‘We’re keeping on top of the students’: making sense of test data with more informal data in a grade-level instructional team

Internationally, there has been a policy push for using student data for instruction. Yet, research has noted few examples of actually understanding how this data-use practice takes place. This study presents a case of an instructional data team making sense of student data. The study shares data to show how teachers’ process for using data to inform their instructional choices is an interpretive one. The study also highlights the fact that, to make sense of test data that are often incapable of capturing backstories of students’ work in school, teachers draw upon informal data that they glean from their observations of and interactions with students. The collective data in the heads of teachers emerge through data team discussions. We conclude with implications for policy, professional learning, and teacher development.     

An Anticolonial Framework for Urban Teacher Preparation

Our contemporary apprenticeship model of teacher education often places preservice teachers in learning environments where they never witness the types of dynamic and engaged practice they desire to emulate. Either there are structural limits within the classroom placed by school or district leadership or there are preselected veteran mentor teachers who do not value the same kinds of critical practice. These challenges necessitate a radical rethinking of how and where preservice teachers learn their craft. We pose an anticolonial model of teacher development, one that situates teachers and students in collaborative networks where they work powerfully together via Youth Participatory Action Research on projects that have significant social, cultural, and digital relevance. The purposes of this article are (a) to propose the essentiality of anticolonial approaches to reimagine the preparation of preservice teachers and (b) to demonstrate how these approaches are enacted in our own practice within critical, project-based clinical experiences with preservice educators toward the development of an anticolonial model for urban teacher preparation.     

实践共同体(CoPs)中教师学习的角色冲突与教师专业发展扎根理论研究

关注教师专业发展的重要方面是理解教师学习,对实践共同体(Co Ps)中教师学习的角色冲突与专业发展的质性研究能够描述和解释促进教师专业成长的过程和原因。研究借助对8名小学数学教师展开叙事访谈收集数据,使用质性分析软件ATLAS.ti8辅助资料分析,采用文献回顾延迟进行的方式建立扎根理论。文中聚焦的角色冲突是发生在教师实践共同体中的一种教师需要面对的真实困境,探讨了教师在学习活动中所经历的角色内冲突和角色间冲突下教师发展困境的诱因;教师角色协调中权威信任和权威服从行为作为突破困境的心理基础;理性对待外部认同是突破教师专业发展框架的重要驱动力;进一步讨论了角色冲突作为教师专业成长重要契机,并针对教师队伍建设提出建议。     

Classroom interaction as reflection: Learning and teaching mathematics in a community of inquiry

This article aims to contribute to the theory of mathematics instruction by highlighting and analysing Leen Streefland's work as a teacher in a primary school. Core ideas of Streefland's are discussed as part of a recent wave of educational innovations using the idea of learning communities. I present a case study of a lesson co-taught by Streefland and a primary school teacher (students between 11 and 13 years of age). Streefland addressed the students as `researchers' and gave them realistic problems to work on. Since they provided occasions for increasingly sophisticated solutions, the tasks given to the students stimulated processes of vertical mathematization. The students' role as researchers required them to construct novel ideas and present these to their classmates. The various solutions proposed by the students were used by the teachers to structure the learning activities in the classroom. The interaction between the common understandings in the classroom and the learning process of individual students shows that the classroom activities amount to a process of collective reflection. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Professional identity tensions of beginning teachers

This study reports on interviews with 24 beginning teachers about tensions they experienced regarding their professional identity. The interviewees reported a total of 59 tensions of tension that fell into three themes: (1) the change in role from student to teacher; (2) conflicts between desired and actual support given to students; and (3) conflicting conceptions of learning to teach. Most of the tensions experienced conform with those found in the literature. Tensions were often accompanied by feelings of helplessness, frustration or anger, and the teachers had a strong desire to learn to cope with them. Because of their negative impact on beginning teachers’ professional development, it is important that teacher educators and mentors in schools pay serious attention to tensions like these that relate to beginning teachers’ professional identity.     

Teacher Learning in Mathematics: Using Student Work to Promote Collective Inquiry

The study describes teachers' collective work in which they developed deeper understanding of their own students' mathematical thinking. Teachers at one school met in monthly workgroups throughout the year. Prior to each workgroup, they posed a similar mathematical problem to their students. The workgroup discussions centered on the student work those problems generated. This study draws on a transformation of participation perspective to address the questions: What do teachers learn through collective examination of student work? How is teacher learning evident in shifts in participation in discussions centered on student work? The analyses account for the learning of the group by documenting key shifts in teachers' participation across the year. The first shift in participation occurred when teachers as a group learned to attend to the details of children's thinking. A second shift in participation occurred as teachers began to develop possible instructional trajectories in mathematics. We focus our discussion on the significance of the use of student work and a transformation of participation view in analyzing the learning trajectory of teachers as a group.     

Where the two shall meet: Exploring the relationship between teacher professional culture and student learning culture

This study focuses on the understudied connection between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of school culture. Utilizing a longitudinal sample of approximately 130,000 students and 9000 teachers in 225 New York City traditional public schools, we investigate how professional culture among teachers intersects with students’ collective emotional engagement—that is, the extent students together view the school environment as trusting and respectful, both between teachers and students and among students (i.e., student learning culture). We find that when the teachers report a strong collaborative culture, believe they have adequate materials, and feel physically safe, students report a stronger and more positive learning culture. Our results thus fill a gap in prior research on school change that has looked at either teacher or student perceptions of school culture but not the two together. Here, because our results demonstrate such a positive relationship between the collective views of teachers and the collective views of students regarding the environment in which these groups work, they suggest new avenues for research to examine how such subcultures within a school may, together, act as critical and interdependent levers for school change.     

教师合作:教师发展的一个重要路径

20世纪80年代以来,教师合作作为教师发展的一种方式获得广泛的关注,成为国际教师教育研究领域中一大热点问题。本文认为,所谓教师合作,就是教师们为了改善学校教育实践,以自愿、平等的方式就共同感兴趣的问题,共同探讨解决的办法,从而形成的一种批判性互动关系;教师合作有助于激发与强化教师发展意愿、提高教师个体反思能力、促进学校组织学习。     

Critically Teaching Criticality?: Modeling Social and Pedagogical Inquiry with Literary Texts

Within US teacher preparation programs, critical pedagogy and a desire for social change can lead teacher educators to prioritize transformation of prospective teachers’ beliefs through self-reflection. In pursuit of effective critical pedagogies, teacher educators also need to examine their own practices and beliefs. This self-study, a manifestation of teaching as inquiry, reframes evaluations of teaching away from what students do toward what teachers do. Here I undertake a reflexive examination of my own recursive practice as a teacher educator in children’s literature. Drawing upon a complex notion of teaching and learning, I argue that student learning outcomes are unpredictable, and as a result, successful teacher education should model self-inquiry as a vital part of teaching. Findings show that teaching choices (and omissions) in response to students’ responses led to unintended outcomes that undermined my motivations. I conclude that teacher educators’ self-inquiry and reflection in broader social contexts offers access to critical ways of thinking that underlie their work toward developing similar capacities among their prospective teacher students.     

Talk,planning and decision‐making in interdisciplinary teacher teams: a case study

A diverse range of social structures, for instance teacher teams, professional communities and teacher learning communities, are established to advance collaboration among teachers. In Norway, Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams (ITTs) have become a common way of organising teachers in schools, recommended in a national curriculum reform in 1997. This study explores the internal structure, social meaning and potential resources for learning and development inherent in the planning and coordination of work in ITT meetings. Most studies of teacher teams as well as teacher learning communities are based on teachers’ experiences, expressed in interviews or surveys. The focus of this study is not on what teachers say about teams, but on what teachers say in teams. While most studies have addressed within‐department, subject‐specific teams, this study focuses on interdisciplinary teams. Team‐talk in two ITTs in two different lower secondary schools in Norway has been videotaped and analysed. Four patterns of interaction have been identified – preserving individualism: renegotiating individual autonomy and personal responsibility; coordination: assuring the social organisation of work; cooperation: creating a shared object or enterprise; and sharing: clarifying pedagogical motives. The study illustrates patterns in team‐talk, conceptualises the processes of decision‐making that take place in these ITTs and identifies resources for learning and development inherent in certain forms of interaction. The study contributes to the research literature by both focusing on the details of the interaction in team meetings and analysing the dynamics of the group interaction in the perspective of the situatedness and the object‐orientation of team‐talk.     

‘We are inclusive. We are a team. Let's just do it’: commitment,collective efficacy,and agency in four inclusive schools

Implementation of inclusive education for children with disabilities continues to vary across and within Canadian provinces and territories leading us to question why some schools move forward while others maintain traditional segregated approaches. Drawing from Appreciative Inquiry methodology, this study used semi-structured interviews to gather and document successful practices within four inclusive elementary schools within a Canadian province. Interviews were conducted with students, parents, teachers, educational assistants, and principals. Thematic analysis revealed a common belief in the central importance of learning and relationships for all students, shared commitment to inclusion, general classroom teacher responsibility, and collaborative team work characterised by a belief in collective efficacy. The predominant finding in this study was individual and collective agency that transcended themes. Participants reported ongoing and conjoint processes of planning, teaching, reflecting on current practice, sharing knowledge and ideas, solving problems together, and attending to relationships.     

Collective learning in primary schools and teacher education institutes

Many innovations in education are not completed, even if they are well thought out in advance. One of the main causes is the organization’s lack of learning ability, combined with a shortage of teachers’ and students’ ownership with respect to the renewal of ideas and design. In communities of learners, teachers and students collaborate and learn together in order to shape innovations in their daily practice. Their ability to learn collectively is a key factor in developing a learning organization. So far, insights into how processes of collective learning can be designed effectively, and which critical factors play a role, have been based on limited empirical research. This article’s goal is to contribute to the development of these insights, using the results of a study based on 48 cases of collective learning in communities of learners in primary schools and teacher education institutes. The results suggest that although collective learning rarely takes place in most cases, many outcomes are created that affect all community members. This leads to the conclusion that some participants create outcomes, not only on behalf of themselves but also on behalf of others.     

日常教学生活中的教师专业成长

本文主要关注教师在日常教学生活中的专业态度及其表现,从教师的专业素养、自我反思的专业精神和专业发展与团队合作等三个方面,认为在学校教育中,教师教学创新的源动力是来自于教师自身专业发展的内在需求。而研究教学最好的方式莫过于研究我们教师和学生自身教与学的现状和经验,从而寻找教师在日常教学实践中的专业发展路向。本文强调,教师在学科教学中的教学效能关注、在教学过程中的自我反思,以及教师之间专业团队合作是教师专业发展的三个重要途径。     

Student–teacher closeness and conflict in students with and without special educational needs

Teachers play a key role in creating effective conditions for students to succeed in school. The quality of student–teacher relationships is consistently associated with social, emotional, behavioural and academic adjustment, and this is even more relevant for students with special educational needs (SEN), considering these students’ emotional, social and learning vulnerabilities. This study aimed to examine the associations between students’ externalising and internalising behaviour, social skills and academic performance, and teachers’ perceptions of conflict and closeness in their relationships with students with and without SEN. Data regarding 360 students in Year 3, Year 5 and Year 7 (169 students with SEN) were collected. Teachers (n = 74) reported on the student–teacher relationship and students’ social skills, behaviour problems and academic performance. Special education teachers (n = 38) provided information regarding the diagnosis and profile of functioning of students with SEN. Results showed that teachers’ reports of students’ social skills and externalising problems were the strongest predictors of closeness and conflict. Internalising problems and SEN status also predicted decreased closeness, despite smaller effects. Taken together, findings support the importance of professional development opportunities focusing on facilitating teachers’ relationships with students with perceived challenging behaviour.     

Practicing What We Preach in Teacher Education: A Critical Whiteness Studies Analysis of Experiential Education

In this article I problematize the reasons for and methods through which I incorporated an opportunity for experiential learning, via a Community Inquiry Project, into my own teaching. I take the stance of a teacher-researcher to closely analyze the specific documents and tasks used to introduce pre-service teachers to the project. I draw on sociocultural approaches to teacher development and literature on experiential education in teacher education to provide a background for the project and the self-study and offer critical whiteness studies as an appropriate lens through which to analyze the various elements of the project. Findings from this study suggest that the project limited the pre-service teachers’ characterizations of community, understandings of sociocultural approaches to learning, relationships to the community, and perceptions of the role of community in teaching. I draw on these findings to suggest that teacher educators share their reflective practices with their students and learn about the diverse experiences of the pre-service teachers themselves to better prepare them to inquire into and draw on knowledge of communities as they work with diverse populations of students.     

Connecting religion and teacher identity: The unexplored relationship between teachers and religion in public schools

It is increasingly acknowledged that for individuals to participate in a pluralistic and democratic society, they must understand religious conviction and difference. In educational literature, the discussion surrounding education and religion focuses on the implications for students. It is important to consider what this may mean to the teachers, as teachers directly influence student learning. This article uses literature on religion, multiculturalism, teacher identity, and popular culture to connect teachers' private religious identifications to their professional identities in public school classrooms. It supports future research in this area and provides a theoretical framework for subsequent studies.     

Teachers’ views of the challenges of teaching grade 9 applied mathematics in Toronto schools

Mathematics teachers, mathematics department heads, curriculum leaders, and administrators from 11 schools in four school boards from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, participated in a project to improve the teaching and learning in grade 9 mathematics classrooms. In each of these schools, an implementation team was created, so that at least three teachers from every school could collaborate, in order to improve learning outcomes of their students. This article reports on the challenges identified by teachers when they taught grade 9 applied mathematics. Teachers’ views of challenges fell into five main layers: (a) teacher professional development and pedagogical skills, (b) student learning needs, (c) settlement issues and families’ social and economic background, (d) administrative difficulties and resources, and (e) curricular issues. These challenges were complex and interconnected, demanding special remedial efforts by the administration and teachers. By reflecting on the challenges and practices, these teachers made a long-term strategy to engage in professional development activities to better understand their students’ learning needs and to improve their achievement in provincial tests.     

浅析“反思型”教师

反思型教师是对经验型教师的超越,成为一名反思型教师,是教师成长与发展的必由之路,也是新课程改革的需要。自我反思与集体反思相结合、阅读相关的理论文献、加强师生间的交流对话和有效利用blog与电子档案袋是成为一名反思型教师的有效途径。     

Reframing Practice: Teacher Learning Through Interactions in a Collaborative Group

Using a case study design and ethnographic methods, this research investigated the interactions of a group of high school mathematics teachers who collaborated daily on issues related to curricular and pedagogical reforms. The members of the collaboration team implemented these reforms with the goal of supporting all students’ learning of 1st-year college preparatory mathematics. This study used conceptual tools from frame analysis (E. Goffman, 1974) alongside an analysis of teacher participation patterns to understand teacher learning within a community of practice (E. Wenger, 1998). This analysis documented development within the teacher community through teachers increasing orientation to classroom-based interventions for struggling students alongside more collegial participation patterns, contributing an empirical example of teacher learning within a community of practice.     

A Collective Self-Study to Improve Program Coherence of Clinical Experiences

Student feedback collected through program evaluation of secondary education licensure and Master’s program clinical experiences prompted us to conduct a collective self-study. We used a reflective framework for analysis and discussion of the shifts students in our courses made as they progressed from observers to practicing teachers. Along with our graduate students, we collected and shared data and analysis from two courses – an introductory mathematics course for pre-service teachers and a capstone self-study teacher research course for in-service teachers. Data included students’ reflective accounts of their clinical experiences, dialogue with peers in response memos and focus groups, and our meta-conversation about and interpretations of data captured in meeting notes, audio recordings of meetings, email exchanges, and video conferencing over a two-month period. Analysis resulted in reframed thinking about our teaching and implications for program coherence, including provision of meaningful participant observations in diverse settings, design of dialogic platforms for students to make connections, and support of a critical level of reflection to inform teacher professional practice. The results are informative to teacher educators and programs seeking to better understand their roles in designing dialogic spaces for students to think deeply about the connections of their courses to clinical experiences and in supporting ongoing teacher professional development. The study highlights the benefits of faculty collective self-studies and contributes to the literature on self-study for program development.