Teacher learning across boundaries: a challenge to the legitimacy of language teachers’ disciplinary knowledge

The legitimate forms of knowledge recognised for language teachers in Chinese universities are differentiated by strong academic boundaries, subject only to disciplinary authority and fashion. Classroom practice on the whole tends not to be informed by research. For many language teachers, a disconnect exists between the academic discipline in which they are situated and the knowledge they apply in the language classroom. The ethnographic study addresses this disconnection. It is based on 3 years of fieldwork, which investigated a case of disciplinary innovation in the English language department of a Chinese university. Two aspects of teacher learning are investigated, namely institutional boundary practice as discursive space for learning and the learning experience of individual teachers within that space. The study reveals that boundary practice can be a source of transformative energy in developing learning cultures within which individuals may experience a process of identity integration.     

新教育公平视域下教师公平角色担当研究

\"新教育公平\"是针对以往教育公平研究多是宏观研究、外部研究,而忽略了教育内部人的发展所提出来的新理念。传统的教师角色已经不适应新教育公平下的学生发展需求,在新教育公平视域下,教师需要担当好公平角色,教师公平角色担当出现的问题主要有教师忽视学生各维度的公平发展、忽略实现每一个学生适合自身发展的需要、在实践中不能有效担当公平的角色等。基于此,教师应树立公平促进者的角色观,增强角色转变意识;突破传统观念桎梏,促进全体学生公正发展;持续学习与反思,提升公平实践水平。     

加强教师队伍建设是推进教育又好又快发展的关键

党的十七大报告首次将优先发展教育、建设人力资源强国列为加快推进以改善民生为重点的社会建设的首要任务,提出教育是民族振兴的基石,教育公平是社会公平的重要基础的科学论断,并将加强教师队伍建设,重点提高农村教师素质作为教育优先发展的重要任务之一写进报告之中,具有重大的现实意义与深远的历史意义。结合党中央、国务院领导在十七大前夕关于加强教师队伍建设的重要指示,围绕十七大系统阐述的教育发展的目标、途径、任务与要求,本文强调了教育以育人为本,以学生为主体;办学以人才为本,以教师为主体的理念,提出了落实教育优先发展,教师专业发展是首要任务;破解教育发展难题,教师队伍建设是关键所在的具体思考与落实的措施。     

New Teachers, High-Stakes Diversity, and the Performance-Based Conundrum

This article explores the impact of high-stakes gate-keeping assessments (of both K-12 students and new teachers) on teacher development of equitable teaching practices. Drawing from two studies of field experiences in Washington State—one of teacher interns and one of cooperating teachers—findings include that state level policies in response to NCLB may actually be decreasing teacher attention to closing the achievement gap. Further, the article explores how even progressive performance-based standards—when administered “globalistically”—are generally ineffective. After discussing university complicity in exacerbating the problem, the paper concludes with ways policymakers may shift their attention from creating complicated rubrics to promoting relationships that support pedagogical change.Jason Margolis is an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education and Professional Development Partnerships, Washington State University.     

Laugh so you don't cry: teachers combating isolation in schools through humour and social support

The structure of the teaching profession leaves teachers professionally and personally isolated from other adults. This article will discuss the results of an ethnography focused on the rare informal social interaction that occurs among teachers in a United States’ school, with a particular focus on the lunch hour. Specifically, this article explores the reciprocal nature of support provided within self-generated congregational spaces. This study demonstrates the positive use of humour in combating stress in the teaching profession, and how these relationships support Hochschild's (1983) theory of emotional labour.     

近年来国内教师学习研究:盘点与梳理

在终身学习思潮勃兴、学习型社会构建和新课程改革呼声高涨的时代境遇下,教师学习便成为一个热点研究领域。国内关于教师学习研究内容主要涉及其内涵与意义、性质与特征、内容与方式、内部机制与外部支持诸方面。研究虽然取得丰硕的成果,但尚存在概念模糊、研究内容分散、研究视角与方法单一等不足之处。今后相关研究要厘清基本概念,明确研究范围,拓宽研究视角,丰富研究内涵,并且要进行多种方法的整合研究。     

成人学习理论视角下的“教师学习”解读：回归教师的成人身份

本文从成人学习理论视角,运用其中成人教育学理论、余力理论和熟练理论、知觉转换理论,自我指导学习理论以及嬗变学习理论的基本观点来解读教师学习的取向、目标、动机和途径,希望能为理解教师学习的内涵提供一个理论视角。     

University–preschool partnership and workplace-based learning: a collaborative ‘third space’ or no space at all?

The article examines the aims of the workplace-based learning of prospective preschool teachers in Iceland and associated cooperative practices between the University of Iceland and preschools. A ‘third space’ of collaboration between these two sites is considered necessary if the education of preschool student teachers is to be effective. Collaboration between the university and preschools as presented in the university’s policy documents and as implemented in practice will be investigated and compared to the literature on collective third space. Implications for both policy and practice are discussed.     

Adapting Reform Ideas in Different Mathematics Classrooms: Beliefs Beyond Mathematics

The goals of this study are to understandelementary school teachers' beliefs andpractices and to unveil factors that influencethe way teachers adapt mathematics reformrhetoric when trying to adopt it. In theresearch, I searched for beliefs beyondmathematics that influence teachers' decisionsand choices for teaching mathematics. Workingwith children from different socioeconomicbackgrounds, teachers interpret reform indifferent ways. Based on their concept of students' needs, teachers select which partsof the reform documents are appropriate fortheir students. While children from uppersocioeconomic backgrounds experience problemsolving, those from lower socioeconomicbackgrounds undergo rote learning. Because notall children have the opportunity to learn thesame quality mathematics, the emerging concernof this study is the issue of equity inmathematics teaching.     

迈向社会性别平等的教师教育——论女性主义对欧美教师教育实践的影响

从20世纪70年代开始,社会性别已经成为女性主义分析各种教育问题的一个独特视角。文章在已有文献研究的基础上,继续考察和探究女性主义对欧美教师教育实践的影响,试图展现近年来研究者对于如何实现社会性别平等的教师教育所进行的思考,展示欧美教师教育在提高未来教师的性别意识、培养未来教师处理学校和课堂中的社会性别问题等方面所做的努力,以及这些实践所面临的困境,以期能对中国目前的教师教育研究和实践有所借鉴。     

Getting old and heading south: the academic success of Southerner learners in design cohorts

This paper investigates the relationship between learning style, as determined by Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, age and one measure of academic performance in design assignments for two cohorts of first‐ and third‐year architecture students. The paper focuses on the results of a cross‐curriculum learning style survey conducted as part of a project aimed at resolving the learning difficulties of students collaborating in multi‐disciplinary and multi‐cultural team assignments. The research was conducted to determine how learning style differences in heterogeneous teams might be addressed through pedagogy. In light of evidence in student cohorts of learning style changes towards the learning styles of design teachers as students progress through their studies, this paper demonstrates how these changes reflect a statistically significant relationship between learning styles and academic performance in design assignments.     

课程改革中教师成为学习领导者的路径探索——基于一项实证研究的探讨

新课程改革要求教师成为学习领导者,这首先要求教师成为自身学习的领导者。但在现实的改革情境中,教师究竟如何成为学习领导者？本研究以北京两所小学为个案,通过对校长、教学主任、骨干教师、普通教师等43人次的访淡,呈现了课程改革中教师成为学习领导者的不同发展路向,展现多重情境因素如何影响教师开展学习领导实践。研究发现,自上而下的改革为教师转变为学习领导者注入内在动力、提供变革契机,但同时,国家主导教师学习目标阻碍着初萌学习领导意识的教师成长为真正成熟的学习领导者。在自上而下的改革理路中,教师能否将个人能动性汇聚形成互惠的共同目标成为教师突破结构限制、成长为真正的学习领导者的关键所在。