A taxonomy of clinical reasoning for pre-service teachers on professional experience

Clinical reflection with a focus on student impact is now a mandated attribute for graduate teachers across Australia via the capstone teacher performance assessment task. This policy move is forcing teacher educators to examine their programs to find space for activities that help pre-service teachers to develop the skills and dispositions required for the teacher performance assessment. Some of the best opportunities for clinical reflection occur after pre-service teachers teach lessons during their professional experience in schools. The data for this study were generated during the trial of a lesson feedback and reflection form for pre-service teachers in NSW, Australia. This study examined 13 pre-service teachers’ responses in 134 lesson feedback and reflection forms. A phenomenographic analysis was conducted on the responses to produce an inclusive and hierarchical four-level taxonomy of clinical reflection. These data showed that although all levels of the taxonomy were present in post lesson feedback and reflection forms, clinical reflection was less frequent than other categories of reflective practice such as causal. These findings have clear implications for the precision of the learning protocols deployed in professional experience experiences in teacher education for the purpose of fostering clinical reflection

The Challenges of Practitioner Research: A Comparative Study of Singapore and NSW

Practitioner research is considered an integral form of professional learning for teachers but in its implementation it will often encounter significant challenges. This qualitative comparative case-study of teachers in Singapore and NSW investigated the range of challenges they encountered during their work as practitioner researchers. The study employs Schatzki’s practice theory to analyse the impact of practitioner research on the existing practice architectures of schools. A total of 42 participants from NSW and Singapore were interviewed for this study. The results explicate the various challenges teachers encountered and how these act to prefigure and remodel practitioner research as a practice within each of the two different settings. The findings are of interest to teacher educators working with teachers across the career span who are considering using practitioner research in their professional learning repertoire

Survey of marine turtle nest sites in the UAE.

The United Arab Emirates is party to the Regional Convention for Co-operation on Protection of the Environment from Marine Pollution, and the Action Plan for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment and Coastal Areas. The waters of the Arabian Gulf are rich in seagreass (Halodule. Syringodium and Halophila spp.), That provide a direct food source for the green turtle (Cheloniamydas). and hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). The Gulf also contains numerous offshore Islands and sandbank. These offshore areas are possibly used by turtles for nesting, but presently there is a lack of ecological survey data (sheppard and Wells 1988). This study provided new survey data on turtle nesting from sir Bun Nair Island (25°.15°N, 54°.15'E) in the Arabian Gulf (figure 1)

A Common Language? The Use of Teaching Standards in the Assessment of Professional Experience: Teacher Education Students’ Perceptions

There is a strong critique of the reductionist, technical and instrumentalist impacts of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers from critical policy researchers in education. At the same time, advocates of the standards espouse their potential as providing a common language of teaching. We argue that both views are based on logical rather than empirical warrants. Therefore, this study sought to gather empirical data via a survey of 229 teacher education students followed by focus groups in an endeavour to record their perceptions on the use of the standards as assessment criteria for professional experience. The findings are that a majority of the students were advocates of the standards as a learning scaffold. This was especially true in contexts where their supervising teachers were not au fait with the standards. The implications of this study for teacher educators are that the formative assessment potential of the standards requires pedagogical consideration in professional experience alongside their more commonly understood role as summative assessment criteria

Teacher Adaptive Practices: A Key Factor in Teachers’ Implementation of Assessment for Learning

: The Assessment for Learning disposition has been long established in the literature as a desirable attribute for teachers. To use the biological metaphor of adaptation, assessment for learning has been argued to be a key base pair on the teacher genome. We argue that the selection of the correct genotype for teachers is not enough. What is needed is empirical confirmation that these genotypes are expressed in the appropriate phenotypes, or teacher practices. The data in this study were generated from interviews that explored the phenotype, or practices, of six teachers who self-selected for the favoured genotype using the Teacher Assessment for Learning Literacy Tool. The findings indicate that the Assessment for Learning genotype was not always expressed in the phenotype, or practices of these six teachers. The selective environmental pressure of the Teacher Assessment for Learning Literacy Tool was not enough to activate plasticity in all the teachers. The implications are that there may need to be a combination of environmental pressures in the form of teacher professional learning interventions using the Teacher Adaptive Practice scale in concert with the Teacher Assessment for Learning Literacy Tool as well as an internal mechanism like a teacher selection tool that discriminates between rigidity and plasticity in a teacher’s disposition

Variability of Students’ Responses to Assessment Activities: The Influence of Achievement Levels

The effect of assessment on student learning is often reported using performance data from the entire cohort rather than the growth of individual students. This practice is inconsistent with the theoretical and empirical evidence that individual students respond differently to assessment strategies. The variance observed in students’ responses to assessment tasks is commonly attributed to their learning needs and characteristics, but little is understood about the influence of their achievement levels. This study explores how secondary English students from different achievement levels respond to different assessment activities aimed at developing their skills in writing a persuasive essay and how these responses influence their further engagement in learning. An interpretivist approach was used to analyse the transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with five high performing, three average and three underperforming students. The findings revealed that students’ responses are influenced by their learning goals and their perceived benefits of assessment strategies. High performing students selectively engage in assessment activities that best improve their learning, whilst underachieving students disengage when the activity overwhelms them. The average performing students engage only to a certain extent to meet only the average expectation or performance required. Interestingly, some of these responses did not reflect the teacher’s intent in using the assessment strategy. The implications of this study suggest that effective teacher assessment practices would benefit from a recognition of the concept of stimulus-response compatibility. An adaptive teacher disposition is critical in the provision of appropriate stimuli as well as a constructive response to students to ensure their ongoing learning engagement

It's a question of balance: Reconsidering learning partnerships through genuine teacher mentoring conversations

In Australia, and internationally, mentoring is proffered as a powerful professional learning experience for both early career teachers (ECTs) and their mentors alike. However, authentically beneficial learning partnerships have proven challenging to achieve. This paper provides a theoretical and practical response to this issue, arguing the criticality of genuine conversations cultivated through balanced, non-hierarchical questioning to position ECTs and mentors as co-learners. Drawing on positioning theory in conjunction with the concept of genuine conversations, the contents of five recorded mentoring conversations involving Australian ECTs and mentors were analysed. These findings have important implications for mentoring practice across educational contexts

Looking to GROW: The absence of goal setting in post-lesson mentoring conversations on work-integrated learning placements

The post-lesson mentoring conversation on work-integrated learning placements in teacher education is an opportunity for students to critically reflect on their practice. The potential for this learning to take place is diminished however, if the mentor is unskilled in the art of leading these conversations. This skill involves creating a dialogue where the mentee can discuss their practice in relation to learning goals. This study analyzed the transcripts of 54 post-lesson mentoring conversations. The study found that goals were rarely mentioned when conversations were closer to monologues than dialogues. If this is representative of the larger sample, then the mentoring monologue constitutes a waste of the latent learning potential of the post-lesson mentoring conversation. The implications of the study center on the post-lesson mentoring conversation requiring more scaffolding in the way of protocols that promote growth through a critical dialogue of the professional learning goals of the teacher education student

Teacher wellbeing in rural, regional, and metropolitan schools: Examining resources and demands across locations

Teachers’ work conditions impact their wellbeing. However, it is currently not well-known what role school location plays in these associations. The current study used a multigroup structural equation model to identify similarities and differences in the associations between job demands/resources, self-efficacy, and teacher wellbeing in rural, regional, and metropolitan locations in Australia. Workload and student behavior stress (negatively) and teacher collaboration (positively) were predictive of teacher wellbeing in all locations. In contrast, professional development irrelevance had unique associations with wellbeing for rural teachers. The findings suggest the importance of considering what demands/resources are most salient for teachers in specific contexts