Collaborative approaches in initial teacher education: lessons from approaches to developing student teachers’ use of the Internet in science teaching

In many countries, governments are keen to persuade teachers at all levels to seek to enhance the learning of their students by incorporating information and communication technologies within their classrooms. This paper reports on the development of collaborative approaches to supporting use of the Internet by Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) science students on initial teacher education (ITE) courses in England, drawing on data from five higher education institution (HEI)–school partnerships across four years. A mixed-method approach was used, involving questionnaires, structured interviews, lesson observations and case studies. The outcomes of the first three years identified barriers to practice and suggested the need to develop more collaborative approaches to development. The focus of this paper is on examining ways in which university faculty tutors and mentors or cooperating teachers can work together with students on PGCE courses in developing practice. The lessons from this focus on the Internet, no longer a new technology, have enabled us to identify implications for HEI partnerships in ITE and suggest a need for further collaborative structures in order to support and develop practices, including those involving the innovative use of new technologies in the post-industrial society.     

Reciprocal learning between Canada and China in teacher education and school education: Partnership studies of practice in cultural context

In this introduction we describe the purpose and structure of the Canada–China Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education and School Education Partnership Grant Project sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC) in 2013?2020, and describe the project’s practice-based methodology along with a discussion of selected preliminary results. The papers presented in this special issue of Frontiers of Education in China animate our discussion by bringing forward important school-based activities and results. The heart of this work is the collaborative activity and voices of Chinese and Canadian educators. We illustrate our concept of reciprocal learning and how we apply this concept in our Partnership Grant Project. We believe that we have heavily benefited from the productive work and impact that has been made in the field of comparative education and we have put our emphasis on Reciprocal Learning as Collaborative Partnership throughout our project.     

Collaborative writing assessment: Sowing seeds for transformational adult learning

The authors report on an interpretive case study that investigated how three elementary teachers summatively assessed their own students’ written work over a three and one-half month period. Their collaborative assessment sessions reflected their ongoing routines that created productive social spaces that sowed the seeds for transformational adult learning (Mezirow, 2000). The authors describe four conversational routines or structures of the observed sessions: group gossiping or spectating, reading/rereading, deliberating/reframing, and collaboratively creating. We argue that these dialogical structures promoted thoughtful grading practices and encouraged instances of objective reframing of beliefs and assumptions about writing pedagogy and assessment; these collaborative sessions became fertile ground for the teachers’ professional growth. Instances of such reframing suggest the potentially powerful nature of collaborative grading practices. We conclude that a sociocultural and social constructivist theoretical framework for assessment involving social protocols for assessment of written work can be beneficial for teachers’ professional development and confidence in assessment.     

In search of a purpose for school history

Taking into account the merits of anticipatory reflection, instructional planning is perceived as an important process in the professionalization of teachers. When implementing a complex instructional strategy such as collaborative learning (CL), a thorough preparation becomes even more important. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the quality of lesson plans focusing on CL implementation. Based on the literature, a scoring rubric with 17 criteria in three domains (instruction, organization and evaluation) was developed and applied to analyse 323 lesson plans of second-year pre-service teachers. The results reveal both strengths (e.g. designing appropriate learning tasks, developing adequate learning materials) and weaknesses (e.g. including social objectives, rules and agreements for collaborative work) in the lesson plans. The rubric proves to be a useful instrument both for research and practice-oriented reflection. The findings provide significant insights for teacher training with regard to CL implementation.     

Teachers' Self-Regulated Learning Lesson Design: Integrating Learning from Problems and Successes

Teachers' design of a lesson is critical for helping their students develop academically effective forms of self-regulating learning (SRL) in classrooms. Using a quasi-experimental design, the researchers integrated systematic collaborative learning from problematic and successful experiences into teachers' preparatory programs and examined how such learning was associated with preservice physics teachers' SRL-based lesson design. The participants in this study were 132 preservice physics teachers during the practicum phase of their teacher education at four major research universities. Results indicated that preservice teachers who contemplated both problematic and successful experiences developed better SRL lesson-designing skills compared to preservice teachers who contemplated only problematic experiences. This study provides a new outlook for linking collaborative learning from problematic and successful experiences as a means of nurturing teachers' SRL, as well as suggesting implications and further research avenues.     

Enhancing in-service teachers’ professional learning through a school-based professional development programme in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Lesson study is a collaborative model of professional development that provides teachers with the opportunity to learn from the planning, conduction and reflection of a specifically designed research lesson. Lesson study is increasingly incorporated in initial teacher education (ITE) and calls have been made to further detail the lesson study structures that support student teacher learning. In this paper the core organisational elements of incorporating lesson study in ITE are investigated as a comparative case study situated in two distinct educational and cultural settings: one in Ireland (post-primary) and the other in Norway (primary). Qualitative data, including student teachers’ planning notes, research lesson designs, and observation notes from live research lessons, were analysed and findings reveal three structural factors for the incorporation of lesson study in ITE. First, defined roles of mentor and university teachers as knowledgeable others; second, the engagement of student teachers at each phase of lesson study, with the inclusion of case pupils; and third, the conduction of the lesson study cycle on both university campus and in the classroom. These findings contribute to the growing literature of lesson study in ITE and may support the inclusion of lesson study in ITE programmes.     

Preparing beginning teachers to elicit and interpret students' mathematical thinking

This study investigated how teacher education assignments can be designed to support beginning teachers in learning to do the work of teaching. We examined beginners' formative assessment practices—in particular, their eliciting and interpreting of students' mathematical thinking—in the context of an elementary mathematics methods assignment, and the ways in which the scaffolds provided shaped their practice. We found that the scaffolds differentially supported their practice and suggest strategic improvement of the focus and organization of different types of scaffolds. Findings from the study contribute to the conceptualization and design of scaffolds for practice-based learning opportunities in teacher education.     

Theoretical and pedagogical perspectives on orchestrating creativity and collaborative learning

The role of teacher is increasingly related to designing and arranging collaborative learning situations in which fruitful and creative group work may occur. This thematic review presents recent studies on creativity and collaborative learning from the perspective of the teacher as conductor of learning processes. The precondition for the design and orchestration of these kinds of learning situations is analysing and understanding of creative and collaborative processes and their contextual adaption. Thus, the first section of this review focuses on the theoretical vantage points of creativity and collaborative learning mainly from socio-cultural perspective. Based on this theoretical grounding, the second section describes principles for orchestrating productive collaborative learning and supporting creativity from the teacher’s perspective. We discuss three dimensions related to how teachers can bring about collaborative learning and creativity: (1) general pedagogical bases, (2) teachers’ pre- and real-time activities and (3) opportunities and challenges for teacher activities. The review is concluded with theoretical and practical implications regarding collaborative learning and creativity.     

教师区域网络协同备课中的社会网络分析

社会网络分析法在网络教研、CSCL中日趋受到重视,文献调研发现,以往研究主要集中在社会网络的1-模网络分析。首先综合应用1-模网络和2-模网络分析,对来自安徽省肥西县10所不同学校的33位二年级语文教师在学习元上开展的协同备课数据进行社会网络分析,对其网络结构图、中心性、凝聚子群、"核心-边缘"与"分派"展开分析,立体化展示了协同备课过程中教师群体和个人层次的参与特点,并重点从教师个体角度,分析其参与度、协作知识建构阶段和关注主题的分布情况及特征。最后基于分析结果,提出了后续网络备课和区域教研中应注意的问题。     

Professional learning through the collaborative design of problem-solving lessons

This article analyses lesson study as a mode of professional learning, focused on the development of mathematical problem solving processes, using the lens of cultural-historical activity theory. In particular, we draw attention to two activity systems, the classroom system and the lesson-study system, and the importance of making artefacts instrumental in both. We conceptualise the lesson plan as a boundary object and use this to illustrate how professional learning takes place through the introduction of carefully designed artefacts that draw on teachers’ professional knowledge of potential student approaches, and to the nature of progression in problem-solving processes. We identify the roles of instrumentalisation and instrumentation in supporting professional learning as these artefacts are prepared for use before a lesson and as they are again used as catalysts for reflection in post-lesson discussions. These artefacts are seen to effectively facilitate the socially situated learning of all participants. We conclude that the design of artefacts as boundary objects that support teaching and professional learning in their respective activity systems may be fundamental to the success of lesson study as a collaborative venture.     

Enriching a collaborative teacher inquiry discourse: exploring teachers’ experiences of a theory-framed discourse in a Singapore case of lesson study

This paper explores how a learning theory enriched a collaborative teacher inquiry discourse where lesson study was adopted as the educational action research model to promote teacher professional development. Four Grade 9–10 biology teachers in Singapore drew from variation theory to collaboratively plan and teach new genetics content as part of teacher research. As a researcher-facilitator, I have drawn from the teachers’ experiences of infusing variation theory into their teaching practice, of developing their own theories of teaching and learning, and of developing student-focused pedagogies to highlight the roles variation theory played. These included providing concrete examples of patterns of variations teachers could use, increasing the teachers’ attention and sensitivity to students, and developing the teachers’ theoretical lens in their approach to teaching. Reflecting on the teachers’ experiences, I made an appeal for teachers’ development of theoretical lenses in teacher inquiry, and bridging of theory and research to teaching practice.     

Engaging Prospective Elementary Teachers in Lesson Study

This paper discusses the ways in which teacher educators can effectively engage prospective teachers (PTs) in lesson study during mathematics methods courses. Evidence from this work suggests that engagement in lesson study provides PTs with opportunities to strengthen their knowledge about mathematics, students, and pedagogy. More specifically, the results demonstrated that lesson study helped PTs to engage in deep and thoughtful discussions about mathematics, reflect on their teaching, and make effective changes to their lessons that showed noticeable improvements in student learning. Recommendations from this work provide specific methods-course suggestions on the implementation of lesson study as a model for PTs' professional and practitioner development, including strategies and guiding questions that teacher educators can utilize to help deepen PTs' knowledge about mathematics, teaching, and student learning.     

Collaborative Practitioner Research: A Case of Lesson Study in a Small Jewish School

ABSTRACT

Lesson study is a form of professional development where a group of teachers identifies a problem of practice on which they would like to make progress in their teaching. Over an extended period of time, the teachers study the topic and plan a lesson together. One member then teaches the lesson while the others observe; the group reflects afterwards on student learning. The cycle repeats, building teachers’ professional knowledge and their shared views of pedagogy over time. In this article, we argue that lesson study is a collaborative form of practitioner research and we show how this is so by sharing an example of a lesson study cycle conducted in a synagogue school.     

Forming shared inquiry structures to support knowledge building in a grade 5 community

This study explores the reflective processes by which a grade 5 science community co-constructed shared inquiry structures to focus and guide its inquiry about human body systems over a school year supported by a collaborative online environment. The co-constructed structures included a list of collective wondering areas as the shared focus of inquiry and models of the inquiry process in the form of “research cycle.” Qualitative analyses of field notes, classroom videos, student notebooks and interviews elaborate the evolution of the inquiry areas and the “research cycle” model as well as students’ adaptive use of the structures to guide deeper inquiry. Content analyses of students’ individual research questions and collaborative online discourse indicate that students used the structures to develop more advanced inquiry and make productive contributions. The results contribute to elaborating a reflective structuration approach to co-organizing and sustaining long-term, open-ended inquiry in knowledge building communities.     

Lesson study in teacher development: A paradigm shift from a culture of receiving to a culture of acting and reflecting

This article describes how lesson study creates a process of teacher learning whilst developing student learning through collaborative planning, guided observation and reflection. It presents a framework for conducting lesson study in a teacher development programme in Lower Austria. The role of knowledgeable others in the development of ownership for educational change towards competence‐oriented teaching and learning is explored and an overview of the organisational requirements and practical effects in the implementation of professional learning communities is given. In doing so, the article sheds light on training strategies and material development. Thus, insights on a paradigm shift in teacher development towards learning focused on discourse and reflected action are presented.     

课例研究本土化探索——基于课例研究与本土公开课的比较研究

本文将国外的课例研究和本土的公开课进行了比较研究,总结出它们的主要相似之处有:投入的时间和精力都较多;一定程度的公开性;实施效果评价困难。主要区别之处有:更多关注学生;注重合作;目标长远;功利成分较少。根据比较研究,对课例研究本土化提出了建议。     

Teacher collaborative learning through the lesson study: identifying pathways for instructional success in a Singapore high school

Research shows teacher collaborative learning to be a powerful vehicle to mobilise teacher instructional change and pedagogical practices, and to improve student achievement. For such undertakings to have positive impact, understanding the visible features of collaborative structures may not be sufficient to ensure sustainable practice. Instead, there is a need to identify underlying pathways that provide for successful instructional improvement. The purpose of this qualitative study is to obtain deeper insights into teacher outcomes arising from this practice and to identify aspects of the lesson study structure and processes that afford such opportunities. Three subject groups consisting of ten teachers from a Singapore high school participated in this study. Implications on staff development programs will be discussed in the light of these findings.     

The programmers’ collective: fostering participatory culture by making music videos in a high school Scratch coding workshop

We highlight ways to support interest-driven creation of digital media in Scratch, a visual-based programming language and community, within a high school programming workshop. We describe a collaborative approach, the programmers’ collective, that builds on social models found in do-it-yourself and open source communities, but with scaffolding structures that support students’ learning. We analyze the work of a class of high school student collectives engaged in programming music videos as part of a collaborative challenge in the online Scratch community. Our multi-level analysis focused on students’ learning specific programming concepts, effects of collaborative and task design on learning, and their personal reflections on collaboration and media creation. We address how these overlapping collaborative experiences point to the value of “nested collectives,” or multiple levels of designed-for collaboration. We also highlight a needed shift from a focus on computation to computational participation, highlighting the innately social aspects of media creation.     

Reorienting teaching standards: learning from lesson study

Teaching standards are regularly described as a mechanism for improving the status of the teaching profession and as a means to develop high-quality teachers. Less attention has been paid to the difficulties of fostering professional learning when externally produced standards are imposed on teachers. This paper outlines how lesson study can inform the use of teaching standards to shift the focus to centre on learning rather than teaching to richly inform national and international views on the use of teaching standards. More specifically, it explores how lesson study was a powerful process that developed a lived understanding of teaching standards and fostered two significant discursive shifts in teacher understanding of standards: from individual to collegial activity; and secondly from statements of teaching to centring the focus on processes of learning.