The Teacher as an Organizer

Teaching may be best defined as the organizationof learning. So the problem of successful teaching is toorganize learning for authentic results. Teaching maybe thought of as the establishment of a situation inwhich it is hoped and believed that effective learningwill take place. This situation is complicated andmade up of many parts.There must be a learner, or more usually a groupof learners.There must be facilities; a stated place and timefor meeting, and books and other printed materials fo…     

Exploring Teacher Identity： What Counts as Expertise of a Beloved Teacher

A good teacher is often depicted by virtue of certain isolated competencies, such as knowledge, skills and attitudes. Teachers＇ identity and their spiritual and emotional integrity are often ignored. This paper reports a qualitative study of the professional identity of an English teacher in a middle school to understand the identity and ex-pertise of a beloved teacher. Through interviews and classroom observation, the study reveals （1） that the teacher who owns a more advanced diploma or profes- sional certificate but confines himself/herself to transmitting only formal knowledge is not well received by his/her students, and （2） that the teacher who is appreci- ated by his/her students teaches with heart and integrity of identity, and possesses a capacity for connectedness among his/her personal experience, subject, social context and students＇ needs. The study triggers some implications for pre-service teacher education in China. The authors argue that teacher education programs must concern themselves with nourishing persons rather than technicians who are merely equipped with competencies.     

Teacher educators modelling their teachers?

The teacher educator is always also a teacher, and as a role model may have an important impact on student teachers’ views on teaching. However, what is the impact of these teacher educator’s own role models on their teaching views and practices? Do teacher educators simply imitate the positive role models and reject the bad? It is already clear that teachers and teacher educators learn more than how to play a role from their role models. Becoming a teacher or a teacher educator is a long‐term process of developing a professional identity, with role models being just one of the contributing factors. This study of 13 teacher educators addresses the impact of schoolteacher role models as part of the socialisation process of becoming a teacher.     

The Effective Teacher’s Characteristics as Perceived by Students

Tertiary Education and Management - Students (N = 1,883) from 10 European countries answered a web questionnaire pertaining to three dimensions of what they expect and what they experience from...     

Teacher Educators: hidden professionals?

The pace of change in today's society means that there is an ongoing need for teachers to learn, have new knowledge and use new pedagogical approaches to meet the needs of their pupils. For many teachers, this requires redefining their identity as teachers and what ‘teaching’ means in 21st century learning environments. These changes also require teachers to be supported in learning to ‘teach’ in different ways that are relevant to their own individual needs and to the contexts in which they work throughout their career. In this article, it is argued that a more integrated and collaborative approach to teacher education is needed with better understanding of those who take up the roles of teacher educator across a teacher's career. With a particular emphasis on ‘teacher educators’ working in school to support teachers' career-long professional learning it is argued that currently many do not recognise themselves as teacher educators nor are they recognised by those they work with as teacher educators. Drawing on an empirical study carried out with mentors in schools in Scotland, it is suggested that these teacher educators may be ‘unrecognised’ and remain ‘hidden professionals’ because of the identities they construct for themselves, the values and priorities that they or others attach to their roles or because of the institutional structures and cultures in which they work. It is concluded that it will be difficult to recognise and value these ‘hidden teacher educators’ and the distinctive contribution they can make to teachers' career-long professional learning without further clarification by them and others of the roles and responsibilities they hold.     

Is Teacher Value Added a Matter of Scale? The Practical Consequences of Treating an Ordinal Scale as Interval for Estimation of Teacher Effects

Research shows that assuming a test scale is equal-interval can be problematic, especially when the assessment is being used to achieve a policy aim like evaluating growth over time. However, little research considers whether teacher value added is sensitive to the underlying test scale, and in particular whether treating an ordinal scale as interval might lead to erroneous conclusions about teacher quality. This article addresses the issue by estimating teacher value added, then applying extremely mild nonlinear transformations to the original scale and re-estimating the value added. Although by definition at most one of these scales can be equal-interval, all are treated as if interval-scaled when estimating value added. Results show that value added is sensitive to the scale used. While rank orderings of teachers do not change radically by transformation, even mild departures from the original scale can change a teacher’s odds of being considered high- or low-performing by a factor of 5.     

Are we building preservice Teacher self-efficacy? A large-scale study examining Teacher education experiences

Teacher education programs are under great pressure to produce highly capable teachers. Teacher self-efficacy has been shown to correlate with teacher motivation and perseverance, yet little is known about how specific teacher education experiences predict teacher self-efficacy. Four sources contributing to teacher self-efficacy beliefs during teacher education programs include mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion from teacher educators, and verbal persuasion from cooperating teachers. In this study, perceptions of these sources were examined to determine how well they correlate with and predict preservice teacher self-efficacy. Results showed all four variables were strong predictors of preservice teacher self-efficacy, but that these variables accounted for only 18% of the variance, suggesting additional sources need to be examined. Perceptions of training experiences were examined across nine programs (N = 783). Implications for teacher educators and mentor teachers are provided so as to find ways to strengthen preservice teacher self-efficacy.     

When Can We Have Our Teacher Back?

~~When Can We Have Our Teacher Back?@小非 @柴立青     

Teacher–student power relations as a reflection of multileveled intertwined interactions

This paper examines the factors shaping teacher–student power relations, based on observations, interviews and document analysis from a Hong Kong study. It identifies and examines six factors: China’s traditional culture of respect, examination-oriented teaching and religious culture were found to encourage imbalanced teacher–student power relations, whereas curriculum reform, values education and some school cultures facilitated relatively balanced teacher–student power relations. The paper depicts teacher–student power relations in Hong Kong as a reflection of multileveled intertwined interactions, and as affected by the interplay of various factors. It provides empirical evidence to supplement existing understandings of the nature of teacher–student power relations, especially in a non-western context with varied socio-cultural, educational, school and classroom levels.     

Teacher training effects: Real or illusory?

Thirteen teachers from an elementary school in a rural community participated in a 16-week university extension course on behavioral approaches in the classroom. Training was conducted in five successive phases: (a) Information, (b) Instructions to Practice, (c) Guided Practice, (d) Coding Practice, (e) Performance Feedback. Reading assignments, activity assignments, and discussion took place throughout most of the course. Teacher behaviors were coded in the classroom during the course, and 5 months and 12 months after the course. Performance Feedback was reinstated after the 12-month follow-up observations. Significant increases in positive teacher behaviors and decreases in negative teacher behaviors were observed by the end of the course; however, these changes were not maintained during the follow-up observations or reinstatement of Performance Feedback. The implications of the findings for training are discussed.     

Teacher Quality

相同的职业, 不同的地域和文化, 全球的教育同仁怎样直 面职业压力和社会困惑? 不同的天空下,社会所赋予 老师的内涵有什么相同和异 同?也许这是一个很沉重的 话题,但却不容忽视。因为 教育本身就是一个很严肃 的事业。这里以文字为 平台,让全球教育同 仁开始对话!     

戏说Teacher

也许在传统的中国人眼中,一个学生在文章中大谈自己的老师,这多少有点“不敬”,尤其当一个学生来戏说Teacher时,更会被称为“不尊师重教”。那么,嘘,我们小声点。先从谁说起呢?就先从我们的班主任兼数学老师Miss陈说起吧! Miss陈第一次带班,自然没经验,一切琐事都与大伙商量着办。Miss陈能“与民同乐”,不以班头自居,常