scholarly journals Do Pre-service Teachers Dance with Wolves? Subject-Specific Teacher Professional Development in A Recent Biodiversity Conservation Issue

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Büssing ◽  
Maike Schleper ◽  
Susanne Menzel
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Subject Specific ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Affective Components ◽  
Affective Dimensions

Biodiversity conservation issues are adequate topics of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), as they involve ecological, economic and social aspects. But teaching about these topics often challenges teachers due to high factual complexity but also because of additional affective dimensions. As a consequence, teacher professional development in ESD should address these affective components, to better qualify and motivate teachers to integrate conservation issues into their teaching. To investigate behaviourally relevant factors, we selected the context of natural remigration and conservation of the grey wolf (Canis lupus) in Germany and surveyed 120 pre-service biology teachers (M = 23.2 years, SD = 3.3 years) about contextual factors and their motivation to teach about the issue. Participants reported more positive attitudes, higher enjoyment and an increased perceived behavioural control towards teaching the issue in future teachers when they perceived a smaller psychological distance to the issue and an overall higher motivation to protect the species. As this motivation was grounded in more fundamental personality characteristics like wildlife values and attitudes towards wolves, we discuss the central role of these traits as a basis for transformative learning processes and the necessity of a holistic and subject-specific teacher professional development in ESD.

scholarly journals Teachers As Learners: Implications Of Adult Education For Professional Development

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Beavers
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Adult Education ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional

Effective communication with teachers is a critical element of any successful professional development.  Teachers are the foundational component of any educational system.  It is vital that adequate attention is focused on appropriate and effective training of these teachers.  Ideally, professional development offers a means of collaborative support and training to collectively conquer challenges facing teachers both in and out of the classroom.  The need for continued professional development is widely accepted.  Certainly, programs based on high-quality and meaningful teacher development can affect teachers’ skills and attitudes in the classroom, further increasing the quality of education the students receive.  There are numerous resources and studies detailing the components of effective professional development; however, these models can be quite extensive and potentially overwhelming to an administrator who already has enough tasks to occupy their time.  By incorporating a few basic principles established within the field of adult education, teacher professional development can dramatically increase its effectiveness.  This paper outlines very briefly some of these concepts and offers simple and applicable suggestions for teacher professional development programs such as: the characteristics of adult learners, self-directed learning, transformative learning and critical reflection.

What Should Be the Role of Social Media in Education?

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Greenhow ◽  
Sarah M. Galvin ◽  
K. Bret Staudt Willet
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Media In Education ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Published Research ◽  
Social Media In Education

Social media provide new opportunities for when, how, where, and with whom people learn—venue unimaginable 15 years ago. Today’s students and educators have adopted social media for various purposes both within education and outside of it. This review of the published research on social media in education focuses on the affordances for student learning, teacher professional development, educational research practices, and communication of scholarship. The article concludes with implications for education policy.

Use of Community of Practice Dimensions in Community-Based Teacher Professional Development

2016 ◽  
pp. 92-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puvaneswary Murugaiah ◽  
Siew Ming Thang ◽  
Hazita Azman ◽  
Radha Nambiar
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Professional Development For Teachers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Mathematics And Science

The role of communities of practice (CoPs) in teacher professional development (TPD) is increasingly recognized. CoPs help teachers in a cohort to reflect on their practices, develop new skills and find motivation through mutual collaboration. With the affordances provided by Web technologies, the potentiality of online CoPs as a means of improving (TPD) has become a reality and is gaining popularity as the flexibility provided help teachers improve their instructional practices. The Online Continuing Professional Development for Teachers (e-CPDelT) project aimed to develop three online CoPs; that is, English, Mathematics and Science communities among twenty Malaysian Smart school teachers. This paper examined the key CoP dimensions, as expounded in Wenger's (1998) framework, and investigated their use in the English cohort's TPD. The findings revealed that although key CoP dimensions were present, several factors inhibited teachers' participation in the community. It can be implied that it is crucial to consider these factors in developing online CoPs for teachers in Malaysia.

Zooming Into Mentor-Mentee Relationship to Explore Mentoring Strategies

2018 ◽  
pp. 212-224
Author(s):  
Bahar Gün
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
Mentor Attributes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

Motivated by the need to develop a clearer picture of mentoring, this chapter aims to zoom into the pivotal role of the “relationship” aspect in ensuring effective mentoring and what the good mentor attributes are. The chapter includes the short narrations of both the mentors and the mentees who were engaged in a pre-service teacher training course. Four mentors and four mentees have been asked to narrate their positive as well as any less positive experiences with their mentors/mentees during the course. As a result, both mentor and mentee “voices” were used as a stimulus for identifying effective mentoring strategies. The chapter ultimately aims to make noteworthy implications for enlarging our understanding of how mentoring might be most effectively used in teacher professional development ventures and how the relationship aspect might be useful in selecting the most effective mentors in different teacher education contexts.

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