Competing priorities in professional development: an Australian study of teacher professional development policy and practice

This paper argues that neoliberal and managerial pressures external to the teaching profession, as well as more progressive and democratic approaches internal to the profession, have simultaneously influenced professional development policy and practice in Australia. In making this case, the paper reviews the nature of the teacher professional development that is supported in federal Australian policies associated with the recently defeated Liberal/National Coalition government (1996–2007) and research into how professional development has been enacted in practice in Australia, during this government's tenure. While acknowledging the significant impact of more neoliberal and managerial approaches and how such policy emphases contribute to the continuation of traditional, systemic/employer provided workshops, the paper also provides evidence of competing, more teacher‐centred approaches.     

Academic professional development practice: What lecturers find valuable

In an increasingly challenging tertiary environment where academics need more than ever to be skilled across a range of areas, including that of teaching, understanding what constitutes effective professional development is crucial. This paper reports on what a group of lecturers at an Australian university find valuable in developing their professional expertise by means of work-embedded events and activities. It was considered important to probe lecturers' understandings in line with constructivist approaches that encourage the involvement of participants in the learning or development process. Particularly where participants are highly educated and self-aware, drawing out their knowledge and practice seems a fruitful way of informing approaches to professional development. The study revealed that lecturers found a wide range of strategies useful in developing their professional expertise, with a predominance of those strategies being collaborative in nature. The paper suggests some practical ways in which universities can support professional development activities which lecturers identify as valuable.     

Sustaining care: cultivating mindful practice in early years professional development

The practitioner’s own self is a resource in early childhood education and care (ECEC). It is proposed that an experiential training focusing on the ‘professional self’ helps to raise awareness of how psychological dispositions may impair or enhance quality of provision. A key concept in such training is emotional labour, explored with students through examples of ‘relational pedagogy’ and ‘attunement’ to the needs of children. The argument of this paper, underlying the training, is that the expectation of attunement encapsulates both the best and worst aspects of such labour. The research focuses on the introduction of mindfulness exercises into the training in order to sustain this attunement. It seeks the students’ responses to them and to the experience of the training overall. The paper concludes by recommending that such practices be incorporated into professional development whilst acknowledging that such interventions can only succeed where working conditions reflect a compassionate culture.     

A systemic approach to professional development: learning as practice

This paper disturbs assumptions that policy for secondary school teachers’ continuing professional development should be dominated by courses, workshops and suchlike events. Research into learning, communities of practice and complexity establishes a contrary view, namely that subject departments are prime sites of non-predictable professional learning. Practical implications are sketched, leading to a recommendation that continuing professional development policies and practices should be systemically reconsidered.     

教师专业化发展的实践策略

教师专业化发展已成为国际教师教育改革的一个引人注目的趋势。教师专业化成长是一个终身学习过程，是一个教师的职业理想、职业道德、职业情感、社会责任感的形成过程，是对所教学科的价值、认知、审美等方面的理解与把握不断深化的过程，是一个教育理论思维、教育实践能力不断成熟，教育经验不断提升、不断创新的过程。建构专业化的教师队伍，是实施学校办学宗旨、实现人才培养目标、推进学校素质教育全面深化的重大措施，是实现教育现代化、为国家发展培养创新型人才的需要。因此，为打造一支高素质的教师队伍，尽快实现教师的专业化发展，我们采取了以下的实践策略：     

Impact of professional development on teacher practice: Uncovering connections

An Inquiry Learning Partnership (ILP) for professional development (PD) was formed between a university, science centre, and two urban school districts to offer 4–6th grade teachers specific science content and pedagogical techniques intended to integrate inquiry-based instruction in elementary classrooms. From pre/post content exams, PD surveys, focus group, and assessment data, teachers increased their science content knowledge, reported implementing inquiry practices in their classrooms and their students experienced modest gains on 5th grade standardized science achievement exams. While some teachers were transferring knowledge/skills gained in professional development to their classrooms, others encountered barriers to implementing PD. These obstacles included limited resources, time constraints, mandated curriculum pacing, language learning, and classroom management issues. Strategies to mitigate these barriers in order to maximize the impact of professional development need to be a priority in professional development reform.     

Measuring teacher motivation: The missing link between professional development and practice

This study explores an important but less explored outcome of professional development, teachers’ motivation to integrate professional development into practice. We developed a scale that measures teachers’ motivation to implement professional development in their classrooms. Three samples of teachers (N = 1388) were used in an iterative process of scale development and validation. Results suggest this scale is a reliable tool to measure teachers’ expectations for successful implementation, value for implementing, and the perceived costs of implementing.     

Reconceptualising academic work as professional practice: implications for academic development

Despite increasing research and scholarship in the area of academic development in recent years, it remains an under-theorised field of endeavour. The paper proposes that academic developers take a view on what constitutes academic work and see it as a form of professional practice. It discusses the features of practice theory that illuminate professional practice and identifies three foci for the application of these ideas within academic development: practice development, fostering learning-conducive work and deliberately locating activity within practice. It also suggests that academic development be viewed as a practice and points to features within its own traditions on which to build.     

Towards continuous professional development: Experiencing group reflection to analyse practice

Researchers and international organisations recognise that the quality of ECEC services is related to a professional and competent workforce. The latter should be part of a ‘competent system’ that is capable of linking staff's initial good education to the possibility of constantly reflecting on ideas and practices. Continuous professional development initiatives (CPD) are crucial in this discourse. This article explores possibilities for CPD paths, with a focus on group-reflection methods in which the team/group reflects on its own practice. More specifically, it presents the Wanda method which was developed by VBJK and Artevelde University College in Belgium (Fl.) through a European Social Fund (ESF) project and then adapted to the contexts of four European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia) within the ISSA (International Step by Step Association) network. In 2016, VBJK was appointed by Unicef to offer a Training of the Trainers (TOT) on CPD in Albania with the possibility of re-adapting the Wanda method to the Albanian preschool context. The article ends by presenting this Albanian experience in greater detail.     

教师专业发展与日常教育实践研究

中小学教师所从事的研究应该是日常教育实践研究,这既是新课程改革对教师专业发展的必然要求,又是教师提升自己的专业水平、成为专家型教师的必由之路。     

幼儿教师专业发展的现实困境与破解对策分析

在幼儿园教师专业的教育中,指导专业学生在学习过程中积累实践经验,促进幼儿园教师专业的不断发展,提升幼儿园专业教师在进行学习以及工作的过程中,能够明确幼儿教学的任务,对促进幼儿教师专业发展具有重要影响。     

Online professional development for environmental educators: strategies to foster critical thinking and social interactions

Abstract

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer opportunities for professional development of environmental educators globally, yet we lack understanding of participants? cognitive and social learning processes and of how instructors can enhance these processes. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, we used a survey and coded participant discussion board and Facebook posts to examine the cognitive, social, and teaching presence in the Environmental Education: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Addressing Wicked Problems MOOC, offered by Cornell University. Rather than train educators in a specific curriculum, the goal of the MOOC is to expand educators? critical and transdisciplinary thinking about the field of environmental education and to enhance social interactions to support learning, educators, and knowledge co-creation. Results indicate that cognitive presence is higher on the discussion board whereas social presence is higher on Facebook. Over half of cognitive posts focused on exploration, a lower level of learning, whereas just less than a fifth reflected higher level integration, suggesting room for enhancing cognitive learning. Our results suggest strategies to encourage higher levels of thinking and more meaningful social interactions to foster learning, educator support, and co-creation of knowledge, thereby improving online professional development.     

Teacher professional development as an effect of policy and practice: a Bourdieuian analysis

This article draws on Bourdieu’s field theory and related concepts of habitus and capitals, to explore policy implementation in relation to a particular case of teacher professional development in Queensland, Australia. This implementation process is described as an effect of the interplay between what is called the policy field and the field of teachers’ work. The policy field demonstrates intra‐field tensions between the federal Quality Teacher Programme (QTP) and a raft of state policies, particularly those associated with the Queensland meta‐policy, Queensland State Education 2010 (QSE2010). To investigate the effects of this complex policy ensemble, the article draws upon the experiences of principals and a group of teachers engaged in professional development across a cluster of six schools in south‐east Queensland, Australia. The specific focus is on the ‘Curriculum Board’, a cross‐school body created by the principals in the participating schools, and its mediated work in policy implementation and teacher learning. The article analyses the effects of the involvement of the principals in the creation of the board, the limiting impact of QTP requirements to involve consultants rather than support for teacher release, and the limited influence of the board on teacher learning and policy implementation in the individual schools. By doing so, the analysis shows the disjunctions between the logics of practice of the policy field and that of teachers’ work, and the ways in which the differing habitus of principals and teachers and teacher members of the board affected teacher learning and policy implementation. It is argued that effective implementation requires learning within and across fields, and more reflexive habitus of policy makers, principals and teachers.     

教师专业发展的实践解读和校本策略

随着社会的发展进步，人民群众对学校教育有了更高的要求。如何满足人民群众对优质教育的需求，就成为学校教育工作的首要任务。近年来，许多校长、专家对现代学校的发展提出了种种策略和模式。但是，不管是怎样的策略和模式，都要通过教育教学工作的主体——教师去实施。如何认识和有效地促进教师专业发展，必然成为每一个校长思考学校改革和发展的核心问题。     

教师专业发展的实践解读与校本策略

随着社会的发展进步,人民群众对学校教育有了更高的要求。如何满足人民群众对优质教育的需求,就成为学校教育工作者的首要任务。近年来,许多校长、专家对现代学校的发展提出了种种策略和模式。但是,不管是怎样的策略和模式,都要通过教育教学工作的主体———教师去实施。如何认识和有效地促进教师专业发展,必然成为每一个校长思考学校改革和发展的核心问题。一、教师专业发展的实践解读要促进教师专业发展,首先必须解决的问题是:在实践中,教师专业需要发展什么?又应当如何发展?(一)教师专业发展的基本要求作为一个教师,既要熟悉专业原理,又…     

New strategies for learning geography: a tool for teachers' professional development in England and The Netherlands

Following a constructivist view on learning and based on the work of Adey and Shayer a group of teachers and lecturers in geographical education from north‐east England developed some successful strategies to stimulate pupils' thinking skills. At the start of this century the ideas reached The Netherlands. This article presents the results of a survey among Dutch geography teachers who participated in an in‐service training about thinking skills strategies for geography. Did these teachers really use the strategies in their classrooms after the in‐service training? What kind of impact had it on their opinions about the usability of the strategies, their beliefs about students' learning and about their own teaching? This study shows that, in line with experiences in England, most Dutch geography teachers appreciate the thinking skills strategies as a good way to stimulate students' and their own learning.

Animés d'une vision constructiviste de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage, et sur la base des travaux d'Adey et Shayer, un groupe d'enseignants et de chargés de cours du Nord‐Est de l'Angleterre dont la discipline est la géographie ont mis au point plusieurs stratégies efficaces pour stimuler les aptitudes de réflexion des élèves. Au début des années 2000, leurs théories sont parvenues jusqu'aux Pays‐Bas. Le présent article présente les résultats d'une étude menée auprès de professeurs de géographie néerlandais qui ont suivi une formation ‘in‐service’ sur les stratégies de développement des aptitudes de réflexion pour la géographie. Les professeurs ont‐ils réellement utilisés les stratégies dans leurs classes à l'issue de la formation? Quel type d'impact cette dernière a‐t‐elle eu sur leur opinion quant à l'utilité des stratégies? Cette étude révèle que la plupart des professeurs de géographie apprécient les stratégies de développement des aptitudes de réflexion et qu'elles constituent un bon moyen de stimuler les élèves et leur apprentissage de cette discipline.

Siguiendo un punto de vista constructivista del aprendizaje y basándose en la obra de Adey y Shayer, un grupo de maestros y profesores de educación geográfica del noreste de Inglaterra desarrolló con éxito algunas estrategias para estimular las habilidades de pensamiento de los alumnos. A principios de este siglo, estas ideas llegaron a los Países Bajos. El presente artículo ofrece los resultados de un estudio realizado entre profesores de geografía holandeses que participaron en un curso de formación durante el trabajo sobre estrategias para estimular las habilidades de pensamiento para la geografía. ¿Utilizaron estos profesores realmente las estrategias en sus clases una vez finalizada la formación? ¿Cómo influyó ésta en sus opiniones sobre la aprovechabilidad de las estrategias? El presente estudio demuestra que la mayoría de los profesores de geografía consideran que las estrategias dirigidas a las habilidades de pensamiento son una buena manera para estimular tanto el aprendizaje de los alumnos como su propio aprendizaje.

Nach einer konstruktiven Untersuchung im Unterrichtsbereich und unter Zugrundelegung des Werkes von Adey und Shayer entwickelte eine aus Geografie‐Lehrern und ‐Lehrbeauftragten bestehende Gruppe aus Nordostengland erfolgreiche Strategien, um die Denkfähigkeiten der Schüler und Schülerinnen anzuregen. Zu Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts erreichten die Ideen die Niederlande. In diesem Artikel werden die Ergebnisse einer Untersuchung bei niederländischen Geografielehrern dargelegt, die an einem Lehrerfortbildungskurs über Denkfähigkeitsstrategien für den Geografieunterricht teilnahmen. Haben diese Lehrer wirklich die Strategien in ihren Klassenräumen nach dem Fortbildungskurs genutzt? Wie wirkte sich dieser Kurs auf ihre Meinungsbildung zur Brauchbarkeit der Strategien aus? Diese Studie zeigt, dass die meisten Geografielehrer die Denkfähigkeitsstrategien als gutes Mittel zur Anregung des Lernens der Schüler‐ und Schülerinnen und ihres eigenen Lernens schätzen.