Prompting teachers’ constructive reflection: pupils’ questions as critical incidents

Constructive reflection is seen as an important ingredient in the professional development of teachers, in order to stimulate significant change in approaches to classroom practice and the general provision of science education in schools. This paper explores the use of pupils’ questions in provoking ‘critical incidents’ in the professional lives of teachers. It is suggested that pupils’ questions can be both indicative of their own conceptual change as well as being sophisticated prompts for teachers to examine their own thinking. Case studies of two teachers ‐‐ one primary and one secondary ‐‐ are used to illuminate how such critical incidents can lead to changes in teacher thinking, resulting then in changes in classroom practice in science. Suggestions are made for the use of pupils’ questions as critical incidents in the professional development of teachers.     

Toward educative communities: teacher education and the quest for the reflective practitioner

The current effort to reform teacher education around the aim of developing reflective teachers is unlikely to make a significant difference unless it is tied to a larger project that challenges the training orientation that dominates our understanding of teaching and schooling. The authors argue that the development of educative communities, based upon an ethic of caring and the establishment of dialogicalrelations, can serve as such an ideal. A discussion of this ideal is followed by two case studies that focus on ways that prcservice programs can link values and meaning to technical concerns, honor and examine what preservice teachers believe and know, and encourage the development of collegial relations.     

Las actividades de lecto-escritura compartida: principios y prácticas orientativas para la participación de los padres

El gusto por viajar y el deseo de conocer mundo es algo más que saber conducir. Igualmente un repertorio de usos de la escritura no es algo que se consiga con el simple aprendizaje del mecanismo de decodificación y hunde sus raíces en los entornos y actividades significativas del niño. El papel de los padres se convierte así en central para el desarrollo de la lecto-escritura. Los autores ofrecen en este artículo 8 principios a seguir para una mayor eficacia de las actividades de lecto-escritura compartida en familia y algunos métodos que puede emplear el maestro para transmitir estos principios a los padres.