363 research outputs found
A conceptual model of teacher educator development : an agenda for future research and practice
No full textThis chapter presents a model to conceptualise, study and support the professional development of teacher educators. It starts with a critical analysis of the current policy interest in this occupational group and the ‘upscaling’ of the knowledge invested in the work through the development of professional standards. It argues that standards fail to capture the complexity of the work because of their unilateral focus on individual competence. In response to this, a conceptual model is proposed that takes as its starting point for professional development actual teacher education practice. Such a starting point gives a positive appreciation of teacher educators’ work and professionalism, but also immediately acknowledges that teacher education practice is always situated in particular local contexts, programmes and curricula that impact (opportunities for) professional development. The conceptual model is a synthesis of the emerging body of research and a series of structured discussions of practice-based experiences with teacher educator development among the community of the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development (InFo-TED). The chapter concludes with the model’s ability to map key characteristics of teacher educator development to be explored in future research, as well as the directions it offers to actively support teacher educator development
Teacher educators’ professional development : looking to the future
No full textThis final chapter is written against the background of an extraordinary year in terms of the global effects of both the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement on education in general, and particularly on teacher education and teacher educators’ professional learning. Against this background, the chapter collates, summarises and further explores the recurring themes and issues across all earlier parts of the book. The implications of those findings are discussed in relation to the future research needed in the area of teacher educators’ professional learning. An additional aspect here is considering what the collective implications of the book are for first, the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of formal professional development programmes, and second, for informal learning in the workplace on a day-to-day basis. The chapter aims to help readers who are involved in either research on teacher educators or programme design for their professional development to consider how the findings of the book might be adapted for particular contexts and learning needs. Finally, the future research required in this important area of educational policy is identified
Teacher educators and their professional development
No full textThis chapter contextualises the book by outlining how and why teacher educators’ professional development is a central issue for education policy and practice internationally. The first section explores some changes in the work of teacher educators as an occupational group and the consequences for their professional development. The second section gives a brief overview of existing research in the field, identifying some key trends emerging from the literature from 2000 onwards and the ‘gaps’ in existing work. These include the need for a shared language to understand teacher educators’ professional development, and the need to move from ‘ad hoc’ initiatives to systematic and structurally embedded ones. The third section then outlines the work of the InFo-TED project in contributing new research and professional development initiatives. Chapter one finishes with an outline of all subsequent chapters presented in this book. This overview shows the ambition to compose an evidence-based book for guiding policy makers, academics, practitioners and all other stakeholders involved in providing professional development for teacher educators or in researching this area
Professional learning of teacher educators, teachers, and student teachers : an introduction
No full text
Learning and design principles for teacher educators' professional development
No full textRecently, more and more professional development initiatives for teacher educators are being designed and developed by local teacher education institutions, national organizations and international networks. As professional development for teacher educators is only recently described in the literature, no clear sets of design principles yet exist. This chapter presents 12 design principles: (1) ownership of content and process, (2) working in professional learning communities, (3) knowing each other, (4) informal and formal learning at the workplace, (5) paying attention to teacher educators’ multi-layered and multiple identities, (6) acknowledging that changing practices takes time, (7) taking account of pressures on teacher educators’ time, (8) forming networks, (9) striving for integration, (10) information and communication technology (ICT) is never an end in itself, (11) asynchronous group discussions and information resources, and (12) creating (virtual) space with sharing opportunities. In the final section, connections are drawn between the formulated design principles and local initiatives for teacher educators, and a plea is made for more design-based research on teacher educators’ professional development
Teacher educators' professional development: the development of a researcherly disposition
No full textFrom the beginning of the 21st century the need for professional development of teacher educators is internationally growing and recognized in research literature (Loughran, 2014; Lunenberg et. al, 2014). In this context, a majority of studies have increasingly emphasized teacher educators’ responsibility to become teacher educator-researchers (Lunenberg et al., 2014; Tack & Vanderlinde, 2014). Taking into account the explicit focus on the development of teacher educators’ role as a researcher (Loughran, 2014), this paper aims to (1) present the development of a researcherly disposition as a promising direction to enhance teacher educators’ professional development; and (2) discuss the development of a measurement instrument to measure teacher educators’ researcherly disposition.
Based on the available literature in the field, we first define teacher educators’ researcherly disposition as the habit of mind to engage in research with the twofold goal of improving your own practice and knowledge about teacher education, and also to contribute to the broader knowledge-base on teacher education (Tack & Vanderlinde, 2014). This researcherly disposition involves three inter-related aspects: an affective aspect, a cognitive aspect and a behavioural aspect.
Next, the results of the development of a measurement instrument to empirically assess and describe teacher educators’ researcherly disposition are presented. Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 812 teacher educators. EFA, CFA and reliability analysis were conducted on the data. The results indicate a three-factor solution with 18 items. The factors can be labelled as: (1) Conducting research as a teacher educator, (2) Valuing research as a teacher educator and (3) Being a smart consumer of research.
This paper furthers our understanding on teacher educators’ professional development by conceptualizing it as the development of a researcherly disposition and by discussing its operationalisation in a measurement instrument. In this respect, this contribution addresses an international widely recognized research problem, which is the lack of knowledge on teacher educators’ professional development (Loughran, 2014; Lunenberg et. al, 2014). In addition, this study has significant implications for future policy and practice focussing on the support and improvement of teacher educators’ professional learning
Developing an instrument for measuring language stimulating competences of student preschool teachers
No full textBackground: Preschool teachers play a vital role in stimulating young children’s language development (Kim & Yun, 2019). It is widely known that high-quality language interactions in preschool are critical for supporting the language development of children, and in particular for those children at risk (European Commission, 2018; Sammons et al., 2015). However, in practice, in Flanders, relatively low quality language interactions in the preschool classroom are reported (Peleman et al., 2019). Stimulating teachers’ language stimulating (LS) competences is thus an important focus for preschool teacher education. Several instruments have been developed over the past years to measure how teachers perceive, interpret and predict classroom situations, mostly in the context of classroom management or inclusive teaching (Gold & Holodynski, 2017; Roose et al., 2019; Seidel & Stürmer, 2014). So far, no standardized instruments exist that capture how student teachers perceive (notice) and interpret (reasoning) meaningful classroom events in the context of LS interactions.
Aims: This study aims to develop a valid and reliable video-based measurement instrument to reliably measure student teachers competences (dispositions + situation-specific skills).
Methods: In this study, teachers’ LS competences are conceptualized as the combination of dispositions, situation-specific skills (professional vision: noticing and reasoning) and performance with regard to effective LS strategies, following the adapted Blömeke competence model (Vanderlinde et al., 2020). Dispositions will be measured through a traditional web-based survey. To measure teachers’ noticing, the innovative approach of comparative judgement (Keppens et al., 2019) will be applied to a video-based instrument. In this method, respondents compare pairs of authentic classroom videos and select the video that is best in terms of LS interactions. Respondents undergo a series of comparisons, that result in an individual rank order. A misfit score after comparison with an expert rank order, is the indicator of teacher’s noticing. Teachers’ reasoning (the ability to describe, explain and predict the consequences of a classroom situation) will be measured through rating items. The development of the video-based instrument will undergo several steps. In an initial phase (a), collection and careful selection of classroom videos will take place, where experts select authentic, real-life videos where TS interactions are represented (as good or bad example). Next, an expert study (b) will determine an expert rank order of the selected videos. The validity of the instruments will be assessed (c) using Chan’s validity framework, on pilot study data from student preschool teachers.
Conclusion: The research design for the development of this video-based measurement tool will be presented, together with methodological challenges and opportunities. Not only will such tool allow measurement of student teachers’ competencies in a reliable and standardized way, it will also provide the foundations to map the state-of-the-art of student teachers LS competencies in Flanders, as well as measuring how a professionalisation initiative could possibly stimulate student teacher’s competences. The presented research is situated in the broader LASCOS (Dutch: TACOS) SBO-FWO project, that will run from 2023 until 2026.
References
Blömeke, S., Gustafsson, J.-E., & Shavelson, R. J. (2015). Beyond Dichotomies: Competence Viewed as a Continuum. Zeitschrift Für Psychologie, 223(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000194
European Commission. (2018). Proposal for a council recommendation on high quality early childhood educaiton and care systems.
Gold, B., & Holodynski, M. (2017). Using digital video to measure the professional vision of elementary classroom management: Test validation and methodological challenges. Computers & Education, 107, 13–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.12.012
Keppens, K., Consuegra, E., Goossens, M., De Maeyer, S., & Vanderlinde, R. (2019). Measuring pre-service teachers’ professional vision of inclusive classrooms: A video-based comparative judgement instrument. Teaching and Teacher Education, 78, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.10.007
Kim, Y.-S. G., & Yun, J. (2019). Theory- and Evidence-Based Language Learning and Teaching for Young Children: Promoting Interactive Talk in the Classroom. In V. Grøver, P. Uccelli, M. Rowe, & E. Lieven (Eds.), Learning through Language (1st ed., pp. 64–73). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316718537.007
Peleman, B., Vandenbroeck, M., & Van Avermaet, P. (2019). De overgang naar de kleuterschool voor kinderen uit gezinnen in armoede. Universiteit Gent. Vakgroep Sociaal Werk en Sociale Pedagogiek.
Roose, I., Vantieghem, W., Van Damme, K., Lambert, P., Vanderlinde, R., & Van Avermaet, P. (2019). Measuring teachers’ professional vision of inclusive classrooms through video-based comparative judgement. What does it mean to misfit? International Journal of Educational Research, 98, 257–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2019.09.004
Sammons, P., Toth, K., Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Siraj, I., & Taggart, B. (2015). The long-term role of the home learning environment in shaping students’ academic attainment in secondary school. Journal of Children’s Services, 10(3), 189–201. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-02-2015-0007
Seidel, T., & Stürmer, K. (2014). Modeling and Measuring the Structure of Professional Vision in Preservice Teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 51(4), 739–771. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831214531321
Vanderlinde, R., Godaert, E., & Keppens, K. (2020). Competentiegericht opleiden en beoordelen in de lerarenopleiding: Naar een nieuw conceptueel model
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