Explaining discrepancies between teacher beliefs and teacher interventions in a problem-based learning environment: A mixed methods study

The purpose of this study was to explore the discrepancy between teacher beliefs and behavior in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment. Using a survey and observations, this study demonstrated that tutors prefer learner-oriented beliefs, but in their teacher behavior they showed a more traditional approach to teaching. Analysis of semi-structured interviews indicated that this inconsistency could be attributed to the way in which problem-based learning is embedded in the curriculum, the confidence teachers have in the self-directed capabilities of students, and the self-confidence of teachers regarding their own facilitation skills.     

Beliefs about sources of knowledge predict motivation for learning in teacher education

The purpose of this study was to provide new understanding concerning the theory-practice gap in teacher education. Participants, who were 96 Norwegian student teachers, were found to believe more in practically-derived than in theory-based sources of knowledge about instruction and student learning and to be more motivated for learning from practice than from theory in teacher education. Moreover, stronger beliefs in theory-based sources of knowledge were related to higher motivation to learn from theoretically-oriented coursework and stronger beliefs in practically-derived sources were related to higher motivation to learn from teaching practice. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings are discussed.     

Tracking changes in pre-service EFL teacher beliefs in Greece: A longitudinal study

This article reports on a longitudinal study that aims to investigate pre-service EFL teacher beliefs about learning and teaching in Greece. The study attempts to track possible changes in those beliefs during a 3-year teacher education program and explores the impact of teaching practice, in particular, on student teachers’ beliefs. The results indicate that while there is a gradual and sometimes significant development in student teachers’ beliefs during the program, student teachers’ engagement in the teaching practice seems to have a low impact on the development of their beliefs. Those findings are interpreted with reference to the structure and context of the specific teacher education program and can be useful for the design and development of EFL teacher education programs.     

A place for informal learning in teaching about religion: The story of an experienced non-Muslim teacher and her learning about Islam

Teacher learning about religion has remained an under-researched topic in spite of the professional accountability placed on teachers to teach about religion in a constitutionally permissible and pedagogically sound way. Using data collected from interviews, the purpose of this study is to describe and examine how and what an experienced Non-Muslim teacher of the world’s religions learned about Islam in today’s climate of accountability and negative imagery of Islam. The findings of this study suggest that informal learning through independent reading and interaction with a local Muslim community can be a means to enculturate teachers of world religions into ways of learning about Islam.     

Experienced teachers' informal learning: Learning activities and changes in behavior and cognition

In this study on 32 teachers' learning in an informal learning environment, we analyzed changes in conceptions and behavior regarding students' active and self-regulated learning (ASL), and relations with the teachers' learning activities. Few relations were found between observed changes in behavior and learning activities. Changes in conceptions appeared to correlate with the activities obtaining new ideas, experimenting with new methods, and reflecting on why certain teaching methods seem to be effective and others not. Only one teacher became more ASL-oriented in both behavior and conceptions. The apparent variation in teachers' informal learning should lead to differentiated support for teacher learning in the workplace.     

A typological approach to investigate the teaching career decision: Motivations and beliefs about teaching of prospective teacher candidates

This study utilized cluster analysis to identify typologies of prospective teachers enrolled in a teacher education program in the U.S. based upon their self-report motivations for teaching. A three-cluster solution generated three distinctive typologies of prospective teachers (N’s of 93, 70 and 52), and further differences among typologies were investigated with respect to participants’ beliefs about teaching.Follow-up semi-structured interviews confirmed meaningful differences found between the clusters with regard to unique combination of motivations and beliefs about teaching relevant to each typology. Implications for teacher education and teacher development are further discussed in relationship with study findings.     

Measuring teacher regulating activities concerning student learning in secondary education classrooms: Reliability and validity of student perceptions

.This article describes the use and validation of the Pedagogical Practices Inventory, which uses student perceptions arranged into five subscales to measure teacher activities concerning the regulation of student learning in secondary education. To determine the reliability and validity of the instrument, an inventory study (N = 2128) and a study in which observational data (N = 11) and inventory data (N = 201) were combined, were carried out. Analysis of the inventory data showed internal subscale reliabilities between .83 and .90, indicating consistency of the PPI subscale scores. Correlations between inventory and observational data showed significant relations for three of the five subscales, indicating that the PPI is suitable to tap teacher regulating activities in classroom contexts.     

Talk about student learning: Promoting professional growth among teacher educators

Talk about student learning (TASL) in the professional development of teacher educators shifts the focus from teaching to a more productive emphasis on learning. This study examines characteristics of TASL among teacher educators in community and its functions for their learning. The research was based on professional learning communities in which discourse was analyzed. Three genres were found: managing understanding, advisory talk and meta-analytic talk. The functions of TASL included an inquiry and research orientation, awareness of the connection between teaching and learning, and awareness of their own learning process. TASL was found to improve teaching through these functions.     

Situated learning theory and the pedagogy of teacher education: Towards an integrative view of teacher behavior and teacher learning

Lave and Wenger have greatly influenced existing views of learning and teaching, but relatively little has been written about the implications for the understanding of teacher behavior and teacher learning, and for the pedagogy of teacher education. Based on their work, a three-level model of learning is used to analyze the friction between teacher behavior in practice and the wish to ground teachers' practices in theory. Supported by empirical data on teacher learning and brain research, this model reconciles the situated learning perspective with traditional cognitive theory, and leads to concrete implications for the pedagogy of teacher education.     

Pre-service teacher education students' epistemological beliefs and their conceptions of teaching

A study using both quantitative and qualitative methods was conducted in the final year of a Bachelor of Education programme to examine the student-teachers' epistemological beliefs and conceptions of teaching. The results show that most of the student-teachers (i) strongly believed that learning effort was more important than innate ability, (ii) strongly believed that knowledge changes, and (iii) were inclined to question the authority of knowledge. Although student-teachers who had sophisticated or mixed epistemological beliefs tended to believe in constructivist or mixed conceptions of teaching as predicted, inconsistent cases were identified. Implications for teacher education programmes are discussed.     

Authentic and self-directed learning in vocational education: Challenges to vocational educators

This article analyses the dilemmas and practical tensions in implementing competence-based vocational education. Eleven case studies were conducted, including observation of lessons and interviews with teachers and students. The results show that schools meet various fundamental issues in realising this approach. A crucial question is how to stimulate the acquisition and use of a way of knowing and thinking that is based on vocational theory. Reflection, authenticity and coaching are relevant characteristics that are hardly put into practice yet. To understand these results the article reflects on factors that account for the distance between promising concepts and actual teaching practice.     

The promise of experiential education in teacher education: transforming teacher beliefs and practices

Building from the theories of Dewey and Kolb and Fry, we sought to examine the impact of experiential education in teacher education on teacher beliefs and practices. The teacher education model described in this article sets out to challenge the seduction of the apprenticeship of observation and create an opportunity for in-service teachers to re-imagine their teaching in concrete and transformative ways. Immersed in a weeklong experiential residency in either the mountains or at a local environmental education farm, the teachers in the study were challenged physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally in and through the experience. The experiential work ultimately led to changes in teacher participants’ beliefs and practices related to teacher and student roles and potentialities. Although challenges exist for this type of practice in K-12 classrooms and in teacher education, experiential education has a significant potential to change the way teachers think about and act in their practice.     

An examination of what metaphor construction reveals about the evolution of preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning

Examination of prospective teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning on entry to teacher education programs, and tracking the development of these beliefs in light of academic and field-based experiences, is a critical task for teacher educators. The study examines metaphor construction as a tool to gain access to, and promote the development of, prospective teachers’ beliefs through the incorporation of reflective activities that integrate academic and field-based experiences. Specifically, this research examines how metaphorical representations of preservice elementary teachers’ in the United States and Europe changed and examines the factors influencing the development of beliefs and the modification of metaphors.     

A systematic review of teacher guidance during collaborative learning in primary and secondary education

For this review, we synthesized quantitative and qualitative research on collaborative learning to examine the relationship between teacher guidance strategies and the processes and outcomes of collaboration among students (66 studies). The results show that several aspects of teacher guidance are positively related to student collaboration, for example when teachers focus their attention on students’ problem solving strategies. During student collaboration, opportunities arise for students to engage in collaborative activities that support their learning process. The way teachers take more or less control of these moments determines whether these opportunities can be turned into real moments of learning for the students. This review highlights the important yet challenging role of the teacher during collaborative learning.     

Collaborative teacher learning across foci of collaboration: Perceived activities and outcomes

This study compared teacher collaboration with differing foci, in terms of various learning activities and learning outcomes. A total of 411 teachers from 49 primary schools participated by completing a questionnaire. Foci of collaboration explained significant differences in the frequency with which teachers perceived learning activities and learning outcomes to occur in their collaboration with colleagues. Moreover, the focus of collaboration explained a considerable amount of between-schools differences in teachers' reported learning activities and learning outcomes. These results suggest that the school context and the focus of collaboration are related and that these both influence collaborative teacher learning.     

Change in beliefs after first-year of teaching: The case of Turkish national curriculum context

The impact of national curriculum context on mathematics related beliefs of 12 beginning middle grades mathematics teachers was investigated after the teacher education program and first-year teaching through interviews and a combination of three belief frameworks. National curriculum requirements, lack of effective mentoring programs, and preservice tutoring experiences were detected as the major factors impacting beliefs. Participants simultaneously had teacher-centered and student-centered beliefs, causing inconsistency in beliefs and practices. While participants’ preservice and first-year experiences contrasted, they developed contextual beliefs to deal with the difficulties. Reflections on teacher education and beginning teacher support policies in national curriculum contexts were discussed.     

Inconvenient truths about teacher learning: towards professional development 3.0

Based on recent findings about teacher learning, a critical analysis of traditional and new approaches to professional development is presented. To a large degree, teacher learning takes place unconsciously and involves cognitive, emotional and motivational dimensions. Moreover, teacher learning takes place at various levels. Although these insights may be inconvenient truths to policy-makers, empirical evidence is presented showing that approaches building on the multi-level and multi-dimensional nature of teacher learning are effective at influencing teacher behaviour. Hence, in teacher learning, the connection with the person of the teacher is crucial. Practical consequences for professional development are discussed.     

Employability and work-related learning activities in higher education: how strategies differ across academic environments

The focus of this paper is on how academic staff perceive their roles and responsibilities regarding work-related learning, and how they approach and implement work-related learning activities in curricula across academic environments in higher education. The study is based on case studies, including semi-structured interviews and analyses of course syllabuses in two higher education institutions. The results reveal divergent approaches between environments with limited and extensive work-related learning, and we present four different strategies for including work-related learning in curricula: add-on by someone else, add-on about the profession, integration of teaching and learning activities and integration with additional value. These four strategies represent a very diverse understanding of the role of education, ranging from education for academia to education for work outside academia, and contain various perceptions of the roles, types of work-related learning activities and integration in the ordinary curriculum.