Integrating technology into teacher education: How online discussion can be used to develop informed and critical literacy teachers

This paper reports findings from 6 years of investigation of the use of online discussions with large cohorts of preservice literacy teachers (approximately 150 each year). The report outlines essential components for effective online discussion, noting the challenges involved when aiming for informed and critical literacy discussion among large groups of novice educators. It elaborates on the most successful approach to this undertaking which involved the use of case study scenarios as the focus of discussion. The report argues that the case study discussions were most effective in promoting professional discussion because they allowed a more effective expert role for the instructors.     

A review of ICT related courses in pre-service teacher education programs

This study investigated teacher educators’, prospective teachers’, and K-12 teachers’ opinions about the effectiveness of ICT related courses and the ways to improve the courses in Turkey’s pre-service teacher education programs. The researchers used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches within the data collection and analysis processes. The data were collected from 111 teacher educators, 1,330 prospective teachers, and 1,429 K-12 teachers through questionnaires; and from 6 teacher educators, 6 prospective teachers, and 6 K-12 teachers through interviews. Even though a majority of the participants felt that ICT related courses are effective, most participants recommended that these courses need to be redesigned to be more beneficial in practice.     

Concepts,policies and practices of teacher education: an analysis of studies on teacher education in Portugal

Education policies, and in particular those related to teacher education, are central to the construction of Europe as a knowledge society and for facing the social and economic challenges that European countries must respond to in this millennium. This article presents an analysis of studies on the evaluation of in-service teacher education conducted in Portugal since 1992. Based on the results of this analysis, the study develops a reflection on the concepts, policies and practices of in-service teacher education, contextualising it within a wider equation related to teachers’ education in Europe. The study consisted of content analyses of scientific articles, research reports, studies of evaluation and legal documents that provide the guidelines for in-service teacher education in Portugal. At the end, a final reflection and some general recommendations for teacher education are presented. There is a focus on the importance of placing in-service teacher education at the centre of educational contexts and on the problems that this causes in teachers’ work, emphasising its importance for social justice in Europe.     

地方高师高层次教师教育人才培养的机遇与对策

教师教育的变革给地方师范大学发展带来了前所未有的挑战;《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》颁布及全国教育工作会议的召开,对教师教育提出了新的要求;我国研究生教育结构性调整,为地方师范大学发展提供了新的视角。笔者认为,地方师范大学将挑战与要求转化为发展动力,抓住难得发展机遇,提升教师教育人才培养层次,扩大教育硕士规模,坚持培养原则,创新培养保障措施,确保培养质量,是其充分发挥自身优势与突出办学特色,在激烈市场竞争中谋求长远发展的较佳选择。     

The last 40 years in Finnish teacher education

This article sets out to identify and discuss the changes that have taken place in Finnish teacher education during the last 40 years (1974–2014). A brief history of teacher education in Finland is presented, followed by the goals and aims of current research-based teacher education in Finland. Finally, the major changes in Finnish teacher education during the last 40 years are identified and discussed along with challenges for the future. These include the fact that with each passing year teacher education in Finland has become increasingly research-based. The ethical role of the Finnish teacher has changed from being a religious and moral example to being a principled professional who needs moral competence in pedagogical encounters. Teachers also need to master the rapid developments in information and communication technology in order to function in the same learning environments as their students.     

Policy interventions in teacher education: sharing the English experience

Over the last 40 years, teacher education in England has been the focus of a stream of ‘reforms’ with the ultimate aim of placing provision into schools, the justification for such a radical policy being that higher education is alleged to be failing to provide good quality teachers thereby compromising the social and economic development of the country. The process whereby these reforms have been introduced is described and then used as a way of comparing and contrasting the way in which similar reforms can be identified in the international teacher education communities represented in this special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching (JET). The paper closes by identifying lessons that can be learned from international comparators.     

Making the Personal Professional: Pre-service teacher education and personal histories

Pre-service teachers tend to use their personal experiences as critical filters in accepting and integrating course content that is intended to develop professional decision-making frameworks. This may restrict their abilities to deal with pedagogical issues associated with the acceptance of diversity and individuality, and encourage an unthinking acceptance of the status quo in classrooms, schools and society. To address this problem and nurture the growth of 'reflective practitioners', we structured the content and experiences of one unit of the Graduate Diploma of Education (secondary) to allow for the integration of personal life histories with other views and perspectives. This paper reports on the use of this life-history approach, its potential and its limitations.     

Integrating theory and practice in the pre-service teacher education practicum

This article reports on a study into student teachers’ perceptions about their professional development during practicum. Framed within a symbolic interactionist perspective, the study examined to what extent, and how effectively, one group of student teachers was able to integrate theory and practice during a three-week practicum in the first year of their degree. The context for this mixed methods study was a Master of Teaching, graduate-level entry programme in the Faculty of Education at an urban Australian university. Although there is a strong field of literature around the practicum in pre-service teacher education, there has been a limited focus on how student teachers themselves perceive their development during this learning period. Further, despite widespread and longstanding acknowledgement of the ‘gap’ between theory and practice in teacher education, there is still more to learn about how well the practicum enables an integration of these two dimensions of teacher preparation. In presenting three major findings of the study, this paper goes some way in addressing these shortcomings in the literature. First, participants in this study largely valued both the theoretical and practical components of their programme, which stands in contrast to the commonly identified tendency of the student teacher to privilege practice over theory. Second, opportunities to integrate theory and practice were varied, with many participants reporting the detrimental impact of an apparent lack of clarity around stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities. Third, participants overwhelmingly supported the notion of linking university coursework assessment to the practicum as a means of bridging the gap between, on the one hand, the university and the school and, on the other hand, theory and practice.     

Systematic educational change and teacher skill-building in developed and developing countries: the importance of teacher peer learning groups

Many developed and developing countries are seeking to systematically transform their education processes through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The aim of this paper is to present findings from one aspect of a larger ICT study in a particular location in a developing country, with the specific focus presented here being ICT professional development and impacts. Research methods in the study included teacher and school leader surveys, targeted interviews and also case studies. Findings at a systems level generally indicated insufficient coordination of training and minimal follow-up occurring. In case study situations in which the school leader ensured a schoolwide approach to the professional learning of teachers, ICT was more embedded into student learning processes in classrooms. Considering ICT and other professional learning relevant to education, this paper has relevance for policy developers and school leaders in developed and developing world contexts. The need exists for using coordinated professional development processes, with more centralised ‘one-off’ training supplemented by schools and districts. The establishment of peer learning groups or mentors to support skill-building over time is also needed. Through these ongoing processes, teachers can more effectively make changes in their teaching practices, with potential impacts on student learning.     

Integrating teacher education effectiveness research into educational effectiveness models

The purpose of this article is to review and to connect research about teacher education effectiveness and school effectiveness to arrive at an integrative conceptualization that has the potential of improving empirical research in both fields. Teacher education effectiveness addresses effects of teacher education on outcomes such as teacher knowledge, this knowledge becomes the predictor in teacher effectiveness research with instructional quality and student achievement as outcomes. The two research orientations become united in path-analytic studies. A fuller incorporation leads to an extended educational effectiveness model that enriches a systemic interpretation of key levers of educational effectiveness and opens up black boxes at the system and the classroom level. In such a comprehensive model, teacher policies can be regarded an alternative for educational improvement strategies like school curriculum policies, accountability and evaluation or governance and management. At the same time insights from educational effectiveness research at large suggest inclusion of additional variables in teacher education and teacher effectiveness research, particularly on the institutional level.     

信息技术与课程整合的教学模式研究之五——“WebQuest”教学模式

该文是系统研究"信息技术与课程整合教学模式"系列研究论文的第六篇。这组系列研究论文对信息技术与课程整合实施过程中广大教师必须面对的重要问题——"对信息技术环境下教学模式的内涵与特征应如何正确认识、以及对这类教学模式应如何有效实施"作了较深入的探讨;该文则着重对课外整合模式中的另外一个也颇具影响力的代表"适时教学(JiTT)模式"进行研究,并从该模式的产生背景、内涵与特征、实施步骤及实施案例等几个方面作出比较深入的阐述。     

Creating frames of practice for teacher education

Conceptualising teacher learning as being immersed in and arising from the totality of professional practice, this paper reports experiences and insights from practice-based teacher education. Initial data are drawn from two sites of seven involved in the federally funded School Centres for Teaching Excellence programme conducted in the state of Victoria, Australia. This programme is arranged as a partnership between the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and various school clusters and universities. Each university is working with a cluster of primary and secondary schools and with large numbers (20–100) of pre-service teachers allocated to schools across each cluster. In general, PSTs in Victoria University’s two clusters are placed at each school for 2 days per week with some block time throughout the year. Some university units of study are taught on-site by visiting lecturers with a strong emphasis being placed on the mentoring of PSTs by classroom teachers. Interviews with mentors/mentees and teachers, PSTs and principals indicate a particular understanding or approach to an issue of learning or relationship that provides a frame/scaffold of practice. Further practice begins to detail the frame for continuing application. We are considering the notion of frame as a conceptual skeleton of understanding that arises from school and classroom practice and is formatted in practice. Cases of practice have been reported in the paper below that indicate preliminary understandings and engagement with this concept for the learning of teachers.     

A biographical experience of teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

The article analyses initial teacher education (ITE) policy and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand over forty years. Central to the local ITE context was the incorporation of the ‘monotechnic’ colleges of teacher education into the university sector in the 1990s and 2000s, following New Zealand’s structural adjustments to the state education sector in 1989 and 1990. Policy ideologies of ‘marketisation’ and ‘professionalisation’ raised expectations of the abstract knowledge base and competencies that university-based teacher education graduates would acquire, while simultaneously degrading the rich immersion in cultural, curriculum and subject studies and learning by doing that were the hallmark of the former colleges. Indigenous staff and students arguably suffered most during the incorporation years. The final section looks to New Zealand’s future demographic, environmental and socio-economic imperatives and asks how ITE can be recast to enable teacher educators and beginning teachers to face the realities and challenges of the decades ahead.     

Integrating assessment for learning in the teacher education programme at the University of Oslo

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the integration of assessment for learning principles in the newly revised five-year Master of Education programme at the University of Oslo, Norway, across didactic subjects, pedagogy and school practice. The analysis draws on lecture notes, student videos and student exam papers among 143 student teachers, aiming to identify (a) the operationalisation of the assessment curriculum at the university campus, and in school practice, (b) how the student teachers use assessment principles as tools in their instructional designs and (c) how they self-assess their teaching practice. Our main finding is that student teachers seem to be more concerned with assessing their students than using self-assessment to improve their instruction. Based on the findings, we argue the importance of relating the teaching and learning activities with the assessment situations used in the teacher education programme.     

Pedagogical aspects of integrating wikis in pre-service teacher education

The study examines pedagogical approaches in using wikis in teaching and learning in teacher education colleges. It focuses on: instructors’ motivation for wiki-based teaching; course types; teaching methods; evaluation; content structure; characteristics of student collaboration and learning outcomes; involvement of instructors in the learning process. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 11 teacher educators from six colleges of education in Israel. The authors discuss added value and challenges of wiki-based teaching, the impact of assessment on shaping the learning process, as well as general conclusions regarding wiki-based pedagogy.     

Exploring the position of curriculum studies across the continuum of teacher education in Ireland

Curriculum, while often narrowly defined, is a contested space that stimulates continuing international debate, yet the importance of curriculum studies is frequently overlooked across the continuum of teacher education. Within the Irish context a technicist interpretation of curriculum studies, focusing primarily of subject knowledge and development, has historically been adopted. More recent Teaching Council of Ireland policy documents have espoused a broader macro understanding of curriculum studies as a foundation discipline within initial teacher education. However, concerns have been raised regarding student teachers’ ability to fully engage with such material so early in their professional development. With the recently embraced continuum of teacher education in Ireland, this paper examines how curriculum studies is currently defined by Irish policy and problematises how it is addressed in practice. The paper proceeds to explore emerging opportunities to expand this area of study across the continuum. A case for the place of curriculum studies as central to the advancement of the profession through the promotion of teachers as change agents is presented.     

Finding a third space in teacher education: creating an urban teacher residency

This paper describes an urban teacher residency program, the Newark Montclair Urban Teacher Residency, a collaborative endeavor between the Newark, New Jersey Public Schools and Montclair State University, built on a decades-long partnership. The authors see the conceptual work of developing this program as creating a “third space” in teacher education. We detail the ways in which we conceptualize epistemology and clinical practice in teacher education, and changes in the roles of the community, and P-12 teachers that occur in a third space. Providing an account of our messy and nonlinear process demonstrates the struggles of creating new spaces for teacher education. We believe the theory that informs our work, the challenges we face, and the strategies for meeting those challenges illustrate the tenuous and ever-evolving nature of doing work in the “third space.”     

The weakening role of education studies and the re-traditionalisation of Swedish teacher education

Research suggests that certain common policy presuppositions can be identified regarding teacher education programmes in advanced knowledge-based economies, most notably?the relationship between formal education (schooling) and economic production, and the role of teacher education in respect to this relationship. This article draws on the work of Basil Bernstein to engage theoretically and critique the nature of that evolving policy relationship within the context of Sweden. While the article concentrates on developments in one country, however, it is contended that the findings are symptomatic of a wider European or even global trend in which the scientific foundation of teacher education is under threat.