View Of Teacher Education Research Articles

University faculty leaders’ views of teacher educators’ professional development

ABSTRACT In this paper, we explore the views of Finnish university faculty leaders, such as deans and directors, concerning teacher educators’ professional development. Although teachers’ professional development has been investigated for decades, teacher educators’ professional development has until recently been under-researched. Faculty leaders could be viewed as pedagogical leaders of their teaching staff. We set out to investigate what the leaders’ understanding of teacher educators’ professional development is, as well as how they think it should be promoted. We interviewed seven leaders. The main results of the interviews show that the leaders did not have a clear understanding of what teacher educators’ professional development is. They viewed it as an autonomous, individual issue and also as related to the research that these PhD level teacher educators conduct as part of their everyday work. However, they had a very supportive attitude towards professional development, considered it to require some structuring or systematising and were also willing to invest resources in it.

Undervisning og undervisningspraksis i yrkesfaglærerutdanning

Denne artikkelen retter søkelyset mot praktisk-pedagogisk utdanning for yrkesfags (PPU-y) relevans for og i pedagogisk praksis, sett fra studentenes og praksislærernes synsvinkel.
 Det er begrenset kunnskap om hva praksisfeltet ser som relevant i studentens første undervisningspraksis. Formålet med denne artikkelen er derfor å bidra til mer kunnskap om dette feltet. Følgende forskningsspørsmålene ble stilt:
 Hvilke aspekter av sin utdanning oppfatter yrkesfaglærer-studenter som relevante for og i undervisningspraksis?
 Hvordan samsvarer studentenes forståelse av relevans med praksislærernes syn?
 Data ble innsamlet ved hjelp av et kvantitativt/kvalitativt spørreskjema, semistrukturerte intervjuer og fokusgruppeintervjuer, og representerer både PPU-y-studenters og praksislæreres synspunkter.
 Våre funn viser at studenters oppfatning av hva som er relevant å erfare i pedagogisk praksis, er noe forskjellig fra hva praksislærerne sier. Resultatene viser også forskjeller i erfaringer med yrkesdidaktikk. Resultatene indikerer videre at både praksislærere og studenter opplever utfordringer med veiledning, og praksislærerne ønsker og trenger mer støtte. Basert på våre funn vil vi si at det er et presserende behov for å etablere en mer formell dialog mellom universitetet og praksisfeltet, både på et personlig nivå så vel som på et organisatorisk nivå, med hensyn til innhold i PPU-y utdanning, retningslinjer for pedagogisk praksis, samt rolle og status for praksislærer.

Investigating and critiquing teacher educators’ mobile learning practices

PurposeThis study aims to investigate contemporary mobile learning practices in teacher education, exploring the following research question: how are teacher educators exploiting the pedagogical features of mobile learning?Design/methodology/approachThe study uses data from an online survey that elicited information about how 46 teacher educator participants were using distinctive mobile pedagogical features (Personalisation, Authenticity and Collaboration) in their mobile learning practices. It uses the iPAC theoretical framework to analyse the data collected.FindingsFindings indicated high self-ratings of authenticity, and positive perceptions of collaborative sharing (Collaboration construct), often involving generative tasks that required use of creative, media production mobile applications. There were weaker perceptions of personalisation and online conversation (Collaboration construct). In light of these findings, we discuss implications for teacher education and recommend future directions for research and development.Research limitations/implicationsThis study underlines our contention that teacher educators struggle to exploit the entire range of mobile pedagogical approaches. The findings suggest that teacher educators are cautiously exploring the potential for online collaboration mediated through mobile devices, but have not yet fully grasped the opportunities to design tasks which exploit (and model) the personalised nature of m-learning. The limitations of the study include the size of the sample (46), its self-selected nature and its bias towards Australian and the UK respondents.Practical implicationsIn response to the issues raised in this paper, the authors are developing a mobile learning toolkit (www.mobilelearningtoolkit.com) for teacher educators.Originality/valueThere is a scarcity of m-learning studies in teacher education exploring pedagogical insights, and the views of teacher educators themselves are often absent.

Integrating the ontological, epistemological, and sociocultural aspects: a holistic view of teacher education

The three aspects of teacher change – ontological, epistemological, and sociocultural – are traditionally regarded as independent. Usually only the epistemological aspect is highlighted in formal teacher education. In this paper, I argue that a holistic and interdependent view of these aspects is needed. Thus, this paper aims to explore the process of teacher learning from a holistic perspective. Through deliberative discussions and selection, 13 ‘good’ teachers were interviewed in this study. The findings indicate that there may be a two-stage pattern (the II-VA model) that describes two different sorts of teachers. The first sort refers to those teachers who developed strong identities before beginning their teaching service and who tended to have a clearer educational vision which had a direct impact on their practices and professional development. As for the second sort, the teachers’ identities were vague in their first years of teaching, but their professional identities gradually developed within the referential community with affective and professional functions. These stages imply that we should replace ‘abstract theory’ with ‘subject reflection’ in the center of teacher education. Three kinds of reflection (theory-rationale, identity-integration and vision-accomplishment) are thus identified from a holistic view of teacher change.

ANALYZING OFFICIAL AND OPERATIONAL CURRICULUM OF SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER EDUCATION

The aim of this research is to analyze the Social Studies Teacher Education Program (SSTEP) and determine the problems encountered in practice according to the views of teacher educators and prospective teachers at Ankara University, Faculty of Educational Sciences. Two study groups of participants were included in this study. Ten prospective social studies teachers in their last year of matriculation constituted the first study group. The second group consisted of teacher educators lecturing in SSTEP. All participants voluntarily expressed their views on the official and operational curriculum. A focus group interview with prospective teachers and semi-structured interviews with teacher educators provided the data. Data collected from both study groups were analyzed using descriptive analysis technique. Results showed that some changes were necessary concerning the sequence of some courses per semester and the theory-practice balance of the courses in the program. Furthermore, some courses should be removed from the program and some new courses should be added. As for teacher educators’ and prospective teachers’ views on operational curriculum, it is emphasized that there are some problems related with physical conditions, teacher educators, learning-teaching processes, evaluation of teacher educators, student profiles, teaching practices, and a lack of some units. Results are thought to be significant in terms of contributing to the development of teacher education programs. KEYWORDS: social studies teaching, teacher education program, prospective teacher. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/atee.v1i0.661

The Problem with “Nuts and Bolts:” How the Emphasis on “Highly Qualified Professionals” is Undermining Education

Schools of education have seen many changes over the last 100 years (Labaree 2004). More recent modifications have included the slow and steady elimination of the social foundations of education in lieu of a more direct attention to teacher skills and basic training. The increased focus on the so-called “nuts and bolts” of teacher education trumps the larger vision of the purpose or function of education. This article proposes an alternative view of teacher education—one that places primary importance on the benefits of the social foundations on teacher education. In an effort to subvert the current trend toward technically trained teachers, schools of education should instead look to create teachers capable of critically investigating the context of their classroom within the broader world.

“A prophet never accepted by their own town”: a teacher's learning trajectory when using technology

Although there are some success stories of technology integration in schools, it remains unclear in the literature how teachers become, and take on the identity of, exemplary users of technology in classrooms. Using concepts from cultural sociology, this article examines how an experienced elementary school teacher in Singapore, Cassie, accounted for her difficult learning journey and becoming an expert technology user. From interview data, we highlight the major milestones in Cassie's trajectory of learning and explain how structural factors at the policy, district and classroom levels afforded and constrained Cassie's learning and how she, in turn, slowly changed her pedagogy incorporating technology. We conclude by discussing issues of teacher learning and identity by way of contrasting against a more traditional view of teacher education and from the case example of Cassie, we further explicate the dialectics of teacher agents vis‐à‐vis the structure of teaching and education.

Learning a teacher's work

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to bridge the theoretical perspectives of workplace learning and teacher learning. Teacher learning takes place, for example, in the course of a teacher's work as well as in the institutional setting of a school. This article describes research conducted on such learning.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a mixed methods approach. It includes interviews (n=8), which are analysed according to a qualitative content analysis, as well as a survey, which is analysed quantitatively (n=113). In the quantitative analysis descriptive statistics as well as a factor analysis were used.FindingsThe research indicates that teacher learning takes place in several different settings; when these are taken into account teacher education is shown to be important. The study also shows that teacher education has succeeded in integrating work and study to some degree when the perspective of workplace learning is taken into account.Originality/valueThere seem to be few studies that have addressed workplace learning from the point of view of teacher education or teacher learning. This study endeavors to fill this gap.

A Conversation of Many Voices

It's on the horizon again, another looming crisis in teacher education. These predicaments don't seem to go away or get resolved. A state of perpetual professional calamity seems to threaten, characterize, and inform the teacher education endeavor. Whether the decade is the 1930s with Teachers College Dean William Russell's (1936) call for a new charter for teacher education, the 1960s with Koerner's (1963) and Conant's (1963) respective critiques of teacher preparation, or the 1980s with the uproar initiated by Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), teacher education has been inundated by multiple and persistent criticisms. Some claim that schools of education overemphasize theory and inadequately address the practical realities of contemporary classrooms. Others argue that these centers of professional preparation lack intellectual substance and focus instead on pedagogical pedantry. Still others maintain that teacher educators engage in a form of leftist-liberal indoctrination. And finally, some assert that most university-based teacher preparation involves too many regulatory hurdles, discouraging the best college students from pursuing this profession. With most of these criticisms comes the charge that teacher education is, at best, ineffectual and, at worst, harmful and insidiously ideological. In contrast to these mostly external critics, people within schools, colleges, and departments of education argue that our current public schools embrace a 19th-century understanding of student learning; that our public schools' promise of equal opportunity has yet to be delivered; that schools, as workplaces, discourage innovation and collaboration; and that the current and outdated factory model of schooling needs to be reformed so as to prepare students for productive lives in a world characterized by rapid and accelerating change, and a technologically integrated global economy. These internal voices maintain that public schools need to better reflect our current understanding of learning and address the pressing needs of our unequal and unjust social order. Recognizing the teacher's critical role in shaping students' educational experiences, they argue for preparing beginning teachers to teach in reformed and socially just ways. In addition, those inside schools of education turn a critical eye toward teacher preparation, where they note the wide variability in both the content and rigor in teacher education programs and ways in which the fiscal and organizational realities of institutions of higher education work against coherence and depth in teacher preparation. The voices within and outside teacher education are not aligned neatly against each other. Certainly, some critics inside our professional schools agree with the external critics and some of the external voices are sympathetic to the obstacles of institutional life. These areas of overlap notwithstanding, it is the case that there are multiple, radically different views of the state of teacher education today. It is time, we think, to engage these varied voices, to have a conversation around these different views of teacher education. But before embarking on this conversation, it is informative to look briefly at several recent efforts to more fully examine and respond to the current crisis. THE CURRENT CLIMATE OF COMMENTARY AND CRITIQUE Recently, prominent scholars of teacher education have published major tomes on the state of teacher education and teacher education research. Preparing Teachers for a Changing World, edited by Linda Darling-Hammond and John Bransford (2005), is the result of work conducted by the National Academy of Education's Committee on Teacher Education (CTE). The volume outlines core concepts and pedagogical strategies that should inform initial teacher preparation and argues for the need to improve the context within which teacher preparation programs operate, so that beginning teachers, like their students, are optimally prepared to succeed. …

Field Experiences in High-Need, Urban Settings: Analysis of Current Practice and Insights for Change

High-need urban districts face many challenges in their efforts to overcome the large gaps in achievement demonstrated by their students. This study focuses on a strategy to overcome these challenges by better preparing future teachers for service in urban schools through quality field experiences at these sites. Teacher educators and urban school teachers who host teacher candidates during field experiences completed a questionnaire regarding their views about placements in high-need urban districts. A thematic analysis of their responses summarizes their beliefs about the most and least beneficial forms of field experiences, the most prevalent challenges in establishing quality field experiences, and the most successful strategies that facilitate the development of quality field experiences. The discussion compares the views of teacher educators with practicing teachers and recommends strategies to enhance field experiences in high-need, urban schools.

Teacher educators and student-directed learning

This article describes the results of a study on the views of teacher educators, and the way these views are expressed in practice. The study focuses on views of learning and teaching that can promote a shift from teacher educator-directed learning to student-directed learning. We found that teacher educators did not always ‘teach as they preach’, especially on aspects that distinguish the profession of teacher educators from the profession of teachers. The article concludes by discussing the influence of the findings with regard to promoting a shift from teacher educator-directed learning to student-directed learning and by giving some suggestion for further research.

Theory, Practice, and the Education of Professionals

In "The Relation of Theory to Practice in Education," John Dewey compares professional education for teachers to the education of other professionals, especially physicians. He distinguishes between 2 general approaches, the apprenticeship and the laboratory, generally favoring the latter. This article proposes 6 commonplaces characteristic of all forms of professional education and critically examines Dewey's views of teacher education through those commonplaces. Proposals are offered for conceptualizing the education of teachers in general and the connections between theory and practice in particular.

Partnerships Between Higher Education and Secondary Schools: Some problems

Data drawn from three case studies of higher education-secondary school partnerships in an urban western city in the United States is reported and a number of obstacles to collaborative partnerships identified. These include large school size, departmentalization, administrator turnover and the apprenticeship view of teacher education held by teachers. Contextual, school specific, factors often had powerful effects in modifying and negating program partnership goals. Research that is both level and site specific to further efforts to develop productive collaborative teacher education partnerships is suggested.

Presence Beyond the Narrative: semiotic tools for deconstructing the personal story

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the risks of a narrative view of teacher education as it is related to the T philosophy tradition of Subjective Idealism. Indeed, modelling the self may be an invitation to indoctrination. Thus the paper offers deconstructive ways of critically analyzing stories of narrative educators which may prevent mere imposition of influence networks for the sake of personal awakening.

Teachers’ Work, Curriculum and the New Right

Abstract This paper examines New Right arguments on educational provision, including the establishing of a voucher scheme and the introduction of elements of a free market’ into public sector education. The paper examines the right‐wing allegation that educationalists have ‘captured’ the school curriculum and the argument on the need for ‘consumer capture’ of education. It discusses the New Right tactic of privatisation by stealth, and the argument that gradualism provides the most effective means of securing educational reform. The paper discusses arguments put forward by the Right on the idea of a General Teaching Council (GTC) and argument on the need for the development of a teacher labour market freed from national salary scales. It goes on to examine Mary Warnock ‘s proposals for a GTC and her views of teacher education. The paper examines the likely effects of the implementation of right‐wing education policy, concluding that the 1988 Education Reform Act will prepare the ground for the privatisati...

Construing a career: a developmental view of teacher education and the teacher educator

(1988). Construing a career: a developmental view of teacher education and the teacher educator. Journal of Curriculum Studies: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 133-140.

Construing a career: a developmental view of teacher education and the teacher educator

Construing a career: a developmental view of teacher education and the teacher educator

Facing Our Ignorance

Jackson argues that we know less about teaching than the Holmes Group report contends, that an engineering how-to-do-it view of teacher education is too narrow, and that the medical metaphor in education is seriously misleading. He proposes we turn instead to the tradition of teaching itself as the source for understanding this ennobling human activity and for designing our teacher education programs.

The long view of teacher education

The long view of teacher education

Conflicting Points of View and Challenges in the Education of Teachers

The accompanying article by Miss Sny der and the following one by Mr. Keppel were delivered as keynote addresses at the opening general session of the annual meeting of the Council on Cooperation in Teacher Education, held at Chicago, May 4-5, 1952. The theme of the meeting was "Major Conflicts and Agreements in Teacher Education." Its major purpose was to explore means of reconciling the viewpoints of two concepts of teacher edu cation, the liberal-arts viewpoint and the single-purpose teacher-education view point.