This book presents thirty-one accounts by final-year pre-service teachers, providing guidance and insights for less advanced teacher education students, and illustrating the use of life history and narrative stories as methods for pre-service teachers to explore educational issues in classroom practice. This life-history approach identifies those political, economic, and social forces that have impinged on the individual at different points in their life and contributed to the process of changing their identities. These stories are not written by established specialists in the areas they deal with, but instead by novice teachers at the beginning of their paths towards mastering the intricacies of teaching and learning in school settings. As such the book provides a mentoring framework and a means of helping pre-service teachers share their valuable experiences and insights into aspects such as how to manage practicum requirements. It helps establish a supportive relationship among pre-service teachers, providing them with access to valuable peer experiences. In addition it helps pre-service teachers make sense of their own practicum experiences and reflect on their own beliefs and professional judgement to develop their approaches and solve problems in their own classroom practice.

Gretchen Gengis currently an associate professor of pedagogy and learning at Charles Darwin University. Before that, she worked in various schools and universities in Australia for over 15 years. Gretchen has strong research interests in improving the quality of and curriculum development in teacher education programs.

Pamela Smith began her teaching career in rural and urban NSW as well as overseas in Sabah, East Malaysia with the Australian Volunteers International before moving to Darwin just before cyclone Tracey. She has been teaching for 40 years. Ms Smiths career has spanned the sectors of early childhood, primary, secondary and now tertiary education with some periods of specialist teaching in ESL [English as a Second Language] and music. She has held various executive leadership positions, including assistant principal, senior teacher in primary schools. At Charles Darwin University Ms Smith has been involved in the area of professional experience placements and coordination of a teacher education program.

Paul Blackcame to Australia in 1974 after completing a doctorate in linguistics at Yale. After undertaking research on Australian Indigenous languages he took up a position in the School of Australian Linguistics program for the education of indigenous literacy workers and interpreters, which increasingly involved him in applied linguistics. In 1990 he joined the applied linguistics program of the then Northern Territory University, now Charles Darwin University, where he has specialised in linguistics, language acquisition, and language teaching pedagogy; he also spent three years as a visiting lecturer in English at Waseda University in Tokyo. He is currently an Honorary Fellow at Charles Darwin University, having retired from his full-time position in 2015.

Part I Background to the Book.- 1 Listen to the Voice of Pre-service Teachers: Introduction to the book.- 2 Issues in the Teaching Practicum.- 3 The Importance of 'SELF'.- 4 Teachers as Reflective Practitioners.- Part II Literacy and Language.- 5 The Tricky Word Wall: Motivating young students' desire to succeed.- 6 Benefits of Integrated Learning Support for Early Childhood Children when Learning Sight Words.- 7 Impact of Literacy Sessions on the Reading Abilities of Indigenous Students.- 8 Choose to Read.- 9 Languages other than English being taught in Primary Schools: The Educational and Cultural benefits.- 10 The Language of Belonging: What role can first languages play in multicultural Australian schools?.- Part III Information and Communications Technology.- 11 Integration of iPads into Early Childhood Classrooms.- 12 The Implementation of Computers in Middle School Classrooms: The Changing Nature of Teaching.- 13 Online Gaming: The effect on (Upper) Primary boys social interaction.- 14 ICT: The Dawn of a New Age of Teaching or the Barrier to Successful Quality Teaching?.- Part IV Play-based Learning.- 15 Play-based Learning within the Early Years: How critical is it really?.- 16 Importance of Play-based Learning in Early Childhood: Birth to Eight Years.- 17 The Importance of Make-believe Play in the Pre-school Years: Supporting Cognitive and Socio-emotional Development.- 18 Play-based Learning: The Educational and Social Benefits for Students in Junior Primary Classrooms.- 19 Care, Inquiry and Values: Successfully Integrate Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in a Central Australian Play-based Classroom.- Part V Knowing Students' Learning Needs.- 20 Visual Aids Supporting the Learning of Children in our Classrooms.- 21 Inclusive Learning for Students with Disabilities.- 22 Looking at Learning through Children's Eyes: A Self-reflection on Planning Practice and a Journey to Reconceptualise, using Children's Voice.- 23 Can Age really define a Child's Readiness for Formal Education?.- Part VI Engaging Students.- 24 The Effects of Positive Teaching on Success in Children's Learning.- 25 Planned Ignoring: Managing Disruptive Behaviours.- 26 Strategies to Engage Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Mainstream Students in the Classroom.- 27 Getting Physical: What are the influences affecting student participation in physical activity and education?.- 28 Soothing the Savage Beast of Distraction: The benefits of Music for Student Engagement.- 29 Promoting Engagement for Students who are Well Above Average in Reading and Writing.- Part VII Parental and Societal Issues.- 30 My Only Sense of Control: Impact of parents on children's bullying behaviors in school.- 31 What do Parents want? Why parents choose a school requiring significant travel.- 32 How Beneficial is Homework for Students in Primary School? Do Primary School Students need to do Homework?.- 33 Understanding the Quality of Effective Homework.- 34 Tarred with the Same Brush: Barriers facing the Prospective Male Primary Teacher.- 35 Classroom Teacher Gender Bias within the Non-government Education Sector.- Part VIII Windup.- 36 Conclusion and What's Next?.