A new approach to training teachers to meet the diverse learning needs of deaf and hard‐of‐hearing children within inclusive Australian schools

A restructured postgraduate teacher education programme is described specifically with regard to its commitment to prepare educators to work effectively with deaf and hard‐of‐hearing children in inclusive settings. The focus of the paper is on the design and development process rather than on the evaluation of the outcomes. Background information is provided about the design and development of the programme, including the components that support a strong relationship between special and general educators. The paper details the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of the programme, planned outcome measures for the graduate teachers, and highlights the challenges in programme design and development.     

In‐service training for teachers who work in full‐day schools. Evidence from Greece1

The purpose of this paper is to examine teachers perceptions of the effectiveness of training for teachers who work in ‘full‐day’ schools in the professional development of teachers and the implications for education policy. Through an empirical investigation this paper points out that recent education reforms regarding in‐service teacher training cannot be considered as the most important positive influence on teachers' progression and consequently on meeting the learning needs of pupils in full‐day schools. The lack of encouragement and motivation offered by the Greek school administration is linked to the unwillingness of Greek school teachers to participate in in‐service training. As a result of the latter, there are teachers in full‐day schools offering extra curricula activity who are without the appropriate knowledge and the skill of reflection, teachers who have not developed the qualifications to teach effectively. Thus, it is evident that teacher in‐service training in Greece needs careful reconsideration by the Ministry of Education. All schools (all types) should have appropriately‐trained teaching staff and teachers that adjust more easily to the social, technological and academic changes that naturally occur in the school environment.

L'objectif de cette étude est d'examiner les perceptions des instituteurs au sujet de l'efficacité de la formation reçue par les instituteurs travaillant dans les écoles à horaire élargi sur leur développement professionnel ainsi que sur la politique éducative. Basée sur une approche expérimentale, cette étude constate que les reformes éducatives récentes concernant la formation des instituteurs lors de leur horaire de travail ne saurait avoir un impact positif et considérable sur leur progrès ni les aider à répondre aux besoins éducatifs des élèves des écoles horaire élargi. Le manque d'encouragement et de motivation de la part de l'administration scolaire grecque est étroitement lié aux réticences des instituteurs grecs de suivre une formation supplémentaire après leur nomination. Par conséquent, il y a des instituteurs dans les écoles à horaire élargi chargés d'animer des activités hors programme sans posséder ni les connaissances nécessaires ni la compétence de transmission, à savoir des instituteurs complètement démunis de toute aptitude qui leur permettrait d'enseigner efficacement. Il est donc bien évident que la formation des instituteurs en Grèce, après leur nomination, nécessite une réforme adéquate de la part du Ministère de l'Education. Chaque école, indépendamment de sa catégorie devrait être équipée d'un personnel formé et les instituteurs devraient s'adapter plus facilement aux changements sociaux, technologiques et académiques advenant dans le milieu scolaire.

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar las percepciones de los profesores sobre la efectividad que tienen los cursos de formación para profesores en activo en colegios de día completo, en su desarrollo profesional, así como sobre sus implicaciones en la política de educación. A través de un estudio experimental, este artículo pone de relevancia que las recientes reformas de la educación relacionadas con los cursos de formacion de profesores en activo no se consideran como la influencia positiva mas importante en la progresión de dichos profesores y por consiguiente en la consecución de las necesidades educativas de los estudiantes en los colegios de día completo. La falta de estímulo y motivación por parte de la administración escolar de Grecia está relacionada con la reticencia de los profesores de educación primaria de Grecia a someterse durante su servicio a cursos de formación. Como consecuencia de esto último, existen profesores en los colegios de día completo que ofrecen actividades extra‐curriculares sin los conocimientos necesarios y los reflejos adecuados, profesores que no han desarrollado las cualificaciones necesarias para enseñar con eficacia. Por lo tanto, es evidente que el Ministerio de Educación griego debe reconsiderar minuciosamente los cursos para profesores en activo. Todos los colegios (todos los tipos de colegios) deben de disponer en su plantilla de profesores con una formación adecuada y que sepan adaptarse con mayor facilidad a los cambios sociales, tecnológicos y académicos que ocurren de forma natural en el ambiente escolar.

Zweck dieser Studie ist die Nachforschung der Ansicht von Lehrern über die Wirksamkeit der Weiterbildung von Lehrern, die speziell in Ganztagschulen tätig sind, sowie ihre Berufsentwicklung und die Konsequenzen auf die allgemeine Ausbildungspolitik. Wie es mittels empirischer Annäherung gezeigt wird, es könne nicht angenommen werden, dass die letzten Reformen im Bereich der Weiterbildung von Lehrern während ihrer Tätigkeit, ihren Fortschritt, und demnach ihre Anpassung auf die Ausbildungsbeduerfnisse der Schüler von Ganztagsschulen, positiv und bedeudent beeinflussen. Der Mangel an Motivation von der Seite der Griechischen Schulverwaltung wird verbunden mit der Abgeneigtheit der Griechischen Lehrer, sich nach ihrer Einstellung weiterzubilden. Das hat wiederrum als Folge, dass es in Ganztagsschulen Lehrer gibt, die für Aktivitäten ausserhalb des dienstlichen Ausbildungsplans zuständig sind, und die über die notwendigen Kenntnisse und die Fähigkeit der U?bertragbarkeit nicht verfügen, also Lehrer mit unzureichenden Qualifikation, die nicht effektiv lehren können. Folglich, es ist Tatsache, dass in Griechenland die Weiterbildung der Lehrer nach ihrer Einstellung, sorgfältige U?berprüfung von der Seite des Ausbildungsministeriums bedarf. Alle Schultypen sollten über das geignet ausgebildete Personal verfügen, und die Lehrer sollten sich den gesellschaftlichen, technologischen und akademischen Änderungen, die naturgemäss im Schulbereich auftreten könnten, leichter anpassen.     

Managing Messes and Coping with Uncertainty: reviewing training for teachers in post‐compulsory education and training

Abstract

Post‐compulsory teacher training in England has been under review, and standards developed by the Further Education Staff Development Forum were to be launched in January 1999 as a precursor to a mandatory qualification for teachers in further education in England and Wales. Until now, many further education colleges have worked in partnership with higher education institutions to run Certificate in Education programmes, which aim to develop both practical teaching skills and critical knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning in a post‐compulsory context. A review of one such programme is outlined here. In a context where further education teachers must help to widen participation and promote lifelong learning, it is argued that any new arrangements for initial teacher training and continuing professional development need to include ‘competence’ in the practical skills involved in teaching and learning, but must also go beyond this, and aim to develop critical knowledge and understanding of the changing context in which staff work. It is argued that turning the new Further Education National Training Organisation standards for further education teachers in England and Wales into a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is inadequate to this task. A strengthened partnership between further and higher education providers to develop more robust and coherent approaches to professional capability is advocated.     

Utopia vs. reality: the effectiveness of in‐service training courses for EFL teachers

The article explores the long‐term effectiveness of in‐service teacher training courses for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in the Greek educational context. It presents the results of a questionnaire designed and issued to teacher‐trainees a year after the completion of 60‐hour courses. The questionnaire assessed, among others, (a) teacher trainees' beliefs regarding the relevance of the knowledge acquired to their individual needs, (b) the extent to which they used the materials provided in the course, and (c) the usefulness of the subjects offered. The data are discussed in relation to strategies for optimising teacher training services and implications are drawn for the implementation of change in a broader educational context. A ‘cooperative model' is proposed for the promotion of change involving active cooperation between all agents involved in the educational process and necessitating top‐down and bottom‐up cooperation.     

Some sources for the history of teacher‐training in England and Wales

Abstract:

Though his best‐selling novel of school life Eric, or, Little by Little: A Tale of Roslyn School has over the years been the subject of much attention, the wider educational thought and practice of Frederic William Farrar, teacher, novelist, scientist, classicist, theologian, and Dean of Canterbury, has for the most part been neglected by scholars. This paper discusses certain aspects of Farrar the educationist, including his distinctive evangelical attitude toward children; his fervent criticism of the prevailing Classical public school curriculum; his advocacy that much more science be taught; his strong antipathy to corporal and other punishment; his distaste for the increasing athleticism in the public schools; his view of the main purpose of education, namely the inculcation of morality, religious conviction, and intellectual rigor.     

English teachers of deaf and hard‐of‐hearing students in French schools: needs,barriers and strategies

This paper deals with English teachers who work with deaf and hard‐of‐hearing (D/HH) students. In France deaf students are required to attend foreign language classes – mostly English classes. The purpose is not to teach them British sign language (BSL) or American sign language (ASL), but written and/or spoken English. Indeed, sign languages are distinct from spoken languages and differ from country to country: there is no universal sign language. English teachers of the deaf are mostly hearing people. They work either in mainstream or special schools. Most of them have no specific qualifications. In this context, they are faced with the tremendous challenge of how to adjust their teaching to their students’ impairment and at the same time develop the latter's knowledge and skills in English. In order to analyse teaching practices in English classes, questionnaires, interviews and in‐class observations in several special and mainstream schools were conducted. Findings show that different teaching strategies are used in order to make English lessons accessible to D/HH students: teachers have to adapt their teaching language and also use written and visual supports to accommodate D/HH students. Obviously teacher training needs to be improved.     

Grounds for health: the intersection of green school grounds and health‐promoting schools

Despite the growing body of research on green school grounds, relatively little has been written about their relationship with health promotion, particularly from a holistic health perspective. It is this relationship that we explore in this paper – the power and potential of green school grounds to promote health and well‐being and to be an integral element of multifaceted, school‐based health promotion strategies. Specifically, we bring together recent research to examine green school grounds as places where the interests of educators and children’s health advocates can meet, inform and support one another. By grounding our comments in recent thinking about health‐promoting schools, we highlight the growing body of evidence that green school grounds, as a school setting, can contribute to children’s physical, mental, social and spiritual well‐being.     

Education and disadvantage: the role of community‐oriented schools

The proposed development of extended schools in England is part of an international movement towards community‐oriented schooling, particularly in areas of disadvantage. Although on the face of it this movement seems like a common‐sense approach to self‐evident needs, the evaluation evidence on such schools is inconclusive. In order to assess the likelihood that community‐oriented schooling will have a significant impact on disadvantage, therefore, this paper analyses the rationale on which this approach to schooling appears to be based. It argues that community‐oriented schools as currently conceptualised have a focus on ‘proximal’ rather than ‘distal’ factors in disadvantage, underpinned by a model of social in/exclusion which draws attention away from underlying causes. They are, therefore, likely to have only small‐scale, local impacts. The paper suggests that a more wide‐ranging strategy is needed in which educational reform is linked to other forms of social and economic reform and considers the conditions which would be necessary for the emergence of such a strategy.     

Why they sat still: the ideas and values of long‐serving teachers in challenging inner‐city schools in England

Within the UK there are grave concerns about retention and attrition rates within the teaching profession, particularly in challenging schools. These are compounded by worries about the gap that will be left as long‐serving teachers reach retirement age. This article is about the working lives of long‐serving teachers in three high‐poverty urban schools in England. In a climate in which teaching is tightly controlled and suffering from problems of retention and recruitment, the teachers discuss intensely personal and emotional commitments to their work‐place. Qualitative in‐depth interviews with 20 long‐serving teachers, all of whom had management responsibilities, are used to explore their lives and careers. These histories evoke a strong sense of the ideas and values that make up their personal and professional identities. These are then contrasted with the ideas and values in officially mandated views of progression within the profession. Within the stories of their professional lives, the teachers talk about the emotional dimensions of their work and the emotional ties of their ‘work‐place’. The article concludes that recognition of the emotional dimensions within teachers’ work at an official level could go some way to helping with recruitment and retention in schools facing challenging circumstances.     

Perceived professional needs of Korean science teachers majoring in chemical education and their preferences for online and on‐site training

In this study, we investigated the perceived professional needs of Korean science teachers majoring in chemical education, and examined their preferences for online and on‐site inservice teacher training programmes. The results were also compared with those of preservice teachers. Participants were 120 secondary school teachers and 67 preservice teachers, whose majors were either chemical education or science education with emphasis in chemistry. A questionnaire consisting of a modified Science Teacher Inventory of Need and a section concerning respondents’ demographic information and their use of the Internet was administered. In contrast to previous studies, the perceived needs of Korean inservice and preservice teachers were found to be very strong in all 30 needs assessment items, and their prominent needs were from all seven categories. Preservice teachers indicated significantly greater needs than inservice teachers on several items. Korean teachers generally tended to prefer online inservice to traditional on‐site training programmes, although they still preferred on‐site types of programmes in areas such as conducting laboratory sessions and demonstrating manipulative skills. Preferences for online programmes tended to be stronger among preservice teachers than inservice teachers, and among non‐veteran teachers than in veteran teachers. Educational implications are discussed.     

Post‐welfarism and the reconstruction of teachers’ work in the UK

A key rationale for the UK education reforms of the 1980s and 1990s was a desire on the part of agents within the state to control more directly the work of teachers. In a variety of ways, the reforms were designed to contribute to a reconstruction of the work of teaching. The first part of this paper considers the roots of this intended reconstruction. The second part explores the impact of the reforms on the culture of teachers’ work, focusing on three kinds of consequences ‐ emotional, social and pedagogical. The paper draws on loosely‐structured interviews with secondary school teachers, carried out as part of a study of the culture and values of schooling in the light of the shift from wel‐farist to post‐welfarist policies in education.     

Work‐experience and schools: factors influencing the participation of industry

The growth of work‐experience as part of the school curriculum in such schemes as TVEI, has led to a growing body of literature concerned with the educational, social and political consequences of this trend. However, one aspect of analysis has been neglected by those working in this area. There has been a marked lack of investigation into factors which affect the supply of work placements to schools. Behind this lies an assumption that the participation of industry with schools is a straightforward and easy to accomplish process.

By focusing on some of the approaches exhibited by firms towards the provison of work‐experience, this paper seeks to make problematic the supply of work placements by industry in a market economy. I shall suggest that eductionalists and policy makers may have cause to be concerned not only with the quantity of placements which might be available to them in the future, but with the educational quality of these placements.