What’s in a name: dimensions of social learning in teacher groups

Induced by a literature review, this paper presents a framework of dimensions and indicators highlighting the underpinning aspects and values of social learning within teacher groups. Notions of social networks, communities of practice and learning teams were taken as the main perspectives to influence this social learning framework. The review exercise resulted in four dimensions: (1) practice, (2) domain and value creation, (3) collective identity and (4) organization. The indicators corresponding to these dimensions serve as the foundation for understanding social learning in practice. The framework of dimensions and indicators can be of assistance for researchers as well as teacher groups that aim to assess their views on social learning and analyse whether these views fit the learning goals of the group or that adjustments are required. In this way, learning processes within groups of teachers can be improved.     

教师职业学习团体：教师职业发展的有效途径

教师职业学习团体在国外教师职业发展过程中起到重要作用。反思我国当前教育改革背景下的教师职业发展问题,认为在校内、校际建立、维系和发展教师职业学习团体乃是促进我国教师职业发展的有效途径。     

基于WEB环境协作学习的有效性探索及应用模式构建

随着计算机和网络技术的发展,基于WEB的协作学习已经成为CSCL的研究热点。本文通过对协作学习（CL）、计算机支持的协作学习（CSCL）和基于网络的协作学习（WEBCL）的介绍,讨论了影响WEBCL有效性的因子,构建了一个WEBCL的应用模式,并在教学上进行试验,取得了一定的成果。     

A Survey of “One-Day-A-Week” Jewish Education in Philadelphia,Pa.

In light of recent developments in the Modern Orthodox community's approach to homosexuality, this article presents a classroom discussion on homosexuality that took place at a Modern Orthodox high school. An examination of the discussion's heteroglossia, or multiplicity of languages existing in tension, along with attention to the discussion's turn-taking structures, reveals the teacher's high degree of control over what students could express. This controlling pedagogy consistently suppresses expressions of empathy in favor of legalistic assertions. This article questions whether the specific issue of homosexuality demands a different approach.     

Public reflection within learning communities: an incessant type of professional development

This article is based on a study focusing on how structured learning communities can promote reflective awareness and professional development, through collaborative analysis of professional experience. As participant–observer, the researcher used recorded observations as well as individual participants’ reflective writing as data. Of importance is the fact that all seven participants argued that they developed professionally and started to dig deeper into their experiences as the five-month study progressed. They also pointed out that this type of professional development was immediately relevant to their present needs, and this was what motivated them to further engage in reflection as a tool for professional development. Aspects such as conflict and uncertainty in teacher learning, and how collaboration promotes further reflection will also be discussed.     

Virtual Learn=ng Community as New Approach of Teacher Professional Development——Reflective Research into an eLearning Program of Intercultural Collaboration between China and UK

Among the current reform measures undertaken in Chinese K-12 education, to adopt New Curricula and to improve ICT application in teaching are both decisive, however, the lack of qualified trainers is handicapping the professional development of over 10 millions in-service teachers. One of eChina ～ UK projects in collaboration between universities from both sides is designed to develop virtual learning community （VLC） among in-service teachers and explore from pedagogic perspective how to conduct VLC. In accordance with reflective learning and collaborative learning, three online learning modules have been jointly created by Chinese and UK educational specialists, and one unit from each module has been piloted by a group of senior teachers. Through analyzing the processes of course design and pilot, supported by quantitative and qualitative research into the experiences of pilot participants, the paper identifies some core factors influencing the quality of VLC and suggests that more attention should be given to the interactive learning process within VLC rather than to create well-structured learning materials before hand. It has also analyzed VLC as a promising approach to support professional development of in-service teachers from the perspective of continuous improvement process. There is much to be researched into the approach of VLC.     

Collaborative action research as a tool for generating formative feedback on teachers’ classroom assessment practice: the KREST project

This paper sets out to explore science teachers’ classroom assessment practices and outlines some of the tensions and synergies in changing assessment practices. It describes episodes from a collaborative action research project with science teachers designed to support the strengthening of classroom assessment practices – the King’s Researching Expertise in Science Teaching project. This paper focuses on how the collaborative action research project functioned as a tool for generating formative feedback for the teachers and how this feedback supported the teachers in making sense of and further developing their classroom assessment practices.     

教师专业知识及其发展:图式观与组织文化条件

对教师专业知识及其性质和特点的认识是决定教师专业发展途径的前提与基础。教师专业知识是依据特定的学生状况和教育情境,由教育教学观、学科教学知识、课堂管理知识等整合而成的一系列实践性知识,并以图式结构表征。其发展途径主要是基于问题的学习,并需要合作的组织文化条件的支持。     

Resilience in Community: Relational Learning in a Small Congregational School

ABSTRACT

This case study is an investigation of the teaching and learning of a teacher in the congregational school of which the author was the director, whose classroom practice was strongly reflective of relational learning theory. It explores the pathways through which this teacher was in turn supported in learning and teaching by relationships with peers, supervisors, and teen madrichim in the Relational Learning Community in which the faculty participated. Most significantly, this study examines how such support provided a source of resilience during a period of intense stress and disconnect, and explores the wider implications for teacher growth and retention.     

Designing STEAM Education: Fostering Relationality through Design‐Led Disruption

A significant contention underpinning the commentary around STEM / STEAM is the evidence of discipline hierarchies, and inherent binary perspectives and/or biases that lend themselves to privileging one or more disciplines over another in an interdisciplinary education context. The current focus on increasing engagement with STEM in Australian schools provides opportunities to explore how the creative and liberal arts, and arts‐based approaches to teaching and learning are being adopted to significantly enhance teaching and learning outcomes in and for STEM education. This article examines how design for a STEAM education programme evolves and is adopted in an Australian context. Tasmania represents one of the most vibrant creative communities in Australia. At the same time it has one of the lowest levels of educational attainment. Entrenched teaching habits and disciplinary hierarchies often create significant barriers to the implementation of STEAM despite genuine goodwill and enthusiasm for STEAM among teachers and within schools. This article argues that, despite the contrasting dynamics extant in the Tasmanian educational context, it is here that some of the nation’s most curious and exciting examples of STEAM teaching and learning have emerged. It offers an example of an innovative learning project and proposes the means by which these disciplinary strands have been effectively entwined.     

Creative leadership? ‘It’s just the norm’

Creativity in teaching and leadership continues to be a topic of interest in education. This article focuses on comments made by a school’s leadership team as part of a larger study in which a mixed methods case study design involving the school’s leadership team and staff who taught Arts (either as specialist teachers or generalist classroom teachers) was used. The research took place in a 6-year-old Preparatory Year to Year 9 (P-9) school in a growth corridor in metropolitan Melbourne. Staff members in the school provided responses to a questionnaire, participated in focus group discussions and were invited to maintain journals during the course of the study. Comments made by members of the school’s leadership team are analysed in this article using perspectives of pedagogical leadership and relational power. The article finds that the school's leadership team models and encourages experimentation with new ideas across the school as the team promotes the development of collaborative professional learning approaches in their relatively young school. The article concludes that professional learning communities (PLCs) within the school will be well-placed to pursue the collaborative approaches modelled by the school’s leadership team to ensure that a school-wide focus on student learning continues.