Teacher development and school improvement: The process of teacher change

The overall goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between teacher success in implementing innovative programs, teacher perceptions of self-efficacy, and the teacher-perceived value of the programs. Using behavioral observations, interviews, and questionnaires, teachers' performance, self-perceptions, and attitudes were measured at several time points during the initial year of implementation of an innovative adaptive mainstreaming program. Significant increases were observed in both teachers' levels of success and their perceptions of self-efficacy. Moreover, the timing of the most significant improvements suggests a natural sequence of development leading from improvement in teacher implementation of an innovation to subsequent increases in their perceptions of self-efficacy.     

Teacher professional leadership in support of teacher professional development

Counteracting perceptions of teaching as a profession with a flat career trajectory may require professional leadership opportunities for experienced teachers that differ substantively from those typically available. This evaluation study investigated the results of a professional development initiative for subject specialist teachers seconded to a leadership role in their curriculum areas. Interview and survey data supported teacher growth in subject expertise and leadership capacity attributed to the opportunities provided by the new teacher-leadership role. The findings of this study indicate expanded leadership roles may further develop experienced professionals while simultaneously supporting teacher knowledge during a period of embedding educational reform.     

教师教育的有效途径——教师发展学校

教师发展学校是借鉴美国专业发展学校的经验构建的，是大学与中小学合作、以中小学为基地建设的、促进教师专业发展的新型学校。教师发展学校的建立对于创造新型教师教育，培养新型教师，实现教师教育一体化具有重要的现实意义。     

Teacher behaviour and student outcomes: Suggestions for research on teacher training and professional development

The study reported here examines whether teaching skills included in the dynamic model of educational effectiveness can be grouped into types of teacher behaviour and whether these types are related with different student outcome measures. The data stem from a study which was conducted in order to test the validity of the dynamic model. Results reveal that teaching skills can be grouped into five types of teacher behaviour which are discerned in a distinctive way and move gradually from skills associated with direct teaching to more advanced skills concerned with new teaching approaches and differentiation of teaching. Teachers exercising more advanced types of behaviour have better student outcomes. Suggestions for research on teacher education and professional development are drawn.     

Teacher self-efficacy and teacher burnout: A study of relations

The purpose of this study was partly to test the factor structure of a recently developed Norwegian scale for measuring teacher self-efficacy and partly to explore relations between teachers' perception of the school context, teacher self-efficacy, collective teacher efficacy, teacher burnout, teacher job satisfaction, and teachers' beliefs that factors external to teaching puts limitations to what they can accomplish. Participants were 2249 Norwegian teachers in elementary school and middle school. The data were analyzed by means of structural equation modelling using the AMOS 7 program. Teacher self-efficacy, collective efficacy and two dimensions of burnout were differently related both to school context variables and to teacher job satisfaction.     

The teacher‐counselor partnership: Helping effective teachers of the gifted become more affective

A Counselor‐Teacher Education Program provides a workable model for teachers and counselors to integrate their skills and be more effective in programs for the gifted.     

Finding out more about teacher candidates' prior knowledge: implications for teacher educators

While it is recognised that prior knowledge is a key factor in determining future learning, its influence on learning to teach is less well known. This study investigates two cohorts of teacher candidates studying for a one-year, graduate qualification for primary teaching, who completed two tasks at entry to their initial teacher education programme: a task in writing and a task in mathematics. The tasks focused on teacher candidates' ability to recognise the key features of a piece of student work. The teacher candidates' responses to the tasks highlighted the diverse nature of the prior knowledge that underpinned their responses. The study raises questions about the pedagogy of initial teacher education, particularly in relation to the assumptions teachers educators make about the candidates they teach. The findings suggest that the prior knowledge that students bring to initial teacher education is both a resource and a challenge for teacher educators.     

The Teacher as Guide: A conception of the inquiry teacher

This article explains how teachers might navigate inquiry learning despite the experience of a constant tension between abandoning their students and controlling them. They do this by conceiving of themselves as guides who decide the path with students, not for them. I build on a conception of teaching as guiding from Burbules, and argue that inquiry teachers should take the particular stance of an expedition-educator (rather than the stance of either a tour-leader or an expedition-leader). They should guide students to make progress during co-inquiry, rather than leading them to follow the teacher’s agenda. This stance gives a heuristic they can use to balance control and abandonment in their pedagogical practice—they judge which pedagogical actions to take, and when, according to which actions are likely to help their students to engage in autonomous inquiry and hence learn to guide themselves. Students thus can learn to inquire by participating in an inquiry which is guided, but not controlled, by their teacher.     

Teacher professional development to support teacher professional learning: Systemic Factors from Irish case studies

Teacher professional learning is widely accepted as a mediating factor for enhancing student outcomes. While many teachers across the world engage in professional development (PD) to enhance their professional learning, what is less evident is how to support that learning to result in change following teacher PD. Acknowledging that not all teacher PD needs to result in new practices and change, this paper focuses on a transformative model of PD, focused on implementing and sustaining change. This paper offers evidence of successful implementation and sustainability of practices by drawing from in-depth semi-structured interviews with teachers and principals in five Irish case study schools. It reports on the Systemic Factors to support implementation and sustainability of change: Support, Initiative design and Impact and Teacher Agency. Implications are drawn for bridging the gap between knowledge and practice or teacher PD and change within schools.     

Finding for teacher development

Dr. Jones urges that we respond to the challenge of the times by making education more meaningful to children, by honoring creativity more than conformity.     

Continuous assessment as a selfinitiated teacher development strategy in Swaziland: practice and challenges for effective implementation

Abstract

The paper reports on a study that clarifies the challenges that a teacher in Swaziland faced in using continuous assessment (CA) as a self-initiated professional development tool. Drawing mainly on post-Fordist ideals we analyse the assessment tasks she gave to learners to establish the degree of agency, reflectivity and creativity she invested in the choice, adaptation and re-design of assessment tasks that were suggested to the teachers by education authorities. Items within these tasks and how they were employed to serve the lesson objectives are drawn on to illustrate how she took advantage of the professional autonomy the CA programme afforded her to judge the appropriateness of what was officially suggested. The curriculum expertise that informed her choice of items to reinforce or remedy learning is understood in terms of how she conceptualised CA as a tool to track learners’ cognitive competence and as a resource for a self-directed professional development strategy. In conclusion, an attempt is made to provide cues for the conditions under which the self-empowering elements of CA can function to improve learning and teaching.     

Faculty development for preservice teacher educators: A research utilization perspective

Weak research utilization strategies limit the faculty development of university-based preservice teacher educators. Compared to school district-based inservice teacher educators, preservice teacher educators have weaker knowledge acquisition strategies, and are less likely to have sustained contact with researchers, especially where a training focus is prominent. Preservice teacher educators have less developed networks that facilitate research utilization, and have less institutional support for internal staff development. A research utilization theoretical framework is used to propose recommendations for helping preservice teacher educators.     

Teacher participation in school-based professional development in China: does it matter for teacher efficacy and teaching strategies?

ABSTRACT

Although Chinese teachers commonly participate in school-based professional development activities, there is a remarkable scarcity of large-scale quantitative research into the effectiveness of teacher professional development in China, which is characterised as an institutionalised practice. Based on a conceptual framework applying recent research knowledge, this study investigates the relationships between teacher participation in school-based professional development and its individual and school contextual antecedents and effects on teachers and teaching in the context of mainland China. A total of 1506 secondary school teachers responded to a questionnaire survey. The results show that teachers’ willingness to attend teaching research activities and supportive principal leadership facilitated teacher participation. Among the three dimensions of teacher participation, it was collective lesson planning and teacher collegiality, not the frequency of participation, that improved teacher efficacy and the adoption of desirable teaching strategies. These results enrich the knowledge about the characteristics and effectiveness of teacher professional development in China. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Dynamics of classroom motivation: Teacher enthusiasm and the development of math interest and teacher support

Interest is important for successful student learning, but little is known about the developmental dynamics between interest and social support in classrooms. Based on the stage-environment fit theory, this study investigated the interrelation of developmental changes in student class-level interest and perceived teacher support in mathematics classes over one school year after the students transitioned to secondary school. We also examined how teacher-reported enthusiasm was related to these changes. Data of 1000 students (53.6% male) and their classroom teachers (N = 42), who were surveyed at the beginning of Grades 5 and 6, were analyzed. The results showed a significant decline in class-level mathematics interest and perceived teacher support. Teacher-reported enthusiasm buffered the decline in class-level mathematics interest. When including bidirectional relationships between perceived teacher support and the students’ interest, perceived class-level teacher support in Grade 5 positively predicted the change in student interest and, thus, buffered the decline.