Research-based teacher education can be understood in different ways: as a call to understand teacher education institutions as research institutions, as the ambition to educate student teachers to have an inquiring attitude, as the basing of teacher education curricula on the latest research, or as a combination of all three.In this chapter we reflect on a method of connecting research, curriculum development and practice in teacher education, presenting a case study of a conversational community of teacher educators and researchers. The aim of the conversational community was to understand the process of curriculum design in teacher education as an inspiring and practical combination of design research, self-study, collaborative action research and curriculum study by teacher educators. This process was supported by a conversational framework in which curriculum development was understood as an ongoing dialogue between vision, intentions, design and practice in the teacher education curriculum. Using the conversational framework in this single case study of a conversational community, we have tried to connect teacher education research, curriculum development and practice in a meaningful way.
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Mathematics teacher educators in primary teacher education need expert knowledge and skills in teaching in primary school, in subject matter and research. Most starting mathematics teacher educators possess only part of this knowledge and skills. A professional development trajectory for this group is developed and tested, where a design based research is used to evaluate the design. This paper describes the professional development trajectory and design. We conclude that the professional development design should focus on mathematical knowledge for teaching, should refer to both teacher education and primary education, should offer opportunities for cooperative learning, and need to use practice based research as a developmental tool.
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The present study focuses on the level of stress a teacher perceives when dealing with the most behaviorally challenging student in his or her classroom. To measure stress in Dutch elementary classrooms, a sample was drawn of 582 teachers. Two questions concerning this relation between student and teacher will be addressed. First of all, we focus on background variables of teachers and students as sources of variation in explaining the magnitude of challenging student behavior and the associated level of stress teachers experience. The second topic of this paper is to accommodate the potentially stressful relationship between student and teacher in a wider network of surrounding variables, which are, Self-efficacy, Negative affect, Autonomy in taking decisions, and Support amongst colleagues. To evaluate the presence of challenging behavior, the behavior of the student is related to more general variables like student responsibility, class size and ratio of boys to girls. We close our paper by assessing the validity of the studied relationship between teacher and student with respect to possible burnout.
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This study aimed to examine which kind of support through professional development activities is offered to teacher educators in the (Dutch) teacher education institutes for primary and secondary education regarding conducting practice-based research and supervising students’ research. Two online surveys were executed among deans and teacher educators to examine their views on institutional policies supporting professional development; the offered activities; their evaluation on the activities and teacher educators further needs for professional development. Results show that little attention is paid to professional development activities and if attention is paid it concerns mainly courses or supervised peer-exchange groups. However, support for professional development of teacher educators in conducting research and supervising students’ research is considered important. Most activities are executed isolated in each institute. A need for more collaboration between institutes on contributing to teacher educators’ professional development and collaboration at a national level is considered important.
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This paper reports on the EU-project 'Professionally Networking Education and Teacher Training' (PRONETT). The key objective of the PRONETT project (2001-2004) is to develop a regional and cross national learning community of pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators supported by webbased resources and tools to collaborate and to construct shared understandings of teaching and learning in a networked classroom. The reasons for the initiative and the design principles of the PRONETT portal offering a virtual infrastructure for the collaboration of participating students and teachers at www.PRONETT.org are presented. The initial pilots carried out by the project partners are described, highlighting the co-ordinating partners activities targeted at contributing to the local realisation of ICT-rich, competence based Teacher Education Provision. Results are reported of the evaluation and implementation efforts aimed at validating the original portal design and collecting information to inspire further project development and implementation strategies. We conclude by summarising the lessons learned and providing recommendations for improved and extended use and further dissemination of the project results and facilities.
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Beginning teachers encounter a lot of challenges when they start to work in their first job as a teacher (Kessels, 2010; Pillen, 2013). In this study, the support and coaching of beginning teachers in schools is the central issue. What kind of support do beginning teachers receive, what topics are discussed and what kind of support do they perceive as beneficial for their development as a teacher? A questionnaire for both beginning teachers and their coaches was used to investigate the support offered in schools. Results show that allmost all beginning teachers are engaged in informal conversations as well as in more formal coaching moments. Topics that are adressed have to do with teaching and workload. The results of this study can be useful for schooldirectors who want to develop an induction trajectory for their starting colleagues and help them choose which forms of support should be included.
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The extent to which mentor teachers are able to address mentees' individual needs is an important factor in the success of mentoring. A two-dimensional model of mentor teacher roles in mentoring dialogues, entitled MERID, is explored empirically. Data regarding five aspects of mentoring dialogues were collected, using a sample of 20 transcriptions of mentoring dialogues, in which 112 topics were discussed and 440 mentor teacher utterances emerged. Correlations between the five aspects were determined and a cluster analysis was conducted. There is empirical support for the model. It is a useful framework to promote reflection on mentor teachers' supervisory behaviour.
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Teachers in Europe are educated in a wide variety of institutes and by a wide range of curriculum models. The main aim of teacher education is the same throughout Europe – the education of teachers – but the underlying ideas and the contexts differ, leading to significant differences between teacher education curricula Eurydice, 2002). Nevertheless, the teacher education institutes in the various European countries face similar challenges, like how to support the development of teacher identity, how to bridge the gap between theory and practice, how to find the balance between subject studies and pedagogical studies, how to contribute to a higher status of teachers and how to prepare teachers for the needs of pupils in the 21st century (European Commission, 2007a). Both the academic discourse and the exchange of examples of good practice show that in most countries, the national debates focus on similar issues (see, e.g., OECD, 2005). The curriculum designs of European countries differ, as they are based on different national contexts such as different education systems, political choices and underlying mental models, for example, with respect to the expected level of knowledge and skills of teachers. Reflection on these differences can stimulate discussions and help to identify alternatives, find new perspectives and raise awareness of national presuppositions. It is impossible within the context of this chapter to make a thorough comparison of all systems of teacher education in Europe. Chapter 2 offers a more detailed description of teacher education in the United Kingdom, Israel and the Netherlands. In this chapter, we reflect on some of the issues that define teacher education, and we try to identify choices that are made in different countries and the differences and similarities in structures and approaches that are a result of these choices. To structure our reflections, we use a comparative framework focusing on: The system of teacher education ; The content of teacher education
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This study was conducted in the context of primary teacher education. The primary teacher education program at HU University of Applied Sciences is at the start of a curriculum redesign in which assessment for learning and feedback will be emphasized. We know assessment and feedback can increase student learning and performance. In the last couple of years students as feedback receivers are placed in the centre of the feedback process. When students actively take up feedback their engagement in feedback will increase. However, some feedback situations work well for them and some don’t. In this study we try to grasp both situations and figure out which factors of the feedback situation did work or did not. We focused on two processes during the interviews and the coding. The first process was about the feedback situation, which characteristics of the feedback context, the receiver and the sender were at hand, and second what did students do with the feedback, did they try to understand and use the feedback, react to or ask for new feedback. The aim of this study is to provide feedback situations that work for our students and use them as elements in the redesign of the curriculum.
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In primary music education a key question is what teachers can do to stimulate students’ musical creativity. For the answer, delving into teacher-student interaction during the creative processes in the naturalistic setting of primary music lessons is required. Twenty-six music lessons from thirteen teachers and their classes of seven Dutch schools were recorded to explore the relation between teachers’ autonomy support and students’ divergent and convergent thought & action. Quantitative sequential analysis and thematic analysis were combined to examine this relation, using a framework offered by Complex Dynamic Systems theory and Enaction theory. In contrast to classical correla-tional analysis, sequential analysis focuses on the dynamics, and thus on the temporal relation in classroom interaction. The results show that mostly lower-level autonomy support was offered. Es-pecially in creative lessons, higher-level autonomy support is more likely to lead to higher-level student divergent thought and action. For convergent thought and action, the results were less con-clusive. An implication of the findings is that (research into) music education could benefit from interventions aimed at enhancing autonomy support in primary school music.
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