The Dynamics of Interaction During Post‐lesson Conferences and the Development of Professional Activity: Study of a pre‐service physical education teacher and her co‐operating teacher

The purpose of this study was to characterise the development of a preservice physical education teacher's professional activity over the course of training interactions with her co‐operating teacher. The student teacher's professional development was studied using a hermeneutic and inductive approach based on the analysis of data from observation and self‐confrontation interviews. The results showed that the preservice teacher's conceptions regarding her teaching developed despite communication difficulties with her co‐operating teacher and that she constructed new knowledge—at times without her co‐operating teacher's awareness—even when she disagreed with him. However, the student teacher's classroom activity did not always change as a result of this new knowledge. The self‐confrontation interviews revealed her construction of knowledge, as well as the reasons for disagreement and her resistance to changing her classroom action.     

Interactive Teacher Decision‐making—still a basic skill?

A general common sense model of interactive teacher decisions is presented. The model assumes that the teacher wishes to choose actions that are appropriate to the situation and to the goals of her teaching. The decision process is thought to include perception, judgement and choice of behaviour from the teacher's behavioural repertoire, but as a result of the immediacy of classroom situations and the teacher's limited information processing capacity, the process may be partly unconscious and the decisions seem spontaneous. The process is affected, consciously or unconsciously, by knowledge variables and emotional variables. Interactive teaching is viewed as consisting of a series of such situations. Research on teacher decision‐making in simulated classroom situations is recommended. It is suggested that teacher education should include discussion of classroom situations and training in interactive decision‐making and the value of such programmes should be studied.     

The reflection on the blackboard: student teacher self‐evaluation

A common aim of teacher education is to encourage prospective teachers to analyze carefully their instructional performance. Yet, research on teacher cognition heretofore has concentrated primarily on experienced teachers’ planning and instructional thinking. We need more information on how student teachers think about and engage in the evaluation of their teaching performance. This study used data from initial structured interviews to elicit student teachers’ self‐evaluation concerns and examined the student teachers’ journals, a final written self‐evalution, and tapes from post‐teaching interviews to create a profile of each student teacher's responses about self‐evaluation. In this paper I analyze the student teachers’ pre‐conceptions about success, examine their processes of self‐evaluation, and explore a conception of “interactive self‐evaluation.” I offer suggestions about the conditions that may enable student teachers to enhance their analytical processes.     

Teacher reflections on ‘bumpy moments’ in teaching: a self‐study

This study recounts a practicing teacher's attempt to describe reflections during the course of teaching at the primary level. A self‐study was conducted to address teacher thinking during ‘bumpy moments’ in teaching, offering an insight into how we might capture the details of teachers' unseen reflections. Through an analysis of the many ‘bumpy moments’ in teaching, several important findings emerged about the nature of reflection and how reflection actually occurs in the classroom context. Results of this study have implications for future research, teacher education and improvement of the teaching practice.     

The Effects of Reciprocal Imitation on Teacher–Student Relationships and Student Learning Outcomes

Neuroscientific and developmental psychological research in imitation has yielded important insights into building teacher–student relationships and enhancing students' learning. This study investigated the effects of reciprocal imitation on teacher–student relationships and students' learning outcomes in one‐on‐one teacher–student interactions. In a within‐subjects design, participants learned eight English vocabulary words under two conditions: one condition paired with teacher's imitative behaviors and the other with teacher's random behaviors. Students' self‐rating surveys and quiz scores on new words were assessed. When the teacher imitated the students' behaviors in interactions, the students reported significantly higher perceptions of rapport, more confidence in and satisfaction with learning outcomes, and had significantly higher quiz scores. Results had important implications for teachers in using imitation as an effective teaching tool to build teacher–student relationships and enhance students' learning.     

Factors related to teachers' attitudes towards the inclusive education of students with severe intellectual disabilities in Riyadh,Saudi

In Saudi Arabia, the majority of students with severe intellectual disabilities are still educated in special schools that do not meet their unique needs for interaction with their typically developing peers in public schools settings where they could improve social, communication and academic skills. One of the most significant obstacles to inclusion of this group of students is teachers' perspectives regarding inclusive education for this category of students. As a result, this study examined teachers' perspectives regarding the inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities using a quantitative approach. In addition, this study also examined the relationship between teachers' perspectives regarding the inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities and current teaching position, training, teacher's levels of education, previous teaching experience with any kind of disabilities in inclusive settings, grade level being taught, teacher's gender and whether they have a family member with a disability. Three hundred and three teachers responded to the Opinions Relative to inclusion of Students with Disabilities (ORI: Arabic version) survey, including 161 males and 139 females, and three non‐specified gender. A two‐way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), a one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and an independent t‐test were used to answer the research questions. The findings of the study indicate that teachers have slightly negative perspectives towards the inclusive education of students with severe intellectual disabilities. Significant factors regarding teachers' perspectives towards the inclusion of this group of students included their current teaching position, previous teaching experience with students who had any kind of disability in inclusive settings and the teacher's gender.     

小学教师实践性知识发展的叙事研究

教师实践性知识研究已成为研究者关注的热点,运用教育叙事,以一位小学教师为个案,从自我知识、学科教学知识、学习者的知识和情境知识等方面展示其实践性知识发展的真实状况。个人的教育信念、原有的受教育背景和生活经验、教学反思的意识、学习方式的转变和学校文化的创设等是影响小学教师实践性知识形成与发展的深层次原因。研究启示,教师实践性知识的生成离不开日常教学生活、教学反思以及教师学习共同体的建立。     

Learner Assessment through Subjective Theories and Action Research

This paper deals with students’ and university teachers’ self‐concepts on the basis of subjective theories: It is proposed to show how students and teachers are guided in university classes by their self‐images and how these determine their behaviour in such sessions. In a project carried out with students in the summer of 1997 in a literature course, subjective theories were connected with action research. Students and teachers collected data that helped them reflect on their behaviour, especially their own participation during sessions (from the students’ side) and on teacher control and dominance (from the teacher's side). Student diaries, video documentation of some of the sessions and interviews with students at the end of the semester were analysed with regard to learning processes and respective insights into students’ and the teacher's subjective theories.     

Non‐Verbal Communication,Self‐esteem and Interpersonal Relations of LD and Non‐LD Students

Accurate perception and comprehension of verbal and non‐verbal communication is important in one's interpersonal environment; such understanding may affect not only the child's academic achievement but how he/she relates to and is perceived by others. In the present study learning disabled (LD) and non‐learning disabled (NLD) middle school students were evaluated on their ability to perceive and accurately comprehend non‐verbal communication; they also responded to an interpersonal relations scale and a self‐esteem inventory. LD children differed from regular class students both in reported self‐esteem and in the ability to perceive and comprehend “wordless” communication, but similarities were noted between the two groups in reported need for interpersonal relations.     

II: The Conflict

An environmental project in a native language German class (writing a book on environmental issues) gave the pupils, thirteen‐yea‐old girls, a large scope of freedom for independent group work. When they could not present sufficient results of their work at an interim report stage, a serious conflict resulted in which the teacher reproached the pupils heavily. In the case study this conflict is analysed: its possible causes, processes and some of its effects. Available data were the teacher's own diary and essays in which the pupils wrote frankly how they experienced the conflict. One issue arising from the analysis was the differences between the teacher"s intentions (e.g. to stimulate self‐determination in the pupils) and what he had achieved In this conflict (e.g. showing them how narrow their room for discretion actually was). Another issue was the pupils” sense of responsibility for the project (e.g. the pupils saw the project as the teacher's business and not as their project). One of the hypotheses that emerged to explain the apparent inactivity of the pupils was their perception of “work”, which seemed to have been incompatible with a largely self‐determined activity. The study ends with the teacher's reflections on what he gained from the analysis. One outcome was an involuntary caution in the use of words in his interactions with pupils and a more intense feeling of respect for them as young personalities. Another was a reconstruction of his strategic approach to the design of project work.     

University Educator Mindsets: How Might Adult Constructive‐Developmental Theory Support Design of Adaptive Learning?

This article explores Robert Kegan's adult constructive‐developmental (ACD) theory. We compare these ideas to the way educators at each of Kegan's meaning‐making levels might plan, implement, and assess digitally enhanced teaching activities. Using Drago‐Severson's interpretation of Kegan's concepts, the authors propose that behaviors of university teaching practitioners indicate mindsets evident at four ACD levels—instrumental, socialized, self‐authoring, and self‐transforming. Higher education professional development literature has identified a significant gap in practitioner implementation of interactive strategies using digital tools. If university practitioners increase their mental complexity they may become more adaptive in the application of interactive pedagogies and digital technologies. Adaptive approaches might cultivate new pedagogies supporting and challenging students toward more complex and flexible qualities of mind.     

Pedagogical Thinking in a Student's Mind: A conceptual clarification on the basis of self‐determination and volition theories

This article suggests that educational psychology should pay more attention to the role of the curriculum when the optimal motivation to learn in school is considered. The curriculum frames the teaching‐studying‐learning process in school. This fact has several implications on the motivation to learn in school. After the child starts school, his or her motivation to learn seems to change from an intrinsic motivation to an extrinsic motivation. To develop pedagogical thinking in a student's mind means that the student must become acquainted with the aims and goals of the curriculum, assimilate them into his or her integrated sense of self and, thus, fully accept them as their own. If this succeeds, it will have positive effects on the student's motivation at school and especially on the motivation to study and learn. The concept of pedagogical thinking in a student's mind is analogous to the concept of teacher's pedagogical thinking. Based on previous studies, this article provides an example of how joint‐planning can offer a learning environment that promotes students' pedagogical thinking and the internalisation of the aims and goals of the curriculum in school. This article calls for new theoretical syntheses and research programmes that better take into account the normative nature of learning and teaching in school.     

Layers and links: Learning to juggle ‘one more thing’ in the classroom

This paper presents a model—hypertextual function—to consider teachers’ thinking, practice, and development in the use of technology. Hypertextual function is a multi-dimensional model linking a teacher's knowledge about students (familiarity) and technology (facility), with a teacher's teaching practice of integrating technology with content (transparency) and across disciplines and experiences (connectivity), and a teacher's sense of support (collegiality). Additionally, a teacher's context affects each of these. Such a model is important as technology becomes more pervasive and integrating technology into classrooms adds another layer of complexity to teaching. Case studies and graphic representations of the proposed model are presented.     

Teaching and nurturing: changing conceptions of self as teacher in a case study of becoming a teacher

Interest is growing in better understanding how teachers think and how they come to think like teachers. From a theoretical orientation informed by insights gained from symbolic inter‐actionism, recent research in the role metaphors play in self‐understanding, and schema theory, the authors present a case study of the first year of teaching of a divorced mother of five young children. Over the course of the year this teacher's understanding of herself as teacher changes, as indicated by changes in her personal teaching metaphor, teacher is nurturer. The reasons for these changes are explored. Of particular note is the struggle this teacher has balancing the demands of home and work. Finally, some implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Doing a Jigsaw Without the Picture

This paper is one teacher's account of an attempt to confront his own professional concerns through a process of critical reflection and classroom‐based self‐evaluation. The writer examines his own motives, as well as the pedagogical issues he faces teaching English to a low‐ability class. The account chronicles the writer's exploration of these issues through an experimental all day workshop on Romeo and Juliet, and concludes with some insights Into the process of curriculum change and the culture of the Institutions within which it takes place.     

DULL AND BACKWARD CHILDREN: POST‐WAR THEORY AND PRACTICE

A survey of mathematics teaching practices in the first four years of the primary school examines teaching methods in relation to patterns of teaching behaviour. It shows how methods combine, how both the use of methods and teaching behaviour vary with school year and pupil ability, and how one method changed over a period of five years. Implications for method‐evaluation and observations on the teacher's reaction to age and ability differences are offered.     

Interactive whiteboards and talking books: a new approach to teaching children to write?

This article presents work undertaken with a class of Scottish Primary Six children (aged 10) to investigate the use of interactive whiteboard technology and interactive talking books in whole‐class writing lessons. The paper reports on a research project with three aims: to investigate how the use of an interactive whiteboard to reflect on the language and style of professional authors influenced the children's own writing; to examine the effect of this experience on the writing and behaviour of children with additional support needs; and to identify the advantages and disadvantages of using such technology in whole‐class writing lessons. The resulting evidence suggests that while some children benefited from the approach, teaching children to write through examination of professional models of writing in whole‐class lessons did not promote the most effective learning even where the text was provided in such an interactive medium. The implications of these results for practitioners who wish to use talking books and whiteboard technology to teach writing are discussed.     

La Formation par la Recherche: un espoir pour une rénovation des pratiques éducatives

While reforms in education are relatively easy to achieve at a superficial level (structures, statements of objectives) more far‐reaching attempts which seek fundamental changes in teacher attitudes and behaviour are more difficult to achieve because of the teacher's professional autonomy. A strategy found to be effective in Suisse romande has involved teachers closely in the work of educational researchers. The strategy, known as ‘interactive observation’, fulfils three functions: to bring order into the teacher‐learning process, to improve understanding, and to advance in‐service training. The creative and reflective roles demanded by this participation in research makes it easier for teachers to analyse, and where necessary modify, their own professional practices.