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1 – 10 of over 6000Ana Pedro, João Piedade, João Filipe Matos and Neuza Pedro
The construction of learning scenarios is a way to plan for teaching activities, promoting the development of skills related to problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking…
Abstract
Purpose
The construction of learning scenarios is a way to plan for teaching activities, promoting the development of skills related to problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Using learning scenarios as a lesson planning strategy becomes a powerful tool in initial teacher education. On the one hand, it mobilizes teaching-related scientific concepts, and on the other hand, it offers opportunities to think on innovative pedagogic approaches involving strategies and capacities essential for the future teacher. Research shows that teacher education programs within real school contexts enriched with digital technologies represent an important factor in increasing the quality of teachers’ preparation and their future professional practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present the analysis of practice of design and implementation of learning scenarios in teachers’ initial education courses developed with students of teaching master degrees. Activity theory is used in the analysis of a case study of a student-teacher in Computer Science.
Findings
The results have been analyzed, contributing to the specification of the principles underlying the learning scenarios in initial teacher education.
Research limitations/implications
Results show the affordances and possibilities of using learning scenarios as structuring resources for the initial teacher education practice.
Originality/value
Therefore, the use of learning scenarios brings a set of potentialities to teacher training given its prospective nature.
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Theresa Chinyere Ogbuanya and Taiwo Olabanji Shodipe
With critical reviews of previous studies in workplace learning, this paper aims to investigate workplace learning for pre-service teachers’ practice and quality teaching and…
Abstract
Purpose
With critical reviews of previous studies in workplace learning, this paper aims to investigate workplace learning for pre-service teachers’ practice and quality teaching and learning in technical vocational education and training: key to professional development.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted multistage sampling technique to select sample for the study. Empirical analysis was adopted to analyse the data collected from technical vocational education and training pre-service teachers.
Findings
The result of the study revealed that the constructs of social learning theory had a stronger linkage with the constructive teaching than traditional management.
Originality/value
This study emphasizes the need to adequately train pre-service teachers on instructional delivery processes, building strong relationship with learners and build the ability to organize and execute necessary actions required to successfully carry out a specific educational task in a particular context.
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This study aims to examine the relationship between TQM practices and teachers' job satisfaction in Qatar, visualizing this relationship through a path causal model.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between TQM practices and teachers' job satisfaction in Qatar, visualizing this relationship through a path causal model.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey from different schools in Qatar was conducted, using a questionnaire administered to 359 teachers. Factor analysis was used to establish the construct validity of the questionnaire, using two statistical tests: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy, and Bartlett's test of sphericity.
Findings
The TQM practices measured were information, professional development, teachers' involvement in decision-making, teamwork and salary. Regression analyses showed that only four of the five constructs were significant in predicting teachers' job satisfaction. The path causal model's results revealed that each explanatory variable's direct effect was strengthened via the effect of the other independent variables.
Practical implications
Teachers who are highly satisfied with their jobs are willing to give their best. This study proposes a conceptual causal model for TQM adoption in the Qatar educational system. The proposed causal model will help policymakers and decision-makers in Qatari schools to draw strategies based on the antecedents and consequences of teachers' involvement in decision-making.
Originality/value
Empirically, this article has employed the concepts of TQM and job satisfaction to construct a causal model, demonstrating the effect of TQM practices on teachers' job satisfaction in schools in Qatar, thus bridging the gap between the two fields. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, no prior studies have examined this relationship within Qatari schools.
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The digitalization of society places new demands on education. It is apparent since most countries have introduced curricula requirements to digitalize teaching. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
The digitalization of society places new demands on education. It is apparent since most countries have introduced curricula requirements to digitalize teaching. This study examines the organizational support teachers need to digitalize teaching. The study is being conducted in Sweden because they have experienced challenges with the introduction of new national digitalization requirements. Thus, this study explores the following research question: What organizational support do Swedish teachers describe they need to meet the curriculum requirements for digitalization?
Design/methodology/approach
Cultural–historical activity theory and qualitative methods have been used to explore the research aim and answer the question.
Findings
The results show that teachers need organizational support to gain equal and easy access to digital tools. Moreover, digital tools in an organization must be relevantly related to the requirements. Teachers also need support to increase their knowledge as well as the knowledge of the students. Also, organizations must support teachers by distributing the work of digitalization clearly and reasonably. These results, thus, show that teachers cannot be solely responsible for meeting these curriculum requirements. They need organizational support in the process.
Originality/value
The study reveals teachers' recurring problems concerning digitalized education and their need for organizational support. Thereby, the knowledge can be used to avoid similar problems, in organizations on different society levels. This contribution is useful for organizations, politicians, school leaders, principals and teachers who are introducing 1:1 and new curriculum requirements for digitalization of education.
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Sari Räisänen, Riitta-Liisa Korkeamäki and Mariam Jean Dreher
To reflect what a teacher’s inner voice mediated by a video observation and discussion revealed about the process of change in literacy practices.
Abstract
Purpose
To reflect what a teacher’s inner voice mediated by a video observation and discussion revealed about the process of change in literacy practices.
Methodology/approach
Nexus Analysis (NA) (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) was used in studying the teacher’s self-reflective dialogue for identifying the teacher’s (the first author) ways of being in the nexus of old and new literacy practices – in the process of change in the context of literacy practices. These ways of being were reflected on further in the study in the collaboration with the other authors.
Findings
The teacher’s ways of being balanced between “not knowing” and “knowing” connected both personal and professional aspects of learning.
Practical implications
Inner states of professional learning processes imply that both personal and professional support is needed in educational changes, such as the change in literacy practices. Video observations and discussion should thus not only concentrate on practical or theoretical issues of professional learning, but on promoting and offering safe spaces for reflection on subjective learning experiences.
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Kathryn M. Obenchain, Bob Ives and Launie Gardner
This study examines one social studies teacher’s experience developing and implementing an Experiential Education-based (EE) curriculum and her reflection on the experience of…
Abstract
This study examines one social studies teacher’s experience developing and implementing an Experiential Education-based (EE) curriculum and her reflection on the experience of putting theory and research into practice. Using a qualitative case study research strategy, we focused on the single case of the teacher’s experience. We identified four categories related to the implementation of EE elements into her classes: (a) teacher’s values, (b) students’ values, (c) teacher directedness versus student directedness, and (d) accountability. We used the teacher’s values as the central category for our discussion to explore how these values conflicted and coordinated with manifestations of the other categories. Through this study, we learned more about the importance of teachers as researchers and the value of university and school collaboration. However, the critical result was the disconnect between what is valued by the teacher and what is assessed and the need for a continued examination of this issue.
This paper aims to explore the contextual problems and priorities that create tensions in the implementation of activity-based learning reforms such as learning enhancement…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the contextual problems and priorities that create tensions in the implementation of activity-based learning reforms such as learning enhancement through active pedagogy in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). By doing so, it aims to understand the relevance of activity-based learning (ABL) in diverse contexts as perceived by stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
Using qualitative data drawn from semi-structured interviews with 29 teachers, this study uses an anthropological approach to policy implementation to unleash factors creating a disjunction between policy text and policy practice.
Findings
Narratives from teachers reveal how critical awareness about context raises tensions and shapes beliefs about ABL. Their beliefs about ABL can be summed as “pedagogy for its own sake”, reflecting the perceived ineptness of ABL in bringing about considerable improvements in students learning outcomes. Reference to “outcomes” was invoked as a crucial recontextualising discourse in teacher’s pedagogic orientation which resulted primarily from the poor learning attainments of rural children in the prevalent outcome-focussed educational setup.
Research limitations/implications
The study is the first of its kind conducted in J&K and amongst very few around the world elucidating tension around the implementation of pedagogic reforms in underserved areas. This is the only study providing a critical analysis of pedagogic reforms in the school education system in J&K.
Practical implications
The study has significant implications in terms of helping immediate functionaries such as headmasters, teacher trainers and administrators and policy planners in understanding the dilemmas faced by teachers in enacting pedagogic reforms. It also adds to the field of policy implementation in terms of understanding the tensions of policy implementation at peripheries.
Originality/value
The study is the first of its kind conducted in J&K and amongst very few around the world elucidating tension around the implementation of pedagogic reforms in underserved areas. This is the only study providing a critical analysis of the school education system in J&K.
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Jaana Seikkula‐Leino, Elena Ruskovaara, Markku Ikavalko, Johanna Mattila and Tiina Rytkola
The aim of this paper is to show how entrepreneurship education focuses on the teacher's learning and reflection and how, according to the data, undeveloped reflections impede the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to show how entrepreneurship education focuses on the teacher's learning and reflection and how, according to the data, undeveloped reflections impede the development of entrepreneurship education.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected through content typing in 2008 from 29 teachers at the basic, upper secondary and vocational educational levels. The focus is on self‐reflection – how and what teachers reflect on when writing about entrepreneurship education.
Findings
The teachers stress the need for coordination between subjects in developing a more entrepreneurially oriented working community. There appears to be confusion between aims and practices in entrepreneurship education: when asked to give the aims, the teachers describe the practices. Moreover, they “outsource” themselves but refer to aims from the pupils' perspective.
Research limitations/implications
This study only presents preliminary data from the project.
Practical implications/implications
The development of teacher learning in terms of reflection, which should be developed in their basic and in‐service training; the implementation of changes in the educational arena, such as curriculum reform, from the perspective of learning and reflection; and the connection between aims and results in the context of entrepreneurship education.
Originality/value
The approach taken to teacher learning and reflection in the context of entrepreneurship education has so far been an unexplored field of research. Moreover, our article highlights the crucial factor, the development of the teacher's learning, in the context of entrepreneurship education which, according to our results, has received far too little attention in the discourse on entrepreneuship education, and thus also in the strengthening of entrepreneurship. Our article introduces new trends for international research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education, in which increasing attention should be paid to the learning processes of teachers and instructors.
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