Unwrapping the Shrink Wrap

2021 ◽  
pp. 258-274
Author(s):  
Sarah Vander Zanden ◽  
Lois Berger ◽  
Katie Simpson ◽  
Kristen Schrock ◽  
Erin Becker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Writing Instruction ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Naturalistic Inquiry ◽  
Peer Observation ◽  
Collective Inquiry ◽  
University Instructors ◽  
Learning Labs ◽  
Curricular Decision Making

This chapter describes a team of teachers and university instructors' investigation of teacher-led instructional improvements in elementary classroom writing instruction through peer observation and collective dialogue examining everyday teaching practices. Established tools and processes in place such as district curriculum, the Units of Study, and tools of observation and collaboration, specifically Learning Labs (www.pebc.org) protocol and professional learning communities, supported a naturalistic inquiry of practice. Teacher leadership, like writing instruction, is a process, and these educators identified co-constructed observation as a tool for sustaining joy, an under researched element of teacher leadership and professional development. Additionally, collaborative debriefing fostered professional growth, and collective inquiry provided inroads to autonomy in curricular decision making. The team sought to lead from within to develop understanding of and improvements in writing instruction.

Promoting Active Learning in Mathematics Teacher Education

2017 ◽  
pp. 269-284
Author(s):  
Rukiye Didem Taylan
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Mathematics Teacher ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Mathematics Teacher Education ◽  
Pedagogical Content

Teacher educators have a responsibility to help prospective teachers in their professional growth. It is important that teacher educators not only teach prospective teachers about benefits of active learning in student learning, but that they also prepare future teachers in using pedagogical methods aligned with active learning principles. This manuscript provides examples of how mathematics teacher educators can promote prospective teachers' active learning and professional growth by bringing together the Flipped Classroom method with video content on teaching and learning as well as workplace learning opportunities in a pedagogy course. The professional learning of prospective teachers is framed according to the components of the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Park & Olive, 2008; Shulman, 1986). Implications for future trends in teacher education are provided.

Teacher Leadership in Special Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-174
Author(s):  
Annie Nguyen Tran
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
School Staff ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

This chapter addresses the impact of the traditional hierarchical system of organizational leadership on K-12 schools, particularly in special education. This model of leadership distinguishes leaders, such as school principals, from non-leaders, such as teachers and school staff. For special education teachers, this passé model of leadership becomes a barrier for professional growth by limiting the opportunities for teacher leadership in special education. In order for special education teachers to pursue leadership positions in the K-12 education system, teachers likely have to give up their teaching identities in exchange for new roles and responsibilities. With a limitation of research in the area of teacher leadership in special education, there is a need for discussion on how special education teachers can use their expertise to influence school administrators and staff towards equitable and inclusive organizational change.

scholarly journals Music Teachers’ Perspectives on Live and Video-Mediated Peer Observation as Forms of Professional Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 28-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Bautista ◽  
Joanne Wong ◽  
Alberto Cabedo-Mas
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teaching Strategies ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Peer Observation ◽  
Professional Development Needs ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

The purpose of this interview study, conducted with 12 primary music teachers in Singapore, was to determine whether peer observation is viewed as a learning approach that may contribute to professional growth. We found that both specialist and generalist music teachers highly valued peer observation and were optimistic about the use of video-mediated peer observation. As a form of professional development, peer observation appears to enhance understanding and application of teaching strategies, allows teachers to anticipate students’ reactions during lessons, and builds their confidence as instructors. Video-mediated peer observation, which is both convenient and easily accessible, provides contextualized examples of effective classroom practices. We conclude that peer observation activities are most meaningful and transformative when they are responsive, that is, designed with music teachers’ voices and professional development needs in mind.

Tracing Changes in Teacher Environmental Education Understanding

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 57-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine R. Lang
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Naturalistic Inquiry ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Teacher Implementation ◽  
Teacher Understanding ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Growth Development

AbstractAfter more than twenty years of contemporary environmental education, there is still an inferior representation of it in schools. By 1990, UNESCO recognised that to improve the effectiveness of teacher implementation of environmental education in schools, teachers needed training. To date, there is insufficient research into teacher training in environmental education that could provide insights into teacher understanding and how to positively change teacher understandings about environmental education. The aim of this research was to document and examine the changes in teacher understandings of environmental education during an in-service training program in environmental education.To examine teacher change in detail, this research used a qualitative and naturalistic inquiry methodology while using a case study approach. The case study showed that teacher understanding was complex and affected by many factors that contribute to personal and professional growth, development and learning.

Beyond the workshop: An interpretive case study of the professional learning of three elementary music teachers

2020 ◽  
pp. 1321103X1987107
Author(s):  
Jody Stark
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Collective Case Study ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Cross Case Analysis

This article outlines the methodology and findings from an interpretive collective case study exploring the professional learning of three elementary music teachers. Participants were purposefully selected based on their differing career stages, background, and teaching situations, and each participant was interviewed five or six times over the course of the 5-month study. Additional data sources included field notes from classroom observations, a variety of artifacts provided by the participants, and responses to Pre-Interview Activity prompts. Through hermeneutic analysis of individual case data related to each participant’s teaching and experience of professional learning, participants were found to have a variety of highly personalized learning processes which they used as mechanisms for their ongoing professional growth. Cross-case analysis revealed three larger themes related to the participants’ professional learning: (1) The quality of the participants’ learning was always instrumental and related to specific personal goals for/issues in practice; (2) meaningful professional learning had a temporal element and was characterized by continuity; and (3) the participants’ professional learning was social in nature.

The Semiformality of Teacher Leadership on the Edge of Chaos

2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON MARGOLIS
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Systems ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Edge Of Chaos ◽  
Systemic Learning

In this article, Jason Margolis draws from complexity theory to explore the twenty-year negotiation between formal and informal teacher leadership in research and practice, making the case that there has been a drift toward a conception of semiformal teacher leadership in the field. Through both theory and examples, he illustrates how semiformal teacher leadership has the potential to afford school systems and educators both information and processors of information they likely would not otherwise have. Teacher leaders, in roles that are neither inflexible or ill-defined, can carve out intentional spaces on the edge of chaos to promote professional learning and communication in ways that solely school teachers or solely school leaders may not. In these spaces, productive complexity, agency, and systemic learning can coevolve.

Dialogic peer coaching as teacher leadership for professional inquiry

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Charteris ◽  
Dianne Smardon
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Peer Coaching ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Comparison Method ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Individual Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Or Team

Purpose – Dialogic peer coaching as leadership can enable teachers to influence each other's professional learning. The purpose of this paper is to shift the emphasis from the role associated with the designated title of leader to the purpose and relevance of teacher leadership in the context of dialogic peer coaching. Design/methodology/approach – The research was undertaken as a small qualitative case study embedded in a school-based, teacher professional development project. Nine groups of peer coaches from five unrelated schools engaged in a formal process of collaborative inquiry over two years. Interview data from 13 volunteer teacher participants were analysed using the constant comparison method and themes determined. Findings – The study revealed that there was growth in teacher leadership capabilities as they become dialogic peer coaches to each other. Practical implications – Through their collaborative peer coaching dialogue teachers have the transformative space to articulate their thinking. They can engage in dialogic feedback where they are positioned as experts in their own practice. Social implications – The teachers in this study are positioned within communities of practice as co-constructers of knowledge and co-learners. On the basis of the findings the authors suggest that this can support the development of high capacity leadership in schools. This stance contrasts with a technicist approach to teacher professional learning in which teachers are situated as absorbers or recipients of knowledge constructed elsewhere. Originality/value – The research reported in this paper addresses three key elements of leadership: individual development; collaboration or team development; and organisational development. It outlines a means by which teacher leadership can be strengthened to address these elements in schools.

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