Academic literature on the topic 'Fields of Research – 330000 Education – 330300 Professional Development of Teachers'

This thesis reports a research project studying how people become tertiary teachers in New Zealand. While studies of many aspects of tertiary teaching, teacher professional development and workplace learning have been published, no comparative study of tertiary teacher development across different types of institutions had been carried out. Few previous studies had linked the concept of learning in a community of practice with teachers' workplace learning. A qualitative, interpretive research framework was adopted, using three case studies. Data were gathered from institutional documents, educational developers and experienced teaching staff of three representative institutions, a polytechnic, a wananga and a university, from mid-2000 to mid-2001. Data gathering strategies included semi-structured interviews with teachers and educational developers, examination of documents, a teacher questionnaire and some class observations. Interview transcripts and other data were analysed to identify common themes, and findings were reported as three individual cases before integration. It was found that most tertiary teachers' learning about teaching and how to teach was in-service, mainly informal and experiential, and the knowledge gained was mainly tacit and process-oriented. Although that was complemented by varying amounts of formal learning, gained through courses or professional development activities, few tertiary teachers have sought or gained teaching qualifications. While institutions have central policies and procedures to support in-service teacher development, their implementation is often uneven, with little integration or balancing of the parts. Differences of practice were observed both between institutions, and between departments within institutions, indicating the importance of context for tertiary teachers' development. It was concluded that non-formal workplace learning is likely to continue to be the mainstay of tertiary teacher development, and that it needs to be refocussed and approached from a fresh angle. The perspective of learning in a community of teaching practice provides a conceptual framework for integrating different levels and forms of support for tertiary teachers. Recommendations for strengthening tertiary teacher development are addressed at three levels: institutions (as social learning systems); communities of practice within those institutions (such as departments, discipline groups, programme teams, or campus whanau); and individual teachers (whose teaching identities develop within those communities).

This thesis examines the perceptions of the student teacher, the associate teacher and the visiting lecturer regarding the adequacy of the practicum for the preparation of the first year primary school teacher. Six triads, or case studies, comprising a student teacher, a visiting lecturer and an associate teacher were selected, each within a different school setting. Using grounded theory, the collected data were analysed and sorted until a conceptual framework emerged. Three key themes were identified: the emotional nature of the teaching practicum; the practicum as situated learning; and the practicum as a professional learning community. Each member of the triad viewed the final teaching practicum as critical to teacher preparation. To a large extent understandings of the roles played by each member of the triad had been implicit rather than explicit. This study highlighted the importance and complementarities of the roles the members of the triad play. It found that student teachers often rely on the solutions provided by the associate teacher and/or the visiting lecturer, and that they lack confidence in their own ability to solve challenging classroom problems. A professional learning community requires each member of the triad to collaborate actively as a member of the teaching team and collectively reach solutions posed in the teaching of the class. Finally, the student teachers experienced difficulty in meeting the challenges of student needs, particularly in low decile schools; for some the challenges were overwhelming. The study has implications for other initial teacher education programmes regarding practices to meaningfully bridge the gap between the classroom context and the university programme. It provides insights into the requirements for the implementation of practicum that promote a professional learning community. It challenges the assumptions teacher education providers may have about the current models of teaching practicum in which it is perceived as a site where student teachers simply practise teaching and prove their readiness to assume the mantle of a first year teacher. It contributes to the debate of the role and function of the practicum in pre-service teacher education and the need for a deeper understanding and expectation in its implementation by the university and the school, who should be viewed as professional partners in this endeavour.

This thesis proposes a new conception for pre-service teacher education. Current pre-service teacher education programmes are, in the main, one-dimensional, skill-based and performative: one-dimensional, in that programmes focus on preparing teachers to deliver a pre-determined curriculum; skill-based, in that professional judgement and reasoning are ignored; and, performative in the prescribed nature of knowledge and the drive to establish standards and competencies. Rather than focusing on professionalism - which is at the heart of what it means to be an educator - professionalisation, economic-driven policies and political ideologies underpin contemporary pre-service teacher education programmes. The new conception for pre-service teacher education has at its core, teachers as professional educators. This thesis argues that in order for teachers to become professional educators, their preparation ought to be enhanced and broadened to incorporate aspects of professional judgement, professional expertise, and ethical and moral commitment. To enable this to occur, pre-service teachers need to learn what it means to be moral agents through active and authentic engagement within communities of practice and learners. In sum, the professional educator's role is argued to be an agent for, and of, change who promotes and engenders an education system that underpins a socially, culturally and economically just society.

This thesis critically examines the historical construction of initial teacher education at the turn of the 20th century. It focuses particularly on the extent of state involvement in the process of learning to teach, arguing that this process fulfils the necessary conditions of a rite of passage. The investigation utilises a different theoretical and methodological approach which combines the post-structuralist analyses of Michel Foucault with the cultural-anthropological work of Arnold van Gennep. Together, they provide a framework which enables an archaeological examination of teacher training at the macro-level of the state and its institutions, whilst providing a complementary, genealogical analysis of student teachers at the micro-level of their everyday lives. The investigation found that, in order to transform colonial society into an enlightened rural democracy, the state needed to transform its teachers. It did this through ensuring neophyte teachers passed through a carefully orchestrated rite of passage within a highly centralised and regulated system of training colleges. This necessitated a shift away from the devolved, differentiated pupil-teacher training system. The study traces this move, examines the state?s rationale, and explores the implications for all three phases of the trainees? rite of passage: separation, transition and incorporation. It also explains how specific „ceremonial rituals? and „sacred knowledge? prescribed what new teachers should know and do in order to become productive, docile and economically useful members of society. The study also emphasises that student teachers became subjects-in-their-own-making within this regime of order. The study then shifts its focus to the present, „re-meeting? history by comparing the ritual practices and specialist knowledge of past rites of passage with those of the present. It challenges teacher educators and teachers to take control of teacher education and suggests ways in which they should take advantage of its location in the university by opening up new political spaces and reasserting the importance of professionalism in action.

Enhancing teacher learning in inclusion is an action research study which researched how two New Zealand classroom teachers were facilitated to enhance their pedagogy and become more inclusive. An examination of the international literature suggested that contextual professional development, classroom action research, and a collaborative relationship with a critical friend would facilitate inclusive pedagogy. However, there were no published studies of New Zealand primary teachers engaged in classroom-centred action research on inclusion involving an educational psychologist. A two phase action research design was used, firstly negotiated and modelled by an outside researcher, second order action research, and secondly by empowering the teachers to become action researchers, first order action research. Some inclusive practices were evident but two major barriers to inclusive practice in New Zealand classrooms were highlighted. These were an independent and autonomous teacher practice and limited use of individual student assessment data to inform teaching for individual learning. Active reflective thinking through reflection journals and teacher action research of teacher chosen classroom learning challenges occurred in two cycles of second order action research. Results established increased teacher focus on individual student learning, collaboration between themselves and the researcher, knowledge and skills of action research and its effectiveness in solving learning challenges within the teaching programme, use of student assessment data to inform subsequent teaching and learning, and critical awareness of the effect of their beliefs, knowledge and actions on student learning. Whilst literature suggests that schoolwide re-culturing is necessary, this research has demonstrated that two teachers engaging in practitioner action research, supported by a small community of practice, reflective thinking and critical dialogue, can improve their pedagogical and inclusive practice.

The ability to understand what one reads is fundamental to much school learning and is part of the school curriculum. The processes used by expert readers to comprehend text can be analysed and used as a basis for comprehension instruction. Such expert readers use particular mental strategies such as rereading, paraphrasing, and predicting, and adapt these to assist them in understanding various texts. This study investigated whether the implementation of reading comprehension strategy instruction to classes of Year 4 students would result in significant gains in metacognitive abilities, standardised reading comprehension, and reading self-efficacy. The quasi-experiment involved a treatment group of 48 students in two classes who were taught by one teacher, a treatment control group of 61 students in three classes taught by three teachers, and a non-treatment control group of 41 students taught in three composite Year 3 and Year 4 classes taught by three teachers. In total, 150 Year 4 students from eight classrooms in three suburban primary schools were involved in the study. Results from 2 x 3 analyses of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures revealed differences between the treatment group and control groups in several aspects of reading comprehension ability. The treatment group performed significantly better than either control group on the Jacobs and Paris (1987) measure of metacognitive awareness of strategies (Index of Reading Awareness). Treatment group students were also more confident about their ability to perform tasks related to reading comprehension than one of the control groups. Though they also made greater gains in confidence than the other control group, these gains were not statistically significant. Gains in reading comprehension as measured by a standardised reading comprehension measure (Progressive Achievement Test of Reading Comprehension) were marginal in comparison to one of the control groups, and not significant in comparison to the other. Secondly, this study also investigated whether intensive teacher training would result in successful implementation of reading comprehension strategies. Teachers need to know how to model their own mental processes for students so that students can see the strategies being applied. They then need to demonstrate for students when and how to adapt the strategies to various texts. In addition, teachers need to know whether to target instruction to only the struggling readers in their classrooms, or to students of varying abilities. A two-year professional development programme was developed and implemented to assist primary school teachers with the implementation of reading comprehension strategy instruction in their classrooms. During the first year a group of 14 teachers participated, and during the second year one teacher remained to implement the programme. This teacher, who taught at the Year 4 level, was provided with additional professional development in the explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies to her entire class of mixed ability students. Results from analysis of qualitative data indicated that the teacher had made significant progress in becoming competent in the teaching techniques needed for teaching reading comprehension strategies. These results suggested that the teacher moved from modelling process into content to being creative and inventive. By the end of the intervention, interviews conducted with the teacher and the students, as well as lesson observations and field notes, suggested that she had a good knowledge of the components of strategy instruction and was incorporating these in her classroom practice. Her students became increasingly aware of the teacher's central lesson aims regarding what she was teaching, why she was teaching it, and how it could be applied to the students' learning. The findings of the present study indicate that students of varying ability may improve their reading comprehension through instruction in reading comprehension strategies, though the marginal gains in standardised reading comprehension do not support this conclusively. Findings also indicate that a teacher can successfully be trained to implement reading comprehension strategy instruction in an entire class of mixed-ability students. Such findings have important implications for teacher and student education.