Why Do We Have Such Dilemmas?—An Reflection on Shadowing a PBL Mentor Teacher

The author reflects on six dilemmas that teachers and mentors may face during the implementation of project-based learning (PBL): (a) the conflict between student autonomy and teacher control, (b) the belief incongruence between a mentor and a mentee, (c) the gap between an advanced pedagogy and novice teachers, (d) the gap between a mentee’s need for more support and a mentor’s limited support, (e) the conflict between a mentor’s excessive modeling and a mentee’s need for practice, and (f) the problem that a mentor focuses more on student performance than on teacher growth. Understanding these dilemmas may improve PBL training.

Municipal Level Teacher Growth System: Improving Pedagogical Design Skills

Innovations in the general education system have significantly changed the content and form of the teacher’s professional activity: pedagogical design has become a dominant feature in its structure. In this regard, there was a contradiction between the need for special training of teachers for the implementation of project activities and the lack of sufficient organizational and methodological conditions for the implementation of such training on the job. The purpose of this article is to justify the possibility of improving the skills of pedagogical design in the conditions of the implementation of the teacher growth system at the municipal level. In the course of theoretical analysis, the author substantiates the role and place of design in the structure of professional pedagogical activity. Based on the theoretical results obtained, the idea of building a subject-oriented process of teacher training, integrated with their immediate professional activity, is put forward. The description of the pedagogical experiment on testing the municipal system of teacher growth and the selected pedagogical conditions for the development of design skills of teachers is given. The results of the experimental work confirmed the hypothesis that the effectiveness of the process of improving teachers’ design skills is achieved by integrating the process of advanced training in labor activity, using a set of special forms and training methods (cases, design sessions, business games, trainings, master classes, tutoring programs, etc.), use of the principles of subject-oriented learning.

The Experience in the Implementation of a Regional System for Supporting the Professional Activities of Teachers in the Educational Sphere of Chechen Republic

This work is devoted to the problem of improving the professional activity of teachers of the regional education system. The paper presents the system for supporting the professional activities of the teaching staff of the Chechen Republic developed by the author, which is a regional version of the im-plementation of the national system of teacher growth. This system is focused on a teacher’s pro-fessional and personal development and on building an individual trajectory for advanced training, taking into account the characteristics of the teacher's per-sonal sphere, their cognitive style. Algorithms of the procedural part of the system have been developed, allowing to represent the sequence of actions dur-ing the implementation of the system, which makes it possible to reproduce this experience in the condi-tions of any regional educational sphere. The fun-damental difference between the proposed system and the existing one lies in the introduction of a psychological component and the development of an individual trajectory for advanced training for each teacher.

Teacher Professional Development Models and Practices in Foreign Educational Systems

Introduction. The formation and implementation of the national teacher growth system (NTGS) in the Russian Federation involves global practices, which are based on effective teacher professional development models. The present research analyses approaches and models used in the training and continuing professional development of teachers in Hong Kong and Finland.The aim of the current article is to identify the meaningful issues of the formation of a teacher growth national system in the context of the best foreign experiences, as well as to reveal the possibilities, which allow applying these effective experiences to Russian realities.Methodology and research methods. In the course of the study, the authors relied on a socio-cultural approach to the organisation of the additional professional pedagogical education, the concept of continuing and non-formal learning throughout life, as well as methodological approaches and methods developed and applied in comparative pedagogy. Understanding and summarising the content of the research materials was carried out on the basis of a comparative retrospective analysis with a search depth of 10-12 years.Results. The analysis of effective models of teacher professional growth and development in Hong Kong and Finland has revealed the following similar positions: strict selection rules and requirements for teaching major and specialties; expanding the component of teaching practice in the learning process; inclusion of the research-based component in training programmes at university and post-graduate levels of teacher professional development; actualisation of the problems concerning specific groups of teachers; creation of continuing (life-long) teacher professional development systems; awareness of the special relevance of “entry into the profession” programmes as a dynamically developing component in the teacher continuing professional growth; creation of specific motivation mechanisms for successful professional teaching activities, which are based on national historical and cultural characteristics and values.Scientific novelty. The main stages, modules, key characteristics of teacher professional development models in Hong Kong and Finland are analysed systematically. The peculiarities of teacher professional development practices, which are widespread in Anglosphere, are revealed in terms of Hong Kong realities. The motivation mechanisms for effective teacher professional activities, which are based on national cultural and historical values, have been described. The similarities and differences in the application of these mechanisms are demonstrated.Practical significance. The results and conclusions of the research undertaken by the authors can be put into the basis for further reforms aimed at the formation and implementation of the teacher growth national system in the Russian Federation. Also, these research findings have important implications to create the mechanisms for adapting teachers to changes and to increase their motivation for continuing professional growth.

Teachers’ Growth Mindsets and the Differential Treatment of High- and Low-Ability Students

We examined the relation between teachers’ beliefs about the nature of intelligence (their growth mindsets) and their treatment of high versus low ability students. Teachers with weaker growth mindsets reported being more likely to use restrictive instructional practices (controlling and performance-oriented) overall than teachers with stronger growth mindsets, and teachers were more likely to use restrictive practices when working with a low-ability student than when working with a high-ability student. By contrast, the hypothesized student ability level ́ teacher growth mindset ́ instructional practice type. A number of important potential limitations and their implications for future research on these relations are discussed.