School-based teacher education

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

Though teachers in schools are increasingly being asked to take responsibility for the education and training of prospective and practicing teachers, little empirical research has been undertaken into the support that they require to perform their duties effectively. This study provides an international needs analysis of the professional learning needs of this occupational group through a survey of 1680 school-based teacher educators (SBTEs) conducted in 12 countries. While the findings from this study reveal that most SBTEs receive some form of preparation for their role, they require that preparation to be more collaborative and target the pedagogic and research-related aspects of their work. The findings also indicate how much more needs to be done to recognise, address and support SBTEs’ learning needs in relation to the rapidly-changing socio-economic, cultural and technological contexts that underpin the work of all teacher educators.

This book, an inaugural publication from the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), Teacher Education: Innovation, Intervention and Impact is both a product of, and seeks to contribute to, the changing global and political times in teacher education research. This book marks an historically significant shift in the collective work and outreach of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) as it endeavours to become an even more active contributor to a research-rich foundation for initial teacher education and to a research-informed teaching profession. The book showcases teacher education research and scholarship from a wide range of institutional collaborations across Australia. Studies highlight the multiple ways in which teacher education researchers are engaging with students, teachers, schools and communities to best prepare future teachers. It informs both teacher education policy and practice and is ‘a must read’ for those engaged in the education community. Above all it marks a shift for teacher educators to build a research rich teaching profession.

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.

Practicum' refers to the time students undertaking initial teacher education programs spend in schools during their training. Its purpose is to enable the university and accredited teachers to assist student teachers to gain experience in translating educational theory into classroom practice. It is recognised as a vital component of teacher education. In 1998 the Australian Catholic University (ACU National) Melbourne campus, introduced the 'extended practicum' into their teacher education program. The extended practicum, undertaken by students in their final year, is significant to student learning as it enables them to spend an extended period of time with the same group of pupils. However, to date this program has not been formally evaluated. This study used qualitative methodology to investigate the effectiveness of the extended practicum in the Bachelor of Education course offered through the Trescowthick School of Education at ACU National Melbourne Campus. Literature pertaining to the development and current understandings of the practicum in teacher education and the partnership between the university and schools in managing the practicum was reviewed. Questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to gather data about the experiences and reflections of pre-service teachers, first year teachers, supervising teachers and university staff involved in the extended practicum. The data were analysed and key themes were identified and compared between groups. The findings suggested that while all stakeholders recognised the importance and value of the extended practicum in teacher education, their ideas about its major aims and strengths differed. A number of issues were identified that could improve the quality of the extended practicum and thus enhance the learning experience for pre-service teachers.;These issues included preparation of the pre-service teachers, length and timing of the practicum, supervision and assessment of pre-service teachers during the practicum, professional development for supervising teachers and most importantly improved communication between the university and schools. Information from this study can inform the development of the extended practicum, and as a consequence, the total practical teaching program at ACU, (National), Melbourne. This will further support the ongoing relationships between the university and schools and teachers who support the program and who provide an improved learning opportunity for pre-service teachers.

Professionalism of any profession including education is essential for improving its quality. and maintaining standard. In education, professional teachers and teacher educators are prepared through teacher education programme. The professional teacher educators are prepared through Master of Degree in Education (M.Ed.) programme run in about 225 universities and 970 institutions in the country. Theyprepare competent and professional teachers at different stages of school education. It means the quality of school education depends upon the professional teacher educators. For making them professional, necessary knowledge, skills and attitude are inculcated among students through various activities and curriculum of M.Ed programme but this programme is generally known as generic in nature and do not prepare curriculum specialists and pedagogues in areas of sciences, social sciences, languages and mathematics and at different level of school education despite many efforts made in the past. Therefore, there is a need to relook into this programme for preparation professional teacher educators.

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.

The scholarly interest in the field of foreign language teaching and learning has recently widened its scope within the competence-paradigm from learners’ competences to competences of teachers. Foreign language teacher education has thus been subject of many international and national publications and studies. Focussing on the situation of foreign language teacher education in Germany, results of international research can only partly be applied. This is primarily due to different standards in certain phases of teacher education. From a national perspective, one of the challenges in foreign language teacher education is rooted in the federal system: The 16 federal states of Germany have different regularities concerning the second phase of teacher education (in-service training). Looking at national research on foreign language teacher education, emphasis on investigating knowledge of foreign language teachers based on concepts of pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman) has to be noted. Throughout this article, we would like to critically evaluate underlying competence models, and establish lesson planning as a key category of identifying competence development of foreign language teachers. Lesson planning is conceptualised as an activity that requires language teachers to draw upon all areas of their knowledge. Presenting results of an empirical research study conducted with teacher trainees, the article concludes with relevant research foci that should be addressed in the field of foreign language teacher education.

The 21st century has emerged as an era of accountability and standardisation for the teaching profession (Mikulec & Miller, 2012). The current research is comprised of 4 interrelated empirical studies which measure and explore individual differences in perceptions of teacher-student boundaries in the secondary school context from an ethical perspective. This research is timely given it has been 8 years since the Teacher Code of Conduct was introduced in Victoria (The Institute, 2008). While the relationship between teachers and their students has been recognised as a powerful contributor to learning, engagement, and development, the professional limitations of teacher-student interactions have been relatively unexplored. Further, technological advances in the last decade have created new environments that potentially expose teachers to new possibilities and vulnerabilities such as Social Networking Sites (SNS). Within a contingency framework for ethical decision-making (Ferrell & Gresham, 1985) the current research employs a mixed-methods approach and a cross-sectional design. Participants were preservice secondary teachers (N = 288) enrolled at a Victorian university and early career secondary teachers (N = 227) registered in Victoria. All participants completed a questionnaire during class time (preservice) or online (early career) which took approximately 40 minutes. In the absence of a measure of attitudes towards teacher-student interactions and behaviours, the Professional Interactions and Behaviours Scale (PIBS) was developed and validated in Study A. Based upon the Victorian Teacher Code of Conduct, (The Institute, 2008), 5 types of teacher-student interactions were educed from the items; emotional support, physical support, teacher disclosure, connectivity, and befriending. Although average endorsement was modest, early career teachers reported higher endorsement of teacher disclosure and preservice teachers provided greater approval of connectivity and befriending. An opportune international collaboration enabled further comparisons with preservice secondary teachers in Norway (N = 227), who demonstrated greater endorsement of the provision of physical support to students than Victorian preservice teachers. Differences in reported ethical training provided during teacher education are also noted and considered as a context for the development of attitudes toward professional behaviour. Utilising a person-centred approach, Study B explored profiles of trait-like characteristics among the Victorian preservice teachers through cluster analysis. This study proposed that individual differences in personality (Mc Crae & Costa, 2003) and attachment style as defined by Bartholomew (1990) may relate to other personal characteristics such as the need for popularity, domains of contingent self-worth and perceptions of professional behaviour as measured by the PIBS. Preservice teachers described as “responsive resilient” in personality were more likely than “curious & sensitive ambiverts” to endorse teacher provision of emotional support to students. Further, securely attached individuals were more likely to endorse the provision of physical support than dismissive individuals. Study C utilised a mixed-methods approach to explore profiles of teacher-student interactions styles in early career secondary teachers and their responses to ethical dilemmas relating to teacher-student boundaries. Four profiles emerged; “sparing investors”, “reserved professionals”, “relational enthusiasts”, and “supportive ambitious” and in terms of interpersonal goals, professional expectancies and values, burnout, career satisfaction and career aspirations. Few quantitative differences were observed between profiles in terms of ethical decision-making, yet thematic analysis highlighted contextual considerations and protective behaviours as key considerations of early career teachers. Study D explored current and prospective social networking behaviour and found both preservice and early career teachers were highly engaged with SNS, with preservice teachers reporting greater usage. Almost half of participants in both the preservice and early career samples reported negative experiences as a result of online social networking such as bullying or workplace issues. In relation to connecting with students, early career teachers were more likely to accept a friend request from a past student than preservice teachers. Taken together, these studies explore individual differences in teacher-student boundaries as they are perceived by preservice and early career teachers in Victoria. The PIBS is presented as a valid contemporary measure of perceptions towards teacher-student interactions, and differences of experience and culture considered. Implications of the findings are considered in relation to teacher selection processes, the ethics curriculum in teacher education, and regulation of the teaching profession in Australia.

This paper aims to identify the trajectory of English teacher education in the Arts and Letters courses, and provide an overview of the knowledge produced and put in circulation by teacher educators in Brazil. Based on research paper abstracts submitted to a pioneering event on language teacher education in Latin America, this review analyzes the advances and gaps in this area of research. It firstly summarizes the themes of the studies, from the most to the least recurrent ones. Secondly, it looks at gaps in issues concerning activity and research in teacher education. Thirdly, the paper provides insights into how the members of this community of practice can strengthen their identities as teacher educators and establish a more dialogical and empowering relationship.

This study investigated pre-service teachers' beliefs about education through the application and analysis of Hollywood films in an undergraduate teacher education course. Hollywood films, as a genre of films, present teachers as lead characters and plots that center on classroom environments, instruction, assessment in relationship to colleagues and parents. As an instructional strategy films bring to life scenarios that can assist pre-service teachers in problematizing a wide range of issues. The study design employed initial and post surveys, class discussion, and worksheets to encourage reflection about issues relative to K-12 education. The research questions guiding the study were: What are pre-service teachers' beliefs about education? What changes may have occurred to pre-service teachers' beliefs about education over the course of a semester? What do pre-service teachers learn about education from watching Hollywood films about teaching? Data is presented through descriptive statistics and a narrative response analysis of survey data. Findings suggest watching and discussing teacher films supported that respondents demonstrated deeper awareness and a more complex understanding of teacher roles and responsibilities. Limitations of the study and recommendations for film pedagogy within teacher education courses are addressed.

Over the last decade, in both the Netherlands and England, national policy-driven changes have increased schools' responsibility in initial teacher education. This research gathered teacher educators' stories of challenges experienced ‘on the ground’ in these school–university partnerships. The aim was to explore the reality of working within school-based teacher education partnerships rather than a comparative study between the two countries. Challenges were identified in guiding and assessing student-teachers; professionalism and well-being of student-teachers and teacher educators; collaborative working and quality assurance. The stories revealed complexities of working across institutional borders with multiple stakeholders. Many teacher educators sought their own solution rather than discussing the challenges with others in the partnership. Resolution was sometimes beyond their control and needed to be dealt with on a different partnership level. The stories provide authentic teacher educator voices for use as a professional learning tool in developing collaborative practices in initial teacher education partnerships.

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

O presente artigo apresenta os resultados de uma investigacao desenvolvida em escolas particulares de Ensino Medio da cidade de Goiânia. Procurou-se identificar as atividades de Educacao Ambiental realizadas pelos professores dessas escolas. Os dados analisados foram construidos a partir de questionarios e entrevistas aplicados aos professores. A analise mostrou que a maioria desses professores teve uma formacao inicial voltada prioritariamente para a abordagem dos aspectos fisico-naturais da questao ambiental, o que faz com que as atividades por eles desenvolvidas, que sao realizadas de forma esporadica, estejam voltadas para esses aspectos. Propoe-se que, para a construcao de uma Educacao Ambiental critica, os cursos de formacao de professores tem de abordar a complexidade das questoes ambientais de forma curricular, na formacao inicial e nos cursos de pos-graduacao. Por ultimo, defende-se a participacao da Universidade em Projetos Ambientais que envolvam a comunidade em geral.