Section archive - Professional Development

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of participation in a research mentorship team (RMT) on early childhood teachers' professional identities. The participants were 7 early childhood teachers engaged in preservice teacher supervision at a university-affiliated child care center. These teachers volunteered to be members of the RMT facilitated by two teacher educators. The teachers' perspectives regarding the benefits and the challenges they faced in the RMT were explored.

The study analyzed a conversation among a group of teachers responsible for teaching the statistical concepts of mean, median, and mode. After reading an article describing some specific student difficulties in learning the concepts, teachers were asked to discuss how the teaching of the concepts could be improved.

The article reports on a study that examined whether district continued professional development (CPD) sufficiently prepared teachers for their classroom practice. Analysis of CPD models used with primary-school natural science teachers in a district in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa was conducted. Findings indicated that the district CPD models used with the teachers created several challenges that negatively impacted on the success of the new curriculum reforms.

The article maps out key features of self-study in teaching and teacher development, particularly in relation to social action. The authors have become increasingly interested in how self-reflexivity in teaching and teacher development can illuminate social and educational challenges that have resonance beyond the self and can inspire context-specific, practitioner-led responses to those challenges. The examples that they use point to the potential for ministries and faculties of education to support self-study initiatives as an approach to social action and community development.