Jack Thomas,Our Third Baby,Enters the World!

Without the confidence and support of the medical team, this mother’s first birth was difficult and unsatisfying. She was able to give birth naturally, in the care of a midwife, with her second baby. With confidence in her ability to give birth and the wisdom that comes with experience, she is able to give birth naturally with her third baby in spite of being induced.     

What to Teach?

In this column, the editor of The Journal of Perinatal Education discusses why Lamaze International conducts a comprehensive job analysis of what childbirth educators are teaching and their beliefs of what is important for pregnant women and their partners to learn. The editor also describes the contents of this issue, which offer a broad range of resources, research, and inspiration for childbirth educators in their efforts to promote, support, and protect natural, safe, and healthy birth.     

Critical Discourse Analysis： A Theoretical Framework for Analyzing Mathematics Teaching in Multilingual Classrooms？

The purpose of this article is to develop a framework that can be used to describe and explain how mathematics teachers construct a multilingual classroom and the discourse practices being produced in a mathematics classroom. It conceptualizes the discourse practices used by mathematics teacher educators as they prepare student teachers to teach mathematics. The framework developed here is shaped by Critical Discourse Analysis （CDA） drawn from Fairclough. This provides the theoretical and conceptual tools to examine the discourse practices of mathematics teacher educators and how the）＇ make available these discourse practices for student teachers to draw on. In broad terms, this article examines the discourse practices of the mathematics teacher educators and how they support the student teachers develop discourse practices relevant for teaching and learning school mathematics in multilingual classrooms. This article is broken down into several sections. The first section discusses what it means for student teachers to develop discourse practices for mathematics teaching. The second section provides an introduction to CDA, followed by its origins, key terms, and elements of Fairclough＇s CDA. Thereafter, the author outlines the strategies involved in doing CDA. The last section discusses why CDA is relevant to the mathematics classroom.     

试论目前高等教育缺失的要素

中国高等教育发展至今已有百年历程。现代中国高等教育无论在规模还是数量上都呈快速增长势头,为我国的现代化建设事业输送了大批优秀的人才。但高等教育之不足亦显而易见,如教育者对教育事业和学生的爱的缺失;教育者人文精神的缺失;教育评价机制中教学和学生因素的缺失;高等教育研究的视角定位的缺失等。     

The teacher educator’s role as enacted and experienced in school-based development

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on teacher educators’ role and how it was enacted and experienced by teachers and leaders in a school-based development project. The arena for the teachers’ professional development was the school, and teacher educators at one teacher-education institution and three schools took part in the research. Teacher educators, teachers and school leaders were interviewed two years and two months after they formally took part in the project, for one year in a pilot program and afterward for three semesters. The findings show that the teacher educators enacted their roles differently, and that they realise that they should have collaborated more and coordinated their experiences from collaborations with teachers and leaders to learn from their experiences in school. The leaders and teachers were satisfied with the teacher educators’ lectures, but the teachers wanted more dialogue with teacher educators and felt that teacher educators should have helped them transform their knowledge into teaching actions in practice. Teacher educators taking part as supporters in teachers’ practice truly could infiltrate instruction and learning. The study demonstrates that culture, structure and content need to be coordinated to enhance school-based development.     

Teacher educators working on their own professional development: goals,activities and outcomes of a project for the professional development of teacher educators

This article reports on the professional development of teacher educators within the context of a national project, ‘Professional Quality of Teacher Educators,’ where a professional standard and a standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development have been created and effectively implemented. This project offered a unique opportunity to analyze the goals, activities and outcomes of the process of professional development of teacher educators in a situation in which this development is promoted by the professional group as a whole. In our research, we used 25 completed portfolio's made by teacher educators participating in the standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development. We found that teacher educators, participating in this procedure, prefer the development of their knowledge and skills over the development of their attitudes and beliefs. For their professional development, the teacher educators experiment with new activities within the work‐situation and interact with colleagues within their professional community, more than that they study theory or reflect on their work. The participating teacher educators experience a positive impact at the personal level (change in cognition and behavior). More than one‐third of them share outcomes with others. Above, they report a more positive self‐esteem and more enthusiasm for teacher education. This article may motivate other countries or institutions to invest in the professional development of teacher educators. Further research is necessary on the essence of the professional qualities of teacher educators and the relation of their professional development with student learning.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Relations Among Professional Development,Educators’ Beliefs and Perceived Skills,and Response-to-Intervention Implementation

ABSTRACT

Professional development is a critical systems-level intervention thought to facilitate Response-to-Intervention (RtI) implementation. The current study examined the relations between professional development, educator outcomes, and problem-solving implementation within an RtI framework using growth curve modeling. School leadership teams from pilot schools (n = 34) participated in 3 years of training. Pilot schools also received job-embedded coaching. Comparison schools (n = 27) provided a referent group. Results indicated that problem-solving implementation increased faster at pilot schools (β = 0.10, SE = 0.05, t = 2.03, p < .05). In addition, beliefs regarding data-based decision-making (β = 0.36, SE = 0.17, t = 2.13, p < .05) and perceived problem-solving skills applied to academics (β = 0.30, SE = 0.10, t = 3.07, p < .01) positively related to implementation. Implications include the needs to further explore professional development activities and for consultants to utilize evidence-based professional development principles when supporting RtI implementation.     

What should teacher educators know about technology? Perspectives and self-assessments

This article offers a first look at teacher educators’ (N = 336) perceptions of their technology competencies based on the Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs; Foulger, Graziano, Schmidt-Crawford, & Slykhuis, 2017). The participants generally rated their competence levels highly in relation to the TETCs. Although many participants reported that the TETCs adequately reflected the competencies required of them, they suggested various additions and changes to the TETCs. This mixed-method study advances understanding of teacher educators’ perceptions of the importance of various competences to their work and offers feedback from the field regarding which competencies might be missing from the TETCs.     

Helpful Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of books and CDs that address topics related to the politics of midwifery in the United States, preparing expectant parents for childbirth, babywearing techniques, breastfeeding guides, and a child''s perspective of home birth.