Trajectories in teacher education: Recognising prior learning in practice

This article analyses the trajectories into teacher education of a group of child minders who are studying to become pre-school teachers. The specific focus is what impact their prior experiences and learning from pre-school have on their trajectories, and how these experiences and learning are recognised in the first year of teacher education. A situated learning perspective is applied, with a focus on participation and trajectories in the two communities of practice in which teacher education is situated – the university and the pre-school. The data consist of transcribed interviews with ten student teachers, and additional data are gathered from stakeholders in the program. The results show that prior experiences and learning are given implicit and indirect recognition. In the practice of the pre-school, the trajectory means a shift in identity, from child minder to student teacher and pre-school teacher. In the practice of the university, prior experiences and learning help students in their trajectories from peripheral to fuller participation.     

Academics’ virtual identities

The focus of this article is on the experiences of staff members involved in a student support programme. The experiential, social, and student-centred approaches incorporated in this programme provided not only students, but also academics with pathways to lifelong learning. Functioning in a community of practice (CoP) (with students and also with like-minded colleagues) created an enabling environment for the development of effective teaching and learning approaches, as well as practical skills. Additional positive results relate to the fact that academics are aware of the importance of and more equipped with the competence to scaffold students towards becoming more effective in the learning process.     

实践共同体(CoPs)中教师学习的角色冲突与教师专业发展扎根理论研究

关注教师专业发展的重要方面是理解教师学习,对实践共同体(Co Ps)中教师学习的角色冲突与专业发展的质性研究能够描述和解释促进教师专业成长的过程和原因。研究借助对8名小学数学教师展开叙事访谈收集数据,使用质性分析软件ATLAS.ti8辅助资料分析,采用文献回顾延迟进行的方式建立扎根理论。文中聚焦的角色冲突是发生在教师实践共同体中的一种教师需要面对的真实困境,探讨了教师在学习活动中所经历的角色内冲突和角色间冲突下教师发展困境的诱因;教师角色协调中权威信任和权威服从行为作为突破困境的心理基础;理性对待外部认同是突破教师专业发展框架的重要驱动力;进一步讨论了角色冲突作为教师专业成长重要契机,并针对教师队伍建设提出建议。     

Changing academic identities in changing academic workplaces: learning from academics’ everyday professional writing practices

In this article we examine issues of academic identity through the lens of academics’ everyday workplace writing, offering a complementary perspective to those already evident in the higher education research literature. Motivated by an interest in the relationship between routine writing and aspects of professional practice, we draw on data from interviews with 30 academics across three different universities. Our discussion is illustrated with excerpts from interview data, and is organised around three emerging themes: ‘reconstructing academic identities in a shifting academic workplace’, ‘considering new articulations of disciplinarity’, and ‘moving on from the golden age’. We conclude that the reconstruction of academic identities, through engagement with established and emerging workplace documents, may well be enabling academics to build new identities within the changing university.     

Re-contextualising TPACK: exploring teachers’ (non-)use of digital technologies

Technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) has been used by hundreds of studies as a theoretical framework to explore teachers’ technology use in classroom settings. While these studies have contributed to understandings of the interplay between these different knowledge domains and the differences between pre- and in-service teachers’ knowledge, little work has been done to examine the influence of teachers’ socially mediated workplace settings on TPACK enactment. This article begins to address this issue reporting findings from an eight-month case study involving 10 teachers in an Australian secondary school. Results reported in this article indicate that TPACK enactment is influenced by processes of identity development and practice. These findings challenge the established position of knowledge as an epistemological possession inherent in the TPACK framework rather than also considering knowing as an epistemology of practice. Implications for in-service teachers and school authorities are discussed and suggestions for future research considered.     

The role of social identification as university student in learning: relationships between students’ social identity,approaches to learning,and academic achievement

This article describes research exploring the relationship between students’ self-perceptions in the context of university learning (i.e. student social identity), their approaches to learning, and academic achievement. The exploration of these inter-related aspects requires a mix of theoretical approaches, that is, in this research both social identity perspective from social psychology and the student learning research framework are used to explore student identity and learning in the context of higher education. Two structural equation models drawing on both these theoretical frameworks were tested. In the first of these models, deep approaches to learning are positively associated with students’ social identification as university student and positively predict academic achievement. In the second model, surface approaches to learning are negatively associated with students’ social identification and negatively predict academic achievement. The mediational roles of deep and surface approaches to learning in the relationship between student social identity and academic achievement are also explored.     

基于网络实践共同体的非正式学习研究

网络环境下的非正式学习是当前终身学习社会的战略主题,网络实践共同体是其重要载体和组织形式,它是非正式学习的典型形式。它具有高效的信息分享、知识创造、平台稳定、资源重用等学习特征。非正式学习通常经历萌芽期、发展期、成熟期和管理期四个循环发展阶段。