A bridge over troubling waters: a snapshot of teacher graduates' perceptions of their ongoing professional learning needs

For graduating teachers, the bridging period between formal teacher preparation and joining the profession is a time of high anxiety and great excitement. While this transition influences efficacy, job satisfaction, career length and future teaching quality, it is widely recognised to be inconsistent, poorly planned and resourced and largely unsupported. In Australia, the transition to teaching remains largely a school-based affair. However, individual schools may not have the resources to support a comprehensive and cohesive transition program. This paper discusses a pilot university program of extended teacher preparation. It reports on the perceived professional learning needs of a group of graduates as they transition to teaching. The key findings indicate that these graduates are seeking ongoing support as they develop confidence in their canonical skills of teaching. The authors argue that university-based programs are one way of providing professional learning and support for beginning teachers.     

Understanding non-traditional PhD students habitus – implications for PhD programmes

Against the background of vast changes in doctoral education and the emergence of non-traditional doctoral programmes, this paper investigates the habitus of non-traditional PhD students at a South African university. Bourdieu's conceptual tool of habitus informed the study. In-depth and open-ended interviews were conducted with 10 non-traditional students. Data analysis indicates non-traditional students' complex and multifaceted habitus. Non-traditional PhD students' dispositions and experiences include tenacious self-motivation and self-regulation in the face of severely constraining conditions, diverse epistemologies, hybrid goals, more communal orientations, perplexedness about ‘produce new knowledge’ and other requirements of the PhD, vulnerability regarding funds, complex self-change ranging from elation and affirmation to humiliation and confusion and exclusion and non-recognition at the department and faculty levels. These findings indicate greater challenges for non-traditional doctoral programmes that would respond to the academic and social needs of non-traditional students.     

Learning to teach in higher education: how to link theory and practice

In this study the learning process of 12 Dutch novice university teachers was monitored during a five-month induction programme. The teachers were interviewed before and after the programme and were asked to fill in several email logbooks during the programme. A change process was identified, in which experiencing and experimentation played a central role. In particular, modelling by the teacher educator, the observation of video cases, reflection on these with peers and experiencing success in their own practice seemed to be important incentives that encouraged teachers to adopt and eventually implement new pedagogical approaches. On the basis of our data, we think that teachers' conceptions and teaching practice are best developed simultaneously and that the design of induction programmes should support this process.     

Effective Strategies for Information Technology in Teacher Education: the use of an evolving permeation model

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the debate in recent years about the most effective strategy for establishing the use of information technology in teacher training establishments in the United Kingdom. Evidence is presented to support the notion that efforts should continue to permeate the use of information technology throughout the courses of such establishments. However, the paper suggests that staff development and the degree of permeation of information technology within the culture develop alongside each other. As one of these variables change, it feeds the development of the other; neither is an independent variable though both are influenced by external factors. Recognising this as a relatively slow process, the paper proposes a model of evolutionary permeation.     

Developing an action learning way of working within a leadership context in higher education: barriers and enablers

This account of practice considers action learning within an accredited leadership course at a post-1992 university. It outlines a more individualistic approach than that envisioned by Reg Revans and questions how this technique, inherited from a Staff Development colleague, could potentially be improved.     

Transitioning to the classroom: reflections of second‐career teachers during the induction year

In recent years teacher educators have witnessed an increase in the number of alternative pathways to university‐based teacher education for prospective teachers. One option is for second‐career teachers to enter post‐baccalaureate programs in education; however, the experiences of second‐career teachers are largely unexplored in the international literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the teaching beliefs that post‐baccalaureate students brought into a graduate level teacher certification program, and the extent to which those beliefs persevered or changed during their first year of teaching. Written philosophy statements and semi‐structured interviews from the three participants were analyzed to identify emerging themes. Outcomes, presented in the form of vignettes, suggested that second‐career teachers experienced many of the same contextual pressures as baccalaureate teachers and struggled adapting to the teaching profession and implementing their stated teaching beliefs. Implications include continued research on second‐career teachers as they represent a distinct population entering the teaching profession.     

A teacher competence development programme for supporting students’ reflection skills

The Teachers of Promise study has followed the work histories of 57 primary and secondary teachers who had been identified at the beginning of their third year of teaching as having the potential to make a significant contribution to the profession. Using data from surveys and interviews, this paper reports on what sustained or inhibited their initial commitment to and enthusiasm for ‘making a difference’, six years later, both in the classroom and in broader school leadership roles. Satisfaction with their day-to-day experiences in their schools was a particularly strong driver of teachers’ career decisions over time. Thirty-four teachers responded to survey items that were used to identify three different groups of teachers: a group of 10 primary school teachers with the highest levels of job satisfaction who were ‘fulfilling their promise’; a group of 21 primary and secondary teachers who were ‘persevering and coping’; and three teachers who were ‘detached and disengaged’. The group with the highest levels of job satisfaction taught in primary schools where they felt respected and valued, and supported to develop their teaching and leadership expertise. School leadership practices and school cultures in the other two groups diminished teachers’ overall job satisfaction and contribution to collective knowledge building in their schools. Almost all of the teachers had retained their commitment to students, to their current schools and to teaching as a career, including those with lower levels of satisfaction. Although these teachers reported ‘collegial’ relationships with their peers, individualistic school cultures, most often in secondary schools, impacted on their opportunities to learn with and from their colleagues. Few secondary school teachers felt appreciated, and included in school decision-making or had found it possible to combine high standards of classroom teaching with management responsibilities. The study indicates that while most promising teachers were still satisfied with teaching after nine years, relatively few were in schools where they were able to make the impact that had been predicted for them early in their careers.     

变速恒频双馈感应发电机的建模及仿真

利用MATLAB/SIMULINK仿真软件,构建了双馈感应发电机仿真模型,对容量1．5MW变速恒频双馈感应风力发电机进行了变速恒频仿真,仿真结果表明：所建立的模型是正确的,变速恒频运行特性是良好的。     

Readiness for school of children having attended language immersion kindergarten in their teachers' and parents' opinions

In multicultural societies, much attention is given to children's language learning possibilities. In Estonia, the early language immersion programme for kindergarten children was started in the year 2000. The programme, while considered to be successful, has raised the question of whether the children participating in it are adequately prepared for school. The objective of the present study is to observe the readiness for school of those children who have participated in the early language immersion programme, taking into consideration the objectives of the curriculum and their teachers' and parents' assessments. The method of this study was a questionnaire employed over a three-year period (2009–2011) involving the teachers and parents of those children who were beginning their primary school education. The results of the study revealed that, according to the assessments of their teachers and parents, the readiness for school of the children having completed the early language immersion programme was very good. Data prove that language immersion programmes provide children with enough preparation to make a smooth transition from kindergarten to school life.