Knowledge Base For Teacher Education Research Articles

Lost in translation – production, reproduction and transformation of teacher education knowledge in teacher educators’ local practices

ABSTRACT European teacher educations today are expected to not only be ‘close to school practices’, but also to equip their students with academic knowledge. This article analyses one year of fieldwork data to discuss how these expectations are produced, reproduced and transformed in local practices by different categories of teacher educators (lecturers/assistant lecturers). The theory of practice architectures and Basil Bernstein’s concepts of vertical and horizontal knowledge discourses are employed to analyse different practices of teacher educators, and how these practices constrain and enable different actions, understandings, and relations. Different roles are identified, and it is argued that local and distal arrangements fuel isolation and fragmentation, leading to a situation where difference becomes a burden and important discourses risk being lost in translation. Under such circumstances, seemingly tangible, applicable knowledge risks overshadowing important general, theoretical, and context-independent knowledge that are crucial for a scientific professional knowledge base in teacher education.

Making the Invisible Visible: Identifying Shared Functions that Enable the Complex Work of University-based Teacher Educators

ABSTRACT Through our shared interest in articulating a knowledge base for teacher education, we believe a deeper examination of the work of teacher educators would contribute to a fuller understanding of who teacher educators are and the work they do. Recognizing how context and positionality influence conceptions of teacher education and with a desire to refine our own understandings of the work of teacher educators, we engaged in a collaborative self-study to examine the work of 12 university-based teacher educators in the United States. Through our analysis of one day in our work, we identified three key functions that transcend our positions and, at the same time, are essential, even core, aspects of the work that we enact daily. These functions of Design, Leadership and Advocacy are all framed by the educative purpose of the work of teacher educators. These functions are overlapping and highlight the movement and energy among the functions and collective purpose for teacher educator work. An underlying thread of connectivity, building and maintaining growth-oriented relationships through positionality, communication, and interaction weaves throughout the functions, and we found our community of practice developed throughout the collaborative self-study was a key aspect of connectivity and collaboration in our work as teacher educators. Identifying the key educative functions across our work enabled us to codify a shared language and challenge the assumption that there is no knowledge base in teacher education as an enterprise. We believe our examination of our work informs future inquiry into collective teacher educator practice.

Five Trends in Physical Education Teacher Education

In this article we present five trends that are impacting physical education teacher education (PETE). The trends are (a) practice-based teacher education that refines the knowledge base for teacher education, (b) core teaching practices that define the critical teaching practices for successful lifelong teaching, (c) pedagogies of practice that operationalize practice-based teacher education with core practices, (d) the reconnection of health education with physical education, and (e) the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model. We describe each trend, discuss related policy implications and provide examples of how to use these trends in PETE.

Essential constructs in the preparation of inclusive bilingual education teachers: Mediation, agency, and collectivity

ABSTRACT This conceptual article is guided by the question, how can we build the knowledge base in teacher education to prepare teachers for such education classrooms? I argue that three constructs are essential to the preparation of teachers who work in these settings: mediation, agency, and collectivity. Implications for teacher preparation programs are discussed and praxis examples are provided.

Exploring the Relationship Between Preservice Teachers’ Conceptions of Problem Solving and Their Problem-Solving Performances

Despite the importance of teachers’ conceptions of and competency in problem solving, limited attention is given to this area in the current literature. We examined 96 preservice elementary teachers’ problem-solving conceptions and performances by having them define and create metaphors for problem solving and then investigated the relationships between their conceptions and problem-solving performances. We found that a large majority defined problem solving as a means to a solution and created end-product metaphors and that their conceptions of problem solving were related to their performances. This study contributes to the current literature on problem solving and the knowledge base of teacher education.

Competence Measurement in (Mathematics) Teacher Education and Beyond: Implications for Policy

Teacher education and the professional development of teachers has become a prominent topic in recent policy discussions worldwide. However, many educational changes have been carried out without clear reference to the results of empirical studies evaluating the efficiency of teacher education programs. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion. It provides an overview on the current knowledge derived from empirical research on the structure of the professional competence of teachers and competence development during teacher education. First, a description of a theoretical framework for the professional competence of teachers and their impact of competence measurement with pre- and in-service mathematics teachers is given. Then, the competence development of teachers at the transition from teacher education into teaching practice and the relation to instructional quality and student learning gains is described. Finally, implications for policy are outlined, emphasizing the necessity of a sound knowledge base in teacher education, which has to be complemented by professional noticing accounting for situated facets of teacher competence. Due to the dynamic acquisition of teacher competence through practical learning opportunities in early career teaching, strong professional development measures are needed.

The Knowledge Base for Language Teacher Education Revisited: A Review

The debate on the knowledge base for teacher education (TE) in general and language teacher education in particularhas been going on for while with no unanimity on what it should entail. In this paper, I review literature on the issueof the knowledge base, specifically on language teacher education (LTE). The key question guiding this review is:What is the conceptual foundation of the knowledge base for LTE? This suggests that the debate needs to considerpedagogical reasoning as a core pillar of the knowledge base for LTE. At the centre of the concept of pedagogicalreasoning is the need for language teachers to understand the relationships between principles and procedures oflanguage teaching. While this paper focuses on English language, I believe that the issues raised are relevant to anyother second language teaching contexts since the concept of pedagogical reasoning as a basis of the knowledge basefor LTE is not limited to English Language (EL) Contexts.

<b>Concepções de cultura no ensino de línguas: reflexões para a formação professores

A crescente comunicação intercultural por meio das tecnologias digitais no mundo atual nos faz refletir sobre a necessidade de repensarmos a relação entre língua, cultura e sociedade na formação de professores de línguas. Neste artigo, discutiremos alguns dos resultados de uma pesquisa qualitativa conduzida no contexto do projeto ‘Teletandem Brasil’, da Unesp, em um curso de formação continuada para professores de língua estrangeira da rede pública. Os resultados evidenciam a tendência dos professores de tratar cultura como um conjunto de conhecimentos sobre os produtos, práticas e perspectivas de um povo, geralmente associados a um estado-nação homogêneo, estanque e isento de conflitos. Os impactos de tais resultados para a formação de professores de línguas apontam para a necessidade de uma revisão da base de conhecimentos de tal formação no que se refere ao ensino e à aprendizagem de cultura em sala de aula de língua estrangeira, a fim de dissociá-lo da ideia de um corpo homogêneo, fixo e transparente de conhecimentos.

Locating Research on Physical Education Teacher Education in the Teaching and Teacher Education From 2001 to 2010

Teacher education has been considered multidisciplinary since it first became a field of inquiry in the 1990s. However, the relationship between physical education teacher education (PETE) and the larger field of teacher education remains undefined. To determine this relationship, this study aimed to understand the status quo of research on PETE (R-PETE) and its relationship with and trends within the broader knowledge base of teacher education during one decade. A total of 853 studies published in Teaching and Teacher Education from 2001 to 2010 were collected then, applying the method of quantitative content analysis, categorized by publication year, teacher's stages of life career, research issues, and research methodologies. The results confirmed that R-PETE was considered as having a legitimate but peripheral relationship with the larger teacher education field during the study period. This paper discusses the implications of this relationship found and provides recommendations for future research on PETE.

The marginalisation of social justice as a form of knowledge in teacher education in England

This paper utilises the analytical concepts developed in the work of Basil Bernstein to reflect on the ways in which discourses such as social justice are especially vulnerable in teacher education in England. In particular, under new-managerial regimes the forms of knowledge which are emphasised and valued focus on the instrumental and performative. As a consequence, critical and vertical forms of knowledge associated with social justice in teacher education are either absent or marginalised and reframed away from an appreciation and awareness of the structural and economic causes of inequality. Moreover, the criteria needed to effectively introduce social justice as a knowledge base in teacher education are positioned antithetically to neo-liberalism–neo-conservatism, making them arguably impossible to achieve within the current system of education in England.

The state of the art in Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices: a systematic literature review

This article reports on a systematic review of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices research literature published between 1990 and 2012. Self-study research refers to teacher educators researching their practice with the purpose of improving it, making explicit and validating their professional expertise and, at the same time, contributing to the knowledge base of teacher education. Reflecting our analysis, we defined self-study as a research approach in the field of teacher education which can be typified by the following characteristics: self-study research focuses on one’s own practice; for this reason, it privileges the use of qualitative research methods; collaborative interactions play a central role in the research process; and its validation is based on trustworthiness. Furthermore, we identified two tensions inherent in the self-study work, on which researchers always and continuously need to position themselves for self-study inquiries to achieve its purposes: the tension between relevance and rigour on the one hand, and that of effectiveness and understanding on the other hand.

Exploring the Mathematical Knowledge Needed for Teaching Teachers

The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge demands of teacher educators as they teach disciplinary content to preservice elementary teachers, specifically in mathematics, and to understand how such knowledge is different from that used by K-12 teachers. Drawing from a database including teaching and learning artifacts from five iterations of a content course for preservice teachers, the authors illustrate different forms of knowledge observed across different mathematics teacher educators’ practice and discuss how the observed knowledge forms are different from knowledge used by K-12 teachers in their practice. Finally, the authors discuss how the process used in this study can identify potential components of a knowledge base for teacher education.

Talking Across the Disciplines

In one of our early editorials (Volume 63:1), we noted the tendency for many teacher education researchers to submit research that has broader teacher education implications to specialized content journals--journals that may or may not be read by teacher educators. We framed this as a choice faced by faculty who walk in two university worlds--for example, science education and teacher education--about their identities as researchers. Our question was whether we could benefit from encouraging content area education researchers to frame their work from a broader teacher education perspective and consider the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) as an outlet for their work. The theme for this issue is a direct consequence of the conversations we have had around this question. Our framing of the theme was influenced by shifts in thinking over the past 25 years about how we view teacher expertise and the nature of knowledge for teacher education (see, for example, Shulman, 1986). As a result of embracing the notion of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) introduced by Shulman, teacher educators, who were previously more concerned with generic teaching knowledge, turned their attention to subject-specific pedagogical issues. This paradigm shift has resulted in powerful discoveries about teaching, learning, curriculum, and teacher education in a variety of disciplines. But the shift, combined with other factors such as the location of teacher education faculty positions in subject-area departments, definitions of teacher quality in terms of teachers' content preparation, and national and state content-focused standards, has also fractured teacher education into many disciplinary areas. The result is that much of the innovative research in teacher education is reported in discipline-specific journals, and colleges of education have fewer teacher educators not associated with disciplinary areas. While subject-area specialization has been critical to establishing the specialized nature of teachers' knowledge and expertise, it is also appropriate to consider the intended and unintended consequences of the intellectual silos created and their cost or contribution to developing a coherent knowledge base for teacher education. To stimulate the conversation, we proposed a theme issue that prompted researchers and readers to submit empirical and conceptual manuscripts that considered the following questions, among others: What general pedagogical knowledge or shared concepts could transcend the subject areas? How might teacher education research, theory, policy, and practice build on discipline-embedded inquiry in a way that impacts teacher education in a more general way? Is there research located within a specific discipline that has strong implications for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners of teacher education in general? What are the processes and outcomes associated with collaboration across disciplines in teacher education? Highlights of Theme Articles In the lead article for this issue, Core Practices and Pedagogies of Teacher Education: A Call for a Common Language and Collective Activity, Morva McDonald, Elhem Kazemi, and Sarah Kavenaugh propose a framework focusing on core practices that can stimulate the exchange of ideas as well as the development of a common language and set of identified pedagogies across different settings and content areas in teacher education. The framework builds on work like that of Lampert and her colleagues on core practices in mathematics featured in our previous issue (Lampert et al., 2013) and extends it to other content areas, including a description of what a core practice (eliciting student thinking) identified initially in mathematics might look like in social studies. The authors emphasize that the intent is not to generate a single set of practices to be adopted by the field as a whole but to encourage the development of a common understanding of core practice across content areas to be used in determination and elaboration of a pedagogy for teacher education. …

Systematically Improving Lessons in Teacher Education: What's Good for Prospective Teachers is Good for Teacher Educators

Researchers have advocated building a knowledge base for teacher education based on practitioner knowledge. In this article, the authors, two teacher educators, present knowledge gained from their systematic study of two lessons to help prospective teachers learn to study teaching. They offer a detailed look at the lessons' successes and shortcomings as well as potential revisions. They also reflect on their use of a model for systematically studying lessons, sharing details about their learning during this process. This article attempts to provide a visible, tangible product for other teacher educators interested in helping prospective teachers examine evidence of student learning.

Using “Lack of Fidelity” to Improve Teaching

The author presents a procedure for learning from variations that occur when instructors implement lesson plans designed by others. This kind of variation, occurring in many classrooms every day, can provide a source of information for improving curriculum, both in terms of instructional activities for students and especially in terms of clarifications for instructors to support more effective implementation. The author provides detailed descriptions, in the context of a mathematics course for preservice K-8 teachers, for using implementation variations in a practical, research-based way to study and improve teaching. The goal is to build an accumulating knowledge base for teacher education. Examples are presented to illustrate how increasingly rich lesson plans, based on observing implementation variations, can move toward achieving this goal.

Adding to the Knowledge Base

In our first two issues as editors of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE), we expressed a commitment to facilitating the development of the knowledge base in teacher education while strengthening the connections among research, practice, and policy. Sharon Robinson, President and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), provided a guest editorial in our initial issue (JTE Vol. 62, Issue 5), which signaled the increased importance and need for research informing practice in educator preparation. The current issue features a guest editorial by Donna Wiseman, Chair of the AACTE Executive Committee, which extends the connections between research and policy through a focus on the need for scholarly solutions to the myriad policy questions and issues that confront teacher education today. In addition, this issue includes five articles that contribute to our knowledge and understanding of preservice and inservice teacher education as a means of improvement of classroom instruction, networks for support and development of certain dispositions, and community-based experience in relation to the learning trajectories of preservice teachers. The first article, Teaching, Rather Than Teachers, As a Path Toward Improving Classroom Instruction, by James Hiebert and Anne Morris, argues that we have traditionally relied more heavily on either recruiting more talented people into teaching initially or improving the quality of teachers entering the profession to improve classroom instruction. Instead, they make the case for improving instructional methods by using knowledge products (annotated lesson plans or common assessments). In other words, they claim that the focus of teacher education needs to be on teaching rather than the teachers themselves. Although the second article, Practice-Based Professional Development for Self-Regulated Strategies Development in Writing: A Randomized Controlled Study, by Karen Harris, Kathleen Lane, Steve Graham, Steven Driscoll, Karin Sondmel, Mary Brindle, and Christopher Schatschneider, is not necessarily an explicit example of Hiebert and Morris' definition of professional development through focus on teaching rather than teachers, it exhibits many of the characteristics. Harris et al. used practice-based professional development to enable teachers to implement strategies instruction and included detailed lesson plans for instruction that teachers discussed and adapted. Notable characteristics of this randomized controlled study include the focus on student outcomes as well as observed teacher implementation and students' and teachers' perceptions of the social validity of the strategies instruction program. The next two articles provide a contrast to the notion of focusing on teaching rather than teachers. Both studies investigate the role of networks in recruiting, developing, and sustaining certain teacher dispositions identified as important in previous research and theory. Scott Ritchie's contribution, Incubating and Sustaining: How Teacher Networks Enable and Support Social Justice Education, uses a backward mapping approach to examine the role of various types of networks in supporting teachers who enact critical pedagogy and social justice education. …

Critical issues in supporting self-study

In this article, we focus on an analysis of critical issues in supporting teacher educators conducting a self-study. As data, we have used the digital logbooks written by the participating teacher educators, the outcomes of the interviews we held at the end of the support process, and of a follow-up questionnaire answered by the participating teacher educators six months later. We have found seven issues critical to enhancing the chances of self-studies being beneficial to the practice of teacher education as well as to the further development of a knowledge base for teacher education. In addition, our study points to four themes for further attention and research.

Teacher education for learner autonomy: an analysis of the EuroPAL contribution to a knowledge base

This paper critically discusses attempts to define a knowledge base for teacher education and suggests that even if it were possible to agree on essential knowledge and skills for teacher education for learner autonomy (TELA), such an understanding would almost certainly not apply in all situations, given variations in language policies, schools, pupils, teachers, resources, and administrative leadership. This discussion will be illustrated with reference to EuroPAL, a project which aimed at producing materials for TELA in language education in Europe. Its outcomes may be seen as a contribution to the construction of a knowledge base that is critical, teacher-centred and context-sensitive.

The Role of Learning Goals in Building a Knowledge Base for Elementary Mathematics Teacher Education

In this article, we describe features of learning goals that enable indexing knowledge for teacher education. Learning goals are the key enabler for building a knowledge base for teacher education; they define what counts as essential knowledge for prospective teachers. We argue that 2 characteristics of learning goals support knowledge‐building efforts. First, learning goals should be targeted; they must be sufficiently well specified to suggest interventions for supporting learners in achieving them and to indicate the types of evidence needed to determine if the goals have been achieved. Second, learning goals should be shared; they must be mutually understood and committed to by all participants in the knowledge‐building process. By drawing on our experience in our local efforts to develop knowledge for preparing prospective elementary mathematics teachers, we illustrate how targeted and shared learning goals support efforts to build a knowledge base for teacher education. We then propose the use of learning progressions for supporting knowledge‐building endeavors across sites.

Building a Knowledge Base for Teacher Education: An Experience in K–8 Mathematics Teacher Preparation

Abstract Consistent with the theme of this issue, we describe the details of one continuing effort to build knowledge for teacher education. We argue that building a useful knowledge base requires attention to the processes used to generate, record, and vet knowledge. By using 4 features of knowledge‐building systems we identified in the introductory article for this issue—shared goals, tangible products, small tests of small changes, and multiple sources of innovation—we examine the knowledge‐building processes for K–8 teacher preparation under way at the University of Delaware. We conclude that the 4 features provide a useful mirror for clarifying the strengths and weaknesses of our local system and, at the same time, reveal a number of institutional obstacles for knowledge building that lie ahead.