Journal of Teacher Education recent issues

Humility and Wisdom: Necessary Ingredients to Reverse the Widget Effect

Borko, H., Liston, D., Whitcomb, J. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:39:53 PDT

Conceptualizing the Work of Leading Mathematical Tasks in Professional Development

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:39:53 PDT

Filling the knowledge gap in the limited research on professional development leaders is an urgent issue if teacher learning is to be improved. This research and development project is studying how leaders learn to cultivate mathematically rich professional development environments. The authors adapted two frameworks from classroom-based research—sociomathematical norms and practices for orchestrating productive discussion—to support leaders’ understanding of facilitation of mathematics professional development. In this article, the authors describe the use of these frameworks in their work and argue for a third framework—the mathematical knowledge for teaching. Based on the analysis of their work, they believe that mathematics professional development leaders need to cultivate particular sociomathematical norms for teacher explanation and employ practices for orchestrating discussions to achieve the purposeful development of teachers’ specialized knowledge of mathematics for teaching.

Teacher Questioning to Elicit Students' Mathematical Thinking in Elementary School Classrooms

Franke, M. L., Webb, N. M., Chan, A. G., Ing, M., Freund, D., Battey, D. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:39:53 PDT

Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) researchers have found that while teachers readily ask initial questions to elicit students’ mathematical thinking, they struggle with how to follow up on student ideas. This study examines the classrooms of three teachers who had engaged in algebraic reasoning CGI professional development. We detail teachers’ questions and how they relate to students’ making explicit their complete and correct explanations. We found that after the initial "How did you get that?" question, a great deal of variability existed among teachers’ questions and students’ responses.

Teacher Preparation Programs-- and Teacher Labor Markets: How Social Capital May Help Explain Teachers' Career Choices

Maier, A., Youngs, P. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:39:53 PDT

A number of recent studies have shown that teachers are unevenly distributed across schools: compared to other students, students who are low-income, minority, limited-English proficient, low-performing, and/or from urban contexts tend to be taught by substantially less qualified teachers. Consequently, many researchers have analyzed how teachers are allocated to teaching positions. Few of these studies, however, have explored how teachers' preparation programs affect teachers' initial decisions about where to teach. This article introduces a theoretical framework that suggests that teacher preparation programs can facilitate the creation of social networks among candidates and between candidates and schools. In doing so, this article argues for such a sociologically based framework for use in studying teacher labor markets - a framework largely overlooked in current teacher labor market research. To illustrate and delineate key aspects of this framework, this article applies a social network approach to data from a large university-based teacher preparation program. Specifically, this article examines the social networks embedded in the student teaching experiences of secondary teaching candidates. The results of this study suggest that schools that collaborate with the university's preparation program may have greater access to networks of teacher candidates than non-collaborating schools. The advantages and consequences of these networks for collaborating schools, non-collaborating schools and teacher candidates are discussed.

Normalizing the Fraughtness: How Emotion, Race, and School Context Complicate Cultural Competence

Buehler, J., Ruggles Gere, A., Dallavis, C., Shaw Haviland, V. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:39:53 PDT

Preservice teachers seeking to develop cultural competence can face a struggle fraught with multiple challenges, even when they are committed to culturally relevant pedagogy. This article closely analyzes one White beginning teacher’s negotiations with cultural competence during a lesson in her student teaching semester, then traces how she made sense of that lesson in the weeks and months that followed. Findings indicate that taking on cultural competence posed both cognitive and affective challenges. More specifically, emotional responses to racialized situations, inner conflicts over Whiteness, and the dynamics of the school context combined to mediate the development of cultural competence. This study suggests that teacher educators should focus not only on the achievement of cultural competence but also on the struggle involved in enacting it. By giving more attention to how beginning teachers develop cultural competence, teacher educators will be better prepared to help beginning teachers normalize the fraughtness involved in the struggle.

Considering Transgender People in Education: A Gender-Complex Approach

Rands, K. E. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:39:53 PDT

Schools serve as a setting in which students come to understand gender, but transgender students (those who transgress societal gender norms) are largely left out of discussions of education. The high level of harassment that transgender students face poses sizable obstacles to school success. If the field of education is committed to equity and social justice, then teacher education programs must prepare educators to teach gender in more complex ways that take into consideration the existence and needs of transgender people. This article is intended to begin the discussion of transgender issues in teacher education by providing a rationale for why teacher educators need to care about transgender issues, presenting definitions of basic terms and concepts related to gender and transgender, offering a new framework for understanding gender privilege and oppression, and examining three previously proposed or existing types of gender education and proposing gender-complex education as an alternative, and exploring possibilities for gender-complex teacher education.

Growing Talent: Promising Professional Development Models and Practices

Whitcomb, J., Borko, H., Liston, D. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

Selecting Video Clips to Promote Mathematics Teachers' Discussion of Student Thinking

Sherin, M. G., Linsenmeier, K. A., van Es, E. A. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

This study explores the use of video clips from teachers' own classrooms as a resource for investigating student mathematical thinking. Three dimensions for characterizing video clips of student mathematical thinking are introduced: the extent to which a clip provides windows into student thinking, the depth of thinking shown, and the clarity of the thinking. Twenty-six video clips were rated as being low, medium, or high on each dimension. Corresponding teacher discussions of each video were then examined to identify the ways in which clip dimensions served as catalysts for more and less productive teacher conversations of student mathematical thinking. Findings include first, that, under certain circumstances, both low-and high-depth clips lead to productive discussions. Second, high-depth clips in which student thinking is sustained only briefly do not typically lead to productive discussions. Third, in cases where windows and depth are both high, clips that are either low or high in clarity resulted in productive conversations of student thinking on the part of teachers.

A Successful Professional Development Model in Mathematics: A System-Wide New Zealand Case

Higgins, J., Parsons, R. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

The design and implementation of the professional development model of the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project has been successful in improving teacher knowledge and practice as well as raising student outcomes. Since 2000, more than 25,000 teachers in English-medium settings have participated in the project. In New Zealand the terms English-medium and Maori-medium are used to distinguish the language of instruction. settings have participated in the project. A content analysis across a large data set from evaluations conducted during the first four years of the project, identified three pedagogical tools that participants describe as improving their mathematics knowledge and practice: the number framework; the diagnostic interview; and the strategy teaching model. The article argues that the power of the professional development model lies in the integration of the three pedagogical tools ensuring that professional learning focuses on the core ideas of the project within the context of the teacher's classroom. This focus has enabled teachers to deepen their professional knowledge, change their instructional practice and improve their responsiveness to students' diverse learning needs.

Which Characteristics of a Reciprocal Peer Coaching Context Affect Teacher Learning as Perceived by Teachers and Their Students?

Zwart, R. C., Wubbels, T., Bergen, T., Bolhuis, S. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

In the present study, the role of five categories of characteristics of a reciprocal peer coaching context was studied in relation to teacher learning. Both self-reports and student perceptions were used to measure teacher learning. Data were gathered on 28 secondary school teachers (14 coaching dyads). A mixed-method approach was adopted combining quantitative and qualitative data. To study the associations between five categories of characteristics of a peer coaching context (independent variable) and teacher learning (dependent variable), questionnaire results (quantitative data) and digital diaries (qualitative data) were examined. It was found that teachers learn when they are intrinsically motivated to take part in professional development programs; when they feel a certain pressure toward experimenting with new instructional methods; and when they are able to discuss their experiences within a safe, constructive, and trustworthy reciprocal peer coaching environment.

Doing More With Less: Teacher Professional Learning Communities in Resource-Constrained Primary Schools in Rural China

Sargent, T. C., Hannum, E. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

Teacher professional learning communities provide environments in which teachers engage in regular research and collaboration. They have been found effective as a means for connecting professional learning to the day-to-day realities faced by teachers in the classroom. In this article, the authors draw on survey data collected in primary schools serving 71 villages in rural Gansu Province as well as transcripts from in-depth interviews with 30 teachers. Findings indicate that professional learning communities penetrate to some of China's most resource-constrained schools but that their nature and development are shaped by institutional supports, principal leadership, and teachers' own initiative.

Cultivating Self in the Context of Transformative Professional Development

Jurow, A. S. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

In this study, the author combines insights from ethnography and discourse analysis to examine how a model of selfhood was cultivated through the social practices of a transformative professional development program for urban public school leaders. Participants were introduced to the notion of an inner self that is knowing, vulnerable, and connected to others through (a) the modeling of multiple ways of talking about an inner self, (b) ritual experience of self in relation to others, and (c) the connection of self to a natural order. Taken together, the author found that the social practices of the retreat aimed to reposition the school leaders to try on new ways of seeing themselves both personally and professionally. This study contributes to our nascent understandings of both the practices and potential of transformative professional development.

Dispositions as Virtues: The Complexity of the Construct

Sockett, H. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

The value of conceptualizing the desirable dispositions of the teacher as virtues is illuminated through distinguishing such dispositions-as-virtues from other dispositions and from personality traits. Dispositions as virtues are qualities achieved by the individual's initiative, in the face of obstacles, and are intrinsically motivated. The complexity of any construct for student assessment is illustrated through distinguishing educational goals from teacher dispositions, specifically social justice; describing dispositions under the three categories of character, intellect, and care; and then indicating the complexity of each through self-knowledge, truthfulness, and compassion as exemplars of each category. Finally, using William Hare's work on open-mindedness, it is argued that transparent assessment is needed in which criteria are perspicuous to assessor and assessed. Student teachers can then create self-assessment protocols for each disposition-as-virtue to enhance understanding and professional growth.

Complex Interactions in Student Teaching: Lost Opportunities for Learning

Valencia, S. W., Martin, S. D., Place, N. A., Grossman, P. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

Student teaching is a cornerstone of teacher preparation, yet it remains one of the most difficult experiences to understand. Calls for an ecological approach to research on student teaching prompted this study in which the experience is examined from the perspective of the three key triad members. Using activity theory, this study explores how their interactions in specific contexts shaped opportunities for student teachers to learn to teach language arts. The findings reveal that all members of the triad were simultaneously operating in multiple settings and facing competing demands that shaped their actions and stances. Consequently, there were numerous instances of lost opportunities for student teachers to learn to teach, including sparse feedback on teaching subject matter and few links to methods courses, plus limited opportunities to develop identities as teachers. The structures that frame student teaching and its participants have deep roots in the cultures of universities and schools that must be considered if student teaching is to maximize its potential.

"In It for the Long Haul"--: How Teacher Education Can Contribute to Teacher Retention in High-Poverty, Urban Schools

Freedman, S. W., Appleman, D. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

This study explores a constellation of factors that contribute to the retention of teachers in high-poverty, urban schools. It focuses on one cohort of the University of California at Berkeley's Multicultural Urban Secondary English Credential and MA Program, analyzing qualitative and quantitative data to track the careers of 26 novice teachers through their 5th year after receiving their credential. The authors reconsider the categories traditionally used to determine whether teachers stay or leave and offer ways to track those who stay or leave high-poverty, urban schools, including the use of a category of "movers" to describe teachers who leave urban classroom teaching yet remain active in urban education. They conclude with a discussion of factors that seem to contribute to teachers staying in high-poverty, urban schools and educational settings. Besides a state scholarship program, these include (a) a sense of mission, which was reinforced and developed by the teacher education program; (b) a disposition for hard work and persistence, which was reinforced and developed by the teacher education program; (c) substantive preparation that included both the practical and the academic and harmony between the two; (d) training in assuming the reflective stance of a teacher researcher; (e) the opportunity, given the high demand for teachers in high-poverty schools, to be able to change schools or districts yet still remain in their chosen profession; and (f) ongoing support from members of the cohort as well as other supportive professional networks across the years.

A Teacher Educator Writes and Shares: Student Perceptions of a Publicly Literate Life

Kaufman, D. K. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:37 PDT

A literature review reveals limited information regarding the modeling of authentic writing practices by teacher educators for their students. This study examines the effect of the author's modeling processes as evidenced by education students' assessments of his courses. The author analyzed data using a grounded approach to document their perceptions of the benefits of his in-class writing and sharing of literacy work. Responses revealed perceptions of five primary benefits, underscoring both academic and affective components. Perceived academic benefits included the learning of skills, strategies, and methods that influence a teacher's ability to address intellectual or technical aspects of classroom life. Perceived affective benefits included the enhancement of student motivation and the creation of a respectful, caring, and trustworthy learning community. Together, responses appeared to set the stage for the establishment of a more complex, multifaceted classroom discourse.

The End of Education in Teacher Education: Thoughts on Reclaiming the Role of Social Foundations in Teacher Education

Liston, D., Whitcomb, J., Borko, H. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

Intensive Mentoring as a Way to Help Beginning Teachers Develop Balanced Instruction

Nevins Stanulis, R., Floden, R. E. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

This study examines the impact of intensive mentoring as an induction program component aimed at improving teacher quality in ways that link teaching to student engagement. The Atmosphere, Instruction/Content, Management, and Student Engagement (AIMS) measure of teaching practice, focused on a research-based conception of high-quality teaching known as effective balanced instruction, was used to measure the impact of the intervention. Using a matched comparison group design with 24 beginning teachers, the study tested the effects on teaching practice of intensive mentoring. Findings indicate that the improvement in the beginning teachers' AIMS scores from fall to spring was greater for the experimental group than for the comparison group of teachers.

Vulnerability and Love of Learning as Necessities for Wise Teacher Education

Dale, M., Frye, E. M. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

May Sarton's (1961) novel, The Small Room, provides a rich and compelling description of the complex relations among teachers, students, and subject matter at Appleton College. This article explores that "wild triangle of relations" in the context of teacher education, arguing that teacher educators and their students (prospective teachers) should recognize and embrace vulnerability and love as necessary relational qualities in developing and maintaining both the art of learning and the art of teaching. This requires that teacher education in both language and practice relinquish a focus on control and mastery, relinquish a focus on an enclosed and controlling self, and redirect attention to nurturing a loving gaze to what lies outside of us.

Minding the Gate: Data-Driven Decisions about the Literacy Preparation of Elementary Teachers

Squires, D., Canney, G. F., Trevisan, M. S. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

This article examines data from nine statewide administrations of the Idaho Comprehensive Literacy Assessment (ICLA) over three-years. The ICLA measures pre-service teachers' knowledge of research-based content and pedagogy related to reading instruction and assessment. The purpose of this article was first to examine pre-service candidates' performance on areas of literacy knowledge. Candidates scored highest when matching literacy terms to definitions; they were mildly less successful matching terms to descriptions of research-based instructional activities; moderately less successful when asked for words containing specified phonic patterns from a passage; and least successful when addressing essay-formatted scenario questions. Idaho literacy instructors have used this information to inform them of their teaching effectiveness. A second purpose of this article was to highlight the challenges and benefits for faculty and programs interested in adopting a similar testing model. The article also points out the organizational and political constraints that can delay adoption and use.

Novice Teachers' Attention to Student Thinking

Levin, D. M., Hammer, D., Coffey, J. E. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

Stage-based views of teacher development hold that novice teachers are unable to attend to students' thinking until they have begun to identify themselves as teachers and mastered classroom routines, and so the first emphases in learning to teach should be on forming routines and identity. The authors challenge those views, as others have done, with evidence of novices attending to students' thinking early in their teaching and offer framing as an alternative perspective on whether and how teachers attend to student thinking. By this account, most teachers work in professional contexts that focus their attention on curriculum, classroom routines, and their own behavior, rather than on student thinking. An account of framing suggests an early, strong emphasis on attention to student thinking in teacher education.

Assessment for Learning to Teach: Appraisal of Practice Teaching Lessons by Mentors, Supervisors, and Student Teachers

Tillema, H. H. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

Supporting student teachers in learning to teach is a collaborative effort by mentor teachers, teacher education supervisors, and student teachers. Each of the participants appraises effort and progress in learning to teach from different perspectives, however. This study explores how practice lessons are assessed by multiple raters. Teacher educators, mentor teachers, and student teachers (51 participants in total) were asked to appraise a practice lesson given by the mentored student. Alignment in rating was analyzed in 17 triads and compared with respect to purpose of assessment, object of appraisal, preferred methods, and focus of the appraisal as well as on the criteria used by the various assessors. Shared problems encountered during the appraisal were also gauged. Our findings indicate considerable variation in purposes and multiple perspectives in criteria among the different assessors. Differences and similarities among the stakeholders were interpreted as contributing to a multifaceted appraisal of accomplishments. Nevertheless, a shared, common ground is also needed to value the different aspects that should be included in an integrated or encompassing approach for assessment of learning to teach.

A Two-Dimensional Model of Teacher Retention and Mobility: Classroom Teachers and Their University Partners Take a Closer Look at a Vexing Problem

Swars, S. L., Meyers, B., Mays, L. C., Lack, B. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

This mixed-methods study is a teacher-initiated, collaborative inquiry involving a professional development school (PDS) and a university. The investigation focused on teachers' perceptions of teacher retention and mobility at their PDS. Participants were 134 teachers at a high-needs elementary school with data sources including surveys, interviews, and open-ended questionnaires. The findings clustered around two primary dimensions: (a) congruency of teachers' beliefs and practices with organizational norms and (b) teachers' relational needs and administrators' willingness and ability to meet such needs. Although this study affirmed many of the findings in the extant literature, it also challenged others—namely, the links between teacher turnover and workplace conditions, student body characteristics, and student achievement. The recursive research design enabled the researchers to make accommodations in methodology in response to teachers' and administrators' concerns. The researchers documented these modifications and make recommendations for conducting inquiry in a PDS.

Experienced Science Teachers' Learning in the Context of Educational Innovation

Henze, I., van Driel, J. H., Verloop, N. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:10:25 PST

In the context of educational innovation, it is important to investigate how in-service teachers learn and adapt their knowledge to changing professional circumstances. The authors investigated the informal learning of a small number of experienced science teachers in their first few years of teaching a new science syllabus in secondary education in the Netherlands. The storyline method was used to elicit the teachers' perceptions of their learning from experiences at work. The authors focused on three aspects of learning, namely, teachers' learning activities, courses of development, and changed competences. From the results, two qualitatively different ways of learning were identified. Type I represents a revolutionary course of development in a teacher's engagement in mainly individual activities in the working context. Type II symbolizes an evolutionary development in a teacher's participation in both individual and collaborative activities. Implications for professional development initiatives are discussed, as are suggestions for initial teacher education.

Wicked Problems and Other Thoughts on Issues of Technology and Teacher Learning

Borko, H., Whitcomb, J., Liston, D. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

A Research Agenda for Online Teacher Professional Development

Dede, C., Jass Ketelhut, D., Whitehouse, P., Breit, L., McCloskey, E. M. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

This article highlights key online teacher professional development (oTPD) areas in need of research based on a review of current oTPD research conducted in conjunction with an oTPD conference held at Harvard University in fall 2005. The literature review of this field documents much work that is anecdotal, describing professional development programs or "lessons learned" without providing full details of the participants, setting, research questions, methods of data collection, or analytic strategies. Until more rigorous oTPD research is conducted, developers are hard pressed to know the best design features to include, educators remain uninformed about which program will help support teacher change and student learning, and funders lack sufficient guidelines for where to direct their support. The authors believe that the recommendations in this article for a research agenda will guide oTPD scholarship toward an evidence-based conceptual framework that provides robust explanatory power for theory and model building.

Effects of Video Club Participation on Teachers' Professional Vision

Gamoran Sherin, M., van Es, E. A. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

This study investigates mathematics teacher learning in a video-based professional development environment called video clubs. In particular, the authors explore whether teachers develop professional vision, the ability to notice and interpret significant features of classroom interactions, as they participate in a video club. Analysis for the study is based on data from two year-long video clubs in which teachers met monthly to watch and discuss video excerpts from each others' classrooms. Participating in a video club was found to influence the teachers' professional vision as exhibited in the video club meetings, in interviews outside of the video club meetings, and in the teachers' instructional practices. These results suggest that professional vision is a productive lens for investigating teacher learning via video. In addition, this article illustrates that video clubs have the potential to support teacher learning in ways that extend beyond the boundaries of the video club meetings themselves.

Designing Video-Based Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers in Low-Performing Schools

Santagata, R. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

This article describes the theoretical framework, research base, structure, and content of a video-based professional development program implemented during 2 consecutive years with sixth-grade mathematics teachers from five low-performing schools. First, difficulties teachers encountered in responding to video-based prompts during the 1st year are summarized. Problematic questions deal with teachers' (a) basic understanding of target mathematics topics, (b) knowledge of their students' understanding, and (c) ability to analyze students' work and reasoning beyond classification into right and wrong answers. Changes that were made to the program to address teachers' needs in the 2nd year are then described. These are structured around three principles for designing video-based professional development: (a) attending to content-specific understanding, (b) scaffolding analysis of student thinking, and (c) modeling a discourse of inquiry and reflection on the teaching and learning process.

Video Annotation Tools: Technologies to Scaffold, Structure, and Transform Teacher Reflection

Rich, P. J., Hannafin, M. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

While video has long been used to capture microteaching episodes, illustrate classroom cases and practices, and to review teaching practices, recent developments in video annotation tools may help to extend and augment teacher self-reflection. Such tools make possible the documentation and support self-analysis using verifiable evidence as well as to examine changes in development over time. Video annotation tools offer the potential to support both the reflection and analysis of one's own teaching with minimal video editing as well as the ability to associate captured video with related student and teaching evidence. In this paper, we compare and contrast emerging video annotation tools and describe their applications to support and potentially transform teacher reflection.

Learning From the Practice of Veteran and Novice Teachers: A Digital Exhibition

Hatch, T., Sun, C., Grossman, P., Neira, P., Chang, T. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

Learning to Look Beyond the Boundaries of Representation: Using Technology to Examine Teaching (Overview for a Digital Exhibition: Learning From the Practice of Teaching)

Hatch, T., Grossman, P. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

Analyzing Online Teacher Networks: Cyber Networks Require Cyber Research Tools

Schlager, M. S., Farooq, U., Fusco, J., Schank, P., Dwyer, N. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:15:45 PST

The authors argue that conceptual and methodological limitations in existing research approaches severely hamper theory building and empirical exploration of teacher learning and collaboration through cyber-enabled networks. They conclude that new frameworks, tools, and techniques are needed to understand and maximize the benefits of teacher networks. The paper presents preliminary data to illuminate both the power and limitations of current tools and techniques for studying cyber-enabled networks using data from a large, mature online network of K-12 educators. The findings raise fundamental questions that are beyond the capability of most education researchers and evaluators to address rigorously and cost-effectively. The authors propose a research agenda designed to create and validate a new generation of research tools and techniques that enable researchers ask more incisive and convergent research questions and help school leaders and teachers support, learn, and collaborate with one another more effectively in cyber-enabled professional communities.