58,632 research outputs found
Using Blogs to Foster Inquiry, Collaboration, and Feedback in Pre-Service Teacher Education
This chapter presents a critical case study on the use of information technology in a pre-service teacher education program. The authors integrated Weblogs (blogs) into two constructivist-oriented teacher preparation courses with the goal of helping students learn to think like a teacher through enhanced inquiry, collaboration, and feedback. The authors found that, through the use of blogs, pre-service teaching candidates grew in their abilities to reflect on their own teaching and to provide constructive comments to peers. The authorsâ experience also indicated that while instructor and peer feedback via blogs was valuable, it functioned best when paired with face-to-face meetings between the instructors and students. They discussed design principles for combining online and face-to-face environments and offer possibilities for the expanded use of blogs in pre-service teacher education
Digital Collaboration and Classroom Practice: Educator Use of ARIS Connect
A major focus of the booming education technology sector is on products that aim to help teachers improve classroom practice. For their part, districts must figure out which of these resources will be most useful to schools. In New York City, the Department of Education developed its own Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS), which was rolled out in 2008. ARIS was an early effort at a system-wide data and teacher collaboration platform, and a major undertaking for the nation's largest school district. In 2011, the Research Alliance received a grant from the Spencer Foundation to investigate how this ambitious initiative played out in schools. Our first report focused on overall use and perceptions of ARIS. In the current phase of our study, we honed our focus onto ARIS Connect -- a component designed specifically to help educators improve their practice by sharing resources, posting questions, and giving one another feedback, both within schools and across the district. Our investigation sought to understand what educators thought of Connect, and whether, as its designers intended, Connect supported their ability to communicate with other educators and improve classroom practice. The study is based on two years of "clickstream" data, which tracks user visits to and navigation through ARIS. We also visited nine middle schools that recorded higher-than-average use of Connect, where we interviewed administrators and held focus groups with teachers. This report presents our findings, including insights on why educators did or did not use Connect; what might have made Connect more useful; and what external tools educators use for similar purposes
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4D Technologies: appropriating handheld computers to serve the needs of teachers and learners in rural African settings
Investigating a Professional Development School Model of Teacher Education in Canada
We examined the effectiveness of a professional development school model of teacher education in Canada. Teacher education candidates responded positively to program features related to sustained participation and collaboration in school communities throughout the year. Their efficacy beliefs about developing professional knowledge were most strongly related to the school component of the program. This highlights the importance of careful selection and preparation of associate teachers where teacher candidates are placed in only one school.
Nous avons fait lâexamen de lâefficacitĂ© dâun modĂšle de dĂ©veloppement professionnel de formation des enseignants en milieu scolaire au Canada. Les candidats enseignants ont rĂ©agi positivement aux dimensions du programme relatives Ă une participation soutenue et Ă la collaboration au sein des communautĂ©s scolaires tout au long de lâannĂ©e. Leurs convictions relativement au dĂ©veloppement efficace dâun savoir professionnel Ă©taient fortement liĂ©es Ă la dimension scolaire du programme. Cette conclusion souligne lâimportance de sĂ©lectionner et de prĂ©parer avec soin les maĂźtres associĂ©s lorsque les candidats Ă lâenseignement sont assignĂ©s Ă un seul Ă©tablissement
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Education Workforce Initiative: Initial Research
The purpose of this initial research is to offer evidenced possibilities in the key areas of education workforce roles, recruitment, training, deployment and leadership, along with suggested areas for further research to inform innovation in the design and strengthening of the public sector education workforce. The examples described were identified through the process outlined in the methodology section of this report, whilst we recognise that separation of examples from their context is problematic â effective innovations are highly sensitive to context and uncritical transfer of initiatives is rarely successful.
The research aims to support the Education Workforce Initiative (EWI) in moving forward with engaging education leaders and other key actors in radical thinking around the design and strengthening of the education workforce to meet the demands of the 21st century. EWI policy recommendations will be drawn from a number of country level workforce reform activities and research activity associated with the production of an Education Workforce Report (EWR). This research has informed the key questions, approach and structure of the EWR as outlined in the Education Workforce Report Proposal.
Issues pertaining to teaching and learning in primary and secondary education are at the centre of the research reported here; the focus is on moving towards schools as safe places where all children/ young people are able to engage in meaningful activity. The majority of the evidence shared here relates to teachers and school leaders; evidence on learning support staff, district officials and the wider education workforce is scant. Many of the issues examined are also pertinent to the early childhood care and education sector but these are being examined in depth by the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative. Resourcing for the Education Workforce was out of scope of this initial research but the EC recognises, as outlined in the Learning Generation Report, that provision of additional finance is a critical factor in achieving a sustainable, strong and well-motivated education workforce, particularly but not exclusively, in low and middle income countries. The next stage of EWI work will consider the relative costs of current initiatives and modelling of the cost implications of proposed reforms.
EWI aims to complement the work on teacher policy design and teacher career frameworks (including salary structures) being undertaken by other bodies and institutions such as Education International, the International Task Force on Teachers for 2030 and the Teachersâ Alliance, most particularly by bringing a focus on school and district leadership, the role of Education Support Professionals (ESPs) and inter-agency working
Teacher Education Futures: Developing learning and teaching in ITE across the UK
A selection of papers from the Teacher Education Futures conference 2006
Participatory knowledge mobilisation: an emerging model for international translational research in education
Research alone does not inform practice, rather a process of knowledge translation is required to enable research findings to become meaningful for practitioners in their contextual settings. However, the translational process needs to be an iterative cycle so that the practice itself can be reflected upon and thereby inform the ongoing research agenda. This paper presents the initial findings of a study into an international, participatory model of knowledge mobilization in the context of translational research in the field of education. Using a mixed methods approach, the study draws upon data collected from the Education Futures Collaboration (EFC), an educational charity, which has developed an international knowledge mobilization strategy. Through the innovative use of technologies this initiative improves the link between research and practice by finding new and practical ways to improve the knowledge base for practitioners. The EFC has developed two work strands within the international knowledge mobilization strategy, which utilise two complementary digital platforms. The first is the online MESHGuides (Mapping Educational Specialist knowHow), a collaborative tool for connecting educators with visual summaries of educational research from which practice can be developed. The second is the online Education Communities of Practice network, which is used to support international partnerships for collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Findings indicate that utilising web 2.0 tools to develop translational research through MESHGuides is significantly groundbreaking in its vision and scope with respect to practitioners accessing and building the knowledge base of the teaching profession internationally and strengthening the link between researchers and practitioners, thereby increasing the impact of research in education
Laptops for teachers: An evaluation of the TELA scheme in schools (Years 1 to 3)
The purpose of this evaluation is to investigate the impacts of the Laptops for Teachers Scheme: TELA (referred to from here as the TELA scheme) on teachersâ work over a period of three years (2006, 2007, 2008) and to record emerging changes in laptop use. This evaluation report presents findings from the three annual cycles of national focus groups and questionnaires with Years 1 to 3 teachers in New Zealand primary schools.
In this evaluation, two methods of data collection were used: first, three focus groups were held with teachers in face-to-face meetings and second, a questionnaire was sent to teachers in a range of schools. The focus groups allowed teachers to talk about changes in their use of the laptop over the three years. Focus groups were held in the Taranaki, Wellington and Marlborough areas. The questionnaire asked teachers about various aspects of their laptops experience, including school support for laptops, professional development, their use of laptops at home and in school, and their goals for future use. In this final report, questionnaire results are presented together with the results from the focus groups held over three years
Building Research-Informed Teacher Education Communities: A UCET Framework
©UCET December 201
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