The potential of teaching schools in enabling student teacher learning for the teaching profession

In 2011 the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa was promulgated. This framework proposes the establishment of teaching schools to strengthen pre-service teacher education. This study arises from this initiative. A generic qualitative study was undertaken to explore the views of research participants from selected teacher education institutions and schools in South Africa on the potential of teaching schools to enable student teacher learning for the teaching profession. The key findings are that teaching schools can potentially make a distinctive contribution towards enabling student teacher learning for the teaching profession through student teachers experiencing good teaching in a model environment and through coordinating experiences in coursework and at the school. The discussion of the findings points to the distinctive potentialities of teaching schools for strengthening teacher education. The notion of hybridity and third space is invoked as a heuristic to shed light on the developing of a true collaborative relationship between the teacher education institution and the teaching school for enabling student teacher learning for the teaching profession.     

Boundaries and bricolage: examining the roles of universities and schools in student teacher learning

The literature shows that an active exploration of difference between university‐ and school‐based perspectives can provide important opportunities for student teacher learning in initial teacher education. This paper presents a study that looks at the learning opportunities presented to student teachers as they talk about teaching and learning with their school‐based mentor and part‐time university‐based tutor on a distance education course in initial teacher education in the UK. The study adopts an activity theoretical approach complemented by a broader social learning theory perspective. Content analysis is used in four separate cases to examine and report on conversations that centre around one taught lesson. The study reveals understandings about the way that learning opportunities are presented to student teachers and argues that it can be enhanced by looking at student teacher learning systemically, with a focus on dissonant perspectives.     

(Re)turning to practice in teacher education: embodied knowledge in learning to teach

Contemporary research conversations about the utility of practice theories to professional education support the reconceptualisation of pre-service teacher education in ways that provide strong preparation for continued professional learning. This paper reports on an empirical inquiry that introduced a theoretically informed practice-based intervention in a pre-service teacher education course in order to judge the utility of such an approach for student learning. Innovations within the Study of Teaching programme illustrate the bringing together of pedagogies of observation, pedagogies of enactment, and pedagogies of reflection toward an integrated theory of teacher education that focuses on the teaching body as a central site for research and for the building of preparatory knowledge and skill for ongoing learning. Data was collected from pre-service teachers involved in the programme through video and audio recordings along with individual and focus group interviews, questionnaires and student reflection on video recordings. These were analyzed within an emerging theoretical framework derived from both practice-theoretical literature and international empirical research into core practices. Initial findings suggest that a focus on practice within pre-service teacher education may enhance traditional understandings of ‘practice-based’ approaches that situate the study of practice outside of the university, in school settings. These findings have implications for the ongoing reform of teacher education in increasingly regulated contexts framed in terms of teacher quality.     

英美大学与中小学合作促进教师专业发展的经验与启示

教师素质的好坏直接影响教育质量的高低,教师教育担负着提高教师素质的重任,可见教师教育改革是教育改革的关键。在20世纪80年代以来的西方新一轮教育改革中,许多国家都将教师培养和培训的改革作为重点。美国的专业发展学校和英国的校本教师培训就是这种改革的产物,它们所反映的面向中小学实际需要的教师教育观,在一定程度上代表了未来教师教育的发展方向。因此,考察英美教师教育改革的经验,能为我国当前的教师教育改革提供有益的启示。     

Primary homework in England: the beliefs and practices of teachers in primary schools

This study examines teachers’ views about and practices in homework in primary schools, based on questionnaire data from 235 primary teachers and 19 in-depth interviews. Findings suggest that teachers prioritise contradictory goals and act in ways that support only some of these. Reading with parents is a universal form of homework and other homework focuses either on English or mathematics or takes a project-led approach. Integration of homework into class learning is problematic. Teachers are concerned about the possible effects of homework on educational inequality and questions are raised about teachers’ perceptions of homework as a signifier of good parenting.     

Changes in outdoor learning in primary schools in England, 1995 and 2017: lessons for good practice

ABSTRACT

Outdoor learning provides memorably relevant learning and authentic, contextualised opportunities to extend classroom-based education. This research draws on empirical data from surveys involving teachers in primary schools in England in 1995 and 2017 (n=61 and n=40 respectively). The evidence illustrates that schools are continuing to use their playgrounds and day visits as locations for practice. Teacher expertise had decreased by 2017 but the major challenges and barriers to implementation of time and expense remain similar in both years. Teachers no longer see outdoor ‘education’ as a subject in its own right but within the physical education curriculum although Early Years Foundation Stage practitioners report an enabling curriculum for outdoor learning. The research identifies the strength of teachers’ values and beliefs, an open approach to curriculum interpretation, the importance of suitable locations, a culture of risk benefit and positive initiatives as key ingredients for successful outdoor learning in primary schools.     

Trajectories in teacher education: Recognising prior learning in practice

This article analyses the trajectories into teacher education of a group of child minders who are studying to become pre-school teachers. The specific focus is what impact their prior experiences and learning from pre-school have on their trajectories, and how these experiences and learning are recognised in the first year of teacher education. A situated learning perspective is applied, with a focus on participation and trajectories in the two communities of practice in which teacher education is situated – the university and the pre-school. The data consist of transcribed interviews with ten student teachers, and additional data are gathered from stakeholders in the program. The results show that prior experiences and learning are given implicit and indirect recognition. In the practice of the pre-school, the trajectory means a shift in identity, from child minder to student teacher and pre-school teacher. In the practice of the university, prior experiences and learning help students in their trajectories from peripheral to fuller participation.     

Reforming teacher education in the context of lifelong learning: the case of the BEd degree programme in Ireland

Lifelong learning has become a prominent fixture in educational policy in recent years in many countries around the world. In terms of teacher education, it is now widely accepted that initial teacher education is insufficient for the lifelong professional needs of teachers. From September 2012, initial teacher education in Ireland will be offered as a radically different four-year BEd degree programme. This reform of initial teacher education offers immense potential for teacher educators to re-imagine their programmes in light of a range of guiding paradigms and theoretical frameworks, including lifelong learning. This paper provides a rationale for developing programmes in initial teacher education in the context of lifelong learning. A number of recommendations for lifelong primary teacher education are offered in light of current reforms that are taking place in Ireland.     

Fostering meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice in teacher education

Meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice may be expected to promote student teachers’ continuous professional development. We interviewed twelve expert teacher educators to explore their understanding of these concepts, as well as pedagogies to stimulate them in teacher education. The experts understood deliberate practice in two ways: an enactment conceptualization focusing on pupil learning, and a regulation conceptualization focusing on teacher learning. Pedagogies were operationalized in twelve design principles, which integrated ideas previously scattered in the literature, and added to it with respect to anticipatory reflection, diverse ways of “modeling”, and student teacher agency in creating a powerful learning environment.     

In-service teacher training to provide psychosocial support and care in high-risk and high-need schools: school-based intervention partnerships

This article uses a South African case study to argue that postcolonial, emerging economy societies in transition often contain schools characterised as high risk and high need. Such schools require teachers to adapt to roles other than facilitating learning, such as psychosocial support and care, and which requires additional professional development. In the absence of structured teacher professional development programmes, alternatives are required to assist teachers. The paper describes a nine-year partnership between higher education researchers and teachers in high-risk and high-need schools in three South African provinces. The participatory reflection and action (PRA) study served as platform for a school-based intervention to assist in-service teachers to adapt to their additional responsibilities. Thematic analysis was used to identify the ways in which teachers’ adaptation to high risk benefitted from the programme, and self-determination theory is used to argue for a dynamic and interconnected relationship between the teachers’ demonstrated pathways to psychosocial support and care. The article argues that in socio-politically transforming societies where need is high for in-service teacher training and formal structures for teacher professional development may be limited, partnerships between researchers and teachers appear to be useful platforms for school-based interventions to support teacher resilience.     

Exploring student learning approaches on an initial teacher education programme: A comparison of mature learners and direct entry third-level students

This article compares the learning approaches of students on an initial teacher education programme. Using a mixed method approach, the study examines differences between mature learners and direct entry students, across the domains of deep, strategic and surface learning approaches. Following the quantitative phase, group interviews were conducted to gain additional insights into the factors, which impacted learning approach. Significant differences were evident between both cohorts. The key categories that contributed to learning approach included; motivation to learn, collaborative and competitive learning, prior educational experiences and school placement. The findings provide insights into the diversity of student cohorts.     

Evaluation of reflective practice in teacher education

Teacher education based on ‘reflective practice’ consists of observing, analysing and reflecting on teacher performance in order to improve professional practice. This article presents the results of an evaluation of a programme on mathematics teaching carried out using reflective practice. It was targeted at 284 teachers in various stages of the education system, using an approach that combines quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (interviews and reports) methods. While the study shows that the education programme generates high levels of satisfaction, pedagogical appropriateness and learning, its achievements in effectiveness are moderate. Although, in general, what is learned through teacher education is implemented in the classroom, it is done so in an isolated fashion, in other words, individually and without becoming a part of the culture of the school. The results show little evidence of its impact on student learning. The article offers proposals for improving the education programme, while, at the same time, analysing the usefulness of the approach and evaluation tools employed.     

Everyday life and everyday learning: the ways in which pre-service teacher education curriculum can encourage personal dimensions of teacher identity

This article presents and discusses the findings of a research project, the main objective of which is to identify curriculum components that promote personal development as a nuclear part of teacher professional identity formation through pre-service teacher education. Curriculum is viewed as an ecological scenario with different subsystems and both as formal and informal. Identity formation is conceived as an ever-provisional result of a double transaction: the biographical one and the relational one. The curricula of four different historical periods of pre-service teacher education in Portugal and the professional identity of teachers trained within them were characterised through collection and analysis of documents and biographical narratives. Crossing results from the four periods, the quality of school climate emerges as an important variable to the quality of the teachers’ identity. The lifelong learning ethos seems to emerge when the training curriculum connects everyday learning with everyday life, namely by urging the students’ involvement in school life, peer learning activities and peer and teacher educators’ informal learning activities.     

The recursive practice of research and teaching: reframing teacher education

As a field, Teacher Education has lived with continued criticism from governmental and research bodies on the quality of professional preparation and the lack of a strong research base. We respond to such criticisms by considering possibilities for further exploration of the research of practice and the practice of research in both initial and continuing teacher education. As both a theoretical and methodological challenge, this is tied recursively with research and practice in teacher education, for teacher educators, about teacher education. We draw on the theoretical resources of practice theories, to argue that teacher education practice must be informed by the study of the practice of teaching as well as research addressing the teaching of practice. In conclusion, we make a methodological case for reframing the roles of teacher and researcher within a “thirdspace” to consider the practice of researching teaching as recursive and always regenerative.     

再论融合教育:普小教师眼中的"随班就读"

在中国 ,融合教育的主要安置形式是随班就读。本文使用开放式问卷 ,录音采访了大连市 1 1所普通小学的 2 3位班主任教师。研究的结果表明 :(一 )大连市的普小教师对特殊儿童随班就读基本上持接受态度 ,集中有近一半多的教师认为要视学生的残疾种类合程度来确定特殊儿童是否随班就读。(二 )在多数普小教师看来 ,特殊儿童与正常儿童之间的交往势必交顺利的 ,特殊儿童的社会融合经常出现在课外活动、集体活动、游戏的场合 ,而在课堂学习的情况下较难产生。 (三 )从社会融合的可利用资源中 ,社区、学校、家庭之间的相互支持、协作的桥梁并未建立起来。 (四 )普小教师对随班就读工作的建议是希望得到特殊教育知识的培训。     

Configuring the three-way relationship among student teachers' competence to work in schools,professional learning and teaching motivation in initial teacher education

This mixed methods study investigated pre-service student teachers' self-perception of competence to work in schools, and its relationship with professional learning and teaching motivation in the context of initial teacher education (ITE). Two major dimensions of competence to work in schools emerged in the study: (1) understanding school organization, and (2) managing growth-fostering relationships with teachers and peers. Learning in ITE fieldwork and Learning in ITE coursework were found to predict this competence, although the predictive relationship was partially mediated by “Intrinsic: interest and efficacy in subject taught” motivation and “Altruistic-intrinsic: multifaceted and stimulating job nature” motivation. Implications for ITE are discussed.     

Narrative understandings of a school policy: intersecting student,teacher, parent and administrator perspectives

In this article, we examine one school’s experience with policy, as a means of shedding light on the intersection of factors contributing to challenges of implementing policies to support the academic achievement and social adaptation of immigrant and minority students in their school context. We begin with the presentation of a ‘big fight’ between two students of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and consider multiple perspectives of how the disagreement was addressed by teachers and administrators, to offer insight into how issues of race and policy might have been understood by members of the school community. We use a narrative inquiry approach to examine ways in which a policy designed to enhance student participation was interpreted by various members of this school community. This study reveals nuances of the intersection between culture and (hidden) curriculum as it relates to the implementation of policies aimed at creating and maintaining safe school communities.     

Dialogic processes that enable student teachers' learning about pupil learning in mentoring conversations in a Lesson Study field practice

This study investigates dialogic processes in student teachers' mentoring conversations in field practice, where Lesson Study (LS) was used as a context for establishing a dialogic learning community in one student group in science. We apply an analytical framework associated with Sociocultural Discourse Analysis to identify utterances that have the potential to create a dialogic space and contribute to ‘interthinking’ among the participants. The findings show the important role of the mentor teacher as a facilitator and a ‘knowledgeable other’, challenging the student teachers to reflect on chosen activities using predictions and detailed observations related to pupils' learning.     

Teacher-chameleons: the glue in the alignment of teacher practices and learning in policy

This article investigates how learning outcomes, a concept inspired by an Anglo-Saxon curriculum approach, are expressed in policy documents, with an emphasis on expectations articulated to teachers. Developments in education policy for the last two decades reflect a widespread expansion of learning outcome orientation in curricula and assessment in most of the modern world. These developments have led to changes in how education is governed and practised, and this makes it necessary to form critical concepts to understand how curricula are formed and functioned today. The research questions of the study are: How is learning outcome-oriented policy defined in key policy documents and what are the implications of these policies for the teaching profession? The topic is investigated through a document content analysis of key policy documents. A complex picture of teachers emerges in which they are to be both controlled and autonomous. The study also identifies a strong belief in ‘alignment between teachers’ competences and practices and students’ life opportunities. The findings indicate that the policies move back and forth between different parameters for describing teachers and teaching, and as such, teachers must be able to adapt as chameleons in the context of each policy.