Mathematics teachers’ “learning to notice” in the context of a video club

This study examines changes in teachers’ thinking as they participated in a video club designed to help them learn to notice and interpret students’ mathematical thinking. First, we investigate changes in teachers’ talk about classroom video segments before and after participation in the video club. Second, we identify three paths along which teachers learned to notice students’ mathematical thinking in this context: Direct, Cyclical, and Incremental. Finally, we explore ways the video club context influenced teacher learning. Understanding different forms of teacher learning provides insight for research on teacher cognition and may inform the design of video-based professional development.     

Distilling wisdom from practice: Finding meaning in PDS stories

Much of what has been written about the Professional Development School (PDS) experience consists of recounting personal experiences. However, these accounts often offer little to readers since they are neither good research nor good storytelling. In this article I draw on mythology, folklore, psychology and literature to suggest that effective storytelling can serve the same function in nurturing PDS culture as it does in the maintenance of culture in general. After identifying potential story elements in the PDS experience, I propose ways in which to borrow from various literary genres to create PDS stories that are more engaging and meaningful.     

Student teachers’ collaborative research: Small-scale research projects during teacher education

Teacher research is increasingly described as an important aspect of professional development. In response, teacher education programs incorporate teacher research in their curricula. We report on the collaborative research processes of two groups of student teachers in a university teacher education program, focussing on elaboration and decision making. In one group, group members had different preferences, which led to balancing elaboration and decision making. The other group, however, did not engage in these processes in a conscious way, leading to an arduous research process. We contend that a balanced approach, alternating elaboration and decision making, is desirable.     

Developing a pedagogy of teacher education using self-study: A rhizomatic examination of negotiating learning and practice

This self-study of teacher education practices examines the processes of developing a pedagogy of teacher education. Drawing on multiple data sources (video and audio, reflective diary, and focus groups), we used concepts from rhizomatics to explore the question, “How does a teacher educator negotiate his learning and practice as he develops a pedagogy of teacher education?” We explicate the complexity of teacher education learning by showing how a conflux of interactive elements co-produce a teacher educator’s practice. This encourages us to introduce the metaphor of “orchestration” as a way of conceptualizing teacher educator practice and pedagogy.     

Understanding new teachers’ professional identities through metaphor

This qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews examines the metaphors new teachers use to describe their professional identities and compares metaphors chosen immediately following graduation with those suggested part way through their first year of teaching. Findings indicate that new teachers make a shift from seeing themselves as ready for the challenge, to adopting a survival mode. The metaphors suggest that new teachers struggle to develop a professional identity during their first year, and that this development process is gradual, complex and often problematic. Implications for teacher education indicate that greater emphasis needs to be placed on exploring professional identity in pre-service programmes.     

Creating and facilitating a teacher education curriculum using preservice teachers’ autobiographical stories

Preservice teachers’ autobiographical stories can serve as a personal, powerful, and poignant curriculum for teacher education. This research examines what and how preservice teachers learned through sharing their own and witnessing others’ autobiographical narratives in a literacy methods course. The teacher educator’s key role is examined in facilitating a public context of vulnerability in which preservice teachers shared painful stories revealing their sociocultural inequalities and personal struggles as literacy learners. Roles of the teacher educator are discussed in the transformation of autobiographies into deep understandings, universal connections and substantive strategies for preservice teachers to teach literacy effectively with diverse students.     

A qualitative analysis of teacher design teams: In-depth insights into their process and links with their outcomes

Teacher Design Teams (TDTs) are professional learning communities in which teachers collaborate to (re)design innovative educational materials. TDTs can contribute to teachers’ professional growth. Furthermore, engaging teachers in the design process could create ownership, increasing the likelihood that teachers actually use the innovative materials in practice. In this study, we aimed to obtain in-depth insights into the TDT process and to identify possible links with the outcomes. We studied three cases of TDTs, collecting qualitative data from multiple perspectives. We found that the perceived outcomes of the TDTs were mixed. The leadership style appeared to play an important role in shaping the process and hence the perceived outcomes. To improve the outcomes of future TDTs, insights from this study suggest that team coaches should provide more structure and clarity during the process. At the same time, the coaches should create an atmosphere in which participants can take the initiative.     

Prospective teachers’ future time perspective and professional plans about teaching: The mediating role of academic optimism

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of prospective teachers’ academic optimism in the relationship between their future time perspective and professional plans about teaching. A total of 396 prospective teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Correlation, regression, and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted in order to examine the mediating role of academic optimism. Results demonstrated that the relationships between future time perspective and planned effort, planned persistence, and professional development aspirations were significantly and fully mediated by academic optimism; whereas the relationship between future time perspective and leadership aspirations was not.     

An examination of teachers’ perceptions and practice when teaching large and reduced-size classes: Do teachers really teach them in the same way?

Class size research suggests that teachers do not vary their teaching strategies when moving from large to smaller classes. This study draws on interviews and classroom observations of three experienced English language teachers working with large and reduced-size classes in Hong Kong secondary schools. Findings from the study point to subtle differences between teachers’ perceptions and their subsequent classroom practice. Implications for professional practice and development are presented.     

Rupture and repair: Episodes of resistance and resilience in teachers’ learning

This action inquiry article examines veteran teachers’ learning in a week-long professional development seminar. We describe moments of disconnection in key learning relationships (teacher, learner, text) and analyze relational–cultural dynamics that contributed to the disconnections. We investigate the dynamics that facilitate repair within the relationships. We argue that disconnections were often acts of resistance which preserve teachers’ sense of self as learner. We aver that moments of reconnection were acts of resilience. This study’s significance demonstrates the inherent links between resistance and resilience. Implications point to the centrality of taking an inquiry stance in the study of professional development experiences.     

Rethinking teachers’ goal orientations: Conceptual and methodological enhancements

The article provides a theoretical extension of the goal orientation approach for teaching by proposing three different competence facets of learning goals and four types of addressees for performance approach and avoidance goals. On the basis of responses from 495 teacher trainees and 224 in-service teachers, the development and validation of an advanced goal orientation measure is presented. Internal consistencies of the goal dimensions were good, and confirmatory factor analyses verified the postulated model for teacher trainees and in-service teachers. In both groups, learning goal orientation positively predicted self-efficacy for teaching and perceived benefits of help-seeking. Performance approach goals positively predicted self-efficacy for teaching and performance avoidance goals negatively predicted self-efficacy for teaching and positively predicted perceived threats of help-seeking. The use of goal orientation facets provided a more thorough analysis of the predictions regarding perceptions of help-seeking. Results supported the convergent and divergent validity of the new measure.     

Learning teacher-research-mentoring: stories from Turkey

The continuing developmental process of learning mentoring, specifically regarding supporting teacher research, has received relatively little attention in fields such as English language teaching, and this qualitative case study addresses the gap. It explores how three teacher-research-mentors, who were experienced classroom practitioners but novices in research-mentoring, grew into their new role while supporting teacher research projects in different English language higher education contexts in Turkey over a one-year period. Vignettes reveal that they became conscious of needing to provide psychological support to sustain teacher-researchers’ motivation from starting their research projects to completing them successfully, presenting findings and writing them up, and that they also developed in other roles, but as subject-specialists sharing knowledge about research to a lesser extent. Outcomes, in terms of the quality of research produced by the teacher-researchers in their contexts, appeared influenced by the different characteristics of their institutions and the degree of external support in the form of mentor-mentoring the teacher-research-mentors could access. Given the increasing interest around the world in teacher research as an empowering form of professional development, there is a growing need for teacher-research-mentors, and these findings, through shedding light on research-mentors’ developmental needs, might be of interest to teacher educators.     

Pre-service teachers’ episodic memories of classroom management

This study focused on past excellent teachers’ classroom management strategies from the perspective of 148 pre-service teachers. The purpose of the study was to examine how pre-service teachers’ memories reflect classroom management models that are typically taught in teacher education coursework prior to their study of those models, as well as to explore memories that did not fit a particular model. Results indicated that pre-service teachers related episodes that clustered on establishing rules, but were less likely to relate experiences based on other strategies such as withitness, smooth transitions, or formal classroom meetings. Implications for teacher education are explored.     

Layers and links: Learning to juggle ‘one more thing’ in the classroom

This paper presents a model—hypertextual function—to consider teachers’ thinking, practice, and development in the use of technology. Hypertextual function is a multi-dimensional model linking a teacher's knowledge about students (familiarity) and technology (facility), with a teacher's teaching practice of integrating technology with content (transparency) and across disciplines and experiences (connectivity), and a teacher's sense of support (collegiality). Additionally, a teacher's context affects each of these. Such a model is important as technology becomes more pervasive and integrating technology into classrooms adds another layer of complexity to teaching. Case studies and graphic representations of the proposed model are presented.     

Surviving in the trenches: A narrative inquiry into queer teachers’ experiences and identity

This study, through the lens of narrative inquiry, examines the lived experiences of six lesbian and gay teachers working in primary and secondary school settings in the Midwest region of the USA. The heteronormative society in which we live has lead these individuals to keep their sexual identity separate from their identity as a teacher for a number of reasons. In addition to exploring these issues, this study aims to understand what it is like to be a queer teacher in the Midwest by focusing on how they construct and maintain their identities.     

Professional development at the local level: Necessary and sufficient conditions for critical colleagueship

This paper examines factors that contributed to critical conversations in teacher communities of inquiry (CI) as part of a statewide professional development initiative in the United States. Based on a three-year mixed method design, we use qualitative comparative analysis to investigate the influence of combinations of conditions on the depth of discussion. Results suggest that there were three conditions associated with the extent to which CI members engaged in discussions with substantive interaction and reflection: a clear purpose, coach questioning, and the connection of theory to practice. The findings contribute to the understanding of effective reform implementation in different contexts.     

The Collaborative Programme Between CTS,ICMI and UNESCO

Previous research has highlighted challenges associated with embracing an inquiry approach to science teaching for primary teachers, often associating these challenges with insecurity linked to the lack of content knowledge. We argue that in order to understand the extent to which primary student teachers are able to embrace science teaching informed by scientific literacy for all, it is important to take into account various, sometimes competing, science teacher and primary teacher Discourses. The aim of this paper is to explore how such Discourses are constituted in the context of learning to teach during a 1-year university-based Post Graduate Certificate of Education course. The empirical data consist of semi-structured interviews with 11 student teachers. The analysis identifies 5 teacher Discourses and we argue that these can help us to better understand some of the tensions involved in becoming a primary teacher with a responsibility for teaching science: for example, in terms of the interplay between the student teachers' own educational biographies and institutionally sanctioned Discourses. One conclusion is that student teachers' willingness and ability to embrace a Discourse of science education, informed by the aim of scientific literacy for all, may be every bit as constrained by their experience of learning science through ‘traditional schooling’ as it is by their confidence with respect to their own subject knowledge. The 5 Discourses, with their complex interrelations, raise questions about which identity positions are available to students in the intersections of the Discourses and which identity positions teacher educators may seek to make available for their students.     

Critical issues in supporting self-study

In this article, we focus on an analysis of critical issues in supporting teacher educators conducting a self-study. As data, we have used the digital logbooks written by the participating teacher educators, the outcomes of the interviews we held at the end of the support process, and of a follow-up questionnaire answered by the participating teacher educators six months later. We have found seven issues critical to enhancing the chances of self-studies being beneficial to the practice of teacher education as well as to the further development of a knowledge base for teacher education. In addition, our study points to four themes for further attention and research.     

The role of teachers’ orientation to learning in professional development and change: A national study of teachers in England

This paper uses results from a national survey of teachers in England to test a hypothesised model of teacher orientation to learning (consisting of beliefs, practice and experiences about learning) and its relationship to teacher learning change. Results from a structural equation modeling process of 1126 teacher survey responses show that teachers bring an internal, external and collaborative orientation to their professional learning. The beliefs and practices associated with these orientations are also shown to have a moderate influence, via path analysis, on teacher learning change defined as a composite outcome of change in beliefs, practices and students.     

Making sense of a teaching programme for university academics: Exploring the longer-term effects

To professionalise teaching in universities, certificated teaching programmes for academics are increasingly widespread and often mandatory for new lecturers. Evaluations of impact have escalated in the past decade. Existing studies show mixed results but few consider the differential effects on individuals over the longer term. This study examines narratives of course participants a number of years following completion to understand how lecturers made sense of formal teaching development. Powerful outcomes materialise for some individuals, highly focused by personal reference frames and career experiences. Findings are related to wider studies of teacher growth and individual orientations to teaching professional development.