Section archive - Professional Development

This study examined student teachers’ perceptions of how well their Teacher Education (TE) had prepared them for 21st-century competencies, and how well they applied these competencies to their teaching. In addition, the study sought to identify best practices, major obstacles, and suggestions to achieve these competencies. The study was implemented in two universities and three universities of applied sciences in Finland that have TE programmes. This study used a mixed-method approach. Data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively from student teachers (n = 227), who assessed 21st-century competencies with a structured questionnaire that included open-ended questions. Quantitative data analysis used descriptive statistics and correlations, while qualitative data analysis used content analysis. The study found that based on the student teachers’ self-assessment, the student teachers achieved successfully 21st-century competencies despite differences between competencies. The best-achieved competency was ‘Collaboration’ and the least well-achieved was ‘Global connections.’ The study illustrated student teachers’ perception of their success in applying 21st-century competencies to their teaching at schools. Answers to open-ended questions produced convincing evidence that courses involving collaborative and interactive learning, high quality, sufficient support, related 21st-century competencies, certain pedagogical methods used by teacher educators, and integrating theory and practice can contribute strongly to the development of student teachers’ 21st-century competencies.

This study explores pre-service and in-service teachers’ experiences in working as a learning community. Pre-service teachers (N = 60) and teacher educators (N = 9) from a Finnish university and in-service teachers (N = 27) from four local comprehensive schools worked together over six months. The teachers-as-learners continuous learning model was created and implemented in practice. The participants’ written reflections were collected to explore what they learned, what challenges they experienced and how they would further develop the model. The results showed that the pre-service and the in-service teachers reflected on their work somewhat differently. The former experienced learning group working, self-regulation, and pedagogic and didactic skills. The latter learned group working skills and new teaching methods. Both groups of teachers experienced challenges, one of which was named role confusion. The pre-service teachers experienced role confusion in terms of guided versus independent work. The in-service teachers’ role confusion led them to wonder whether they should provide the pre-service teachers with expert support or participate as equal group members. Both pre-service and in-service teachers reflected that the model would require active involvement of all teachers and teacher educators involved. The results provide implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education.

This article reported how five preservice teachers constructed and developed their teacher identity in a year-long teacher residency partnered between a university-based teacher education program and schools in Louisiana, United States. Drawing on a sociocultural approach to identity development and the ‘third space’ theory, qualitative data were collected from individual interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. Findings suggested that participants experienced an ongoing teacher identity construction while learning to teach in the hybrid, in-between ‘third space’ residency. Key elements of the residency, including the mentored co-teaching experiences and learning opportunities situated in authentic school contexts, facilitated the participants’ learning about teaching and teacher identity negotiation. Implications for teacher education practice, policy, and research were discussed.

The study uses reflexive leadership as a framework for considering teacher professional learning across a network of schools. The paper explores professional learning strategies for eight next generation leaders, both for their own leadership learning and to build their repertoire of professional learning strategies. The study found that the emerging leaders understood the benefit of collaboration between the big schools and the need for focused teacher professional learning within their own schools. They also appreciated the synergy between the design of professional learning and the types of communication required to develop shared goals and actions in teacher professional learning teams.