Educational psychology within teacher education

In a context where the role of the teacher and teacher education are undergoing considerable change, the role of educational psychology in teacher preparation is discussed within a new framework. Educational psychology is now perceived as an inherent component within teacher training and professional development, having previously been an additional course and often considered irrelevant to teaching practice. The current paper discusses the relationship between educational psychology and teacher preparation. Educational psychology's contribution to teachers' professional development is delineated through the constructs of teachers' prior beliefs about teaching, reflective practice and self‐efficacy, while its contribution to the improvement of teacher–pupil interaction is viewed through the lenses of instruction theories, social and emotional learning, special educational needs and classroom management. It is argued that through a productive dialectic dialogue between educational psychology and education, educational psychology provides the knowledge defined by its field to be utilized by teachers, whereas at the same time, teachers gain a wider reconceptualization of their practice.     

教师专业发展及其有效性评价：走向概念性框架的思考

如何有效地开展教师专业学习一直是教育学者及政策制定者探索的课题。在教学实践中和从教学实践中学的概念路径是提升和改善教师专业发展的实证经验。教师专业学习的动态本质在于,教师在个体和共同体条件下对镶嵌在教学实践中的知识不问断地、持续地认知与反思。核心特征的方法论起点是应对这一专业发展观的评价策略,概念性评价框架的形成是实现专业发展评价的理论假设,形成基础的概念框架则是专业发展评价的基本趋势。     

Same Assessment,Different Practice: Professional consciousness as a determinant of teachers' practice in a school-based assessment scheme

The forms that assessment takes are widely recognised as determinants of educational practice. This paper, however, argues that a teacher's professional consciousness is a more fundamental determinant of teaching practice. To explore the issue, this paper examines data from a larger study which set out to examine the relationship between teachers' practice and their beliefs in the context of a mandatory school-based assessment scheme. Using a theoretical framework that advocates an emancipatory approach to educational changes, it was found that some teachers adopted a passive role regarding policy interpretation and implementation while others adopted a more critical stance in interpreting the policy requirements, demonstrating a more proactive approach in its implementation. The emancipatory approach is conceptualised in terms of three key dimensions: professional confidence, professional interpretation and professional consciousness. The findings of the study carry implications for teacher professional development.     

Teaching a new science and technology course: A sociocultural perspective

This study inquires into the influence of subject communities on the practice of secondary school teachers as they teach a new science and technology course that crosses traditional subject and department boundaries. The study focuses on two teachers from different professional communities—a science teacher and a technology teacher—who were teaching an applied physics course that was piloted in British Columbia. Interview and observational data were collected that illuminate the classroom practices and perspectives of the two teachers. As the teachers taught the course, they both changed their normal teaching practice. Their respective new practices, however, were different in important ways even though they both started with the same course outline, textbooks, and laboratory materials. We interpret these differences in the teachers' practices using sociocultural practice theory and argue that the differences can be understood in terms of the influence of their different professional communities which are shown to provide the backdrops against which the teachers developed their approaches to the course. Recommendations are made that encourage using the subject community as a unit of analysis in educational change studies and using sociocultural practice theory as a theoretical perspective for thinking about educational change and making policy decisions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach, 35: 777–789, 1998.     

‘Teacher as Professional’ as Metaphor: What it Highlights and What it Hides

This article is concerned with the downsides of using the language of professionalism in educational discourse. It suggests that the language of professionalization can be a powerful rhetorical device for promoting welcome and necessary changes in the field of teaching but that, in doing so, it can unintentionally misrepresent the work that teachers do. Taking as a theoretical framework Lakoff and Johnson's metaphor theory, the article argues that ‘teacher as professional’ should be seen as a metaphor of teaching on par with other metaphors familiar from the history of educational thought. What metaphors of teaching have in common, the article advances, is that they systematically highlight certain aspects of teaching while hiding others. The significance of this conclusion is twofold. Appreciating the limits of the ‘teacher as professional’ metaphor provides guidance about how to use more effectively ‘professionalism’ as a normative standard for promoting change in teaching and teacher education. Second, appreciating the metaphorical character of ‘teacher as professional’ has heuristic value in that it offers a novel explanation for the controversial trend towards conceptualising teaching in narrowly instructional terms.     

Broadening the lens: an investigation of student teachers' changing perceptions of pedagogy following a teaching placement in a primary school in mainland Europe

This paper presents the findings of an investigation of student teachers' changing perceptions of educational practice following a teaching placement in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Up to 900 primary languages, student teachers annually have spent a 4-week teaching placement in a partner country as an integral part of their initial teacher education programme. The aims of the bilateral experience were to improve students' subject knowledge as well as to offer opportunities to enhance their professional understanding through comparing practice in two distinct cultural settings. This study draws from both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from 122 postgraduate certificate in education student teachers who were following the primary language route at Canterbury Christ Church University and Liverpool Hope University. The findings show that through reflection and analysis of the differences and commonalties in the diverse cultural contexts, students develop a greater understanding of their professional role and a deeper insight into their own values and beliefs about pedagogy. Their acceptance of taken-for-granted norms is challenged during the bilateral placement, as they encounter new approaches to differentiated learning, teaching and learning strategies and teacher/pupil relationships, thus enhancing their levels of critical engagement with educational practice.     

Teaching and Learning Generic Skills in Universities: The case of 'sociology' in a teacher education programme

The paper examines the links between a recent focus in Australian universities on 'generic skills' or 'graduate qualities', and national employment policies directed at developing employment-related 'key competencies'. It examines the attempt by a team of teacher educators in Australia to develop curricula that would meet the goals of national workplace policy initiatives, while retaining the traditional university concern of teaching critical evaluation of information and social practice. The specific example is the teaching of sociology within a teacher education programme. However, the examples and analysis offered here would be of interest to university teachers working with students in any professional degree programme where there is an expectation that students will be able to understand and apply sociological knowledge within their professional field. The project was framed within the policy context of 'meeting students' needs' .     

Co-Researching the Concept of 'Noticing and Adjusting' in Monitoring Literacy Learning

The present article describes the rationale, development and initial evaluation of a framework for enquiry that enabled a team of educational psychologists from four local education authorities to co-research the concept of 'noticing and adjusting' in relation to children's literacy progress. The work is based on reflective practice where psychologists and teachers considered the usefulness of the framework in developing interactive assessment and teaching approaches in the classroom. The collaborative work helped us to focus on teacher practice and innovative thinking rather than child, teacher or resource/environmental deficits.     

Spatial thinking in science,technology, engineering,and mathematics: Elementary teachers' beliefs,perceptions, and self-efficacy

Fostering students' spatial thinking skills holds great promise for improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. Recent efforts have focused on the development of classroom interventions to build students' spatial skills, yet these interventions will be implemented by teachers, and their beliefs and perceptions about spatial thinking influence the effectiveness of such interventions. However, our understanding of elementary school teachers' beliefs and perceptions around spatial thinking and STEM is in its infancy. Thus, we created novel measures to survey elementary teachers' anxiety in solving spatial problems, beliefs in the importance of spatial thinking skills for students' academic success, and self-efficacy in cultivating students' spatial skills during science instruction. All measures exhibited high internal consistency and showed that elementary teachers experience low anxiety when solving spatial problems and feel strongly that their skills can improve with practice. Teachers were able to identify educational problems that rely on spatial problem-solving and believed that spatial skills are more important for older compared to younger students. Despite reporting high efficacy in their general teaching and science teaching, teachers reported significantly lower efficacy in their capacities to cultivate students' spatial skills during science instruction. Results were fairly consistent across teacher characteristics (e.g., years of experience and teaching role as generalist or specialist) with the exception that only years of teaching science was related to teachers' efficacy in cultivating students' spatial thinking skills during science instruction. Results are discussed within the broader context of teacher beliefs, self-efficacy, and implications for professional development research.     

Mentoring: Immigrant teachers bridging professional practices

New teachers who enter Australian educational systems must acquire suitable knowledge that enables them to function effectively as a teacher in this country. For immigrant professionals new to the system mere transfer of knowledge does not suffice and does not satisfy their professional perception of self. Teachers who are born and trained overseas lack culturally specific educational knowledge. These shortfalls can initiate unforseen dilemmas for their professional development and shifts in their definition of self. Acquiring new knowledge requires teachers to understand the social elements of learning and teaching in local contexts and to apply them appropriately. Mentoring relationships can be a means of bridging the gap between the newcomers' former ways of knowing and current practice, thereby mobilizing their capacity to operate effectively as a teacher in their new contexts and develop a positive professional identity. In this paper we draw on interview data from a study that involved immigrant teachers.     

The contribution of educational research to teachers’ professional learning: philosophical understandings

In this paper, we argue from principle that teacher education must enable a positive relationship between educational research and teaching knowledge and practice. We discuss two popular conceptions of good teaching, which conceive of the teacher as craft worker and as executive technician, and suggest that, while each of these aspects of knowing reflects something of the qualities that good teachers need, any one on its own is insufficient. In contrast to such mono-dimensional conceptions, a research-based textured notion of professional judgement encompasses a complementary and mutually enriching relationship between different aspects of professional knowledge and practice. We identify three interconnected and complementary aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge: situated understanding; technical knowledge; and critical reflection. Accordingly, teaching as professional endeavour demands of teachers practical know-how, conceptual understandings of education, teaching and learning, and the ability to interpret and form critical judgements on existing knowledge and its relevance to their particular situation. We conclude that in principle research can both enrich and be enriched by teachers’ professional knowledge and practice but that to build this relationship in a holistic way into teacher education programmes and partnership models presents considerable practical challenges.     

Articulating the Relationships Between Theory and Practice in Science Teaching: A model for teacher professional development

In-depth analysis of science teachers' idiosyncratic instructional behaviors combined with the notion of deliberated 'teacher reflection' as a means of improving professional teaching practice has become one of the most pervasive concepts to influence science teacher education during the past decade. Sweeney and coworkers have described how the notion of teacher reflection and Lytle and Cochran-Smith's typology of teacher research were utilised to examine the relationships between a beginning high school chemistry teacher's articulated personal practice theories and his actions as demonstrated by his curricular decisions and instructional practices. Using data drawn from the previous study, this report focuses on examining how the methodological approach taken in the investigation (explicit, deliberate articulation and analysis of a teacher's instructional behaviors and rationales within the context of a mentoring relationship) may serve as a useful model for teacher professional development across all areas of instruction.     

Teachers' talk of experiencing: Conflict,resistance and agency

This article draws on the concept of experiencing to highlight a positive connection between resistance and agency, and its potential for teachers' professional development and educational change. The article examines teachers' discourse during a Change Laboratory intervention aimed at developing teaching practices. The intervention was initiated to deal with problems in the evaluation of students' learning. The article analyzes in particular the case of a teacher whose discourse shifted from critical and disruptive to constructive and agentive. The analysis explains this transition as a process of experiencing through which this teacher faced and worked out critical conflicts related to her teaching.     

教师教学行为的现状分析与变革路径——以研究性学习指导教师为例

教师的教学行为对课程实施效果和课堂教学质量起着至为关键的作用。调查表明,研究性学习指导教师的教学行为呈现出多元和复杂的特征。多数教师认同新课程倡导的教学方式和学习方式,但在实践中要践行这种理念会遭遇很多困境,教师教学行为与课程改革的要求有一定的差距。变革教师教学行为的有效路径和策略包括引导教师从学生发展的角度认识教育的价值,提升教师变革动力;建构具有共同的价值观和教育理想的学校文化;重建合作开放的教师专业文化;构建基于人格和谐发展的课程评价体系;建立动态互惠的院校合作伙伴关系;以教师专业发展理论为指导改进教师培训模式,提升教师的课程实施能力等。     

Fostering Second Graders' Scientific Explanations: A Beginning Elementary Teacher's Knowledge,Beliefs, and Practice

Teaching science as explanation is fundamental to reform efforts but is challenging for teachers—especially new elementary teachers, for whom the complexities of teaching are compounded by high demands and little classroom experience. Despite these challenges, few studies have characterized the knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices that support or hinder teachers from engaging their students in building explanations. To address this gap, this study describes the understandings, purposes, goals, practices, and struggles of one third-year elementary teacher with regard to fostering students' explanation construction. Analyses showed that the teacher had multiple understandings of scientific explanations, believed that fostering students' explanations was important for both teachers and students, and enacted instructional practices that provided opportunities for students to develop explanations. However, she did not consistently take up explanation as a goal in her practice, in part because she did not see explanation construction as a strategy for facilitating the development of students' content knowledge or as an educational goal in its own right. These findings inform the field's understanding of teacher knowledge and practice with regard to one crucial scientific practice and have implications for research on teachers and inquiry-oriented science teaching, science teacher education, and curriculum materials development.     

Physics teachers: a holistic plan for professional education during both the pedagogical stage and the probation year

Despite the Bologna agreement implementation in 2008, teachers' education in Portugal has not changed significantly from earlier practice. The major modification in the requirements of master’s level teacher education programmes was the introduction of a strong component of educational research in a master’s degree; this is designed to replace an educational monograph in the typical 5-year ‘Licenciatura’. Both a professional one-year in-school pedagogical stage and a fifth year as a university student continue to be mandatory, as well as the stage co-supervision of the university and the school. However, existing government regulations imply that in the very near future the full professional education of teachers will have to be complemented with an in-service probation year conducted under the supervision of a school mentor. The current study has been designed to try to determine: (a) how the activities of the probation year should be organised in order to improve this stage of professional education; and (b) how probation years could be used to promote school–university partnerships that could provide for more effective in-service teacher education and/or possible shared educational action research. Drawing on the survey data from pre-service students from four different universities, novice teachers, stage supervisors and school principals, information was collected on the perceptions of the quality and scope of the professional education of future teachers from the beginning of their programmes through their pedagogical stage. A high degree of agreement among all the respondents enables us to point towards the perceived high quality of several components of the teacher education programmes, e.g, teachers’ ability to plan a lesson using different teaching strategies and the high value-accorded school–university collaborations. The results also show the weaknesses of other components, e.g, teachers’ skill with controlling badly behaved students and their ability to capture students’ attention and motivation. Based on these results and on our knowledge about the type of professional support needed to promote teaching practice, we conclude with a holistic plan designed for teachers’ professional education during the pre-service pedagogical stage and the in-service probation year.     

Biography,Identity, and Inquiry: The making of teacher,teacher educator,and researcher

This is a self-study of my professional and cultural biography and identity, a history which directed me first toward the work of urban teaching and then into teacher education and research into comparative educational issues of racial and national identity. I use this inquiry to demonstrate how biography and identity influences the lived experience of teaching and the researcher's stance. I also examine areas where preservice urban teacher education programs must improve. My personal recommendations describe experiences that would have better prepared me for urban teaching. Suggestions include expanding coursework in the historical, political, and sociocultural influences on urban education and in designing culturally responsive curricula. I also recommend restructuring field experiences to offer richer classroom-based learning opportunities for preservice teachers and extending fieldwork into urban communities. Finally, I suggest ongoing inservice teacher education in learning-community models that respond to educators' context-specific teaching concerns.     

教师叙事与专业发展

对于教师而言，教育叙事是促进专业发展的方式。这是因为叙事是教师教育生活的一种方式；教师以叙事方式认识教育教学；教师以叙事的方式建构教育经验。教师进行教育叙事能锻炼观察日常教育生活的能力．帮助洞悉个人实践知识，提高反思探究能力，提升课程意识。     

论教师教育实践的价值及主要形式

教师专业发展是21世纪国际教师教育改革实践创新的大趋势。教师专业发展离不开教师的实践活动,教育活动在本质上是一种教师与学生之间特殊的交往实践,是教师和学生双方互动的过程。教师的实践性知识、教学能力、教学机智、教育观念以及职业认同感和幸福感均来自于教师自身的教育实践。教师可以通过交往性实践和反思性实践来实现自身的专业发展。     

Culture and Classroom Reform: The case of the District Primary Education Project,India

Reform in teaching and learning forms one of the basic dimensions of educational reform. This study explores the impact of the reform process on teacher thinking and classroom practice in the multi-donor supported District Primary Education Project in Karnataka, India. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, a variety of aspects dealing with teaching and learning are examined in order to understand the extent to which changes are taking place in the classroom. The study analyses the impact of four cultural constructs, which frame teaching and learning in India: holism as a shared worldview that encourages openness to regulation; the hierarchical structure as a regulative social framework; knowledge as discovered and attested collectively; and the 'sense of duty' that defines the role of the teacher (and student). The conclusion of the study is that while there are observable changes in the classroom in the use of instructional aids and activities during instruction, the essential characteristics of traditional practice, namely rote and repetition has not changed. Both teachers' openness and resistance to reform are portrayed as embedded in the cultural construction of teaching and learning.