教师的认识信念系统及其对教学的影响

教师的认识信念系统是一个涉及知识信念、认知信念、文化信念、学习信念以及对信念的自我调节等因素的复杂结构。教师认识信念的形成受到个体的学习活动经验、科学观和社会环境的影响。教师的认识信念会对自我的教学理念、教学设计、教学行为、教学组织以及教学评价产生直接影响,同时又会通过教学过程将自己的认识信念传达给学生,对学生的学习产生间接影响。     

How epistemic reflexivity enables teacher educators’ teaching for diversity: Exploring a pedagogical framework for critical thinking

Recent research points to the importance of teacher educators teaching for diversity in initial teacher education programmes. Teaching for diversity is an approach to teacher education in which an understanding of specialist literature and a focus on critical thinking supports a social justice agenda as opposed to merely using different tips and tricks to prepare future teachers for teaching diverse learners in the classroom. In this study, we explored how Australian and New Zealand teacher educators negotiated a social justice agenda in teacher education programmes, using a new transdisciplinary framework of epistemic reflexivity. The Epistemic Reflexivity for Teacher Education (ER-TED) framework draws on epistemic cognition (Clark Chinn’s Aims, Ideals, Reliable epistemic processes – AIR – framework) and Margaret Archer’s reflexivity to explore knowledge claims in teacher educators’ pedagogical decision-making. The findings identified how teacher educators in our study discerned and deliberated with respect to epistemic aims for justification, which involve transformative critical thinking and critical thinking for self. They reported good knowledge (ideals) as being scholarly in nature, and reliable epistemic processes based on higher-order thinking (analysis and evaluating competing ideas) or engaging with multiple perspectives. The teacher educators in our study are clear examples of how strong overall evaluative epistemic stances enable teaching for social justice. We argue that the ER-TED framework can help us as a profession to address teaching for diversity in teacher education programmes based on the belief that the pursuit of social justice requires an evaluativist epistemic stance.     

Empathy Development in Teacher Candidates

Using a grounded theory research design, the author examined 180 reflective essays of teacher candidates who participated in a ‘Learning Process Project,’ in which they were asked to synthesize and document their discoveries about the learning process over the course of a completely new learning experience as naïve learners. This study explored (1) the use of grounded theory as a systematic and exploratory research tool, (2) the transformative insights of the teacher candidates as they discovered the impact of the naïve learner perspective on their teaching philosophies, and (3) the role of the naïve learner perspective in effective refinement of teaching and learning ability. Further discussion in this study examined the potential of the ‘Learning Process Project’ to assist post secondary instructors as mentors in supporting empathic teacher candidates who will in turn support and mentor the children in their care.     

The Controversy Over Controversies: A Plea for Flexibility and for “Soft‐Directive” Teaching

A controversy rages over the question of how should controversial topics be taught. Recent work has advanced the “epistemic criterion” as the resolution to this controversy. According to the epistemic criterion, a matter should be taught as controversial when contrary views can be entertained on the matter without the views being contrary to reason. When an issue is noncontroversial, according to the epistemic criterion, the correct position can be taught “directively,” with the teacher endorsing that position. When there is a legitimate controversy, the view should be taught “nondirectively,” with the teacher remaining neutral. In response, Bryan Warnick and Spencer Smith argue that the proponents of the epistemic criterion fail to recognize the multidimensional nature of what it means to learn to be rational. Recognizing this complexity undermines the link between the epistemic status of the controversy and directiveness of one's teaching, suggesting more flexibility in how teachers approach controversial issues. It also implies the need for a new category of teaching, which Warnick and Smith call “soft‐directive” teaching.     

Using cogenerative dialogues to improve coteaching for language learner (LL) students in an inclusion science classroom

This paper presents findings from a study conducted in an urban elementary school in the United States with an English language learner (ELL) student and two teachers engaged in collaborative teaching in an inclusion science classroom. This study examines the efficacy of utilising cogenerative dialogues between an ELL student and his science teacher and English as second language teacher to improve instructional practices enacted during coteaching. Drawing from field notes, teacher and student interviews, and video captured during cotaught science lessons and during cogenerative dialogues between the student and his coteachers, we examined the ways in which cogenerative dialogue expands teachers’ agency to adapt curriculum and implement instructional strategies that can better meet the needs of their students. At the same time, we examined the ways in which participation in cogenerative dialogues with his teachers expanded this student’s agency as a science learner and a language learner.     

Beliefs systems and classroom practices: Identified typologies of elementary school teachers from the United States

In a mixed-methods study, the authors investigate teacher typologies of elementary teachers (N = 132) in the United States based on their reformed science teaching beliefs. Additionally, the identified teacher typologies were compared with respect to their science content knowledge, self-efficacy and epistemic beliefs. Results revealed three clusters of teachers with different combinations of teaching beliefs and practices. Comparative analysis indicated significant differences among teacher typologies with respect to their epistemic beliefs and teaching efficacy beliefs. Additionally, interview results enhanced the depth of understanding of participants' views for reformed science teaching and further highlighted differences in the typologies. Study implications are considered with regard to improving teacher quality and preservice teacher training.     

基于教师中介学生自主学习能力发展的行动研究报告

本文基于行动研究探讨大学英语学习环境下教师在学习者自主中的作用以及教师如何中介学生自主能力发展。通过对自主学习模式和课堂教学模式的对比分析, 及对自主学习模式的行动干预结果分析,发现: 1) 教师是大学英语学习环境下学习者自主的必要构念: 2) 基于行动研究范式的教师介入有助于提高学习者自主学习能力、 心理和行为。文章最后讨论本研究结果对实施大学英语自主学习的启示。     

Filipino Pre‐service Education Students' Preconceptions of Teacher Roles Viewed through a Metaphorical Lens

Premised on the belief that students who enter teacher education programs bring with them a schema of teaching which serves as reference points for understanding new experiences, this study explored Filipino pre‐service teachers' preconceptions on teacher roles through a metaphorical lens, with 125 sophomore and junior students from a comprehensive university in the Philippines as its subjects. Data came from actual drawings and written explanations, which were done by the subjects to represent their ideas on what a teacher is. Each subject was allowed time to show his/her work to a group and to discuss it orally. The metaphoric images were listed, tallied, analysed and categorised to show meaningful patterns and themes. Results showed that preconceptions converged into five clusters: knowledge source, direction‐setter, character formatter, change agent and learner. Metaphors used were predominantly instructivist or teacher‐centered, with some emerging constructivist or learner‐centered leanings. The study offered possible explanations for these preconceptions, and their implications on teacher education programs.     

The Role of Everyday Contexts in Learner‐centred Teaching: The practice in Namibian secondary schools

This paper reports on the use of out‐of‐school everyday contexts in Namibian science classrooms. This use is portrayed against the backdrop of an explicit educational philosophy of learner‐centred teaching. Data were collected through audio‐taped teacher–learner interactions and non‐participant field notes in 29 junior and senior science classes taught by 12 teachers in six schools. An existing typology was applied to classify episodes of use of everyday contexts and identify teachers’ pedagogic strategies for their use. The results show that more everyday contexts are used in junior secondary than in senior secondary classes, that only a limited range of types of everyday contexts are used at both levels, and that their use often follows theoretical exposition or teacher questioning. These findings are related to three interpretations of learner‐centred teaching. Recommendations for a fuller implementation of learner‐centred teaching are made.     

教师自身因素对学生英语自主学习的影响

近年来,自主学习得到我国的教育界的极大关注。根据对自主学习问题的研究,探讨教师自身的因素对推广自主学习的影响,以达到提高教师对自身文化背景、教学理念、教学方法以及课堂教学具体策略与自主学习之间关系的认知,目的是在课堂教学中培养学生的自主学习的能力,深化素质教育。     

Confessions from the Performatively Confused

“Confessions” begins with an auto-ethnographic account of my learning-through-movement in a relationship that was intimate, therapeutic, embodied and instructive—with a teacher called Annie. It seems sensible to start with a choreographic teacher of Feldenkrais therapies and theatre-movement to think about the meanings I import from my roles as learner, therapist and performer to my roles as educator and feminist—and back again. My work with Annie, as her student, brought choreography back into the social science class rooms in which I teach, along with an acute awareness of my embodied self as a condition/centre of my pedagogical strategies in teaching the social. Amplifying this experience, I present ways of storying and reading my teaching praxis in conventional academic classrooms, as informed by the ways in which I theorise my learning that has occurred outside of them.     

围绕学生自主 创新教师自主

教师自主已经成为一个伴随学习者自主讨论的深入而产生的崭新的概念。在探讨学习者自主性的过程中已经把教师自主性当作一个不可或缺的组成部分。本文围绕学生自主,探讨了教师自主的内涵;揭示了教师自主的误区;浅谈了教师自主的启示。旨在深化我国大学英语教学改革中创新教师自主性,提高英语教学效果,以适应新的外语教学模式发展的要求。     

Teacher Educators: hidden professionals?

The pace of change in today's society means that there is an ongoing need for teachers to learn, have new knowledge and use new pedagogical approaches to meet the needs of their pupils. For many teachers, this requires redefining their identity as teachers and what ‘teaching’ means in 21st century learning environments. These changes also require teachers to be supported in learning to ‘teach’ in different ways that are relevant to their own individual needs and to the contexts in which they work throughout their career. In this article, it is argued that a more integrated and collaborative approach to teacher education is needed with better understanding of those who take up the roles of teacher educator across a teacher's career. With a particular emphasis on ‘teacher educators’ working in school to support teachers' career-long professional learning it is argued that currently many do not recognise themselves as teacher educators nor are they recognised by those they work with as teacher educators. Drawing on an empirical study carried out with mentors in schools in Scotland, it is suggested that these teacher educators may be ‘unrecognised’ and remain ‘hidden professionals’ because of the identities they construct for themselves, the values and priorities that they or others attach to their roles or because of the institutional structures and cultures in which they work. It is concluded that it will be difficult to recognise and value these ‘hidden teacher educators’ and the distinctive contribution they can make to teachers' career-long professional learning without further clarification by them and others of the roles and responsibilities they hold.     

Teacher efficacy: An investigation of Economics teachers

Abstract

In an era of unprecedented curriculum change it is not surprising that many South African teachers have begun to question their ability to affect learner performance. Teachers have to engage with a changing learner culture, with new curriculum content and are under pressure to embrace different teaching strategies without fully understanding the theoretical principles on which they are based. In this paper the authors explore high-school Economics teachers' beliefs about their capacities to influence learning. This paper is based on a quantitative empirical investigation into Economics teachers' efficacy beliefs about the teaching of Economics. Economics teachers from each of the 45 Department of Education delineated districts in KwaZulu-Natal province were selected to be participants in the study. We argue that while Economics teachers perceive their role as important in the learning process, male teachers in particular see the teacher as the dominant influence on learner performance, and are more confident than female teachers of their knowledge and teaching abilities.     

Advanced skills teachers: professional identity and status

The teaching profession continues to struggle with defining itself in relation to other professions. Even though public opinion positions teachers second only to doctors and nurses in terms of their professional status and prestige research in the UK suggests that teachers still believe that they have much lower status than other professions. With teacher job satisfaction considerably lower today than the past and on-going issues with teacher recruitment and retention, new government policies have set out to enhance the status of teachers both within and outside of the profession. The Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) grade was introduced in 1998 as a means to recognise and reward teaching expertise and was framed as a way of also raising the status of the teaching profession. As to what a teaching professional should look like, the AST was in many ways positioned as the embodiment. Using survey data from 849 ASTs and in depth interviews with 31, this paper seeks to explores the ways that the AST designation impacts or not on teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity. In particular, the paper considers whether such awards contribute in positive ways to a teacher’s sense of professional identity and status. The results from the research suggest that teaching grades that recognise and reward teaching excellence do contribute in important ways to a teachers’ professional identity via an increased sense of recognition, reward and job satisfaction. The results from this research also suggest that recognising the skills and expertise of teachers is clearly important in supporting teacher retention. This is because as it allows highly accomplished teachers to remain where they want to be and that is the classroom.     

Authentic assessment of teaching in context

The demands of teaching more challenging content to more diverse learners suggest a need for teacher education that enables teachers to become more sophisticated in their understanding of the effects of context and learner variability on teaching and learning. Instead of implementing set routines, teachers need to become ever more skillful in their ability to evaluate teaching situations and develop teaching responses that can be effective under different circumstances. This article examines how a growing number of teacher education programs are using authentic assessments of teaching – cases, exhibitions, portfolios, and problem-based inquiries (or action research) – as tools to support teacher learning for these new challenges of practice. Using specific teacher education programs as examples, the article examines how and why these strategies appear to provide support for teacher learning and avenues for more valid assessment of teaching. The authors also discuss circumstances in which these strategies may be less effective and suggest features of the assessments and programmatic contexts that are associated with more and less successful use.     

Wirkungen des Lernens mit Videofällen bei Lehrkräften

Case-based learning with videos is regarded as a promising way to promote the analytical abilities of teaching staff as a basis for their professional actions. For that purpose, the competence to assess and diagnose situations of learning and instruction is crucial, i.e., especially the ability to apply conceptual knowledge to pedagogical cases and to take teacher as well as learner perspectives into account. The article reports on the results of an experimental field intervention study aimed to convey this competence effectively by providing different forms of instructional support to over 100 students of English Studies (2?×?2 design, conceptual knowledge: present/not present; teacher and learner perspectives: present/not present). The central focus is on identifying further effects that personal characteristics (individual learning conditions, e.g., prior knowledge, tolerance of ambiguity) and process characteristics (cognitive load; cognitive, emotional, and motivational activation) have on the development of this competence, and how strong these effects are. Multiple linear regression analyses show that this type of learning with case-based videos places less demand on personal factors, and that the quality of the learning process plays a decisive role.     

Re-entering my space: a narrative inquiry into teaching English as a foreign language in an imagined third space

The purpose of this study is to reflect on my experience of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in an inland Chinese university when I returned from Australia: I re-entered the space of EFL teaching, and experimented with a new model of teaching. In my experiment, I applied the concepts of third space and hybrid identity as a theoretical framework for teaching EFL. A personal narrative form is chosen to report and reflect on the experiment, as this is the form that directly expresses experience, allows for reflection on it, and is appropriate for studies of identity. Using anecdotes and reflection, I relate the observed responses of a cohort of Chinese EFL learners to this new EFL teaching model. From this account, reflections are drawn on the challenges that reform of traditional teacher-centred EFL methods in the Chinese cultural context brings to the learners, and by implication, the teacher, from the perspective of an insider (teacher) returning home from an outsider’s third space as a learner in another culture.     

Epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral learning in the early years of school: relationships and complexities

While investment in young children is recognised as important for the development of moral values for a cohesive society, little is known about early years teaching practices that promote learning of moral values. This paper reports on observations and interviews with 11 Australian teachers, focusing on their epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral education with children aged 5–8 years. The analysis revealed three main patterns of thinking about moral education: following others, reflecting on points of view, and informing reflection for action. These patterns suggest a relationship between epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral learning which have implications for teacher professional development concerning experiences in moral education.