Teachers’ professional development: a theoretical review

Background and purpose:?The article reviews studies that focus on the professional development of teachers after they have completed their basic teacher training. Teacher professional development is defined as teachers’ learning: how they learn to learn and how they apply their knowledge in practice to support pupils’ learning. The research question addressed in the article is: How do experienced teachers learn?

Main argument:?The review is framed by theories within the constructivist paradigm. From this perspective, knowledge is perceived as the construction of meaning and understanding within social interaction. The social surroundings are seen as decisive for how the individual learns and develops. It is argued that courses and lectures, or ‘times for telling’, and teachers’ development of a metacognitive attitude are decisive factors for teachers’ learning within a constructivist frame of reference.

Sources of evidence and method:?To attempt to answer the research question, a search was conducted of the subject of pedagogy in the ISI WEB of Science (search undertaken 9 August 2011) using the search strings ‘teacher learning’, ‘teacher development’ and ‘teacher professional development’, and covering the period from 2009 to 2011 to probe the most recent decade of research. Articles that dealt with basic education, primary and secondary school, were selected, and articles that dealt with learning using digital tools and the internet and newly trained teachers were rejected. A set of 31 articles was selected from this search. To ensure width and depth of coverage, this was supplemented by a selection of review studies and research on further education in respect of teachers’ learning. The texts were analysed by means of open and axial coding, developing main and sub-categories.

Conclusions:?The review of articles shows that both individual and organisational factors impact teachers’ learning. Teacher co-operation has importance for how they develop, and some of the teachers can lead such learning activities themselves. Moreover, a positive school culture with a good atmosphere and understanding of teachers’ learning, in addition to co-operation with external resource persons, may impact the professional development of teachers. The article concludes with the reflection that learning in school is the best arena for further development of teachers.     

Drawing on the variation theory to enhance students’ learning of Chinese characters

The variation theory of Ference Marton and his collaborators has widely been used as a framework for explaining what can possibly be learned in a particular classroom and what cannot. This paper reports on an experiment that put this theory to test in the context of students’ learning of the orthographic structures of Chinese characters. The experiment was carried out in the classrooms of two primary schools in Hong Kong. In each of the schools, two classes of students were taught differently, as informed by the theory, about the significance of the location of a component in the orthographic structure of a character in relation to whether the component provided a clue to the meaning of the character (called the part–part relations). The results of the experiment are consistent with the prediction of the theory that those students who were given the possibility to experience variation in the locations of components in the orthographic structures significantly outperformed those who were not. The results of the experiment demonstrate the power of the theory in guiding the design of teaching that affords students’ learning to happen.     

Evidence for Informed Preservation Planning and Advocacy: A Synoptic View

ABSTRACT

We argue the need to demonstrate the value of preservation services to institutions, the public and funders, because it matters conceptually and needs to be supported and validated. To address this imperative, improved and focused data capture and its use by collection managers is advocated as the necessary first step towards the development of an evidence-based culture for preservation services and synoptic decision-making, where evidence enables us to optimise the outcome of planning. To do so, we need tools that enable us to evaluate diverse preservation scenarios. We demonstrate the potential of emerging cross-disciplinary tools and protocols developed in the recent years such as attitude surveys, computational modelling and demographic modelling. These offer evidence that informs prospective preservation planning and, importantly, provides a credible evidence base for advocacy. These possibilities are discussed within the wider context of well-established preservation planning protocols that have shaped collection management for three decades, broadly characterised as retrospective.     

Utilization of CSR to build organizations’ corporate image in Asia: need for an integrative approach

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been found to be a strong predictor of a favorable corporate image [Gray, 1986. Managing the corporate image: The key to public trust. London: Quorum Books]. Websites have become an essential communication platform [Dawkins, 2004. Corporate responsibility: The communication challenge. Journal of Communication Management, 9(2), 108–119]. This study aims to investigate how CSR can be used in enhancing organizational corporate image. Content analyses of 150 corporate websites of organizations in Asia headquartered in Singapore were conducted, followed by in-depth interviews with public relations (PR) practitioners to examine the motivations behind their CSR engagement. Findings showed that organizations utilized CSR as a means to enhance corporate image via four ways: Engaging in two-way conversations with stakeholders, adopting an inside-out communication approach with employees, recognizing the relevance of other CSR communication channels, and communicating CSR with authenticity. However, some organizations hesitate to use CSR communication to enhance their corporate image because they wanted to avoid being seen as using CSR as a promotional tool.     

The professional development needs of learning support coordinators in Singapore primary schools May Ling Quah and Kevin Jones

ABSTRACT

‘Support for learning’ can be conceptualized in many different ways. This paper examines the role of the learning support coordinator in relation to the breadth of factors which cause pupils to experience learning difficulties in primary classrooms. It is against this background that the professional development needs of learning support coordinators is considered. The paper focuses, in particular, upon the needs of learning support teachers who work in primary schools in Singapore. The shortcomings of traditional inservice courses which focus upon curriculum development and pedagogy are discussed in relation to the wide ranging roles which learning support coordinators are expected to fulfil. The assumption that pupil achievement can be enhanced when teachers are ‘trained’ to employ certain teaching methods is questioned and the relevance of an ecological or interpretive model of staff development is discussed. Finally, the particular professional development needs of learning support coordinators in Singapore are considered.     

Political economy of cost-sharing in higher education: The case of Jordan

This article analyzes patterns of expenditure on higher education in Jordan, explores the current system??s adequacy, efficiency, and equity, and identifies its strengths and weaknesses in light of current constraints and future challenges. Among the constraints are the relatively low public expenditure on higher education, leaving households to compensate through private expenditure. Moreover, despite more spending on university education, the quickly rising volume of students has required compromises in quality. Meanwhile, gradually falling subsidies have pressured public universities to reconsider their financing mechanisms and become more efficient. Cost-sharing mechanisms have been introduced through commercial private universities and ??parallel programmes?? at public universities. This generates much-needed income, but raises two critical issues. Students from poorer backgrounds find it even more difficult to enter university, and quality is constrained because universities must compromise on tasks that are essential but not profitable such as research and development. Among the suggested solutions are promoting the culture of charitable endowments, perhaps through a revision of the Islamic awqaf system, and developing innovative financial mechanisms to tap private savings without incurring the hazards of profit maximization.