Early Childhood Teachers at the Center: A Qualitative Case Study of Professional Development in an Urban District

Professional development for early childhood educators (ECE PD) is an essential component of supporting a professional early childhood workforce. Yet research on ECE PD frequently centers on narrow fidelity data, while teachers’ individual voices and teaching contexts are only rarely considered in order to understand teacher experiences with PD initiatives. This qualitative case study utilizes the critical ecology of the early childhood profession framework (Miller et al., Early childhood grows up: Towards a critical ecology of the profession, Springer, London) to examine process-related questions in a large urban district’s PD initiative connected with the launch of a new district-developed kindergarten curriculum. Examining teacher experiences through an ecological lens, the study focuses on two kindergarten teachers, viewing them as active agents in their own professional learning and situating them within their particular teaching contexts. Data sources included classroom observations, teacher interviews, and curriculum fidelity data. Although fidelity data provided some information about teacher responses to the PD, triangulating this data with teacher accounts of adapting the curriculum to their particular context enabled more nuanced understandings about how teachers adapt information from PD sessions to their particular teaching contexts. This study demonstrates the need for research on ECE PD to go beyond fidelity data to explore process-related questions about teachers PD experiences.     

Participants' Roles in the Context of a Video Club

This study examines the nature of teacher participation in the context of a video club. Video clubs are professional development meetings in which teachers watch and discuss excerpts of video from their classrooms. In this study, I adopt a situative perspective to examine how teachers develop in their participation to accomplish the goals of the video club. In particular, I examine the roles participants play and explore teachers' participation in four roles that correspond with key goals of the video club. Analysis revealed that teachers' participation shifted in qualitatively different ways over time, with the teachers coming to prompt the group to discuss student mathematical thinking, to propose a variety of interpretations of student ideas, to build on one another's ideas, and to challenge one another's thinking in order to advance the group's conversations. This analysis suggests that the group learned how to participate in roles central to accomplishing the goals of the video club. Studying teacher learning through a lens of participation provides insight into the ways in which teachers coordinate themselves to engage with the goals of professional development and has implications for designing professional development that helps teachers develop practices for teaching mathematics for understanding.     

How does writing for publication help professional development of teachers? A case study in China

Publications by teachers reporting results or case studies of school-based teacher inquiry activities benchmark their professional development by indicating they have a ‘stance of inquiry’. Such papers also disseminate valuable knowledge to the education community for sharing. Essay or case writing has always been a part of school-based teacher learning in China. The small-scale qualitative study reported here examines the impact of producing publications on the professional development of teachers within the context of educational reform. Findings show that producing publications contributes to teacher development in three ways. First, an expanded knowledge base gives the teachers new understandings of student-based learning. Second, teachers obtain insight into their practices by making their tacit knowledge explicit. Third, teachers have a sense of achievement by theorising personal experience. Publications serve as ‘boundary objects’ which can potentially help teachers achieve and develop their professionalism by disseminating individual knowledge into the public knowledge domain with transformative learning. Such developments, however, normally tend to focus on expanding local pedagogical practice. More emphasis on the notion of ‘teachers as researchers’ through critical reflection may help teachers perform as transformative intellectuals whilst searching for ways to retain teachers’ voices in their written publications.     

Introducing Future Teachers to Science Beyond the Classroom

Informal science education institutions (ISEIs), such as museums, aquariums, and nature centers, offer more to teachers than just field trip destinations—they have the potential to provide ideas for pedagogy, as well as support deeper development of teachers’ science knowledge. Although there is extensive literature related to teacher/museum interactions within the context of the school field trip, there is limited research that examines other ways that such institutions might support classroom teachers. A growing number of studies, however, examine how incorporating such ideas of connections of ISEIs to pre-service teacher education might improve teacher perceptions and awareness. Pre-service elementary teachers enrolled in a science methods class participated in a semester-long assignment which required participation in their choice of activities and events (workshops, field trips, family day activities) conducted at local ISEIs. Students generally saw this embedded assignment as beneficial, despite the additional out-of-class time required for completion. Comparison of pre-/post-class responses suggested that teachers shifted their perceptions of ISEIs as first and foremost as places for field trips or hands-on experiences, to institutions that can help teachers with classroom science instruction. Although basic awareness of the existence of such opportunities was frequently cited, teachers also recognized these sites as places that could enhance their teaching, either by providing materials/resources for the classroom or by helping them learn (content and pedagogy) as teachers. Implications for practice, including the role of ISEIs in teacher preparation and indication, are also discussed.     

Confronting assumptions,biases, and stereotypes in preservice teachers' conceptualizations of science teaching through the use of book club

This study focuses on the structure and theoretical foundations of the book club for promoting multicultural understandings in science teacher education. The book club was defined as an informal, peer‐directed group discussion that met regularly to discuss an ethnographic, multicultural text regarding issues pertinent to science teaching and learning in urban classrooms. Twenty‐three preservice teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a 16‐week elementary science methods course at a large urban university participated in the study. From the qualitative analyses of PSTs' written reflections and researcher journal notes, five themes which emphasize Individual, Collaborative, and Collective learning are presented. These findings highlight how the book club structure and theoretical foundation fostered critical, reflective inquiry and served as a method for effecting ideological change which is needed in order to embrace issues of diversity in urban science education. Implications for science teacher education concerning the relevancy of pedagogical strategies, the use of multiple theoretical perspectives, and the book club as a strategy in teacher education and urban education are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 1041–1066, 2009     

Teacher opinions on performance pay: Evidence from India

The practical viability of performance-based pay programs for teachers depends critically on the extent of support the idea will receive from teachers. We present evidence on teacher opinions with regard to performance-based pay from teacher interviews conducted in the context of an experimental evaluation of a program that provided performance-based bonuses to teachers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. We report four main findings in this paper: (1) over 80% of teachers had a favorable opinion about the idea of linking a component of pay to measures of performance, (2) exposure to an actual incentive program increased teacher support for the idea, (3) teacher support declines with age, experience, training, and base pay, and (4) the extent of teachers’ stated ex ante support for performance-linked pay (over a series of mean-preserving spreads of pay) is positively correlated with their ex post performance as measured by estimates of teacher value addition. This suggests that teachers are aware of their own effectiveness and that implementing a performance-linked pay program could not only have broad-based support among teachers but also attract more effective teachers into the teaching profession.     

Understanding the Induction of a Science Teacher: The Interaction of Identity and Context

The demanding first years of teaching are a time when many teachers leave the teaching profession or discard the reform-minded practice emphasized in teacher preparation. If we are to lessen teacher attrition and more effectively support teachers during their development, a better understanding of what occurs during their induction into the profession is needed. The question that drove this research was what factors influence how a beginning science teacher negotiates entry into teaching? Specifically, we sought to understand how a beginning science teacher’s identities interact with the teaching context; how this interaction shapes his use of reform-minded teaching practice; and how the negotiation of identity, context, and practice influence a novice teacher’s employment decisions. The study involved 2 years of data collection; data included classroom and school observations, questionnaires, interviews, and teaching artifacts (such as lesson plans and assessments). The results demonstrate how conflicts in identities, institutional expectations, and personal dispositions of this novice influenced his transition in becoming a member of his school community. Implications of these interactions for teacher preparation and support are provided.     

How failure shapes teacher identities: Pre-service elementary school and mathematics teachers’ narrated possible selves

This study explored pre-service teachers’ possible teacher selves with respect to how they have been shaped by their experiences of math failure. The study contributes to identity research by applying the theory of possible selves and by comparing and contrasting narrated possible teacher selves of pre-service elementary school teachers and pre-service mathematics teachers. Three categories of possible selves were identified: teacher traits and actions, student strategies, and teacher self-development. How possible teacher selves may inform teacher identity development and teacher preparation in the context of teaching mathematics is discussed, as are methodological considerations for examining narrated possible selves.     

理念性存在:教师实践性知识的人学思考

教师实践性知识作为教师在教育教学情境中对自身与他人教育经验的借鉴与升华形成的客观知识,对于提升教师职业专业化、增强教师主体性存在等具有重要意义。基于教师实践性知识作为理念性存在的前提下,对现行教师实践性知识研究进行批判,且以其主体——教师为视角对其开展全新研究,并积极探索立足于生活、建构、理解、实践基础上的教师实践性知识研究体系。     

The psychological dimension of transformation in teacher learning

Against a background which recognises pedagogical content knowledge as the distinctive element of teacher competence/expertise, this theoretical essay argues for its central construct – that of transformation – to be understood by teachers and teacher educators in psychological terms (as was originally proposed by Dewey). Transformation requires teachers to fashion disciplinary knowledge such that it is accessible to the learner. It is argued that for transformation to happen, teacher thinking must include a sophisticated grasp of cognition and metacognition if teachers are to be characterised as competent, let alone expert. This article is written within a context of considerable social and academic scrutiny in the UK of the form and content of professional teacher preparation and development. In recent years, the contribution of psychological knowledge to teacher education has been filtered through procedural lenses of how best to ‘manage classrooms’, ‘assess learning’, ‘build confidence’ or whatever without a matched concern for psychological constructs through which such issues might be interpreted; thus, leaving teachers vulnerable in their professional understandings of learning and its complexities. That society now requires high-level cognitive engagement amongst its participants places cognitive and metacognitive demands on teachers which can only be met if they themselves are conceptually equipped.     

Preservice Special Education Teachers' Reflections on Their Developing Professional Awareness Via In-Context Learning

The highly complex demands of the profession often overwhelm new teachers. Burnout and attrition are known consequences of inadequate preparation, burdening the education system with costly turnover and schools with disproportionate numbers of inexperienced teachers, including special educators. Many teacher preparation programs embed field experiences as a formative aspect of professional development with the intention of exposing candidates to the realities and demands of the profession. Little is known, however, about the ways in which preservice teachers’ professional awareness develops via in-context learning through field-based experiences. Using an exploratory, qualitative approach we analyzed end of course reflections of 31 special education preservice teachers for insights into the development of their professional awareness (professional roles and responsibilities) following a strategically aligned field experience. Findings suggest that participants expressed a growing understanding of professional practices, teacher dispositions, and professional relationships. A discussion of the findings and implications for teacher preparation are presented.     

Explicit and implicit perspectives on research-based teacher education: newly qualified teachers’ experiences in Finland

Much of the international debate and research on teacher education has centred on how the preparation of teachers should be organised. In contrast to many other countries, teacher education in Finland has been university-based for decades and has a strong research-based approach. This inductive study describes newly qualified teachers’ (NQTs) experiences of research-based teacher education. The study uses data from semi-structured interviews with 10 newly qualified primary school teachers that were conducted in 2016, directly after they had finished their master’s degrees but had not yet begun to work as teachers. A qualitative content analysis identified three main knowledge areas that describe NQTs’ experiences: personal development, teacher professional competence and research competence. The results demonstrate that students in research-based teacher education gain a solid basis for their future teacher profession, as well as experiencing legitimacy and a high level of status in society. Their education encourages them to become innovative and professional teachers who are prepared to honour the trust and autonomy given to them by society.     

Von der Lehrerausbildung in den Beruf – Fachbezogenes Wissen als Voraussetzung für Wahrnehmung,Interpretation und Handeln im Unterricht

The transition from teacher training into the teaching profession is seen to be key in the biography of a teacher. Yet there is a lack of enquiry into the development of the content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) held by teachers at the end of their education, and into the significance of this knowledge for situational and behavioural cognition. On the basis of data from the international comparative study TEDS-M 2008 and the Germany-based 2012 follow-up, this contribution investigates the knowledge and skills development of teachers during the transition from teacher training to the teaching profession in a four-year longitudinal study with n = 171 mathematics teachers. Three test formats (paper-and-pencil, video-vignettes and speed tests) are used to examine various indicators for teacher expertise. In addition to the analysis of changes in mathematical CK and PCK levels, path analysis is used to determine the extent to which this knowledge functions as a predictor for the perception and interpretation of classroom situations, the decision-making in these situations, and the quick identification of student mistakes. The results show only small changes in the group mean (for MCK there is a small loss, whereas MPCK remains constant), but high fluctuation (i. e. weak correlation) in the MPCK ranking between the two measurement occasions, pointing to differential learning effects gained from teaching practice. There are also significant differences in predictability: MCK is important for the speed indicators of teacher expertise; MCK and MPCK for the perception and interpretation of situations, and for the generation of action strategies. These findings can on the one hand help to facilitate the evaluation of beginning teachers’ need for support and, on the other hand, they indicate the necessity for the early integration of practice-based elements into teacher training programmes with the aim of developing PCK and related skills.     

School Teachers’ Experiences of Science Curriculum Reform

We examine teachers’ experiences of a major reform of the school science curriculum for 14–16-year olds in England. This statutory reform enhances the range of available science courses and emphasises the teaching of socio-scientific issues and the nature of science, alongside the teaching of canonical science knowledge. This paper examines teachers’ experiences of the reform and the factors that condition these experiences. A designed sample of 22 teachers discussed their experiences of the reform within a semi-structured interview. Our analysis considers how the external and internal structures within which teachers work interact with the personal characteristics of teachers to condition their experiences of the curriculum reform. In many cases, personal/internal/external contexts of teachers’ work align, resulting in an overall working context that is supportive of teacher change. However, in other cases, tensions within these contexts result in barriers to change. We also explore cases in which external curriculum reform has stimulated the development of new contexts for teachers’ work. We argue that curriculum reformers need to recognise the inevitability of multiple teaching goals within a highly differentiated department and school workplace. We also show how experiences of curriculum reform can extend beyond the learning of new knowledge and associated pedagogies to involve challenges to teachers’ professional identities. We argue for the extended use of teacher role models within local communities of practice to support such ‘identity work’.     

“They taught me”: The benefits of early community-based field experiences in teacher education

Research in teacher education suggests that field experiences in community settings can offer pre-service teachers a context for understanding the link between theory and practice. This paper documents the experiences of pre-service educators participating in a service-learning experience at a Children's Defense Fund Freedom School in the south-eastern United States. Pre-service teachers engaged in critical reflection, online journals, and daily debriefing sessions and praised the benefits of a service experience in an urban context and explained how interactions within the programme gave them the insight into the teaching profession. The author argues that this project successfully bridged the gap between teacher education theory and practice.     

Integrating Technology in Physical Education Teacher Education: A Socialization Perspective

ABSTRACT

Physical education teacher education (PETE) programs are encouraged to develop teachers capable of delivering technology integrated learning experiences. Technological pedagogical content knowledge provides a framework for integrating technology into teacher education programs. Occupational socialization theory describes an educator’s recruitment, training, and socialization in the teaching profession. The purpose of this article is to propose a conceptual framework for helping preservice physical educators develop technological pedagogical content knowledge that is grounded in occupational socialization theory. We specifically recommend a four-phase approach to help preservice teachers (a) build their knowledge and learn to value technology in physical education, (b) observe and explore through instructor modeling and integration, (c) experiment and collaborate with mentoring and scaffolding, and (d) discover through innovation and utilization. These suggestions acknowledge the sociopolitical aspects of learning to teach with technology and implications are discussed along with the need to help preservice teachers transfer technology integration into their professional careers.     

Lesson study in prospective mathematics teacher education: didactic and paradidactic technology in the post-lesson reflection

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the post-lesson reflection, carried out in the context of eight cases of lesson study conducted by teams of Danish, lower secondary prospective teachers and their supervisors. The participants, representing different institutions, were all new to the lesson study format. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated how their interaction shape the development of discourse about mathematical learning. The anthropological theory of the didactic is employed as the theoretical approach to analyse the mathematical and primarily didactical praxeologies developed and discussed during the meetings. The study investigates what happens when lesson study, a well-established Japanese “system” for professional teacher development, is transposed to another educational and cultural context, with the aim of enhancing prospective teacher learning during the practicum of a teacher education programme. The findings highlight significant different positions in the discourse during the post-lesson reflection. Specific practice-related knowledge is developed, to the benefit of prospective teachers, educators and researchers alike. This kind of knowledge is of interest and concern to the whole profession of mathematics teachers and the analysis adds to our insight into the potential of lesson study in prospective education as a meeting place where pertinent actors contribute to the expansion and dissemination of shared professional knowledge.     

Computer-Mediated Communication Environments in Teacher Education: Computer Conferencing and the Supervision of Student Teachers

The use of computer conferencing environments with student teachers and their supervisors was implemented during teaching practice and evaluated for four teacher education programs. Computer conferencing can be contrasted with the more common supervision methods, such as face-to-face conferences between the student teacher and the cooperating teacher, or between a group of student teachers and their supervisor at the teacher education institute. In our evaluation, we focused on participants' opinions of computer conferencing and their participation, activities and educational outcomes. During their field experiences, student teachers used computer conferencing primarily to exchange emotional support when they recognised similar experiences among their peers. It was less used for reflecting on their teaching and exchanging pedagogical content knowledge, including instructional methods and designs, classroom management strategies, general and instructional theories, and aspects of the teaching profession. This finding led to the conclusion that more attention should be paid to the structure of student teachers' learning environment, because more coaching and instruction of student teachers in their systematic and reflective use of computer conferencing leads to more varied and extensive communication