研究性学习对教师的挑战

研究性学习对教师提出了新的挑战。教师必须改变传统的教育观念 ,在学科教学中 ,渗透研究性学习的思想 ;要转换传统的教师角色 ,给自己准确定位 ;并不断提高自身学养 ,这也是开展研究性学习的必要条件。     

远程教育教师专业发展的困境与对策

远程教育的发展迫切需要教师获得专业发展。然而,远程教育教师的专业发展存在很多现实困难,包括政策保障、经费投入、教师投入等方面。本文分析了远程教育教师专业发展的深远意义,并从六个方面提出了远程教育教师专业发展的具体对策。     

构建“实践共同体”促进教师专业发展

构建教师实践共同体是当下教育改革中促进教师专业发展的有效途径。教师实践共同体的相关理论研究表明构建实践共同体具有重要意义。从实践共同体的特征——相互的介入、共同的事业和共享的技艺库出发,提出了促进教师专业发展的几点建议。     

自我导向性学习与教师专业发展

教师专业发展具有个体性、主动性、内在性等特征，而自我导向性学习则能很好地适应教师专业发展的这些特点。文章在介绍自我导向性学习的含义与特点的基础上，对自我导向性学习与教师专业发展的关系以及如何促进教师的自我导向性学习进行了阐述。     

Professional Learning Communities: Bridging the Technology Integration Gap Through Effective Professional Development

ABSTRACT

While technology is prevalent in American classrooms, meaningful technology integration remains an issue, indicating a lack of effective professional development. Unlike the typical workshop model, professional learning communities (PLCs) utilize teacher-centered approaches to professional development. Kolb’s experiential learning theory, Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, and the expectancy-value model work together to provide the theoretical foundation supporting professional development through PLCs. This article proposes a plan for transformative technology integration using a PLC model for professional development.     

终身学习与高校教师的专业发展

本文立足于对终身学习理论的分析,从社会职能和培养目标的层面探讨终身学习时代高等教育所肩负的重要使命,及建设学习型社会和培养终身学习者的重大责任,并由此讨论这一转变给高校教师带来的专业发展方面的新挑战,提出:教师应当培养自己终身学习的能力;要加强教育、心理学方面的理论学习与实践探讨;要个性化地完善教学环节.     

Continuing Professional Development of Academic Teachers through Self-initiated Learning

An innovative course for the Continuing Professional Development of Academic Teachers, which obtained teacher accreditation by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), is described and evaluated. It depended on five principles: it was experiential, problem-based, research-based, open and at a distance. Evaluations were carried out as a case study by one of the course members (LS), through a questionnaire given to all course members, and by an institutional quality assessment. There are also reports by the external examiner and by the Re-Accreditation team of SEDA. As a result, the director (LE) concluded that the course was highly appropriate for academic staff who wish to base their approach to teaching and learning on action research, as was indeed the case for all those who enrolled on the course, but may well be too onerous for others.     

Overcoming a Learning Bottleneck: Inquiry Professional Development for Secondary Science Teachers

This paper examines the summer component of a year-long professional development program. The program was developed based on recent models of effective professional development that indicate that teachers should guide the direction and focus of the professional development program. Specific activities in the summer program were adapted from a long-running, successful program for university faculty development. In this study we explore the conceptions of inquiry teachers developed during the program, as well as the products teachers created. The discrepancies between program goals and the teachers’ products and conceptions are described and reasons for these differences explored. The results suggest that engaging teachers in identifying key issues in their own professional development is an effective strategy.     

Learning for You and Learning for Me: Mentoring As Professional Development for Mentor Teachers

Professional development (PD) opportunities for teachers most commonly take place outside the classroom and are typically designed to address specific components of teachers’ instruction or curriculum. However, there are other activities that take place within the classroom that may have a profound impact on the PD of a teacher. We sought to gain a deeper understanding of the influence that placing a teacher in a mentor role can have on their PD and practice. Thus, we researched the influence of mentor teachers’ work with university-level STEM education majors by engaging in teaching a limited series of STEM inquiry-based lessons in the mentors’ classrooms. Surveys of the mentor teachers indicated that there were many positive benefits for mentors, including gaining new ideas, increased reflection on their practice, increased engagement of students, and in some cases shifts in practice.     

Teachers’ Learning Journeys: The Quality Learning Circle as a Model of Professional Development

Worldwide, teachers struggle to keep pace with demands for learning. Educational reforms mandated at a national level require teachers to reconsider their teaching, curriculum and assessment philosophies and practices. This reliance on national policy initiatives increases teachers’ dependence on others knowing what their learning needs might be. Such dependence creates problems for sustained learning because teachers are not encouraged to help themselves. This article introduces an alternative approach to professional development, known as the Quality Learning Circle (QLC), to show how it can empower teachers to become agents of change able to meet both local needs alongside national agendas.     

Professional Development of Physics Teachers in an Evidence-Based Blended Learning Program

The present study examined continuity of learning between face-to-face and online environments in a “blended” professional development program designed for 16 physics teachers. The program had nine face-to-face meetings as well as continuous online exchanges between them through a website. The program focused on “knowledge integration” (KI) innovative activities in physics classes using an “evidence-based” approach: The teachers implemented the activities, collected and analyzed data about their practice and their students’ learning, and reflected on the evidence with their peers. Five reflective tools were used to promote continuity: Your Comments, Hot Polls, Smashing Sentences, Hot Reports, and Mini Research. Continuity was assessed with regard to the ideas discussed by the teachers and the reasoning patterns that they employed. Analysis of the online exchanges in relation to teachers’ face-to-face discourse revealed that the teachers discussed the same ideas (KI, evidence and learner-centered pedagogies), employed the same reasoning patterns (e.g., forming generalizations), and extended ideas in re-visitation. The online and face-to-face environments played different and complementary roles in the teachers’ learning. This study shows that appropriate use of an online environment in a blended program can lead to a continuous course of learning and can transform a “9 once-a-month-meetings” workshop into a “9-month” workshop.     

自我导向学习:农村教师专业发展的有效途径

国外教师专业发展理论的日益成熟和我国教师教育实践的日趋完善以及基础教育新课程改革的不断深入,将我国百万教师的专业发展问题提到了前所未有的高度,新农村建设则把农村教师的专业成长问题摆上了议事日程。如何针对农村教师专业发展现状,探寻一种经费省、效果佳的适合农村学校特点和农村教师个性化需要的专业发展范式,成为全体教育工作者急待探索的课题。自我导向学习强调学习者的主动性、独立性和责任感,可资成为有效促进农村教师专业发展的首选途径。     

Professional Learning Communities: A Review of the Literature

International evidence suggests that educational reform’s progress depends on teachers’ individual and collective capacity and its link with school-wide capacity for promoting pupils’ learning. Building capacity is therefore critical. Capacity is a complex blend of motivation, skill, positive learning, organisational conditions and culture, and infrastructure of support. Put together, it gives individuals, groups, whole school communities and school systems the power to get involved in and sustain learning over time. Developing professional learning communities appears to hold considerable promise for capacity building for sustainable improvement. As such, it has become a ‘hot topic’ in many countries.     

试析民族地区师专实施研究性学习的阻碍

民族地区师专实施研究性学习受制于传统教与学定势、能力、经费、图书资料、时间精力等因素。本文对此进行了分析并提出了相应的对策。     

Effects of Consultation on Professional Learning Communities

ABSTRACT

School psychologists can impact student outcomes by consulting with teams around data. The current study investigated the effects of consultation with Professional Learning Communities (PLC) teacher teams. The study included four teacher teams, observing their PLC practices and providing consultation. Each team was observed with a PLC-implementation rubric using a multiple baseline design, including baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. The specific areas of observation on the PLC Implementation Rubric were “How Effective Teams Work,” “What Students Need to Know and Do,” and “Assessment for/of Learning.” The data were visually analyzed and a nonoverlap of all pairs effect size was computed. During the intervention phase, each team chose an item to focus on from the same observation strand. Therefore, the data were analyzed on the single strand and the three strands taken together. The results from the study indicated a change in PLC implementation occurred when consultation was added, and the change was maintained after consultation ended. However, the improvements for each team during the intervention and maintenance phases were small in comparison to the baseline phase. In addition, teams displayed greater improvements in implementation fidelity on the single strand in comparison to the three strands taken together. Future research is needed to determine the impact of consultation with PLCs on student outcomes. Implications for research and practice, limitations, and future directions are discussed.     

Japanese Elementary Teachers’ Learning Experiences of Physical Education Professional Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese elementary teachers’ professional development experiences in physical education in Japan. Participants were nine teachers from four public elementary schools. Data sources included semi-structured face-to-face interviews and annual physical education professional development portfolios. Three themes emerged from the data analyses: (a) the importance of mentoring for teachers’ growth, (b) annual in-house physical education portfolios as a professional development tool, and (c) the dilemma of being an independent learner in collective culture. The findings suggest that having access to past portfolios developed by previous teachers helped the Japanese elementary teachers to conceptualize the contents of professional learning that facilitated their transitions when they changed their teaching settings. To continuously grow as a teacher, they need to become independent learners who can make decisions about their instruction, identify the weaknesses of their instruction, and understand the impact of their pedagogy on their students’ learning.     

培养学习型教师 促进高校英语教师专业化发展

当前我国高等教育迅速发展,高等学校英语教师面临巨大挑战,高校教师要想承担起教学重任,必须走专业化发展之路。文章针对当前高校英语教师专业发展的途径和存在的不足,提出建立教师学习档案,培养学习型教师是促进教师专业化发展切实可行的方法。