Reciprocal learning in teacher education between Canada and China

ABSTRACT

The Preservice Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Programme has been developed on a vision of bridging the East and West dichotomy by harmonising Eastern learning with Western knowledge. This programme is one of the two foundations for Xu and Connelly’s 7-year Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Partnership in teacher education and school education in 2013-2020. The Programme, ‘provide[s] an exceptional cross-cultural experience with international engagement … to broaden teacher candidates’ horizons for a society of increasing diversity in today’s globalized world’. This article’s purposes are to discuss how reciprocal learning is both a concept and an approach for international and cross-cultural teacher education and school education and to present the learning outcomes and educational significance of the East-West reciprocal learning programme in teacher education. The Programme has created opportunities for both pre-service and in-service teachers to understand and appreciate a culture and educational system different from their own, thereby reciprocally contributing to educational opportunities for those they teach. The research theory and method utilised in this work are found in a companion paper in this special series and are briefly discussed below in the project overview and later in a discussion of student outcomes. This work has implications for other school settings where increasing immigrant student population and cultural diversity have become the norm.     

Preservice teacher perceptions of preparedness for teaching: Insights from survey research exploring the links between teacher professional standards and agency

In this article we explore the use of teacher professional standards in an initial teacher education programme and preservice teacher perceptions of their preparedness for teaching using a survey of 54 first- and second-year preservice teachers in a graduate-entry programme. The survey asked the preservice teachers to respond to 16 questions based on professional standards as well as their knowledge of student learning, professional identity and teaching as a career path. The preservice teachers’ responses were analysed using a mixed methods approach that relied on quantitative methods, but was supplemented by qualitative analysis of short-answer responses. Our analyses hypothesised about possible links between the preservice teachers’ responses and the extent to which they perceived they were classroom and career ready. The themes of teachers, teaching and student learning are used to present and discuss the results, while the notion of agency as achievement is used to deepen possible understanding about their meaning and implications. We conclude that the preservice teachers appeared to benefit from learning about professional standards throughout their programme but appeared to lack confidence in: engaging professionally with others such as parents/carers; setting objectives for all students with different backgrounds; and implementing lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning. Most doubted teaching as their future career. Finally, we discuss implications for: adopting standards-integrated initial teacher education programme approaches; preservice and early-career teacher professional learning needs; and future research opportunities, which include using innovative methodologies and conceptual frameworks.     

Attaining competencies in Programme Outcomes through Open-Ended Experiments

Abstract

Laboratory exercises have created benefits in student learning. Making laboratories open ended pushes students to have an independent perspective and to think harder. An openended experiment is where students are given the flexibility to develop their own experiments. Outcome-based education is an educational theory that bases each part of an educational system around objectives. Measuring programme outcomes (POs) in engineering education is a challenge for teaching faculty in general, and doing so for a laboratory programme and through an open-ended experiment, is even more challenging. This article explains the planning and execution of conducting an open-ended experiment in a metal cutting laboratory to enhance active learning. If also focuses on the evaluation process, rubrics developed, and attainment of POs in the Industrial and Production Engineering (IPE) programme.     

Preparing teachers for realistic mathematics education

A shift in mathematics education in the Netherlands towards the so-called realistic approach made it necessary to prepare prospective teachers for a type of curriculum different from what they experienced as pupils. This article describes the characteristics of a preservice programme aiming at this goal and presents an analysis of the development of the student teachers' views of mathematics and mathematics education during the programme as well as their classroom behaviour. This analysis is based on two research studies. The first was a longitudinal study in which the student teachers were followed during years by means of questionnaires and interviews. The second was a study in which graduates from this programme were compared with graduates from a more traditional preparation programme by means of two teacher questionnaires and a pupil questionnaire, the latter measuring the pupils' perceptions of the actual teaching behaviour of the graduates. The teacher education programme appeared to be successful in changing the student teachers' views of mathematics education, especially in the direction of a more inquiry oriented approach, and in promoting effective teacher behaviour in the classroom. As far as their facilitating role as a teacher is concerned, the student teachers seemed to go through a two-stage learning process. Most of them reached the first stage, in which they realize that pupils have different preferences for learning and that a variety of possible explanations for problems should be offered. However, only a small number of student teachers seem to reach the second stage, in which they recognize the principle of building on pupils' own constructions, an important feature of realistic mathematics education. Possible explanations for the low impact of the programme, as well as solutions are discussed.     

Exploring student learning approaches on an initial teacher education programme: A comparison of mature learners and direct entry third-level students

This article compares the learning approaches of students on an initial teacher education programme. Using a mixed method approach, the study examines differences between mature learners and direct entry students, across the domains of deep, strategic and surface learning approaches. Following the quantitative phase, group interviews were conducted to gain additional insights into the factors, which impacted learning approach. Significant differences were evident between both cohorts. The key categories that contributed to learning approach included; motivation to learn, collaborative and competitive learning, prior educational experiences and school placement. The findings provide insights into the diversity of student cohorts.     

Mobility,place and affect in transnational teacher education graduates’ accounts of their first year teaching

In this article, we consider how mobility, immobility, embodiment and affect appeared in research with 13 beginning teachers who were ‘bonded’ graduates of a twinned (Malaysia-New Zealand) teacher education programme. We discuss the teachers' accounts of moving place, and being placed in new schools; ‘moving selves’, or experiencing a changed sense of self as new teachers; ‘moving students’, or seeing shifts in students' educational outcomes; and being moved by (responding affectively to) student learning and behaviour. Our study highlights the need in internationalised teacher (and higher) education to pre-empt challenges inherent in moving ‘home’ or to new places to work.     

Virtual internships in blended environments to prepare preservice teachers for the professional teaching context

This study investigated to what extent virtual internships in teacher education were able to reduce Preservice Teachers’ (PSTs) professional anxiety. Simultaneously, this study investigated how virtual internships in blended learning environments were evaluated by PSTs in terms of technological, social and educational affordances. PSTs followed virtual internships during two different Educational Pedagogy Master’s courses (27 and 16 participants) in a teacher education programme. A mixed methods design was employed, consisting of pre- and post-test questionnaires, a focus group interview and individual interviews. A significant decrease was found in PSTs’ professional anxiety after having followed Virtual Internship 2. PSTs reported they obtained a more realistic image of teaching and felt better prepared for teaching in practice. Furthermore, regarding technological affordances, system usability was considered between acceptable and good. Concerning social affordances, PSTs appreciated collaboration within the virtual internships. As an educational affordance, it appeared that learning from videos with authentic classroom events is a good preparation for the professional teaching context. According to the PSTs, the scenarios within virtual internships could be improved in terms of authenticity and personalisation by offering more details and background information. The results of this study imply that virtual internships can be useful assets for teacher education.     

‘Just enough to make you take it seriously’: exploring students’ attitudes towards peer assessment

The use of peer learning and peer assessment has gained considerable interest in higher education driven by both its educational value and by its ability to provide students with the opportunity to develop important transferrable skills. This paper reports on the use of peer learning and peer assessment with a cohort of four-year undergraduate physiotherapy students and an 18 month taught post-graduate teacher education programme. The study observed the students’ engagement in the process, surveyed their opinions on the activity at the end of the experience and conducted one focus group discussion with a subset of students from each cohort. The study found that the vast majority of respondents felt that the experience was valuable and enjoyable. However, when asked to indicate whether it was a fairer method of assessment there were more varied responses. Similarly when asked whether their peers should have a greater say in their overall grade the majority disagreed. Views on the educational value of the experience appeared to differ between the two cohorts of students. The study highlights the influence of a prevailing assessment cultures on students’ engagement in peer learning which requires consideration when including such pedagogical approaches.     

Development of a cadre of teacher educators: some lessons from Pakistan

This article is based on an educational innovation, the creation of a cadre of teacher educators, in the developing world. Professional development teachers (PDT) were trained in an in-service two-year teacher education programme leading to a Masters of Education (M.Ed.) degree. The PDTs were expected to play three roles in their home schools upon completion of the degree programme: (a) exemplary teachers; (b) teacher educators; and (c) change agents within their home schools to effect improvement.This article reviews education in Pakistan and the innovations that have come to inform the need to focus on teacher education as a primary area of investment and presents findings of a three-year longitudinal study of a selection of PDTs trained at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED). The main findings of the study indicate that teachers benefited significantly as individuals with enhanced career prospects, identified themselves more and preferred the role of teacher educators as opposed to classroom-based teachers, and sought opportunities outside their own schools but their role as change agents was more limited. Those teachers who maintained links with their schools beyond the three-year bonding period (a condition of being admitted to study for the M.Ed.) varied in the extent to which they managed to initiate and sustain school improvement efforts as indicated by changes in the structures and relationships within schools affecting the teaching–learning offered to pupils.     

Investigating educational change: The Aga Khan University Institute for educational development teacher education for school improvement model

This article continues the analyses of the impact of an innovative teacher education programme aimed at school improvement in a developing country context (A. Khamis, P. Sammons, 2004. The development of a cadre of teacher educators: some lessons from Pakistan. International Journal of Educational Development, 24(3), 255–268). Building on recent publications that have analysed outcomes of the teacher education programme and how the cadre of teacher educators has worked to initiate improvement in schools in Pakistan. The article considers the ‘teacher education for school improvement model’ based on findings from the case studies of nine co-operating school. Lessons are presented to further inform the development of teacher education programmes and the measurement of effectiveness of such programmes in developing country contexts. The article further considers relevant international research on educational change and reform to draw further lessons. These lessons include the need to pay greater attention to the cultural contexts and milieu in Pakistan, and the need to create models of school improvement and teacher education that originate within developing country contexts rather than the adaptation of European/North American models that are based on sources of data in those contexts. The article concludes by arguing for the need to develop better theoretical understandings from the current innovations underway and placing the onus on intervening agencies to better inform educational change strategies promoted in developing country contexts.     

Reforming teacher education in the context of lifelong learning: the case of the BEd degree programme in Ireland

Lifelong learning has become a prominent fixture in educational policy in recent years in many countries around the world. In terms of teacher education, it is now widely accepted that initial teacher education is insufficient for the lifelong professional needs of teachers. From September 2012, initial teacher education in Ireland will be offered as a radically different four-year BEd degree programme. This reform of initial teacher education offers immense potential for teacher educators to re-imagine their programmes in light of a range of guiding paradigms and theoretical frameworks, including lifelong learning. This paper provides a rationale for developing programmes in initial teacher education in the context of lifelong learning. A number of recommendations for lifelong primary teacher education are offered in light of current reforms that are taking place in Ireland.     

Reproducing,disrupting and reforming understanding of cultural diversity: theorising future subject teachers’ pedagogical reflections

Despite the growing demands for carrying out intercultural education as part of all teaching and learning, little attention has been given to the ways in which future subject teachers understand the meaning of ‘cultural diversity’ and how teacher education programmes prepare future teachers to consider intercultural aims in education. Therefore, this study investigates how future subject teachers, studying in an international teacher education programme in Finland, conceptualise the educational aims related to cultural diversity in reflective group discussions. For theorising the student teachers’ reflections, this study applies the idea of cultural reproduction depicted in the theory of communicative action by Habermas as an analytical framework for identifying how student teachers reach agreement or disagreement in issues regarding educational aims related to cultural diversity. This study identified three main forms of cultural reproduction from the student teachers’ discussions and showed that the underlying understanding about ‘cultural diversity’ and the educational aims related to it are in a state of disruption. This study highlights the need to clarify the theoretical concepts and aims used to guide intercultural education and to further emphasise issues of cultural diversity during teacher education. The findings are important for developing practices within subject teacher education internationally.     

Lesson study in teacher development: A paradigm shift from a culture of receiving to a culture of acting and reflecting

This article describes how lesson study creates a process of teacher learning whilst developing student learning through collaborative planning, guided observation and reflection. It presents a framework for conducting lesson study in a teacher development programme in Lower Austria. The role of knowledgeable others in the development of ownership for educational change towards competence‐oriented teaching and learning is explored and an overview of the organisational requirements and practical effects in the implementation of professional learning communities is given. In doing so, the article sheds light on training strategies and material development. Thus, insights on a paradigm shift in teacher development towards learning focused on discourse and reflected action are presented.     

“Whatever Happened to the Social Dimension?” Aspects of Learning in a Distance-based Teacher Training Programme

In this article we discuss distance-based teacher trainees' understandings of learning and education in a computerised learning environment. Educational research today often stresses the importance of a social dimension in learning and education and computerised learning environments are said to create and fulfil the social dimension in on-campus education as well as in distance education. This social dimension of learning and education is investigated, in a Swedish distance-based teacher training programme supported by ICT, through semi-structured interviews with 19 teacher trainees. The study shows that there is a complex relationship between the use of the computerised learning environment and the physical meetings in the programme. One conclusion is that, even though theories emphasise the social dimension of learning through participation, teacher trainees view participation with others as important primarily in relation to social aspects of well-being and not in relation to learning. The use of ICT for creating a community of learners through participation seems to individualise the students' learning rather than bringing them together in their learning.     

Beginning teachers as enquirers: m-level work in initial teacher education

In order to deliver life-long learning for teachers, practitioner-based enquiry learning is being promoted by teacher education institutions on the basis that this form of learning gives teachers the ability to understand factors affecting learning within their own classrooms by systematic investigations of issues and the construction of an evidence-base on which decisions which improve learning can be taken. In turn this enhances teacher professionalism. This article presents a study of how practitioner-based enquiry was embedded in an initial teacher education programme; the reasons for this; and the purposes of the strategy, which raised the one-year postgraduate qualification to masters-level. It looks at the reasons for the change; the nature of the change, which included educating teachers intending to teach in primary schools together with those intending to teach in secondary; the introduction of practitioner-based enquiry; some early student reaction; and the structural, cultural and learning issues which have emerged.     

Art,Design and Environment: A Programme for Teacher Education

This account of a programme for PGCE Art/Design students at University College Bretton Hall, Wakefield (UK) describes an attempt in initial teacher training to develop a course of study which links art, design, environment and education. It seeks to develop a range of perceptions of the built environment, including those of the artist, the critic and the designer. The ideas and methods of working developed on this programme support students’ work in schools. The paper explains the rationale and describes the intensive workshop programme, which includes streetwork, studio sessions and critique. It reports on students’ research and their work in schools. Issues include the place of built environment studies in the Art/Design curriculum, the use of the environment as an educational resource and learning methods and teaching strategies. It comments on the satisfactions and frustrations of developing such a programme in initial teacher education. It presents the work at Bretton Hall as a case study in a wider range of work currently being developed by students, tutors and teachers involved in other courses. They have come together through the ‘Site Specific Project’ to create a research network to support curriculum innovation and teachers’ professional development.     

Beyond ‘what works’: understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool

Drawing on previous research that focused upon the formation and mediation of teacher professional identity, this paper develops a model for conceptualising teacher professional identity. Increasingly, technical-rational understandings of teachers’ work and ‘role’ are privileged in policy and public discourse over more nuanced and holistic approaches that seek to understand teacher professional identity – what it is to ‘be’ a teacher. This article seeks to offer an alternative view, presenting the idea that an understanding of the processes by which teacher professional identity is formed and mediated is central to understanding the professional learning and development needs of teachers and advancing a richer, more transformative vision for education. I argue that instrumentalist notions of teachers’ work embedded in neo-liberal educational agendas such as those currently being advanced in many western countries offer an impoverished view of the teaching profession and education more broadly, and suggest that the concept of teacher professional identity holds the potential to work as a practical tool for the teaching profession and those who work to support them in the development of a more generative educational agenda.     

(Re)turning to practice in teacher education: embodied knowledge in learning to teach

Contemporary research conversations about the utility of practice theories to professional education support the reconceptualisation of pre-service teacher education in ways that provide strong preparation for continued professional learning. This paper reports on an empirical inquiry that introduced a theoretically informed practice-based intervention in a pre-service teacher education course in order to judge the utility of such an approach for student learning. Innovations within the Study of Teaching programme illustrate the bringing together of pedagogies of observation, pedagogies of enactment, and pedagogies of reflection toward an integrated theory of teacher education that focuses on the teaching body as a central site for research and for the building of preparatory knowledge and skill for ongoing learning. Data was collected from pre-service teachers involved in the programme through video and audio recordings along with individual and focus group interviews, questionnaires and student reflection on video recordings. These were analyzed within an emerging theoretical framework derived from both practice-theoretical literature and international empirical research into core practices. Initial findings suggest that a focus on practice within pre-service teacher education may enhance traditional understandings of ‘practice-based’ approaches that situate the study of practice outside of the university, in school settings. These findings have implications for the ongoing reform of teacher education in increasingly regulated contexts framed in terms of teacher quality.     

Becoming a teacher: Experiences of female trainees in initial teacher education in Nigeria

This article foregrounds the experiences of female trainees on a scholarship programme for initial teacher education aimed at increasing the number of qualified female teachers from rural northern Nigeria, and boosting female pupil enrolments. Challenging conditions in colleges of education, including curricular shortcomings, overcrowding, limited resources and inadequate learning support were compounded by non-academic factors – especially financial, and gendered constraints. Collectively, they threatened student retention, learning and attainment, and the programme’s gender equity goals. Findings highlight the need to move beyond increasing numbers of female student-teachers, to improving quality in teacher education, paying attention to out-of-college conditions too.