Taking the next step: Connecting teacher education,research on teaching,and programme assessment

We cite four disconnections among teacher education programmes, research on teaching, and programme assessment that contribute to a paucity of systematically collected evidence and the inability of teacher educators to fully address the “outcomes question” [Cochran-Smith, M. (2003). Assessing assessment in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 54, 187–191] now central to the conduct and future of teacher education programmes. To reduce those disconnections, we present the Development, Research, and Improvement model of programme assessment [Metzler, M. W., & Tjeerdsma, B. L. (1998). PETE program assessment within a development, research, and improvement framework. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 17, 468–492] that has guided a comprehensive, longitudinal, and research-based assessment project at Georgia State University in the United States for 13 years. We situate this work in the framework of Self-Study of Teacher Education, now gaining attention worldwide as a legitimate approach to bridging the methodological and evidentiary gap between teacher education programmes, research on teaching, and programme assessment. Examples of data collected in the longitudinal programme are described, along with illustrations of how those data have guided decisions about our teacher education programme, and how those findings can add to the empirical knowledge in teacher education.     

Exploring scientific,artistic, moral and technical reflection in teacher action research

Reflection in action research is a complicated matter because of the many domains of reflection and most significantly, the lack of understanding of these domains of reflection in action research and how these are supported. In this paper, we propose a framework based on four domains of reflection, namely, scientific, artistic, moral and technical reflection. We describe an initial attempt to use this framework in relation to the actual practice of teacher reflection in action research and show that the framework allowed us to map the various domains of reflection that teachers use in relation to their action research. This helped us to gain insight into the differences and the course of reflection in action research. We discuss how the framework – through orientation, differentiation and deepening – might provide support for reflection in action research.     

优秀大学英语教师专业发展观念的叙事探究

文章运用叙事探究的理念与方法,对江苏省某重点高校两位优秀大学英语教师的专业发展观念进行了描述、诠释与反思,揭示了她们对于专业发展内涵、动力、途径和制约因素的理解。研究发现,教师专业发展观念的形成与变化受到教育背景、生活环境、从业经历、个人兴趣等主客观因素的影响;自主发展意识与专业追求是教师发展的内在动力,持之以恒的反思、定期的脱产进修和任务驱动式的专业协作是教师发展的主要途径。     

Examining study attrition: Implications for experimental research on professional development

As teacher professional development research includes more experimental designs, new challenges arise. We examine the threat of participant attrition as an example of the types of problems researchers face. Counter-intuitively, higher levels of recruitment effort were related to higher dropout rates among teachers. We also found that teachers left because of changes in teaching assignments, institutional challenges, and personal challenges. Finally, the majority of teachers in urban schools dropped out, while the majority of teachers in rural or suburban schools remained. We conclude with recommendations for future teacher learning experiments.     

University teacher educators’ research engagement: Perspectives from Saudi Arabia

This paper examines university teacher educators’ engagement with and in educational research. Survey results collected from eighty-two teacher educators at a leading university in Saudi Arabia pointed to modest levels of research activity and also suggested that these individuals held largely technical views of what research is. Their assessments of their institutional research culture also signalled a perceived gap between the research productivity expected of them and the support they received from their university. The implications of these findings for promoting research activity among university teacher educators, where this is considered desirable, are discussed.     

反思性学习策略在大学英语写作教学中的实证研究

该研究设计了一次旨在运用反思性学习策略提高大学生英语写作能力的教学实验,在为期14周的写作教学中,教师改变传统英语写作教学作文的批改模式,让学生自改、互改,认识错误的根源,建立错误档案,通过反思、内省的方式让学习者对自身写作中存在的困难和问题加以反思和总结,从而提高英语写作水平。定量和定性的分析结果表明：在英语写作教学中运用作文＂自改、互改—教师修改—再修改＂这种反思学习策略,学生在词汇、语法和句法类型出错的机率都显著降低,从而有效地提高了英语写作水平。     

A research model for the study of science teachers’ PCK and improving teacher education

In this article, a new research model for the study of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is presented which aims to improve teacher education. This model called “educational reconstruction for teacher education” (ERTE) represents the framework for an integrative approach to the study of science teachers’ topic specific PCK, which is a largely unexplored field. By integrating the PCK concept, originating in the American Curriculum tradition, into the German (Fach)didaktik tradition, this model adds a new perspective to (Fach)didaktik. This paper, therefore, also aims to clarify the PCK concept and its relation to Fachdidaktik.     

Teacher behaviour and student outcomes: Suggestions for research on teacher training and professional development

The study reported here examines whether teaching skills included in the dynamic model of educational effectiveness can be grouped into types of teacher behaviour and whether these types are related with different student outcome measures. The data stem from a study which was conducted in order to test the validity of the dynamic model. Results reveal that teaching skills can be grouped into five types of teacher behaviour which are discerned in a distinctive way and move gradually from skills associated with direct teaching to more advanced skills concerned with new teaching approaches and differentiation of teaching. Teachers exercising more advanced types of behaviour have better student outcomes. Suggestions for research on teacher education and professional development are drawn.     

Thriving not just surviving: A review of research on teacher resilience

Retaining teachers in the early stages of the profession is a major issue of concern in many countries. Teacher resilience is a relatively recent area of investigation which provides a way of understanding what enables teachers to persist in the face of challenges and offers a complementary perspective to studies of stress, burnout and attrition. We have known for many years that teaching can be stressful, particularly for new teachers, but little appears to have changed. This paper reviews recent empirical studies related to the resilience of early career teachers. Resilience is shown to be the outcome of a dynamic relationship between individual risk and protective factors. Individual attributes such as altruistic motives and high self-efficacy are key individual protective factors. Contextual challenges or risk factors and contextual supports or protective factors can come from sources such as school administration, colleagues, and pupils. Challenges for the future are to refine conceptualisations of teacher resilience and to develop and examine interventions in multiple contexts. There are many opportunities for those who prepare, employ and work with prospective and new teachers to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors and so enable new teachers to thrive, not just survive.     

Understanding teacher learning in secondary education: The relations of teacher activities to changed beliefs about teaching and learning

In this study, relations between learning activities of teachers and changes in their beliefs were examined. Thirty-four teachers in Dutch secondary education were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their beliefs about teaching and learning on two occasions. They were also asked to report on learning activities that they undertook. Teachers who had changed their beliefs in a direction congruent with the aims of recent educational reforms often reported experimentation with colleagues' teaching methods. Teachers who changed their beliefs in a direction that was not congruent with the reform often reported experimentation with alternative methods due to discontent with the effectiveness of current methods.     

Revisiting the teachers' lounge: Reflections on emotional experience and teacher identity

This essay explores the relationship between emotion and teacher identity, using a framework of personal experience and published research from a variety of disciplines. The author argues that an increased awareness of emotional experience serves not only to increase rapport among educators, but also to counteract the persistent dehumanization of the teaching profession in our current sociopolitical context. She highlights the work of other educational scholars to suggest various means by which this awareness can be cultivated in research and teaching practice.     

Situated learning theory and the pedagogy of teacher education: Towards an integrative view of teacher behavior and teacher learning

Lave and Wenger have greatly influenced existing views of learning and teaching, but relatively little has been written about the implications for the understanding of teacher behavior and teacher learning, and for the pedagogy of teacher education. Based on their work, a three-level model of learning is used to analyze the friction between teacher behavior in practice and the wish to ground teachers' practices in theory. Supported by empirical data on teacher learning and brain research, this model reconciles the situated learning perspective with traditional cognitive theory, and leads to concrete implications for the pedagogy of teacher education.     

Supporting presence in teacher education: The connection between the personal and professional aspects of teaching

This study follows one individual student teacher during a period of one single school year in which she was supported in developing ‘presence’ while teaching. The notion of ‘presence’ was formulated by the teacher herself, and coincides with the growing interest in this aspect in psychology, and in theories about becoming a teacher. In her supervision, the so-called core reflection approach was used, which strongly builds on the concept of presence and on positive psychology. Based on analyses of audio taped supervisory sessions, six stages were identified in the teacher's development. These stages are described and related to theories about positive psychology and core reflection. The supervisor's interventions leading to the transitions between the stages were identified, analysed, and related to key principles of core reflection. It appeared that the teacher's growth not only led to experiencing ‘presence’ while teaching, but also to a greater use of her personal qualities. Taken together, it appeared that after the supervision the teacher was much more ‘in flow’, and that she was more effective as a teacher. In this article, both the teacher's growth and the supervisor's interventions are described in detail, and illustrated using quotations from supervisory sessions, logbooks, and interviews. A case is made for connecting professional and personal aspects in supervising student teachers.     

行动研究在大学英语教学中的应用

教学行动研究是近年来国外发展起来的一种教学理论研究方法,它是能够解决教学与研究领域脱节的问题,使教学行为向着更专业、更系统的方向发展。本文作者通过英语课堂教学中所做的教学行动研究,反思教学效果,探讨这种研究方法在提高教学效果中的实践意义。     

How to conduct research on the inherent moral significance of teaching: A phenomenological elaboration of the standard repertory grid application

George Kelly’s repertory grid application seems a promising method for researching the moral significance of teaching from a ‘life world’ perspective. However, we encountered several challenges employing the repertory grid in its standard form for an inquiry into the inherent moral significance of teachers’ everyday classroom interactions. In this article we will set out in detail how, on the basis of the standard repertory grid application, we developed a repertory interview method that can be used to collect data that could foster a thorough understanding of the inherent moral significance of teachers’ day-to-day classroom interactions.     

Perception of the accomplished teacher among teacher educators in “research oriented” and “teaching oriented” institutes in Israel

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceived components of effective teachers among teacher educators in research and teaching-oriented institutes in Israel.     

The challenge of involvement in reflective teaching: Three case studies from a teacher education project on conducting classroom discussions on socio-scientific issues

The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn more about how teachers deal with a reflective teaching approach aimed at developing their competencies in analysing and facilitating classroom discussions on socio-scientific issues. Three cases of teachers' journeys through the project are reconstructed and characterised. We posit that each teacher benefited from the project according to his or her individual situation, needs and learning style. A number of modifications to the project design are proposed and can be summarised by the idea of assisting teachers more closely and more individually as they pass through the reflective teaching process.     

Impact of professional development on teacher practice: Uncovering connections

An Inquiry Learning Partnership (ILP) for professional development (PD) was formed between a university, science centre, and two urban school districts to offer 4–6th grade teachers specific science content and pedagogical techniques intended to integrate inquiry-based instruction in elementary classrooms. From pre/post content exams, PD surveys, focus group, and assessment data, teachers increased their science content knowledge, reported implementing inquiry practices in their classrooms and their students experienced modest gains on 5th grade standardized science achievement exams. While some teachers were transferring knowledge/skills gained in professional development to their classrooms, others encountered barriers to implementing PD. These obstacles included limited resources, time constraints, mandated curriculum pacing, language learning, and classroom management issues. Strategies to mitigate these barriers in order to maximize the impact of professional development need to be a priority in professional development reform.     

Aspects of school-university research networks that play a role in developing, sharing and using knowledge based on teacher research

School-university research networks aim at closer integration of research and practice by means of teacher research. Such practice-oriented research can enhance teachers’ professional knowledge development, and can benefit both schools and university. This paper reports on 21 participants of a school-university research network embedded in a Master’s program. The main question was: which aspects of a school-university research network play a role in processes of developing, sharing and using knowledge based on research by Master’s students? Fifteen network aspects were distinguished, which together provide a useful framework for better understanding and further study of knowledge processes in school-university research networks.