Classroom teachers as mentors: Possibilities for participation in a professional development school context

This paper describes how five classroom teachers make sense of their role as mentors in support of novices as they learn to teach. These teachers interact within a context that provides possibilities for participation with a teacher education program and professional development research. The main aim of the study was to gain insights into ways in which the five mentors talk about their theories of how novices learn to teach, use different sources of knowledge to help novices learn to teach, and model and encourage critical reflection about issues and practices in teacher education. Findings reveal that four of the five mentors played prominent roles as teacher educators, and developed collaborative relationships within the professional development school context between mentors, prospective teachers, and university faculty through sustained interactions, shared professional responsibility, and respect.     

Coteaching as professional development for cooperating teachers

Coteaching provides opportunities for teachers to collectively share responsibility for student learning. This paper reports on findings from a longitudinal study in which cooperating teachers cotaught science classes with student teachers. Through coteaching with student teachers, teachers expanded their teaching practice and developed new insights about their teaching. Coteaching served as professional development for the cooperating teachers. The experience provided them with renewed energy toward practice, opportunities to develop and implement curriculum, reflection as a catalyst for changing practice, and an expansion of professional roles into new arenas.     

Preservice teachers’ inquiry in a professional development school context: Implications for the practicum

Professional development school (PDS) contexts are increasingly being viewed as powerful sites for the preparation of future teachers in the USA. One of their documented strengths is in the fostering of preservice teachers’ inquiry within collaborative frameworks that result from the partnerships between university teacher education programmes and schools. This article focuses on one inquiry-based PDS programme, describes five inquiry projects carried out by interns in the programme, and presents interns’ perceptions on engaging in inquiry during their yearlong internship. The discussion that follows explores the potential of the inquiry approach in PDS contexts to reform the teacher education practicum.     

Teacher professional development: Which aspects of inservice do teachers believe influence their classroom practice?

Research into teacher inservice in primary science generally focuses on evaluating the objectives of each program in terms of the immediate outcomes. Little research appears to have been conducted into the long term effects of interactive inservice programs on the classroom practice of the participants. During 1993 the long term effects of participation in the Primary Science/Technology Project (Sci-Tec), as perceived by the teacher participants, were investigated. Focus teachers who had participated in Sci-Tec between 1988–1991 were asked to provide information about their current science teaching practice, and about the influence that Sci-Tec had had on their current practice. Six of these teachers were then interviewed to determine which specific aspects of the project they believed had most influenced the development of their current classroom practice in teaching science. Specializations: inservice and preservice in primary science and technology.     

Everyday conversation as a context for professional learning and development

Because conversation is a constant in our personal and professional lives, we are not inclined to stop and think about it as a phenomenon. However, that is what I have found myself doing. In particular, I have become much more self‐conscious, and hopefully more thoughtful, about the conversations that constitute an inevitable aspect of my day to day work in an academic staff development role. Drawing on my own reflections and a body of related literature, I have thought about the features of conversation that may make it conducive for professional learning; how “valued” conversation is as a context for professional learning; the possible ingredients of a conversation and the extent to which they can be controlled or influenced without disturbing, or even destroying, the defining essence of conversation; and the competencies and sensitivities that may be required if conversation is to become an occasion for learning. In this article, I present the outcomes of my reflections and inquiry with the hope that they will prompt conversation about conversation as a context for professional learning and development.

Puisque la conversation est une constante dans nos vies personnelle et professionnelle, nous sommes peu enclins à nous arrêter et à y réfléchir en tant que phénomène. Cependant, c’est ce à quoi je me suis affairé. Plus particulièrement, je suis devenu davantage conscient et, je l’espère, davantage réfléchi, en ce qui a trait aux conversations qui constituent un aspect inévitable de mon travail quotidien en tant que conseiller pédagogique. Puisant dans mes réflexions et dans un ensemble de connaissances connexes, j’ai réfléchi aux aspects de la conversation qui la rendent propice à un apprentissage professionnel; dans quelle mesure la conversation constitue‐t‐elle un contexte valorisé d’apprentissage professionnel; les ingrédients possibles d’une conversation, ainsi que la mesure dans laquelle ceux‐ci peuvent être contrôlés ou influencés sans déranger, ou même détruire, l’essence même de la conversation; de même que les compétences et les habiletés pouvant être requises pour que la conversation constitue une occasion d’apprendre. Dans cet article, je présente le résultat de mes réflexions et interrogations dans l’espoir de susciter une conversation au sujet de la conversation en tant que contexte d’apprentissage et de développement professionnel.     

Mathematics professional development for elementary teachers: Building trust within a school-based mathematics education community

Despite increased attention in professional development to building communities of teachers, few studies have investigated the development of trust in these communities. This paper presents issues related to trust in a professional development project at an elementary school. The project aimed for school-based elementary teachers and university-based mathematics educators to work together to improve mathematics instruction at the school by developing a mathematics education community of learners, where learners were conceived of as both the teachers and the mathematics educators. This paper addresses the following question: What factors in the project supported the development of trust among mathematics educators and teachers as the community was formed? More specifically, the paper is about one aspect of trust, namely, building school-based elementary teachers’ trust in the university-based mathematics educators. We point to three factors that helped the development of trust and we use care theory to further understand and discuss these factors in the context of in-service teacher education initiatives.     

Negotiating managerialism: professional recognition and teachers of sustainable development education

Policy strategies to reward teachers for field-specific expertise have become internationally widespread and have been criticized for being manifestations of neoliberal globalization. In Scotland, there is political commitment to such strategies, including one to award recognition to teachers for expertise in sustainable development education (SDE). This study examined 22 application forms for that award, conducted face-to-face discussions with 8 successful teacher applicants, and with two policy-making actors and analyzed the websites of relevant policy institutions. The study asked how the concept of ‘the professional teacher of SDE’ was negotiated through the policy. In both policy and teacher discourse, there was a struggle to reconcile the constructions of the teacher as an individualized generic manager and as committed to SDE as a networked, disciplinary field of endeavor. Managerialism is a neoliberal technology, so these tensions are interpreted as traces of neoliberal ideology. Moreover, their negotiation is interpreted as de- and re-bordering engagements with globalization. The critical potential of these interpretations is in the revealed incompleteness of the engagements, leaving teachers and policy-makers with scope to manage responses to neoliberal globalization in SDE.     

Use of webquest design for inservice teacher professional development

This study investigated whether a teacher professional development module built around designing WebQuests could improve teachers’ technological and pedagogical skills. The technological skills examined included Web searching and Web evaluating skills. The pedagogical skills targeted were developing a working definition for higher-order thinking skills, and designing WebQuest tasks to improve such skills. This case study was carried out with six inservice teachers. After the training, all the teachers showed improvement in their Web searching and evaluating skills. Furthermore, teachers adopted a working definition for higher-order thinking skills, and, using Web resources, they designed activities that promote students’ higher-order thinking. This study provides evidence supporting the use of design-based activities in learning technological and pedagogical skills and suggests an effective inservice teacher professional development module.     

Restructuring and Reculturing: Practicum supervision as professional development for teachers

This paper reports a small case study in which selected experienced co-operating teachers were appointed as school-based teacher educators (SBTE) undertaking a supervisory/ mentoring role for the 3-week period of the first practicum for students in a one-year Graduate Diploma of Education-Secondary (GDE) course. The study identifies any benefits that accrue as a result of changes to the traditional triadic arrangement and any changes in perception about the various roles of participants. The findings illuminate the opportunities for a more collaborative practicum model that has the potential to benefit all participants.     

Personally driven professional development: reflective self-study as a way for teachers to take control of their own professional development

This article is about personally driven professional development through the use of reflective self-study. The argument that teachers need to take responsibility for their own learning while also taking decisions on how and in what areas to develop is strongly made throughout the article. Data for this article were gathered over a 10-year period where the author engaged in several studies using self-study as methodology. Between studies, the author kept using reflective self-study as a professional development tool, and it is these data between various studies that were analysed using thematic and reflective analysis. Such analysis resulted in various overarching themes that show how reflective self-study can be of benefit if used by teachers researching their own classrooms. Benefits include teachers taking full ownership of their learning, relevance of learning, learning that is ongoing and not restricted to specific times and places, taking problematic situations as learning opportunities and how other sources take on new relevance through reflective self-study. Some implications for teacher-education programmes and current school structures are also discussed.     

Technology professional development for teachers

This article examines technology professional development for preservice and inservice teachers. It reviews the current status of technology in our schools, what we know about professional development in the area of technology, and research on efforts to increase preservice teacher use of technology in appropriate ways.     

Teacher professional development and ICT: an investigation of teachers studying a postgraduate award in ICT in education

The Schools IT2000 initiative, launched in 1997, was the first large-scale attempt to integrate information and communications technology (ICT) into teaching and learning in the Irish education system. As part of this initiative a training continuum was developed with the objective of enabling teachers to progress from novice to expert users of ICT. Short-term in-service courses were offered to all post-primary teachers in the state. Third-level institutions were invited to develop professional development programmes in the area of ICT in education to advance the training continuum. This article reports on the findings of a survey of teachers who had progressed along this training continuum and had opted to study for a postgraduate award in ICT in Education. The research aimed to determine the general profile of teachers electing to study on the programme, their current use of ICT and the types of in-service education and training in ICT they had previously been exposed to.     

Authenticating a model for sustainable professional development in an international context

Sustaining gains that result from international aid projects is a matter of contemporary concern. This paper outlines a model for sustainable professional development, drawn from the authors' experiences in managing a six-year professional development project for teachers' college lecturers in Papua New Guinea. The model involves five stages which have implications for individuals, their institutional contexts, and the interactions between them. Research designed to authenticate the model is reported. The data support the general features of the model and suggest that, with some elaboration, the model has potential application in the design, implementation and evaluation of similar projects in many fields.     

Action research as a school-based strategy in intercultural professional development for teachers

Teacher professional development is a key factor for transforming professional and school culture. This article describes a case study undertaken in a Spanish school during the 2007-2008 academic year. Our aim is to explain how action research methodology was applied to encourage professional and school culture towards an intercultural and inclusive approach. Our results show that the training process challenged teachers’ pre-existing deficit theory perspectives and empowered them as leaders for school change. The conclusions identify the key factors that enabled teachers to engage in critical reflection, and to implement strategies for collaborative work and community participation in school.     

Student primary teachers and their experience of religious education in schools

This article is based on research into the way student primary teachers experience religious education when they train in schools. The research findings suggest that the experience and quality of training in many schools is not adequate and that this experience undermines student confidence in relation to religious education. The author argues that despite the increased reliance on school as an arena for the training of teachers, in the case of religious education many student teachers do not have the opportunities to observe or teach religious education even where the school or student is keen to do so.     

Changing the context of teachers’ work and professional development: A European perspective

Recent changes in the regulation of education systems in Europe and beyond have led to greater control over the work of teachers and the performance of schools. The paper draws upon the findings of a programme of funded comparative research, which has examined the impact of national education policy and policy change on teachers’ work and professional development in several European countries, England, France and Denmark. Within the English context, particularly, both primary and secondary teachers expressed common concerns centered on what was perceived as the demand for a ‘delivery of performance’. Many teachers considered that the more affective concerns of teaching – the sense of vocation and investment of self- were being undermined by the pressure for performance, to become “expert technicians” in transmitting externally pre-defined knowledge and skills to their pupils. Such changes have had a profound effect on the way in which teachers’ work and role are defined by government policy directives more widely within the European context. The paper considers the implications of these changed accountability structures for teachers’ professional identity and development.     

基于责任承担的教师专业伦理教育

教师专业伦理教育的目的应当使教师切实地承担起教育责任,而不仅仅是培养教师的良好意愿和信念。这是责任伦理视野下的教师专业伦理教育与信念伦理视野下的教师专业伦理教育的最根本的区别,并由此产生了一系列相关的差异。分析了传统师德教育特征及其局限,指出了在责任承担基础下,教师专业伦理教育应该实现的几个转变。     

Experience,education and the inservice needs of mathematics teachers

A 23-item questionnaire was employed to measure the inservice needs of 246 teachers of mathematics in Grades 7, 8, and 9. Five general need areas were identified: curriculum, planning and application of teaching aids, classroom strategies, subject matter, and updated information from the field of mathematics education. Teachers were then sorted into sub-groups on the basis of their prior teaching experience and educational credentials. Analysis of variance and profiles constructed of teacher needs indicated that teacher sub-groups attributed different priorities to the five need categories. The implications for planning teacher inservice activities are briefly discussed.     

Transformative learning through open listening: a professional development experience with urban high school teachers

This article relates how an English teacher in an urban high school described his efforts to listen and to perceive a seemingly disaffected student in his efforts to support her learning. He observed her responding to his efforts in positive and unexpected ways that involved her increased involvement in learning in his class. This teacher described how this student had presented many challenges to his teaching and how difficult attending to her overt anger and sullenness in his class was for him. However, by doing so, he said that his perceptions and understandings of her and subsequently, another student, shifted profoundly in ways that he believed helped him help these two students learn more meaningfully in his classes. This example of open listening on the part of a teacher toward his two students opened up new possibilities for learning for all three and may indicate a cycle of transformative listening which will be defined and discussed in this article. Stuart’s experiences in a professional development seminar, facilitated by the author, where teachers’ interpretive and evaluative ideas were listened to openly by colleagues and the facilitator may have influenced Stuart in his responses to his students. His involvement in this study group may have contributed to his learning to see his students in new, unique, and fuller ways, which he said he thought helped him help these students learn better in his classes.