Change Within a Teacher Education Program and Laboratory: A Reflective Commentary

Intentional, systemic philosophical change on an educational program level and on an individual level is often a slow and cyclic process. In this article, we reflect on the journey of philosophical change and growth from a traditional philosophy to an inquiry-based, Reggio-inspired one that occurred on both levels in an early childhood teacher education program and laboratory school over a period of 7 years. As an inquiry group, we reflected on the change we experienced in our own teaching methods, our interactions with staff members and each other, and our perceptions of change in interaction with our students. After carefully and systematically reviewing our reflections, five trends in change were identified. They were (a) recasting the image of the teacher and reevaluating the process of teaching and learning, (b) valuing dialogue, (c) cultivating a reflective mindset, (d) valuing outside perspectives, and (e) building meaningful relationships. The process of reflecting on and documenting our journey has improved our ability to articulate the change we made and to see our growth. Further it has illuminated future teaching and learning directions and aims that we intend to pursue. Finally, we hope that sharing this process will encourage others to examine what, how, and why of their teaching and learning in order to enhance their own professional development journey.     

荷兰CITO学生监测评价系统对构建中国教育考试评价体系的启示

荷兰CITO学生监测评价系统在教育评价理念、技术、手段和反馈报告等方面对构建中国教育考试评价体系都有值得借鉴之处。通过深入剖析荷兰CITO提供的全国性学生监测评价系统服务表明,利用大规模教育考试开展学业质量评价促进教学是充分发挥考试功能的必然要求。构建我国教育考试评价体系应充分利用现代教育测量理论和技术,以能力立意引导命题并将有效的考试数据转化到同一能力量尺上,为开展针对学生、学校和地区横向对比和纵向追踪评价反馈提供客观、科学依据。     

Developing Faculty Research Skills: Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this reflective commentary is to describe and analyze how efforts were made to engage polytechnic nursing faculty in a multi-institutional, interprofessional research project, and the effectiveness of methods used. We describe the professional development and project management activities provided along with our reflection as to their effectiveness. The faculty members worked at a polytechnic, a small vocational and technical institution in Western Canada with approximately 14,000 full-time students, where faculty were not required to participate in research. Assumptions were made about their interest, knowledge, and ability regarding the research process. These assumptions led the investigators to implement professional development activities that were not effective. Spontaneous informal, anecdotal feedback from some faculty members to the authors, and the authors’ own observations, informed the results. Assumptions about novice faculty research skills may not be accurate; therefore, an effort should be made to perform a pre-assessment of these skills, to create a lesson plan, to assess the effectiveness of teaching strategies, and to evaluate the effectiveness of supportive measures in order to address learning needs.     

An Alternative Professional Development Program: Lessons Learned

Abstract. This article describes how a group of small liberal arts college faculty embraced the opportunity to create a faculty learning circle as an alternative professional development program. We provide a review of the program, discuss the lessons learned, and offer recommendations for future efforts in developing a similar faculty development program. Analysis of participant responses to the learning circle indicated that the experience met all their intended objectives. Faculty learning circles contribute to the participants' professional development and could be incorporated into any college campus.     

Lessons Learned About Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation Systems

In this article, I draw several lessons learned about how to assess student, classroom, and teacher effects, with a specific focus on performance-based teacher evaluations. One lesson is that hierarchical linear modeling techniques are helpful in sorting out the magnitude of impacts at these three different levels of the education system. The other major lessons are reflected in the conclusion that research findings suggest that educators have learned how to design and operate performance-based teacher assessments that have sufficient reliability and validity to use for consequential decisions such as triggering pay increases.     

从PISA试测研究实践的视角看我国大规模教育评价改革

学生能力国际评价PISA在教育评价理念、技术、手段和结果报告等方面对我国的大规模教育评价改革都有值得借鉴之处。基于PISA对学生素养、教育整体质量、教育公平评价指标的解析,结合教育部考试中心开展PISA2006中国试测研究实践收获的启示,我国大规模教育评价改革应充分利用现行大规模考试数据评价的资源,建立适合我国国情的教育评价指标体系,关注影响学生成绩差异的相关因素,开展横向对比和纵向追踪研究切实提高教育质量。     

美国教师教育项目中教师品性评价的实施

为了培养优秀的教师候选人,美国教师教育项目开展了教师品性评价。该评价贯穿于教师候选人的整个学习和实习期间,旨在使教师候选人的品性在不断的反馈中得到充分发展。美国各高校教师教育项目对教师候选人的成功至关重要的品性评价内容进行界定。评价所使用的方法包括行为检核表、评价量表、访谈和品性反思文章。品性评价的实施涉及教师品性评价介绍课程、签订教师品性评价协议、四次主要评价、不定时的评价和评价结果的应用。教师品性的改进采用发挥教授和导师的模范作用、教师品性研讨会、品性改进课程和PDR-PREP方法等途径。     

新督导模式带来的启示

新督导模式是通过借鉴发达国家和地区教育督导的先进经验,特别是中英甘肃基础教育项目的成果,结合西南地区项目县的实际情况,融入新的督导理念和方法,探索和形成新的中小学学校督导模式。论述新督导模式与传统督导模式的区别与联系,指出新模式对督导工作的启示。     

A Quasi-Randomized Trial of a School-Wide Universal Prevention Program: Results and Lessons Learned

Prevention in School (PS) is a comprehensive program which aims to improve the learning climate and reduce problem behavior in elementary schools. Core components are teaching of school rules, praise and rewards to support prosocial behavior, and a forum involving parents. This trial investigated the effects of PS on its intended outcomes, and includes 23 schools, 3,207 students, and 188 teachers. Multilevel regression analyses indicated no program effects two years after the start of the program. Problems with program components, implementation and study limitations may have contributed to the null findings. The lessons learned may be used to guide program revisions, and are important to consider in future attempts to implement and evaluate similar school interventions in a Swedish context.     

Purposeful Tensions: Lessons Learned from Metaphors in Teacher Candidates' Digital Stories

This collective case study examines how two teacher candidates' digital story projects created in literacy methods courses made visible their negotiated and evolving visions of teaching and learning. The digital stories were created to show and describe their future literacy classrooms. Using metaphoric analysis, the researchers uncovered the implicit metaphors of teachers and students present in each of the teacher candidates' digital stories. Looking across these metaphors, tensions and alignments between how the teacher candidates envisioned the role of teacher and the role of student and how these relate to prominent models of education including Industrial and Inquiry models are apparent. Implications for practice include modifications made to literacy methods courses to support teacher candidates to begin the negotiation of their professional identities as they explore multiple experiences of teaching and learning. These modifications include: (a) prompting teacher candidates to see themselves as readers, writers, and inquirers; (b) modeling and experiencing inquiry in teacher education coursework; and (c) providing opportunities for teacher candidates to experience purposeful tensions within their teacher education classes.     

Global Consultation Processes: Lessons Learned from Refugee Teacher Consultation Research in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The process of global consultation has received little attention despite its potential for promoting international mutual understanding with marginalized communities. This article details theory, entry, implementation, and evaluation processes for global consultation research, including lessons learned from our refugee teacher intervention. The first half of the article addresses the entry process, culture-specific strengths, and challenges that can be faced in global consultation, including our experience with a lack of formal regulatory oversight of refugee education. The second half of the article details feedback collected from consultants, peer trainers, and peer trainees indicating which training content was most valuable; how some Burmese refugee teachers strive for a more student-centered, “free” classroom for their refugee students; and, finally, the toll that intense refugee teacher consultation took on the consultants.     

借鉴美国教师教育认定制度,推动我国教师教育改革

美国是世界上教师教育认定制度最完善的国家。本文介绍了美国教师教育的认定机构、教师教育机构的认定和教师资格证书制度等 ,以期为我国目前的教师教育改革提供有益的借鉴。     

Quality Assessment in Initial Teacher Education: Lessons from the 1993/94 OFSTED Experience

Different interest groups define quality in different ways. Enterprises such as education, and, specifically, teacher education, serve many interest groups including funding bodies, employers and students as consumers. Assessment of quality in this context has to take account of the priorities of such groups if the process is to have credibility. Processes involved also have to take account of the purposes to which such assessments might be put. Issues related to the recent cycle of inspections of secondary initial teacher education courses are discussed in the light of these factors. The process is fairly robust and comprehensive and is thus well equipped to inform various stakeholders and to bring about improvement through inspection. Because of a range of variables which have the potential to influence the outcome of an inspection, the process is less valid as a mechanism for influencing resourcing or as a means of comparing quality in initial teacher education with that in other areas of higher education.     

Development of a Performance-Based Teacher Education Program for Physical Education

In the dominant perspective, induction occurs in schools after teachers have been employed, and induction programs provide systematic and planned assistance to beginning teachers. In a second perspective, induction is a two-stage process, beginning in preservice education and ending in the workplace, with the intent of developing each teacher's master identity. A third perspective on induction accommodates the contributions of the first two. It differs in viewing induction as a three-stage process. Induction requires the mastery and internalization of an occupational culture, some of which is organization specific. An essential part of this culture is an identifiable, integrated set of professional norms that guide work practices.     

Cognitive Tutors: Lessons Learned

This article reviews the 10-year history of tutor development based on the advanced computer tutoring theory (J. R. Anderson, 1983, 1993). We developed production system models in ACT of how students solved problems in LISP, geometry, and algebra. Computer tutors were developed around these cognitive models. Construction of these tutors was guided by a set of eight principles loosely based on the ACT theory. Early evaluations of these tutors usually, but not always, showed significant achievement gains. Best case evaluations showed that students could achieve at least the same level of proficiency as conventional instruction in one third of the time. Empirical studies showed that students were learning skills in production-rule units and that the best tutorial interaction style was one in which the tutor provides immediate feedback, consisting of short and directed error messages. The tutors appear to work better if they present themselves to students as nonhuman tools to assist learning rather than as emulations of human tutors. Students working with these tutors display transfer to other environments to the degree that they can map the tutor environment into the test environment. These experiences have coalesced into a new system for developing and deploying tutors. This system involves selecting a problem-solving interface, constructing a curriculum under the guidance of a domain expert, designing a cognitive model for solving problems in that environment, building instruction around the productions in that model, and deploying the tutor in the classroom. New tutors are being built in this system to achieve the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards for high-school mathematics in an urban setting.