Recontextualising assessment resources for use in local settings: opening up the black box of teachers’ knowledge work

Research has shown that how principles and tools related to Assessment for Learning (AfL) are taken up by teachers can significantly impact how assessment initiatives are realised. However, questions remain about how teachers develop new resources for use in local contexts, and what these processes entail. This article examines such processes in the context of teacher teams, using the notion of ‘knowledge work’ to denote the creative and constructive work that teachers carry out when they work together upon AfL-related principles and tools. The analyses contribute to existing research by illuminating the micro-dynamics of teachers’ work with assessment resources, and examining different forms of epistemic actions that constitute this process. In conclusion, the paper discusses how teacher collaboration may inform AfL initiatives in significant ways, and argues that teachers’ constructive and collaborative knowledge work needs to be more fully recognised in the context of AfL initiatives.     

Assessing pre-service teachers’ skills for analyzing teaching

This study investigated the learning-from-practice skills that pre-service teachers possess when they enter teacher preparation programs in the United States. Two subskills were hypothesized to represent, at least in part, what is required to learn from practice: (1) the ability to collect evidence about students’ learning in order to analyze the effects of instruction, and (2) the ability to use the analysis to revise the instruction. Because it seems likely that different teaching situations and contexts reveal these learning-from-practice skills in different ways and to different degrees, this study examined the skills that pre-service teachers exhibited under two experimental conditions. Thirty pre-service teachers were asked to analyze the effects of a videotaped mathematics lesson on student learning, to support their analysis with evidence, and to use their analysis to revise the lesson. Based on the results, it appears that many entry level pre-service teachers can carry out a cause-effect type of analysis of the relationships between specific instructional strategies and students’ learning, and can use this analysis to make productive revisions to the instruction. However, prospective teachers’ ability to collect evidence that supports their analysis appears to be less developed. In addition, the type of analysis that prospective teachers carried out about the effects of instruction on students’ learning differed dramatically across the two experimental task conditions.Preparation of this article was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant #0083429 to the Mid-Atlantic Center for Teaching and Learning Mathematics). The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Thanks to James Hiebert for his comments on earlier drafts of the paper.     

西方教师专业合作研究述评

西方关于教师专业合作的研究成果在表现出丰富性特点的同时,也呈现出零散和杂乱的特点。文章基于社会学、管理学和心理学等学科视角,对西方教师专业合作的理论研究进行梳理,同时对西方教师专业合作的实践研究进行概括,从而展现这一研究领域的发展脉络以厘清需要进一步研究的命题。这对于我国当前正在勃兴的教师合作文化建设富有理论与实践指导意义。     

教师合作:教师发展的一个重要路径

20世纪80年代以来,教师合作作为教师发展的一种方式获得广泛的关注,成为国际教师教育研究领域中一大热点问题。本文认为,所谓教师合作,就是教师们为了改善学校教育实践,以自愿、平等的方式就共同感兴趣的问题,共同探讨解决的办法,从而形成的一种批判性互动关系;教师合作有助于激发与强化教师发展意愿、提高教师个体反思能力、促进学校组织学习。     

教师合作：教师发展的一个重要路径

20世纪80年代以来,教师合作作为教师发展的一种方式获得广泛的关注,成为国际教师教育研究领域中一大热点问题。本文认为,所谓教师合作,就是教师们为了改善学校教育实践,以自愿、平等的方式就共同感兴趣的问题,共同探讨解决的办法,从而形成的一种批判性互动关系;教师合作有助于激发与强化教师发展意愿、提高教师个体反思能力、促进学校组织学习。     

Teachers’ collaborative learning – development of teaching in group discussions

Teacher learning and the development of in-service education for teachers are both an active area of research and a broad challenge. In working as teachers, theory and practice are often seen as divided, or problems in teaching and the requirements of development are solved on the basis of experience. This study focuses on collaborative teacher learning as part of an in-service education course that supports teachers in connecting learning theories with practical knowledge and that aims to create new knowledge and practices for teaching. The starting points for the study are the changes of the curriculum and theories of learning. The aim is to analyse developing of teaching in teachers’ collaborative group discussions and how the theoretical knowledge of learning theories is connected with developing teaching practices. The research method of the study was data driven, systematic and qualitative analysis of the content of the discussion. The research data consist of video recorded group discussions of two teacher teams from the in-service education course meeting. The analysis focused on developing talk and further, on finding interconnections between the developing talk and the theories of learning. The analysis shows three different ways how the learning theories emerged in method developing talk. The findings indicate that theoretical knowledge can be used or left unused and imply that creating and changing teaching practices is challenging. However, the findings show that theoretical, research-based knowledge on learning theories can be applied to developing teaching practices in the teachers’ collaborative knowledge creation process. Long-term in-service education based on collaborative knowledge creation and supporting the interconnection of theoretical knowledge of learning and experience knowledge of teaching is a promising way to arrange and develop in-service education.     

Enhancing Teachers' Technological Knowledge and Assessment Practices to Enhance Student Learning in Technology: A Two-year Classroom Study

This paper reports on a two-year classroom investigation of primary school (Years 1–8) technology education. The first year of the project explored emerging classroom practices in technology. In the second year intervention strategies were developed to enhance teaching, learning and assessment practices. Findings from the first year revealed that assessment was often seen in terms of social and managerial aspects, such as teamwork, turn taking and co-operative skills, rather than procedural and conceptual technological aspects. Existing formative interactions with students distorted the learning away from the procedural and conceptual aspects of the subject. The second year explored the development of teachers' technological knowledge in order to enhance formative assessment practices in technology, to inform classroom practice in technology, and to enhance student learning. Intervention strategies were designed to enhance the development of procedural, conceptual, societal and technical aspects of technology for teachers and students. The results from this intervention were very positive. This paper highlights the importance of developing teacher expertise pertaining to broad concepts of technology, detailed concepts in different technological areas and general pedagogical knowledge. The findings from this research therefore have implications for thinking about teaching, learning and assessment in technology.     

Uncovering ‘unwelcome truths’ through student voice: teacher inquiry into agency and student assessment literacy

Learner agency is often seen unproblematically as an integral aspect of ‘twenty-first century lifelong learning’. Agency and instrumentalist forms of teacher professional development are problematised through this qualitative case study that explores a teacher’s inquiry into assessment for learning practices. This article illustrates how Teaching as Inquiry can be located as either a process that is purely technicist or replete with potential for teachers to engage with ‘unwelcome truths’. Student voice data that reveal ‘unwelcome truths’ can provide a catalyst for teacher reflection on student positioning in learning relationships. Findings focus on practices of assessment for learning, assessment literacy, agency as a neoliberal construction and the need to interrogate power relations in the classroom for student agency to flourish. Issues around student voice and the democratic participation of students in schooling improvement are discussed. Teaching as Inquiry, that explicitly targets wider non-instrumental goals associated with teacher learning, can be a critical process that addresses the growth of assessment literacy and learner agency in classrooms. It can transcend a linear obsession with easily measured quantifiable shifts in student achievement data.     

西方国家教师学习研究动态及其启示

西方国家教师学习研究自20世纪80年代后发生的变化主要表现在对教师学习的重视与定位,学习目标、内容、方式、研究方法更为具体、细腻,关注课堂实践的有效性以及教师专业发展。从西方国家教师学习研究的趋势看,许多国家着重探讨教师学会教学、学会反思和学会为师等基本问题,力求说明教师学习与教师专业成长的关系。