A conceptual model for supporting para-teacher learning in an Indian non-governmental organization (NGO)

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are being recognized globally for their influential role in realizing the UN Millennium Development Goal of education for all in developing countries. NGOs mostly employ untrained para-educators for grassroots activities. The professional development of these teachers is critical for NGO effectiveness, yet para-teacher learning in such contexts is rarely researched. To facilitate much-needed research on para-teacher professional development, this article offers a contextually relevant on- the-job learning model for para-teachers. The model suggests that para-educators can effectively learn when their work and learning are integrated by systematizing a simple daily cyclical routine of lesson planning, enactment and reflection for everyday instruction. It also suggests other supports to stimulate learning alongside the cyclical routine.     

TPACK design scaffolds for supporting teacher pedagogical change

Many empirical studies show that teachers have difficulty designing technology-integrated lessons for student-centered learning. Supporting teachers to change their pedagogical practice is a challenge faced in teacher professional development for technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). This study describes how teachers’ conceptions of pedagogical change can be supported through the use of different kinds of TPACK design scaffolds—a meaningful learning rubric, lesson design heuristics and TPACK Activity Types. The impact of these design scaffolds on the TPACK confidence and lesson design confidence of 47 teachers and instructors who were attending a graduate course in educational technology were assessed through pre and post course surveys. Expert ratings of technology-integrated lesson plans designed at the beginning and end of the course were also used to determine the extent of pedagogical change enacted. It was found that these design scaffolds had positive effects on teachers’ TPACK confidence and were useful for helping the teachers to articulate pedagogical change in their lesson designs. Participants’ feedback for improving the TPACK design scaffolds as well as guidelines for using these to support pedagogical change through TPACK professional development programmes are discussed.

     

A narrative examination of early childhood teachers’ shared identities in teamwork

This study examines the two kindergarten teachers’ shared professional identities in teamwork in an effort to clarify what constitutes their shared identities and how these identities affect the teachers’ professional practices and beliefs. The relational nature of identity maintains that individuals are not the only constructors of their identity, and the literature on teacher education emphasizes the importance of identity in teacher development. The in-depth analysis of the two kindergarten teachers’ narrative interviews revealed how the educators constructed their professional identities by intertwining the features of their context, feedback, and teaching. The findings indicate that the shared professional identities of the two early childhood teachers are developed and negotiated through four shared features: commitment, feedback, educational tasks, and professional agency. Together these four shared features shape the teachers’ professional roles and pedagogical practices—either by giving support to professional growth and empowerment or by having a decreasing effect on the teachers’ professional identity and agency in early childhood contexts.     

Collaborative Practitioner Research: A Case of Lesson Study in a Small Jewish School

ABSTRACT

Lesson study is a form of professional development where a group of teachers identifies a problem of practice on which they would like to make progress in their teaching. Over an extended period of time, the teachers study the topic and plan a lesson together. One member then teaches the lesson while the others observe; the group reflects afterwards on student learning. The cycle repeats, building teachers’ professional knowledge and their shared views of pedagogy over time. In this article, we argue that lesson study is a collaborative form of practitioner research and we show how this is so by sharing an example of a lesson study cycle conducted in a synagogue school.     

铜仁地区农村英语教师专业素质调查与研究

英语课程改革对英语教师提出了新的挑战,教师素质成为改革成功的关键,农村英语教师素质也开始受到人们的关注。为了解农村英语教师的教学现状,在此以问卷调查为工具,对铜仁地区60所农村中小学81位英语教师进行了调查,结果显示：农村英语教师的教学现状不容乐观,他们对自身发展的需求强烈,但是,他们在职业发展过程中所面临着急需解决的困难。调查结果对如何提高农村英语教师素质问题有积极作用。     

Working with mathematics teachers and immigrant students: an empowerment perspective

This article centers on a professional development project with a group of high school mathematics teachers in Barcelona. The eight participating teachers taught in low-income schools with a high percentage of immigrant students. Our model of professional development is based on the involvement of the teachers as co-researchers of their local contexts and practices. In this approach, our concept of social justice is tied to the notion of empowerment, both for teachers and for their immigrant students. Our analysis of data from twelve sessions with the teachers shows the development of a shared awareness of their local situation that leads to their questioning of their practices followed by a reconstruction of those. Teachers worked together to move from talking to action. Our analysis of data from the implementation of one lesson in a classroom shows that action, and illustrates signs of empowerment in the teacher and the students, such as students’ challenging of aspects of the task and taking on a more participatory role and the teacher’s reflection on the overall experience.     

Part of the assignment: student–teachers’ planning instruction within/across activity systems

ABSTRACT

Looking closely at lesson plans as mediating tools, this study examines preservice teacher learning. By using activity theory in our analysis of lesson plans and other data collected in a student-teaching course, we uncovered tensions within/across the contexts of university teacher education program and secondary school field placements. This study serves to further understandings of how new teachers learn to appropriate the genres of teaching and to explore contradictions between a university preparation program and secondary school contexts. Findings provide an account of the student–teachers’ lesson planning and an explanation of how disruptions in those plans provided insight into points of tension. By viewing these tensions as contradictions within/across activity systems, we identify them as opportunities to better understand teacher learning and ways we might support new teachers in navigating tensions in their classrooms and schools.     

Professional knowledge or motivation? Investigating the role of teachers’ expertise on the quality of technology-enhanced lesson plans

In an expertise study with 94 mathematics teachers varying in their relative teacher expertise (i.e., student teachers, trainee teachers, in-service teachers), we examined effects of teachers' professional knowledge and motivational beliefs on their ability to integrate technology within a lesson plan scenario. Therefore, we assessed teachers' professional knowledge (i.e., content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, technological knowledge), and their motivational beliefs (i.e., self-efficacy, utility-value). Furthermore, teachers were asked to develop a lesson plan for introducing the Pythagorean theorem to secondary students. Lesson plans by advanced teachers (i.e., trainee teachers, in-service teachers) comprised higher levels of instructional quality and technology exploitation than the ones of novice teachers (i.e., pre-service teachers). The effect of expertise was mediated by teachers' perceived utility-value of educational technology, but not by their professional knowledge. These findings suggest that teachers’ motivational beliefs play a crucial role for effectively applying technology in mathematics instruction.     

课例研究引领学校教研文化——以信阳市五中语文课例研究为案例

面对教研组作为教师专业化水平提高平台的功能被逐渐边缘化的现实,当以选择课例作为教师研修的"支架",构建以"课例研究"为基本特质的教研文化。研课旨趣指向"专业诊断",使评课真正起到有效促进和发展的功能;课例诊断在问题驱动下,聚焦课堂教学行为的改进与优化;课例研究取向重心要转移,研课活动不再单看教师的教学行为,还应关注到课堂教学中最为核心的因素——学生的发展与表现。     

Searching for good practice in teaching: a comparison of two subject‐based professional learning communities in a secondary school in Shanghai

Since the mid‐1990s, the concept of professional learning communities has arisen in the education field in the West, aiming to improve teachers’ professional competency by using collaborative approaches. Western studies indicate that these strategies help teachers achieve professional growth. Schools in China have had a long history of enhancing the professional competency of teachers by using collaboration in school‐based contexts. But do professional learning communities in Chinese schools, especially in times of change, do the same for Chinese teachers? This study provides empirical data from Chinese teachers to assist global discussions on school‐based professional development. The study uses qualitative data collection methods, including semi‐structured interviews, observations and documentary analysis, to investigate how teachers from two subject departments in a secondary school in Shanghai enhance their knowledge and practice within their subject‐based professional learning communities. Results show that members of these two communities have shared common goals and have developed a sense of collective accountability. The study also found that socio‐cultural factors, such as the collectivist values, authoritarian‐oriented practices and influences of interpersonal relationship, are crucial in the development of Chinese professional learning communities, even though different communities may differ in other respects.     

A survey to examine teachers’ perceptions of design dispositions,lesson design practices,and their relationships with technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)

This study investigates 201 Singaporean teachers’ perceptions of their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), lesson design practices, and design dispositions through a survey instrument. Investigation of these constructs reveal important variables influencing teachers’ perceptions of TPACK which have not yet been explored. The confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis confirm the validity and reliability of the instrument. The structural equation model shows that the teachers’ perceptions of design dispositions (orientations towards design) and lesson design practices (approaches used for lesson design) have direct relationships with the teachers’ perceptions of TPACK. The results of this study show that to enhance teachers’ TPACK perceptions, teacher educators need to help teachers develop lesson design practices that support ideation and iteration. They also need to develop teachers’ design dispositions that are amenable to exploring and resolving conflicting lesson design ideas. Going beyond TPACK, understandings of teachers’ lesson design practices and design dispositions are important for teacher educators to better design professional development for integration of information and communications technology.     

Testing the Consensus Model: relationships among physics teachers’ professional knowledge,interconnectedness of content structure and student achievement

ABSTRACT

The structure and definition of professional knowledge is a continuing focus of science education research. In 2012, a pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) summit was held and it suggested a model of professional knowledge and skill including PCK, which was later often called the Consensus Model (Gess-Newsome, 2015. A model of teacher professional knowledge and skill including PCK: Results of the thinking from the PCK summit. In A. Berry, P. J. Friedrichsen, & J. Loughran (Eds.), Teaching and learning in science series. Re-examining pedagogical content knowledge in science education (1st ed., pp. 28–42). New York, NY: Routledge). The Consensus Model proposes a potential powerful framework for the relations among teachers’ different professional knowledge bases, but to date it has neither been investigated empirically nor systematically. In this study, we investigated the relationships suggested by the Consensus Model among different aspects of teachers’ knowledge and skill. A sample of 35 physics teachers and their classes participated in the investigation; both teachers and their students in these classes took paper-and-pencil tests. Furthermore, a lesson taught by each of the teachers was videotaped and analysed. The video analysis focused on the interconnectedness of the content structure of the lesson as representation of the in-class actions of the teachers. The interconnectedness is understood as a direct result of the application of professional knowledge of the teachers to their teaching. The teachers’ knowledge showed no significant influence on the interconnectedness of the lesson content structure. However, the results confirmed the influence of interconnectedness and certain aspects of professional knowledge on students’ outcomes. Therefore, interconnectedness of content structure could be verified as one indicator of teachers’ instructional quality.     

Investigating the Impact of NGSS-Aligned Professional Development on PreK-3 Teachers’ Science Content Knowledge and Pedagogy

This pilot study investigates the impact of a 2-week professional development Summer Institute on PK-3 teachers’ knowledge and practices. This Summer Institute is a component of [program], a large-scale early-childhood science project that aims to transform PK-3 science teaching. The mixed-methods study examined concept maps, lesson plans, and classroom observations to measure possible changes in PK-3 teachers’ science content knowledge and classroom practice from 11 teachers who attended the 2014 Summer Institute. Analysis of the concept maps demonstrated statistically significant growth in teachers’ science content knowledge. Analysis of teachers’ lesson plans demonstrated that the teachers could design high quality science inquiry lessons aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards following the professional development. Finally, examination of teachers’ pre- and post-Summer Institute videotaped inquiry lessons showed evidence that teachers were incorporating new inquiry practices into their teaching, especially regarding classroom discourse. Our results suggest that an immersive inquiry experience is effective at beginning a shift towards reform-aligned science and engineering instruction but that early elementary educators require additional support for full mastery.     

Thriving,not just surviving: The impact of teacher mentors on pre-service teachers in disadvantaged school contexts

This study explores the perceptions held by nine mentor teachers from four Australian secondary schools about the impact they have on pre-service teachers during professional placement. Using Fraser’s (2000, 2005, 2008) social justice framework as a theoretical lens, this paper examines what can be learnt from these teacher mentors about mentoring in disadvantaged school contexts. These mentor teachers felt their most significant impact was in shaping pre-service teachers’ awareness and responsiveness to contextual factors so that they could not only fulfil professional experience requirements, but also be better prepared for potential future teaching opportunities in disadvantaged school contexts.     

Intersections of life histories and science identities: the stories of three preservice elementary teachers

Grounded within Connelly and Clandinin’s conceptualization of teachers’ professional identity in terms of ‘stories to live by’ and through a life-history lens, this multiple case study aimed to respond to the following questions: (a) How do three preservice elementary teachers view themselves as future science teachers? (b) How have the participants’ life histories shaped their science identity trajectories? In order to characterize the participants’ formation of science identities over time, various data regarding their life histories in relation to science were collected: science biographies, self-portraits, interviews, reflective journals, lesson plans, and classroom observations. The analysis of the data illustrated how the three participants’ identities have been in formation from the early years of their lives and how various events, experiences, and interactions had shaped their identities through time and across contexts. These findings are discussed alongside implications for theory, specifically, identity and life-history intersections, for teacher preparation, and for research related to explorations of beginning elementary teachers’ identity trajectories.     

Lesson study in prospective mathematics teacher education: didactic and paradidactic technology in the post-lesson reflection

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the post-lesson reflection, carried out in the context of eight cases of lesson study conducted by teams of Danish, lower secondary prospective teachers and their supervisors. The participants, representing different institutions, were all new to the lesson study format. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated how their interaction shape the development of discourse about mathematical learning. The anthropological theory of the didactic is employed as the theoretical approach to analyse the mathematical and primarily didactical praxeologies developed and discussed during the meetings. The study investigates what happens when lesson study, a well-established Japanese “system” for professional teacher development, is transposed to another educational and cultural context, with the aim of enhancing prospective teacher learning during the practicum of a teacher education programme. The findings highlight significant different positions in the discourse during the post-lesson reflection. Specific practice-related knowledge is developed, to the benefit of prospective teachers, educators and researchers alike. This kind of knowledge is of interest and concern to the whole profession of mathematics teachers and the analysis adds to our insight into the potential of lesson study in prospective education as a meeting place where pertinent actors contribute to the expansion and dissemination of shared professional knowledge.     

Researchers Apply Lesson Study: A Cycle of Lesson Planning,Implementation, and Revision

Scripted lesson plans and/or professional development alone may not be sufficient to encourage teachers to reflect on the quality of their teaching and improve their teaching. One learning tool that teachers may use to improve their teaching is Lesson Study (LS). LS is a collaborative process involving educators, based on concepts of iteration and revision, to improve instruction. The initial use of an adapted version of LS referred to as a microteaching lesson study (MLS) is described in this article. Our purpose is to illustrate the process of MLS used by a group of researchers when developing lesson plans for teaching students with learning disabilities. We describe MLS, and then (1) share an application of MLS used by a research team in developing a writing intervention, and (2) discuss how the MLS format was mirrored with K‐12 teachers during professional development training.     

跨界课例研究中的教师学习

目前我国中小学教师的学习大都停留在被专家灌输知识或同行低水平交流的状态,如何创设跨界学习情境,引发教师对自己思维和行为习惯的深度反思,形成新的对教育教学的理解和行动,是教师学习的一大难题。鉴于此,有必要从跨界学习的视角,探索教师在跨界课例研究中其学习是如何发生的。基于一个小组合作学习案例,分析了教师如何通过与外来学者合作,根据具体情境对理论进行再工具化,改进教案设计和教学实施,在提高学生学习素养的同时生成了自己新的实践性知识。研究发现,教师跨界学习的意义协商、视角再造、实践重构三个机制,对教师专业学习具有重要的指导意义。     

Professional learning during a schools–university partnership Master of Education course: teachers’ perspectives of their learning experiences

An extensive body of research has indicated the benefits of collaborative, contextualised and enquiry-based learning for teachers’ professional development and school improvement. Yet professional learning is also known to be constrained by a number of factors, including the organisational limitations of schools, conflicting cultural practices and wider political demands. Schools–university partnerships have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties by transcending particular school contexts and offering alternative theoretical and practical perspectives. The complex combination of motivations, backgrounds and working contexts in such partnership work calls for attention to the individual and collective learning experiences of those involved, including the ways in which school and university contexts are, or could be, effectively bridged. This paper focuses on understanding the learning experienced by a cohort of teachers and school leaders involved in a two-year schools–university partnership Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in England. A mixed group of 15 experienced primary and secondary teachers and school leaders reflected on their learning at five points of time during and shortly after completing their M.Ed. course. Qualitative analysis of the group’s interview responses and reflective writing led to the identification of six related aspects of personal and professional learning experience: being a learner; learning as part of professional practice; widening repertoire; changing as a learner; personal growth; and critically adaptive practice. The identification and visual representation of these aspects of experience emerging within the group offers useful insight into teachers’ perspectives on learning in school and university contexts and their experiences of progression over time. We conclude that more explicit and central attention to the professional and personal learning elements of schools–university partnerships can help to resolve some of the binary ‘theory–practice’ tensions that have been extensively discussed in relation to partnership programmes and teacher professional development. There is a need to acknowledge variation in teachers’ learning experiences within schools–university partnerships, bearing in mind the ongoing nature of this reflective process with each new group of school and university colleagues. Analysis of participants’ learning experiences in school and university contexts also draws attention to the wider structures, values and cultures that influence, and are influenced by, schools–university partnership work.     

Boundary Crossing during Pre-service Teacher Training: empowering or hampering professional growth?

Yuli Rahmawati’s paper presents an auto-ethnographic inquiry into her lived experiences as a science teacher in different countries. Through her reflections and analysis of events, Yuli captures and builds a model of her identity and explores the influence of inter- and intra-cultural perspectives in shaping how she recognizes herself and brings meaning to her professional life. Yuli’s insights and explanations of teaching within different cultural contexts highlight the importance of personally relevant and meaningful knowledge, where expectations and accepted norms, that might fit well within one community, may be seen quite differently in another. While for Yuli, this led to professional growth as she inquired and made sense of her new context, my concern is that the social and cultural change could, in some instances, lead to disengagement rather than professional growth. My concern is that the conflict that arises from boundary crossing may be experienced even stronger by inexperienced professionals, such as pre-service teachers. The learning trajectory of pre-service teachers is steep; they need to gain stronger knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy and an awareness of how their students learn. They also need to build confidence in their professional self and what they can do to support and trigger student learning. For this to happen, in the tight time frames available on teacher education courses, pre-service teachers need to understand and engage with the new community that they are placed in very quickly, to make sense of both their role and that of others within the community. This paper suggests that pre-service providers should carefully consider the learning opportunities offered by school contexts, that may vary dramatically from the social and cultural contexts experienced by their teachers as part of their own education, to prevent disengagement or misunderstanding hampering professional growth.