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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In het TEPE-jaarboek Teacher Education Policy in Europe : a Voice of Higher Education Institutions , beschrijven Marco Snoek, Ursula Uzerli en Michael Schratz hoe op Europees niveau een proces van peer learning tussen lidstaten impulsen probeert te geven aan de nationale beleidsvorming rond lerarenkwaliteit en lerarenopleidingen. In hun artikel beschrijven ze het peer learning proces van het Cluster Teachers & Trainers van de Europese Commissie en reflecteren ze op uitkomsten en belemmeringen van dit peer learning proces dat deel uitmaakt van de Open Coördination Method die de Europese Commisie gebruikt om impulsen te geven op het terrein van onderwijsbeleid.
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The research methodology will be developmental research, defined as The systematic study of designing, developing and evaluating instructional programs, processes and products that must meet the criteria of internal consistency and effectiveness. (Richey and Nelson, 1996, p. 1213). Using this kind of methodology will allow me to find outcomes on a Self-Direction Learning (SDL) design process together with colleagues and student teachers - and to carry out several designed learning arrangements from an educational perspective. From the pedagogic perspective I intend to improve the relation between teacher trainer and student teacher with the accent on development, stimulation and support of SDL. This will be done during the design and carrying out of learning arrangements and also by training teacher trainers in the necessary skills of SDL in the context of relational/pedagogic didactic. Looking from both related perspectives it will lead to a construction of an SDL-environment in which teacher trainers and student teacher will learn effectively together.
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The quality of mentoring in teacher education is an essential component of a powerful learning environment for teachers. There is no single approach to mentoring that will work in the same way for every teacher in each context. Nevertheless, most mentor teachers hardly vary their supervisory behaviour in response to varying mentoring situations. Developing versatility in mentor teachers' use of supervisory skills, then, is an important challenge. In this chapter, we discuss the need for mentor teacher preparation and explain the focus, content, and pedagogy underlying a particular training programme for mentor teachers, entitled Supervision Skills for Mentor teachers to Activate Reflection in Teachers (SMART). Also, findings from several studies assessing mentor teachers' supervisory roles and use of supervisory skills in mentoring dialogues, before and after the SMART programme, are presented. In addition, implications and perspectives for mentor teacher development and preparation are discussed.
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The aim of this small explorative study was to get an impression of the participants’ views and understanding of the role of becoming a teacher in Swedish schools, realising the characteristic of pedagogy aimed for in the curriculum (in Lgr11 and Lgy), specifically the interaction patterns and student participation in learning processes. Main research questions addressed participants expectations of differences and challenges in the Swedish school context as compared to their experiences in Syria contexts, in specific the development of their understanding of student participation in interaction as characteristic of Swedish education and curriculum. From this, recommendations are formulated for curriculum and research for future Fast Track trajectories.
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Feedback is one of the most powerful tools teachers can use to enhance student learning. In 2006, the Dutch Inspectorate of Education concluded from classroom observations that it is difficult for Dutch teachers to give their students good feedback in order to stimulate students' learning process and developmental progress. Similar problems were revealed in other school levels and countries, for example in secondary education and in Finland. Giving feedback during active learning may be even more troublesome for teachers. During active learning, students are working in small groups on different learning goals and undertake different learning activities at the same time. They need to achieve task-related goals as well as to develop the meta-cognitive knowledge and skills that are needed for active learning. Yet, teachers often seem unable to provide the feedback that is needed and they do not know how to support the development of meta-cognitive knowledge and skills.Therefore, this research project focused on ways to improve primary school teachers' feedback giving practices during active learning. The central research question is: How can primary school teachers learn to give optimal feedback to pupils during active learning? To answer this question, five studies have been conducted. In the first study, knowledge regarding teachers' feedback practices was gathered. A category system was developed based on the literature and empirical data. A total of 1465 teacher-student interactions of 32 teachers who practiced active learning in the domain of environmental studies in the sixth, seventh or eighth grade of 13 Dutch primary schools were videotaped and assessed using this system. Results showed that about half of the teacher-student interactions contained feedback. This feedback was usually focused on the tasks that were being performed by the students and on the ways in which these tasks were processed. Only 5% of the feedback was explicitly related to a learning goal. In their feedback, the teachers were directing (rather than facilitating) the learning processes. During active learning, however, feedback on meta-cognition and social learning is important. Feedback should be explicitly related to learning goals. In practice, these kinds of feedback appear to be scarce. In the second study, the problems these 32 primary school teachers perceive and the beliefs they hold regarding the provision of feedback were investigated. A writing task and an interview were conducted. It appeared that teachers believed that conditional teacher skills, especially time management, hindered them most from giving good feedback. The most widely held belief was that 'feedback should be positive'. Teachers also believed that it is important to adopt a facilitative way of giving feedback, but they found this difficult to implement. Only some teachers believed goal-directedness and a focus on student meta-cognition were important during active learning and teachers did not perceive problems regarding these aspects. In the third study, a professional development program (PDP) was developed, implemented and evaluated. The goals and content of the PDP were based on a review of the literature regarding feedback and active learning and on the results of the preceding studies. The design of the PDP was based on the extant literature regarding the features which are considered to be important for PDPs, including structural features, goal setting and characteristics of the professional development activities that are part of the program. Effects of this PDP on 16 primary schoolteachers' knowledge, beliefs, perceived problems and classroom behavior were examined via observations, a writing task and a questionnaire prior and twice after the program was implemented. Results showed that several aspects of feedback during active learning were improved, both in the short and in the long term. For example, teachers learned to believe that feedback must be goal-directed and that learning goals need to be communicated to students. In the classrooms, teachers related their feedback more often explicitly to the learning goals. In the fourth study, the extent to which teachers attributed the success of the PDP to each of the purposefully implemented features of the PDP was examined. The 16 teachers that participated in the PDP completed a questionnaire and four focus group interviews were conducted. Results indicated that teachers value most features quite highly; all features contributed to teachers' professional development according to the teachers themselves. The qualitative data was used to illustrate and specify the theoretical knowledge regarding the features that appeared to be effective in PDP's. Finally, in the fifth study, the learning process of two of the participating teachers was described in detail. Written reflections, as well as videotaped reflections during the video interaction training meetings were analyzed and related to the effects of the PDP on both teachers' knowledge, beliefs, perceived problems and classroom behavior during te course of the PDP. By relating the learning processes of these two teachers to the literature regarding professional development, we aimed for a rich understanding of the impact of the PDP on teachers' professional development.
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In order to fully realise the potential of online and blended learning (OBL), teacher professional development (TPD) strategies on how to teach in an online or blended learning environment are needed. While many studies examine the effects of TPD strategies, fewer studies target the specific important components of these strategies. This study addresses that gap by conducting a systematic review of qualitative data consisting of 15 articles on TPD that targets OBL. Using a meta-aggregative approach, six different synthesised findings were identified and integrated into a visual framework of the key components of TPD for OBL. These synthesised findings are the base for the action recommendations which present specific and contextualised suggestions. Taken together, the findings can inform in-service teachers and trainers, together with further research and development efforts that are concerned with TPD for OBL.
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Mentor teachers need a versatile supervisory skills repertoire. Besides taking the prevalent role of daily advisor and instructor, mentor teachers should also be able to stimulate reflection in student teachers. Video recordings were analyzed of 60 mentoring dialogues, both before and after a mentor teacher training aiming at developing the encourager role. Mentor teachers' repertoires of supervisory skills were found to consist of an average of seven supervisory skills. After training, a shift was observed in the frequencies and duration with which supervisory skills were used. Although considerable inter-individual variability existed between mentor teachers, training positively affected the use of supervisory skills for stimulating reflection in student teachers.
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In Nederlandse scholen zijn jaarlijks vele tienduizenden praktijkbegeleiders (mentoren) van leraren in opleiding actief. De meeste mentoren doen dit begeleidingswerk naast hun hoofdtaak als leraar van leerlingen. Een ervaren leraar is niet per definitie ook een goede mentor. Om mentoren te ondersteunen in hun belangrijke werk verzorgen veel scholen, vaak in samenwerking met lerarenopleidingen, trainingen in begeleidingsvaardigheden. Voor Frank Crasborn en Paul Hennissen vormde hun ervaring als lerarenopleider en trainer van honderden mentoren de inspiratiebron voor het opzetten van onderzoek. Dit leidde tot een onderzoeksproject van acht deelstudies, waarin zowel naar gedragsaspecten als naar gerelateerde cognitieve aspecten van begeleidingsgedrag van mentoren werd gekeken. De resultaten van het onderzoek leidden tot een bijdrage aan de ordening van begrippen en concepten die gebruikt worden om begeleidingsgedrag van begeleiders in gesprekken met leraren in opleiding in kaart te brengen en te analyseren; een gedetailleerd beeld van begeleidingsgedrag in authentieke begeleidingsgesprekken en de manier waarop leraren in opleiding dit gedrag percipiëren; het blootleggen van cognities van mentoren, gekoppeld aan begeleidingsgedrag in gesprekken met leraren in opleiding; meer inzicht in de reikwijdte van training op de ontwikkeling van het doen en denken van begeleiders in begeleidingsgesprekken; een instrument voor reflectie op begeleidingsgedrag van mentoren; aanwijzingen voor verbetering van trainingen voor mentoren.
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The importance of a near-native accent. This talk will discuss whether or not it is important for EFL-teachers to try and achieve a near-native generally accepted accent for their students. The focus will be on the credibility of non-native speakers of English while speaking English in a globalising world, with a heavy or mild foreign accent. These days and in the future more and more non-native speakers of English will communicate with each other in English. For a native speaker it is not that difficult to understand a non-native speaker speaking English with a lot of local or regional phonological interferences. For two non-native speakers of different origin, both speaking English with a mild or heavy accent, it might be more likely that confusion about what is being said occurs because of the foreign accent. Research (Shiri Lev-Ari &, Boaz Keysar, Why don't we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility, 2010) proves that a near-native accent adds to the credibility of the speaker. In the Netherland most EFL-teachers were trained to speak English with an RP or GA accent. As soon as they start teaching students in secondary education they accept “World English” and most teachers do not pay a lot of attention to pronunciation mistakes made by their students, as long as they can get the message across. During the talk the audience will be asked how important they consider a near-native accent is, what mistakes they accept and don’t accept and in which way teaching pronunciation is an issue in their lessons. Some sound samples with typical mistakes the Dutch make while speaking English will be presented and discussed to see if the audience consider them to be confusing or not. Then a strategy, using phonetics as a tool, will be presented to help correcting a few typical mistakes. session type : talk (30 minutes) Audience; EFL teachers & teacher trainers
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