Building bridges: the use of reflective oral diaries as a qualitative research tool

The article is a reflection on the use of an oral diary as a qualitative research tool, the role that it played during fieldwork and the methodological issues that emerged. It draws on a small-scale empirical study into primary school teachers' use of group discussion, during which oral diaries were used to explore and document teacher reflective thinking across time. The paper considers the design of the oral diary tool in this context and how its use created both a window on the developing construction of teachers' ideas about their practice of using group discussion in science and also a space to explore emerging analytical themes. The way in which the regular routine of the oral diary entries helped to make connections between the researcher and the participant and nurture fieldwork relationships is discussed in addition to the limitations of this specific research tool.     

Professional development through action research in township primary schools in South Africa

The paper examines an action research project, the Primary Education Project (PREP), located in African primary schools in Cape Town, South Africa between 1987 and 1989. The main aim of PREP was to evaluate action research as a means of improving educational processes and outcomes. Drawing on my own action research case study as the facilitator of curriculum and research development in PREP, I explore action research as a strategy for teachers' professional development. This latter concept is problematised as meaning on the one hand, narrow vocational skilling of teachers, and on the other, reflective practice. Further, I argue that the concept is value-laden and thus fundamentally political. Improvements in teachers' practice are recounted, and the teachers' first order action research and my own second order action research evaluated along a continuum from reflection to research.     

First steps into understanding teachers' visual perception of classroom events

Student-teachers struggle to become competent at classroom management. To do so, Berliner (2001) and Feldon (2007) argue for the significance of speedy and accurate recognition of relevant cues for teacher action in the classroom. However, studies investigating how teachers obtain this information from the classroom are scarce. This study employed eye-tracking methodology to investigate teachers' visual perception and detection of classroom events. Results show that experienced teachers process visual information faster, and consistently check up on pupils more regularly. Also they are able to distribute their attention evenly across the classroom. Recommendations for future research and practical implications are discussed.     

Thai pre-service science teachers engaging action research during their fifth year internship

As a key element in teacher education programmes, action research is a learning process in which pre-service teachers inquire, reflect on and improve their teaching practices. This qualitative study sought to understand what enhanced or hindered Thai pre-service teachers' action research projects during their student teaching. This study drew upon written reflections, focus-group interviews and observations of seminar sessions. Data analysis was inductive, involving categorical aggregation followed by a search for correspondence and patterns. The results indicated that the pre-service teachers misunderstood action research, and also held a negative attitude toward it, both of which led them to superficial analyses of practice. They struggled with time limitations, data gathering and interpretation strategies. In spite of the struggles they experienced, these pre-service science teachers did learn more about the action research through collaboratively working with cooperating teachers and university supervisors and on-campus seminar discussions held concurrently with the fifth year internship. Recognizing and understanding the reasons and thinking patterns at the root of these teachers' difficulties with learning about action research can form the basis for reflecting on and rethinking the components of science teacher preparation programmes in Thailand.     

Identification,Interpretation—Evaluation,Response: An alternative framework for analyzing teacher discourse in science

Although research has come to recognize the importance of studying classroom-based student–teacher discourse in science, the emphasis remains largely on teachers' abilities to ask questions and provide students with feedback, or on students' abilities to ask questions or engage in argumentative discourse. Consequently, little research has focused on the discourse elements relating to teacher–student discourse interactions. In this article, we argue for a shift of research attention toward describing what the teacher is responding to (Identification of student inquiry), the process of deciding how to respond (Interpretation—Evaluation of student inquiry), and how the teacher is responding (Response to student inquiry). We propose a new methodological approach for studying teacher discourse, which involves a framework we developed while analyzing 1,385 minutes of fifth grade, whole-class science conversations covering a 2-year period and facilitated by an experienced science teacher. Then, as a case in point, we applied our framework to the teacher discourse data of the study, aiming to show that the framework can be a useful tool for examining how a teacher supports students' inquiry.     

Opportunities and limitations for learning within teachers’ collaboration in teams: perspectives from action learning

Researchers posit that teachers' teaching and learning are improved by teachers' collective efforts to examine and reflect on practice. Yet the questions of what and how teachers learn when collaborating with colleagues remain unanswered: What kinds of knowledge and skills do teachers acquire in conjunction with their collaboration? What brings about teachers' learning when they collaborate in teams? And how does their learning affect their practice? In this paper I will examine to what extent action learning can contribute to answering these questions from a Danish perspective.

I begin the paper by presenting action learning, which formed the framework for the teacher team collaboration that provides the empirical fundament of this paper, and by discussing my roles as consultant and researcher. Thereafter, first the possibilities, then the limitations of teachers' collaboration in teams for learning are discussed. Finally, several methodological dilemmas are considered and the paper's conclusions are presented.     

Developing pre-service teachers understanding of fractions through problem posing

This study investigated the effect of problem posing on the pre-service primary teachers' understanding of fraction concepts enrolled in two different versions of a methods course at a university in Turkey. In the experimental version, problem posing was used as a teaching strategy. At the beginning of the study, the pre-service teachers' knowledge of symbols and algorithms was adequate in both groups, but they were unable to provide appropriate representations and explanations for the given fraction situations. Results showed that problem posing had a positive impact on the pre-service teachers' knowledge and views about what it means to know mathematics.     

Teachers' Cloud-Based Learning Designs: The Development of a Guiding Rubric Using the TPACK Framework

This study aimed to develop, validate, and trial a rubric for evaluating the cloud-based learning designs (CBLD) that were developed by teachers using virtual learning environments. The rubric was developed using the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework, with rubric development including content and expert validation of its items and levels. The rubric was revised based on various types of input including content validity and expert review. After many iterations of rubric implementation using two raters, the final version of the rubric was found to be reliable with high and substantial inter-rater reliability. This study provides a methodological contribution by developing and validating a rubric for teachers' cloud-based learning designs. It also provides a useful tool for evaluating the quality of teachers' CBLD, and assessing training needs.     

Developing inclusive practices through collaborative action research

This paper highlights the framework and discusses the results of an action research network which aimed to promote academic access in two general educational settings within which a pupil with blindness and a deaf pupil were educated respectively. The persons involved in this collaborative scheme were general teachers, a school counsellor, academic staff and student teachers. The findings of the study indicate that the implementation of the action research network resulted in the development of inclusive and collaborative thinking and the adoption of relevant teaching practices which promoted the children's access to the curriculum and supported the teachers' and student teachers' professional development. The outcomes of this action research network raise concerns about the access and the status of membership of children with special needs in general educational classroom and provide insights for the pivotal role of action research in understanding educational contexts and situations from a number of different perspectives.     

Pedagogies for active citizenship: Learning through affective and cognitive domains for deeper democratic engagement

This paper reports on a two-year study that explored teachers' pedagogical approaches when implementing an active citizenship curriculum initiative in New Zealand. Our aim was to identify pedagogies which afforded potential for critical and transformative citizenship learning. We define critical and transformative social action through a fusion of critical pedagogy and Dewey's notion of democratic education. Data included teachers' classroom-based research as well as classroom observations and interviews with students. Our study suggested that citizenship learning through both affective and cognitive domains can provide for deeper opportunities for students to experience critical and transformative democratic engagement.     

Professional identity creation: Examining the development of beginning preservice teachers' understanding of their work as teachers

The importance of reflection in supporting the continued professional learning of preservice practitioners is well recognised. This study examines one aspect of the outcomes of preservice teachers' reflection: the development of their own self-image as a teacher. In making the transition from student to teacher, preservice teachers create their own professional identity. Their ability to articulate this identity is examined through a new construct, a “teachers' voice”. A teachers' voice, develops when preservice teachers interpret and reinterpret their experiences through the processes of reflection. A teachers' voice is articulated as part of the persons' self-image. The construct, a teachers' voice, was investigated by examining changes in preservice teachers' contributions in an online discussion forum. Two complementary approaches of content analysis were applied. Both methods revealed changes in preservice teachers' levels of engagement and showed that in the first semester of preservice teacher education, the majority of preservice teachers moved towards a more professional stance in their contributions.     

A Structural Model of Prospective Science Teachers' Nature of Science Views

This study aims to establish a viable structural model of prospective science teachers' nature of science (NOS) views, which could be used as an analytical tool for understanding the complex relationships between prospective teachers' conceptions of NOS and factors possibly affecting their conceptions. In order to construct such a model, likely factors that might influence prospective teachers' NOS views were hypothesized. These included science process skills; attitudes toward science teaching; academic achievement in pedagogical and science courses; and social, religious, economic, political, aesthetic, and theoretical values. The hypothetical model was then developed and modified using structural equation modeling methodology. The final viable model indicates that attitudes toward science teaching, science process skills, academic achievement in pedagogical courses, religious values, and economic values explain NOS views with low predictive power.     

Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second‐language teachers' development

In the practice of teacher education, most would agree that critical reflection in and on the process of learning to teach and the activities of teaching play a central role in teachers' professional development. Using Vygotskian sociocultural theory, we examine how narrative inquiry functions as a culturally developed tool that mediates teachers' professional development. We analyzed narratives written by three teachers of English as a second/foreign language set in three different instructional contexts. Our analysis suggests an interwoven connection between emotion and cognition, which drove these teachers to search for mediational tools to help them externalize their experiences. The activity of engaging in narrative inquiry created a mediational space where teachers were able to draw upon various resources, such as private journals, peers and ‘expert’ or theoretical knowledge, that allow them to reconceptualize and reinternalize new understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching activities. The intersection of experiential and ‘expert’ knowledge provided a discourse through which these teachers named experiences and constructed a basis upon which they grounded their transformed understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching. Depending on where these teachers were in their professional development when they wrote their narratives, we uncovered evidence of idealized conceptions of teaching with commitment to action as well as the transformation of teachers' material activities. Implications for the role teachers' narrative inquiry may play in teacher education programs are provided.     

MAINTAINING,REFRAMING, AND DISRUPTING TRADITIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND OUTCOMES FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITH CRITICAL FRIENDS GROUPS

Districts across the country are currently adopting models of professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means for improving teachers' instructional practice and student achievement. This evaluation research case study shares the 3-year history, development, and challenges of a district-wide implementation of Critical Friends Groups (CFGs), a particular format for PLCs. Using Argyris and Schön's (1974) theories of action framework, the authors identify teachers' espoused theories about a contextually situated CFG initiative and examine teachers' conceptualizations about the ways in which their work influences the progression and effectiveness of this professional development model. Findings from this study suggest that the degree to which the CFG implementation model is integrated with other school improvement initiatives, specifically those that address teachers' professional development, dramatically influences how key stakeholders conceptualize and draw the necessary connections to their roles in improving instructional practice and addressing student achievement and learning.     

The development of science teachers' knowledge on models and modelling: promoting,characterizing, and understanding the process

Models play an important role in science education. However, previous research has revealed that science teachers' content knowledge, curricular knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge about models and modelling are often incomplete or inadequate. A research project was conducted that aimed at promoting and gaining an understanding of the development of beginning science teachers' knowledge in this area. The teachers, who were enrolled in a teacher's training programme, participated in a special course on models and modelling, and conducted a research project in their classes about this theme. The data gathered in this project support the discussion to the extent that both the activities of the course and the conducting of and reflection on their research projects contributed to the development of teachers' knowledge. From the results, we propose some guidelines for educational researchers interested in this area.     

Dialogic understanding of teachers' online transformative learning: A qualitative case study of teacher discussions in a graduate-level online course

Teachers are expected to implement new educational technologies and adapt to new teaching environments. However, it involves a complex learning process that can lead to their perspective transformation. We have developed and taught a discussion-based online course to facilitate teachers' transformative learning. This qualitative case study examines teachers' perspective transformation in our course to understand the nature of effective online teacher-to-teacher discussions. Based on a theoretical framework that integrates Mezirow's transformative learning model and Bakhtin's dialogism, this paper builds on previous literature on teacher-to-teacher discussions as well as providing a fresh perspective to inform the current globalized teacher education context.     

An empirical framework for understanding how teachers conceptualize and cultivate historical empathy in students

This study reports the results of a case study of four teachers' beliefs about the nature of historical empathy and their means of cultivating such empathy in secondary school classrooms. The results of multiple interviews and lesson observations of history teachers in England suggest that teachers conceptualize empathy in bounded but not parsimonious ways, shaped by the realities of trying to teach it to students; that they select from broad repertoires of strategies, including major activities as well as small‐scale discourse strategies, heretofore largely unexamined; and that they recognize ways in which their empathetic goals exist in tension with other teaching aims, creating dilemmas they must manage rather than definitively resolve. Significant discrepancies between how these teachers actually think and practice and how empathy teaching is discussed in the educational literature suggest that research stands to benefit by attending more closely to teachers' ideas.     

Misconceptions Regarding the Brain: The Neuromyths of Preservice Teachers

Understanding preservice teachers' misconceptions regarding the brain and neuroscience (neuromyths) can provide information that helps teachers to apply neuroscience knowledge in an educational context. The objective of this study was to investigate these misconceptions. Following preliminary research, a questionnaire comprising 59 challenging assertions in two categories (education and neuromyths) was developed as a data collection tool. The findings identify preservice teachers' neuromyths, which were found to vary by teaching area.