Search results for "Professional studies"

Agency at Work, Learning and Professional Development: An Introduction

2017

The concept of agency refers to individuals’ capacity to make choices and to act on these choices to exert control over their lives. Such notions of agency have become increasingly popular within discourses on professional learning and development over the last 10–20 years. Unfortunately, these discourses have been rather abstract in nature. In addition, the various research strands concerned with agency in the workplace and its relationship to learning have been insufficiently integrated. The present book thus aims to collect, integrate and discuss within a single volume the range of perspectives on agency at work and the empirical research generated by these perspectives. It is hoped that…

Development of Professional Identity During Teacher's Practice

2016

Abstract The article focuses on issues of the development of professional identity of English teachers-to-be in Latvia. This development is an ongoing process which starts during teacher education. The article aims to examine emerging professional identity and how reflective self-evaluation during teacher's practice done with the help of reflective activities facilitates professional development of student teachers. Specific attention is paid to the self-reflection on teacher's practice experiences done with the help of the EPOSTL. It is also concerned with the ways how university can improve student's awareness of their identity. The conducted case study involved questionnaire, content ana…

Problem-based learning at the beginning of professional studies – physiotherapy students point of view

2016

A Collaborative Classroom-Based Teacher Professional Learning Model

2017

This article reviews the Latvian experience of exploring a teacher continuous professional learning model, with an emphasis on teacher collaboration for professional learning. The developed model focuses on lessons taught in real-life classrooms and their subsequent analysis. The model consists of a set of regularly scheduled workshops in a period of a school year. It is based on the idea of a multiple activity cycle of “observe–reflect–write–discuss” conducted several times during every workshop. Every participant has an opportunity to experience two roles: that of a leader, teach a demonstration lesson to his/her colleagues, and that of a learner, observe, analyse and reflect on a colleag…

Educational Practitioners on Professional Community and Sense of Community

2011

Abstract The study aims to address two areas regarding preschool education: the participation of preschool practitioners in professional groups and communities and the views and understandings they hold on the ‘professional community’ concept. A survey was completed by teachers and specialists working with preschool children in all kindergartens of Sibiu (N=308) in July 2011. A quantitative and qualitative approach of the data was used, for processing a part of the survey’s items. Results show a high participation of practitioners in professional groups within their own institution, but less implication in national or international groups and communities. The respondents’ views on professio…

Multiple Forms of Professional Agency for (non)crafting of Work Practices in a Hospital Organization

2015

In recent working life studies, professional agency is seen as pivotal to the development of work communities and work organizations. This paper addresses professional agency during a practicebased intervention (work conference) in a Finnish hospital setting. To develop work practices, the intervention sought to create a dialogical space for the promotion of collective professional agency. Here, we present an investigation of the manifestations of professional agency and how they emerged within and between professional groups. We also elaborate how professional positions frame the emergence of different manifestations of professional agency. The audio and video materials from the interventi…

In-service teachers' professional development: which systemic aspects are involved?

2011

This study offers insights into the impact of a developmental research project on mathematics teachers’ teaching practice. The research is situated within a project, the TBM project (Teaching Bette...

Professional learning and agency in an identity coaching programme

2016

This article addresses the professional learning that occurred in an identity coaching programme. The arts-based programme aimed to enhance the participants’ professional learning, notably through helping them to process their professional identities. Professional learning was seen as resourced by the participants’ professional agency, and by the promotion of such agency. Through interviews, we investigated what the participants perceived they had learnt during the programme, and the potential differences in learning outcomes between professional groups from university and hospital contexts. The findings showed that the programme was perceived as a rich learning arena in the domains of the …

Problem-Based Learning in Professional Studies from the Physiotherapy Students’ Perspective

2018

The aim of the study was to investigate how physiotherapy students using a problem-based learning approach develop into experts during higher education, and answers the question: How do physiotherapy students at bachelor’s level understand the problem-based learning approach while learning to become professionals? PBL is examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of longitudinal data written by 15 voluntary students from two different higher education institutions and collected during 3.5 years. The main results on the new way of learning strengthen earlier conceptions of the importance of reflection in the learning process. The PBL method activates a reflection process b…

Agentic perspective on fostering work-related learning

2017

Despite the increased recognition of the role that professional agency plays in work-related learning, little is known about what supports it. Based on current theoretical notions, the first purpose of this paper is to show that professional agency is closely intertwined with work-related learning. The second purpose is to introduce some main principles that promote professional agency and describe three work-related training settings that are aimed at fostering learning by taking into account agentic perspectives. These complementary settings include an identity coaching programme, a leadership coaching programme, and a work conference. Based on the qualitative meta-synthesis, the paper fu…