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.     

Teacher learning in a combined professional development intervention

The study examines geometry teachers' video club discussions in a two-year professional development intervention that combined lesson study, video clubs, and animation discussions to promote teacher noticing of students' prior knowledge. Most discussions pertained to student conceptions (78%), followed by pedagogy (19%). Discussion of students' prior knowledge surfaced only when talking about student conceptions or pedagogy. There was statistically significant evidence that teacher-initiated discussions of students' prior knowledge were more substantial than facilitator-initiated discussions. The findings suggest that the professional development model and the facilitators’ moves promoted and sustained teacher noticing of student thinking throughout the intervention.     

Impact of distributed leadership on teacher job satisfaction in China: The mediating roles of teacher autonomy and teacher collaboration

Teacher job satisfaction is a heated topic worldwide. Among the possible factors influencing teacher job satisfaction, distributed leadership is very important one. Given very few studies have investigated the effects of distributed leadership on teacher job satisfaction through teacher autonomy and teacher collaboration, this paper is important. It is expected to provide international readers with a better understanding of how these variables are practised in the Chinese context. Specifically, we aim to achieve two goals. The first goal is to investigate the direct impact of distributed leadership on teacher job satisfaction and the second one is to explore how distributed leadership indirectly affects teacher job satisfaction through teacher autonomy and teacher collaboration. The data are from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) (n = 3976). Structural equation modeling revealed statistically significant positive effects of distributed leadership on teacher autonomy, teacher collaboration, and teacher job satisfaction, respectively. The further analyses indicated that the indirect effects of distributed leadership on teacher job satisfaction through teacher autonomy and professional collaboration were statistically significant. However, distributed leadership had no indirect effect on job satisfaction via exchange and co-ordination. Based on the findings, we propose some suggestions to improve teacher job satisfaction, such as strengthening communications between school leaders and teachers, and providing adequate autonomy to teachers. The detailed relationships among these variables are discussed in connection with Chinese educational context.     

论世界一流大学建设的中国道路——国家行动与大学自主办学的耦合

世界一流大学的建设道路,具有由大学运行与发展的共同逻辑和基本规律决定的共性,也具有由大学运行与发展的生活环境和影响因素决定的个性,呈现出以共性与个性辩证统一为基础的多样性。中国特色世界一流大学建设走中国道路,既有理论层面的可能性,又有现实层面的必要性,还有实践层面的现实性,即具有合目的性与合规律性的必然性。中国特色世界一流大学建设走中国道路,既离不开作为战略规划、制度供给、资源配置、考核评价、监督管理以及信息服务主体的国家的强力推动、顶层设计以及统筹谋划,也离不开作为基层行动主体的大学的自主探索、自觉行动以及自发建构,即要走国家行动与大学自主办学耦合之路。     

Japanese Conceptions of Privacy: An Intercultural Perspective

This paper deals with intercultural aspects of privacy, particularly with regard to important differences between Japanese and the Western views. This paper is based on our discussions with Rafael Capurro – a dialogue now represented by two separate but closely interrelated articles. The companion paper is broadly focused on the cultural and historical backgrounds of the concepts of privacy and individualism in “Western” worlds; our main theme focuses on different concepts of privacy in Japan and their sources in related aspects of Japanese culture. The interrelationship between our two papers is apparent in our taking up identical or similar topics in each paper. Reading our two papers in conjunction with each other will bring about deeper and broader insights into the diverse values and worldviews of Japan and Western cultures that underlie concepts of privacy that at a surface level appear to be similar     

“四书”之诚及其学校公民教育评价意蕴

“四书”揭示了诚的内涵、指向、价值、实现路径。它包括本体论上天道和人道以及知情意行的真诚和一致含义。处于和不同德性、对象交互的关系链中,其具有化己、化人、化物等价值,可以通过存心自省、格物致知等路径实现。它是君子人格的重要构成,也对当代学校公民教育评价有所启示:以公民之诚论证好公民的素养,也明晰不可为,即诚之匮乏、狭隘、功利、无知和规训;强调教育者应拥有诚之伦理示范、真诚评价学生并善于剔除假象;以制度他律和道德自律作为沟通公民之诚教育评价和过程的桥梁,需完善学校公民教育、德育制度体系并培养学生道德自主性、使之行“慎独”之义等。     

Renaming teaching practice through teacher reflection using critical incidents on a virtual training course

This study approaches teacher learning from a dialogical viewpoint where lecturers’ voices used in a training course context reflect how lecturers generated new professional discourse. The design of the training course considered the analysis of several critical incidents (CIs) in online teaching. An analytical framework based on lecturers’ discourse and ways of thinking about teaching was used to identify types of renaming teaching practice. The empirical element of the study analysed the written utterances about teaching provided by 12 online instructors in order to determine what kinds of new discourse emerged during the analysis of 15 CIs in online teaching. Results showed that local discourse is the lecturers’ most commonly used discourse, prototypical incidents generated more professional discourse than personal and real CIs, and professional discourse can be created by means of at least nine different ways of articulating discourse. On the basis of these results, some pedagogical implications for lecturer learning are discussed.     

Boundary Crossing and the Professional Learning of Teacher Educators in New International Contexts

In this collaborative self-study, two teacher educators examine their experiences of working in new international contexts and the impact of those experiences on their professional learning and identities. Mandi moved from a major research university in one country to another, while Judy co-led a group of pre-service teachers on an international practicum for three weeks each year for three years. Using the concept of boundary crossing as a theoretical and analytical framework, each teacher educator identified a boundary-related critical incident or experience that occurred during her work in new international contexts. Through individual and collaborative analysis of their critical incidents, they found that working as a teacher educator in new international contexts involves the crossing and re-crossing of multiple personal, professional, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Working in these boundary spaces involved learning how to negotiate new kinds of relationships with colleagues and students, manage changed roles and responsibilities and, ultimately, a search for a renewed sense of self, as each sought to understand herself differently within a new professional context.     

Empowerment and relationships: A classroom model to enhance student motivation

This project focused on the goal of establishing a classroom model of motivation in which the source of student motivation is based on internal mechanisms or structures, along with the establishment of greater self-regulatory opportunities for students, and which results in greater student empowerment and motivation. One-hundred current elementary and secondary teachers and 100 university preservice teacher education students completed a 40-item Likert-type questionnaire that focused on four classroom dimensions of affirmation, rejection, student empowerment and teacher control. The results of this project suggested that, although veteran and preservice teachers agreed on the need for teacher control in the classroom, there was less agreement about their perceptions of the need to create a classroom environment of positive affirmation and student empowerment. Implications for future research and the need for creating an affirming, empowering, motivational classroom environment are discussed in light of the limitations for teachers and schools to encourage these constructs associated with recent federal legislative policies.