scholarly journals Research or teaching? Contradictory demands on Swedish teacher educators and the consequences for the quality of teacher education

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-84
Author(s):  
Petra Angervall ◽  
◽  
Richard Baldwin ◽  
Dennis Beach
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Constant Flow ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Point Of Departure

Based on a policy analysis and interviews with assistant lecturers and lecturers (with a PhD) who are heavily involved in teacher education, the present article addresses contemporary tensions and challenges in Swedish teacher education. The point of departure is the theoretical framework of mission stretch and the third space professional in teacher education with the aim of investigating how teacher educators experience and navigate their daily work. The findings of the study illustrate the tensions teacher educators experience between research and teaching tasks, between a constant flow of tasks, large student groups, and demands of high-quality teaching. The findings also show a gap between the practical anchoring of some research in teacher education and feelings of tension between teaching practices and the value of research. In conclusion, teacher education would seem to be developing into a cluster of tasks, challenges, expectations, and skills. This indicates that teaching and research are not the only missions and cannot be taken for granted in light of how teachers struggle to define their professional knowledge and value with respect to increasingly strong competitive demands for research performance.

Integrating Blogs in Teacher Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 607-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yungwei Hao
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
Technology Literacy ◽  
Instructional Model ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Reflective Index

This chapter demonstrates some of the educational merits of blogs; including how blogs can be integrated in teacher education and proposing a methodology for evaluating blogs to meet the goals of reflection and technology literacy in teacher education. An undergraduate-level course was integrated with blog technology to help readers better understand the inquiry-oriented nature of the blog medium. This exemplar course modeled Web 2.0 technology to teacher educators and pre-service teachers who intend to integrate the technology into their future teaching. Surveys and interviews were used to investigate participant attitude toward blogs. The researcher proposes Zeichner and Liston’s (1987) Reflective Index as a potential framework for evaluating the quality of reflection in blogs. It is expected that this instructional model of blogs will help educators, in particular teacher educators and instructional designers, to design courses to more effectively meet the goals of higher-order thinking required in 21st century teacher education.

scholarly journals Learning to Teach: A Case Study of Student Teachers’ Practicum and Policy Recommendations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urip Sulistiyo ◽  
Amirul Mukminin ◽  
Kemas Abdurrahman ◽  
Eddy Haryanto
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Teaching Practicum ◽  
Beginner Teachers

This qualitative case study was conducted to gather information on the implementation of teaching practicum in order to improve the quality of the program in an English teacher education program at a state-owned university, Jambi, Indonesia. Information was gathered from five recent teacher graduates, five beginner teachers, five school principals, and five teacher educators on their perceptions of English Foreign Language Teacher Education Program (EFLTEP) graduates as beginner teachers. This qualitative study employed a background survey, document analyses and interviews for data collection. Document analyses were used to examine the aims and content of the English teacher education program and official Indonesian English teacher education curriculum and policies. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the main data from graduates and collect information from the beginner teachers. Interviews with principals and teacher educators were used to obtain further data and evidence about the beginner teachers’ knowledge and preparedness to teach. We organized our analysis, findings, and discussion around the implementation of teaching practicum. The analyses of the documents and texts revealed that major themes related to (1) the standards for implementing the teaching practicum in the program, (2) quality of the teaching practicum, (3) duration of the teaching practicum, (4) the roles of mentor teachers and teacher educators, and (5) selecting school partners for the student teacher practicum. Particularly, the findings indicated that teaching practicum projects undertaken during the program provided suitable but limited experience for student teachers to translate their knowledge learnt at university into the real practice of teaching at school levels. For future improvement of the program, the role of supervising teachers and teacher educators in assisting student teachers during the teaching practicum project should be a priority. The organisation and management of school–university partnerships for schools taking part in the teaching practicum require attention to maximise benefits to student teachers.

Integrating Blogs in Teacher Education

2010 ◽  
pp. 134-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yungwei Hao
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
Technology Literacy ◽  
Instructional Model ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Reflective Index

This chapter demonstrates some of the educational merits of blogs; including how blogs can be integrated in teacher education and proposing a methodology for evaluating blogs to meet the goals of reflection and technology literacy in teacher education. An undergraduate-level course was integrated with blog technology to help readers better understand the inquiry-oriented nature of the blog medium. This exemplar course modeled Web 2.0 technology to teacher educators and pre-service teachers who intend to integrate the technology into their future teaching. Surveys and interviews were used to investigate participant attitude toward blogs. The researcher proposes Zeichner and Liston’s (1987) Reflective Index as a potential framework for evaluating the quality of reflection in blogs. It is expected that this instructional model of blogs will help educators, in particular teacher educators and instructional designers, to design courses to more effectively meet the goals of higher-order thinking required in 21st century teacher education.

scholarly journals Has Reflective Practice Done More Harm than Good in Teacher Education?

Phronesis ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Russell
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Personal Perspective ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Pre Service Teacher Education ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

Why do we emphasize reflective practice so extensively in pre-service teacher education? What evidence do we have that frequent references to reflection are improving the quality of the teachers we prepare for certification and careers in teaching? Whatever reflection and reflective practice are, they are not ends in themselves; hopefully, they are means to the end of better teaching practices and better learning by students in schools. In this article I explore reflection and reflective practice from several perspectives, including my personal experiences as a teacher educator working with individuals preparing to become teachers of physics. The question asked in the title captures my fear that the ways teacher educators have responded to and made use of the concepts of reflection and reflective practice may be doing more harm than good in pre-service teacher education. To begin, I consider teacher education practices before and after the arrival of the term reflective practice. I then consider elements of Schön’s (1983) work and review five articles about reflective practice in teacher education; this is not a formal literature review, but rather an effort to show how virtually every article about reflective practice seems to be driven by its author’s personal perspective. The article continues with personal interpretations and illustrations and concludes with five generalizations about teacher education practices that indicate that much more work needs to be done if references to reflection are to do more good than harm in preservice teacher education programs.

scholarly journals Pre-service Teachers’ Views of Their Training: Key Issues to Sustain Quality Teacher Education

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Assunção Flores ◽  
Patrícia Santos ◽  
Sandra Fernandes ◽  
Diana Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Key Issues

Abstract This paper draws upon data from a broader piece of research aimed at examining pre-service teachers' views of their initial teacher education within the context of a master’s degree programme in teaching. The data were collected through questionnaires and written narratives at the beginning and at the end of the programme. In this paper, the data arising from 47 narratives at the end of the programme are presented. Five categories emerged from the qualitative data: curriculum content, teaching practice, the role of teacher educators, teaching and learning methods, the organisational aspects and structure of the programme. Although the participants identified positive aspects of the initial teacher education programme, they also stress that there is room for improvement, especially with regard to a greater coherence of the curriculum and a better articulation of its different components. Implications of the findings for enhancing the quality of initial teacher education and the role of teachers’ educators are discussed.

scholarly journals Brain drain in higher education: Critical voices on teacher education in Yemen

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulghani Muthanna ◽  
Guoyuan Sang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Brain Drain ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
University Administrators ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Quality Of Higher Education ◽  
Interpretive Analysis

Brain drain is a context-based issue and has direct impact on the quality of higher education for institutions where a significant number of instructors migrate to take up work in other countries. This is a critical problem in Yemen where higher teacher education programmes still lack teachers. Interpretive analysis of in-depth interviews with two university administrators and ten teacher educators revealed four key factors affecting the occurrence of brain drain: ineffective application of sabbatical leave regulations; failure to equalize returning teachers' salaries with those of their colleagues; lack of resources to support research; and the presence of internal and external conflicts. The study also provides insights for decreasing brain drain in Yemen.

scholarly journals A Study of the Declining Status of Teacher Education in Pakistan

2018 ◽  
pp. 56-62
Author(s):  
Uzma Perveen ◽  
Irshad Ahmad Farrukh
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Human Resource Development ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Aptitude Test ◽  
Quality Teachers ◽  
Political Interference ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Trained Teachers

Quality human resource development is the major focus of all developed and developing nations of the world, and the only mean to achieve this is the education only, which needs quality teachers. It is well accepted that no system of education can be better than its teachers. It is globally accepted that teacher is the central figure in the education system of any society and it has become a near proverbial that no nation can rise above the level of its teachers. The research has also evidenced that student achievement is linked to the quality of teachers. The Education Department of the major province of Punjab has stopped the pre-service training of the teachers in all its colleges. It has recently recruited more than five thousand untrained teachers, as the department was not satisfied with the performance of its trained teachers and training procedures. It is a no denying fact that in Pakistan status and quality of teacher and teaching is gradually and continuously on the decline. This study was conducted in the existing scenario. The major objective of the study was to identify and find out the causes of decline and unsatisfactory performance of trained teachers in the historical perspective of teacher education in Pakistan. The study was qualitative in nature. A purposive sample of 20 working & retried senior Teacher Educators and 10 senior officers of four provincial Bureaus of Education including Sindh, KPK, Baluchistan, AJK and DSD Punjab were included in the study. The sample was divided into two equal groups of 15 participants each representing each category and area. The data was collected through 12 rounds of focus group discussions of both groups with the rotation of members between groups after two meetings. The results of the study revealed the discontinuation of residential teacher training, elimination of aptitude test for admission, the involvement of private institutions in teacher education, merit-less affiliation by universities, distance mode of teacher education, Poor general education and political interference as significant factors for the decline of teachers and teaching in the country. The recommendations included mandatory aptitude test for pre-service entrance and teacher licensing, Stopping affiliation of private teacher education colleges.

scholarly journals Development of Quality Oriented Model for Restructuring of Pre-service Teacher Education Programs

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wajiha Kanwal ◽  
Iffat Basit ◽  
Qurat ul Ain
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Bachelor Of Education ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
Pre Service Teacher Education ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

This study was premeditated to develop quality oriented model for restructuring of existing pre-service teacher education programs. Population of the study was comprised of all teacher educators and prospective teachers of teacher education institutions of Punjab and Islamabad, Pakistan. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select sample of 300 teacher educators and 890 prospective teachers from 30 institutions. Two research questionnaires were used for data collection. Results revealed that prospective teachers enrolled in Bachelor of Education (Honors) were dissatisfied with the institutional environment, practical work, assessment techniques and features of teacher education. Whereas prospective teachers enrolled in Bachelor of Education one year program showed dissatisfaction with program duration. that teacher Educators teaching at Bachelor of Education (Honors) expressed dissatisfaction about physical resources, teachers’ competencies, teaching strategies, assessment techniques, professional skills, appreciative features of programs and institutional efforts to raise quality of the programs. Prospective teachers and teacher educators associated with both programs somewhat expressed similar opinions regarding quality of the programs.  It is, therefore, recommended that teacher education institutions may improve the quality of both programs keeping in view quality related concerns of the teacher educators and prospective teachers.

scholarly journals Teaching for Diversity in Teacher Education: Transformative Frameworks

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen O Ragoonaden ◽  
Awneet Sivia ◽  
Victorina Baxan
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Knowledge Mobilization ◽  
Reflective Inquiry ◽  
Underrepresented Populations ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
Évaluation Des Pratiques

This paper examines the practice and professional development of teacher educators engaged in diversity pedagogy in Canadian teacher education programs. Using a reflective inquiry combined with a self-study of teacher and teacher education practices (S-STEP), three educators discuss the complexity of their research and teaching experiences through the lens of Egbo’s (2009) seminal text, Teaching for Diversity in Canadian Schools. These critical reflections provide the basis to contextualize praxis-oriented teacher education practices in rural and in urban contexts. Specifically, the discussions focus on how diversity pedagogy informed curriculum development and promoted trans-disciplinary educational praxis. These transformative frameworks provided the teacher educators with the necessary knowledge base and knowledge mobilization to introduce marginalization, oppression, and alienation of underrepresented populations to preservice and service teachers. Cet article examine les pratiques et le développement professionnel des professeurs formateurs d’enseignants qui sont engagés en pédagogie diversifiée dans les programmes canadiens de formation des enseignants. À l’aide d’un examen de réflexion combiné à une auto-évaluation des pratiques d’enseignement et des pratiques de formation des enseignants, trois éducateurs discutent la complexité de leur recherche et de leurs expériences d’enseignement à travers le prisme du texte de référence d’Egbo (2009), Teaching for Diversity in Canadian Schools. Ces réflexions critiques présentent une base pour mettre en contexte les pratiques de formation d’enseignants orientés vers la pratique dans des contextes ruraux et urbains. Plus particulièrement, les discussions se concentrent sur la manière dont la pédagogie diversifiée a informé le développement des programmes d’études et favorisé la pratique éducative transdisciplinaire. Ces cadres transformatifs ont donné aux professeurs formateurs d’enseignants la base de connaissances et la mobilisation des connaissances pour introduire la marginalisation, l’oppression et l’aliénation des populations sous-représentées aux enseignants en formation ainsi qu’à ceux qui ont déjà pris du service.

scholarly journals A research base for teaching in primary school: a coherent scholarly focus on the object of learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruksana Osman ◽  
Shirley Booth
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

This paper makes a case for a new impetus in creating a coherent research basis for childhood education and teacher education in South Africa. We are proposing a three-level – teacher educators, student teachers and practising teachers – research-led approach that integrates teacher education, schooling and early learning. The aim of the approach is to enhance the quality of learning in primary schools through systematic focus on the object of learning, whether in terms of teaching in school or educating entrants to the teaching profession at the university, or teacher educators inquiring into their practice. There are two thrusts involved: on the one hand bringing the focus of teachers, teaching students and teacher educators coherently onto the object of learning and thereby bringing it to the attention of their respective learners, and on the other hand invoking the principles of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) movement, thereby enabling its sustainability. We illustrate our case with two examples from the literature that show clearly how learning in school can be enhanced when teachers are actively studying what and how their learners are learning in connection with their teaching and where the work is disseminated in a scholarly manner.

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