The Impact of Pre-service Teachers' Reflection on their Instructional Practices

This chapter aims to investigate the impact of reflection on freshmen pre-service English teachers' classroom practices. Specifically, it explores how the participating student teachers' perceptions influenced their instructional practices as a result of participation in reflection activities. The participants of the study were ten freshmen student teachers enrolled in the English Language Teaching undergraduate program at a foundation (non-profit private) university in Turkey. Data came from the reflections of the participating student teachers about their recently-completed 15-hour field-based experience at the pre-school level. As a part of this class reflection activity, the participants were prompted to keep a diary in one of their undergraduate courses and respond to a series of statements or questions related to their classroom observation tasks. They were also engaged in class discussions and were required to write their overall feedback based on their field-based experience. The findings of the study revealed that reflective activities helped the prospective student teachers identify their strengths and weaknesses related to classroom activities, use of materials (use of technology and visuals) and classroom management, leading to self-awareness about their understanding and application of teaching skills and strategies.

The Role of Teacher Leadership for Promoting Professional Development Practices

This chapter examines the status of teacher professional development in mathematics and explores the role of teacher leadership to promote innovative professional development strategies that sustain the growth and development of an organization. Survey data was collected from teacher leader participants of one mathematics professional development organization to understand how participants' growth and development as a teacher leader not only shaped their mathematics instructional practices, but influenced their choices in leadership roles. Further the authors share how the learning environment and pedagogical choices of the project director supported a teacher-driven professional development approach. Recommendations as well as a model for developing a teacher-driven professional development organization are provided for replication.

Primary Grades Teachers' Fidelity of Teaching Practices during Mathematics Professional Development

This chapter shares the findings from a study that examined primary grades teachers' fidelity of implementation during a year-long professional development program on formative assessment in mathematics. The project provided over 80 hours of professional development to elementary school teachers regarding their use of an internet-based formative assessment system for their students' mathematics achievement. This study examined teachers' online reflections and data in the internet-based assessment system to identify themes that lead to either a high fidelity or low fidelity of implementation. High fidelity teachers expressed beliefs that formative assessment supported their mathematics teaching, improved their students' learning, and was feasible to carry out in their classrooms. Low fidelity teachers' reflections were associated with numerous barriers to implementation as well as a lack of buy-in that the formative assessment system could benefit their teaching.

Mentoring Girls in Science

Content area specialists (scientists) are often recruited as mentors of students to address issues in science education. These scientists are frequently recruited to help with the teaching of science, however, quite often do not have the pedagogy skills needed to be role models for young children. Guidance in the selection appropriate mentors would help maximize the potential influence on students understanding of who does science, where science is done and what scientists do. This study illustrates six case studies of scientists as they worked with middle school girls and identifies five characteristics educators should look for in selecting science mentors successful in broadening students' perceptions of scientists. The data was collected during ‘Side-by-Side' interaction with scientists/mentors during a summer camp experience and has implications for classroom practice as the use of mentors can be structured to support the infusion of Science as a Human Endeavor. As the students' experiences with mentor scientists helped to shape their perception of those who pursue careers in science and what it is that scientists do, careful consideration and preparation of mentors were critical to the success of the program, and so this paper also provides suggestions to help highly trained and highly educated scientists in these mentorship roles.

Impact of a Professional Development Programme on Trainee Teachers' Beliefs and Teaching Practices

This study emerged from the concerns experienced by the last-year English language trainee teachers during their school practicum. An increasing number of trainees complained that their existing beliefs conflicted, in many ways, with the school-based mentor's teaching practice. A collaborative action research (CAR) professional development programme (PDP) was established to help prospective teachers resolve many of the dilemmas and improve their classroom practices in a 10-week practicum course. It was found that CAR has a powerful impact upon teacher candidates as it solves many of the dilemmas and concerns. Belief changes of one trainee teacher are presented as an exemplary case. While such findings can improve our understandings of pre-service teachers' cognitive learning and problem solving skills at the practicum site, they also generate useful insights into designing a PDP to promote trainee teachers' school-based professional development in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematic) education.

Identifying the Target Needs of Non-Native Subject Teachers Related to the Use of English in Their Professional Settings

This study primarily explores the target needs of subject teachers from various disciplines who are all non-native speakers of English and enrolled in a training program preparing them to teach their subjects in English. Secondarily, it looks into the key stakeholders' evaluation of the program to understand its effectiveness to meet the needs of the teachers. For the first question, key stakeholders were interviewed to identify the needs, wants, and lacks of the teachers based on Hutchinson and Water's (1987) needs analysis framework. Then, the pooled items were converted into a questionnaire which was administered to the teachers in the program. To investigate the second question, open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews were used. Findings revealed that participants were in need of developing productive language skills while they reported satisfaction over the program. It is concluded that a more specifically tailored course both in terms of content and practice is needed.

The Role of the Professional Doctorate in Developing Professional Practice in STEM Subjects

This chapter presents a study into the impact of the professional doctorate as a learning opportunity for STEM professionals including engineers, pharmacists, nurses, STEM teachers, healthcare professionals, and computing professionals. The professional doctorate is a relatively new approach to doctoral study, which has much to offer to STEM. This form of doctoral study encourages the candidate to undertake project work which is based in, and contributes to, their professional practice. The candidates are experienced practitioners, who wish to raise their practice to doctoral level. This chapter presents a mixed methods study, which has collected and analyzed quantitative data obtained from a survey, qualitative data obtained from focus group sessions, and in-depth narrative accounts. Analysis of these data revealed a number of themes including the importance of trans-professional working, reflection, and development of “authentic” professional voice.

Introducing Educational Technology into the Higher Education Environment

Over the past decade or two advancements in educational technology have taken place so swiftly that it threatens to revolutionize the education system. This phenomena seem to drive higher education institutions to respond with costly roll out plans that bring state of the art computing hard- and software, together with other highly specialized educational technologies, to their campuses. The dilemma is that these investments in educational technology are often made in isolation, without consideration for imperative aspects such as professional development. To progress, educators need to acquire the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to make optimal use of the technology. This can be achieved, among other, by means of well-structured professional development programmes. In this chapter the author explores the role of educational technology in higher education and establishes the need for capacity building by means of carefully designed professional development programmes. It furthermore suggests an alternative professional development framework.

A Paradigm Shift for Teachers' Professional Development Structure in Turkey

This chapter concerns the importance of in-service training programmes for the professional development of science teachers. A description will be given of the general structure of in-service training activities in Turkey and the results will be presented of an in-service training project, which was conducted as part of a three-year longitudinal study. Within the scope of the project, an in-service training programme for science teachers was conducted based on the argument-based inquiry approach and the theoretical premises upon which it is built. The project aimed to direct science teachers towards student-centred teaching. The training activities focused on the scientific thinking underpinning the teachers' professional knowledge and practices, their perceptions on learning, and their pedagogical practices and epistemological beliefs. The extent to which these activities affected classroom applications and learning processes was investigated and the findings suggest that they had a statistically significant impact on the teachers' pedagogical development and on the students' academic performance and thinking skills.

Exploring Prospective EFL Teachers' Beliefs about Teachers and Teaching through Metaphor Analysis

This study aimed to explore prospective EFL teachers' metaphors of “teachers, teaching” and “being a prospective EFL teacher” at the beginning and end of a ten-week practicum course. A total of 110 Turkish prospective EFL teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and metaphor-elicitation forms. Results lead to three major conclusions. First, the participants' prior beliefs about the role of an EFL teacher and teaching were affected by their previous experiences as language learners. Second, although the content analysis of the metaphors revealed a limited change throughout the practicum experience, the analysis of the interviews showed the dynamic nature of beliefs held by the prospective teachers. Finally, data analysis of the interviews showed that the variation in beliefs and practices mainly derived from individual experiences with the mentoring practices of the cooperating teachers and the socio-professional context of the practicum school.