Implementation eines wissenschaftlich erprobten,didaktischen Konzepts: Der Einfluss pädagogischer Autonomie auf die Wirksamkeit in der Praxis

There is growing interest in evidence-based interventions that can improve student teachers’ professional development. But how can these interventions be implemented into everyday teacher education practice by teacher educators themselves—without losing their initial, lab-tested effectiveness due to teacher educators’ practical educational autonomy? Through a quasi-experimental field study the following question is investigated: What is the impact of different degrees of educational autonomy (low/middle/high) that 19 teacher educa­tors are granted while implementing an experimentally proven concept into their teacher training courses on the development of the competence to diagnose classroom situations among 261 student teachers? ANCOVAs using planned contrasts indicate that the effectiveness of the concept can be sustained in ‘the real world’ of teacher education practice, even if practitioners—no longer researchers—are responsible for the concept realization; thereby, the highest increase in student teachers’ competence occurred when low educational autonomy was granted, i.e., the concept was implemented closely to the original.     

Unifying cognition,emotion, and activity in language teacher professional development

Emotions in the learning-to-teach experience are often ignored or downplayed by teacher educators. Using content and discourse analysis of a novice language teacher's journals, we demonstrate that the pervasive emotional content, reflecting individual teacher's perezhivanie, is a motivated, structural component of teachers' processes of cognitive development. Emotional content indexes dissonance between the ideal and reality, offering potential growth points. We apply a SCOBA of language teacher learning that unifies the dynamic, dialectical relationship among emotion, cognition, and activity, in order to orient teacher educators in mediating novice language teachers' professional development responsively.     

What and how teacher educators prefer to learn

In which areas and domains do individual teacher educators prefer to work on their professional development? What kind of learning activities do they want to take on and with whom? Are there significant differences in these preferences between teacher educators? This article reports on a recent survey (N = 268) about the professional development of teacher educators and differences in learning preferences between less and more experienced teacher educators and between university-based and school-based teacher educators. Findings show, for example, that while most university-based teacher educators were mainly interested in improving their teaching, less experienced school-based teacher educators were more focussed on aspects such as coaching skills. In this study, ‘learning profiles’ have been developed for four categories of teacher educators. These profiles may help to create more meaningful arrangements for teacher educators’ initial education and further professional development in a context where teacher education is required to have a more school-based as well as a more research-based orientation.     

Changing Educational Policies in the United States and India: Perspectives of Teacher Educators

Abstract

Educational policy changes are intertwined with teacher education at multiple levels, affecting teacher educators in a variety of ways. Despite the different contexts, teacher educators in the United States and India must fulfill a variety of roles in order to meet the demands within those contexts. This qualitative study compared the cases of seven teacher educators in Iowa in the United States and seven teacher educators in Delhi, India on their common experience of mandated policy changes. Collaboration was found to be central in the teacher education policy implementation process in Iowa, USA and Delhi, India.     

国际视野下教师教育者的界定

教师教育者这一概念在当前国际上并没有统一的界定,但这一界定又是开展教师教育者相关研究的基础,因此首先需要在国际视野下探讨当前专业组织、不同国家及研究者对于教师教育者的界定,在此基础上将教师教育者界定为首要或者主要承担教师教育的教学与研究工作,并努力达成相关的资质要求和促进自身专业发展的专业人员,就目前而言,该界定下的教师教育者主要是指高等教育中的教师教育者。     

Research on Learners and Teachers of Mathematics and Science: Forerunners to a Focus on Teacher Educator Professional Growth

This introductory paper first reflects the genesis of research in mathematics and science teacher education. The analyses show a movement from foci of research in mathematics and science education from students to teachers, and then to teacher educators. Next, an overview of research in mathematics and science teacher education and its development is provided, including teacher educators’ growth. This is followed by a comparative look at the seven papers in this special issue through three lenses, focusing on who the teacher educators in these papers are, the practices which are the focus for development, and the contexts in which the professional growth is situated. The seven papers not only exemplify how teacher educators might critically and systematically reflect on their own growth, educate new teacher educators, and do corresponding research, but also demonstrate the considerable progress the research community has made with respect to the professional growth of mathematics and science teacher educators in the last decade. Finally, challenges and questions are raised, in particular in relation to raising the quality and quantity of proficient teacher educators in order to strengthen teacher education research, and to have enough human resources to offer more and better professional development opportunities and to support schools.

     

Collaboration between teacher educators and schools to enhance development

The article focuses on school-based development and how collaboration between teacher educators and leaders and teachers can promote development in teacher education, in school and in the collaboration site in school where both parties meet. The data were collected in Norway through qualitative interviews with groups of teachers and leaders at three schools, and with a group of teacher educators. With the Cultural Historical Activity Theory as the framework, central concepts within this theory have been key elements in the study. The findings reveal that collective collaborative learning is a positive form of enhancing the professional development of teachers and that both structure and culture should interact when fostering development in school. The study also shows that the development of teacher educators’ research competence can enhance development and learning both in teacher education and in school, and also improve the developmental transfer between these two arenas.     

The teacher educator’s role as enacted and experienced in school-based development

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on teacher educators’ role and how it was enacted and experienced by teachers and leaders in a school-based development project. The arena for the teachers’ professional development was the school, and teacher educators at one teacher-education institution and three schools took part in the research. Teacher educators, teachers and school leaders were interviewed two years and two months after they formally took part in the project, for one year in a pilot program and afterward for three semesters. The findings show that the teacher educators enacted their roles differently, and that they realise that they should have collaborated more and coordinated their experiences from collaborations with teachers and leaders to learn from their experiences in school. The leaders and teachers were satisfied with the teacher educators’ lectures, but the teachers wanted more dialogue with teacher educators and felt that teacher educators should have helped them transform their knowledge into teaching actions in practice. Teacher educators taking part as supporters in teachers’ practice truly could infiltrate instruction and learning. The study demonstrates that culture, structure and content need to be coordinated to enhance school-based development.     

Measuring Teacher Educators’ Researcherly Disposition: Item Development and Scale Construction

This study reports on the development of a self-reported measurement instrument – The Teacher Educators’ Researcherly Disposition Scale (TERDS) – to improve understanding of teacher educators’ researcherly disposition. Teacher educators’ researcherly disposition refers to the habit of mind to engage with research – both as consumers and producers – to improve their practice and contribute to the knowledge base on teacher education. Taking into account the shortcomings of the emerging field of teacher educator professional development research (which is largely confined to small-scale, qualitative studies), a large-scale quantitative survey study (n?=?944) was conducted. The first part of the article reports the results of factor analysis (EFA and CFA), which suggest a four-factor structure of teacher educators’ researcherly disposition: (1) ‘valuing research’ (α?=?.86), (2) ‘being a smart consumer of research’ (α?=?.89), (3) ‘being able to conduct research’ (α?=?.82), and (4) ‘conducting research’ (α?=?.87). Goodness of fit estimates were calculated, indicating good fit. The second part of the article explores differences in teacher educators’ researcherly disposition across several subgroups of teacher educators using the developed instrument. Results indicate that having research experience leads to significantly higher scores on each of the subscales. Furthermore, significantly higher scores were found for those with more than 3 years’ experience as a teacher educator, as well as for those without (prior) teaching experience in compulsory education. To conclude, the implications for further research and practices related to teacher educators’ professional development are discussed.     

Who teaches the teachers? Identity,discourse and policy in teacher education

In this article we argue that understanding the identities that teacher educators construct for themselves is central to effecting innovation within a changing policy environment. The article begins with a theoretical perspective on the nexus of change and identity. It then discusses the central features of identity amongst a group of teacher college educators who have been incorporated into a higher education institution in South Africa. The discussion focuses in particular on their new roles as researchers. We argue that the promotion of research needs to be based on what teacher educators already perceive to be their particular strengths and roles. The paper ends with some examples of strategies for research promotion in this particular setting.     

Teachers’ Integration of Scientific and Engineering Practices in Primary Classrooms

The Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS) challenge primary teachers and students to work and think like scientists and engineers as they strive to understand complex concepts. Teachers and teacher educators can leverage what is already known about inquiry teaching as they plan instruction to help students meet the new standards. This cross-case analysis of a multiple case study examined teacher practices in the context of a semester-long professional development course for elementary teachers. We reviewed lessons and teacher reflections, examining how kindergarten and first grade teachers incorporated NGSS scientific and engineering practices during inquiry-based instruction. We found that most of the teachers worked with their students on asking questions; planning and carrying out investigations; analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking; and obtaining, evaluating and communicating information. Teachers faced challenges in supporting students in developing their own questions that could be investigated and using data collection strategies that aligned with students’ development of number sense concepts. Also, some teachers overemphasized the scientific method and lacked clarity in how they elicited and responded to student predictions. Discussion focuses on teacher supports that will be needed as states transition to NGSS.     

Teacher educators developing professional roles: frictions between current and optimal practices

This article reports on a study of the professional learning of Flemish teacher educators. In the first part, an exemplary survey was conducted in order to compile an inventory of the existing types of education initiatives for teacher educators in Flanders. An electronic survey was then conducted in order to identify the professional needs of teacher educators in Flanders. The third part of the study focused on how the professional learning of teacher educators can evolve throughout their careers. This topic was examined by organising focus groups with teacher educators at two international conferences for teacher educators. Flemish teacher educators devote considerable attention to professional learning, and they are able to meet their needs through the broad range of existing courses and programmes offered within the educational system. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement in the alignment of professional learning with the needs and career stages of teacher educators.     

Initial Science Teacher Education in Portugal: The Thoughts of Teacher Educators About the Effects of the Bologna Process

Between the 1980s and 2007, Portugal used to have one-stage (5-year period) initial teacher education (ITE) programs. In 2007 and consistent with the Bologna process guidelines, Portuguese teacher education moved toward a two-stage model, which includes a 3-year undergraduate program of subject matter that leads to a licenciatura (or bachelor) degree and a 3-year professional master in the teaching of a subject. The way that teacher educators perceive the ITE programs effects the education of prospective teachers and consequently the future of science education. This paper aims at analyzing how science teacher educators perceived the changes that took place in this formal way of educating junior school (7th–9th grades) and high school (10th–12th grades) science teachers in Portugal, due to the implementation of the Bologna guidelines. To attain the objectives of the study, 33 science teacher educators including science specialists and science education specialists answered an open-ended online questionnaire, which focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the pre- and post-Bologna ITE programs, the overall quality of teacher education and measures for improving ITE. The results indicate that science teacher educators were quite happy with all of the ITE models, but they expressed the belief that both the science and the teaching practice components should be strengthened in the post-Bologna masters in teaching. Meanwhile, changes were introduced in Portuguese educational laws, and they proved to be consistent with the opinions of the participants. However, the professional development of teacher educators along with evidence-based ITE programs seems to be necessary conditions for overcoming the challenges that teacher education is still facing in Portugal and worldwide.     

Doth the lady protest too much? Pre-service teachers and the experience of dissonance as a catalyst for development

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of beginning pre-service teachers enrolled in a large U.S. teacher preparation program (N = 34). Discussion focuses on participants' identity development as examined through the lens of the stories they learn and tell during and about their initial experiences of becoming teachers. Specifically, the analyses suggest that dissonance may play an important catalytic role in pre-service teacher identity development among the study participants. The stories participants tell illuminate their negotiations of conflicting stories about teaching, teachers work and themselves and inform a tentative theoretical model of identity development. The implications for teacher educators include immediate programmatic concerns as well as issues potentially related to teacher attrition.     

Uncovering a hidden professional agenda for teacher educators: A mixed method study on Flemish teacher educators and their professional development

Taking into account the pressing need to understand more about what teacher educators’ professional development characterises, this article adopts a mixed method approach to explore Flemish (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) teacher educators’ professional development needs and opportunities. Analysis results of a large-scale survey study with 611 teacher educators and analysis of five qualitative focus groups (with 24 teacher educators) are presented. The results confirm the lack of attention for teacher educators’ professional development in the Flemish teacher education system. Moreover, the findings indicate a structural need for participation in professional development activities that are linked to teacher educators’ own practices, organised as long-term sustainable professional development trajectories, and formally recognised. To conclude, a professional development agenda for research, policy and practices related to teacher educators’ professional development is discussed.     

Teacher educators’ professional journeys: pedagogical and systemic issues affecting role perceptions

ABSTRACT

Teacher educators in many countries share similar concerns as they aspire to improve education for learners and stimulate interest in further study and careers. The roles and professional development of school teachers have been researched, but little attention has been given to teacher educators. Using a small-scale, illuminative study in England and South Africa, this paper examines pedagogical implications of progression from classroom teacher to teacher educator-tutor. Systemic issues include attitudes to personal scholarship in moving to high stakes academic environments requiring research. In both countries, there were issues of student teachers’ subject knowledge and their capacity to translate knowledge for learners. South African teacher educators were concerned about student teachers’ lack of appreciation of the integrity of conceptual understanding and sequencing of topic content. Implications for the professional development of teacher educators and their role identities are considered.     

Uncertain identities of non-higher-education-based EFL teacher educators: a third space theory perspective

ABSTRACT

Although research on teacher educators’ identities has received increasing attention in recent years, non-higher-education-based teacher educators’ professional identities are still under-researched. Informed by the third space theory perspective, this paper presents a study that investigated 139 non-higher-education-based English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher educators’ identities through the lens of metaphors. An analysis of the metaphors revealed four types of identities, namely, the willing communicators, the discontented jack-of-all-trades and master of none, the struggling professional leaders, as well as the caring supporters. These terms capture the participants’ self-images and specify their obligations and responsibilities as teacher educators. The paper concludes with some implications for teacher educators’ preparation and continuing development.     

Professional portfolios: The “talk” of the student teaching experience

Professional dispositions are an important component in teacher education programs. Therefore, it is important that teacher education candidates and teacher educators agree on what dispositions mean, understand how dispositions will be assessed, and agree on how they are portrayed. This study compared dispositional self-assessments from 248 undergraduate elementary education and special education candidates with their instructors over five semesters. Overall, results indicated that candidates and instructors shared similar perceptions. Specifically, candidates and instructors agreed that candidates were frequently tardy to class and submitted written work that did not meet program standards. However, candidates acknowledged displaying off-task behaviors during class that were not noted by faculty. Implications for teacher educators based on the data are included.