areas: (1) Changing attitudes and beliefs, (2)
Leveraging culture and difference, (3) Grappling with resistance, and (4)
Improving pedagogical connections. An action-oriented focus underscores
that teacher candidates need multiple rounds of practice to disrupt
traditional notions of teaching and move towards cultural responsiveness.
Findings suggest the importance of repeated practice, context, and focused
guided reflection.
Keywords
Culturally responsive teaching; Out of school contexts; Family Math and
Science Nights; Elementary science teacher preparation; Disrupting
assumptions
Configuring the three-way relationship among student teachers'
competence to work in schools, professional learning and teaching
motivation in initial teacher education
Highlights
Two major aspects of competence to work in schools emerge from the
study.
Learning in ITE fieldwork and Learning in ITE coursework predict

Competence to work in schools.

Two types of teaching motivation partially mediate the predictive
relationship.
Abstract
This mixed methods study investigated pre-service student teachers' selfperception of competence to work in schools, and its relationship with
professional learning and teaching motivation in the context of initial
teacher education (ITE). Two major dimensions of competence to work in
schools emerged in the study: (1) understanding school organization, and
(2) managing growth-fostering relationships with teachers and peers.
Learning in ITE fieldwork and Learning in ITE coursework were found to
predict this competence, although the predictive relationship was partially
mediated by Intrinsic: interest and efficacy in subject taught motivation
and Altruistic-intrinsic: multifaceted and stimulating job nature
motivation. Implications for ITE are discussed.
Keywords
Initial teacher education; Student teachers; Teaching; Motivation;
Professional competence
School mental health content in state in-service K-12 teaching standards in
the United States
Highlights
Content analysis was used to examine content in state K-12 teaching
standards.
All states included content on school mental health, but content varied.
No statistically significant differences were noted across geographic
regions.
Personal and professional growth was the least represented in the
standards.
The collection and use of data was the most represented in the standards.
Abstract
Teachers are integral to addressing children's mental health needs in
schools, and they are often members of child-serving teams focused on
school mental health. Still, teachers report limited training in mental health
and behavior management in the classroom. This study used content
analysis procedures to examine state K-12 teaching standards in the United

States to understand the extent to which standards reflected teacher

competencies for school mental health. Results revealed that all states
included content on school mental health, yet the content and extent of the
content varied considerably across the country. Implications are suggested
for teaching policy, practice, and training.
Keywords
Teaching standards; School mental health; In-service; Professional
development; Behavior management; Content analysis
Expanding the traditional role of the adult education teacher The
development of relational competences and actions
Highlights
A training program might have a very specific effect on teachers' actions.
The effect is greater on the teachers' actions than on their competences.
Combined training of teachers and their principals improve this effect.
Abstract
The article reports the effect of a competence development programme for
adult education teachers. The effect has been assessed using electronic
questionnaires completed by the teachers before and after the training
programme, and by interviews with the teachers over a period of two years.
The study shows that while the teachers' competences and actions develop
significantly on some dimensions (e.g. to act upon discovering a student
who is not thriving), they remain largely the same on other (e.g. to give
appreciative feedback). There is a greater change and development in the
teachers' actions than in their competences.
Keywords
Professional development; Relational competences; Adult education;
Professionalisation; In-service training; Teacher training