Teachers’ implementation of the coaching role: do teachers’ ownership, sensemaking, and agency make a difference?

The aim of this study was to explore whether teachers’ positioning towards an innovation is related to their implementation of it. Positioning was reflected in terms of teachers’ ownership, sensemaking, and agency. The innovation that was of central focus in this study pertained to the changing role of teachers towards a more coaching role in the classroom. Teachers’ implementation of the coaching role was examined through student perceptions. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire, completed by 253 of the students of 10 teachers. The findings showed that these teachers appeared to be implementing their coaching role to a reasonably strong degree. Moreover, a relationship was identified between the extent to which this role was implemented and teachers’ feelings of ownership, their processes of sensemaking, and their experiences of agency. The results therefore suggest that ownership, sensemaking, and agency do make a difference in the implementation of an educational innovation.     

Teachers’ learning experiences in relation to their ownership,sense-making and agency

The aim of this study was to gain understanding of how teachers familiarise themselves with a new pedagogy during their everyday practice, in this case the implementation of the coaching role in vocational education. For this purpose, 11 teachers reported their learning experiences in a digital log. An identity perspective was used as a lens to reflect and interpret these learning experiences. More specifically, it was looked at the extent to which teachers expressed ownership in their learning experiences with this new pedagogy, the ways they made sense of their learning experiences, and the extent to which they expressed agency in their learning experiences. On the basis of their initial positioning in terms of their ownership, sense-making and agency, these teachers were divided into an engaged and a reserved group. Differences were found in the learning experiences both between and within these groups. The digital logs of the engaged teachers showed more ownership than those of the reserved group and their sense-making was more active and explicit. Agency was present in the digital logs of both groups. Within the two groups, differences were found, particularly between teachers in the reserved group.     

Teachers' Voices in the Context of Higher Education Reforms in Armenia

In this article, teachers' sense-making and reasoning about higher education reforms in a post Soviet country, namely Armenia, are examined using an analytical framework with six sensitising concepts: beliefs, emotions, attitudes, change knowledge, attributions and organisational culture. The results of semi-structured interviews with 12 Armenian higher education teachers showed that they mainly felt distrust towards reforms and that the implementation initiatives caused dissatisfaction, frustration and therefore distortion. At a deeper level, the teachers mostly felt excluded from the reform process and that their role was depreciated. One striking feature was the predominant causal attribution of teachers to external, unstable and uncontrollable factors which question the success of the reforms.     

Cracks in the iceberg: surfacing the tensions of constructivist pedagogy in the context of mentoring

In this study, the reciprocity between educational reforms and the role of teachers is examined. A social-discursive approach to sense-making provides a theoretical framework for understanding how teachers position themselves within the context of a reform. To illustrate the utility of such an approach, the specific case of a teacher involved in reforms is presented. The results show an ongoing positioning process and this process to constitute both the input and output for the interaction between teacher and reforms. The development of sensitivity to this positioning process appears to be a necessary prerequisite for successful reforms.     

Teacher-Advocates Respond to ESSA: “Support the Good Parts—Resist the Bad Parts”

Although researchers consider them powerful, teacher policy advocates are among the least studied stakeholders in U.S. public education reform today. Although plenty of attention has been given to the impact of policy on teachers' work, little research explores how teachers interpret or interact with policy. Drawing on the work of Spillane, Reiser, and Reimer (2002) on teachers' policy implementation and Coburn's (2001) work on teachers' collective sense-making of policy, this qualitative study examines the different ways in which five teachers interpreted, translated, and enacted a response to ESSA. The findings describe how contextual factors influence teachers' relationship with education policy: (a) structural supports for grassroots involvement via social networks are instrumental in mobilizing teachers, and (b) unless a more bottom-up approach is taken that enables teacher agency, sense-making, and advocacy, top-down school policies will continue to hold limited promise. The paper concludes with implications for understanding how teachers are indeed policy advocates.     

Teacher agency,positioning, and English language learners: Voices of pre-service classroom teachers

This study explores the identity (re)negotiations and agency of three pre-service classroom teachers who received their ESL (English as a Second Language) endorsement at a research university in the United States. An analysis of interview data and teachers' journal entries, from a narrative positioning perspective, indicates that the teachers took on various, and sometimes conflicting, positional identities in relation to their social context (e.g., mentor teachers, ELLs, etc.). The findings further indicate that those positional identities have shaped teachers' agency and self-reported classroom practices. The analysis presented provides implications for teachers of ELLs and teacher educators.     

Mediated Effects of Technology Competencies and Experiences on Relations among Attitudes Towards Technology Use,Technology Ownership,and Self Efficacy about Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This study examined the relations of preservice science teachers’ attitudes towards technology use, technology ownership, technology competencies, and experiences to their self-efficacy beliefs about technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The present study also investigated interrelations among preservice teachers’ attitudes towards technology use, technology ownership, technology competencies, and experiences. The participants of study were 665 elementary preservice science teachers (467 females, 198 males) from 7 colleges in Turkey. The proposed model based on educational technology literature was tested using structural equation modeling. The model testing results revealed that preservice teachers’ technology competencies and experiences mediated the relation of technology ownership to their TPACK self efficacy beliefs. The direct relation of their possession of technology to their TPACK self efficacy beliefs was insignificant while the indirect relation through their technology competencies and experiences was significant. The results also indicated there were significant direct effects of preservice teachers’ attitudes towards technology use, technology competencies, and experiences on their TPACK self efficacy beliefs.     

A Study of the Child's Concept of the Teacher

Abstract

This study explores the concepts that elementary school children have of their teachers and some of the conditions that influence these concepts. The technique of exploration involves the use of the drawings that children make of their classes and teachers collected under standardized conditions. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that boys are more rejecting of their teachers than are girls, and that boys show no increase in rejection of their teacher as age increases, but that girls show an increasing rejection. Finally, the degree to which girls show a negative attitude towards their teachers depends to some extent on the characteristics of the teacher.     

Maintaining teachers’ face in the context of change: results from a study of Vietnamese college lecturers’ perceptions of face

Gaining and saving face are very important in Vietnam as a mechanism of social control, including the professional behaviour of teachers. Interviews with 15 lecturers (aged 24–37) at a teacher training college in a Central Coast province of Vietnam illustrated the relationship between their concepts of face and their beliefs about good teaching. Most were still strongly influenced by traditional Confucian beliefs about the role and position of teachers, the nature of teachers’ knowledge and the relationship between teachers and students. On the other hand, some teachers also were aware of, and to a limited extent open to, more modern ideas that seemed to be related to broad social changes and reforms in approaches to teaching and learning in recent decades in Vietnam. The findings suggest that some teacher educators are uncertain about the value of traditional professional wisdom in the context of critical changes in society and in education. The research also suggests that the concepts of face and saving face are important for teachers’ sense of agency, and that Vietnamese educational authorities could increase the effectiveness of innovations in teacher education by paying attention to the influence of concepts of face on the teachers’ beliefs and behaviours.     

我国城乡中小学教师教育技术能力差异及原因分析

我国农村中小学教师信息技术教学能力与城市教师相比呈现出较大的差别,教师不仅在信息技术技能掌握上相对滞后,其教学行为和观念发展间有一定的不同步性。调研数据显示这些差别与农村中小学管理制度建设滞后、信息技术应用模式单一以及某些信息技术产品门槛设置较高,普及性差等原因有关。为了促进农村中小学教师教育技术能力跨越式发展,弥合城乡差异,研究认为完善与信息化革新配套的制度建设、改进教学信息化产品的针对性、降低使用技术门槛和成本是可以尝试的改进策略。     

Organising a culture of argumentation in elementary science

ABSTRACT

Most of the research on argumentation in science education has documented the myriad flaws in students’ argumentation, and the difficulties teachers have organising productive arguments in the classroom. We apply a sociocultural framework to argue that productive argumentation emerges from a classroom culture in which its practice meaningfully serves classroom goals. We present a case study using interaction analysis to contrast two elementary teachers’ efforts to organise productive scientific argumentation in their classrooms. One teacher used discourse moves to orient students to each other’s contributions in ways the other did not, reflecting differences in underlying aims for collective versus individual sense-making. This analysis shows that connecting discourse practices specifically to a goal of collective sense-making promotes productive argumentation.     

Towards an Ethical Approach to Perspective-taking and the Teaching of Multicultural Texts: Getting Beyond Persuasion,Politeness and Political Correctness

This paper aims to problematize perspective-taking – an instructional practice widely thought to be useful in helping students develop the ability to better understand their own worlds and the worlds of others in multicultural texts. We provide examples that illustrate difficulties discovered in implementing a perspective-taking approach to teaching multicultural texts across three diverse classrooms. Specifically, these examples suggest that perspective-taking was perceived by students to be a rhetorical strategy that their teachers wanted them to acquire in the interests of persuasion, politeness, political correctness and uncritical tolerance. Through discussion of these examples this paper argues that in order for perspective-taking to be a valuable instructional strategy for teaching multicultural texts it must be grounded in a larger effort towards an ethical approach to response to multicultural texts – an effort by which teachers encourage ownership of initial responses, genuine and continual consideration of conflicting views, and a positioning of one's response in relation to those of others.     

The Attitudes of Physical Education and Sport Students towards Information and Communication Technologies

Studies that examine the attitudes toward information and communication technologies (ICT) among physical education and sport students, pre-service teachers and teachers are fairly limited, even though the investments in information and communication technologies at schools and universities have reached an efficient level. This study investigates the attitudes of physical education and sport students and pre-service teachers towards ICT, and the relationship between their attitudes and certain variables such as age, gender, departments, computer familiarity, frequency of computer use and computer ownership. Computer attitude scales were administered to 337 students and pre-service teachers of physical education and sports, and the data collected were analyzed statistically. It was found that the students and pre-service teachers of physical education and sports have positive attitudes toward information and communication technologies, and there are significant correlations between their attitudes and certain variables such as gender, grade, computer ownership, and computer instruction. Recommendations are provided.     

Elementary teachers’ use of content knowledge to evaluate students’ thinking in the life sciences

Science learning environments should provide opportunities for students to make sense of and enhance their understanding of disciplinary concepts. Teachers can support students’ sense-making by engaging and responding to their ideas through high-leverage instructional practices such as formative assessment (FA). However, past research has shown that teachers may not understand FA, how to implement it, or have sufficient content knowledge to use it effectively. Few studies have investigated how teachers gather information to evaluate students’ ideas or how content knowledge factors into those decisions, particularly within the life science discipline. We designed a study embedded in a multi-year professional development program that supported elementary teachers’ development of disciplinary knowledge and FA practices within science instruction. Study findings illustrate how elementary teachers’ life science content knowledge influences their evaluation of students’ ideas. Teachers with higher levels of life science content knowledge more effectively evaluated students’ ideas than teachers with lower levels of content knowledge. Teachers with higher content exam scores discussed both content and student understanding to a greater extent, and their analyses of students’ ideas were more scientifically accurate compared to teachers with lower scores. These findings contribute to theory and practice around science teacher education, professional development, and curriculum development.     

Teachers’ beliefs and intentions concerning teaching in higher education

A questionnaire measuring nine different aspects of teachers’ beliefs and intentions concerning teaching in higher education was distributed to teachers at four institutions in the United Kingdom, yielding 638 complete sets of responses. There was a high degree of overlap between the participants’ scores on the subscales measuring beliefs and intentions, and analyses of both sets of scores yielded two factors reflecting an orientation towards learning facilitation and an orientation towards knowledge transmission. However, teachers’ intentions were more orientated towards knowledge transmission than were their beliefs, and problem solving was associated with beliefs based on learning facilitation but with intentions based on knowledge transmission. Differences in teachers’ intentions across different disciplines and between men and women seemed to result from different conceptions of teaching, whereas differences in teachers’ intentions across different institutions and between teachers with different levels of teaching experience seemed to result from contextual factors. Teaching intentions thus reflect a compromise between teachers’ conceptions of teaching and their academic and social contexts     

Elements affecting the development of professional learning communities in schools

This article focuses on the development of professional learning communities (PLCs), which are communities within schools, composed of voluntary participating teachers facilitated by school principals with a specific task to accomplish as part of a larger innovation project. Four PLCs were observed during 3 years by using questionnaires and participatory research. The questionnaires revealed that PLCs differed in their group characteristics, collective learning processes and outcomes. Through participatory research, we explored seven elements affecting the development of PLCs, namely, task perceptions, group composition, tensions between roles, beliefs about alignment, reflective dialogues, socialisation and ownership. Beliefs about alignment, ownership and socialisation had sufficient impact on the development of the PLCs. A case study including two contrasting PLCs indicated interrelations between task perceptions and ownership by members and between ownership and socialisation activities. Regarding implications, this research suggests to explicitly create and facilitate reflective dialogues and ownership over time for PLCs to flourish.     

Nostalgia in the narratives of vocational teachers as a way of understanding responses to change

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on nostalgia in the narratives of vocational teachers. The aim is to understand the role of nostalgia as a mechanism for adapting to or resisting educational change. The paper is based on the secondary analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 Estonian vocational teachers. In the teachers’ narratives, the nostalgia for the former vocational education system, which provided more autonomy and empowerment for teachers in their work, was overlaid with the nostalgia for a society with more stable family and work-life patterns and trusting attitudes towards vocational teachers. Although there were examples where the nostalgic narratives were strategically used to legitimize resistance to change, in most cases, nostalgia tends to serve as the mechanism for making sense of the educational changes teachers have been faced with. Nostalgia also contributes to making sense of oneself as a teacher in a new situation and collective identity building. It is argued in the paper that we should acknowledge the positive functions of nostalgia and create support mechanisms to facilitate sense-making and critical reflection upon the changes for teachers. Nostalgia should be recognized as a productive force indicating the contradictions in present reforms and practices and opening up new directions.     

The ecology of language teacher assessment literacy: Insights from emotional critical incidents

Despite the substantial growth of research on language assessment literacy (LAL), the emotional side of LAL has been under-researched. In response to this gap of knowledge, the present study explored Iranian English language teachers’ LAL through the lens of emotional critical incidents (CIs). Drawing on an ecological lens as embedded in a case-study design, data were collected from narrative frames, classroom observations and post-class discussions, and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses revealed three personal, institutional, and sociocultural ecologies that shaped the teachers’ LAL-related emotional CIs and the associated sense-making, practice, and perceptions about assessment. In particular, we found that the emotional side of LAL is defined by agency, emotion labor, the need for voice, and broader discourses of assessment in Iran. Based on the findings, we provide implications for running professional development courses that build on teachers’ LAL and account for emotions as a key component of such courses.     

Comprehensive school teachers’ professional agency in large-scale educational change

This article explores how comprehensive school teachers’ sense of professional agency changes in the context of large-scale national educational change in Finland. We analysed the premises on which teachers (n = 100) view themselves and their work in terms of developing their own school, catalysed by the large-scale national change. The study included theory-driven interventions in the case school communities, as well as pre- and post-test measurements. The results suggested that the learning of active professional agency was facilitated among teachers during the 2 years of development work. A significant number of teachers had adopted a more holistic orientation towards the reform. Moreover, the number of teachers who considered themselves as the subjects of the development work increased slightly. This increase suggests that teachers’ intentional and responsible management of new learning proceeds from the interpersonal meaning-making process to the internal process that regulates the elements of a teacher’s professional agency.