The Difficulty of Teacher Dispositions: Considering Professional Dispositions for Preservice English Teachers

This article explores the place of teacher dispositions in English teacher preparation by contextualizing the issue of dispositions in English teacher preparation. This allows consideration for the importance of developing professional dispositions during English teacher preparation by recognizing that various stakeholders (teacher educators, university supervisors, mentor teachers, and preservice teachers) in teacher education often understand dispositions differently. The authors reflect and offer suggestions on how professional dispositions might be more effectively addressed in an English teacher education program through richer interactions among all stakeholders.     

Teacher development with mobiles: Comparative critical factors

This paper addresses ways that mobile technologies can be used in teacher development, and focuses on mobile technologies. In particular, it addresses issues of context. It outlines and explores accepted practice and illustrates how mobility invites change and reappraisal of the teacher education process. It places this against a backdrop of current global challenges and questions the validity of existing educational systems in the face of those challenges. It then places mobile technology in the role of digital learning tool rather than content delivery system and explores how teacher education needs to adapt to the context of learning that is presented by increased mobility. Finally, it explores the relationship between knowing and doing in teacher education, acknowledging tension in two areas: first, between the standardisation of practice and the creation of user-defined and user-owned knowledge creation based on interaction with distinct contexts and second, between the social practice of learning through mobility and the ‘otherness’ of formal education.     

Power and place in teaching and teacher education

This paper explores the thesis that teacher education prepares teachers to fit into existing patterns and structures of teaching, schooling and society. The key questions explored are: (1) How have some discourses emerged as privileged, as others have been eclipsed? (2) What do these processes reveal about the relationship of power and place in teacher education? The case examined is Northern Ireland. The author concludes that if teacher education is to be one of the means by which educators learn new ways of seeing within a deep sense of tradition, then teacher education itself needs to become a discursive project.     

Tracking changes in pre-service EFL teacher beliefs in Greece: A longitudinal study

This article reports on a longitudinal study that aims to investigate pre-service EFL teacher beliefs about learning and teaching in Greece. The study attempts to track possible changes in those beliefs during a 3-year teacher education program and explores the impact of teaching practice, in particular, on student teachers’ beliefs. The results indicate that while there is a gradual and sometimes significant development in student teachers’ beliefs during the program, student teachers’ engagement in the teaching practice seems to have a low impact on the development of their beliefs. Those findings are interpreted with reference to the structure and context of the specific teacher education program and can be useful for the design and development of EFL teacher education programs.     

Science Curricula and the Organization of Secondary Schooling

This paper explores the substance of competence-driven changes in teacher education curricula by testing the possibility of using a framework distinguishing between the German pedagogical culture of Didaktik and the Anglo-Saxon Curriculum culture to describe the substance of these changes. Data about the perceptions of competence-driven changes in teacher education curricula has been collected in 30 in-depth interviews with teacher educators, student teachers, and their school mentors in Serbia, and analysed with the help of qualitative data processing software. The coding procedures involved classification of utterances into five groups relating to the perceptions of (1) teacher evaluation, (2) teacher competence in subject matter, pedagogy, and curriculum, (3) understanding of the education system and contribution to its development, (4) teacher competences in dealing with values and child-rearing, and (5) changes in teacher education curricula related to these groups of competence. The perceptions in each group of utterances were interpreted in terms of their alliance with Didaktik or Curriculum cultures. The findings indicate that the framework cannot be used as a continuum since the utterances aligned with the two cultures co-exist in the individual responses, but could be useful as a reflection tool in teacher education curricula.     

Reforming teacher education in Tanzania

It is widely acknowledged that in order to improve the quality of education in primary schools in developing countries there is a need to place pedagogy and its training implications at the centre of teacher education reform. Like many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, Tanzania has introduced various initiatives and reforms to improve the quality of teacher education at the pre- and in-service stages. Drawing on evidence from a baseline study of primary teacher interactional and discourse practices, and a review of teacher training colleges, this paper explores the training needs of teacher educators in Tanzania who, in the light of recent reforms to teacher education, will be responsible for education and training at the pre and in-service levels.     

Educational Psychology in Teacher Education

Over the years, educational psychology has been a part of teacher preparation, moving from a centerpiece in many programs, through periods when it was deemed irrelevant by some, to current concerns about its role in the reforming of teacher education and teaching. Today, psychological knowledge is used to ground reforms in teaching and schooling, particularly the call for teaching for understanding. Current standards for teacher certifications and licensure and suggestions for reform in teacher education assume that teachers will have a deep and generative understanding of learning, development, motivation, and individual differences. This article explores several themes that recur in the writing on reforms and teacher standards: the need to place learning at the center of teaching, the call for integrated studies, and the value of collaboration with the public schools. These themes have both positive and negative implications for the role of educational psychology in teacher education.     

Continuity and change in teacher education in Scotland-back to the future

Abstract

The paper examines the changes which have taken place in the delivery, content and validation and accreditation of teacher education in Scotland. Particular attention is paid to the impact of external and internal changes on the development of new course structures and the strengthening of linkages between the initial stage of a teacher’s professional career and on continuing professional development. The impact of these changes on those who are teacher educators are also explored.     

师范教育与大学:比较分析及其对香港的启示

教育大学可视为一种新型大学 ,能够以崭新的方式同时适应师范教育发展和知识社会的需求。本文首先对大学和师范院校在西方和亚洲社会的发展作一历史回顾。然后 ,探究这两类院校形成的对照的价值取向 ,讨论本文的核心问题 ,即师范教育如何达到与大学比肩的学术水准 ,同时保有师范院校与知识社会有关的价值观。对三个西方社会和三个亚洲社会的比较的历史分析 ,展示了摆脱这一困境的不同方式。本文最后勾勒了师范教育截然不同的四种模式 ,提出教育大学这一模式最为适应香港的现状 ,可能也最为适应亚洲的文化环境     

Trying on a new pair of shoes: Urban teacher–learners conduct research and construct knowledge in their own classrooms

This article explores how classroom-based teacher inquiry research supports teachers in constructing understandings about teaching and learning that are uniquely applicable to their own contexts in American urban schools. This study was conducted by two teacher educators in their year-long classroom-based inquiry research classes with approximately 50 teacher education candidates.     

The last 40 years in Finnish teacher education

This article sets out to identify and discuss the changes that have taken place in Finnish teacher education during the last 40 years (1974–2014). A brief history of teacher education in Finland is presented, followed by the goals and aims of current research-based teacher education in Finland. Finally, the major changes in Finnish teacher education during the last 40 years are identified and discussed along with challenges for the future. These include the fact that with each passing year teacher education in Finland has become increasingly research-based. The ethical role of the Finnish teacher has changed from being a religious and moral example to being a principled professional who needs moral competence in pedagogical encounters. Teachers also need to master the rapid developments in information and communication technology in order to function in the same learning environments as their students.     

俄罗斯的教师教育:过去与现在

本文对俄罗斯历史中的教师教育、师范人才培养体制、教师培养标准、教师业务进修和再培训体系进行研究,阐明了俄罗斯师范教育的传统和俄罗斯师范体系改革的现状及其问题。     

Is it dichotomy or tension: I am a scientist. No, wait! I am a teacher!

This study explores through a naturalistic inquiry the tensions between a science professor’s two enacted identities. More specifically, this study looks at how a biology professor’s identity-in-practice shifts and evolves over time through collaborations with a science education professor. These shifts were marked by an emphasis on teaching, rather than solely a focus on science. Data were collected through formal interviews and notes taken during planning sessions that took place between the biology professor and the science educator. Findings reveal that although the biology professor is able to reconcile both his science and teacher identity, structural elements of his workplace do not encourage him to enact his teacher identity. Recommendations for college science teaching are discussed.     

哈佛大学HGSE的教师教育项目、课程、理念及启示

本文重点介绍了哈佛教育研究生院(HGSE)的教师教育项目及教师教育课程，在此基础上，对HGSE实施教师教育的深层次理念与特色进行探析，并得出一些有益的启示，从而为实现我国教师教育大学化和综合大学参与教师教育提供参考和借鉴。     

Get real: making problematic the pathway into the teaching profession

Learning to be a teacher is a complex and very personal matter that involves transformation from student teacher (pre‐service teacher) to teacher. The pathway to being a teacher is scattered with what appears to be competing tensions in various realities. This paper explores those tensions and realities through the context of two final year integrated field‐ and campus‐based subjects that all pre‐service teachers undertake as they complete their four‐year teacher education journey into the primary (ages 5‐ to 12‐years‐old) teaching profession. We then propose a framework involving a variety of realities that pre‐service teachers face through the recognition and resolution of the tensions these pre‐service teachers experience in the workplace.     

综合性大学教师教育的发展历程及其走向

综合性大学参与教师教育不仅是国际教师教育发展的趋势,也是我国教师教育深入改革发展的必然要求。我们可通过分析综合性大学举办教师教育的发展历程以及当今教师教育的发展趋势,探讨综合性大学在参与教师教育过程中的策略。     

English progressive educators and the creative child

Abstract

This article explores an approach to initial teacher education which emphasises the process of ‘practical theorising’ as the context in which educational theory can contribute to this professional education. The practical theorising approach is exemplified by reference to the Oxford Internship Scheme, and the article focusses especially on arguments against a practical theorising approach presented by Paul Hirst in a commentary on the Oxford scheme. These arguments are concerned with: the need for a public rationally defended consensual body of professional knowledge; the unreasonable demands which a practical theorising approach makes of student‐teachers; and the perceived failure of a practical theorising approach, at least in the Oxford context, to differentiate adequately among different kinds of theory and their place in initial teacher education.     

教师专业化与教师教育模式研究

一个国家的发展必须要有大量的高素质人才做支撑,人才的培养在教育,教育的关键在教师。教师专业化无疑是提高教师素质的最佳途径,教师专业化已成为当今世界教师教育发展的趋势。在论述教师专业化的基础上,着重研究了加快教师的专业化过程中的几种教师教育模式:“能力本位”模式与“标准本位”模式、良师辅导模式、校本培训模式、教师专业发展学校模式、“相似教育模式”。并对教师教育模式的选择提出了一些看法。     

Unpacking personal identities for teaching mathematics within the context of prospective teacher education

This article explores the personal identities of two prospective elementary teachers as they progressed from mathematics methods coursework into their capstone student teaching semester. Results indicate that both prospective teachers perceived contrasting obligations of effective mathematics teaching in the teacher education and student teaching contexts, yet came to reconcile these differences in different ways. Whereas one prospective teacher was able to oppose the obligations set forth in the student teaching context, the other complied with obligations in both the teacher education and student teaching contexts. Implications for teacher education include differentiated experiences and placements, methods design, and explicit foci on students’ mathematical thinking.     

Vertical Grouping in the Primary School

The introduction of new school inspection procedures is going to place great emphasis on classroom practice at a time when teacher appraisal is returning to the centre stage of the national debate on how to improve quality in education. The Government argues that it is seeking to encourage teacher professional development in the context of the school development plan but teachers fear that it is seeking to use appraisal as a means of ‘weeding out’ weak teachers and rewarding those who are successful by offering performance‐related pay. There are many contentious issues involved in such an appraisal system, which on the one hand encourages teacher professional development and on the other regards schools and teachers as being consumable products. This paper examines some of the issues that divide these two conflicting approaches and then criticises the current legislation‐driven approaches which are legitimately open to various usages. It then explores a new approach which is supportive to the profession but which produces clear performance indicators that can be used to provide a stricter monitoring of the effectiveness of teaching. This paper reflects upon the experiences of a school where a system of collective self‐appraisal was established. Underpinning the approach is a basic belief that teachers can be professionally responsible as well as being publicly accountable.