Understanding the Complexity of Becoming a Teacher Educator: Experience,belonging, and practice within a professional learning community

This article reports a literature review of self-studies by beginning teacher educators examining their experiences of the transition from classroom teaching to teacher educator. The authors conclude that becoming a teacher educator involves several complex and challenging tasks: examining beliefs and values grounded in personal biography, including those associated with being a former schoolteacher; navigating the complex social and institutional contexts in which they work; and developing a personal pedagogy of teacher education that enables construction of a new professional identity as a teacher educator. This research provides beginning teacher educators with a reference point for understanding their personal and professional transition to university-based teacher education. It also provides teacher education faculty and administrators with key information about how the transition from teacher to teacher educator can be supported and enhanced within professional learning communities.     

Supporting Collaborative Self-Study: An Exploration of Internal and External Critical Friendships

ABSTRACT

This article outlines how a cyclic process of reflection and action was strengthened by the role of an external critical friend in a collaborative self-study. As three teacher education practitioners, two of us participated in the collaborative self-study, acting as internal critical friends to each other, while the third added an external layer of criticality. We both coached the university football team through one playing season: planning, coaching and reflecting collaboratively. Examination of the collaborative self-study identified two essential elements that supported our learning. The collaborative self-study was supported by a cyclic process of reflection, planning and action, and this foundational layer with review and deliberation to support the critical reflection contributed to learning and practices, both as coaches and as teacher education practitioners. A second layer of collaboration, in conjunction with an external critical friend, added to the depth of critique. While the role of critical friend is not new to self-study, analysis of data from both layers of critical friendships is useful in exploiting the structures and methods used throughout the study to contribute to individual and collaborative learning. This article presents the intricate details of the modus operandi – the repetitive cycle of action and reflection at the foundational layer, and the additional review and deliberation with an external critical friend in the second layer.     

Beginning to Understand Teaching as a Discipline

We explore the possibility of understanding teaching as a discipline in its own right, rather than as a domain that is ancillary to the many academic disciplines. While teaching looks easy and is widely regarded as easy, the image of teaching as transmission and the perspective of technical rationality mask the many ways in which challenging and engaging teaching represents a highly disciplined view. When extended to teacher education, the perspective of teaching as a discipline sheds powerful light on longstanding frustrations reported by those learning to teach. We argue for the conclusion that teaching is a discipline and that teacher education is the home of that discipline, with self-study as one of the central methodologies for making explicit the knowledge inherent in teaching seen as a discipline.     

Listening to Students,Listening to Myself: Addressing pre-service teachers' fears of mathematics and teaching mathematics

This paper describes a self-study in which I, as a teacher educator, seek to understand how to respond effectively to my pre-service students' fears about learning and teaching primary mathematics. I studied my students' response to a new mathematics methods course that is tied to practicum. Results include the importance of listening closely to students' feelings about learning and teaching math, responding with opportunities to re-learn primary math concepts in a collaborative and hands-on environment, and providing opportunities for pre-service teachers to experience success with math teaching in primary school settings. What I did not realize at the outset was that the students and I would be on a parallel journey. While I endeavored to listen to their voices, I struggled with my limited voice as a sessional instructor. While they struggled to feel like “real” math teachers, I struggled to feel like a “real” math professor. Fear of teaching math to young children was mirrored by my fear of pioneering a new course. Examination of a key incident in the first year of the course and of the role of a critical friend helped me to see and understand these parallel paths.     

An Academic Library's Self-Study in Ethics: A Library-Wide Investigation of Ethical Practice

Abstract

In the fall of 2017, the Clark Library at the University of Portland undertook an investigation of ethics in academic libraries to understand ethical practices in the library’s day-to-day work. The self-study was a year-long, library-wide project with directed activities within small groups, individually assigned readings and responses, and discussions at all-staff meetings. The project culminated in three specific deliverables: an annotated bibliography focused on ethical issues by functional area, a Clark Library Statement of Ethics, and a Statement of Ethical Information Use for inclusion in University syllabi.     

畅想高等教育自学考试改革之路

文章从个人自学、国家考试、社会助学三结合的自学考试性质出发,进行开拓性思索:强化个人自学,变自学考试为自学教育;改革国家考试内容,由学术知识的识记改为实用能力的考察;弱化学历教育的社会助学,助学单位从学校走向企业、行业等。着力探索开放、灵活的个性化、生活化、社会化自学教育,促进人的终身学习和全面发展,使自学考试成为个体的生活存在方式。     

自我效能感与体育院校学生英语自主学习能力的提高

分析了自我效能感对语言学习的影响,并针对体育院校大学生英语自主学习能力较低、学习效果差这一现状,提出英语教师应该努力转变角色,运用有效的教学策略,提高体育大学生的自我效能感,培养学生英语自主学习能力,提高体育院校英语教学效果。     

基于Moodle平台的网络课程《资产评估学》教学改革实践

网络课程《资产评估学》以培养学生利用网络自主学习的能力为中心,以Moodle平台系统为支撑,课程责任教师提供网上资源进行导学,课程辅导教师整合教学资源及组织网上实时、非实时教学活动开展助学,导学教师管理督促学生网上学习,三类教师的教学活动相互配合,导助督有机渗透,学生协同学习,从而提高《资产评估学》教学质量。网络课程《资产评估学》以其开放性、技术性、交互性、学习自主性和资源共享性等特点深受师生欢迎。本文就其理论基础及实践过程进行探讨。     

发展中的自学考试教育特点及定位的再思考

随着国内外教育形势的改变,自学考试在我国高等教育中的地位和作用、服务对象、教育形式等都发生了较大的改变。基于此,如何正确认识自学考试的发展,及时总结和概括自学考试的新的特点,是自学考试重新定位和未来发展所需思考的重要问题之一。本文从国家法律规范和自学考试自身实践发展的两个角度,综合已有的研究成果,对自学考试教育的特点及其相关认识问题进行了一定的探讨。