Teacher Research Research Articles

Language Teacher Researcher Identity Construction in Activity: Navigating Entanglement of Two English PSTs in Undergraduate Thesis Work in the Indonesian Context

ABSTRACT Addressing the issue of colonial humanism ideologies plaguing undergraduate thesis work of English pre-service teachers in the Indonesian context and perpetuating the dichotomy of teacher and researcher identities, this study explored two pre-service teachers’ entanglements in their day-to-day praxes of undergraduate thesis work as a site of identity construction by framing it in the lens of postcolonial, posthuman and transnational Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. Orienting toward movement of actions and praxes, they actively participated in entanglements of identity construction by making visible layers of contradictions and continuously maneuvering the contradictions to achieve meaningful outcomes in each praxis. The contradictions at the micro level further revealed contradictions at the meso level of actions and the macro level of networked activity systems at the institutional level, indicating the pivotal role of understanding their micro level of praxes to unveil issues hindering undergraduate thesis to serve as a democratic space to generate meaningful knowledge.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The teaching of English, historically centered on structural paradigms, faces challenges with the rise of digital technologies in social interactions. Augmented Reality (AR), by integrating virtual elements into real environments, offers transformative potential. The present work, "English in Public Schools: Augmented Reality Applications and Social Language Practices," explores the integration of AR in English language classes. Based on teacher plans in Sergipe, data from a teacher training course conducted in 2021 are analyzed through Freeman's Teacher Research (1998). Results highlight the potential of augmented reality in public English teaching, emphasizing the importance of teacher training courses in the effective implementation of educational technologies.

Research and experimental direction of training future mathematics teachers for professional activity in out-of-school education institutions

Research and experimental direction of training future mathematics teachers for professional activity in out-of-school education institutions

Research Progress on Digital Competency of Teachers at Home and Abroad based on Knowledge Mapping

In order to deeply study the research hotspots and development trends in the field of teachers' digital competence at home and abroad, 227 and 623 relevant literatures included in the China Knowledge Network (CNKI) database and Web of Science Core Collection (WoS) between 2006 and 2024 were selected. Using CiteSpace 6.3.R1 bibliometric software, trends in the number of publications, collaborative networks among authors and institutions, keyword co-occurrences, cluster analysis, and emergent words were visualized and analyzed. It was found that the volume of articles on teachers' digital competence at home and abroad showed a fluctuating upward trend; there was a close cooperative relationship between the authors of articles and institutions at home and abroad, and a more complete cooperative team was formed. Domestic research mainly focuses on the investigation of the status quo of teachers' digital competence, cultivation and enhancement, and the study of measurement model, while foreign research focuses more on the investigation, cultivation and enhancement, and assessment research of teachers' digital competence. Currently, the frontiers of domestic teacher digital competency research include vocational colleges and teacher development, while the frontiers of foreign research focus on online teaching and classroom practice.

Games4Justice: Game Reports

Four games were designed as part of an autoethnographic, teacher research study conducted from 2013-2017 on the implementation of play-, game-, and design-based teaching and assessment. The study was conducted at two urban, independent, K-12 day schools with fewer than 500 and 100 students, respectively, and supported as part of a certification program in Serious Game Design & Research. Pirate Oasis, a six-week ecological engagement, human development game, and the first developed for the Games for Social Justice Course (G4J). Friendship Is Magic, a Alternate Reality Game (Fujimoto, 2015; McGonigal, 2003, 2007, 2011) that was never played. #SaveOurGirls is a 3-hour forum game, simulation & workshop on combating human trafficking through public pedagogy. The experience is meant for 10-15 players and 30-60 audience members. Xplore LA, a location-based, geocaching, two-dimensional fighting game, designed by students to inspire young people to explore their local parks and other green- and play-spaces in park-poor communities in Los Angeles, like Boyle Heights. Xplore LA was designed as one of three projects organized to engage youth to access recreational sites near them via public transportation in the park-poor community of Boyle Heights. Through the campaign, students also developed a Ross Valencia Park Redesign, a Pocket Park Manual and the foundations for Xplore LA.

Games4Justice: Course Design Report

Two games were designed as part of an autoethnographic, teacher research study conducted from 2013-2014 on the implementation of play-, game-, and design-based teaching and assessment. The study was conducted at an urban, independent, K-12 day school with fewer than 500 students, respectively, and supported as part of a certification program in Serious Game Design & Research. La Isla de Monstruos was collaboratively designed with students as part of a seventh-grade Spanish 2 & 3 language and culture course using a culture circle design method. Students collaboratively designed a month of gamified and design-based assessment reviewing the material covered during the previous semester. Escapar Tenochtitlan is a six-week anthropology roleplay and language learning game designed by eighth-grade Spanish 2 & 3 students through a culture circle design method, grounded in ethnohistorical, archaeological, and anthropological data of 60 Pre-Columbian sites.

Understanding teacher research: benefits and misconceptions

Teacher research (TR) has various forms such as action research, collaborative action research, exploratory action research, exploratory practice, evaluative research, and lesson study. Teacher research plays a crucial role in enhancing best classroom practices and empowering teachers to continue their professional development. This article defines TR, discusses its common types, its benefits for teacher educators, practitioners, teacher-researchers as well as student-teachers. It also addresses common misconceptions about TR and highlights its importance as an effective CPD activity.

RESEARCH-ORIENTED TEACHER EDUCATION IN KAZAKHSTAN:POLICY DOCUMENTS AND LITERATURE ANALYSIS

School education is changing in response to the rapidly changing world, therefore, teacher education must change too. Modernization of teacher education in Kazakhstan is caused by curriculum renewal and a focus on research in the light of a knowledge-basedeconomy. Research capacity in teacher education at individual, organizational, and system levels ensures a quality development of the research component, which is discussed in international literature. The purpose of this article is to trace how research-oriented teacher education is discussed in the Kazakhstani context literature and captured in policy documents. Thematic analysis is employed to analyze and synthesize the data. Overall, fifteen articles by Kazakhstani and international authors and six policy documents were analyzed. The key themes drawn from the policy documents analysis include the rationale for research-oriented teacher education, the ways of research-oriented teacher education implementation, and teacher research competencies. In parallel, the literature review reveals the discussion of such topics as the readiness for research-oriented teacher education, barriers encountered, and suggestions for research-oriented teacher education development.

DETERMINING THE LEVEL OF DIGITAL COMPETENCE OF A UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER

Background. The relevance of the article is due to the tasks of digitalization of education and the focus on the development of all types of digital activities of a university teacher and is determined by the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of digital transformation of society in general and digital transformation of education in particular. The article examines the conditions of education that are changing in connection with digitalization, and defines digital competence. The purpose of the article is to determine the level of digital competence of a modern university foreign language teacher and take this competence into account in the educational process. Materials and methods. The material of the work was the scientific works of domestic and foreign authors on the topic of research, legislative acts, electronic resources, materials of web conferences, etc. The research methods were interviewing, methods of description, observation and analysis. As a result of the conducted research, the levels of digital competence of foreign language teachers (basic, high, advanced) were identified and the level of digital competence of foreign language teachers in scientific and educational activities of Samara State University of Economics (SGEU) was determined; the skills and abilities of the selected levels were described; possible digital services for use in writing scientific papers, textbooks were highlighted and content creation, as well as for classroom work and distance learning; pedagogical options for using digital technologies both in education and in scientific research of a modern teacher are proposed.

Understanding and improving teachers’ research engagement: Insights from success stories in Poland and Spain

Drawing on a qualitative, interview-based study of 36 research-engaged teachers in Poland and Spain, this paper aims to identify and explore the types of their research engagement, and their recommendations on how education stakeholders can improve this engagement. The findings reveal three types of teacher research engagement – i.e. situational engagement, emotional engagement, and transformative engagement – as well as specific roles and responsibilities for five stakeholders they view as being key to improving teacher research engagement: school leaders, teachers, university communities, teacher education providers, and policy makers. The paper concludes with new insights for theory and practice in this field.

IT Applications for the Tuvan Language: Regional Practices and Future Plans

In the era of digitalization and globalization, the likelihood of the disappearance of small languages, including the Tuvan language is very high. One of the reliable and promising solutions for preserving a language is its inclusion in the digital space as a language of accumulation, processing and transmission of information, a language of communication on the Internet. Currently, a number of tasks aimed at preserving and popularizing the Tuvan language are being car­ried out within the framework of the state program to support the development of the Tuvan language in the Republic of Tuva. Various government agencies of the Republic of Tuva and interested IT specialists are working on the digitalization of the Tuvan language. Tuvan State University (TuvSU) also makes a significant contribution to the development and popularization of the Tuvan language. Teachers of the Department of Informatics of TuvSU together with scientists from the Faculty of Philology and the "Turkology" scientific and educational centerwork in the following areas: development of software products for teaching the Tuvan language, creation of software tools for text processing in the Tuvan language, creation of linguistic information resources. Along with TuvSU teachers, students from the faculties of physics, mathematics and philology also take part in this research work. The topics of students' coursework and final qualification papers are related to IT developments. This article presents the experience of research and development of teachers of the Department of Computer Science in the field of preservation, study and development of the Tuvan language using information and communication technologies in these three areas. In the first direction, electronic textbooks, interactive simulators, and mobile applications for teaching the Tuvan language are being developed. The second direction is focused on the creation of software products for processing texts in the Tuvan language — a morphological analyzer of the Tuvan language, program for checking Tuvan texts for plagiarism. The last direction is related to the creation of electronic dictionaries and translators for the Tuvan language, which can be used in all spheres of life.

FACTORS, PRINCIPLES OF PROFESSIONAL CREATIVITY DEVELOPMENT IN FUTURE TEACHERS BASED ON COGNITIVE APPROACH

In order to acquire pedagogical skills, cognitive mastering of the technologies of educational implementation and didactic laws is required. This allows future teachers to show logical thinking and creative activity, analyze pedagogical events, see existing problems, evaluate and correct the gaps that have arisen. As a result of cognitive assimilation of knowledge, future teachers will have the opportunity to achieve professional skills - acme. This article is devoted to the development of creativity, research, and divergent thinking in future teachers based on the cognitive approach.

Characteristics of Effective International School Teachers: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Qualities of effective teachers matter because teachers are the number one school-related factor that impacts on student achievement. Although researchers in the United States have studied frameworks for evaluating teacher effectiveness, these frameworks are not focused on teachers working in international schools. Thus, they may not reflect the importance of understanding both the context of working in intercultural settings and the skills that allow teachers to flourish in international schools. Using a systematic configurative synthesis review of 23 studies, this study identifies qualities of effective teachers working in international schools through a synthesis of the study findings. We identified four key attributes that are emphasized, if not unique, in international school effective teacher research: a focus on teacher collaboration and teacher leadership; cultural awareness and responsiveness from multi-national perspectives; and host country language acquisition. Overall, we find that a focus on what makes an effective international school teacher is lacking in the extant research, particularly given the predicted enormous growth of international schools.

Formation of skills for conducting sociological research in future teachers

Formation of skills for conducting sociological research in future teachers

Transforming teaching through cooperative inquiry: meaningful research for university teachers

ABSTRACT In this article, seven participants from nursing, social work, accounting, fine arts, bioscience, and learning support disciplines share insights gained through participation in a transdisciplinary cooperative inquiry research group aimed at developing excellence in teaching. This Cooperative Inquiry for Reflection and Collaboration on Learning Effectiveness (CIRCLE) group promoted transformation of individual participants’ teaching as well as development of interdepartmental collaboration and camaraderie within the context of contemporary, performance-based academic environments. Collaborative, pedagogical, action research was undertaken through cooperative inquiry (CI) to explore transformative learning activities that increased teachers’ and students’ engagement while covering prescribed learning outcomes using creative approaches. The results are presented in a reflexive, collaborative autoethnography through seven authentic teacher stories. Reflections on the process and the impact of being in the research group provide evidence of the potential transdisciplinary, CI research groups offer to enhance research and teaching outcomes in higher education. These findings are significant internationally in light of the necessity to meet the increasing expectations of all stakeholders in the global tertiary education sector.

From teacher to teacher researcher: Identity change in the power dynamics of an EAP reform community

Educational reforms often entail and afford teachers’ identity change. Adopting a community of practice (CoP) framework to examine reform-inflicted teacher identity change and drawing on data from eight rounds of semi-structured interviews over three and a half years, our longitudinal case study traced how three English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers negotiate their teacher researcher identity during an educational reform in China. We find that a multi-layered, multi-centered, and multi-functional reform CoP of complex power dynamics can facilitate EAP teachers’ negotiation of teacher-to-teacher researcher identity change during a curriculum reform, which can further enrich the long-term sustainable development of a community. Highlighting the significant role of CoPs in educational reforms and teacher development, we advocate a CoP of dynamic power relations and multiple power positions and call for frontline teachers’ engagement with teaching-based research to potentially strengthen the research-practice nexus. This study bears implications for educational reform participants and teacher educators.

Drama in the dream factory: a teacher’s experience and understanding of promoting social and affective learning in physical education

ABSTRACT Background and purpose The purpose of this accidental autoethnography was to create a performative script to help better present and understand the array of class-by-class experiences and associated emotions I, the first author, encountered as a teacher–researcher in my efforts to evolve my pedagogy to promote social and affective learning in Physical Education (PE). Research design An accidental ethnographic case study design was implemented focusing on four lessons I taught with 16 ninth-grade students which served as critical turning points in my experience and understandings of promoting social and affective learning. Three data sources were utilized: a teacher–researcher journal, post-teaching reflective analyses and field notes conducted by the second author, who served as a critical friend. Data analysed were drafted into a performative script produced in the form of a traditional drama; my experience of teaching the four lessons brought to life in four acts entitled Drama in the Dream Factory. External audits were conducted by the additional authors. Findings/Discussion My concerted efforts to promote social and affective learning led me to experience an array of intended and unintended consequences across these four lessons, both professionally and personally. I found myself repeatedly conflicted as I strayed out of my comfort zone and away from my professional, pedagogical and content preferences to teach for social and affective learning. I was slowly learning to embrace vulnerability when faced with charged scenes directly and indirectly emerging. Conclusion In utilizing this approach for research and self-reflection, I came to performatively unpack and understand the rich array of emotional experiences I encountered while pivoting in the moment to try and meet the learning situation at hand. This creative approach offered one such way to meet Armour et al. calls for more effective professional development involving a ‘mix of embodiment, individual experience, culture and power that are at the heart of everyday practices’ in PE (Armour et al. 2017, 804). A creative approach such as this can subjectively challenge teachers to stray out of their comfort zones and better wrap their heads around the experience of doing so.

Mathematics teachers and learners as collective agents of change

In this article, we report on findings from the Primary Maths and Social Justice research project, a recent collaboration between the three authors and six teacher researchers from two culturally diverse primary schools in London, UK. The project aimed to develop strategies for addressing issues of social justice in the mathematics classroom, and operationalising the recently developed theoretical concept of socio-mathematical agency, defined as learners’ capacity to apply mathematics in arguing collectively for social change. The teacher researchers’ experiences, as captured through audio recordings of research team meetings and interviews, form the basis of our data analysis. Our findings highlight the processes that enabled teachers to reflect critically on existing practice, prompting them to adopt more collaborative, discursive and inclusive problem-solving approaches that resulted in significantly higher levels of student engagement in mathematical activities. The teacher researchers found that cross-curricular projects provided more opportunities to apply mathematical knowledge in tackling social justice issues than the prescriptive and content-focused mastery-style mathematics schemes of work in place. They reported how students embraced opportunities to use mathematics in more meaningful contexts and in presenting arguments for change. We argue that a focus on developing socio-mathematical agency has the potential to enhance the role of teachers and learners as agents of change, an important element that is often underdeveloped in culturally responsive teaching.

A Review of Interdisciplinary Teaching Research for Primary and Secondary School Teachers

This paper reviews the current situation of interdisciplinary teaching for primary and secondary school teachers, as well as the cultivation and enhancement pathways of teachers' interdisciplinary literacy and abilities, presenting a focused view of interdisciplinary teaching research. The review finds that existing literature covers a wide range of topics but lacks depth; it mostly consists of speculative discussions or personal reflections, with a scarcity of empirical research. While attention has been given to how pre-service teacher education can enhance teachers' interdisciplinary teaching literacy, there is a neglect of issues regarding the enhancement of interdisciplinary teaching literacy for in-service teachers. Future research in this field should focus on in-depth exploration of "small issues" and prioritize empirical research, emphasizing how to help in-service teachers enhance their interdisciplinary teaching literacy.

Mechanisms and technologies for fostering the research and innovative capability in university teachers

This study aims to examine the effects of the “Unlocking Research & Innovative Capability” program for university teachers. A total of 80 teachers from the [BLINDED] University were enrolled. All participants were divided into groups based on their age and teaching experience. Data were collected via surveys. The proposed program was found to have different effects across groups. Young university teachers (28 to 35 years; teaching experience, 3 to 5 years) exhibited improvement in all research and innovative capability variables, ranging from 0.84 in Interdisciplinary Cooperation to 2.63 in Innovative Teaching. The same is true for early middle-aged university teachers (36 to 45 years; teaching experience, 5 to 10 years) who showed improvement ranging from 1.52 in Interdisciplinary Cooperation to 3.00 in Integration of Technology. Older middle-aged university teachers (46 to 55 years; teaching experience, 10 to 20 years) exhibited improvement in their Innovative Teaching, Research Practice, and Integration of Technology; yet, it did not exceed 1.85 points. Older university teachers (older than 56 years; teaching experience, 20 years) demonstrated minimal improvement in all dimensions. This study was conducted as part of governmental research on "Managing the Development of Research & Innovative Capability in the Research University Staff under the Participatory Management Model" launched by the RK Ministry of Education and Science (Project number: AR14872123). The study emphasizes the importance of empowering university teachers as key drivers of research, knowledge generation, and innovative teaching. The present findings can be used to cultivate a culture of innovation and research in academic institutions.