Section archive - Professional Development

The purpose of this study was to examine whether teachers’ motivation to diagnosing, attitude toward diagnosing, the self-efficacy, their knowledge, and reflection on experience in diagnosing would predict their diagnostic competence. The authors also examined whether teachers with professional experience were more competent diagnosticians than students in the second phase of German teacher education who in turn were expected to be more competent than students in the first phase. The findings demonstrate that teachers’ motivation to diagnose and teachers’ knowledge of diagnosing are substantial predictors of teachers’ diagnostic competence.

This study aims to explore pre-service teachers’ understandings of scientific modeling during a multi-day, technology-integrated professional development workshop. The authors conclude that such integration holds potential not only for teachers, who must implement such tools in the classroom. The authors also argue that teacher educators can use such technology to elicit and build upon pre- and in-service teachers’ preexisting knowledge and strengths.

This study examined how teacher professional development could be conceived and conducted to support take up of digital game-based learning in the context of a 3-week social studies unit on governance and citizenship. The findings indicate that preparing teachers to appropriate curricula innovations involves deeply personal transformations that intersect with the core of their professional identity. The teachers, who play the game, face dilemmas and conflicts in making professional and personal decisions. This study suggests that teacher professional development through reflective, reflexive guided appropriation is vital.

The purpose of this study aimed to gain an understanding of teachers' expertise. It also aimed to determine the extent to which improvisation was a facet of advanced professional practice. The findings reveal that teacher’s expertise is best expressed as continually evolving practice. The participants argued that advanced practitioners use their expertise to adapt and to interact with their pupils in order to create the conditions in which learning can, and does, take place. The findings also showed that teacher expertise is seen as fundamentally improvisatory through being socially constructed and that this has a positive impact on the quality of teaching. The author found that the primary concern of the teachers was to develop relationships with pupils in order to maximise interaction in the classroom.