Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don't

This article reports the findings of a review of the international research literature on mentoring beginning teachers. Research identifies a range of potential benefits and costs associated with mentoring, and suggests that the key to maximising the former and minimising the latter lies in the realization of a number of conditions for successful mentoring, such as the effective selection and preparation of mentors. We also highlight a number of limitations in the current evidence base on beginner teacher mentoring. Some implications, for the practice of teacher educators, for policy-makers and for future research, are considered.     

First-generation students: what we ask,what we know and what it means: an international review of the state of research

In the course of educational expansion, student populations have become more diverse. This paper represents an international literature review on the topic of first-generation students (FGS), i.e. students whose parents have not obtained a higher education qualification. On the basis of more than 70 research articles and reports on FGS from several countries, we find that the focal points in FGS research concern their pre-college characteristics, mobility factors, decisions about institution, degree and subjects, FGS’ experiences at university, and academic outcomes. Summarising the state of research on these topics, we point to two problems: (1) the international incommensurability of data on FGS due to differences in how FGS are defined and researched; (2) the depiction of FGS’ problems as individual rather than structural problems. We recommend that structural changes such as making organisational structures in higher education institutions more transparent are in order instead of offering special support programmes only for FGS.     

Course characteristics and college students' ratings of their teachers: What we know and what we don't

From showing in a general way that there is room for course context to influence class (average) ratings of instruction, this review proceeds to a search for specific course characteristics that are associated with these ratings. Extant research has centered around five such characteristics: class size, course level, the electivity of the course, the particular subject matter of the course, and the time of day that the course is held. Although statistically significant zero-order relationships do not appear in every piece of research located for review, such relationships are more likely to be found than not for the first four of these characteristics. The associations may not be particularly strong, but rather clear-cut patterns do emerge. Of the studies reporting an association between size of class and class ratings, most find it to be inverse, although several studies show a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship. Teacher (and course) ratings tend to be somewhat higher for upper division courses and elective courses. Compared to other instructors, those teaching humanities, fine arts, and languages tend to receive somewhat higher ratings. The possible reasons for these relationships are many and complex. A precise understanding of the contribution of course characteristics to the ratings of teachers (and the courses themselves) is hampered by two circumstances. Studies in which relevant variables are controlled are far fewer in number than are the studies in which only the zero-order relationships between course characteristics and ratings are considered. More importantly, existing multivariate studies tend to underplay or ignore the exact place of course characteristics in a causal network of variables.     

Whatever it takes: How beginning teachers learn to survive

Reports of high attrition rates among beginning teachers suggest that new practitioners need help to develop coping strategies, preferably while they are still teacher candidates under the supervision of experienced teachers. Defining teaching as an ill-defined problem, where beginners have a limited repertoire of problem-solving strategies, this paper suggests that the ability to satisfice – that is, develop temporary but sufficient solutions – enables teachers to survive the early years of practice. However, it appears that, paradoxically, satisficing is one of the skills that is developed with experience. As we demonstrate in this paper, veteran practitioners have learned how to cope and by mentoring, they can help newcomers deal with the complex problems of initial practice.     

Pedagogical literacy: What it means and what it allows

In the context of literacy being understood as an evolving concept, this article argues that a particular form of literacy, pedagogical literacy, is an important cognitive tool for a developed conceptualisation of pedagogical content knowledge and that, by extension, being pedagogically literate is an integral feature of being a professional teacher. Pedagogical literacy is a reflexive concept in which reading and writing (through a knowledge-transforming model) about pedagogical content knowledge is the essential means through which the teacher's pedagogical reasoning develops.     

Changing policy contexts and teachers´ work-life narratives: the case of Estonian vocational teachers

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, the work of teachers worldwide has undergone deep change. We have seen that teachers have encountered recent challenges differently and adapted to educational changes to a different extent depending on their personal disposition, but also school leadership and workplace support. This study focuses on the example of Estonian vocational teachers that serves as an interesting case for analysing how the interplay of the transitional context and neo-liberal policy trends adopted since Estonia regained its independence in 1991, after 50 years under Soviet rule, have affected the individual trajectories of teachers’ lives. This paper aims to understand how the interplay of the institutional context and individual (work) lives shapes Estonian vocational teachers’ understandings of their work and professionality. We suggest that certain periods of practice are visible in teachers’ narratives and those periods might be considered as enabling different degrees of agency. However, our interviews also revealed that different reform periods have been perceived and responded to differently. In the context of 25 years of the educational reform process, the policies and requirements introduced have been refracted at different levels (Goodson & Rudd, 2017), including that of the vocational field, the schools and individual teachers. Our results confirm that teachers individual, social, cultural and material resources such as competence, career stage, relations and networks, school leadership and prevailing culture at schools have their role in enabling or hindering the agency of teachers.     

Paving the way for sustainable educational change: Reconceptualizing what it means to make educational changes that last

This position paper provides an alternative theoretical framework of sustainable second-order educational change. Here, sustainability refers to: 1) substantial changes made that affect the core of educators’ everyday practice; 2) a longitudinal process that begins when educators contemplate making changes and ends when satisfactory achievement on the other characteristics is reached and overt learning efforts are stopped; 3) a process of individual and organizational learning as well as changes in behaviors; resulting in 4) significant positive effects on student outcomes. Thus, this definition focuses on educators and their schools, not on professional development programs. Methodological considerations are provided.     

教师的自我教育与反思

提高教师素质是当前教育改革的一个重点内容。教师素质的提高需要经过教师的自我教育才能实现,因为自我教育是各种教育发挥作用的基础,由于反思可以沟通教师“所倡导的理论”与他在实际教学中“所采用的理论”,可以促进经验型教师向学型教师的转化,因此,教师要自觉地进行反思。     

How New Caledonian crows solve novel foraging problems and what it means for cumulative culture

New Caledonian crows make and use tools, and tool types vary over geographic landscapes. Social learning may explain the variation in tool design, but it is unknown to what degree social learning accounts for the maintenance of these designs. Indeed, little is known about the mechanisms these crows use to obtain information from others, despite the question’s importance in understanding whether tool behavior is transmitted via social, genetic, or environmental means. For social transmission to account for tool-type variation, copying must utilize a mechanism that is action specific (e.g., pushing left vs. right) as well as context specific (e.g., pushing a particular object vs. any object). To determine whether crows can copy a demonstrator’s actions as well as the contexts in which they occur, we conducted a diffusion experiment using a novel foraging task. We used a nontool task to eliminate any confounds introduced by individual differences in their prior tool experience. Two groups had demonstrators (trained in isolation on different options of a four-option task, including a two-action option) and one group did not. We found that crows socially learn about context: After observers see a demonstrator interact with the task, they are more likely to interact with the same parts of the task. In contrast, observers did not copy the demonstrator’s specific actions. Our results suggest it is unlikely that observing tool-making behavior transmits tool types. We suggest it is possible that tool types are transmitted when crows copy the physical form of the tools they encounter.     

Proximal and distal outcomes of organizational socialization among new teachers: a mediation analysis

This study was designed to examine the relationship between socialization experience and the task performance of new teachers. It proposed to do this by testing a structural model. In explicating the relationship between the two constructs, teacher engagement in workplace learning activities and wellbeing were included in the structural model as plausible mediators. The study used a survey research method to gather data from a sample of 182 beginning teachers in northern peninsular Malaysia. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 and AMOS 16.0. The findings indicate that the structural model adequately fits the data. There is a significant indirect influence of socialization factors on the task performance of new teachers, with 81% of the variance explained.     

Unstated and unjust: juggling relational requirements of professional experience for pre-service teachers

Overarching tasks faced by initial teacher education (ITE) students comprise a multitude of factors, not least learning to marry theoretical learning with practical application. Part of this learning is the gradual construction of relationships with learners and colleagues. Another, less exposed, challenge arises from a disparity of outlook that can extend to differences in beliefs, values and openness to others. This study focussed on failing final year pre-service teachers. Using a phenomenological method, these student voices were interpreted to reveal instances of discrimination and silencing that emerged during their mandated professional experience. Accounts of inequity, bias and injustice illuminated some contradictions inbuilt into this period as poor relationships and inappropriate power relations became counterproductive in what is presumed to be a developmental and non-negotiable ITE activity. Results highlight some of the unspoken and unquestioned practices in schools and the corresponding agency employed by pre-service teachers as they seek acknowledgement and inclusion.     

对高中英语教师反思日记的分析与思考

对广东省6所学校的24位不同职称的高中英语教师78篇教学反思日记进行整理、归纳、分析,结果表明：高中英语教师的反思意识不强,反思内容多样、反思水平主要在第一层次‘回顾’和第二层次理性水平上。针对教师在反思日记中进行反思所存在的问题,应该从提高反思意识、营造反思氛围、丰富反思内容、加强反思实践等方面提高英语教师反思能力,以促进教师的专业发展。     

Critical considerations in becoming literacy educators: pre-service teachers rehearsing agency and negotiating risk

This article looks closely at the talk of two pre-service teachers over time to examine how they used language as a way of rehearsing their evolving agency as literacy educators. Drawing on critical sociocultural theory, I use Agency Tracing to highlight how pre-service teachers’ agentic actions are not isolated phenomena but ones developed and planned with others in language. Through rehearsals, they considered possible options and outcomes of actions before taking risks, therefore bolstering their confidence to act and resist individual and institutional Discourses of literacy. Analysis reveals that because pre-service teachers rehearse agency over time via language, such agency can be developed in teacher education coursework and field experiences. Findings indicate four recommendations to foster agency: rehearsals over time, dissonance to the point of frustration, observations and approximations in field experiences, and interactional spaces for critical reflection.     

How does STEM context-based learning work: what we know and what we still do not know

ABSTRACT

Context-based learning (CBL) has influenced teaching and learning science in many countries over the past decades. Twelve years ago, a special issue on CBL was published in this Journal, focusing on CBL curriculum development. Seven papers in this current special issue on CBL now address the question of how a context influences the learning process. The papers focus on the stimulation of learning STEM subjects within contexts, how the learning process occurs and is enhanced, and the application of contexts in different settings. The approaches, results, and implications of the papers are located in a larger view that considers the question of what must be the case if a student not only engages in the tasks of learning but also succeeds at them. Concerning willingness and effort by learners, the papers draw conclusions about which STEM-related interests of students endure and are ephemeral across a decade, design criteria for maximising students’ situational interest, and students’ engagement with content and context simultaneously. Focusing on the opportunity to teach and learn, the papers reveal how a professional development approach functions to support STEM teachers to develop CBL materials, and how specific scaffolding acts in teaching bring students to more complex reasoning. Regarding good teaching, insights are offered on how metacognitive prompts improve teaching. Centring on the social surround that supports teaching and learning, a comparison of two contexts for teaching the same content reveals which aspects of the contexts move student learning forward. From this mapping, paths toward future research are projected.     

Supporting academic literacies: university teachers in collaboration for change

This article deals with an action research project, where a group of university teachers from different disciplines reflected on and gradually extended their knowledge about how to support students’ academic literacy development. The project was conducted within a ‘research circle’ [Bergman, L. 2014. “The Research Circle as a Resource in Challenging Academics’ Perceptions of How to Support Students’ Literacy Development in Higher Education.” Canadian Journal of Action Research 15 (2): 3–20], in which the teachers engaged in a continuous dialogue where experience-based and research-based knowledge could meet. The two-year long process was divided into three phases: exchange of experiences and knowledge, small-scale empirical investigations in the participants own teaching, and presentations of the outcome of the research circle work. The main focus in this article is the second phase. The choice of small-scale-investigations, and how they were discussed and developed in the collaborative work, will be foregrounded as well as the changes that occurred in the participants’ teaching practices and how the participants value the outcome of the research circle work.     

Engaging school teachers and school principals in an action research in-service development as a means of pedagogical self-awareness

The European Commission has determined the following priorities to increase the quality of teacher training programmes in the European Union: ensuring that all teachers have access to the knowledge, attitudes and pedagogic skills they require to be effective; ensuring that provision for teachers’ education and professional development is coordinated, coherent and adequately resourced; promoting a culture of reflective practice and research among teachers; promoting the status and recognition of the teaching profession; and supporting the professionalization of teaching. In this context, the RELEASE project pursued the adaptation of the teachers’ in-service training programme in Cyprus to the teachers’ and schools’ needs. The project also aimed at the enhancement of the school principals’ pedagogic role in supporting teachers’ professional development, the promotion of teachers’ development at school and the acquisition of self-regulated learning skills. The present paper draws on the benefits of the action research procedure for teachers’ development and the changes revealed in the teachers’ discourse throughout the project as illustrated in their oral and written reflections. The discourse analysis of the teachers’ speech in different stages of the project indicates a movement from remoteness and distance to collaboration, participation, openness and exchange, and a movement from low trust in their own choices to reflection and self-confidence to make justified selections and act in alternative ways. The discussion of the project’s results attempts to distinguish the effective key components of this project, providing empirical evidence/support for the reflective paradigm of teacher development.     

Preparing pre-service teachers for the profession: creating spaces for transformative practice

Within professional learning communities, the processes of shared reflection and critique, or critical transformative dialogues are considered crucial for the maintenance and improvement of professional practice. This paper focuses on the development of the processes of critical transformative dialogues and their application in the professional development of pre-service teachers. Participants reported a growing understanding of the importance of a continuing critical dialogue, and an appreciation of the value that critical feedback has in developing professional skills. The paper argues for the value of providing spaces for early engagement in the processes of critical transformative dialogue as part of professional preparation. A cumulative model of transformative practice for supporting pre-service teachers’ emerging schema for teaching is proposed.     

Reflective learning and identity construction in practice,discourse and activity: Experiences of pre-service language teachers in Hong Kong

This paper reports on an investigation into two pre-service teachers' reflective learning through a series of integrated and interactive tasks (i.e., collaborative lesson planning, group consultation, microteaching and videoed reflections) in a teacher education course in Hong Kong. Relying on data gathered from interviews and reflection videos and informed by a tripartite model on teacher identity in practice, discourse and activity, the study revealed how the pre-service teachers engaged in reflective practice and identity construction in the course. The paper concludes with practical implications on how to design and implement effective reflective tasks in preparing and developing competent language teachers.     

幼儿教师专业发展的途径与方法研究

对幼儿教师专业发展现状进行调查和分析,以期为幼儿教师教育发展提供最基本的理论依据,更好地促进幼儿教师的专业发展。在幼儿教师专业发展中存在很多问题：师资队伍建设没有规划,专业配置不合理;学历达标率较高但专业程度不够扎实;教育教学教研问题突出;家园合作还停留于表浅水平;园长管理水平不够成熟。笔者提出幼儿教师专业发展的对策：制定师资队伍建设规划,建立和完善幼儿教师任用制度;改革师范院校幼师教育,确保幼师生源质量;加强教师自主专业发展,提高教育教学教研能力;加大宣传力度,推进家园合作;发挥终身学习方式,翻新自身专业素养;提升幼儿园园长的管理理念,为教师创造支持性发展平台;加强与其它教师培训机构的联系,开展多渠道的培训。     

Starting points: student teachers' reasons for becoming teachers and their preconceptions of what this will mean

This article focuses upon the developing professionalism and emergent thinking of 36 secondary trainee teachers, in terms of their motivation to teach, their early beliefs about teaching and the teaching–learning process and their views of themselves as trainee teachers. It analyses their perspectives on how they expect to learn to become teachers and how these perspectives match with their early experiences on their training courses. Discussion of these starting points of beginning teachers reveals some understanding of models of outstanding classroom practice, but equally a relatively unsophisticated analysis of the essential characteristics of this practice. The challenge for teacher educators is to frame courses in such a way that beginning teachers are provided with the contexts and the methodologies whereby they can reflect upon their own preconceptions and refine their own understandings as to how they themselves learn as teachers, to enable them to facilitate the learning of pupils and to fulfil their own clearly articulated aspirations to become quality teachers.

Cet article se focalise sur les changements du professionnalisme et des idées de 36 professeurs stagiaires de secondaire. Il regarde pourquoi ils veulent enseigner, et leur croyance tôt au sujet de l'enseignement et de l'enseignement ‐ apprentissage. Il considère également leurs propres vues d'eux‐mêmes comme professeurs stagiaires. Il analyse comment ils comptent apprendre à devenir des professeurs, et comment ces espérances s'assortissent avec leurs premières expériences sur leurs cours de formation. La discussion des vues de ces professeurs stagiaires suggère qu'ils aient les modèles clairs de la pratique en matière exceptionnelle de salle de classe. Mais ils ont également une compréhension plutôt simple des vraies caractéristiques de cette pratique. Le défi pour des éducateurs de professeur doit concevoir les cours qui fournissent à des professeurs stagiaires les contextes et les méthodologies pour les aider à se refléter sur leurs propres préconceptions. En même temps, ils ont besoin d'aide pour clarifier leurs propres comprehensions quant à la façon dont ils apprennent comme professeurs. Ceci les aidera à soutenir les étudiants apprenant mieux, et à répondre à leurs propres aspirations claires pour devenir de très bons professeurs.

Dieser Artikel konzentriert sich auf die Änderungen im Professionalismus und in den Ideen von 36 Sekundärauszubildendlehrern. Er erwägt, warum sie unterrichten wollen, und ihre frühe Glauben über den Unterricht und den Unterricht ‐ Lernprozeß. Er überlegt auch ihre eigenen Ansichten von sich selbst als Auszubildendlehrer. Er analysiert, wie sie erwarten, Lehrer werden zu lernen und wie diese Erwartungen mit ihren frühen Erfahrungen auf ihren Ausbildungskursen zusammenpassen. Diskussion über die Ansichten dieser Auszubildendlehrer schlägt vor, daß sie klare Modelle der hervorragenden Klassenzimmerpraxis haben. Aber sie haben auch ein ziemlich einfaches Verständnis der wirklichen Eigenschaften dieser Praxis. Die Herausforderung für Lehrererzieher ist Kurse zu entwerfen, die Auszubildendlehrer mit den Kontexten und der Methodik versehen, um ihnen zu helfen, über ihre eigenen vorgefaßten Meinungen nachzudenken. Gleichzeitig benötigen sie Hilfe, ihr eigenes Verständnis davon zu klären, wie sie als Lehrer lernen. Dies hilft ihnen, die Studenten besser zu stützen und ihren eigenen klaren Aspirationen zu treffen, um sehr gute Lehrer zu werden.

Este artículo se enfoca sobre los cambios en el profesionalismo y las ideas de 36 profesores secundarios del aprendiz. Mira porqué desean enseñar, y su creencia temprana sobre la enseñanza y la enseñanza ‐ proceso de aprendizaje. También considera sus propias opiniones de sí mismos como profesores del aprendiz. Él análisis cómo esperan aprender hacer profesores, y cómo estas expectativas emparejan con sus experiencias tempranas en sus cursos de aprendizaje. La discusión de las opiniones estos profesores del aprendiz sugiere que tengan modelos claros de la práctica excepcional de la sala de clase. Pero también tienen una comprensión algo simple de las características verdaderas de esta práctica. El desafío para los educadores del profesor es diseñar los cursos que proveen de profesores del aprendiz los contextos y las metodologías para ayudarles a reflejar sobre sus propias preconcepciones. En el mismo tiempo, necesitan ayuda clarificar su propio entendimiento en cuanto a cómo aprenden como profesores. Esto les ayudará a apoyar a los estudiantes que aprenden mejor, y a resolver sus propias aspiraciones claras para sentir bien a profesores muy buenos.