Identifying school-based teacher educators’ professional learning needs: an international survey

This chapter was inspired by our concern to provide a summary of key insights into teacher education for teachers in school who are increasingly taking responsibility for designing curricula for beginning teachers’ school-based professional learning, as a result of the ‘practicum turn’ in initial teacher education. Drawing on our own empirical research into the development of beginning teachers’ expertise and on wider literature, it sets out the particular challenges inherent in learning to teach and summarises what we know of beginning teachers as learners to propose a series of research-informed and practice-sensitive principles that could effectively underpin the practice of school-based teacher educators.

In which areas and domains do individual teacher educators prefer to work on their professional development? What kind of learning activities do they want to take on and with whom? Are there significant differences in these preferences between teacher educators? This article reports on a recent survey (N = 268) about the professional development of teacher educators and differences in learning preferences between less and more experienced teacher educators and between university-based and school-based teacher educators. Findings show, for example, that while most university-based teacher educators were mainly interested in improving their teaching, less experienced school-based teacher educators were more focussed on aspects such as coaching skills. In this study, ‘learning profiles’ have been developed for four categories of teacher educators. These profiles may help to create more meaningful arrangements for teacher educators’ initial education and further professional development in a context where teacher education is required to have a more school-based as well as a more research-based orientation.

The purpose of this book is to engage the people who do the hard, sometimes unglamorous, but always interesting work of critical reflection about professional experience in teacher education. The authors are all university- and school-based teacher educators who rarely get the time to critically reflect on their work with colleagues, let alone write a chapter for an international audience. As higher-education institutions worldwide establish and focus on work-integrated learning (WIL), the editors thought it timely to draw attention to the predecessors of WIL—the work, and workers, of teacher education in the liminal zone of school-based professional experience. We wanted to move past the tired cliché of the theory–practice divide to examine the nature of this important work. In so doing, we wanted to give a voice to the workers in teacher education who make hope possible in what are often challenging circumstances for our pre-service teachers. rather than allowing despair to be convincing (apologies to Raymond Williams).KeywordsWork-integrated learningInitial teacher educationTeacher-education workersPraxisPhronesisProfessional experience

Many novice teachers have difficulties in selecting and applying effective classroom management strategies to prevent or diminish disruptive behaviors. Negative experiences with classroom management largely determine teacher wellbeing and early attrition. Therefore, more in-training opportunities are needed to prepare prospective teachers to manage complex classroom practices effectively. A Virtual Reality-environment seems promising in developing classroom management skills and promoting teacher resilience; however, its potential is influenced by students’ perceptions towards this technology. This study describes four pre-service teachers’ and six school-based teacher educators’ experiences with and perceptions towards the use of a Virtual Reality learning environment to train classroom management skills and promote teacher resilience. Responses of semi-structured interviews reflect five themes: software- and equipment-related issues; feedback cues; realism and authenticity; instructor proficiency; and added value for teacher training. Results show that, for most themes, pre-service teachers and school-based teacher educators raised similar remarks and/or suggestions for improvement; however, they differed in their perceptions towards the added value of Virtual Reality to teacher training curricula. Our study highlights teachers’ needs for highly authentic and realistic simulations aligned with real-life classrooms and presents recommendations to augment the immersive experience needed for teachers to develop effective CMS and become more resilient.

The role of mentors and teacher tutors in school-based teacher education and induction

School-based teacher education

This article is based on a study in which I have been involved for the last four years, investigating the learning of final-year primary student teachers and their school-based teacher educators during the practicum. My investigation has confirmed findings from other research indicating that student teachers’ learning in the practicum is a complex process (Feiman-Nemser, 1985; Britzman, 1986; Goodman, 1986; Zeichner, 1986; Calderhead, 1991; Groundwater-Smith, 1993). Student teacher self-esteem was found to play a central role in the complexity of the learning process. Two particular findings in relation to student teacher self-esteem are discussed in this article. Firstly, student teacher self-esteem was not static. It fluctuated throughout the practicum, depending on the nature of each individual, his/her energy level, how well he/she was managing the professional demands of “being a student teacher” and the personal pressures on him/her (including his/her own expectations) and the amount of support he/she received. Secondly, student teacher self-esteem had an impact on many aspects of the practicum experience for the student teachers. It not only affected the student teachers’ teaching, but how they interpreted the practicum, their ability to cope, their ability to interact effectively with adults and children and finally, in what they learnt from the practicum.

This paper reports a small case study in which selected experienced co-operating teachers were appointed as school-based teacher educators (SBTE) undertaking a supervisory/ mentoring role for the 3-week period of the first practicum for students in a one-year Graduate Diploma of Education-Secondary (GDE) course. The study identifies any benefits that accrue as a result of changes to the traditional triadic arrangement and any changes in perception about the various roles of participants. The findings illuminate the opportunities for a more collaborative practicum model that has the potential to benefit all participants.

Lesson Study (LS) is a methodology that enables student teachers (STs) to gain insights into their pupils' learning processes during their practicum, thereby improving their instructional practices and supporting their professional learning throughout teacher education. However, "time" has emerged as a critical factor for the successful implementation of LS, particularly within the context of a one-year university-based initial teacher education program. To address this challenge, an integrated LS model was designed and implemented within the curriculum, specifically in relation to a thesis component and the practicum experience. This model was evaluated with a focus on professional learning, with the aim of fine-tuning the conditional input factors necessary for its effectiveness. The conceptual framework of Kager guided this evaluation, identifying input factors across three levels: compositional (team level), structural (LS process level), and contextual (organizational level). STs were consulted through questionnaires, individual interviews, and focus group discussions to explore which factors at these three levels either enhanced or hindered their professional learning. In addition, a document analysis of the thesis projects was conducted to triangulate the findings. The results indicate that the three levels interact and mutually influence each other. At the compositional level, interpersonal dynamics—such as trust, dysfunctional collaboration skills, and open communication—as well as limited teaching experience, prior knowledge, and group composition, were found to impede professional learning. At the structural level, STs reported time pressure due to the duration of the entire LS cycle, and some LS groups failed to make sufficient use of the provided tools and support, suggesting a limited understanding of LS. At the contextual level, misalignments in support systems created difficulties for STs in navigating and planning the LS process. This study sheds light on the complex interplay between team composition, contextual support, and structural guidance in the implementation of LS within a one-year university teacher education program. It further provides practical recommendations for improving the integration of LS into the curriculum in order to enhance STs' professional learning and overall engagement with the LS process. Received: 21 April 2025 | Revised: 25 June 2025 | Accepted: 10 October 2025 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study, as well as the measurement instruments used, are openly available in Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30149167 Author Contribution Statement Iris Willems: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Project administration. Wouter Schelfhout: Writing - review & editing. Elke Struyf: Writing - review & editing, Supervision.

Much has been written about teachers’ professional learning through inquiry into their own practice. The emphasis has been on teachers researching, reflecting and making change in their practice. Despite the wealth of literature concerning teacher inquiry and professional development, there is little about teacher educators with respect to their professional learning and inquiry. In this study, we examine an evidence‐based professional learning project for inservice teacher educators situated in New Zealand. This involved advisers, facilitators and other inservice teacher educators who work with teachers in schools. Our project identified successes and challenges that inservice teacher educators face in leading their own professional learning. The successes included working collaboratively, legitimising reflective practice and using evidence to support learning and change. The challenges included the time and commitment to ensure sustainable change and also the issue of rigour in evidence‐based inquiry learning.

Professional learning (PL) in education is thought to be a key mechanism for improving classroom instruction and student achievement. Yet despite decades of research into PL, the impact of this investment is not well understood, with reports of limited change in both research and practice. As part of a large-scale investigation focusing on practitioner use of evidence in education, the authors undertook a rapid review to understand what is known about effective PL for K-12 school-based educators. Based on analysis and synthesis of 12 included studies, the review identified eight features of effective PL: collaboration; active learning and reflection; content and pedagogy in context; sustained duration; coaching; external expertise; models and modelling; and, audience and alignment. It also highlighted additional considerations for effective PL, including workplace conditions, PL providers, and online and blended approaches. This paper argues that though there is a consensus around effective PL features, there is a need to go beyond ‘effective approaches’ and consider the broader conditions and methodological limitations that impact improved and sustained change. Overall, this paper has implications for understanding the research landscape around effective PL, and applying an evidence-informed approach to designing PL programmes.

Amid increased international emphasis on clinically based approaches to teacher preparation, the field of teacher education has also begun to emphasise the professional learning of teacher educators involved in facilitating such approaches. A range of designs for teacher educators’ professional learning has been described; the purpose of this article is to report a case study from a practitioner inquiry community that was designed and implemented in the context of a school–university partnership focused on clinically based teacher preparation. Qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with eight participating teacher educators, paired with analysis of artefacts generated during the teacher educators’ practitioner inquiry community meetings, indicated that a practitioner inquiry community can support clinically based teacher educators’ adoption of learner identities and stances as integral aspects of their roles. Teacher educators, however, were initially sceptical of the value of dedicating a portion of their professional time to engaging in practitioner inquiry – despite advocating the same process as a valuable approach to clinically based pedagogy for teacher candidates. The findings from this research complicate the notion that teacher educators will learn on the job, indicating that professional learning, as a vital aspect of teacher educators’ roles, can be meaningfully supported through practitioner inquiry communities.

Recent challenges concerning the quality of teachers and the programs that prepare them have resulted in responses from professional organizations that have been more widespread and intense than in the past (Robinson, 2011; Wiseman, 2012). The Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation (BRP) formed by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the merger of NCATE and Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) into Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) to improve teacher education (Cibulka, 2011), and the Teacher Performance Assessment Initiative which emerged from collaboration between the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) member institutions (Robinson, 2011) are examples of ways that professional organizations have responded to the challenges. In general, calls for performance assessments of teaching to provide both formative and summative information about the quality of teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher preparation programs pervade the current discourse on education at every level, including schools and districts, institutions of higher education, state and national policymaking entities, and professional organizations. As a result, a number of performance assessments have emerged that can provide feedback to teacher education programs about the strengths and weaknesses of their candidates as well as evidence for licensure and certification of teachers. For example, Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) was designed to provide information for program improvement through the use of a common set of performance assessments for preservice teachers and has also been adopted by states and districts for summative evaluation purposes (http://edtpa.aacte.org/). The multiple performance measures in systems like edTPA improve upon value added models (VAM) by providing information on teaching quality, not just teacher quality or teacher effectiveness, and provide information sooner than might be accomplished by use of VAM alone (Newton, 2010). For this theme issue, we invited research and conceptual articles related to teacher performance assessments specifically as they affect teacher education, including validation studies of measures used in the assessments. We posed a series of questions that we considered important for researchers to address related to performance assessments, including the following: What are the relationships between current performance assessments and teacher education, either conceptually or in terms of outcomes? What do we know about the use of performance assessments in the context of teacher education, and what do we need to know? How do performance assessments of teachers in schools map onto assessment of teacher education programs, or how don't they? What differences may exist across novice teachers and expert teachers with respect to performance assessment, and how does that impact their professional learning? What are the implications of the relationships between for-profit companies, university teacher education programs, researchers, states, and professional organizations with respect to performance assessments of teachers? What is the relationship between assessment criteria and the research on teaching and learning, and what are its implications for teacher education? How do states make decisions to move to statewide teacher assessment systems? What potential conflicts of interest may exist among various stakeholders in performance assessment efforts? How do policies related to performance assessment of teachers affect opportunities for teacher learning? What can we learn from the history of past efforts to evaluate beginning teachers? What is different this time? What do we know about the validity and reliability of performance assessments and why does this matter? …

School-based teacher education - opportunity and challenge learning teaching - a framework for understanding mentoring the reflective coach - functions and forms of mentoring the effective facilitator - counselling and interpersonal aspects of mentoring classroom strategies and their learning potential classroom strategies and their pupil-management potential teaching competance-profiles in student assessment and development mentoring in practice - coaching tactics mentoring in practice - student programmes and organizational issues. Appendix: notes on audio, video recording and radio microphones in mentoring.

Reflective Practice in Initial Teacher Education: Exploring the Perspectives of University- and School-Based Teacher Educators