Representations of teaching and standards-based reform: are we closing the debate about teacher education?

Since the mid-eighties, national organizations have been working together in an effort to reform schools and, more specifically, to reform teaching. Paralleling the movement toward developing curriculum standards for students, professional standards for teachers have also been developed for the purpose of teacher education program accreditation. The objective of this national coalition is to strengthen the teaching profession and raise its standards—eventually enhancing the quality of student learning—by redesigning teacher licensing and accountability requirements for teacher education programs, and engaging teachers in on-going professional development. In this study we address three specific questions: (1) what representations of teaching and teachers are portrayed in the professional teaching standards, their related policies and assessment? (2) how are standards-based reform policies affecting teacher education programs? (3) what representations or conceptions of teaching and teachers are currently reflected in teacher education programs in the context of this reform? To address these questions two states were selected as test cases. Reform documents, policies and practices, as well as interviews with key participants in the reform (e.g., teacher educators, state-level administrators) are described and analyzed, and constitute the evidential basis for this study. The patterns emerging from the data indicate that teacher educators’ degrees of resistance or cooperation with externally imposed frameworks is influenced by their conception of teaching, education and its purpose. Further, as teacher educators uncritically participate in the standards-based movement it becomes impossible for them to entertain alternative perspectives on teaching and education outside of the framework provided to them by the standards.     

The impact of reform policies on teachers' work and professionalism in the Chinese Mainland

This paper examines the impact of reform policies on the work of Chinese teachers. It explores the policy context in which a fragile teaching profession attempts to develop and discusses the dynamics of interacting societal forces that have created the dilemmas for the teachers. The authors argue that while the continual implementation of reform policies has fostered a new outlook in Chinese schools, calls for profound change in schooling have caused much anxiety among teachers. The teachers' anxiety stems from the incongruence between their professional outlook, which is intimately linked to student academic achievement, and the dictates of state reform measures, which seek to broaden the conception of education to include other areas of human development. Throughout the years of reform, teachers have had to stretch their professional capacity in order to satisfy competing demands engendered by reform measures and educational reality. It is in the tensions caused by the implementation of reform policies that the humanism of teacher professionalism is magnified. In this paper, the authors discuss the educational and social issues that surround the teachers' preference for conventional practices.     

美、英、澳三国教师教育改革新进展及其启示

人才培养关键在于教师的质量。发达国家与发展中国家在教师教育发展方面存在的差距十分明显。近年来,美国、英国和澳大利亚三国在教师教育改革方面都取得了较大的新进展:制定教师教育改革新政策,高度重视教师专业发展,注重教师职前培养、入职教育和在职培训三阶段培养一体化。比较和分析三国教师教育改革的新进展,有助于我们学习和借鉴三国的教育新理念和改革措施,反思自身存在的问题,促进我国教师教育改革。     

Reform of teacher education in China: a survey of policies for systemic change

ABSTRACT

This paper adopts an inductive analytical approach to reviewing the major state policies to reform teacher education in China. Based on the perceived impact on teachers and teacher education, 21 policy documents have been selected for this review. Five themes emerge in the analysis, which include: Expansion of teacher education by institutional diversification; structural changes through upgrading, merging and eliminating institutions and school; innovations on modes of teacher preparation, curricula and teaching practicum; certification and examinations; and strengthening teacher supply for the rural schools. The paper also analyses the contextual and systemic factors that affect the formulation and implementation of reform policies in teacher education and critically reflect the effect of these policies on Chinese teacher education.     

Missing voices and possible dialogues: problems and possibilities for teacher education

ABSTRACT

Teacher education exists today in a context of rapid globalization, which affects the systems in which future teachers will work, the governance of teachers’ work, the students teachers will be teaching, as well as the policies, programs, curricula and students in teacher education itself. Several ideas recently have gained traction internationally and are shaping the working landscape of teaching and teacher education in many countries. This essay critically examines the circulation of what appear to be a small set of ‘core’ ideas that are influencing national and institutional policies of teacher education. I explore the emergence of new players in teacher education internationally, including individuals, corporations, and international bodies. Using policy documents, influential research studies, university program statements, and interviews, the essay provides a discursive analysis of the contradictory voices in what is becoming a global conversation of teacher education. In many ways, these ideas marginalize the voices of teachers and teacher educators. They tend to narrow the definitions of education and teaching. As a counterpoint to these widely circulating arguments, I explore how reciprocal teacher education exchange programs in China and the US create opportunities for alternative constructions of visions of teaching and teacher learning.     

教师教育:职前培养专业化教师的问题探析

从教育强国的高度来看,拥有和建设高素质的教师队伍,是实现中华民族伟大复兴的战略措施。美、德、英等国家教师培养机构已变迁,我们在向西方学习时,要注意到其改革与变迁各自的“背景”。开展教师教育改革,“形”可散,而“神”要聚,要以教师的专业发展作为改革的价值取向。教师专业既包括学科专业性,也包括教育专业性。在教师专业化中,“理解”应该扮演重要角色。教师对两个专业的理解分为两种水平,即对执教学科的操作型与概念型理解和对教学的操作型与概念型理解。教师只有对教学的理解处于概念型水平,对执教学科的理解也处于概念型水平,才能自觉、有效地实施理解性教学。促进师范生对教学的深刻理解,不能完全由教育类课程独自承载。促进未来教师加深对执教学科与教学的理解是促进教师双专业化的有力环节。     

‘This is my new normal’: teachers’ accounts of evaluation policy at local school board meetings

In this study, we seek to illuminate teachers’ constructions of US teacher evaluation policies through close analysis of the way teachers in one district describe these policies. We conducted a thematic discursive analysis of 60 teachers’ speeches, recorded during local school board meetings in a Tennessee school district. Using discursive psychology as a lens, analysis focuses on the teachers’ constructions of teacher accountability policies and their own positioning within the policies. We also attend to the linguistic resources teachers used in justifying their decision to speak during the meetings. Findings showed that while drawing upon repertoires of human capital and one-size-fits-all education, the teachers’ patterned participation involved the contestation of status quo practices of teacher evaluation and effectiveness by contrasting them with imagined possibilities of what evaluation could be instead. Implications for developing teacher evaluation are discussed.     

The Potential of Systems Thinking in Teacher Reform as Theorized for the Teaching Brain Framework

The teaching brain is a dynamic system that is in constant interaction with the learning brain. If we fail to explore the teaching brain we will continue to design educational reform policies that ignore the most important lens in the classroom: the teachers'. Master teachers recognize their perspective and leverage their teaching brains to embody a systems thinking view of their practice. If all teachers were taught how to recognize themselves as self‐created, organized systems existing within the larger teaching–learning interaction, they would understand how their context and intentions affect the teacher–student interaction. Education reform must acknowledge and understand more about the teaching brain, how master teachers practice systems thinking and the mutually interacting brains of teacher and student if we hope to truly improve how we educate children.     

Education reform and the global regulation of teachers’ education,development and work: A cross-cultural analysis

Current trends toward international accountability and standards adoption is strongly influenced by economic globalization forces as nations attempt to become competitive in the global market and try to shape their education systems to provide those skills needed in the growing global economy. As more rigorous research helps to uncover the important role of effective teachers on student learning, global and national policy increasingly points to teachers as a major factor on increasing learning and quality. Throughout the issue we examine the forces internal and global influencing policies directed at teachers in policy contexts lacking systematic and rigorous empirical evidence on the effectiveness of regulatory mechanisms introduced to control the teaching profession such as standard setting, teacher testing, evaluation and accreditation of teacher preparation.     

新工科成人教育教师实践性知识生成探究

教师实践性知识是艾尔巴兹(Elbaz)等学者提出的概念。近年来,国内一些学者频繁对其进行研究,其理论广泛应用于高等教育和基础教育的教学实践中。随着国家出台系列政策鼓励继续教育发展,成人教育的教学质量被赋予高质量发展的希冀,然而,受生源、层次、师资、资金等客观因素的制约,成人教育的教学过程还存在诸多过程质量问题。从教师实践性知识概念出发,探讨在新工科改革背景下从事高等成人学历教育教学教师应该如何通过实践性教学方式方法改革,不断强化自身实践性知识,进而保障成人教育教学质量的不断提升。     

Russian/US comparison using the expert science teaching educational evaluation model (ESTEEM)

A small group of Russian teachers who were interested in adopting aspects of the US science educational reform movement, participated in a constructivist science teaching project. Baseline data from translated classroom observations were scored using the science classroom observation rubric from the expert science teaching educational evaluation model (ESTEEM) and compared with a traditional (teacher centered) group of US science teachers and a group of US constructivist (student centered) science teachers. The purpose of the research is to investigate how Russian teachers who were beginning a US science education reform project compared with two US groups of science teachers, a traditional and a reform group. Analysis of variance was used to analyse the total rubric score and four categories for the Russian/traditional US and the Russian/constructivist US studies in order to examine closely the traditional and the constructivist teaching practises. In the first study US traditional teachers were statistically higher on 'facilitating the learning process' and 'context-specific pedagogy'. Russian teachers were higher on the 'content' category. In the second study the experienced constructivist US teachers were statistically higher on all four categories and the total rubric score. The educational culture of both countries is very traditional. However, the reform movement in science education has changed some US teachers, and is in the process of changing some Russian teachers. Both countries are working on the reform process. The results of this study provide baseline information on a small group of Russian teachers, who have chosen to be a part of the ideas contained in the US science education reform movement. The study also promotes the mutual understanding of both cultures among teachers, administrators, and researchers, which should ultimately form a bond for working together on common educational issues.     

职前教师教育中的“用电影教”——意义、主题与过程的分析

职前教师教育项目所进行的教学改革,多是针对传统的“传递取向教学法”的不足而设计的,“用电影教”即为改革举措之一。“用电影教”能使教学适应职前教师的认知特点,促进教育理论与实践的联结,为职前教师的思考和讨论提供“催化剂”,并发展其技术品性。在职前教师教育中,“用电影教”可用于教授诸多学习主题,在教学过程上具有一定的灵活性,但也遵循一些共性的要求。对职前教师教育中的“用电影教”进行研究,能够为职前教师教育的教学法改革提供参考。     

基础教育师资配置均衡化:教育公平的必然要求

基础教育师资配置均衡化是实现教育公平的必要条件,而实现师资配置均衡化必须依赖于国家制定合理和有效的教师政策:1.落实人事改革制度,严格教师合约管理;2.改革师资配置方式,促进教师合理流动;3.加大教育投资力度,保障基础教育发展;4.加强薄弱学校建设,提高整体师资水平;5.大力扶持农村经济,逐步缩小城乡差别.     

Have conceptual reforms (and one anti‐reform) in preservice teacher education improved the education of multicultural,multilingual children and youth?

This article examines three conceptual reforms in US teacher education (competency‐based teacher education (CBTE), reflective teacher education (RTE) and constructivist teacher education (CTE)) for their effects on the education of multicultural, multilingual youth, as well as considering alternative certification (AC), known here as an ‘anti‐reform’. The author suggests that although each reform made incremental improvements in the ways that preservice teachers are prepared to teach multilingual and multicultural learners, none significantly altered the education of under‐served children and youth. For instance, CTE points out the importance of prior knowledge, but fails in connecting its core concepts with culturally relevant instruction. CBTE, while also generally failing to alter teacher preparation for multicultural learners, did try to make explicit connections for preservice teachers. RTE made explicit the moral consequences of working in diverse communities but fell short when it altered the apprenticeship–mentor relationship. AC of teachers is presented as the work of neo‐liberals whose largely successful efforts to deregulate teacher preparation offer both an improvement and retrenchment for urban children and youth. Finally, the article links the field’s focus on the preparation of teachers for diverse students and the moral dimension of teacher education, concluding that such a connection may be the only way to maintain the professional school preparation of teachers.     

数学教师成长中所需要的营养--教育哲学观

新课改给数学教师带来了教育观念的震撼，但也带来了价值观念、思维方式等内心世界的错乱，这些都来自于数学教师教育哲学的缺失或不足，教育哲学从最深层次、最根本性的角度，帮助数学教师分析认识数学教育的本质，教育哲学为教育提供了价值判断，使数学教师获得教育评价观对新课程实施的内在意义，教育哲学提供了思考教育问题的思维方法，给为数学教师以改变数学课堂只注重形式的教育智慧。     

院系层面的教师教育改革探究

深化教师教育改革是目前和未来一定时期我国教师教育改革重心所在.必须以科学发展观为指导,全面深化教师教育改革;推进培养模式改革,促进教师教育专业化;深化课程与教学改革,提高教育教学质量;优化教师教育队伍建设,造就一流师资.     

Pre-service teachers’ use of tools to systematically analyze teaching and learning

Learning to systematically analyze the relationship between teaching and student learning is an important but difficult skill to engender in teachers. In this study, we examine how pre-service teachers who were introduced to a framework for analyzing teaching in a video-based teacher education course drew on this tool to analyze their own practice after the conclusion of the course. We conceptualize the framework as a conceptual tool that scaffolds pre-service teachers to learn to attend to particular dimensions of teaching and learning and to analyze how their teaching influences student learning. Using the Portfolio Assessment for California Teachers-Teaching Event of 14 English language arts pre-service teachers, we conducted a qualitative analysis to examine the extent to which they applied this framework to analyze their own practice after the conclusion of the course, as well as different strategies they adopted as they analyzed their teaching practice. Findings suggest that pre-service teachers made progress in using the framework to study their teaching, but development of sub-skills for all four facets are needed to develop more productive analyses of teaching and student learning. This study has important implications for the design of teacher education that intends to support pre-service teachers in developing tools for learning to learn from their teaching practice.     

Elementary Teachers' Classroom Practices and Beliefs in Relation to US Science Education Reform: Reflections from within

This study unveils the stories of 3 public school elementary teachers from the USA who reflected on their beliefs about science education reform, and implementation of the reform in their classroom teaching, in response to state recommendations for change in science education. The teachers' stories show how various factors assisted or impeded the implementations of reform in their teaching, the various challenges related to their grade-level teaching, and the teachers' personal struggles to make sense of reform recommendations. Within each case study, we describe 4 common themes from the teachers' interviews. These themes are related to teachers' science teaching strategies, their science teaching efficacy beliefs about adopting reform, the types of science learning outcomes teachers target, and the types of teaching resources available to them. Implications for teacher education and practice are discussed in relationship with study findings.     

美国大学教育学院教师教育专业设置的关键因素分析

为保证教师培养的有效性,美国大学教育学院教师教育专业设置的关键因素包括:以本州州政府的专业认定标准和教师标准为基本依据;大学的学术评价与奖励制度需要重新理解和重视教师教育;需要以积极的教学观和教师观统领整个教师培养过程;教师教育课程应该体现整合性与关联性、实现理论与实践的有机结合;教师教育者应该重视采用多样化的教学方法去培养教师。