The effects of teacher collaboration in Grade 9 Applied Mathematics

The current emphasis of many mathematics education reform documents is on the need to change the environment of mathematics classrooms from the transmission of knowledge by the teacher to the transaction of knowledge between the teacher and the students which promotes mathematical investigation and exploration. In this article, we discuss the details of a Collaborative Teacher Inquiry Project which was aimed at increasing the quality of learning of Grade 9 Applied Mathematics, while at the same time, improving professional development opportunities for the teachers. A total of 11 schools participated in this project which spanned over three semesters. Participants included teachers, department heads, curriculum leaders, and administrators. Each school created an implementation team of administrators and teachers to implement collaborative strategies and improve teaching and learning in Grade 9 Applied Mathematics. The main benefit to the participants was that they were able to increase their knowledge and skills through collaboration in six interconnected areas: (a) achieving the goals, (b) student success, (c) professional development, (d) co-planning and co-teaching opportunities, (e) increased communication, and (f) improved technological skills. Bringing in different partners to achieve a common goal was the most challenging aspect of the project.     

Collaborative teacher learning in different primary school settings

During the last two decades there has been a growing awareness of the potentially strong role teacher collaboration can play in relation to teacher and team learning. Teachers collaborate with their colleagues in different formal and informal settings. Because most studies have focused on teacher learning in one collaborative setting or are related to a specific innovation, little is known about how teachers learn within the different collaborative settings that emerge out of their teaching work. The aim of this exploratory study was to gain deeper insight into collaborative teacher learning during regular work at primary schools. Collaborative teacher learning was investigated within multiple settings, taking into account both the undertaken learning activities by teachers and the learning outcomes. Teacher and principal perceptions were collected through semi-structured interviews that were conducted with two teachers and one principal per school, including seven primary schools. Results show that teacher learning occurred within different collaborative settings in schools, however, with different degrees of intensity and outcomes across these various settings. Thus, depending on the collaborative setting, more or less different learning activities and learning outcomes were reported by teachers and principals. The results suggest that high quality team meetings can be a powerful context for teacher learning.     

INVENTING THE CHARTERED TEACHER

ABSTRACT:  This paper explores the effects of enacting a collaborative and enquiry based model of teacher professionalism in the UK. Based on work with Chartered Teachers in Scotland, it indicates that the barriers to changing the basis of teacher professionalism are complex and multi-faceted because of the contested nature of teachers' work identities. Chartered Teacher status is achieved by qualification against an occupational standard which positions those who attain it as leading teachers, exerting a significant influence with their colleagues to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools. This paper looks at some of the conceptual and practical difficulties faced by Chartered Teachers as they try to enact what this new 'status' means. It argues that those with an interest in the professional development of teachers need to position themselves as knowing agents in the complex systemic and political aspects of changing practice in schools.     

Secondary school students’ perceptions of teacher–student interaction and students’ attitudes towards project work

Project work (PW) provides one of the pathways for students’ self-inquiry learning and collaboration in Singapore schools. In this context, PW teachers function as facilitators. This study investigated quantitatively how a group of 270 secondary-school students (aged 14 years) perceived their seven PW teacher-facilitators’ face-to-face interactions with students based on the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), and whether their perceptions of teacher–student interaction during PW classrooms were related with their attitudes towards PW learning as a whole. Seven out of eight QTI scales were associated with Enjoyment of Project Work Lessons and two QTI scales were associated with Attitude to Inquiry in Project Work. The findings are discussed in terms of how teachers who function as facilitators can translate their interpersonal behaviours into effective teaching strategies for communicating with students and facilitating students’ learning in PW classrooms.     

Promoting technology integration through collaborative apprenticeship

Teachers often learn technology skills and integration strategies in intensive seminars, ineffective means for professional learning because experiences are seldom transferred to instructional practices. Thus, effective technology integration requires teachers to obtain learning experiences within the context of their teaching so they can practice, reflect, and modify their practices. Learning in a teaching community is a social process that involves ongoing, on-site, and just-in-time support. Teachers need avenues to continually interact to provide such support across all members of the community. Collaborative Apprenticeship, a professional development model featuring reciprocal interactions, is one such approach to promoting technology integration. Teachers experienced in technology use serve as mentors of peer-teachers' technology applications aimed at improving instruction. Technology is progressively infused as peer-teachers learn to design technology-rich lessons from their technology-savvy peers through modeling, collaboration, and coaching.     

The role of a professional learning community in teacher change: a perspective from beliefs and practices

This longitudinal study aimed to examine the role of a professional learning community (PLC) in changing teachers’ beliefs and practices. Teachers of a Chinese department in a Hong Kong secondary school were interviewed and observed. The findings indicate that the features of a PLC-facilitating teacher change are development of a coherent structure, a collaborative culture, and effective learning activities. These help teachers to overcome initial difficulties and induce their motivation for transformation. Teacher change in five dimensions (curriculum, teaching, learning, roles of teachers, and learning to teach) and three patterns (change in practice but not in belief, change in belief but not in practice, change in practice and belief) were detected. It is argued that cultivating an effective PLC is significant to teacher development.     

How to activate teachers through teacher evaluation?

There is a general doubt on whether teacher evaluation can contribute to teachers’ professional development. Recently, standards-based teacher evaluation has been introduced in many countries to improve teaching practice. This study wants to investigate which teacher evaluation procedural, leadership, and teacher characteristics can stimulate teachers’ feedback utility perceptions and professional learning activities in the context of teacher evaluation. Data were collected in 32 secondary schools from 298 teachers and 32 school leaders, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We put forward a research model which is investigated through path analysis. Results nurture optimism about teacher evaluation indicating that teacher evaluation can stimulate teachers to undertake professional learning activities when they perceive feedback as useful. The important role of the school leader (through both instructional and transformational leadership) is stressed. Teacher participation and teacher collaboration also have a positive influence on teacher evaluation and its outcomes.     

Effects of teacher professional learning activities on student achievement growth

The authors examined the effects of six types of teacher professional learning activities on student achievement growth over 4 years using statewide longitudinal survey data collected from 467 middle school mathematics teachers in 91 schools merged with 11,192 middle school students' mathematics scores in a standardized assessment in Missouri. The data showed that teacher-centered collaborative activities to learn about mathematics teaching and learning (teacher collaboration and informal communication) seem to be more effective in improving student mathematics achievement than learning activities that do not necessarily involve such teacher-centered collaborative opportunities (professional development programs, university courses, individual learning activities). Teacher-driven research activities through professional conference presentation and participation were also found to be associated with student achievement growth in mathematics. The districts and schools may benefit from investing their professional development funds and resources in facilitating teacher-centered collaborative and research-based learning activities in order to improve student learning.     

Teacher characteristics and contextual factors: links to early primary teachers’ mathematical beliefs and attitudes

This study examines how various teacher characteristics and contextual factors are related to early primary teachers’ beliefs about mathematical teaching and learning and teachers’ attitudes toward their own learning of mathematics. A total of 396 early primary teachers across Nebraska participated in the study. Teacher characteristics and contextual factors were grouped into four sets: teacher professional background, teacher mathematical knowledge for teaching, teaching contexts, and students’ experiences. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with each set of predictors separately, as well as with all four sets together. The results showed significant relationships between teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching and teacher-centered beliefs, motivation in learning mathematics, and anxiety toward learning mathematics. Teacher certification level, the number of college math courses taken, and perceived support from colleagues and administrators were also related to some aspects of teachers’ mathematical beliefs and attitudes. The findings suggest the potential role of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching in improving teachers’ mathematical beliefs and attitudes.     

从教师合作看我国校本教研及其对学习共同体发展的启示

实践社群视角下,教师合作是特定社会性结构下教师进行意义协商的过程。本研究从社群形态、沟通规范以及实践定位三个维度诠释校本教研中教师合作过程。研究所见,教师合作处于结构化组织系统及制度下,按照自上而下模式运作。教师建立起相对稳定的等级制角色定位。校本教研定位于示范性教学模式的再生产,教师的自主性和专业判断较为有限。     

中英两国教师专业标准对比解析

教师专业发展标准是规范教师专业发展活动的准则,是提高教育质量的保障。2007年,英国颁布了新的《合格教师专业标准》,它从教师专业素质、专业知识和理解、专业技能三个方面明确界定了教师专业素质的结构,强调了教师专业的社会性、综合性和动态性。2012年初中国颁布了教师专业标准的试行稿,从教师的专业理念和师德、专业知识和专业能力三个方面定义了教师的专业性。与英国的教师专业标准相比,中国的标准还应关注教师专业学科结构的综合性,教师专业发展过程中的能动性,以及教师专业标准一体化的建立,从而确保教师专业的可持续发展。     

更大的自由和主导权——新加坡新“教师成长模式”及其启示

学生要持续学习,教师也一样需要不断自我提升。新加坡教育部推出全新的教师成长模式,让教师能在自身的专业发展上享有更大自主权。同时提出"伦理型的教育者"、"称职的专业者"、"协作型学习者"、"变革型领导者"以及"社区建造者"是教师在21世纪所应具备的五大特质。对我国的教师教育政策制定以及教师专业发展发展都具有重要启示意义。     

参与式教师教育技术培训探索

参与式教师教育技术培训具有重视教师"参与"情景的建立,教师在合作中学习,谋求教师整体性的专业发展,关注培训的迁移和运用等特征。实践证明,在培训过程中通过游戏、专家访谈、学员互访、小组研讨、墙报展示、辩论等多种方法将短期培训与教师的教学实践融合为一体,让教师在参与中体验与行动,是中小学教师教育技术能力得以提高的有效途径。     

Internships as Commencement: Mathematics and Science Research Experiences as Catalysts for Preservice Teacher Professional Development

Among the initiatives of the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP) is a summer research internship program that places preservice middle grades teachers in extended collaboration with professional mathematicians, scientists, and educators engaged in research and curriculum development activities. We describe the MCTP internship program including the rationale for and structural features of the program. We also highlight the effects of the internship experience on preservice teachers' conceptions of and beliefs about the nature and processes of mathematics and science, and the teaching of mathematics and science. Our findings suggest that the internship experience is a fundamentally significant life experience for preservice teachers. Furthermore, internships have the potential for realizing reform in mathematics and science education; that is, preservice teachers who have participated in MCTP internships intend to bring a holistic, conceptually oriented view of mathematics and science to their classrooms. The paper concludes with a summary of ongoing programmatic and logistical challenges of the MCTP internship program. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

学校变革中的“教师领导”

依靠源自学校内部的力量而进行的持久的学校革新,应该采取不同于以往的革新方式;促成教师基于角色转型和职业生活方式改变的专业力量的兴起,是决定学校变革成败的关键因素。教师领导这一新的角色被视为教师增权、促进变革和教师专业社群建设的必然选择。教师领导意味着教师要成为促进学生学业发展的领导者,要推动其他教师改进教育教学实践,促进学校内部领导群体的形成。教师领导的途径包括"参与"、"互动"和致力于生成"合作文化"。     

Less experienced mathematics teachers report what is wrong with their professional support system

Teachers with seven years of teaching experience or less (n = 10) participating in a large‐scale mathematics professional development program in the United States were interviewed. The goal of this qualitative study was to better understand less experienced teachers' reactions to professional development and professional support in the teaching profession. The interview data ­indicate that these less experienced mathematics teachers are not satisfied with their mentors orcollaboration in their department and would welcome opportunities for classroom observations. In addition, these teachers were disappointed and surprised at their more experienced peers' lack of mathematics content knowledge. The results of this study have direct implications for the structure and philosophy for professional development to better serve incoming and less experienced teachers.     

Technology use and mathematics teaching: teacher change as discursive identity work

Teacher change towards developing competences for technology use in mathematics teaching has been the focus of current educational reforms worldwide. However, a considerable amount of research denotes the extent to which teachers resist a full integration of technology in mathematics classrooms. The present paper is based on an ethnographic study and focuses on how mathematics teachers – as they participate in an intensive training course – perform identity work whilst collectively articulating meanings concerning the potential of technology-based mathematics learning. By means of discourse theory, we analyse how they try to fix meaning as they engage and interact with varied discourses of ‘change’. Our findings indicate that mathematics teachers' attempts to articulate meaning are organised around discourses that concern directly societal and learning issues of technology use in mathematics teaching.     

Teacher Educators’ Activity Aiming to Support Inquiry Through Mathematics and Science Teacher Collaboration

This study explores teacher educators’ (TEs’) activity as they support mathematics and science teacher collaboration in co-designing and jointly implementing tasks. We view TEs’ activity through the lens of Activity Theory and expansive learning and draw evidence from data generated within the mascil project that linked mathematics and science teaching with workplace situations through inquiry-based teaching. We focus on five TEs’ actions and goals, use data from their professional development sessions with teachers and from the TEs’ interactions during their own meetings, and highlight the illuminating case of one teacher educator. We trace evidence indicating paths of actions followed by each Teacher Educator and look for indications of their professional learning. Our analysis reveals generic and content-focused actions. All TEs faced different kinds of contradictions and had difficulties handling them. In terms of professional learning, all TEs adapted their prior teacher education practices and appreciated the critical role of epistemological differences between the two disciplines.

     

Teacher knowledge: a complex tapestry

Teachers need to know a great deal, in many areas and in multiple ways. Teacher knowledge is a complex tapestry, and teachers must successfully weave the multiple threads. In this article, I present a conceptualisation of teacher knowledge that provides a framework for describing the complexity of teacher knowledge. The framework describes three ways of knowing: “knowing how,” “knowing why,” and “knowing what” and then applies these three knowledge discourses across six domains of teacher knowledge. The framework was developed from a study of 14 teachers in their first year of teaching, and in this article the framework is applied to their experiences to illustrate specific gaps in their teacher knowledge. It is proposed that this conceptualisation of teacher knowledge allows those involved in teacher education and induction to more clearly identify professional learning needs and develop their programmes with specificity.     

Early career teachers’ emotion and emerging teacher identities

The goal of our project was to develop an understanding of the connections among emotional episodes and emerging professional teacher identities of first year teachers. We interviewed eight first year mathematics and science teachers. We asked them to reflect on emotional episodes and talk about how those emotions informed their teaching identities. Our data yielded a model of ‘identity-work’ that reflected the teachers’ engagement in a reflective process of understanding themselves as it related to those emotional episodes. Our model includes four key processes: (1) Teacher incoming identity beliefs; (2) Teacher identity emotional episodes; (3) Teacher attributions and (4)Identity adjustment. All of our teachers exhibited a form of this process with some teachers elaborating on the ways in which pleasant emotional experiences confirmed their identities and others elaborating on the ways in which unpleasant emotional experiences caused them to confront and/or adjust their emergent identities. Implications for future research and teacher education are discussed.