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.
Keywords: professional development; teacher educators; learning preferences;
teacher education