An evidence-based case for quality online initial teacher education

Ensuring quality teachers and quality teacher education programmes have been fundamental global concerns over the decades. High quality teachers are critical to the future development of national educational systems and economic vitality. Teachers’ quality and professionalism are closely linked to their professional standards, preparation and development. Teacher education, therefore, plays a central role in preparing quality teacher and also laying foundation for the development of teacher as a professional. Worldwide, professional standards, teacher standards, teaching- leaning standards and teacher education standards are considered instrumental for improving teacher preparation, their quality and professionalism. In this context, it becomes pertinent to deliberate upon the multiple standards frameworks in operation and how these frameworks are informing teacher education programmes for preparing quality teachers. The discourses on standards and benchmarking provide effective platforms for measuring and improving performance, practice, and knowledge of teachers. Standard framework can be considered a diagnostic approach to the delivery of education which evolves through research and practice to generate new knowledge and to maintain an accountable profession. The analysis of teacher standards in both developed and developing countries clearly indicates that standards contribute to the professionalization of teaching and raise the status of the profession. Therefore standards and quality dimensions form the cornerstone for the teacher education policy, planning, and implementation. The ideas, concepts, and constructs for standards and benchmarking in teacher education are derived from comparative perspectives and implications on quality dimension processes. The concepts of standards and benchmarks in teacher education around the globe are interpreted and used in diverse ways. The developed countries of the world have specific or explicit teacher education standard frameworks, as per their country-specific expectations and requirements. Countries such as the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Scotland, and Singapore have exclusive standards frameworks for initial teacher education. Singapore and Finland have recognised the implication of teacher education standards and benchmarking on improving teaching profession. The implementation of standards is considered an important part of the solution to the problem of assessment, accreditation, and maintenance of teacher quality by the United States of America and Australia. Acknowledging the potential of standards to raise teacher quality, the East and South Asian countries are using implicit models by drawing essence from teacher, teaching and learning and professional standards frameworks as guiding reference for teacher education .The comparative analysis of standards frameworks across different countries reveals common features such as professional knowledge, professional competencies, professional skills, and professional conduct. Therefore, it can be argued that teaching learning and professional standards make teacher education programmes accountable to deliver quality and to prepare competent teachers. Though the use of a standards framework is highly acknowledged, it is equally critiqued by many researchers. In order to substantiate the deliberation, the major question of whether standard frameworks are facilitating teacher education or act as a trap can be explored. This question rallies around both the merits and demerits of the multiple use of standards in teacher education. Though explicit and implicit models for teacher education standards are in operation, it is recommended that standard framework should be flexible and dynamic in nature in order to be replicated and adopted by various teacher education programs. Despite the raised criticism, once can argue that standards frameworks are necessary for ensuring teacher education quality. The teacher education framework model necessitates continuous research and innovation support to make it more dynamic and contextual.

The low Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranks (ATARs) of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students are routinely highlighted in the media and in reviews of ITE, with the perception that such students will be unable to become effective teachers. As part of the NSW Government’s Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL) Framework, minimum academic entrance standards were introduced in 2016, with the intention of improving both teacher status and quality. Drawing upon Ball’s notion of policy effects and policy enactment, this paper critically explores these increased academic admissions requirements and reports on one aspect of a multiple case study research project. In doing so, I respond to the following research question, “what are the first and second order effects of policy designed to regulate admission into ITE in NSW?” Using interviews with senior ITE academics and university student recruitment personnel, findings from the study indicate that the policy has impacted the structure of ITE degrees, the quality, number and diversity of ITE students and is possibly excluding potential ITE students. I argue that despite these effects, in practice the same students are entering ITE, therefore demonstrating the disjoint between intention and enactment in policy implementation.

For generations, the kaleidoscope has captivated children and adults alike. The kaleidoscope viewer puts one end of the tube to her eye, points the other toward a light source, then rotates the tube, producing colorful symmetrical patterns formed by the tiny, tumbling objects inside. Beautiful though they are, these patterns are evanescent, disappearing with the twist of the wrist. The kaleidoscope maker cannot predict what patterns might emerge from the individual bits of colored glass, beads, or stones placed inside the tube. We believe that it is not too great a stretch to suggest that teacher educators are similar to kaleidoscope makers. Teacher educators put together programs of course work and experiences with the goal of educating teachers whose knowledge, skills, and habits of mind will intermingle to create pleasing patterns of practice called quality teaching. Unfortunately, neither decades of research nor volumes of policy documents on quality teaching and teacher education have yielded a definitive way to make those patterns consistent across contexts with different students, teachers, subject matter, and curricula, among other characteristics. It is generally assumed that quality teaching plays a major, if not the most important, role in shaping students' academic performances (Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002). It is further assumed that quality teaching is sorely needed, but lacking especially in urban school contexts, in order to help close achievement gaps and level the educational playing field for marginalized groups (Banks et al., 2005; Hollins & Guzman, 2005). These assumptions about quality teaching form a significant part of the conceptual base that has been driving the reform of teaching over the past 20 years and are evident in influential teaching reform and policy documents, legislation, and curriculum and teaching standards. These teaching reforms, in turn, are shaped by and shape the direction of teacher education and professional development through policy making and the development of standards for program accreditation, coalition and alignment of state-level teacher education policies, interstate policy and assessment consortia, and the certification of effective teachers. Teaching reforms are also influenced by and influence teacher education practice at the classroom level through images of teaching projected by various professional organizations in specific subject content areas, such as mathematics and literacy. Such reform policy and initiatives in teaching and teacher education may lead people to think that there is a unified image of quality teaching and a particular reform target. However, upon closer examination, there appears to be an uneven understanding of, and an assortment of notions related to, quality teaching and teacher education. It is not always clear what quality teaching means nor how it works--a problem that deserves further conceptual and empirical exploration. Three Perspectives on Quality Teaching In the existing literature, teaching quality is neither a widely agreed upon nor uniformly accepted concept. Instead, it is defined very differently or is grounded in different assumptions. These differences can be seen in at least three perspectives associated with teachers' cognitive resources, their performance, and their effect (Kennedy, 2008). Empirical support for the conception of quality teaching for each of these is often weak, inconsistent, or even contradictory. Quality teaching from a cognitive resource perspective is related to the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions teachers bring into the profession. From this perspective, we can trace several notions that appear central to policy debates related to teaching. First, quality teaching is linked to one's competence as demonstrated on academic and professional tests, and such competence is presumably one of the central predictors for how effective a teacher becomes. …

Global attention continues to focus on the quality of teaching, teacher quality, teacher education programs and the preparation of graduates who are ready to teach. This self-study research focuses on one aspect of the preparation and assessment of graduates for teaching: the marking and moderation of a Teaching Assessment Performance (TPA), a mandated assessment tool implemented in Australian universities and education institutions that is used as one key determinant to assess graduate readiness for the profession. While there is a developing field of research related to the implementation and effectiveness of TPAs, less is known about the teacher educator expertise required to mark and moderate these assessments. The purpose of this self-study, conducted at Federation University, a regional university in Australia, aimed to identify and examine teacher educator marker and moderator experience and expertise through the establishment of a professional learning community (PLC). Using audio-recorded transcripts of team meetings and teacher educator vignettes, the data were analysed using NVivo and were individually and collectively categorised and coded. Reflecting in and on our practice, we focused on critical moments, interactions, and experiences to interrogate the data. The key themes included: 1) collaboration through marking and moderation; 2) reflection through critical engagement; 3) growth as a teacher educator and 4) enactment in teacher educator practice. This self-study of practice, using a PLC, enabled us to make our often-tacit knowledge, understanding and expertise explicit, and provided frameworks and structures for enacting this new knowledge in practice.

Enlightenment of teacher education patterns in foreign countries on Chinese teacher education reform

For close to two decades, researchers have discussed the prevalence of digital divide in the United States. Scholars have also proposed principles to bring about digital equity. The purpose of this chapter is to examine both conceptual and empirical reviews and studies conducted in this millennium to bring about digital equity. The chapter informs teacher education programs, researchers, school administrators, policymakers, teachers, and other stakeholders about evidences and recommendations to bring about digital equity in US K-12 and teacher education.

This article identifies a number of conflicting discourses informing education in Fiji and their impact on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students. The socially constructivist progressivism of the Ministry of Education and the ITE provider is being eroded by a set of socially conservative discourses symptomatic of neoliberal education reforms elsewhere. It is the Practicum where the conflict is most acutely evidenced. To highlight the conflict 90 ITE students, as ethno-graphic fieldworkers, have used an accepted quality teaching checklist to record the teaching they witnessed while on practicum. The resulting misalignments between discourses of quality teaching identified in this article and highlighted by ITE students contributes to debates about what constitutes effective teaching in Fiji. Additionally, despite the multi-discursive reality of Fijian education the article suggests ITE based on a learning-centred rather than learner-centred approach where teachers make critical choices for teaching based on links between pedagogy, context and consequence.

One of the most persistent themes in the history of teacher education has been sharp public criticism coupled with ardent demands for improvement and change. Despite many reform initiatives over the years, however, it has been widely perceived that teacher education has been almost impervious to genuine reform (Fullan, 1998; Goodlad, 1990), failing to keep pace with the conditions of a changing society even when they threatened its very existence (Imig & Switzer, 1996). Perhaps it is the combination of a perceived historical failure to change coupled with the unprecedented intensity of current public attention that have prompted so many recent initiatives by prestigious national organizations and foundations that are related to teaching and teacher education, teachers' qualifications, and teacher quality. Although what follows is not a comprehensive list, the remainder of this editorial provides a brief description of some of the most visible current initiatives and reports that are directly related to teacher education; those recently completed are listed first, followed by those currently under way. Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy Research Report on Preparation. Suzanne Wilson, Robert Floden, and Joan Ferrini-Mundy (MSU) authored CTP's recent report, Teacher Preparation Research: Current Knowledge, Gaps, and Recommendations, for the U.S. Department of Education/OERI. The authors examined more than 300 peer-reviewed research reports about subject matter preparation, pedagogical preparation, clinical training, policies for improving teacher education, and alternative certification. Drawing on the 57 studies that met rigorous criteria, the report concludes that the empirical research base for teacher education is thin. It recommends a new generation of research that looks across institutions, examines specific parts of teachers' preparation, and has stronger research designs. Executive summary and full report are available at: http://www.ctpweb.org. Committee on Assessment and Quality Report. The National Research Council's Committee on Assessment and Quality recently issued Candidates: The Role of Licensure Tests in Improving Quality, edited by Karen Mitchell, David Robinson, Barbara Plake, and Kale Knolls. Chaired by David Robinson, the 19-member committee was impaneled by the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. DOE to examine the appropriateness and technical quality of teacher licensure tests and the merits of such tests for holding states and higher education institutions accountable for the quality of teacher education. The report concludes that initial teacher licensure tests fall short of the intended policy goals for their use as accountability tools and as levers for improving teacher preparation and licensing programs. Complete report is available at http://www. nap.edu. Educational Testing Service's Studies of Quality and Education. ETS' work on teacher quality and teacher education is not a single initiative but an emphasis in several of their centers. Along these lines, Harold Wenglinsky's study linking students' achievement in math and science with teacher qualifications, professional development and classroom practices, concludes that classroom practices matter most. His study on teaching teachers explores the links among the characteristics of teacher education institutions, their programs, and teacher effectiveness as measured by scores on licensure exams. Drew Gitomer, Andrew Latham and Robert Ziomek's study on the academic quality of prospective teachers concludes that prospective teachers' academic ability varies widely by type of licensure sought. For information on these and other ETS studies, consult: http://www.ets.org.research/. AERA Consensus Panel on Education. The AERA Consensus Panel is an 18-month initiative intended to provide a synthesis of existing empirical and conceptual research related to the preparation of new teachers. …

An emphasis on teacher quality in Australia has resulted in many changes in teacher education including a recent emphasis on non-academic capabilities (such as resilience) of prospective teachers. Reporting data obtained through an online survey of 73 teacher educators, this chapter presents their views about pre-service teacher resilience and the role of teacher educators and education programs in promoting resilience for pre-service teachers. Findings illustrate the multiple contexts important in the development of teacher resilience and how resilience can be demonstrated during the pre-service years. Barriers and supports for embedding resilience in teacher education programs are discussed. We argue that in times of uncertainty and complexity in teacher education, resilience is critical for sustained effectiveness and growth.

Teacher education

Extensive research about the impact of classroom supervisors' feedback has established it as asignificant indicator of pre-service teachers’ success as teachers. However, there is missingliterature of corresponding depth that documents the impact that feedback, inclusive of the widercontext of the entire professional placement (placement feedback), holds for the success of pre-service teachers’ professional identification as teachers. My significant original contribution toalleviate this deficit, is the understanding reached in this inquiry that documents the quality-proofing practices that these pre-service teachers innovated from their placement feedback intohigh quality teaching practice like that of qualified teachers. This professional understanding willinform a range of stakeholders committed to addressing issues of quality teaching in initial teachereducation to support pre-service teachers in mandated contexts of professional experienceplacement.Evidence from three further sources motivated my commitment to this research inquiry for that verycharter of support. The first source was evidence in the literature-as-data that showed thesustained impact of the global “crisis of confidence” in teachers and their pre-service counterpartsas professionals. Widespread calls for the standardisation of teachers’ work on a global and localscale have driven reforms in the Schools and Higher (Initial Teacher) Education sectors that haveset professional work performance for pre-service teachers at standards reflecting the world classOECD level. Second, was the widespread issue for more rigorous scrutiny of entrants suitable forinitial teacher education programs and the quality of the program, itself. The third motivating factorwas my own extensive professional supervision and teacher-support roles with pre-serviceteachers, their classroom supervising teachers, and their placement co-ordinators. These rolesspanned some decades; initially, in my role as a classroom supervising teacher; a teacher co-ordinator and researcher for a national university in a remote indigenous location, a lecturer/tutor inregional and capital city teacher education programs; then more recently, as a professional liaisonofficer working within a coastal regional university-to-school-partnership of professional experienceplacement.Altogether, these motivations directed the inquiry through the pursuit of the main researchquestion: What is the contribution of placement feedback to pre-service teachers’ professionalidentity formation? This question assumed an unexplored connection or impact between twodifferentiated phenomena for pre-service teachers while at placement: (i) their feedback and (ii)their identification as teachers. To explore this assumption, the research design needed to bepractice led and recently experienced so that participants could capture the essence of thephenomenon of what-it-was-like-for-them-living-through-placement-feedback. So, I developed abespoke design of a phenomenology of professional practice, using a suite of mixed methods ofphenomenological, qualitative and quantitative analysis within an evidence-based epistemologicalframework. Twelve volunteer participants joined the inquiry from several teacher education cohortsof a well-established Australian university across two different campuses, one regional and onemetropolitan. They engaged in individual person-to-person conversations, semi-structuredinterviews and in online discussion; before, during and / or after placement in the role of pre-service teachers.Thematic analysis of the cache of data revealed five overall findings that ‘quality-proofed’participants’ recognition as professional teachers. Four major findings were the following sub-ordinate themes: 1. Pedagogical practices, 2. Professional communication, 3. Relationship-buildingpractices and 4. Professional learning and placement workplace responsibilities. The fifth findingwas the overlapping zone of shared codes from the sub-ordinate themes: the super-ordinate themeof professional relationality. Professional relationality enacted by pre-service teachers involvedmastery of a complex collaborative capability with placement feedback to develop coreprofessional pedagogical practices that gained recognition for themselves as professionalteachers.As the contribution of placement feedback to professional identification for pre-service teachers,was documented as professional relationality, it became evident that this was ground-breakingresearch for two reasons. First was that their recognition as a functioning classroom teacher wasessentially contingent upon their capacity with professional relationality and placement feedback.The second reason was that knowledge of this would impact a range of stakeholders. Potential andcurrent teaching candidates would benefit from knowing the relational capacity required of them tobe recognised as teachers, given the quality of their engagement with their placement feedback.Future and existing classroom supervising teachers would know the quality of placement feedbackrequired of them and could tailor their preparation to provide it. Teacher education providers andteacher educators would also have an evidence-base to guide course content to includeengagement with placement feedback as a distinct high-quality form of feedback-as-a-pedagogical-professional that can make or break pre-service teachers’ sense of themselves asteachers. An added significant contribution of this inquiry was my appreciation of a phenomenologyof practice as a research practice methodology to explore phenomena of individual pre-serviceteachers transforming their professional pedagogical practice in the placement field. Essential tothis effectiveness was the triple hermeneutic, a meaning-making set of conditions of professionalresearch that highlighted the relationship between the researched, the researcher and the researchstakeholders.

Career-changers’ technology integration beliefs and practice in initial teacher education: A summative cross-case analysis

<i>Rejoinder</i>: Misunderstanding the Problem of Out-of-Field Teaching

This study focuses on exploring subjective theories of teacher educators about quality teaching in the context of their profession in Rwanda. It is based on determinant role of subjective theories in educational quality improvement. Additionally, teacher educators are the driving forces due to their role in the initial and continuous teacher education. However, empirical research on teacher educators’ subjective theories is very limited in the Global South including Rwanda. Due to the exploratory nature this study, a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was used to collect data from 32 teacher educators theoretically sampled. Using content analysis, iterative deductive-inductive process as well as the generalisation of results through abduction, the results show that interviewed teacher educators have four ideal types of subjective theories. They include subjective theories focusing on: formalities by compliance (following pedagogical and administrative formalities); knowledge by transmission (transmission of immutably prescribed knowledge); behaviour by imitation (learning by imitation) and competences by co-construction (development of competences through active, interactive and reflective approaches). The generated typology enlightens research, policy and practice regarding quality teaching and teacher education in Rwanda and possibly similar contexts.

In early 2015, the Australian Government and an associated Ministerial Group called for ‘urgent national action to improve the quality of initial teacher education’. Following this call for action, the Australian Government launched a series of reforms into initial teacher education, targeting ‘teacher quality’ and ‘classroom readiness’. The reforms are based on a logic of deficiency within initial teacher education, mandating new accreditation processes, standardized assessments and the National Literacy and Numeracy Test for pre-service teachers. In this paper we set out to explore these reforms, considering the policy trajectories, technologies and technicist network in which they are operationalized. We propose the concept of reification and objectification to examine the institutionalization of auditing, standardization, and accountability. These reforms aim to intervene in both the content and delivery of initial teacher education. We argue that reforms such as these recondition our conceptions of professionalism and teacher quality. There is a contraction in scope for progressive or experiential teacher education, and moreover, the ongoing de-professionalism of teachers and teacher educators, whom are subjected to constant surveillance.