The Fifth Commonwealth Teachers Research Symposium brought together teachers, researchers and education policy-makers to share experiences from developed and developing countries both within and outside the Commonwealth. This research event was a further contribution to ensuring that teachers with professional qualifications of good standard are able to move freely between countries of the Commonwealth and the wider world, having those qualifications and skills recognized and valued."
This report examines the nature and extent of support for teacher professionalism using the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, a survey of teachers and principals in 34 countries and economies around the world.
Discover how high-performing systems shape teaching quality around the world Producing highly skilled and committed teachers is not the work of a single innovative school or the aggregation of heroic individuals who succeed against the odds. In high-performing countries, the opportunities for teachers to learn sophisticated practices and continue to improve are embedded systemically in education policies and practices. Empowered Educators describes how this seemingly magical work is done—how a number of forward-thinking educational systems create a coherent set of policies designed to ensure quality teaching in all communities. . . and how the results are manifested in practice. Spanning three continents and five countries, Empowered Educators examines seven jurisdictions that have worked to develop comprehensive teaching policy systems: Singapore and Finland, the states of New South Wales and Victoria in Australia, the provinces of Alberta and Ontario in Canada, and the province of Shanghai in China. Renowned education expert Linda Darling-Hammond and a team of esteemed scholars offer lessons learned in a number of areas that shape the teaching force and the work of teachers, shedding unprecedented light on areas such as teacher recruitment, preparation, induction and mentoring, professional learning, career and leadership development, and more. Find out how quality teaching is developed and conducted across the globe Discover a common set of strategies for developing, supporting, and sustaining the ongoing learning and development of teachers and school leaders See how high-performing countries successfully recruit and train educators Understand why the sharing of expertise among teachers and administrators within and across schools is beneficial A fascinating read for researchers, policymakers, administrators, teacher educators, pre-service teachers and leaders, and anyone with an interest in education, this book offers a rare glimpse into the systems that are shaping quality teaching around the world.
Note: A newer edition of this title is available. The framework for teaching is a research-based set of components of instruction that are grounded in a constructivist view of learning and teaching. The framework may be used for many purposes, but its full value is realized as the foundation for professional conversations among practitioners as they seek to enhance their skill in the complex task of teaching. The framework may be used as the foundation of a school's or district's recruitment and hiring, mentoring, coaching, professional development, and teacher evaluation processes, thus linking all those activities together and helping teachers become more thoughtful practitioners. The actions teachers can take to improve student learning are clearly identified and fall under four domains of teaching responsibility: Planning and Preparation, the School Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities. Within the domains are 22 components and 76 descriptive elements that further refine our understanding of what teaching is all about. The framework defines four levels of performance (Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, and Distinguished) for each element, providing a valuable tool that all teachers can use. This second edition has been revised and updated and also includes frameworks for school specialists, such as school nurses, counselors, library and media specialists, and instructional coaches. Comprehensive, clear, and applicable to teaching across the K-12 spectrum, the framework for teaching described in this book is based on the PRAXIS III: Classroom Performance Assessment criteria developed by Educational Testing Service and is compatible with INTASC standards.
This book makes a major contribution to knowledge and theory by drawing implications of teacher effectiveness research for the field of teacher training and professional development. The first part of the book provides a critical review of research on teacher training and professional development and illustrates the limitations of the main approaches to teacher development such as the competence-based and the holistic approach. A dynamic perspective to policy and practice in teacher training and professional development is advocated. The second part of the book provides a critical review of research on teacher effectiveness. The main phases of this field of research are analysed. It is pointed out that teacher factors are presented as being in opposition to one another. An integrated approach in defining quality of teaching is adopted. The importance of taking into account findings of studies investigating differential teacher effectiveness is argued. Another significant limitation of this field of research is that the whole process of searching for teacher effectiveness factor was not able to have a significant impact upon teacher training and professional development. For this reason it is advocated that teacher training and professional development should be focused on how to address grouping of specific teacher factors associated with student learning and on how to help teachers improve their teaching skills by moving from using skills associated with direct teaching only to more advanced skills concerned with new teaching approaches and differentiation of teaching. The book refers to studies conducted in different countries illustrating how the proposed approach can be used by policy and practice in teacher education. Specifically, the book provides evidence supporting the validity of the theoretical framework upon which this approach is based. Moreover, experimental and longitudinal studies supporting the use of this approach for improvement purposes are presented and suggestions for further research utilising and expanding the Dynamic Approach for teacher training and professional development are provided.
Through qualitative research methods, this book engages in a holistic understanding of cultural, economic, and institutional forces that interact to produce the underrepresentation of women as school teachers in four sub-Saharan African countries. Comparative case studies at the national level, using a common research design, show that teaching, despite being an attractive civil service job, offers low salaries and many challenges, especially when it takes place in rural areas. Combining professional duties with demanding family responsibilities further diminishes women’s ability to stay in the teaching profession. The studies in this book attempt to bridge research findings with policy by developing action plans in cooperation with ministries of education of the respective countries. Women Teachers in Africa will be of interest to academic researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students in the relevant fields, as well as development professionals, aid agency staff and education policy experts.
Teaching embodies many roles -- in the classroom through teacher-student interactions, and beyond the classroom through teacher-adult interactions. This book explains and demonstrates how collaboration and teamwork can help enhance professionalism and school quality by overcoming teachers' isolation in the classroom, in the school, and in their work. The contributing authors address: historic patterns of isolation; why collaboration is crucial for vibrant and sustained professionalism; principles of successful team collaboration in schools and other sectors; school districts' structure and support for collaborative teams; forces that motivate or restrain teachers' ability to collaborate; how teachers in grade-level teams perceive the quality of their training and support; team members' perceptions of their work in departments; teachers' use of evidence of student learning to improve teacher and organizational learning; and teacher-principal collaboration from the perspectives of exemplary teachers. These chapters provide insight into the complexity of teachers' roles, and indicate the necessity to build collaboration within the school and beyond.
This book examines the impact of internationalization, student mobility and transnational workforce mobility on the changing nature of teacher work and teacher professional learning in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. Derived from a three-year project funded by the Australian Research Council across more than 30 VET and HE institutions, this is the first book that explores teacher professional learning in international education. The authors address how teachers position their professional responsibilities and learning in relation to the institutional structure, internationalization agenda and policy fields in which their profession is embedded by drawing on both empirical evidence and key concepts and models of teacher professional learning. This pioneering text provides international education and VET policy makers, practitioners, educators and researchers with unique insights and practical implications for enhancing teacher professional learning and capabilities in international education.
