scholarly journals Constructing Outcomes in Teacher Education

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Cochran-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Education Outcomes

As we enter the twenty-first century, the outcomes, consequences, and results of teacher education have become critical topics in nearly all of the state and national policy debates about teacher preparation and licensure as well as in the development of many of the privately and publicly funded research agendas related to teacher and student learning. In this article, I argue that teacher education reform over the last fifty years has been driven by a series of questions about policy and practice. The question that is currently driving reform and policy in teacher education is what I refer to as "the outcomes question." This question asks how we should conceptualize and define the outcomes of teacher education for teacher learning, professional practice, and student learning, as well as how, by whom, and for what purposes these outcomes should be documented, demonstrated, and/or measured. In this article, I suggest that the outcomes question in teacher education is being conceptualized and constructed in quite different ways depending on the policy, research, and practice contexts in which the question is posed as well as on the political and professional motives of the posers. The article begins with an overview of the policy context, including those reforms and initiatives that have most influenced how outcomes are currently being constructed, debated, and enacted in teacher education. Then I identify and analyze three major "takes" on the outcomes question in teacher education—outcomes as the long-term or general impacts of teacher education, outcomes as teacher candidates' scores on high stakes teacher tests, and outcomes as the professional performances of teacher candidates, particularly their demonstrated ability to influence student learning. For each of these approaches to outcomes, I examine underlying assumptions about teaching and schooling, the evidence and criteria used for evaluation, units of analysis, and consequences for the profession. I point out that how we construct outcomes in teacher education (including how we make the case that some outcomes matter more than others) legitimizes but also undermines particular points of view about the purposes of schooling, the nature of teaching and learning, and the role of teacher education in educational reform. In the second half of the article, I offer critique across the three constructions of outcomes, exploring the possibilities as well as the pitfalls involved in the outcomes debate. In this section, I focus on the tensions between professional consensus and critique, problems with the inputs-outputs metaphor, the need to get social justice onto the outcomes agenda, problems with the characterization of teachers as either saviors or culprits, and the connection of outcomes to educational reform strategies that are either democratic or market-driven.

Politics, Policy, and Practice of Teacher Education Reform in India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poonam Batra
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Teacher Education Reform ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
Institutional Monitoring ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
The Right

Educational reform measures adopted in India since early liberalization led to systemic changes in the provisioning and practice of school and teacher education. Despite judicial intervention, the state withdrew from the responsibility of developing institutional capacity to prepare teachers, leading to a de facto public policy that undermines the potential role of teachers and their education in achieving equitable, quality education. The policy narrative constructed around quality and knowledge created the logic of marginalizing the teacher, undermining the teacher’s agency and the need for epistemic engagement. Commitment to the Constitution-led policy frame was gradually subverted by a polity committed to privatizing education and a bureaucracy committed to incrementalism and suboptimal solutions to the several challenges of universalizing quality education. A discourse constructed around teachers, their education, and practice led to narrowing curriculum to a disconnected set of learning outcomes and putting the onus of learning on the child. In the absence of robust institutional monitoring of the Right to Education effort and poor fiscal and teacher provisioning, this act too became a target of neoliberal reform, leading to dilution. The wedge between the constitutional aims of education and market-based reforms has become sharper as the practice of education prioritizes narrow economic self-interest over crucial public and social concerns. This has gradually hollowed out the Constitution-centered national policy perspective on education as critical to the needs of India’s disadvantaged and plural society. A major fallout of this has been the decoupling of concerns for social justice from those for quality education.

scholarly journals Transforming Teaching and Learning for Quality Teacher Education in Ghana: Perspectives from Selected Teacher Trainees and Stakeholders in Teacher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Kwabena Ntim
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Student Diversity ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Teacher Trainees ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Education In Ghana

This survey measured the perspectives of teacher trainees, classrooms teachers and stakeholders in teacher education regarding factors that could enhance teaching and quality teacher education in Ghana. Findings from the survey indicate that teachers’ content knowledge was considered appreciable, but more emphasis needed to be paid to cultivating critical and inquiry skills among Ghanaian teachers. Additionally, efforts were to be made in teacher education towards a more constructivists approach to teaching, with focus on student-centered teaching and attention to student diversity, as well as enhancing teacher professional development, especially in the area of academic research. Implications for policy and practice suggested among others, are that teacher education in Ghana needs a more professional development that is both data-based and standard driven, as well as collaboratively developed, as criteria to assess teacher quality and possible certification.

scholarly journals ADOPTION OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY IN INDONESIA: Impact to Teacher Education and Professional Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-203
Author(s):  
Satia Prihatni Zen
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
International Education ◽  
International Development ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
International Education Policy

The paper discussed the implication of adopting international education policy in Indonesia through international development aid and funding. Specific implications to teacher education and teacher professional development was discussed by analyzing two education reforms enacted in 1980 to 1990’s. The paper describes implementation processes and challenges faced by the programs from local dynamics especially on how social, political and historical influence teacher identity as well as teaching culture. The implications to school, district as well as national policy was discussed in light of uniformity of educational system by dissemination of best practices and model of education through aid and other cooperative projects. Local responses to international education policy is increasingly relevant to ensure education reform will respond local needs and sensitive to local context.Artikel ini mendiskusikan implikasi dari mengadopsi kebijakan international di Indonesia melalui dana dan bantuan international. Khususnya, dampak pada pendidikan guru dan perkembangan professional guru dikaji melalui dua program pendidikan yang diterapkan pada tahun 1980-an hingga 1990-an. Deskripsi dari pelaksanaan dan tantangan yang dihadapi dalam implementasi program tersebut dilihat dari konteks local dimana pengaruh social, politik dan sejarah mewarnai konsepsi identitas guru serta budaya pengajaran di sekolah. Implikasi pada kebijakan sekolah, pemerintah local dan nasional dimana kecenderungan akan penyeragaman system pendidikan terjadi melalui kerjasama dan bantuan juga dijabarkan. Artikel ini menekankan pentingnya respon local yang relevan terhadap penerapan kebijakan pendidikan internasional agar sensitive terhadap kebutuhan dan konteks local itu sendiri.

scholarly journals ADVISING FUTURE TEACHERS IN AN ERA OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Martha McMillian
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Academic Advisors ◽  
Future Teachers ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
The Status

Academic advisors and counselors of future teachers can have a great impact on the status of education and its reform by attracting top-notch students into the field and by providing encouragement to those who select teaching as their career. Consequently, advising in teacher education programs should elicit top priority in funding and rewards. In this article, several suggestions are outlined for teacher education advisors who wish to become leaders in the education reform movement and who are concerned about dealing more effectively with students entering the profession of teaching.

scholarly journals Emotionality and STEAM Integrations in Teacher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Steele ◽  
Elizabeth L. Ashworth
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
Steam Education ◽  
Emotion And Learning ◽  
Integration Project ◽  
Education Initiatives

The authors consider STEM and STEAM education initiatives as forms of integrated teaching and learning. With evidence from education research and the neurosciences, a case is made for the inherent connections between emotion and learning as essential to STEAM pedagogy. In this article, the authors’ ArtScience integration project for teacher candidates (TCs) is described, and elicits the following questions: do teacher candidates (TCs) exhibit emotions directly related to the ArtScience integration project? If so, what are those emotions? How do those emotions connect with the TCs’ perceptions of integration? Anecdotal evidence and collected data in the form of reflection papers are analyzed and discussed. The authors suggest that STEAM integrations take into account the importance of emotion in multidisciplinary teaching and learning.

scholarly journals Policy and Practice in Education Reform in Mongolia and Uzbekistan during the First Two Decades of the Post-Soviet Era

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1&2) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Weidman ◽  
Brian Yoder
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social

This article describes the social, economic, and political processes that have influenced educational reform in two countries of Central Asia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It compares and contrasts the various educational reform initiatives that have occurred in each country, including legal and policy frameworks, curriculum change, decentralization, privatization, finance, structure, and emphasis of educational systems, and the fit between what is taught in educational institutions and demands of the labor market. A sector-wide framework for education reform is presented to facilitate understanding of the very complex set of processes involved.

scholarly journals School-university Partnerships in Teacher Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
Khin Khin Thant Sin
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Mentor Teachers ◽  
University Partnerships ◽  
Teacher Education Reform ◽  
Practice Teaching

Myanmar, a country of developing status, is facing many challenges in reforming its education system. This article investigates the current practices of school-university partnerships from the perspective of student teachers and mentor teachers in Myanmar, where there is an ongoing process of teacher education reform. The aim of this article is to investigate the practices of school-university partnerships and the tension between partners in the training of pre-service teachers within the context of teacher education. A qualitative research method is applied in this study where six candidates were interviewed individually. Participants include three student teachers from educational universities and three mentor teachers from basic education high schools in Myanmar. The results showed that, except for student teachers’ practice teaching, there is no intensive collaboration between schools and universities. Trust is a major problem between student teachers and mentor teachers. Different opinions and perspectives towards teaching and learning are also causing tension between partners. Although there is tension between mentor teachers and student teachers, they handle this through alternative collaboration activities and negotiation between partners.

Preparing Assessment Literate Teachers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher DeLuca ◽  
Heather Braund
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Assessment ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Assessment Literacy ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Teacher Assessment Literacy

A standards-based accountability paradigm of education currently shapes teaching and learning in many schools around the world. This paradigm is characterized by increased academic standards and greater levels of assessment throughout learning periods. Across policy and curriculum documents, teachers are called to implement assessments to monitor, support, and report on student learning. Assessments can be formative (i.e., used to inform teaching and learning processes) or summative (i.e., used to communicate achievement through grades) and based on a variety of evidence (e.g., tests, performance tasks, conversations, observations, and so on). Given the growing emphasis on assessment as a dominant aspect of contemporary teaching and learning, there is a need for teachers to be assessment literate. The term assessment literacy was initially used to refer to the knowledge and skills teachers required in the area of assessment, historically with a strong focus on principles of measurement and test design. Over the past decade, however, the concept of assessment literacy has evolved. Newer notions of assessment literacy have moved away from demarcating the knowledge and skills needed for competency in assessment and instead recognize that assessment literacy is a contextual and social practice that requires teachers to negotiate their knowledge of assessment in relation to their pedagogy, curriculum, and classroom contexts. Central to this conception is the view that teacher assessment literacy is both sociocultural and contextual, shaped by various factors including teacher background, experience, professional learning, classroom context, student interactions and behaviors, curriculum, and class diversity. With the increased role of assessment in schools, pressure has been placed on initial teacher education programs to prepare beginning teachers with the necessary capacity to become assessment literate. While much of the existing research in the area of assessment education has focused on the value of discrete courses on teacher learning in assessment or on specific pedagogical approaches to enhancing student learning in assessment, results continue to point toward the need for more comprehensive preparation of teachers for the current standards-based paradigm of education. Accordingly, two frameworks for assessment education are described that consider multiple dimensions to preparing assessment literate teachers. These frameworks are DeLuca’s Assessment Education Framework and Xu and Brown’s Teacher Assessment Literacy in Practice Framework. These assessment education frameworks were selected as they work within a contemporary constructivist and sociocultural view of assessment literacy. The two frameworks suggest areas for teacher education that not only include the fundamentals for assessment literacy but also move beyond the fundamentals to engage the messier dimensions of what it means to do assessment work in schools. In both cases, student teachers are pressed to make connections and challenged to enact ideas in context to refine and synthesize their thinking. Xu and Brown detailed the macro- and micro-level influences that further shape assessment decisions in action. The composite picture is that learning to assess is not a neat and tidy enterprise of textbook curriculum. Instead, it is about learning foundational ideas and building an integrated stance toward teacher as assessor through contextualized reflective learning. Driving this learning is an enduring understanding that one’s assessment literacy is always in the making—a continuously evolving competency in relation to new contexts and experiences.

EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT: INSIGHTS FROM POLICY, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN THE NEW ZEALAND CONTEXT, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Sinnema
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Collaborative Inquiry ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Educational Improvement ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Key Aspects

Educational reform and change relating to curriculum, pedagogy, standards, evaluation and professional learninghave an important role to play in educational improvementinitiatives. In this paper, I explore insights from policy, researchand practice initiatives across key aspects of the New Zealandeducation landscape, relate those to improvement effortsinternationally, and highlight implications and possibilitiesfor teacher education. In particular, the focus is on curriculumreform, inquiry oriented practice, and collaborative inquiry-key:Elements of those policy turns are outlined, and considerationgiven to the implications for initial teacher education.

Exploring Teacher Problem Solving Using Simulation

2009 ◽  
pp. 208-226
Author(s):  
Mark Girod
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Work Sampling ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
Problem Framing ◽  
Teacher Work ◽  
Expert Novice

Teacher education is currently facing pressures to demonstrate efficacy in preparing teachers who can affect P-12 student learning gains. Teacher work sampling is one pedagogical framework useful in helping candidates connect their teaching actions to the learning of students. The Cook School District simulation is a web-based environment in which teacher candidates can practice this “connecting teaching and learning” using the framework of teacher work sampling. Though expert-novice investigations were popular during the 1970s and 80s, recent methodological, conceptual, and technical developments have occurred and teacher education may benefit by revisiting these types of studies in an effort to gather empirical knowledge of teacher problem solving and the support of P-12 student learning. In this vein, teacher problem solving was explored using the Cook simulation and important differences between more and less experienced teachers were found on problem framing, problem analyzing, and solution development activities.

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