New Model of Teacher Learning in an Online Network

While many researchers have examined teacher participation and professional development in online networks and communities, few have looked at the factors and contexts that shape how teachers learn in these online spaces. Examining teachers' learning processes within these online spaces can yield important insights for scholars, school leaders, and teacher educators who are interested in designing online networks and communities or supporting teacher professional development within these spaces. This study was designed to shed light on the multifaceted nature of teacher learning within an online network environment. Data were collected through an online survey and in-depth interviews of members in the Edmodo math subject community. A thematic analysis was conducted across the two data sets in order to identify patterns of actions and factors that shaped the participants' learning processes. A new model of teacher learning was developed to display teacher learning as an iterative, multistep process that is socially constructed, distributed, and situated in the contexts in which teachers work. Implications and ideas for further research are discussed.     

What We are Missing in Studies of Teacher Learning: A Call for Microgenetic,Interactional Analyses to Examine Teacher Learning Processes

Much of the work in the Learning Sciences and Computer-Supported Collaborated Learning communities have focused on understanding and designing for learning in collaborative spaces. This work utilizes methods such as Interaction Analysis and has attended to multiple dimensions and timescales of learning. It has redefined ideas about knowledge and competence and how they are acquired, thus providing important insights into the process of learning and the design of learning environments. However, we have not in the same way advanced our knowledge of teacher learning. Our understanding of the process and mechanism of teacher learning in in collaborative professional development (PD) environments is still quite thin. In this paper, we discuss how utilizing methods from Interaction Analysis, in particular, can offer insight into the process of teacher learning in these contexts. We illustrate how adopting a lens that shifts away from asking whether teachers are progressing toward a researcher-defined goal, toward one that asks how learning occurs in the moments of interaction, and the meaning it has for participants as they work to achieve PD goals, has the potential to shed new light on learning in teacher PD.     

Revisiting learning communities: innovations in theory and practice

Research on learning communities has been largely influenced by the sociocultural turn in educational scholarship approximately three decades ago. Here, we present a wider history of research and practice on learning communities as we revisit this highly generative and central topic in the learning sciences. Using this to frame our perspective, we examine several central themes in learning communities by comparing and contrasting four cutting-edge conceptions and innovations. We conclude by asking and providing preliminary answers to three key questions in scholarship on learning communities: (1) Where are the learning and instructional sciences going? (2) Where is education going? (3) Where is the world going? Altogether, this paper can serve as an orientation to the topic of learning communities as research and practice moves forward.     

《论语》中魅力型教师思想摭拾

《论语》主要记录了"至圣先师"孔子的言行,包含着丰富的教育思想。作为我国第一位教育家,孔子因独特的人格魅力被后世誉为"万世师表",为魅力型教师提供了三大参照系:勤勉不懈的为学态度;达观向上的道德情操;别具一格的教人之法。     

America in the Eyes of Chinese Students

This article relates the experiences of a seasoned teacher education professor who returned to the elementary classroom, where the students and his colleagues illustrated the complexities of teaching and learning. The year in second grade is analyzed using Moir's phases of first-year teaching. The analysis uncovers important ideas relevant for clinically based teacher education programs, including how relationships must be negotiated to successfully build learning communities.     

Teacher leadership enactment in professional learning community contexts: towards a better understanding of the phenomenon

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained considerable attention in education. However, PLCs are dependent on how group members collectively work and learn towards shared goals on improving teaching and learning. This would require leadership to support meaningful and productive interactions within PLC contexts, and hence, the importance of teacher leaders. In this article, we report on an ethnographic case study involving three PLCs investigating how teacher leadership supports PLC conversations using an intervention framework provided by the research team. The findings showed that teacher leadership has potential in supporting PLC conversations along three dimensions of its construct.     

教师专业发展的新视野:“学校群”策略

"学校群"策略是信息技术环境下教师专业发展的新模式,其关注区域性校际协作,其从组织策略、学习服务支持策略和效能策略三个方面组织和实施教师专业发展活动。通过讨论"学校群"教师专业发展的三个策略和新思路与方法,试图实现延伸校本培训、共享优质资源和推进协作研究,实现教师共同体和学校群体共同发展。     

Going Beyond Belief Systems: Exploring a Model for the Social Influence on Mathematics Teacher Beliefs

This article discusses an approach to teacher belief systems which casts an eye away from cognitive constructs toward sociological constructs to complement existing ideas about the nature and genesis of beliefs. I offer some theoretical ideas for extending the notion of beliefs and describe two contrasting senior mathematics teachers, conceptualising the basis for their differences. These differences move away from beliefs about mathematics, toward ideological and discursive positions which in turn construct the nature of beliefs about teaching and learning.     

The role of action research in transforming teacher identity: modes of belonging and ecological perspectives

While teacher identity has been conceptualized in different ways, research in teacher education has shown that the development of self‐understanding about being a teacher is critical to learning how to teach and can be shaped in multiple ways. Etienne Wenger argues that the formation of communities of practice is influenced strongly by the negotiation of identity and thus, to understand learning in relation to identity formation and communities of practice, three modes of belonging should be considered. Using data from a three‐year action research project, the author examines how modes of belonging (engagement, alignment, and imagination) were enacted in teacher‐centred action research communities of practice. As well, an ecological perspective is adopted to provide insight into how teachers' identities are formed and reformed in the context of teacher‐centred action research.     

Professional Culture and Professional Development in Jewish Schools: Teachers' Perceptions and Experiences

In this article, we report a study of professional culture and professional development in Jewish schools based on surveys of teachers and other staff and interviews with principals. We first introduce three key constructs: professional culture, professional development, and professional learning communities. We then describe research that has identified features of each that support teacher learning. With this background in mind, we compare the current realities in Jewish schools as gleaned through the survey with typical public schools and with the features of schools identified in the literature as supportive of teacher learning and collegiality. Finally, we suggest the next steps that might be taken to improve Jewish schools as settings in which teacher growth and learning flourish.     

Making a Science Education Video: a teacher trainer's perspective

This article explores the area of teacher‐training by video‐led distance learning materials. The focus is on the role of educators in the process of developing a video programme for in‐service teacher training in the area of science, in the context of an overall plan of in‐service teacher training. Illustrations are given of the tension between creative ideas and pragmatic consideration, the demand of the medium and the subject matter, the criteria adopted by educationalists and those used by producers. Some practical points are made about techniques devised to communicate specific ideas which are hopefully of some relevance not only to educators but also to professionals in educational television.     

Becoming cosmopolitan and other dilemmas of internationalisation: reflections from the Gulf States

Drawing on the concept of cosmopolitans and locals within competing discourses regarding the aims of higher education and international marketization, this paper suggests that cultural cosmopolitanism may be developed through intercultural dialogue. It reflects on the findings of an action research-based teacher professional education programme in Qatar, with further delivery in other Gulf States, and suggests that potential negative outcomes of uncritical ‘othering’ forms of marketization, potentially resulting in epistemological mnemocide through the exercise of cultural imperialism, may be avoided through developing dialogical communities of inquiry, where issues of values pluralism may be negotiated according to participants’ needs and capacities for knowledge creation. These ideas may be significant for negotiating appropriate criteria for judging the quality of delivery and methodological ethics of the increasing numbers of international programmes using practice-based forms of enquiry. They are essential if international development work is to encourage sustainability through independent knowledge creation.     

Developing designs for community development in four types of student teacher groups

It is becoming increasingly important for teachers to collaborate. Teacher community is found to be a fruitful notion when thinking about improving collaboration. Teachers can be prepared for working in such communities during teacher education. We examined how the practice of collaboration within different types of groups in teacher education can be optimised, aiming at an improvement in the shared domain, group identity and shared interactional repertoire of these groups. We included four types of groups: subject matter groups, research groups, mentor groups and reflection groups. Focus groups with teacher educators, student teachers and community experts were conducted to gather ideas for the improvement of the institutional design for community development. Combining these ideas with the research literature, we formulated a list of design principles for each of the types of groups. In conversations with teacher educators, the viability of these principles was reviewed, resulting in particular sets of design principles for each group. These sets consist of principles which are already used within the groups, as well as principles that are completely new to the groups. The design arrangement for the mentor group consists of the largest number of design principles, while the smallest number of principles are applicable to the research group. The procedure used in this study can serve as an example of how to create a design aimed at the development of student teacher groups as social and collaborative learning environments.     

Classroom interaction as reflection: Learning and teaching mathematics in a community of inquiry

This article aims to contribute to the theory of mathematics instruction by highlighting and analysing Leen Streefland's work as a teacher in a primary school. Core ideas of Streefland's are discussed as part of a recent wave of educational innovations using the idea of learning communities. I present a case study of a lesson co-taught by Streefland and a primary school teacher (students between 11 and 13 years of age). Streefland addressed the students as `researchers' and gave them realistic problems to work on. Since they provided occasions for increasingly sophisticated solutions, the tasks given to the students stimulated processes of vertical mathematization. The students' role as researchers required them to construct novel ideas and present these to their classmates. The various solutions proposed by the students were used by the teachers to structure the learning activities in the classroom. The interaction between the common understandings in the classroom and the learning process of individual students shows that the classroom activities amount to a process of collective reflection. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Encouraging interaction and striving for reciprocity: The challenges of community-engaged projects in teacher education

Opportunities for experiential learning in teacher education are increasingly important as the demographics of teachers and students diverge. I draw on place-conscious pedagogies, funds of knowledge, and teacher development theories to inquire into pre-service teachers' developing conceptions of community as they engaged in a project meant to introduce them to the local communities. Findings suggest that PSTs’ experiences with communities growing up limit their understanding of reciprocity between communities and schools as teachers. The findings have implications for the ways that teacher educators incorporate experiential learning into their programs.     

Four spheres of knowledge required: an international study of the professional development of literacy/English teacher educators

This paper reports on a research study of 28 literacy teacher educators (LTE) in four countries: Canada, the USA, England and Australia. It identifies three main forms of professional development: informal, formal and communities of practice and four spheres of knowledge: research; pedagogy of higher education; literacy and literacy teaching; and current school district and government initiatives. The study reveals the sheer scale of knowledge required to be an effective LTE and demonstrates how participants used the three forms of professional development to enhance their knowledge in each sphere. It concludes that the professional development of teacher educators is not conducted systematically; rather, it is quite ad hoc with much of it occurring through learning while doing. All had to construct their own programmes for professional development, which added yet another layer to their responsibilities.     

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.     

Peer mentoring: engaging pre‐service teachers in mentoring one another

This article discusses a peer mentoring teacher education initiative that aims at developing pre‐service teachers’ capacities to participate successfully in learning communities, both during their initial teacher education and throughout their teaching careers. Peer mentoring utilizes the latest conceptualization of mentoring, that of co‐mentoring by Bona et al. or that proposed by Hargreaves and Fullan, where all teachers give and receive support. Such a conceptualization challenges the traditional assumption that the mentor knows best and is consistent with the latest approaches to teacher professional development, where teachers are encouraged to participate in learning communities. A peer mentoring teacher education initiative is described and three essential elements are highlighted.     

Expertise,authority and embodied pedagogy: operatic masterclasses

The paper reports a study of masterclasses for young opera-singers, taught by experienced, world-class singers. These and similar forms of learning in the creative and performing arts represent fertile opportunities for the investigation of pedagogy. Given the recent ‘performative’ turn in sociological studies of education, and of cultural forms more widely, it is especially pertinent to examine the work of pedagogy in an overtly performative context. The operatic masterclass is made possible by the embodied authority of the teacher, and by her or his charismatic authority. The masterclass itself is marked by repetition, attention to technical detail, and to interpretative flexibility. Expertise is shared through gesture, metaphor, demonstration and personal maxims. Technical and interpretative knowledge are synthesised through the teacher’s personal authority. These processes illustrate the communities of pedagogy associated with artistic communities of practice.