Understanding decision making in teachers’ curriculum design approaches

The goal of this study was to reach a better understanding of the intuitive decisions teachers make when designing a technology-rich learning environment. A multiple case-study design was employed to examine what kinds of factors (external priorities, existing orientations or practical concerns) influence design interactions of teams of kindergarten teachers. This study combines semi-structured interview data on teachers’ existing orientations with analysis of teachers’ design discussions during the design of learning material for a technology-rich learning environment. Three teams of teachers voluntarily participated. Findings on the existing orientations suggest that knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning related to knowledge and beliefs on technology and early literacy. The analysis of teachers’ discussions revealed that the process could be characterized to a large extent as brainstorms; and that problems are not addressed in-depth. Rather they are resolved through brainstorming, and most argumentation falls in the realm of practical concerns: how to organize learning activities and how to respond to contingencies. The findings of this study suggest that teachers’ explicated design reasoning is mostly influenced by practical concerns, yet their own knowledge and beliefs play an important role at the start of the design process. However, these existing orientations as well as the practical concerns that emerge during the conversation tend to be narrow in scope. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in light of how this study provides understanding of how to support these teachers.     

Using the history of mathematics to induce changes in preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes: insights from evaluating a teacher education program

Scholars and teacher educators alike agree that teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward mathematics are key informants of teachers’ instructional approaches. Therefore, it has become clear that, in addition to enriching preservice teachers’ (PSTs) knowledge, teacher education programs should also create opportunities for prospective teachers to develop productive beliefs and attitudes toward teaching and learning mathematics. This study explored the effectiveness of a mathematics preparatory program based on the history of mathematics that aimed at enhancing PSTs’ epistemological and efficacy beliefs and their attitudes toward mathematics. Using data from a questionnaire administered four times, the study traced the development of 94 PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes over a period of 2 years. The analysis of these data showed changes in certain dimensions of the PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes; however, other dimensions were found to change in the opposite direction to that expected. Differences were also found in the development of the PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes according to their mathematical background. The data yielded from semi-structured follow-up interviews conducted with a convenience sample of PSTs largely corroborated the quantitative data and helped explain some of these changes. We discuss the effectiveness of the program considered herein and draw implications for the design of teacher education programs grounded in the history of mathematics.

The role of sociocultural mediational tools in EFL teachers’ development: insights from a life history approach

The sociocultural orientation in general education, which has gradually leaked into second language teacher education, argues that teachers usually employ social relations, cultural artefacts, and theoretical concepts to mediate their thinking and practice. Against this background, the present study aimed to explore how three male Iranian English as a foreign language teachers have capitalised on the three sociocultural tools to mediate their development. The findings revealed that not all three mediational tools, though each influential in its own terms, have been available wholesale to the teachers and that different academic and teaching phases have yielded differential access to the tools. The authors indicate that during school as student, human mediation, particularly of apprenticeship, seems to be the dominant tool available for the teachers to mediate their development. Later on, in higher education institutes, although the human apprenticeship is still visible, cultural artefacts and scientific theories start to surface influencing the teachers’ learning and teaching trajectories. The implications for both teachers and teacher educators are discussed.     

Breaking and making curriculum from inside ‘policy storms’ in an Australian pre-service teacher education course

ABSTRACT

How teacher educators respond as policy actors from inside spaces where multiple policies and discourses collide provides insights into the ways in which policy plays out in educational contexts. By engaging and working within the uncertain space of our own contextual ‘policy storm’ we provide a narrative of enactment highlighting the roles and actions of policy actors simultaneously constrained and inspired by policy. We use the policy actor framework [Ball, S.J., Maguire, M., Braun, A., & Hoskins, K. (2011a). Policy actors: Doing policy work in schools, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(4), 625-639] to unpack policy meaning-making within university and faculty climates, teacher education, and curriculum reform in Health and Physical Education (HPE) in Australia. This paper has three tasks. Firstly, we set-up the conditions of uncertainty and possibility as a ‘policy storm’ and place where four disparate policies converged. Secondly, we provide an empirical and theoretical account of policy interpretation and enactment from the actors perspective. Finally, we test the policy actor framework to determine if it adequately describes our insider policy work. In moving beyond reductionist policy narratives we provide policy possibilities that illustrate enactment, are innovative, and explore the productive potential inside policy reform.     

Societal culture and teachers’ responses to curriculum reform: experiences from China

Educational change is intrinsically bound to the cultural characteristics of the society. However, the relationship between educational change and societal culture is rarely explored, especially in the context of mainland China. Following a 3-year qualitative research project, the present study explored the influence of societal culture on teachers’ responses to the national curriculum reform of upper secondary education in mainland China. The results generated three themes highly relevant to teachers’ responses to curriculum reform in Chinese culture, namely teachers’ obedience, teachers’ facework and teachers’ collaboration. These teachers’ responses reflected some Confucian ethics rooted in Chinese culture and explained the absence of radical teacher resistance to the national curriculum reform. It was suggested that a culturally sensitive approach to change leadership may have been more fruitful for facilitating the aims of curriculum reform in mainland China.     

Exploring teachers’ inquiry-based attitude

Having a well-founded insight into the characteristics of teachers inquiry-based attitude (IA) supports operationalising IA as a learning goal in teacher education (TE). The aim of this study is to refine the notion of IA from an ill-defined global concept into something with reliable and valid characteristics. To do so, data were gathered on three different occasions amongst three different cohorts of teachers who participated in a master's programme at a Dutch university for applied sciences. This process of exploration and reconceptualisation was performed in collaboration with teacher educators. The results indicate that, statistically, IA has an internal reflective dimension and an external knowledge-sourcing dimension. Both dimensions can also statistically be differentiated from the personality traits openness to ideas, openness to change and epistemic curiosity. The implications of these findings for TE, plus recommendations for future research, are addressed.     

Governance and decision‐making in higher education: Comparative aspects

In this paper, I shall put forward a model which highlights key issues to be taken into account in an attempt to improve academic excellence by the means of human resources management and leadership. Practices at the University of Eastern Finland and elsewhere are used as examples. It is maintained that logical and coherent human resources policies and capable leadership can support and contribute to academic performance and excellence. A key issue is not to interfere too much with active academic work, but still give sufficient support and prerequisites for academic basic tasks.     

Changes in teachers’ instructional skills during an intensive data-based decision making intervention

This study evaluates changes in teachers' instructional skills after participating in an intensive data-based decision making (DBDM) intervention for grade 4 teachers. Teachers were recorded three times prior to the intervention, and three times after the intervention, and all recordings were rated by four raters. The data was analyzed by means of advanced item response theory (IRT) techniques, combined with a generalizability model. Teachers significantly improved their DBDM related skills. Teachers’ initial basic teaching skills did not seem to matter for the extent to which teachers developed their DBDM related instructional skills. Suggestions for future research are presented.     

Speculations on teacher education: recommendations from research on teachers’ cognitions

This paper was written at the request of the Journal's editor, Professor Edgar Stones, who challenged us to translate a review of literature on teachers’ pedagogical thoughts, judgments, decisions and behavior (Shavelson and Stern, 1981) into recommendations for teacher education. We took up the challenge with some trepidation, knowing full well the pitfalls we faced in translating research into recommendations for practice. We approach our task cautiously by first discussing the assumptions underlying research on teachers’ thinking and decisions. Then, we summarize methods and findings from research on planning of instruction, judgments and decisions during recitation, and the link between decisions and behavior because they imply changes in typical teacher education programs. Finally, recommendations are made for teacher education.

We recommend that teacher educators consider adopting the decision‐making schema as a conceptual framework for organizing their programs. Such a schema implies a ‘reasonable’, professional process of making important decisions, such as selecting textbooks, grouping students, pacing work, sequencing and timing content, and changing routines during interaction. It also suggests a close correspondence between the two major components of teacher education, the foundations courses and student teaching.

Finally, we recommend that certain research methods such as process tracing, policy capturing, and stimulated recall be adapted as instructional techniques to improve the quality of instruction within foundations courses, and during supervision and feedback within the student‐teaching experience.     

Enhancing teachers’ counselling skills: student teachers’ views on a teachers’ education programme

The purpose of this small‐scale study is to investigate the outcomes of a brief teacher education programme by exploring student teachers’ views. The teacher education programme aimed to provide teachers with the opportunity to develop qualities and skills that facilitate communication and to enhance teachers’ competence to apply social and emotional (SEL) programmes’ intervention activities in the classroom. According to student teachers’ estimations, the teacher education programme provided them with new knowledge and experiences in communication and counselling, which they felt they could use in teaching practice. Besides, teachers reported that the programme enabled them to develop their self‐awareness and to adopt a non‐directive attitude during the implementation of SEL programme’s activities.     

Experienced EFL teachers’ professional practical knowledge,reasoning and classroom decision making in Egypt: views from the inside out

This study aimed to investigate the areas that constituted the professional practical knowledge of experienced English as a Foreign Language teachers in Egypt and how their knowledge informed their classroom practice. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 236 preparatory and secondary school teachers in 38 schools through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and stimulated recall following classroom observation. Six areas of knowledge were revealed and rationalized from the participants’ responses. In addition, the teachers made decisions while teaching informed by what they knew and viewed. The findings of the study call for a knowledge-based practical approach to teacher learning and professional development.     

Exploring teachers’ and students’ conceptions of learning in two further education colleges

The Learning to Learn in Further Education Research Project (L2L) is coordinated by the Campaign for Learning and run by researchers at Newcastle and Glasgow Universities. The project involves teachers at two further education (FE) colleges, Lewisham and Northumberland, using practitioner enquiry methodologies to explore and share what works in learning and teaching in their context.

This article uses data collected as part of the larger project to explore how the combination of societal, political and economic forces that have shaped provision in this sector impact on students’ and teachers’ views of learning when compared with the compulsory sector. The authors sought to establish whether factors such as an ethos of performativity and instrumentalisation of the curriculum were indeed at play in shaping understandings of teaching and learning, and what it means to learn in an FE context.

Telephone interviews with 16 teachers provided evidence that such pressures were impacting on teaching despite the ambitions of the teachers that their practice be responsive to student need rather than curricular imperatives. Involvement with the university and the L2L project was seen by many as a way of countering perceived constraints on their freedom to exercise professional judgement. Face-to-face mediated interviews with 64 learners drawn from a number of qualification routes revealed a simplistic model for learning based around listening and the practising of skills. The authors discuss the extent to which students appear to understand this as building the necessary foundations for later, more sophisticated learning rather than as requirements of their courses per se.     

Learning from curriculum materials: Scaffolds for new teachers?

This article explores how beginning teachers use and learn from curriculum materials. As part of a longitudinal study of beginning English teachers who teach in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, the researchers tracked teachers’ responses to and use of materials over time, and how these materials shaped their classroom practice. The authors found that the teachers spent an enormous amount of time searching out curriculum materials for their classes and that the curriculum materials they encountered did, indeed, powerfully shape their ideas about teaching language arts as well as their classroom practice. Based on their findings, the authors propose a trajectory for the teachers’ use of the curriculum materials. New teachers begin by sticking close to the materials they have at hand. Then, over time, as they learn more about both students and curriculum, they adapt and adjust their use of the materials. The authors argue that new and aspiring teachers need opportunities to analyze and critique curriculum materials, beginning during teacher education and continuing in the company of their more experienced colleagues.     

Beginning teachers’ transition from pre-service education to working life

This review article examines new teachers’ transition from education to work on the basis of recent studies on transition, workplace learning and induction to work. The following challenges of transition are addressed: (1) threat of unemployment, (2) inadequate knowledge and skills, (3) decreased self-efficacy and increased stress, (4) early attrition, (5) newcomers’ role and position in a work community, and (6) importance of learning at work. Workplace learning research is dealt with from the following viewpoints: (1) how do people learn at work? (2) the role of work communities and organization in learning (3) the trends of formalization and informalization of learning and (4) the methods used to promote the professional development of young teachers, emphasis being on peer group mentoring. Our general conclusion is that learning and professional development of teachers should be seen as a continuing process combining formal, non-formal and informal learning throughout the career from initial training to retirement. The best way to support new teachers is informed by a profound study of the practice architectures of the educational system as a whole.     

Exploring the characteristics of ‘teachers for excellence’: teachers’ own perceptions

This article is concerned first with identifying teacher characteristics connected with excellence. It then analyses the results of a survey conducted among primary school teachers in one local authority area in Scotland. Teachers responded to a questionnaire which asked them to rate in importance 44 characteristics of excellence. The findings suggest that teachers have a clear view of excellence. They consistently described excellence in terms of personal qualities and interpersonal skills. Teachers gave high ratings to qualities which demonstrated their expectations of positive classroom ethos and positive relationships with students. Practitioners consistently rated characteristics related to classroom ‘relationships in action’ as essential characteristics for excellent teachers. These findings suggest a new emphasis on interpersonal skills in continuing professional development for teachers who are increasingly expected to develop students’ dispositions relating to openness to new thinking; self‐respect and a commitment to responsible participation in social, cultural, economic and political life.     

Head teachers’ spirituality and inclusive education: a perspective from critical realism

ABSTRACT

Spiritual leadership gains attention amongst researchers for closing the gap between achieving personal and organisational goals. Despite documentations that spirituality undergirds head teacher’s actions leading inclusive schools, research still remains thin in understanding how spirituality underpins leadership for inclusive education. This paper draws on the philosophy of critical realism to offer a conceptual tool that identifies head teachers’ spiritual actions in their efforts to include ethnic minority students. This is done through multiple qualitative methods collection from an in-depth case study at a multicultural primary school in Cyprus. The critical realist framework helps uncover head teacher’s spiritual actions in a more systematic, structured and holistic way. It reveals that head teachers’ spirituality supports the goals of inclusion and occurs in at least four interrelated and emergent ontological levels (psychological, social, cultural and policy levels) which are set in four scaler levels from microscopic to macroscopic (sub-individual, micro, meso and macro levels). This framework problematises mono-dimensional and reductionist understandings of spirituality in leadership. The paper concludes by suggesting solutions to enrich leadership programmes for inclusive education with fostering leaders’ spirituality at different ontological levels.     

Seeing as strangers: teachers’ investigations of lived curriculum

This paper explores the metaphor of the ‘teacher as stranger’ as a guide for curriculum inquiry. It describes investigations conducted by educators in an introductory curriculum studies course and illustrates the themes revealed in students’ lived‐curriculum journals. In particular, it examines several journals to document how perceptions of curriculum changed over time, and to analyse the extent to which these teachers began to see as ‘strangers’ by developing critical consciousness and changing their identities as curriculum workers. Finally, it considers strengths and weaknesses of curriculum inquiry guided by the concept ‘teacher as stranger’ as a component of professional development.