Search results for "faculty development"
showing 10 items of 29 documents
University Teachers as Developers of Technology-Enhanced Teaching—Do Beliefs Matter?
2019
Previous research has identified a well-established link between teachers' beliefs and the practical implications of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Until recently, there have been few studies ...
Knowledge ecology for conceptual growth:Teachers as active agents in developing a PluriLiteracies approach to Teaching for Learning (PTL)
2017
This article explores how a group of educators and researchers enacted an inclusive process of conceptual growth involving teachers and teacher educators as active agents, knowledge builders and meaning-makers in the development of a Pluriliteracies approach to Teaching for Learning (PTL). The evolution of a working model based on five emergent principles, foregrounded the need for stakeholders across different languages, cultures and disciplines, to work together from the start so that learning spaces were created where teacher development went alongside researcher development, and theorizing was not only inclusive of praxis but validated by it. A growth cycle emerged using theories of pra…
The foreign language teaching profession in Finnish and Japanese society: a sociocultural comparison
2016
The social basis of a teaching profession is created through behavioural and cultural patterns, specific artefacts, and their connection to certain institutional practices. The purpose of this study is to discover the conditions that structure the teaching profession in a cultural context and to find out what it is to be a foreign language (FL) teacher in Finland and Japan. Both countries have high educational equality but with contrasting patterns of management policies that are manifested in their teacher education curricula. Educational policy documents as well as teacher interviews and classroom observations were conducted in both countries and the findings compared by one Japanese and …
What is ‘good’ mentoring? Understanding mentoring practices of teacher induction through case studies of Finland and Australia
2015
Mentoring is a practice widely utilised to support new teachers. However, in locally formed systems, the practice of mentoring is conditioned by traditions and arrangements specific to the site. To understand ‘good’ mentoring, these local arrangements cannot be ignored. In this article, the theory of practice architectures is employed to make explicit the prefiguring arrangements of mentoring practices in Finland and NSW Australia. The findings suggest that mentoring practices are shaped by their ontological specificity and this makes reproducing mentoring practices in different sites problematic. Explicating the prefiguring architectures of practices is critical to understanding the contes…
Teacher orchestration of classroom interaction in science: exploring dialogic and authoritative passages in whole-class discussions
2019
Whereas science is fundamentally a result of a dialogic debate, the authoritative approach has been conceived of as a fundamental part of school science. Dialogic interactions encompass the mutual appreciation of different ideas manifested in teacher supportiveness toward students and, in authoritative interactions, the focus is more on the science’s or teacher’s point of view. Whereas dialogic and authoritative interactions have been viewed as oppositional in recent educational research, authoritative interactions could well be the seed for and give strength and meaning to dialogic interactions, and thus, to the overall dialogue. The focus in this study is on the interplay between authorit…
A Lonely Profession?
2019
In educational research, the teaching profession is often treated as interaction located only in the classroom, with less attention to other aspects of school reality. Some studies, and the Finnish national curriculum (2014), suggest that the school system needs more practices that aim at negotiation, cooperation, and interaction with the surrounding society. In Finland, where both the teaching profession and the educational system are highly regarded, Finnish primary education has been criticized for its immobility and lack of flexibility. The qualitative research presented in this article draws on interview data collected from 13 Finnish (elementary) classroom teachers. The results of thi…
Peer-group mentoring as a tool for teacher development
2014
Abstract: Peer-group mentoring (PGM) is a new model designed to support the professional development of teachers in Finland. This study examines the experiences of mentees participating in PGM and potential differences in the experiences of teachers in general education and vocational education. It also addresses the mentees perceptions of the results of PGM with regard to the professional, personal and social dimensions of professional development. Quantitative research methods were used. An online survey was completed by 69 teachers in general education and 47 teachers in vocational education (n = 116). The results showed that the participants saw PGM as an important tool for professional…
Seeking Understanding of Foreign Language Teachers’ Shifting Emotions in Relation to Pupils
2016
Teaching is recognised as an emotional practice. Studies have highlighted the importance of teachers’ emotional literacy in the development of pupils’ emotional skills, the central position of emotions in teachers’ ways of knowing, and in their professional development. This longitudinal study draws on a dialogic understanding of emotion to present findings from qualitative interviews with teachers. This study aims to provide further understanding in this area by offering a perspective into 7 foreign language teachers’ emotions in relation to their pupils during their first decade in the profession. The most important finding was that negative emotions decreased while the positive emotions …
2018
ABSTRACTThis study takes a narrative perspective to examine teachers as writers and autobiographical creative writing as a way for promoting teachers’ professional development. In a creative writin...
Identity, agency and community: reconsidering the pedagogic responsibilities of teacher education
2014
This article presents a model for teacher education based on an ongoing action research project at a Finnish university. This model draws on the educational theory of Dewey and the pedagogical sensibility of Bakhtin to critically consider the concepts of teacher identity and agency and to highlight the role of community in teacher development. Our aim is to propose a model that supports the development of new directions in teacher education that would better prepare teachers to face the challenges in their future work by engaging with the educational community in the present. peerReviewed