High efficacy and the preservice reading teacher: A comparative study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differential impact of two field experiences, tutoring and observing, on preservice teachers’ reading self-efficacy and content knowledge. Participants completed an adapted, reading version of The Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES). Results showed that both groups reported growth in reading self-efficacy and content knowledge; however, there was only a marginally significant difference between reading self-efficacy motivation scores. Mean score differences showed that the observers changed more in their reading efficacy than the tutors; however, a greater number of tutors found the field experience to be worth maintaining in future courses.     

Becoming a teacher: encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice

Models of learning to teach recognize the important relationship between university and school settings. The roles that educators in each setting play in the development of effective beginning teachers are not discrete. Rather they complement and support one another. Building upon existing literature, and utilizing recent data, this paper challenges teacher educators to consider how pre‐service teacher core beliefs and perceptions affect the dynamics of learning to teach and the establishment of a teacher identity. To facilitate these, it is argued that a consultative mentoring model that acknowledges individuality is more effective in the growth of teacher identity than the more traditional supervision model that focuses mainly on socialization. Reflective practice is promoted as crucial and its development is the responsibility of all teacher educators—both at university and in the schools.     

Integrating mobile phones into teaching and learning: A case study of teacher training through professional development workshops

This paper presents the development and implementation of a professional development workshop series on integrating mobile phones into science teaching for a group of teachers in Sri Lanka. The series comprised a 3‐day Planning Workshop followed by implementation of the planned lessons in real classrooms and a subsequent 1‐day Reviewing Workshop. During the Planning Workshop, teachers were provided with a hands‐on‐session on the use of mobile phones in science teaching followed by collaborative lesson planning activities. The methodological approach taken to evaluating the initiative was qualitative, and data were collected using observations and fieldnotes. The data were analysed using thematic analysis techniques with the support of NVivo8 (QSR International Pty Ltd., Victoria, Australia) qualitative data analysis software. It was found that as professional development for teachers was provided separately as Planning and Reviewing Workshops, these workshops supported the teachers in recognising the educational potential of mobile phones, in learning how to use them in science teaching and learning, in changing their attitudes towards the use of mobile phones in teaching and in sharing knowledge and skills relating to mobile phone applications in science teaching and learning.     

Measurement of teacher performance: A study in instrument development

The procedures used to produce a research-based teaching evaluation system, containing low-inference indicators of effective and ineffective teacher behavior, included instrument development, content validation, and field testing. An extensive reliability study produced estimates for three types of consistency: intercoder agreement (r = 0.85), stability across teaching situations r = 0.86, and discriminant reliability among teachers (r = 0.79). The norming component of the study conducted in 45 schools, generated over 1200 observations of current teacher practice at all grade levels and in various subject areas. The results indicated the substantially generic nature of these behaviors; only grade level and instructional method (interactive, lecture, and independent seatwork) produced meaningful differences among groups of teachers. In addition, the average teacher used most of the effective behaviors (70%), and a few of the ineffective behaviors (8%) during observation. These results support the instrument's value in teacher training, remediation, and evaluation.     

Supporting teacher professional development through online video case study discussions: An assemblage of preservice and inservice teachers and the case teacher

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential value of online video case discussions among preservice and inservice teachers, and the video case teacher as a tool for the professional development of teachers. Participants included a total of 26 preservice and inservice mathematics teachers and a veteran teacher who appeared on the video case. Using content analysis techniques, we provided a thematic analysis of the teacher discourse and demonstrated the exchanges between the participating teachers and video case teacher. We also assessed the overall effectiveness of our online forum set up for the professional development of teachers. Results indicated that participant teachers were able to make theory–practice connections by articulating specific frameworks that guided our study. The inclusion of the video case teacher was beneficial for the other teachers in several ways. We contend that online forum discussions of video cases in which collective engagement of preservice and inservice teachers, and the case teacher have a great potential to support teacher professional development.     

A posthumanist approach to environmental education in South Africa: implications for teachers,teacher development,and teacher training programs

As we enter the sixth great mass extinction event, an event that points to humanity’s exploitative attitude towards nature, posthumanist ethics offers a different way of engaging with the world, a way which has clear and extensive implications for the way environmental education is taught in South African schools. However, given the official curriculum and assessment practices currently in use in South Africa, can a posthumanist approach to environmental education actually work within the current educational framework of discrete discipline/subject areas and specializations? The paper diffractively engages with the Department of Basic Education National Curriculum Statement: Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement: Foundation Phase Grades R-3: Life Skills for South Africa (the phase where environmental education is most likely to take place), and superpositions this text with a research study on environmental education undertaken in Canada and key posthumanist notions as they relate to environmental education. The paper concludes with a section on the implications for teachers, teacher development, and teacher training programs (not solely in South Africa) of using such an approach in the teaching of environmental studies.     

A case study of teacher appraisal in Shanghai, China: in relation to teacher professional development

Literature has confirmed that teacher appraisal can and should facilitate the professional development of teachers. In the past, teacher appraisal in China has been conducted mainly for administrative purposes; nowadays, it is increasingly being viewed as a means of teacher professional development. However, the way in which teacher appraisal affects teacher professional development has not been fully recognized. This case study, of a junior secondary school in Shanghai, China, explores how teacher appraisal has been carried out and how teachers and administrators have perceived it in relation to teacher professional development. The research findings identify the mechanism by which the teacher appraisal system in question facilitates professional development. The system creates pressure and extrinsic incentives that ‘push and pull’ teachers to improve, and supports their growth through guidance and directions. In addition, environmental factors such as school culture contribute to the positive impacts that teacher appraisal has on professional development.     

South Asia and basic education: Changing UNICEF's strategic perspectives on educational development and partnerships

Conclusion Having adopted rights-based programming, UNICEF co-operation programmes within education are undergoing substantial change. Achieving a goal (such as a 95% enrolment of boys and girls of primary-school are in a primary school) can no longer be considered sufficient when there are children whose right to basic education has yet to be realized. In turn, this has stimulated considerable attention to excluded children and to the strategies required to ensure that they have access to good-quality basic education. As new presentation tools become more widely used, disparities within countries have become more visible, and efforts have been directed to more effective strategies to enrol, retain, educate and graduate all children. Linked to the sub-national, national, regional and global work associated with the Education for All 2000 Assessment, there is a renewed commitment to the care of infants and young children, and necessary services and support to those who care for them. Educational programmes extending to much younger children reflect the realization that survival, growth, development and protection depend very much on what happens early in life. ECC for survival, growth, development and protection of infants and young children has emerged as a global priority focus within UNICEF, consistent with its mandate within the United Nations system and the evidence suggesting that the greatest neurological malleability exists in the first few years of life. As countries shift their expectations and standards beyond primary schooling, UNECEF has been evolving its programmatic support for adolescents, and within education, to addressing life-skills and livelihood skills as necessary features of any relevant learning environment. From these expanded perspectives of basic education, UNICEF must gain more experience in its work with partners, make more efficient use of the new information technologies, address the challenges of integrated programming, and ensure that its support is both effective and efficient within the framework of rights programming. Original language: English Jim Irvine (Australia) Currently UNICEF Regional Education Adviser for countries in East Asia and the Pacific. From 1994 to 1999, he was Adviser for South Asia. His early career in single-teacher and primary schools in Australia and the United Kingdom kindled an interest in learning difficulties, pursued through graduate studies at the University of Alberta, Canada, and subsequent teaching, research at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia, and local community work in special needs education, early childhood and psycho-educational assessment. Within the Global and Regional Inter-Agency Technical Advisory Groups for the EFA 2000 Assessment, he has encouraged countries to examine, document and address disparity reduction and quality issues in basic education.     

Comparing technology-related teacher professional development designs: a multilevel study of teacher and student impacts

This article presents a quasi-experimental study comparing the impact of two technology-related teacher professional development (TTPD) designs, aimed at helping junior high school science and mathematics teachers design online activities using the rapidly growing set of online learning resources available on the Internet. The first TTPD design (tech-only) focused exclusively on enhancing technology knowledge and skills for finding, selecting, and designing classroom activities with online resources, while the second (tech?+?pbl) coupled technology knowledge with learning to design problem-based learning (PBL) activities for students. Both designs showed large pre-post gains for teacher participants (N?=?36) in terms of self-reported knowledge, skills, and technology integration. Significant interaction effects show that teachers in the tech?+?pbl group had larger gains for self-reported knowledge and externally rated use of PBL. Three generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fit to study the impact on students?? (N?=?1,247) self reported gains in behavior, knowledge, and attitudes. In the resulting models, students of tech?+?pbl teachers showed significant increases in gain scores for all three outcomes. By contrast, students of tech-only teachers showed improved gains only in attitudes.     

Learning from dilemmas: teacher professional development through collaborative action and reflection

This article aims at describing and analysing the interpersonal and intrapersonal dilemmas experienced by a group of five university teachers as they engaged in collaborative inquiry, including the ways in which teachers managed these dilemmas and how this contributed to their professional development. The results are based on qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, working sessions, participant observation and teacher narratives. Our findings illustrate how interpersonal and intrapersonal dilemmas co-occur when teachers engage in collaborative inquiry. Working together towards shared goals brought to the surface differences in beliefs and expectations that generated conflict and tension, which sometimes interfered with teachers’ willingness to work together. At the same time, introducing changes to their teaching practice – a major goal of inquiry communities – challenged teachers to question and revise their personal beliefs about teaching and learning, thereby triggering intrapersonal dilemmas. Our findings also confirm the key role of critical reflection for bringing these dilemmas to the surface and benefiting from the opportunities they provide for learning and change. Areas that warrant further exploration to better understand the dilemmas within inquiry communities and how to support teachers in handling them are discussed.     

Integrating instruction of science,reading, and writing: Goals,teacher development,and assessment

This article describes the interplay of goals, teacher development, and assessment in the context of a yearlong research and development project. The aim of the project was to integrate the teaching of science, reading, and writing processes in a conceptually based, constructivist curriculum for middle school students who read below grade level. A performance-based assessment was designed and implemented to determine the level of student awareness and control over the processes taught during a unit of instruction. Interviews with science teachers and supervisors revealed the important interaction of curricular goals, the performance assessment, and instructional practice.     

Promoting elementary school students' autonomous reading motivation: Effects of a teacher professional development workshop

Responding to the declining trend in reading motivation in and beyond the elementary school years, the authors aimed to enhance late-elementary school students' autonomous reading motivation. Toward this end, the authors evaluated the influence of a teacher professional development grounded in self-determination theory on fifth-grade students' (n = 664) autonomous motivation for in-school and leisure-time reading. A quasi-experimental repeated measures design was set up with experimental and control conditions. The experimental condition consisted of teachers participating in a professional development workshop aimed at providing the knowledge and skills necessary to implement an autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching style, whereas the control condition included teachers who continued with their current teaching repertoire. Multilevel piece-wise growth analyses corroborated that students in the experimental group reported increased recreational autonomous reading motivation from pretest to posttest relative to the control group. Additional analyses made clear that boys in particular benefitted from their teachers' professional development.     

Rhythm and reading development in school‐age children: a longitudinal study

Rhythm production in 53 children in grade 1 was investigated as a predictor of reading ability in the same children in grades 1–5. This paper reports the results of correlations and hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for shared variance between phonological awareness and naming speed. Rhythm was correlated significantly with both phonological awareness and naming speed. Rhythm predicted significant variance in reading ability at each grade level. Once phonological awareness was controlled, however, rhythm was a significant predictor only in grade 5. When naming speed was controlled, rhythm predicted unique variance in reading ability in grades 2, 3 and 5. Implications for the relationship between rhythm and the development of reading skills are discussed.     

The enlightenment revolution: A historical study of positive change through science teacher education

Conclusion The impact of Pestalozzian theory as embodied in object teaching was only significantly felt in America when teacher-education institutions began teaching the spirit and techniques of this method. Sheldon and his colleagues helped spread object teaching across America by utilizing inservice teacher education, preservice teacher education, a Practice School, and education of teacher educators. This enlightenment in education shifted the instructional focus to the child, stressing activity and concrete experiences, rather than dull rote memorization. Elementary school science evolved from object teaching, and methods of science instruction were influenced by the object teaching movement. Educational reform may never again occur as swiftly or as dramatically; however, the message is clear: Significant, meaningful changecan occur in schools through teacher education.     

Cultural analyses in a Taiwanese kindergarten: A postcolonial reflection and study

The concept of homogenization is highlighted in the current discourse of postcolonialism in the educational arena. However, this concept strengthens the dimension of cultural convergence, but not the dimension of cultural divergence. Furthermore, an overly dualistic view is also aligned with the concept of homogenization and then leads to the neglect of the phenomenon of cultural hybridity and the studies of cultural differences. Through a qualitative study in a Taiwanese kindergarten, this study investigates whether any cultural hybridity appears in classroom practices, and what happens in the process. The results indicate that the concept of cultural hybridity is more suitable to explain the complex phenomena in schools, and both the ontologically and epistemologically cultural aspects are interwoven in the process of hybridity. According to the results, I propose a three-stage framework to interpret the development of hybridity: the extent of the matched context, the extent of cultural conflict, and the awareness of cultural difference.