Search results for: Teaching as a profession

This paper reports on the background, context, design, and findings of a collaborative research project designed to develop a future roadmap for strengthening an Australian research-rich and self-improving education system. Building on the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the role of research in the teaching profession in the UK (Furlong, 2013), the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) and Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) initiated a national study across education systems and jurisdictions to identify ideas, issues, challenges and opportunities to strengthen teacher education and education policy development through research. The mixed-method study, inclusive of focus groups and an on-line survey collected data from pre-service teachers, teachers, academics and leaders across schools, universities and education departments. A set of recommendations highlight the need for research literacies to be embedded at all stages of a teachers’ career and that the profession would benefit from professional learning strategies where teachers are positioned as both critical and discerning consumers and active producers of research. The importance of teachers being able to respond to data within their own set of contextual factors was a key message.

The main purpose of the present study was to illuminate the factors that enhance or inhibit job satisfaction among second-career teachers (SCTs) in their initial period at school. Data was gathered from questionnaires filled out by 80 novice SCTs and a comparable group of 82 First-Career Teachers (FCTs). Personal interviews were conducted with eight SCTs. The findings show that the most powerful predictor of high job satisfaction among SCTs is the availability of support whereas the most powerful predictor among FCTs is workload. The qualitative analysis suggests that experience acquired by SCTs before they start teaching provides a repertoire of helpful strategies, thus improving their ability to cope with stressful experiences. The findings support the trend to advocate teaching as a second career for experienced professionals.

This paper explains what clinical research is and why it is necessary. The author argues that the term ‘clinical’ refers to an academic way of solving practical problems. The author wonders whether clinical research contribute to knowledge for the teaching profession. She suggests that the (tacit) knowledge acquired in classrooms enables researchers to perceive more relevant factors in practice and enables them to understand the problems of teaching better. She concludes that clinical research is a type of action research in the sense that it acknowledges the epistemic function of doing, thus emphasizing the need for integrating scholarship and craftsmanship.

This research investigates Taiwanese preservice students’ academic quality in comparison with their nonteaching peers. The findings show that preservice students demonstrated higher academic quality than their non-preservice counterparts, as they had better entry test scores, mid-point grades and final grades. The authors provide explanations of the gap in performance between the two groups within the broader sociocultural context of Taiwanese society. First, the authors found that the majority of the teaching programs set a minimum academic standing as a threshold for student application when they recruit students from various programs/departments within the university. Second, the Taiwanese government adopted policies that provide teachers with generous compensation and benefit packages that provide teachers with generous compensation and benefit packages. Furthermore, the cultural beliefs imbedded in the Confucian cultural heritage may also play a role in constructing favorable teaching conditions.