Professional Practice Teaching Research Articles

Why a focus on ‘what is educational?’ matters so much in reconstructing education?

ABSTRACT This paper offers an argument as to why a focus on ‘What is educational?’ matters so much in reconstructing education. Living Educational Theory Research is presented as an approach that enables professional, educational-practitioners to contribute to reconstructing education locally and globally. The research is focused on the generation and testing the validity of living-educational-theories through researching questions of the kind, ‘How do I improve my professional practice in education?’ Living Educational Theory Research is a form of professional practitioner, self-study educational research. A living-educational-theory is an individual’s explanation of their educational influence in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formation within which the practice is located. Research accounts are subjected to the mutual rational control of critical discussion with peers. This criticism strengthens the research, by enhancing the validity of the knowledge claims. It contributes to the reconstruction of education using an educational lens in determining what matters in reconstructing education. This extends the idea that education is focused on the transmission of knowledge. It extends it by including the knowledge-creating capacities of each individual. The conclusions concern the importance of an ‘educational’ lens in understanding what matters in reconstructing education.

Nonformal learning approaches and the professional development of teachers in higher education

PurposeAs universities find new ways of implementing professional development programs (PDPs), very few scholarly studies have examined how teachers could advance their knowledge and skills through PDPs that are developed based on nonformal learning approaches. To address this knowledge gap, the current study examines how PDPs could be facilitated using nonformal learning approaches to enhance the current and future professional practice of teachers in a South African University.Design/methodology/approachData for the current study were gathered using semistructured face-to-face interviews among 28 teachers who were purposively sampled from the university. The interview data gathered were analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsThe four themes that emerged from the narrative data analyzed were: developing teacher professional practice through diverse nonformal learning arrangements; challenges associated with PDPs that are designed using nonformal learning arrangements; teacher rationale for participating in PDPs that follow nonformal learning arrangements and; the role of leadership in professional development. The findings reveal that nonformal approaches are used widely in the professional development of teachers and teachers have diverse reasons for joining PDPs. Further, leadership also plays a major role in the professional development of teachers.Practical implicationsWhen HEIs use nonformal learning approaches to facilitate PDPs, they could 1) enable teachers to easily transfer the knowledge they acquire from the PDPs to the teaching and learning setting and 2) create a situated learning environment where experienced teachers and other experts support the professional development of young teachers.Originality/valueThis paper presents original ideas on how nonformal learning approaches could be used to facilitate PDPs and to enhance the professional practice of teachers in HEIs.

Research on the construction and effect evaluation of OMO mode of professional practical training teaching of landscape engineering technology based on virtual simulation technology

Abstract Under the Internet+ information era background, the barriers between traditional and modern education are melting away. This paper takes the OMO teaching mode as the entry point and constructs the design of professional practical training teaching of landscape engineering technology based on virtual simulation technology analysis of the OMO teaching mode. While drawing on the OMO teaching mode, it combines the system posture detection and binocular vision position-solving technology in virtual simulation to build a cyclic development system of OMO mode and professional practical teaching of landscape engineering technology and promote the deep integration of the two. The experimental results show that through 18 weeks of comparison between the OMO teaching mode based on virtual simulation technology and the traditional teaching mode of practical teaching, it is found that the average scores of students are 84.31 and 77.41, respectively, with an effective increase of 10% in performance. Regarding student participation, the OMO teaching mode based on virtual simulation technology mainly focuses on the 68-82 range, effectively stimulating students’ enthusiasm. The OMO teaching mode based on virtual simulation technology proposed in this paper can effectively improve the current problems of traditional teachings, such as resources without rules and regulations, poor correlation, and one-sided evaluation methods, to more effectively cultivate students’ independent learning ability and improve their vocational skills.

APPROACHES TO TEACHING COMPOSITION IN THE SYSTEM OF HIGHER PROFESSIONAL ARTISTIC AND ART-PEDAGOGICAL EDUCATION IN SAINT PETERSBURG: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

In the modern Russian theory and practice of professional art education, the issue of understanding the essence and further development of disciplines related to the formation of Прикладные исследования, технологии 155 visual literacy is acute. One of them is the basics of composition, as well as its derivatives, with amendments to the orientation of the training of artistic and artistic-pedagogical personnel. Based on the analysis of the history and current state in the field of teaching of this discipline within the activities of the largest art universities and specialised departments of Saint Petersburg, the article proposes to determine the features of teaching compositional patterns in art to students. The subject of the study is the development of artistic and art-pedagogical education in Russia, and the object is the role of composition as a discipline in this process, depending on the type of educational institution.

An examination of teacher collaboration in professional learning communities and collaborative teaching practices

The present study aims to examine the influence of teacher collaboration within professional learning communities (PLCs) and collaborative teaching practices on both the professional growth and academic achievement of students. The study employed a mixed-methods research design that incorporated both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. This research comprises both survey responses and interview transcripts obtained from K-12 educators who are currently engaged in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) or collaborative teaching methodologies. The findings of this study have the potential to enhance the existing literature on teacher collaboration and furnish educators, policymakers, and researchers with valuable perspectives to steer optimal strategies for promoting effective teacher collaboration in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and collaborative teaching approaches. The objective of the research is to investigate the influence of teacher collaboration within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and collaborative teaching practices on the development of professional skills and academic achievements of students. The results of this study underscore the importance of recognizing the advantageous effects that collaborative teaching methodologies can have on the academic achievements of students. This necessitates the provision of adequate time for collaborative activities, encouraging supportive leadership within educational institutions, and allocating sufficient resources for collaboration.

Teacher vulnerability in teacher identity in times of unexpected social change

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic brought unexpected challenges to the lives and professional practice of teachers regardless of their institutional context. Our understanding of how teachers viewed their impact on their perceived sense of professional identity is largely unexplored, especially concerning teachers working in the post-compulsory sector. This article discusses the findings from a small-scale qualitative research project that aimed to investigate, `what teachers’ reflective stories tell us about their perceptions of their professional identities in times of unexpected social change.’ To explore how teachers perceived their professional roles in these challenging times we used a reflective narrative approach in the format of McAdams’s life-story interview (1993). Seven volunteer participants who formed a purposive sample of professionals from a variety of post-compulsory education institutions in the UK were asked to describe key episodes to capture their experiences covering the period from March 2020 to the end of May 2021. The findings focused on how unexpected social changes impacted on teachers’ perceived sense of professional identity, specifically through their sense of vulnerability. Three main themes were identified: vulnerability resulting from questioning professional credibility; vulnerability in the changing dynamics of relationship development; and vulnerability in the pastoral role.

Scholar-Administrator Imperative:

Professional experiences in community engagement are often distinctly separated from educational theories and practices, yet the work of many community engagement professionals sits at the intersection of theory, practice, experience, and context. Intentionally and critically exploring this untapped third space offers an exploration into professional educational identity, practice, and scholarship. This exploration has indicated a gap between theory and practice and between professional experience and scholarship. Interrogating experience as a source of knowledge and recognizing the centrality of practice and context, this piece explores the scholar-administrator's potent role. Offering potential strategies for scholar-administrators to leverage their role through inquiry leading to scholarshiop, an inquiry framework is provided situating the need to fill the practice-theory gap as an imperative for the field.

Recreating the future-Indigenous research paradigms in health professional education research.

Health and self-determination are recognised as universal human rights. Health professional education research and practice hold the capacity to prioritise values, worldviews and agendas that envisage sustainable and equitable futures for the entire community served. This paper explores the need for the co-location of Indigenous research paradigms in health professional education research and teaching. Indigenous communities have a long history of science, research and sustainable living and are holders of ways of knowing, being and doing that can shape actions and priorities in health research that value equity and sustainability. Knowledge construction in health professional education research does not occur in isolation nor is it value neutral. A continued dominance of the biomedical approach to health creates a system of innovation that is unbalanced and unable to deliver health outcomes demanded by contemporary society. As power and hierarchies are embedded in health professional education research and praxis, transformative action is required to bring forth marginalised voices in research processes. Critical reflexivity regarding the ontological, epistemological, axiological and methodological positioning of researchers is an important step towards creating and sustaining research structures that effectively value and co-locate different perspectives in knowledge production and translation. Working towards more equitable and sustainable futures for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities requires health care systems to be informed and guided by different knowledge paradigms. This can work to avoid the ongoing reproduction of inefficient biomedical structures and purposefully disrupt the status quo of health inequities. Realising this requires the effective co-location of Indigenous research paradigms and ways of working into health professional education research that centre relationality, wholism, interconnectedness and self-determination. This calls for a raising of the critical consciousness of health professional education research academies.

Online Training in Music Education Based on a Signature Pedagogy

The paper presents the investigation of the effectiveness of the online training for future music teachers based on the signature pedagogy at the university. The literature review let us stated the gap in researches which cover online learning strategies for training music teachers in the professional preparation process. Due to the shifting of the educational process to the online way in the emergency situation COVID19 pandemic, the relevance of pedagogical tools for pre-paring of future specialists online extremely increased. The comparative analysis of music education standards in different countries let us determine the set of teachers` professional activities in general school music class. The main contribution is the design of a small private online course based on the signature pedagogy which delivered the set of specific pedagogical tools for training music teacher professional skills online. This course was implemented at [removed for blinded review]. The experimental work was based on the teacher` assessment of online tasks, in which students demonstrated the music teacher` professional skills. The results were proved by the statistical methods of median, standard deviation and Pearson's correlation. The obtained results proved the effectiveness of the online training based on the signature pedagogy which provided learning activities according to the specific features of music teacher professional practice.

SABERES PROFISSIONAIS DE PROFESSORES: FORMAÇÃO DOCENTE QUE ATRAVESSA E É ATRAVESSADA PELA EXPERIÊNCIA E MEMÓRIA

This article is a part of research developed through PNPD/Capes, in Unesp-Presidente Prudente. The objective of that research was to understand the formative processes and cultural, school and non-school practices, which are producing the professional knowledge of elementary school teachers – initial and final years – as a condition for the professional teaching practice in the perspective of a qualified public school. Our objective here is to understand the role assigned by these narrating teachers to the professional knowledge built from school education to be a teacher and the relationship they establish with the knowledge of experience, involved in the production of their professional teaching knowledge from the daily coexistence with " their teachers”, those who at various times present themselves as professional models in their way of acting as professional teachers within the school; but also through the cultural transits experienced in the course of life as places of learning. It is inscribed in the field of narrative research, having used the life stories of six teachers as a data production device and comprehensive analysis as an interpretive device. From the analysis of the narratives we can infer that the personal dimension, the person of the teacher appears as a kind of “catalyst” of the experiences suffered in the different spaces and times of school education and in the different transits. The teacher's professional training process takes place simultaneously in the individual and collective dimensions, combining experiences and memories that constitute their professional identity and the foundation of their teaching practices.

Response to commentators on Gareth B. Matthews, The Child’s Philosopher (2022)

Abstract In this article we respond to the reviews, which appear in this issue, by Harry Brighouse, David Bakhurst, and Sheron Fraser-Burgess of our edited book Gareth B. Matthews, The Child’s Philosopher (Routledge 2022a). We are grateful for their sympathetic yet critical perspectives, which we take to be the very kind of engagement the philosophy for children movement requires in order to become more integrated with professional philosophical and educational theory and practice. We particularly value this opportunity to dialogue with scholars outside the movement, which has generated the insights we address here. In what follows, we think with our reviewers about what Matthews’ work reveals about areas of promise and of concern in the movement.

Exploring the association between distributed leadership and student achievement: the mediation role of teacher professional practices and teacher self-efficacy

ABSTRACT This study explores how distributed leadership influences student reading achievement in Turkish high schools, with the mediating role of teacher professional practices and self-efficacy. After assembling school- and student-level data from the datasets of The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 and The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, we conducted a multilevel structural equation model (MSEM) using the estimation method of Maximum Likelihood to analyse the structural links among our variables. The results revealed that distributed leadership had a significant indirect association with student reading achievement via teacher professional practices and teacher self-efficacy. This study adds nuance to the literature by indicating that distributed leadership can make a difference in student achievement by promoting teachers’ engagement in professional practices and their self-efficacy.

Inter Professional Education (IPE) and team-based practice in Africa: the missing link

Inter Professional Education (IPE) and team-based practice in Africa: the missing link

Editorial

The Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development (FUNDECIT), in partnership with the Center for Advanced Studies in Education and Medical Training (CEDUMED) of the Faculty of Medicine of Agostinho Neto University (FMUAN), took the initiative to organize the Workshop on Integrity and Ethics in Scientific Research. The event brought together professionals from various fields with the aim of promoting dialogue on ethical and bioethical issues related to scientific research. These topics were intended to cover different lines of research coexisting in this area, revealing the epistemological heterogeneity in the field of science and technology, leading to interdisciplinary analysis, both theoretical and methodological. The event allowed researchers to reassess their actions and practices within their institutions and scientific projects with ethical and moral implications. As the first event with this focus and with guiding themes for good functioning, academics, researchers, and scientists from various countries such as Angola, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Mozambique, and Portugal were present. The event allowed for an examination of different realities and to verify if the path that the country is following is the most appropriate. Held in a hybrid format (in-person and remote) on March 30 and 31, 2023, at the Epic Sana Hotel, the workshop was aimed at managers of higher education institutions and the entire scientific community in general. The event consisted of two days of lectures and constructive debates between renowned national and foreign guests and participants, where contributions led to reflection on professional teaching practice with an ethical character, aiming to describe the stages of building a scientific project that focuses on addressing the problems and aspirations of the population. Respecting its morality (habits and customs), so that it can be feasible in various dimensions. Along with all these issues, it became clear that each country needs an ethical regulatory instrument to guide research in its territory because international devices cannot cover all the issues inherent in its culture. Hence, in some communications, it was evident that the creation of an entity that would create the same devices and another that would control the investigations carried out (National Ethics Committee and a National Bioethics Advisory Council), with one being deliberative and the other advisory in character. The event also brought to light the need to conform academic and research institutions to the best international practices and recommendations regarding ethical issues in science, technology, and innovation. Without forgetting the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR), which is a significant document for the analysis of scientific research protocols. The results presented point to the importance of paying close attention to double standards of research protocol for clinical trials in developing or peripheral countries. Consequently, the speakers raised the urgent need for South-South cooperation to discuss ethical and bioethical problems in the face of the common reality of peripheral countries. Institutional contexts may be definitive and timely in the analysis of the works published by these researchers. By discussing science, technology, and innovation as a parameter for discussion, which will contribute to the realization of paradigm shifts in this area of socio-discursive production (Ethics and Bioethics), this meeting also allowed for networking among speakers from various national and foreign institutions and event participants.

Research on the relationship between collective teacher efficacy and teaching innovation as a mediator

This study explored a mediation model among teachers of basic education on the Chinese mainland. Knowledge sharing was identified as a mediator between collective teacher efficacy and teaching innovation. 732 valid samples from the Chinese mainland were obtained. Three structured instruments were applied including a scale of collective teacher efficacy, a scale of knowledge sharing and a scale of teaching innovation. The responses were recorded using a 5-point Likert scale. Structural equation models were used to construct measurement and structural models. Collective teacher efficacy has a significant and positive predictive effect on teaching innovation and knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing has a significant and positive predictive effect on teaching innovation and it plays a partial mediating role on the impact of teachers' collective effectiveness on teaching innovation. The mediating effect accounts for 29.03%. The results show that knowledge sharing can promote the positive impact of collective teacher efficacy on teaching innovation in basic education. This study provides new ideas for schools to improve teaching innovation that will create a new school-based learning environment for teachers to improve their professional learning and teaching practice.

The Application of Multimedia and Deep Learning in the Integration of Professional and Innovative Education in Colleges

In this paper, the authors study the assessment of professional practice courses in the integrated education of specialization and innovation, and use the multimedia and deep learning technology to complete the action recognition of students in practice courses. Firstly, the skeletal features are extracted from multimedia video data by Openpose algorithm, which is used for subsequent classification while ensuring privacy; then the LSTM method is used to recognize typical motions in student practice, and the average recognition result exceeds 89%; finally, practical application tests are conducted for laboratory and office scenes, and the results illustrate that the proposed framework performs well in the tests with recognition rate exceeding 80%. The algorithm framework provides a new idea for the curriculum setting and evaluation method of professional practice education, and gives data guarantee for their integration and innovation education.

Charter schools after three decades: Reviewing the research on school organizational and instructional conditions

Charter school policies have focused on improving three aspects of schools—autonomy, innovation, and accountability—with the intention of promoting advances in curriculum, instruction, and learning that lead to better student outcomes. However, most research on charter schools tends to neglect school organizational and instructional conditions. Overall, reviews show that charter schools have inconsistent effects on student achievement scores, a finding that masks heterogeneous effects among different types of charter schools, operators of charter schools, and authorizers of charter schools and the organizational and instructional conditions under which they operate. This systematic review of the literature focuses on what we know about the organization of charter schools and the resources—material, human, and social as well as professional development and teaching practices—within them. We end by identifying gaps where more research is needed.

ESP Lecturers’ Individual – Initiated Professional Development: Perceptions and Practices

Research on the teacher professional development (TPD) field has rapidly developed in the area of English Language Teaching. Those studies have confirmed that the impact of professional development activities do have positive impact on teachers’ professional practices. However, most of studies reported in the research literature on teacher professional development have been conducted in the area of English language teaching and learning of General English but very little research has been conducted on teacher professional development in the area of English for Specific Purpose (ESP). Therefore this future study aims to explore individual-initiated professional development of ESP lecturers in improving their professional teaching practices in higher education level. This research will employ mixed methods research for data collection. Mixed method study focuses on collecting, analyzing and mixing both data from quantitative and qualitative in a single or series of research.

Фонды оценочных средств как инструмент диагностики качества профессионального образования

In the system of professional education, the highly relevant problem isto ensure reliable and valid assessment of graduates’ competences, as well asto develop appropriate toolsto do this as explicitly as possible. One of the indicators used in the accreditation of an educational organization isthe proportion ofstudentsshowing certain results when working with diagnostic toolsfrom the assessment kit. The purpose of the study isto identify and justify the diagnostic capabilities of the assessment kit tools to improve the quality of professional education. In the course of the study, the authors analyzed the practice of developing and using assessment toolsfor training area 35.03.06 “Agroengineering” in a number of agricultural universitiesin Russia: Volgograd StateAgrarian University, Kuzbass StateAgriculturalAcademy, Belgorod State Agrarian University named after V.Ya. Gorin, Irkutsk State Agrarian University named after A.A. Ezhevsky and Ulyanovsk State Agrarian University named after P.A. Stolypin. A total of 365 students took part in the study. Sets of assessment toolsincluded 40 questions each from descriptors, reflecting the development ofseveral general professional competences.The greatest difficulties arose forstudents when passing tests, which included questionsreflecting the content ofseveral competences. To ensure that the training of graduates meetsthe requirements ofstate accreditation of educational activities, the authors emphasized the waysto modernize the content and methods of teaching students, taking into account the development trends of the competence-based approach in the theory and practice of professional education.

Exploring the Difference in Academic Performance Determinants between Public and Private Junior High Schools

Despite improvements in basic education accessibility in public schools throughout time, there are worries regarding the lower Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) performance of students in public schools when compared with the performances of private schools. The current study sought to establish if there is, the differences in academic performance indicators between private and public junior high schools (JHS). The study focused on the Effutu Municipality following the establishment of the lower performance of public JHS students in literature. The study employed a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional survey design to sample JHS teachers in the Municipality. The study used a questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 385 teachers who were chosen by quota sampling. Teacher professional practice (TP), schools’ resource endowment (SR), instructional supervision (IS), school time usage (ST), teacher motivation (TM), and parental support (PS) were considered as the determinants of academic performance in the study. It was revealed that private schools scored higher in terms of the indicators of academic performance, except for ST where equal variances were established for either school type. Statistically significant differences between established with the Mann-Whitney U test were found for all indicators except as well for ST. the study recommends that there should be efforts to boost-motivate public Junior High Schools teachers, and also consider subsidization over free public schools to generate funding for school resourcing.