Search

This paper introduces and summarises a programme of German research into teaching started 20 years ago. This research draws on Herbart's analysis of teaching with its focus on 'Bildung' (formation) which is distinguished from the measurement/psychometric tradition. It offers the possibilities of a deeper empirical understanding of pedagogical practice in terms of (i) education, (ii) formation, and (iii) didactics. The paper sets out four pedagogical assumptions drawing on empirical experience. It proceeds to a discussion of methodological principles to show what it means to reconstruct teaching using a hermeneutic approach involving a sequence analysis of lesson transcripts. The approach is also recommended for teacher professional learning through offering alternative ways of problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a topic within university mathematics education which has been somewhat underexplored: the teaching practices actually used by university mathematics teachers when giving lectures. The study investigates the teaching practices of seven Swedish university teachers on the topic of functions using a discursive approach, the commognitive framework of Sfard. In the paper a categorization of the construction and substantiation routines used by the teachers is presented, for instance various routines for constructing definitions and examples, and for verifying whether an example satisfies a given definition. The findings show that although the overall form of the lectures is similar, with teachers using ‘chalk talk’, and overt student participation limited to asking and answering questions, there are in fact significant differences in the way the teachers present and do mathematics in their lectures. These differences present themselves both on the level of discursive routines and on a more general level in how the process of doing mathematics is made visible in the teachers’ teaching practices. Moreover, I believe that many of the results of the study could be relevant for investigating the teaching of other mathematical topics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A lack of esteem for teachers and the teaching profession is a central tenet underpinning policy reforms put forward by the 2010 UK Government White Paper ‘The Importance of Teaching’. This article argues that the policy problem and solutions presented in the White Paper lack awareness of the historical and social positioning of teaching. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 32 London-based secondary teacher training students from various social class and ethnic backgrounds, this paper asks how the profession is perceived and what sort of choice it is for the trainees. It employs a Bourdieusian lens and concepts of social and cultural capital to examine the interplay of gendered, classed and ‘raced’ biographies in relation to individuals’ decisions to become teachers. Understanding the social world as ‘accumulated history’, as Bourdieu does, stresses that experiences and outcomes are rooted and collected in a series of historical structures and functionings. The paper argues that the ambiguous status of the profession is both a function and an effect of its conceptualisation as feminised. It also asks whether the weak professional standing of teaching has further destabilising consequences in the present political moment where a string of neoliberal and neoconservative policy reforms reshape the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At a time when the context of teaching in higher education is difficult for many number of factors such as: reduced funding, changing demographics of students and demands to teach in flexible times and spaces, there are also higher levels of quality control, transparency and accountability over teaching which are exerted by institutions. This paper reframes these demands and difficulties to reclaim the disciplinary expertise of the academic as teacher and following Palmer sees teaching as an entanglement of ‘beings’: the teachers, the learners and the subject and explores what it means to be a teacher within these relationships. We argue for a relational pedagogy in which embodied teaching is guided by listening for and to the subject. Wishing to be consistent in the paper with its theme, we adopt a subject-centred approach. And since our core subject in this paper is teaching, we necessarily include reflections on teaching experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses two pedagogical case studies (PCS) from a multidisciplinary perspective to highlight the problems of theoretical knowledge in tertiary physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes, school-based physical education (PE) practice and continuous professional learning (CPL) in PE. We argue that a critical view of tertiary PETE and PE teacher educator CPL practice or practices is particularly important if PETE programmes want to develop future PE and current teacher practitioners who are transformative agents. In setting up the pedagogical case study accounts, we recall common conversations about the bodies of knowledge in tertiary PETE programmes that have been positioned as problematic. The accounts highlight the existence of an artificial divide between PE educators as theory generators and both pre-service PE teachers and school-based PE practitioners as theory appliers. We suggest that part of the reason why this divide exists can be attributed to a general misunderstanding of theoretical and practical knowledge that have been wrongly compartmentalised into ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, and hence erroneously taught as isolated entities without any connection or direct link with each other, or the former considered to be less relevant and perhaps even irrelevant in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an ongoing tension within educational policy worldwide between countries that seek to reduce the opportunities for teachers to exert judgement and control over their own work, and those who seek to promote it. Some see teacher agency as a weakness within the operation of schools and seek to replace it with evidence-based and data-driven approaches, whereas others argue that because of the complexities of situated educational practices, teacher agency is an indispensable element of good and meaningful education. While the ideological debate about the shape and form of teacher professionalism is important, it is equally important to understand the dynamics of teacher agency and the factors that contribute to its promotion and enhancement. In this paper, we draw from a two-year study into teacher agency against the backdrop of large-scale educational reform – the implementation of Scotland’sCurriculum for Excellence– in order to explore these questions. We focus on teachers’ beliefs in order to get a sense of the individual and collective discourses that inform teachers’ perceptions, judgements and decision-making and that motivate and drive teachers’ action. While the research suggests that beliefs play an important role in teachers’ work, an apparent mismatch between teachers’ individual beliefs and values and wider institutional discourses and cultures, and a relative lack of a clear and robust professional vision of the purposes of education indicate that the promotion of teacher agency does not just rely on the beliefs that individual teachers bring to their practice, but also requires collective development and consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an ongoing debate in the social work profession about the value of faculty with practice experience. Many doctoral students begin teaching with significant practice experience but limited preparation for teaching. Schön’s reflective practice paradigm describes how new instructors can trust their existing social work skills and values, as well as cultivate the ability to reflect on their developing teaching practice. Drawing on the authors’ own experiences as new doctoral-level instructors, and referring to the literature on teaching effectiveness, this paper suggests that practice experience and clinical skills can be an invaluable resource for new instructors in social work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent and current changes in higher education have been both top-down and bottom-up, i.e. regulation and control measures from authorities on one hand and increasing numbers of international students on the other. This has led to a dilemma between unification and diversification. There is a marked pressure towards more testing, more streamlining and less autonomy. This development is caused by both top-down regulation and increasing diversity in the student body. This paper will examine the consequent impact on pedagogy and assessment, current practices and educational philosophies. We aim to ask questions pertinent to the substantial values and goals of our higher education institutions and to begin a discussion of the what, why and how of the renewal process. In particular, it discusses the effects in relation to teacher and learner autonomy in an intercultural classroom with multiple languages, expectation and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues for situating today's students as ‘global citizens’, emphasisingself-in-the-worldidentity overact-in-the-worldagency. It draws upon a three-year investigation into the lived-experience of sojourning UK undergraduate students, which surfaced examples of significant learning among new communities of practice. Their experiences of crossing learning thresholds is presented as change to the lifeworld, and argued to have enhanced their sense ofself-in-the-world. Because primary sites of learning identified within the narratives were within inter-subjective encounters outside the host culture and beyond what was planned within their mobility programmes, I suggest that similar learning might be enabled among diverse campus communities at home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Beginning teacher development involves both a personal and professional reorganization of major individual investments. In a longitudinal study of first-year teachers across the first year of teaching, these dual processes were found to significantly challenge beginning teacher development and confidence. In this paper, the simultaneous development of the new teacher as an emergent adult and emergent teacher is examined through the language of new teachers participating in a first-year support group. Findings suggest reduced concerns for self as a classroom disciplinarian and increased concerns for human relationships within the classroom and in achieving perceived success in creating a safe and caring environment for students. Strong concerns for students and others emerge and overtake concerns of self during the second half of the novice year. Implications for programs that emphasize a caring environment in teacher and adult development, induction and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increased use of professional learning communities in the teacher education field, they do not necessarily guarantee change in teachers’ daily practice. This study is a multiple case study of three school leaders in Vietnam to connect their teachers’ learning and practice by utilising visual records. In the cases studied, we see a progression of models of joint reflection based on visual information, from only occasional reflection to daily critical reflection, the latter of which the authors call ‘vide-flection’ referring to a process for people to consider their actions, thoughts, or experiences by utilising video-recorded images. For joint vide-flection, school leaders visit every classroom for several minutes every day to observe the wellbeing and learning of pupils and video-record struggles or breakthroughs in children’s learning; they share those images with teachers to jointly reflect on the situations. Through this vide-flection, teachers develop more detailed awareness of pupils needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of the present study was twofold: examining the effect of contextual differences on the degree of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ involvement in reflection and exploring context-related factors that may help/hinder the reflection process. A mixed-methods quantitative-qualitative procedure was adopted. Eighty-five Iranian EFL teachers (41 teaching in public schools and 44 working in private language institutes) completed the English-language teaching reflection inventory developed by Akbari, Behzadpour, and Dadvand (2010), with 10 of the participants attending a follow-up interview too. The results of multiple sets of independent samplest-tests showed that teachers in the private sector reported significantly more active involvement in lower levels of reflection (i.e. practical, cognitive, and affective reflection), while no measurable difference was detected between the two groups in terms of higher levels of reflection (i.e. metacognitive and critical reflection). Analysis of the interview data further revealed that teachers’ involvement in reflection was influenced by five main context-specific factors namely, knowledge of reflection, institutional demands, teachers’ attitude toward teaching, availability of resources, and collegial support. The implications of the findings for educational policymakers and teacher educators were discussed and suggestions were provided for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This mixed-methods study investigated the relationships among preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and their domain knowledge (DK) as related to mathematics and science teaching. Quantitative results revealed that participants’ PCK was significantly correlated with their mathematics and science efficacy beliefs. Additionally, participants’ mathematics and science DK did not predict their mathematics and science personal efficacy beliefs, however, their PCK score predicted participants’ outcome expectancies. Interview analysis revealed five inter-related key themes, labeled as:Previous academic experiences,Mathematics and science PCK beliefs, Personal efficacy, Outcome expectanciesandEmotions. These common themes describe participants’ views of their quality teacher training and thinking about planned instruction. Educational implications are discussed in relationship with study findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to increasing globalization and immigration, there has been an increase in the culturally and linguistically diverse student population in the public school system. Educating teacher candidates to become culturally aware, sensitive and competent in order to meet the needs of this diverse population has been a concern of teacher education programs. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential usefulness of cultural narratives in teacher education classrooms and determine how they could be used as an instructional strategy to positively influence the pre- and in-service teachers’ growing knowledge and application of teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students with the views of the three TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher educators. Using the collaborative narrative inquiry, three TESOL educators, who are from linguistically, racially and culturally different backgrounds, academic settings and locations, analyzed the personal cultural narratives of one TESOL educator. We believe that cultural narratives have great potential as an instructional strategy in educating teacher candidates on issues related to language, culture, identity and diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Home Economics (HE) teachers can have a central role in teaching sustainable development (SD) to young adolescents through everyday household management and the promotion of personally and globally sustainable well-being. How well the teachers cope with this task is not well known. The objective of this study was to survey Finnish HE teachers' perceptions of their current practice, coping, and future intentions in terms of teaching SD. Enablers and inhibitors to carrying out this task were further investigated. Findings from this survey suggest that HE teachers have adopted sustainability at a personal level, but often lack the resources and incentives to teach it. Ways to promote cross-curricular projects and wider integration of SD into HE are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How prospective teachers conceive of teaching excellence and assessment purposes probably influences how teaching and assessment practices are implemented in the future. This study evaluated, in four ‘normal universities’ in the People’s Republic of China, 765 prospective teachers’ responses to two self-report instruments regarding the nature of excellent teaching and the purpose of assessment. Both questionnaires had previously been developed in Mandarin Chinese and validated with large samples of practicing teachers in China. The original models could not be recovered and with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis alternative models were found. Excellent teaching was conceived as four inter-correlated factors (i.e. Professional, Model, Examination and Life-long), as also were the purposes of assessment (i.e. Diagnose and Formative, Irrelevant, Control and Life Character). Structural equation modelling showed that the strongest relationship between teaching excellence and assessment began with the examination factor which positively predicted assessment as Irrelevant and for Life Character development and negatively the Diagnose and Formative purpose. Results are consistent with the high-stakes examination system of China and the status of prospective teachers who have only recently stopped being students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author argues that British Secretary of State Michael Gove has modeled England's primary school National Curriculum after the Common Core education policy developed in Massachusetts. It is said that U.S. Charter Schools have had mixed results. Remarks by Gove about teaching as a profession are addressed.