Evidence of impact: Transforming teacher education with preparing tomorrow's teachers to teach with technology (PT3) grants

This article uses the framework of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) to analyze findings across projects from the U.S. Department of Education's Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) initiative. Approaches such as mentoring methods course faculty, teachers, and creating technology-rich instructional materials were associated with increases in preservice teachers' technological knowledge and their frequency of technology-rich instruction during field experiences. Lastly, the authors provide implications and directions for future analyses of technology integration efforts.     

Mathematics teachers’ “learning to notice” in the context of a video club

This study examines changes in teachers’ thinking as they participated in a video club designed to help them learn to notice and interpret students’ mathematical thinking. First, we investigate changes in teachers’ talk about classroom video segments before and after participation in the video club. Second, we identify three paths along which teachers learned to notice students’ mathematical thinking in this context: Direct, Cyclical, and Incremental. Finally, we explore ways the video club context influenced teacher learning. Understanding different forms of teacher learning provides insight for research on teacher cognition and may inform the design of video-based professional development.     

Experienced teachers' informal learning: Learning activities and changes in behavior and cognition

In this study on 32 teachers' learning in an informal learning environment, we analyzed changes in conceptions and behavior regarding students' active and self-regulated learning (ASL), and relations with the teachers' learning activities. Few relations were found between observed changes in behavior and learning activities. Changes in conceptions appeared to correlate with the activities obtaining new ideas, experimenting with new methods, and reflecting on why certain teaching methods seem to be effective and others not. Only one teacher became more ASL-oriented in both behavior and conceptions. The apparent variation in teachers' informal learning should lead to differentiated support for teacher learning in the workplace.     

信息技术支持的教师专业发展:从应然走向实然

全面认识信息技术在教师专业发展中的作用,对于广大教师学习并且利用信息技术促进自身专业发展具有重要意义。作者基于多年来的研究与实践,论述了信息技术在促进教师专业素养提升、加快教师专业发展进程、推动教师专业发展方式变革、提高教师绩效、引发教育变革和促进教育观念转变等五个方面的作用,并且指出,在教育信息化纵向推进的今天,研究者必须尽快完成四个转变——从应然走向实然,从描述性研究走向关系研究和过程与机制研究,从实证研究走向质性研究,从验证性研究走向设计研究。     

Tracing the effects of teacher inquiry on classroom practice

Videotape and participant observation were used to document an American high school teacher workgroup's experience with collaborative teacher inquiry and to monitor changes in practice through two cycles of instructional planning, classroom implementation, and reflective analysis. Detectable changes in practice were observed, including a substantial improvement for two of the four teachers in fidelity of implementation of an instructional innovation. Results support claim that meaningful instructional changes are more likely when teachers work in job-alike teams, are led by trained leaders, use inquiry-focused protocols, and have stable settings in which to engage in the continuous improvement of instruction.     

“You choose to care”: Teachers,emotions and professional identity

This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative interpretive study on secondary school teachers’ professional identities and emotional experiences. Teachers’ work is emotionally engaging and personally demanding, yet the caring nature of the teaching role is largely neglected in educational policy and teacher standards. This paper examines the reasons behind the marginalisation of discourses of emotionality and discusses the lived experiences of three teachers. The caring behaviour that teachers exhibit in their work is seen to have professional, performative and philosophical dimensions as individual teachers subjectively negotiate the demands that are placed upon them in different situated contexts.     

当代西方教师专业学习共同体的理论与实践

随着教师专业化发展和不断提高教育质量的迫切要求,当代西方专业学习共同体理论也应运而生。在历经了共同体理论、学习型组织理论、学习共同体理论之后,教师专业学习共同体理论也逐渐完善,并在促进教师专业发展的实践中产生了非常积极的作用。成功的专业学习共同体不仅具有共享和支持性的领导、共同的价值观和愿景、共同学习和应用、共享的个人实践、支持性条件等五个特征,而且还具有专注于学习、合作的文化、聚焦于成果等基本理念。     

Creating foundations for collaboration in schools: Utilizing professional learning communities to support teacher candidate learning and visions of teaching

Despite widespread acknowledgment of the power of professional collaboration, the norm in most schools is teachers working in isolation. Our study examined the impact of multiple layers of professional collaboration intentionally integrated into a one-year preservice teacher education program working in two elementary schools. Analysis of 23 teacher candidates' written reflections, focus group interviews, and classroom observations indicated that supported by collaboration with colleagues, they developed the skills and commitment to teach each student for understanding. Based on our research, we propose a shift in teacher education toward collaborative inquiry about teaching and learning within school/university partnerships.     

Modeling latent true scores to determine the utility of aggregate student perceptions as classroom indicators in HLM: The case of classroom goal structures

Measures of classroom climate such as classroom goal structures are often assessed through students’ perceptions; the aggregated means within classrooms are then sometimes labeled as “classroom characteristics.” The validity of these constructs is limited by the reliability of the measure at both the student and classroom level; yet, few studies accurately assess reliability when multilevel models are used. We demonstrate the use of a three-level hierarchical linear model to estimate latent true score measures of students’ perceptions of goal structures, appropriately adjusted for their nested structure. To investigate the distinctiveness of goal structures from teacher characteristics, we examined the inter-correlations among the student and classroom level variables, and predictors of each.     

From isolation to symphonic harmony: Building a professional development community among teacher educators

Professional development among teacher educators requires a framework in which collaborative learning can support growth and change. This study describes a professional development project modeled on a professional development community focused on thinking education in a teachers college. Qualitative measures revealed a multilayered process consisting of breaking personal and professional isolation through interdisciplinary collaboration, talk about student learning, improvement of teaching through skill acquisition, and professional development with the adaptation of new teaching dispositions and a sense of efficacy. The community was characterized by a safe environment which encouraged risk taking and mutual support, enabling significant change in college courses.     

新课程培训与教师成长——来自一线小学教师的心声

八年来在新课程实践中发现:面对新课程教师要想实现专业发展,需要进行不同方面、不同层面的培训。骨干教师需要进行新理念支撑下新的教学技能的培训,从而生成教育智慧;经验型教师需要得到专家在教育教学理论层面的指导,在理论支撑下提高新的教学技能;新手教师需要校内传帮带式的培训,提高教材使用、教学方法和课堂组织与管理的能力。教师自身要加强理论学习,大胆挑战自己,从而实现从教书匠向科研型教师的转变。     

Establishing and sustaining teacher educator professional development in a self-study community of practice: Pre-tenure teacher educators developing professionally

This paper outlines the professional development of pre-tenure teacher educators through the establishment of a self-study group. Through reflecting on three significant events, a discussion is offered as to how members contributed to the self-study of teacher education practices and experienced enhancement as a community of scholars. Evidence is presented as to how pre-tenure faculty can work together to build a culture that links teaching practice to scholarship within an organizational framework for group interactions. This work contributes to research on the induction of new professors by providing a model of professional development that is self-directed, collaborative, and empowering.     

Life in the Village: Teacher Community and Autonomy in an Early Childhood Education Center

This article presents findings from a qualitative case study of a public early childhood education center whose motto, the familiar African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child,” reflects the emphasis given to teacher community in the official school discourse. The meanings teachers gave to professional community were investigated. Interviews and observations were conducted at the school over a period of 12 months. Data analysis revealed an inherent tension between community ethos and personal autonomy. These findings suggest that professional teaching community is complex and contradictory, and that explicitly addressing the tension between community and autonomy would enhance teacher education and professional development.     

Professional development design: Embedding educational reform in New Zealand

Teacher professional development variously supports ongoing skill development, new knowledge, and systems change. In New Zealand, the implementation of major assessment reforms in senior secondary schools provided opportunity to investigate teacher professional development as a function of the particular stage of an educational reform. Multi-method data sources including teacher surveys and school case studies were employed to evaluate professional development during the embedding stage of a standards-based assessment system, revealing a positive relationship between professional satisfaction and teacher involvement in setting priorities for the professional development. Other positive features were networking, personalized learning, and facilitator expertise. This research illustrates the importance of tailoring professional learning to implementation phase of an organizational change.     

Preparing teacher leaders: Perceptions of the impact of a cohort-based, job embedded, blended teacher leadership program

This qualitative study was designed to examine teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of the impact of a graduate program designed to prepare teacher leaders. Impact was investigated through interviews with 20 graduates and 6 principals. Using Mezirow’s concept of transformational learning, the study documents perceived transformation of teachers’ frames of reference: two related to teaching (adopt an inquiry stance; learn to view oneself as an autonomous professional), and two related to leadership (adopt a leadership stance; view student learning as a communal responsibility). The study includes implications for the design of graduate level teacher education programs to enhance their impact and effectiveness.     

信息化背景下的微课教学与教师专业发展

微课教学孕育于信息化教学背景下,微课指的是"按照新课程标准及教学实践要求,以教学视频为主要载体,反映教师在课堂教学过程中针对某个知识点或教学环节而开展教与学活动的各种教学资源有机组合"。[1]信息化背景下的微课教学对教师提出了新的要求,同时引发了教师对自身专业发展的深度思考,教师专业发展有多个具体途径,在这些途径的突围中,微课教学与教师专业发展之间有着冲突性的碰撞,同时在碰撞中也具有积极的促进教师专业发展的意义。     

Challenging Appraisal Orthodoxies: Teacher Evaluation and Professional Development in the United Arab Emirates

This paper presents findings from a 4-year study of faculty appraisal at two higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It finds that neither teachers nor academic managers are opposed to evaluative appraisal, and, contrary to much of the literature, most are happy for evaluative and developmental elements to be combined. It then examines the apparent paradox of continuing professional development in a context where federally-funded HEIs have the money to attract more teachers than they need; the legal right to dismiss any of them for any reason; and a strong belief on the part of managers that these particular students need and deserve only the very best teachers. It concludes that these features of the UAE context present a considerable challenge to the popular notion that people are an institution’s most precious resource and need to be developed at every opportunity.     

Distilling wisdom from practice: Finding meaning in PDS stories

Much of what has been written about the Professional Development School (PDS) experience consists of recounting personal experiences. However, these accounts often offer little to readers since they are neither good research nor good storytelling. In this article I draw on mythology, folklore, psychology and literature to suggest that effective storytelling can serve the same function in nurturing PDS culture as it does in the maintenance of culture in general. After identifying potential story elements in the PDS experience, I propose ways in which to borrow from various literary genres to create PDS stories that are more engaging and meaningful.     

The Learning Research Cycle: Bridging Research and Practice

A science teacher and her mentor reflect on their participation in the Learning Research Cycle, a professional learning model that bridges research and practice in both university and public school contexts. Teachers do scientific research in scientists’ laboratories, then bridge their scientific experiences with the design of new classroom learning environments and teacher-driven educational research projects. Science students do scientific research via their teachers’ lessons that bridge laboratory research with classroom learning. Scientists and educational researchers bridge their research interests to create new questions centered on teaching and learning in authentic science learning environments. The authors engaged in this qualitative inquiry present their perspectives on “what goes on,” “what we have learned,” and “what it means to the larger community.”