The Application of Theories of Children to Disciplinary Practice

Shortages of middle-level teacher candidates may cause teacher educators to recruit candidates by focusing on what attracts and discourages candidates about teaching at the middle level. The authors used a survey approach (n = 110) to investigate why preservice middle school and high school teachers and in-service middle school teachers chose the middle grades. The results included ten common reasons that the respondents favored the middle grades and ten major concerns about this level. Three attractions to the middle grades—student age, content level, and employment market—and common beliefs about positive teacher-student relationships and students' maturity may guide teacher educators in their efforts to increase middle grades program enrollment.     

Shifting Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs About Mathematics Teaching: the Contextual Situation of a Mathematics Methods Course

For pre-service teachers (PSTs) who have been exposed to traditional approaches, teacher education courses can be a revelatory experience in their development as educators. This study explores if Canadian upper elementary/lower secondary (grades 4–10) PSTs change their beliefs about mathematics teaching as a result of taking a mathematics methods course and how the course influenced these beliefs. Surveys were used to measure participants’ mathematics beliefs, and results show that PSTs’ beliefs moved to favor reform-based approaches. Qualitative data complemented the survey results, suggesting that experiencing new approaches and having the opportunity to apply them into practice are important to their development as mathematics teachers.     

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.     

Teacher educators working on their own professional development: goals,activities and outcomes of a project for the professional development of teacher educators

This article reports on the professional development of teacher educators within the context of a national project, ‘Professional Quality of Teacher Educators,’ where a professional standard and a standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development have been created and effectively implemented. This project offered a unique opportunity to analyze the goals, activities and outcomes of the process of professional development of teacher educators in a situation in which this development is promoted by the professional group as a whole. In our research, we used 25 completed portfolio's made by teacher educators participating in the standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development. We found that teacher educators, participating in this procedure, prefer the development of their knowledge and skills over the development of their attitudes and beliefs. For their professional development, the teacher educators experiment with new activities within the work‐situation and interact with colleagues within their professional community, more than that they study theory or reflect on their work. The participating teacher educators experience a positive impact at the personal level (change in cognition and behavior). More than one‐third of them share outcomes with others. Above, they report a more positive self‐esteem and more enthusiasm for teacher education. This article may motivate other countries or institutions to invest in the professional development of teacher educators. Further research is necessary on the essence of the professional qualities of teacher educators and the relation of their professional development with student learning.     

An analysis of the processes of change in two science teachers educators' thinking

This study examined the processes of change in thinking as a means of learning about the professional development of two science teacher educators. A qualitative methodology was used. The main research tool was a semistructured in‐depth interview. The primary data analyzed came from two science teacher educators, selected from a broader set of seven. Findings emphasize the importance of questions regarding the knowledge possessed by teacher educators and of the questions regarding the role of science teacher educators. That is, the knowledge of an expert science teacher educator was more than a list of givens; it was personal and context‐bound. This study contributes new insight into the processes of teacher educators' professional development and change in their thinking. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1219–1245, 2007     

Responding Creatively to Challenges in Teacher Education: four women teacher educators tell their stories

This paper reports on a study that has mapped the stories of a group of women teacher educators. While the focus is on the period of change during the last 10 years from primarily teachers’ colleges to university‐based teacher education, the broader context of the individual women's lives is explored as well. The stories are mapped against each other and against relevant literature. In this way the study considers the challenge of change on the experiences of these women teacher educators. This study has been informed by feminist theory and has been constructed within a framework which is both narrative and collaborative. As Acker notes ‘one advantage of narrative is that history makes itself evident in the world of its actors’. In this way the intersections of the personal histories and biographies of the teacher educators within the social context in which they work are examined. These women teacher educators’ stories demonstrate similarities and differences in actions and reactions to the challenges they have faced in the last decade in teacher education. The similarities and differences are due to individual histories, career experiences and the character of the institutions in which they live their professional lives. In presenting this paper, the key focus is on reporting how the forces inherent in the changing nature of the educational environment have impacted on these teacher educators in such a way as to present challenges for each in the way they have developed in their profession as 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.     

Teacher Educator Identity Development of the Nontraditional Teacher Educator

The development of a professional teacher educator identity has implications for how one negotiates the duties of a teacher, scholar, and learner. The research on teacher educator identity in the USA has been largely conducted on traditional teacher educators, or those who have started their careers as public school teachers and then went on to the collegiate level as teacher educators. This auto-ethnography considers the professional identity formation of a nontraditional teacher educator, one whose professional career did not include a career as a public school teacher. Although there are common influences on professional development between the traditional and nontraditional teacher educator, such as biography, institutional contexts, and personal pedagogy, there are significant differences in the process as those influences are experienced. This research proposes an extended process for nontraditional teacher educators, including the search for legitimacy and belonging in the community of educators.     

Dancing in the ditches: reflecting on the capacity of a university/school partnership to clarify the role of a teacher educator

This paper used the data collected from reflective diaries, semi-structured interviews and surveys to identify and examine common themes identified in the roles required and/or perceived for teacher educators by both teachers and teacher educators. Collaboration, discussion and critique enabled personal reflection as teacher educators worked as partners to schools in a state-sponsored teaching and learning skills project. We have termed the collaboration in such an interactive project as one of ‘dancing in the ditches’, often requiring both groups to get out of their comfortable spaces and engage with each other in constantly moving situations. The teacher educators were required to be change agents at the interface of theory and practice and their experiences reflected individual journeys, but their reflections have ongoing implications for clarifying and professionalising the role of teacher educators.     

Development in South African Primary Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Work with In-Service Teachers

This paper focuses, empirically, on the developments seen in a group of South African early grades’ mathematics teacher educators in the course of a university-provincial education department partnership project. This project sought to support the district Mathematics Subject Advisers to support, in turn, teachers to implement an intervention consisting of a sequence of four lessons focused on multiplicative reasoning. Outcomes based on pre- and post-tests administered by the Subject Advisers suggested substantial pre- to post-test improvement at the student level. Subject Adviser observations and reflections pointed to successes in engendering more dialogic conversations between mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher educators focused on mathematics and its teaching and learning. The ‘double move’ of increasing overlap between the subject adviser and teacher communities, coupled with evidence that implementing the intervention had enabled the Subject Advisers to develop their mathematical and pedagogical understandings, provides a useful way of considering development in the capacity of mathematics teacher educators to support mathematics teaching and learning.

     

The Future of Teacher Education: Principles and prospects (1)

Teacher educators everywhere experience, and are concerned about, strained university-school relations. As feelings of unease and uncertainty intensify, pressures increase to re-jig teacher education programmes. Consequently, variations on the theme of teachers and teacher educators working together have emerged recently in an attempt to bridge the gulf between campus and the schools. These revisions can easily delude teacher educators into thinking that criticisms of teacher education have been countered and that the future is secured. Another interpretation is that these developments are signals that the logic of the traditional model is out of step with the times. Such signals point to the transformation and redefinition of institutions for a new kind of society. Relationships with historic partners-schools, employers, parents and teachers' unions-take on new meanings as universities and teacher education undergo reorganisation. Under these conditions, the leadership role of teacher education loses its legitimacy. Claims that university-based teacher education generates definitive teaching-related research and is the clearing-house for powerful knowledge about teaching and curriculum are no longer credible beyond the university. Further, universities and school systems increasingly judge their success by participation in an expanded global market. The inevitable outcome is a high degree of competition between (and variety in) teacher education programmes. In that environment, and with few political allies, the university-based teacher education model cannot easily survive as the principal form of teacher pre-service preparation. The challenge for teacher educators is to engage the forces that drive institutional change rather than expecting existing practices to guarantee the future. This paper proposes some principles for new approaches to teacher education that lie beyond present models. The inexorability of change and the unpredictability of the future are ideal conditions for recreating teacher education rather than celebrating its demise.     

Peer coach during field experiences: cultivating teacher candidates’ peer feedback and reflective practices

ABSTRACT

Designing field embedded experiences for teacher candidates poses a unique challenge for large teacher education programs. Field experiences must include working with students, enhanced pedagogical coaching, and interaction within a professional community. Coursework coupled with field work should engage teacher candidates in a process of planning, implementing, analyzing and reflecting, and then modifying future teaching as evidence of reflective practice. Skilled coaching by the university based teacher educator or classroom mentor is one avenue for teaching novice educators how to analyze their classroom experiences. However, in large teacher education programs the ratio of candidates to UBTEs can make adequate coaching impossible. Thus, peer coaching can provide a feasible option for UBTE coaching. The purpose of this article is to describe the peer coaching experiences of teacher candidates and their university based teacher educators during junior level clinical block courses focused on developmentally appropriate practices for students in grades 1-3. Presented are a discussion of reflective practice, a rationale for peer coaching, and the application of peer coaching within three early childhood and elementary courses. Recommendations and challenges of peer coaching in a clinical pre-service teacher education program and implications for further studies are explored in the closing.     

Critical moments in the process of educational change: understanding the dynamics of change among teacher educators

This study examines the complex process of change among teacher educators who have chosen to improve their practice in a professional development community. Storyline methodology was used to reveal the dynamic process which teacher educators undergo when they consider adopting innovative pedagogy. Findings reveal critical moments in professional development which are characterised by evaluation of feedback from colleagues and students. Professional growth results not only from interaction and negotiation of meaning within the community but also from the effects of messages received from outside the communal context. A two factor model taking into account implementation and feedback is used to show the dynamic process of evaluation and negotiation in teacher educators’ professional development trajectory. This study deepens understanding of transition towards change within learning communities, while providing insight into the development of teacher educators as a distinct professional group.     

Teachers and content area reading: Attitudes,beliefs and change

“Sometimes the teacher will say, ‘Read to the bottom of the page,’ and I try but I fall behind. Then she asks questions and a whole bunch of kids can answer the questions but I can’t. I try to keep up with everything but it's really hard. Sarah; 6th grade social studies student”.

This paper presents the results of a review of the research into content area teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about the teaching of reading within their subject area(s). As exemplified in the quote above, the ability to read and learn from text written to provide information can be difficult and frustrating for students who lack the skills. Content area teachers have been encouraged for decades to incorporate reading into their area of instruction, but have often chosen not to do this for a variety of reasons. In addition, teacher educators have attempted to work with content area teachers to help them consider how to incorporate reading instruction into their classroom.This paper takes a closer look at the reasons that motivate pre- and in-service content area teachers in grades 6–12 to either teach or not teach reading. It also examines the ways in which teacher educators have worked to help content area teachers learn how to teach reading and the degree to which these interventions have been successful. In doing so I argue that (a) our approaches to working with content area teachers on this topic have been limited and (b) simply creating positive attitudes towards teaching reading is not necessarily enough.This paper begins with a brief discussion of what it means to teach reading in the content areas. Next I present a general introduction to teacher beliefs and how they may influence the instructional decisions teachers make. Then I discuss the methodology for my review. This is followed by the results of my review with implications for how teacher educators might consider addressing this issue in the future.     

Teacher Educator Identity in a Culture of Iterative Teacher Education Program Design: A Collaborative Self-Study

Faculty in the School of Education have collaborated to re-envision teacher education at our university. A complex, dynamic, time-consuming and sometimes painstaking process, redesigning a teacher education program from a traditional approach (i.e. where courses focus primarily on theoretical principles of practice through textbooks and university-based classroom discussions) to a model of teacher education that embraces teaching, learning and leading with schools and in communities is challenging, yet exciting work. Little is known about teacher educators’ experiences as they either design or deliver collaborative field-based models of teacher education. In this article, we examine our experiences in the second implementation year of our redesigned teacher education program, Teaching, Learning, and Leading with Schools and Communities (TLLSC) and how these unique experiences inform our teacher educator identities. Through a collaborative self-study, we sought to make meaning of our transformation from a faculty delivering a traditional model to educators collectively implementing a field-based model, by analyzing the diverse perspectives of faculty at different entry points in the TLLSC development and implementation process. We found that our participation in an intensive field-based teacher preparation model challenged our notions of teacher educator identity. In a culture of iterative program design, this study documents the personal and professional shifts in identity required to accomplish this collaborative and dynamic change in approach to teacher education.     

The development of data use,data skills,and positive attitude towards data use in a data team intervention for teacher educators

This study focuses on understanding how a participation in a data team develops data skills and data use in individual teacher educators. Five teacher educators collaborated in a data team that used data to solve the problem of student teachers dropping out during their course of study. This study aimed at understanding how teacher educators learn from their participation in the data team. We collected data through interviews, surveys, and a knowledge test, and gained insight into the development of data skills, attitude towards data use, and the teacher educators' data use in daily practice. The results show that the data team members’ data skills and attitudes towards data use changed in different ways during the data team intervention depending on their initial situation, and that overall, their data use for school development increased.     

Re-thinking school–university partnerships: A Swedish case study

All trends in educational reform point away from the traditional isolation of teachers and teacher educators from their colleagues and from other stakeholders towards an increased sense of being in rather than outside the broader community. In the case of relationships between universities and schools, however, co-operation and collaboration is often complicated by their different cultures and traditions. As yet, there have been few systematic attempts to conceptualise the territory for teacher and school level development and change in relation to the sustained strategic roles which universities may play. This paper presents the results of an independent evaluation of an innovative cluster of seven partnership projects between teachers, schools, and researchers and teacher educators in a university in Sweden. It concludes that differentiated strategic partnerships are necessary in order to meet the different, ideological, generative and capacity building needs of schools and teachers.     

Teacher education as academic work: the affordances of a materialist analysis

In this paper we make an argument for paying close attention to the materiality of practice in understanding the work of teacher educators; specifically, the meanings of artefacts used by teacher educators in the course of their daily work. We locate this analysis within a dialectical materialist understanding of the development of human activity, providing examples of artefacts-in-use in initial teacher education and the meanings accorded to these artefacts by the teacher educators we observed and interviewed. Our aim is to make a case for what is afforded epistemologically when researchers pay attention to artefacts from a dialectical materialist viewpoint. In the final part of the paper, we argue that paying attention to how teacher educators engage with artefacts can help us understand the unity of psychological and social processes within dominant approaches to teacher education, as well as providing clues about how adaptation of artefacts can drive cultural change.     

Making It Better for Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Students through Teacher Education: A collaborative self-study

Teacher education programs have a critical role in helping incoming teachers develop a deeper understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues and their moral and legal obligations to counter homophobic bullying. In this self-study, two educators – a university professor and a classroom teacher, who facilitated a workshop titled “Sexual Diversity in Secondary Schools” in a faculty of education in a mid-sized Canadian city – reflect on the feedback provided by teacher candidates on workshop evaluation forms in relation to their experiences as teacher educators delivering the workshops. In particular, they consider (1) their commitment to this work; (2) why they taught the way they did; (3) the impact their approach had on teacher candidates in the workshops; and (4) what the study revealed about their teacher education practices.