Walking Our Talk: The Imperative of Teacher Educator Modeling

If teacher educators are to be effective, they must be sure that their own professional house is in order. To that end, effective teacher educators must be absolutely clear about their professional mission. In addition, they must also have the appropriate background and training to be effective in their mission. Further, they must bridge the chasm between theory and practice as they prepare teacher candidates by keeping current in K–12 contemporary classroom practice. Finally, they must model what it means to be an accomplished classroom teacher for their pre-service teachers including the professional option of earning National Board certification. Only when teacher educators meet these four demanding criteria can we feel with reasonable certainty that they are living up to their job.     

Implications of Research on Effective Learning Environments for Initial Teacher Education

As a result of multi-disciplinary research on learning, a consistent and comprehensive body of knowledge on effective learning environments is currently emerging (OECD 2010). While this evidence is increasingly influencing the academic and policy discourse on the improvement and innovation of schools, its impact on the design principles of effective initial teacher education has been limited so far. In this paper, the seven transversal learning principles published in the 2010 OECD publication The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice serve as a framework for systematic reflections on how learning research on effective learning environments can inform initial teacher education and how the seven transversal learning principles can contribute to greater coherence and alignment in initial teacher education programs. We consider the implications of The Nature of Learning and other research on teacher education, alongside international examples of next practice, concluding that initial teacher education should model effective student learning.     

The Impact of a Pedagogy of Teacher Education Seminar on Educator and Future Teacher Educator Identities

Educators require support as they move from classroom to higher education settings. This collaborative self-study provides insight into one such support space, a doctoral seminar titled Pedagogy of Teacher Education, and how our identities as educators and future teacher educators developed through participation in the course. Several important themes emerged as we negotiated and adopted new identities as educators, and future teacher educators and researchers. These themes include our development of a collaborative mindset, a teacher educator-researcher perspective, and a critical self-awareness. The findings draw on our professional and personal histories to explore the prominent features that influenced and shaped our identities as educators and future teacher educator-researchers. In sharing our development as educators and future teacher educators, this article provides insights into the ways in which doctoral students in education begin to develop their identities and pedagogies through guided support from more experienced teacher educators.     

Taking a Return to School: Using Self-Study to Learn about Teacher Educator Practice

The work of teacher educators is complex and multifaceted and requires knowledge of pedagogy and practice in both schools and teacher education institutions. This complexity, combined with calls for teacher educators to work in close partnership with schools, sees some in teacher education working in hybrid roles and across the boundaries of schools and universities. Drawing on a self-study conducted over a one-year return to teaching, I explore my return home to teach in a secondary school and I examine the continuing impact of this experience on my practice as a teacher educator. Using the concept of tensions as a conceptual framework to analyse the data I explore three tensions in this article: (1) teacher as technician versus teacher as pedagogue; (2) challenging versus being responsive to other’s views of learning; and (3) teacher versus teacher educator identity. I explore how a return to teaching in school and the tensions I experienced enabled me to develop my practice and understandings as a teacher educator. I argue that rich professional learning can result from using self-study to examine teacher educator practice, particularly for teacher educators working in hybrid roles and partnership contexts.     

Student teachers’ patterns of reflection in the context of teaching practice

This study clarifies the basic structure of student teachers’ reflective thinking. It presents a constructivist account of teacher knowledge through a detailed analysis of various patterns of reflection in student teacher portfolios. We aim to gain a greater understanding of the process and outcomes of portfolio writing in the context of teaching practice. By closely analysing portfolio texts, we defined six main starting points for reflective episodes and several patterns under each of them. Also, the patterns of reflective episodes were analysed according to their deductive and inductive dimensions, together with their static and dynamic features. According to our results, it is possible that student teachers can reflect beyond solely practical issues on teaching, articulate multiple concerns about practice and elaborate them in an integrative manner as well as learn both from theory and from practice as a result of reflection for their future profession.     

Examining Features of Teacher Education in Norway

Drawing upon recent research in the United States, this paper proposes that there are three key features undergirding powerful teacher education programs. The research suggests that in order to be powerful and effective, teacher education programs need to have a vision, be coherent, and provide opportunities to learn that are grounded in teaching practice. The author uses these features as a lens to examine programs in Norway – a country in which teacher education has been relatively under-examined. The analysis reveals several challenges for the Norwegian teacher education programs examined, such as a lack of shared vision among faculty responsible for teaching subject content and those teaching pedagogy, as well as few opportunities for student teachers to learn in the context of practice. Implications for strengthening programs are discussed.     

技术理性与反思性实践:美国两种教师教育观之比较

本文简述了基于技术理性主义和反思性实践的两种教师教育观。从技术理性主义和反思性实践认识论、行为主义和认知心理学、要素主义和进步主义以及批判理论等几方面分析了两种教师教育观的理论基础。并从教学观与教师观、教师资格能力、教师教育计划与课程、以及评价观等纬度对两种教师教育观的核心要素进行了比较。     

从教育实践意蕴的转型看教师教育课程的改革

受理智取向培养思路的影响,人们往往对教师职前教育阶段的教育实践仅仅作＂技术层面＂的认识。但是,随着对教师实践性知识的＂发现＂,人们对教育实践意蕴的理解也发生了从＂技术性实践＂到＂反思性实践＂的深刻转型。我们应该坚持教育实践的核心价值地位,以反思性实践能力培养为主线推动教师教育课程的改革,建立＂实践取向＂的理论教学模式,整合专业技能与教育理论学习,努力实现见、实习活动的课程化,提升教育实践课程的＂反思性＂品质,培养适应教育职场需要的专业化教师。     

美国教师教育发展的问题之争及其启示

美国教师教育的发展伴随着问题的争论,这些争论涉及到两大根本问题:在培养目标上,话题已经由多元文化教师转到反思性教师的培养上;在课程设置上,"学科教学知识"的理念开始逐步取代学科中心主义的基本主张.在美国教师教育研究的争论中,课程设置之争也是学科地位之争和学科利益之争;这种争论建立在理性对话的基础上;有了理性对话,教师教育的培养目标就能在理想与现实间寻求妥善的安置.     

Changing Conceptions of Effective Teacher Education: The journey of a novice teacher educator

This article examines my three-year journey developing a personal pedagogy of teacher education. As an autobiographical self-study, nodal moments are revealed that raise and reflect the tensions I experienced and the challenges I encountered. These included developing an awareness of my incomplete understandings of key components of teacher education, particularly the importance of fostering critical reflection. Acknowledgement of the benefits and complexities of first facilitating and later assessing reflective practice followed next. My transformation from a confident school-board resource teacher to an uncertain teacher educator, who reiteratively questions her practices as she comes to understand and teach to promote conceptual change, resonates with the uncertain terrain of teacher education. I explore the implications of this self-study by discussing the need for support, suggesting that teacher educators, particularly part-time instructors, be provided with opportunities to examine their teacher education beliefs. I recommend self-study groups as vehicles for this support.     

Reflective Practice in Physical Education and Physical Education Teacher Education: A Review of the Literature Since 1995

Reflection and reflective practice are key concepts in the educational literature as well as in research on physical education (PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE). The purpose of this article is to review the current empirical knowledge base for reflection and reflective practice in PE and PETE from 1995 to 2011. The review includes empirical research published in peer reviewed journals on the topics on reflection and reflective practice in the contexts of PE and PETE. There were 33 articles included in the review. Most of the research is conducted in the PETE context, where it was found that pre-service teachers do develop their reflective capabilities. However, the results also indicate students make little progress on critical reflections. In the PE context, it was found that teachers express a need for reflective communities. Theoretical and methodological challenges with the reviewed literature are discussed and suggestions for further research proposed.     

Changing Pedagogical Practice in Teacher Education: Negotiating the spaces between realism and relativism

This article reports a self-study from a larger research project that explored the impact on pre-service and in-service teacher education of a new national curriculum in New Zealand and the conceptualisations of epistemological shifts signalled by that document. A pedagogical initiative to introduce inquiry-based learning into a graduate diploma course for pre-service primary teachers was the result of and the catalyst for further reflection on my practice and the (mis)alignments between my theoretical understandings and beliefs and my pedagogical choices. In this article I focus on the tensions and contradictions I encountered while attempting to enact, in a tertiary environment, a pedagogy that aligned with the underpinning principles of the new curriculum. I describe the model that I developed to understand those tensions and contradictions, which are characterised as the spaces between realism and relativism. I suggest that negotiating these spaces is part of the process of becoming a teacher and a teacher educator in the twenty-first century.     

Policy Changes in Brunei Teacher Education: Implications for the Selection of Trainee Teachers

To improve quality, teacher education programs in Brunei were recently eliminated at the undergraduate level and changed to master of teaching degree courses. Prospective teachers are required to obtain content-rich initial degrees prior to applying for teacher training. This study argues that the high entry qualification to teaching may, in itself, not guarantee teacher effectiveness. This study was to determine if those in teacher training were good candidates for long and effective teaching careers.     

Creating Spaces for Reflection on Learning to Teach a Foreign Language through Open Journals: A Canadian-Dutch self-study

This article describes a collaborative self-study undertaken by two teacher educators who sought to examine the impact of writing reflective journals and sharing them with students in their foreign language methodology classes. The study documents the process of undertaking the typical student assignment of keeping a reflective journal and making it available to students as a form of modeling. Findings include much greater understanding of the complexities of reflective writing, the discovery of a new space for discussions about learning to teach, and a much greater awareness of the importance of deliberate, explicit exchanges in teacher education classes.     

教师教育研究的实践意蕴--布迪厄实践理论对我国教师教育研究的启示

作为社会实践活动的教师教育,除了具有教育实践的一般特征之外,还有其自身发展的逻辑.对于教师教育的研究不能用理论的逻辑代替实践的逻辑,教师教育研究要面对实践形态的教师教育,要将一种实践状态的教师教育现象作为自己的研究对象,去寻找实践的轨迹,解释实践的逻辑.用实践的理论来分析,用实践的逻辑来思考,用实践的话语来表达对教师教育实践的研究,正是其实践意蕴之所在.     

Pre-service teachers undertaking classroom research: developing reflection and enquiry skills

This paper reports on the development of reflectiveness and research skills in eight pre-service teachers, through their participation in a funded research project to develop the handwriting of children with literacy problems. The project aimed to analyse the reflections of the trainee teachers participating in an authentic research study and to consider what this reflection on practice might offer to the education of teachers in the current UK training context. The context for the paper was a project which engaged pre-service trainee teachers in researching the proposition that automaticity in handwriting plays a role in facilitating composing processes and that the automaticity of early writers can be trained. Some outcomes of the project for pupils are reported. The focus in the present paper is, however, on the participating trainee teachers and the paper suggests that conducting research was a significant learning event for these pre-service teachers and that, through working together, they were able to analyse their development as researchers and their learning during the research process. At a time when the English government views teacher training as a method of school improvement and the effectiveness of training is measured through its immediate impact on pupil outcomes, this study offers an example of how shared research can offer positive learning outcomes for pupils, develop the reflective thinking of pre-service teachers through researching a real problem, and develop links across a range of school and university settings.     

Transition to Science Teacher Educator: Tensions Experienced while Learning to Teach Lesson Sequencing

This self-study investigated the tensions that I (Heidi) encountered when teaching elementary preservice teachers how to develop a coherent sequence of five science lessons. Four lesson planning components guided me in developing a series of lessons to support the preservice teachers with this exercise. Employing self-study methodology, data sources included preservice teachers' artifacts, an audio-recording of the preservice teachers discussing the planning of their lesson sequence, and two reflection journals, one kept personally and one kept collaboratively with my co-author and critical friend (Meredith). Findings indicate that a tension of telling and growth developed gradually during the three weeks of teaching. The collaborative journal revealed that this tension was promoted by two other tensions: confidence and uncertainty, and planning and being responsive. Implications regarding the need for explicit teacher educator coursework and reflective practice opportunities are discussed as potential avenues for Ph.D. programs to consider to lessen the tensions that doctoral students may experience during their transition into the role of teacher educator.     

我国教师教育的发展趋势与教育专业自学考试的改革对策

我国教师教育已经呈现出终身化、多元化、高层化、专业化、综合化、信息化等发展趋势，教育专业自学考试必须拓展考试功能，提升考试层次，调整专业设置和学科比例，变更培养目标，优化课程体系，变革考核方式。只有这样，教育专业自学考试才能更加适应时代、社会发展的需要，保持可持续发展。     

关于学前英语教育师资培养模式的思考

我国学前英语教育的社会需求在不断增强,规模在不断扩大,学前英语教育已经成为新时期学前教育中不可回避的重大课题。目前关于学前英语教育的研究比较滞后,学前英语教育缺乏科学合理的指导标准,也未研究和制订有关学前英语教学的政策与法规,特别是学前英语教师的数量和整体质量与素质不令人乐观。本文着重分析和探讨学前英语教师应该具备的基本素质和学前英语教师培养的模式等,旨在促进学前英语教育,提高学前英语教学质量,推动学前英语师资队伍的建设工作。