Landmarks in the professional and academic development of mid-career teacher educators

This paper focuses on the professional and academic development of mid-career teacher educators from two universities in England. The objectives of the study were to analyse and compare the career experiences of teacher educators; in particular, to identify stages of development, landmark events and contextual factors affecting professional learning and academic identities. In-depth biographical interviews were carried out with 12 teacher educators, together with living graphs of their career paths. Clear landmarks were identified in both contexts, with development in teaching seen as largely positive, while research development was much more varied. Teacher educators who were further on in their careers saw research development as transformative personally as well as academically. In analysing the findings within a sociocultural learning framework, the authors draw in particular on Swennen et al.’s model of teacher educators’ sub-identities, Akerlind’s categorisation of an academic identity and Eraut’s contextual and learning factors.     

Cultural and organisational issues facing online learning communities of teachers

Collegial sharing and reflection about practice has been widely suggested as an effective form of teacher professional learning. Information and communications technology (ICT) has the potential to foster this professional learning through online community environments. Whilst the potential of self-sustaining online teacher communities to support professional learning through reflective sharing of practice is recognised, the journey to realising this potential is not straightforward. This paper identifies two key aspects of school culture that are acting as barriers on the journey—schools do not adequately value collegial reflective sharing of practice, and classroom teachers do not use online communications tools as an integral part of their professional practices. The paper suggests a framework for maximising participation in online teacher communities.     

University teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments: a theoretical analysis of teaching and learning practices

The aim of this article is to clarify the university teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments, with a view to assisting in the design of professional development activities. This referential framework results from an extensive review of the literature and from analysing professional development designed in different European universities. It is worth mentioning that the definitions that will be produced do not refer to standards of teacher performance; on the contrary, we would like to emphasise the notion of socially situated competencies which are derived from the roles and tasks attributed to university teachers in online learning environments, without losing track of the dialectics and integrity of their exercise.     

Addressing contradictions in teachers’ practice through professional learning: an activity theory perspective

ABSTRACT

This case study focuses on the professional learning of 38 K-9 teachers who engaged in a professional development (PD) programme in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through collaborative action research (CAR). Through the lens of CHAT or Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, the author examined what teachers were learning, the contextual factors that influenced their learning and classroom practice, and the outcomes of this PD initiative. The changing activity system of the teachers is described, as well as how they addressed contradictions in their practice. Addressing these contradictions resulted in an expansion of their object and professional growth. The study contributes to a growing body of research in teacher education which applies CHAT as a conceptual framework to understand teacher professional learning and how interactions among activity system components influence teachers’ development and practice.     

国际视野中的教师专业发展

教师专业发展在当前教育改革中具有重要地位.本文介绍西方国家教师专业发展领域的最新进展,探讨教育政策环境对教师专业发展的影响.文章阐述教师专业发展的界定、目的、功能、影响因素及其评价,指出教师学习和学习社群在西方学术讨论中已经成为探讨焦点.国家和市场对西方国家教师专业发展的实施有重要影响.     

New Model of Teacher Learning in an Online Network

While many researchers have examined teacher participation and professional development in online networks and communities, few have looked at the factors and contexts that shape how teachers learn in these online spaces. Examining teachers' learning processes within these online spaces can yield important insights for scholars, school leaders, and teacher educators who are interested in designing online networks and communities or supporting teacher professional development within these spaces. This study was designed to shed light on the multifaceted nature of teacher learning within an online network environment. Data were collected through an online survey and in-depth interviews of members in the Edmodo math subject community. A thematic analysis was conducted across the two data sets in order to identify patterns of actions and factors that shaped the participants' learning processes. A new model of teacher learning was developed to display teacher learning as an iterative, multistep process that is socially constructed, distributed, and situated in the contexts in which teachers work. Implications and ideas for further research are discussed.     

“互联网+”时代的混合式教师研修:理念与实施路径

混合式教师研修是“互联网+”时代教师研修改革的创新模式,有其特定的理念和实施路径。“互联网+”时代的混合式研修,是指通过在线研修、移动研修与线下研修、工作现场研修的充分融合,以混合式教学的理念和方式进行设计的全新研修范式。混合式教师研修旨在促进教师深度学习和专业能力提升,促进教师研修均衡化和教师个性化专业发展。建构主义学习理论和联通主义学习理论是混合式教师研修的认识论基础,混合式教师研修的设计需要教师专业发展和混合式教学两个维度的方法论支撑。混合式教师研修的设计应在遵循教师专业发展规律的基础上,以混合式教学的理念、方法设计其实施路径。     

用于数学教师专业发展的网络学习共同体——机遇与挑战

在数学教师专业发展中,网络学习共同体逐渐凸现并成为重要的专业学习理念。采用案例分析的手法突出经验性研究能提升教师对这一理念的认识。网络学习共同体的基本原理及实践中的基本经验为数学教师专业发展提供了重要的思考元素。一方面,网络学习共同体在数学教师专业学习中起到了本质性作用,如能提升数学教师理论联系实际能力等;另一方面,网络学习共同体在实践中面临种种挑战,如教师密集的作息时间表、对面对面式专业学习模式的偏爱等。     

Factors influencing teacher appropriation of professional learning focused on the use of technology in science classrooms

Understanding factors that impact teacher implementation of learning from professional development is critical in order to maximize the educational and financial investment in teacher professional learning. This multi-case qualitative investigation elucidates factors that influence the appropriation of instructional tools associated with professional development focused on technology within science classrooms using activity theory as a theoretical framework. This framework has the capacity to account for multiple elements in professional learning. Implementation variability associated with professional development adoption drives this inquiry to search for better understandings of the appropriation of pedagogical practices. Purposeful sampling was used to identify four participants from a group of science teachers engaged in professional development designed to investigate how cyber-enabled technologies might enhance instruction and learning in eighth-grade science classrooms. The data from this investigation add to the literature of appropriation of instructional practices by connecting the conceptual and practical dispositions of teachers with an appropriation hierarchy.     

维果茨基社会文化理论视域中的教师专业发展

维果茨基的社会文化理论采用多维方法,特别关注个体认知、情感、社会和情境方面的变化,对我们理解教师的学习和发展模式提供了新的视角。考察了社会中介的概念,它是维果茨基学习理论与现有教师专业发展模式之间缺失的环节。新教师可以使用各种工具,包括专业期刊、通信工具、在线论坛、互联网、相关软件、实习或实习脚手架的内部或外部来源,促进专业发展并逐步成长为专家教师。讨论了拟议方法对设计和实施教师专业发展的各种影响,将教师专业发展与维果茨基的社会文化理论的核心原则联系起来。     

Increasing Secondary Teachers’ Capacity to Integrate the Arts

Abstract

Examples from a team of collaborating secondary teachers—one visual arts teacher and one science teacher—highlight key aspects of this professional development project in arts integration. The article traces a regional network designed to build teacher capacity with implications for the design, effectiveness, and sustainability of professional development for secondary teachers. It describes the framework for professional development through the first two years of the project. In year one, teachers increased their understanding of arts integration; collegial collaboration; the design and use of assessments that align with standards, benchmarks, and learning goals; and how to reflect on student work. In year two, professional development activity focused on co-teaching and helping teachers to increase the rigor of student learning goals as a way to improve student learning in arts and non-arts content areas. Project outcomes and challenges to sustaining such job-embedded and networked professional learning opportunities are discussed and directions for further research are offered.     

Examining features of how professional development and enactment of educative curricula influences elementary science teacher learning

This research examines factors influencing elementary science teacher learning as they participate in professional development with and enactment of educative curricula in comparison with learning following limited professional development and enactment of traditional curricula. Using a randomized cluster design (125 teachers and 2,694 students in 4th—5th grades) that met the What Works Clearinghouse standards without reservations, teacher learning was conceptualized using four outcomes. Data were analyzed using standard single-level multiple regression models and possible mediation models for the teacher outcomes were considered using piecewise multiple regression and path analytic approaches. Treatment group teachers experienced greater increases in content knowledge, views of science inquiry, beliefs about reform-based teaching, and teaching self-efficacy than comparison group teachers. The findings indicate that what teachers learn from the combination of professional development and teaching with educative curriculum varies according to what their knowledge and beliefs are on entering the experience. Surprisingly, high entry-level self-efficacy was associated not only with lower learning gains for the teachers, but also for their students. Finally, teachers' space science learning and that of their students are implicated as mediators of the positive effect of the professional development and educative curriculum enactment on teacher beliefs about reform science teaching. This work refines and extends a theoretical framework of teachers' participatory relationship with curricula.     

Study of Self: The Self as Designer in Online Teacher Education

In this article we describe our engagement in self-study as part of an examination of design-based research for education. We focus on graduate-level online teacher education as an example of how self-study provided a means of examining deeply our teaching and our roles as teacher and designer in the learning environment. We posit that online learning environments are particularly well suited for self-study to enhance design perspectives because the interactions between teacher and students are informed by personal context and mediated by technological tools. The graduate students in our courses were teacher leaders in literacy or mathematics who were learning how to support professional development for other teachers. Throughout our self-study research we found ourselves drawing upon our previous design research experiences, which aided our ability to engage in self-study: We were part of the classroom system, focusing on our roles within the teaching and learning process as designers of the online learning environment. Three key design principles resulted from our self-study process: focusing on systems of learning and teaching, designing pedagogical tools and products, and using iterative processes. Engaging in self-study enhanced our understanding and implementation of synchronous online instruction, particularly regarding our use of technological tools to enhance student learning and support learning communities.     

Supporting online collaborative design for teacher professional development

ABSTRACT

This article describes a study of online collaborative design in the context of teacher professional development. Twenty-five teachers from different Spanish universities participated in the online course. The aim was to understand how to support teachers in interuniversity teams to collaborate fully online throughout the learning design process of a scenario based on their discipline integrating information and communications technology (ICT), an issue scarcely tackled in the literature. The described interpretive study, using mixed methods, explores the support of online co-design provided by a novel ICT community platform named ILDE (Integrated Learning Design Environment). Lessons drawn from the results can contribute to the improvement of online collaborative design processes in the context of teacher professional development.     

Teachers’ use of their mathematical knowledge for teaching in learning a mathematics learning trajectory

In the past decade, research on learning trajectories has progressed from an agenda for research on student learning to include an agenda for research on teaching. In this paper, we use a design experiment to examine a professional development program created to support teacher learning of one learning trajectory. Using a re-interpretation of Ball and colleagues’ mathematics knowledge for teaching framework, we conducted a retrospective analysis to examine how a purposefully selected sample of three teachers used their knowledge to participate in discussions of the professional learning tasks designed to support teacher learning of the trajectory. Findings indicate that professional learning tasks focusing on pedagogical content knowledge present in learning trajectories also allow for teacher learning of subject matter knowledge; this learning is mediated by teachers’ prior mathematics knowledge for teaching. We conclude with considerations for researchers and professional developers seeking to support teachers in learning about learning trajectories.     

Toward an understanding of EFL teacher culture: an ethnographic study in China

Informed by an ethnographic approach, this study aims to investigate the professional culture of a group of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in a high school in China. Relying on data gathered through extended field observation and in-depth interviews, this study seeks to uncover the distinctive characteristics of EFL teacher culture as well as its underlying influencing factors. The research findings show that the participants formed a positive work culture which evolved in tensions. Professionally, the participants’ aspirations and commitments toward teaching were in tension with limited resources; institutionally, a democratic relationship was in tension with an authoritative leadership; emotionally, the teachers’ emotional wellbeing was in tension with contextual constraints. The participants’ co-constructed culture played a positive role in promoting their collaborative learning and continuing development, which in turn contributed to their teacher culture.     

构建我国基于资历框架的教师行业资历等级和标准

建立终身教育资历框架是我国目前一项重要的教育举措,构建基于资历框架的教师行业资历等级和标准是其中重要的组成部分,有助于促进教师专业发展、推动教师终身学习。本研究采用文献研究法和专家访谈法,提出了由4个等级、4个维度和10个要素组成的教师行业资历等和标准,能够与国际及国内已有的资历框架有效对接,构建了我国基于资历框架的教师行业资历等级和标准。教师行业资历等级和标准既是针对教师专业发展的评价框架,又是认证和转化学习成果的工具,是一套系统的方法和工具。期望本研究的成果能够为教师专业发展项目提供评价与认证框架,为贯通教师职前培养与职后培训、构建教师终身学习体系提供参考框架。     

Science Teacher Efficacy and Extrinsic Factors Toward Professional Development Using Video Games in a Design-Based Research Model: The Next Generation of STEM Learning

Designed-based research principles guided the study of 51 secondary-science teachers in the second year of a 3-year professional development project. The project entailed the creation of student-centered, inquiry-based, science, video games. A professional development model appropriate for infusing innovative technologies into standards-based curricula was employed to determine how science teacher’s attitudes and efficacy where impacted while designing science-based video games. The study’s mixed-method design ascertained teacher efficacy on five factors (General computer use, Science Learning, Inquiry Teaching and Learning, Synchronous chat/text, and Playing Video Games) related to technology and gaming using a web-based survey). Qualitative data in the form of online blog posts was gathered during the project to assist in the triangulation and assessment of teacher efficacy. Data analyses consisted of an Analysis of Variance and serial coding of teacher reflective responses. Results indicated participants who used computers daily have higher efficacy while using inquiry-based teaching methods and science teaching and learning. Additional emergent findings revealed possible motivating factors for efficacy. This professional development project was focused on inquiry as a pedagogical strategy, standard-based science learning as means to develop content knowledge, and creating video games as technological knowledge. The project was consistent with the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework where overlapping circles of the three components indicates development of an integrated understanding of the suggested relationships. Findings provide suggestions for development of standards-based science education software, its integration into the curriculum and, strategies for implementing technology into teaching practices.     

Active learning promoting student teachers’ professional competences in Finland and Turkey

This study investigates student teachers’ active learning experiences in teacher education (TE) in Finnish and Turkish contexts and attempts to determine how active learning methods’ impact student teachers’ professional competences. Student teachers (N = 728) assessed their active learning experiences and the professional competences they achieved during TE. Self-regulated and collaborative learning provided the theoretical framework for the active learning measurements. The professional competences included a wide range of teacher responsibilities in schools and society. The data were collected by a survey. A quantitative analysis utilising a regression analysis approach provided strong evidence that active learning has an impact on professional competences. A qualitative analysis further revealed that active knowledge creation with high engagement in learning tasks and a collaborative learning culture were important modes of active learning. While the study focused on two different TE systems, active learning was important in student teachers’ professional development in both contexts.