Search results for "professional learning"

Stories about transnational higher education (TNHE) : exploring Indonesian teachers’ imagined experiences of Finnish higher education

2019

We examined Indonesian school teachers’ perceptions and expectations about their professional learning, and their justifications for these, before they embarked on a transnational master’s programme carried out in both Indonesia and Finland. The data were collected using the method of empathy-based stories. The findings showed that the teachers expected the programme content, execution and internationality to impact positively on their professional learning, while negative professional learning scenarios were framed as stemming from a lack of personal motivation or lack of support from the Indonesian community. Moreover, the teachers expected to become more skilled professionals not only as…

Professional Learning of Teachers in Ethiopia: Challenges and Implications for Reform

2015

Continuous professional development of teachers is of growing interest globally, as it is considered vital to cope effectively with ongoing changes and to improve the quality of education. This qualitative case study explores potential and actual barriers that hinder teachers’ professional development in Ethiopian schools. Data was collected via interviews and focus group discussions from 37 purposively sampled participants. The study reveals three major challenges in teachers’ development: 1) conceptions and conceptual issues related to teaching, professional development and mentoring, 2) management and leadership, and 3) teachers’ work conditions. The need to reconsider educational change…

TEACHER TEAMS AND SCHOOLS BECOME LEADERS TO DISSEMINATE INNOVATIVE PRACTICE

2016

We will introduce a study about teachers taking part in networking for personal development and becoming teacher leaders. In 2011 a multilevel national joint collaboration network of schools with innovative experience was created to foster dissemination of new teaching and learning experiences among teachers. In order to organize learning for teachers, a lesson based collaborative continuous teacher professional learning model was implemented. The research shows that conducting and analyzing lessons has helped participants become more competent professionals and develop skills that are crucial for a good leader. Categories characterizing teacher leaders and lead schools were identified. Fac…

Professional Agency and Creativity in Information Technology Work

2017

The meaning of professional agency in the context of professional learning, as well as in the development of working practices and work organisations, is pivotal. The role of creativity is also crucial for long-term economic growth in the current global environment, which is characterised by rapid changes in both technology and economy. Hence, it is important to study the relationship between professional agency and creativity. In this chapter, we explore professional agency and creativity within two Finnish information technology organisations. This study’s data include interviews with staff members and open-ended questionnaire responses to the question ‘What is creativity in your work?’. …

Development and Preliminary Validation of Social Media as an Educational and Professional Tool Student Perceptions Scale (SMEPT-SPS)

2021

Although social media has an increasing presence both in university and sports settings, in the sports-management education context, no instruments (without being focused on one particular social-media platform, e.g., Facebook and Twitter) have been developed and validated that globally allow the academy to explore the perceptions of sports-management students concerning the educational and professional learning potential that these tools offer. Therefore, this research’s main objective is to develop and perform a preliminary validation of the social media as an educational and professional tool student perceptions scale (SMEPT-SPS). This study sample was composed of 90 Spanish undergraduat…

Building a professional learning community in a conflict and post-conflict environment : a case-study of a high school in Liberia

2014

Exploring the material mediation of dialogic space : A qualitative analysis of professional learning in initial teacher education based on reflective…

2019

This study addresses the crucial relationship between theory and practice as a key feature of professional learning in initial teacher education. The context for the study is an EU-funded intensive programme drawing on different dimensions of insideness and outsideness and artsbased pedagogies in response to the diversity of education today. The data for the study comes from self-selected pages from preservice teacher participants’ reflective sketchbooks. As a methodological approach that unifies the sensuous and cognitive this study suggests that reflective sketchbooks document the dialogic encounters of students whilst also providing a material space that can itself become a form of dialo…

Language-aware operational culture : Developing in-service training for early childhood education and care

2020

This study examines how practitioners of minority-medium Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Finland reflect on language awareness (LA) in their professional learning communities (PLCs). The study is conducted within in-service training for ECEC practitioners and it also highlights how these practitioner reflections can be of use and support developing future in-service training within the action research framework. The data include nine group discussions on a reflection task, with 41 primary participants and 165 secondary participants from each primary participant’s respective PLC. As a starting point, the researchertrainers identified six language-policy themes on LA in national …

Mentoring of Newly Qualified Teachers in the Educational Sense

2017

The importance of lifelong learning in teachers’ professional development has become increasingly topical issue globally. In teaching, especially the transition from education to occupation seems to be more challenging compared to other fields. It is evident that under the rapidly changing circumstances teachers’ professional knowledge has to be constantly renewed, and especially in the phase of transition from teacher education to working life, new approaches are needed. peerReviewed

Examining the relationships between teacher self-efficacy, professional learning community, and experiential learning in Japan

2022

This study investigated the relationships between professional learning communities (PLCs), teacher self-efficacy, and experiential learning. A conceptual model that connects PLC components, including shared vision, interactive reflection, and collegiality, to teacher self-efficacy was proposed, as mediated by experiential learning. The data comprised 3,604 teachers from 204 primary schools and 787 teachers from 90 lower secondary schools in Japan. First, a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the same constructs of PLC, teacher self-efficacy, and experiential learning were measured at different school levels. Second, multigroup structural equation modelling revealed that …