Towards a Principled Approach for School-Based Teacher Educators: Lessons from Research

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.

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 chapter describes research on the development of teaching and learning in a distance teacher education programme in Iceland. The focus is on challenges that school-based student teachers faced in learning to become online students and the way in which their experience of teaching in schools contributed to the development of teaching and learning in the programme. Cultural-historical activity theory was used for analysing the development of individuals and activity systems as a dialectical process. The expansive learning theory directed the contradiction analysis to reveal tensions and challenges in the development of practice within the programme, as well as future developmental possibilities. Data includes interviews with school-based student teachers and observation of face-to-face sessions, as well as transcriptions of online courses. Results indicate that a combination of non-traditional student groups and new online tools called for changed practice in teacher education and that a new model of teaching and learning is emerging. In order to develop this model, schools and the teacher education faculty need to look at the education of student teachers as a shared responsibility and negotiate acceptable arrangements for the institutions involved.

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

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

Handling the relationship between theory and practice is seemingly an endless challenge in Norwegian teacher education, and bridging theory and practice is highlighted whenever discussions about improvement of teacher education are raised. This article contributes to this discussion by shedding new light on the relationship through an analysis of empirical findings recorded in a subject-oriented action research project. The project was conducted as part of the subject Religion, Philosophies of life and Ethics integrated into teacher education at the University of Stavanger in 2008/09, and its name was ‘Teaching about Religious Diversity in School – Applying and Developing an Interpretive Cultural Approach to Religious Education’. As the name indicates, the project has tried out a particular approach to religious education. The tryout has been done by a community of practice. In this article I am asking whether findings from the project are pointing towards pedagogical approaches possible to categorize on a meta-level, and in which way these detected approaches shed new light upon the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education.

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.

Prompted by internal and external criticism, demands for accountability, and an authentic desire to better understand processes associated with learning to teach, the field of teacher education--and more specifically, of teacher preparation--is experiencing a vigorous period of change. In some cases, this has resulted in innovations--such as current proposals to evaluate and regulate teacher education and preparation programs, reform of the requirements to attain qualified teacher status (QTS), and the creation of systems for evaluating teacher effectiveness--that have been enacted without evidence of potential effectiveness. In addition, because different communities or networks operate using different rules and instruments to achieve intended goals, a persistent problem with respect to teacher education policy and practice is a lack of coherence leading to in the system. For instance, in the United States alone, a number of complex networks shape policy and practice in teacher education; these include, but are not limited to, university and non-university-based teacher educators, schools' policies and practices, including mentoring and induction, educational researchers with diverse scholarly backgrounds (e.g., political science, economics), accreditation agencies such as Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), regulatory agencies at the local and federal levels such as the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), and private advocacy groups such as the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). The resolution of that have emerged out of raising and addressing policy and practice questions in teacher education has in some cases served to move the field forward, but in other cases, has done just the opposite. An international case in point is in England, where the Department for Education has introduced a proposal to reform the current Qualified Teacher Status which, if implemented, would effectively transfer the responsibility to judge when a teacher is qualified from university-based teacher education to the school's headmaster after first undergoing a significant period of school teaching. In some cases, these are far from resolution as advances in related areas of knowledge and practice (e.g., cognitive science) have revealed the enormous complexity inherent in teaching and in learning to teach. These findings bring into question traditional ways of knowing in teacher education as well as current notions of what it means to be an effective teacher and by extension, what constitutes an effective teacher education/preparation program. The role of research at this moment has never been more important as a vehicle that can facilitate learning by examining and reflecting on the construction and resolution of continuously evolving contradictions (Engestrom, 1987, p. 79). Contradictions in Teacher Education and the Role of Research Globally and from a cultural and historical standpoint, teacher education has often involved the resolution of created by questioning, implementing, and reflecting on the system. The most prominent of these are what the goals and purposes of teacher education should be, who should teach and what should teachers know and be able to do, where and how should teachers be prepared, and how quality can be secured, evaluated, and reported. In the sections that follow, each of these issues is unpacked with respect to the need for research evidence to inform policy and practice directed at improving the preparation and ongoing development of effective teachers. What Should Be the Goals of Teacher Education? Much discussion has occurred around whether teacher education's key goal is to prepare teachers as autonomous professionals able to adapt the curriculum to the diverse needs of students guided by a strong moral compass, whether teacher preparation should be focused on equipping teachers with technical expertise capable of effectively enacting the curriculum and managing classrooms (e. …

A distinctive feature of the practice of teacher education is the value of teacher educators as role models for student teachers. This potential is not always realised because teacher educators do not always know how to model their practice, and when they do their student teachers may not notice it. Knowing this, a project team from a Dutch institute for teacher education trialled a 12-week intervention to address these shortcomings with six teacher educators. The intervention aimed to first put an emphasis on the teacher educators’ explicit modelling during classes; second, develop their student teachers’ observation skills so that they better noticed the teacher educators’ use of modelling; and third, organise a professional dialogue between teacher educators and students about the practice of teaching. The intervention was an attempt to facilitate the idea of teacher educators working with student teachers as partners to improve teacher education. The researchers used data from questionnaires completed by the teacher educators and their student teachers to establish the outcomes of the intervention. This data suggested that the intervention contributed to the professional learning and practice of the teacher educators and helped student teachers to learn from and about their teacher educators’ modelled practice.

Higher education practices in Nepal have been playing an important role to train and develop pre-service school teachers. This paper critically reflects on the curricular and pedagogical practices of mathematics education based on the first author's experiences of learning at the undergraduate level from the perspective of mathematics curriculum images and pedagogical implications. Subscribing to autoethnography as a research methodology, we analysed the first author's experiences as an undergraduate student in one of the public campuses in Nepal which point to two major images of mathematics curriculum: curriculum as a prescription and curriculum as a cultural reproduction. Considering Habermasian Knowledge Constitutive Interest as a theoretical referent, the paper concludes that the transformation of curricular and pedagogical practices in teacher education is essential. The transformative practice in teacher education is insightful to improve pre-service and in-service school teachers' pedagogical and content knowledge in Nepal.

Little is known of the identities and practices of teacher educators in Pakistan. This paper aims to contribute towards redressing that situation. It draws on part of a larger scale study to explore the lives of two teacher educators in one of the largest cities in the country, discussing what influences individuals as they develop their professional identities and practices working as teacher educators in government colleges of education. Using a life history approach, the paper shows that these teacher educators see themselves as ‘ustadoon ka ustad’ (teacher of teachers), with more professional status and influence over education than school teachers. But during their early experiences of teacher education, both individuals face challenges owing to the boundary-crossing nature of their work between school and higher education contexts.

Environmental and sustainability issues prevail in modern society. Southern Africa, where this study is based, is one of the regions most at risk from intersecting issues of climate health risk, and poverty-related ills. Education has the potential to facilitate catalytic transformation of society through development of understandings of these intersecting environment and sustainability concerns, and to support engagements in more sustainable social practices oriented towards the common good. This requires a rethinking of education within a wider common good frame. It also has implications for how quality education is considered. However, little is said of how this could be done, especially in teacher education. The paper shares two cases of teacher educators' change project experiences, as they emerged via professional development support and the mediatory processes applied in courses conducted by the Southern African Development Community Regional Environmental Education Programme (SADC REEP) aimed at enhancing professional capacity of teacher educators and other environmental educators for mainstreaming environment and sustainability education (ESE)1. These courses are framed using a change project approach, and involve teacher educators as main participants. In-depth data were generated from interviews with two teacher educators, their assignment write-ups, and observations of their teacher education practice. Realist social theory, particularly the principle of emergence, was used to trace the emergence of change in teacher education practice. Sociocultural learning theory was used to explain mediation of learning-oriented changes in teacher education practice. We illustrate how the change project model and approach contributed to mediating change in practice, showing emergent attributes of capacity for mainstreaming ESE and elements of a concept of quality education among course participants oriented towards the common good. In conclusion, we argue that ESE seems to be a sensitising construct for initiating and sustaining change for ESE in teacher education. In addition, the change project has proved to be a potential vehicle for mainstreaming the notion and practice of ESE into social systems and teacher education practices. We argue that reflexive ESE praxis provides a sensitising focus, initiating quality education with humanising properties necessary for the common good.

The paper addresses the interconnectedness of theory and practice in initial teacher education, in teacher development and in educational reform. Focusing on the role of the teacher as it is reconceptualised within the international movement to reconstruct schools and schooling, the rationale for new kinds of teacher‐education programmes is outlined. A programme for the education of reflective professionals is described, where, within a community of inquiry, prospective teachers construct a professional knowledge in teaching that is uniquely theirs, and come to new understandings of themselves as professionals, of the students they teach and of the educational landscapes within which they live. Following this, a new vision of teacher education and teacher development is proposed which links personal and professional reform to the reform of schools and schooling, within communities of inquiry where teachers and students learn together, and collaborate to reform their own understandings, and the cultures and contexts in which they live. Reform is imagined here as a creative process involving conceptual reform for students and for teachers, who are also engaged in the curricular, cultural and structural reform of the places in which they live and learn.

Introduction: Effective teaching should demonstrate a match between what learners are intended to know and be able to do, the opportunities they receive to learn and practice, and how we assess for learning. In turn, this promotes more worthwhile and meaningful learning. The purpose of this paper is to add to the limited examples of practices that directly connect with the coherent alignment of learning outcomes, assessment and instructional practices in physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes. We do this by introducing instructional alignment as a practically plausible way in which to exemplify the coherent planning of learning outcomes, assessment and instruction. Methods: Using the backward design process to design aligned learning opportunities, three examples of how instructional alignment can be embedded in PETE modules are shared. These examples are drawn from our own practice in teacher education and have been implemented within our various teacher education programmes to assist pre-service teachers in the design of instructionally aligned lessons. Results and discussion: While we encourage using the backward design process to design aligned learning opportunities, the decisions made may be substantially different depending on the context and the learners. While each of the examples demonstrate instructional alignment, and are dependent on the context and the learners, three nuances within each are discussed – alignment should support learning progression, clarity of success criteria and enhancing learning by embedding assessment into the learning experience/activity. Conclusion: Effectively embedding instructional alignment in PETE includes (i) buy-in from all programme faculty as to their understanding, and enactment, of instructional alignment as a central pillar of the module/programme, (ii) modelling good practice in supporting and delivering instructional alignment with pre-service teachers and (iii) encouraging pre-service teachers to embed instructional alignment in their planning, preparation and practices as beginning teachers.