Capturing and Enhancing Science Teachers’ Professional Knowledge

This paper reports research from a three-year Australian science teacher professional learning project, the Science Teaching and Learning (STaL) Project, in which groups of science teacher participants (across years K – 12) worked with academics over a one-year period as teacher researchers. Through reflecting on their experiences within the STaL Project and collecting data from their classrooms related to specific science teaching concerns, teacher participants constructed cases around particular aspects of their professional learning. The cases that these participants developed elicited rich insights into their teaching and their students’ learning of science. This paper discusses how the cases were developed by the teacher researcher participants and uses exemplars as a way of illustrating the nature of the professional knowledge developed.     

Writing Workshops in Teacher Education: Making a space for feeling and diversity

Telling and writing personal stories is a powerful means of fostering teachers' professional growth. However, little attention has been paid to the professional and personal growth of teacher educators/researchers who engage with students and research participants in personal storytelling and autobiographical writing. This article explores the contribution of writing to the development of personal narratives of practice among teacher educators/researchers, and considers the potential of the writing workshop as a space where diverse voices can find expression. Drawing on phenomenological and narrative methods, we examine work with both pre-service and experienced teachers, describing the ways that space was created for a 'dialogue within difference' where participants could express themselves fully. The main questions addressed are: how does personal writing enable teacher educators to understand the experience of students; how do we as teacher educators/researchers learn about ourselves through the mirror of our students' writing and our response to it; and how do the institutional contexts of university and college affect the processes by which stories are told, reflected on and re-storied?     

Changes in Vision: Teachers Engaging in Action Research

This investigation explored the effects of action research on teachers in a graduate education program. Mixed methods were utilized, combining a semantic differential study of student attitudes with qualitative analysis of students' perceptions of their experience as action researchers. Results indicate that participants perceived themselves as changing in their understanding of their professional expertise, their professional identity, and their professional relationships. Results support the use of action research as a key component for teacher development.     

The relational selves of female graduate students during academic mentoring: from dialogue to transformation

This study, framed by social constructionism, retrospectively examines how faculty mentoring influenced the transformations of 10 female graduate students’ relational selves and their professional identities as qualitative researchers and scholars. Participants reported that effective mentorships often resulted in collaboration on research projects, as well as shared decision‐ and meaning‐making. Effective mentoring also led to the development of the students’ research skills while simultaneously constructing their professional and academic selves. These situated mentorships were shaped by the diverse values, expectations, and hopes that the participants associated with mentoring. Additionally, the local practices, power structures, and relationships at the department or university level influenced, and possibly discouraged, active communication and ongoing dialogue regarding the individuals’ experience of mentoring. Ultimately, participants described how their experiences of mentoring welcomed them into the scholarly community and ensured their professional competence as researchers and academics, which, in turn, transformed the students’ broader sense of self.     

ComPratica: A Virtual Community of Practice for Promoting Biology Teachers’ Professional Development in Brazil

Teachers’ professional development is a key factor in improving science education, but it shows limited impact when only a small number of teachers is reached, or when it focuses on only one aspect of teachers’ development, such as learning science content, and is disconnected from teachers’ practice. In order to increase the impact of our work on teachers’ professional development, we implemented in 2007 ComPratica, an online network intended to establish a virtual community of practice involving biology teachers and biological education researchers. We present here the results of the first 2 years of this project, obtained through an analysis of the number and distribution of actions performed by the participants in the community, the kinds of activities in which they are engaged, and the themes addressed in their messages. From these data, we conclude that ComPratica is effectively functioning as a community of practice and is leading to changes related to both teachers’ and researchers’ professional development, which seem capable of reducing the research–practice gap in science education.     

The Induction of School Counselors: Meeting Personal and Professional Needs

The purpose of this study was to ascertain participants’ perceptions of elements of the induction process that met novice school counselors’ personal and professional needs. Interviews of seven novice counselors and their principals over one school year were the primary data sources. Employing an abductive analysis process based on a developed typology of induction elements from the teacher induction literature, the researchers’ analysis of the data indicated that although various induction elements were discussed by participants (i.e. informal mentors, orientation, professional development, collaboration, reduced workloads, and interaction with principals), few were planned specifically for the novice counselor. Most supports for the novices were viewed with mixed results in meeting their personal and professional needs.     

Supervisors' conceptions of research and the implications for supervisor development

Teaching reform in higher education has frequently been informed by investigations into conceptions of learning held by students and by teachers. Such work has been extended into research education, with the study of experienced researchers' conceptions of research providing a basis for enquiry into the way research is experienced by the various participants in research education. This paper reports research designed to investigate research supervisors' conceptions of research as they were produced in focus group conversations. Using techniques of membership categorisation analysis, discourses are identified that privileged university‐based research and researchers over other forms of research and other ways of knowing, in particular over the interests of professional/practitioner researchers and over the legitimacy of research conducted in workplaces outside the university. It is argued that such discourses have the potential to be problematic for professional and industry‐based practitioner researchers as they seek to construct authoritative researcher identities. Further interrogation of the categorisation work that sustains these discourses offers the opportunity to make their assumptions explicit, which has implications for supervisors' reflective practice and professional development.     

Walk Little,Look Lots: Tuning into Teachers’ Action Research Rhythm

This article is a narrative résumé of a year-long collaborative critical inquiry into teaching methods with teachers of modern languages in Irish secondary schools. Putting myself, a cultural stranger and first-time qualitative researcher, at the core of this self-study, I discuss first the context and methodological framework of the study to later speak about several aha-moments that shaped my journey. The initial aim of making my participants become action researchers was fulfilled only partially. Because I allowed participants to co-create this action research study in tune with their needs and capacities, I needed to change my expectations. Rather than seeing parts of this study as a failure, given that so far none of my participants published their action research outcomes, I began to embrace an organic approach to continuing professional development that is based on active listening and collaboration.     

Seeing through the eyes of the teacher? Investigating primary school teachers’ professional noticing through a video-based research methodology

ABSTRACT

Digital video technology has been increasingly employed to investigate teacher professional noticing. While extensive research has been undertaken to explore the specialised knowledge base underlying teacher professional noticing, there is a need to more closely examine the methodological consequences of video-based approaches for understanding the nature of professional noticing. This paper draws upon a recent study that investigated primary school teachers’ professional noticing of mathematics and science classrooms to discuss issues, challenges, and opportunities that emerge with a video-based research approach. In this study, the latest video technology was employed to allow primary school teachers to take active roles in capturing, selecting and reflecting on significant classroom events on their own and with colleagues. Drawing upon examples from this study, this paper highlights the methodological potential and challenges of video-based approaches to investigating teacher noticing in classrooms, and discusses how this noticing relates to reflection stimulated by classroom videos. It further reveals the tension between the dual priorities of empowering the teacher participants in research and enabling valid interpretations by the researchers in an attempt to gain insight into the complexity of teachers’ professional noticing.     

Teacher research in Dutch professional development schools: perceptions of the actual and preferred situation in terms of the context,process and outcomes of research

This study aims to provide deeper insight into participants’ (e.g. school principals, teachers and student teachers) perceptions of the actual and preferred situation in terms of the context, process and outcomes of practice-based research through teachers-as-researchers at Dutch professional development schools. We interviewed eight school principals, 10 teachers, and six student teachers from four professional development schools in the Netherlands. A trend displayed across all types of participants was their focus on the context dimension of research. Moreover, respondents often focussed in rather general terms on the process of conducting teacher research within the school and the content of this research. A major difference exists between perceptions of the actual and preferred situation related to the effects of teacher research on pupils’ outcomes: despite the central focus of research on pupil learning and learning results, according to participants effects on pupil level were not (yet) reached at this moment. These results suggest that in Dutch professional development schools increased attention is needed both by researchers and practitioners on the process and outcome dimensions of doing teacher research.     

构建基于校本研修的有效教研工作方式——昌吉州中小学教研工作方式的调查与思考

为了更好地引导校本研修深入开展,教研员在角色上要从教学的督导、检查、评价和管理变为参与、研究、服务和引领;教研员的工作方式要从面走向点,从宏观走向微观,注重自身的专业发展,这是实现教研工作方式转变的前提。     

Student motivation: an experience of inservice education as a context for professional development of teachers

This article focuses on an inservice education experience conducted in a constructivist perspective. The experience was aimed at fostering elementary, middle and high school teachers’ professional development regarding student motivation. Thirty-six teachers from these school levels reflected on their professional experience and practical knowledge in groups conducted and supervised by university researchers. In group work, the participants analyzed and discussed materials and situations from their professional experience, re-elaborated in the light of a constructivist framework. At the end of the intervention, they showed an increased ability and interest in reflecting with colleagues and researchers on their students’ motivational problems, and collaborative planning of educational interventions. The results of the intervention are presented and the possibility of carrying out similar education experiences in the Italian school system is discussed.     

Challenges faced by pre-service chemistry teachers teaching in a laboratory and their solution proposals

This study examines the challenges faced by pre-service chemistry teachers teaching in a laboratory and their proposed solutions to these challenges. The study was conducted in a 13-week-long methodology course. Written statements from participants and observations from researchers were used as data sources. From these data, it was found that the participants faced challenges related to content knowledge and connections, laboratory and experiments, students, planning and implementing instruction and general teacher qualifications. In terms of solutions, various ideas were proposed, such as improved development of content knowledge, pre-lesson preparation and the acquisition of professional experience. The challenges expressed by participants differed from those observed by the researchers and increased during the length of the course. In addition, their proposed solutions were not sufficient, coherent or explicit.     

THE SUBVERSIVE CURRICULUM: WHAT RELIGIOUS EDUCATORS ARE LEARNING INFORMALLY AND INCIDENTALLY

This study examines the informal and incidental learning that occurred among ten religious educators in the Roman Catholic school system in Newfoundland. In phase one, two researchers conducted focus groups and administered questionnaires to collect data. In phase two, one of the researchers conducted individual interviews with study participants. The types of learning identified are classified into three categories: theological knowledge, professional knowledge, and knowledge about oneself. The learning reported is then discussed in relation to the informal‐ and incidental‐learning theory of Karen Watkins and Victoria Marsick.     

Communicating data to schools

The article explores the communication of data to schools by researchers and evaluators. The stance is taken that the research process is one in which the participants are involved in a mutually supportive enterprise in which the relationship should be viewed as co-operation between professional colleagues, i.e., a relationship in which perceived status is minimised but one in which different knowledge and expertise exists on both sides. It is argued that the obtaining of data at school sites requires the researcher to provide data to their sources. Careful consideration needs to be given by researchers to the process and methods of communication of data to school communities. Issues addressed include audience, terminology, prose and other forms of presentation. A case is made for the researcher to become involved in dialogue to enhance the “meaning-making” of practitioners and themselves. The article concludes with a set of guidelines for researchers.     

农村幼儿教师环境创设能力提升的行动研究——以新津县幼儿园学前教育集团为例

为支持和促进幼儿的发展,农村幼儿教师需要不断提升环境创设能力。以新津县幼儿园学前教育集团领办的三所农村标准化中心幼儿园中18位教师为研究对象,通过为期一年的行动研究促进其环境创设能力的提升。采用参与式的理论培训、主动性的实践反思、网络状的学习共同体、发展性的评价机制作为促进教师专业素质提升的策略和工具。对18名幼儿教师在实施干预方案前后填写的问卷及访谈文本、反思日记文本进行分析发现,教师在环境创设方面的专业理念、专业态度、专业能力都有了非常明显而可喜的变化。     

Bridging professional teacher knowledge for science and literary integration via design-based research

We offer insights for using design-based research (DBR) as a model for constructing professional development that supports curriculum and instructional knowledge regarding science and literacy integration. We spotlight experiences in the DBR process from data collected from a sample of four elementary teachers. Findings from interviews, focus groups and researcher field notes elucidated: the value in establishing a collaborative foundation for professional discourse, the teacher participants developing nascent knowledge of curricular integration in science and literacy, and their apprehensions about using digital technology to support their professional development. Implications are presented for professional development facilitators and researchers using DBR as an innovative approach for teacher development.     

From science teacher to ‘teacher scientist’: exploring the experiences of research-active science teachers in the UK

We explore the professional identities of UK-based secondary science teachers who actively participated in science research for at least six months. The study uses thematic analysis to analyse semi-structured interviews with 17 participants across England and Scotland, from a variety of educational/socio-economic contexts. We found that through participation in research projects, teachers develop a multi-faceted sense of professional identity that includes the roles of teacher, scientist/researcher, mentor and coach. Teachers who are research-active develop complex professional networks that have a positive impact upon their sense of professional worth and self-belief. Through participation in research, teachers identified as both science teachers and scientists and this has been encapsulated in this research as a transition in professional identity to ‘teacher scientist’. The key enabling factor in identification as a ‘teacher scientist’ is a teacher’s positive interaction with scientists/researchers. Teachers are motivated to participate in research projects in response to the enthusiasm of their students and a desire for students to contribute to research that could provide solutions to real-world challenges. This understanding of the capacity of science teachers to become ‘teacher scientists’, and recognising teachers' altruistic motivations, could contribute to teacher retention and recruitment strategies that are less focused on financial incentives.     

Inter-professional collaboration in action research

This article describes an example of inter-professional action research conducted by teachers and university-based researchers/teacher educators in a vocational college in the Netherlands. The research was aimed at the professional learning of the teachers on their pedagogical approach to a new curriculum initiative. Despite a difficult context in the Netherlands for a type of action research in which teachers and researchers work in democratic collaboration on the improvement of teaching practices, this inter-professional collaboration worked out well. The participants worked, inspired by shared commitment towards the students, as equal partners. In the findings and conclusion insights developed about key elements for inter-professional collaborative research, such as the importance of common relevance, shared responsibility for the research and mutual trust and respect for differences in professional identities and working conditions are addressed.     

Reading race in a rural context

This is an ethnographic case study examining how discussions of multicultural young adult literature among a group of white, rural teachers and researchers were shaped by sociopolitical contexts and participants' constructions of racial identity. Focusing on the interactions of three teachers and ourselves, we used performance theory to help us understand how our ways of performing the self were shaped at the macro level by institutional and societal ideologies and the micro level by professional affiliations and identities. In analyzing data, we used qualitative coding procedures to arrive at key and illustrative events. These events were then analyzed using the tools of discourse analysis, which helped us to focus on the ideological underpinnings of the discourse. Our analyses revealed that as participants attempted to engage with the literature and bond with one another, we enacted personal, professional and group affiliations that served to sustain particular norms of whiteness even as we attempted to disrupt them.