If you build it,will they reflect? Examining teachers' use of an online video-based learning website

Many teachers use online professional development websites, but little is known about what teachers actually learn from them. This study explored teacher use of an online video-based learning website with over 37,000 members. It used web analytics to study user selection of video resources and coding of website commentary to analyze teacher responses to videos. The results indicated that teachers commonly view video clips designed for immediate use rather than reflection and respond to videos by evaluating the pedagogy positively. Videos that feature students as the sole or primary actors provoked the most reflective teacher responses.     

What contemporary work are student ratings actually doing in higher education?

It is conventionally assumed that student ratings perform a significant function in driving improvement in pedagogical practices in higher education. As a result, this form of evaluation has gradually become institutionalised in recent decades as an essential proxy for understanding teaching and course quality in universities across the world. However, with the rise of market-based models in higher education and heightened expectations for accountability mechanisms, the role and functional purpose of ratings-based student evaluation have become increasingly confused. This rising ambiguity has created strong tensions between the seminal drive of student ratings as a tool of quality improvement, and the emerging demands for its use as a transparent accountability measure for the comparative assessment of academic performativity. So are student ratings now largely a tool of quality assurance or performance measurement, or do they remain a legitimate tool for pedagogical improvement? This paper reports on a study that responded to this critical question by considering the contemporary work of student ratings in a major Australian university. The outcomes of this research demonstrate that tension between improvement and accountability motives is causing considerable confusion and discord around the role and value of the student voice. It also reveals that academics are tending to discount the often critical insights of students on the implications of their pedagogical practices as a result of the elevating institutional role of student ratings as a proxy for teaching quality. In considering these outcomes, rising levels of academic dissonance around student ratings would suggest a necessity to consider broadened evaluative strategies that are able to more effectively capture the improvement potential offered by the student voice.     

浙江省高中信息技术教师对新课改的心理适应性研究

以“关注阶段”理论为基础,研究了浙江省高中信息技术教师对新课改的心理适应性。结果表明：目前浙江省高中信息技术教师能够接受新课改的理念并在教学中付诸实施,但信心不足,有明显的观望心理,心理适应性停滞不前并对新课改存有一定的抵触;不同教龄的教师在新课改的七个关注阶段上均未表现出显著差异;不同性别教师在“个人化”阶段表现为显著差异,且女教师在对“个人化”的关注上明显高于男教师;城乡教师之间在“操作”阶段表现出显著差异,且农村教师在“操作”阶段的关注强度明显高于城市教师。     

荷兰大学教师发展研究轨迹探析

20世纪60年代以来,荷兰的大学教师发展研究顺应了其教师教育研究的发展,走过了一条从稚嫩到相对成熟的发展之路,至今仍呈现出国际化水平不断提升的良好发展态势。本文对荷兰教师教育研究的历程作简要的回顾,在此基础上,以荷兰跨校教育研究中心和莱顿大学教师教育研究院为例,具体分析该国以研究促发展的大学教师发展研究的内容与特点。