Interest in reflective practices, within the broader framework of teachers' professional knowledge, has been ongoing in educational research for the past few decades. The idea from which reflection itself stems is that of teachers' agency in their own professional development. The initial positivist approach viewed the relationships between…

This article argues that mentoring relationships between student teachers and lecturers can be enhanced when lecturers participate in personal critical reflections of their role and practice. Current literature acknowledges the need for successful practice-based mentoring and assessment relationships, with students stating these relationships…

The theory-practice debate has been a perennial issue in initial teacher education (ITE). By reporting a mixed-methods study in an ITE programme characterized by a university-based 'theory-first' approach in Hong Kong, this study offers useful empirical evidence to analyse the theory-practice issue. 346 student teachers of a BEd Programme…

The issue of lack of consistency between teacher education and professional practice has been a subject of debate for a long time. In Norway, like many other countries, both scientific communities and governing bodies have put this on the agenda. The current study is qualitative, using a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach. The aim is to…

The aim of this longitudinal study was to gain an understanding of how Swiss student teachers (n = 253), who had passed a competence-based admission test, were assessed by their mentors after the first year of teaching. The results revealed a high correlation between the students' initial cross-curricular competencies (CCC) and their mentors'…

This study analyzes the methods that teachers employ in written feedback to student writing and how the policies of the program and the teachers' embodied histories influence the strategies used. Data were gathered from 2 novice teachers as they taught their first graduate-level ESL writing course and consist of the teachers' feedback in addition…

Learning to conduct interactive classroom discussions is a high priority for becoming an effective teacher, and most teachers view conducting productive classroom discussions as a complex undertaking. Because the dynamics of facilitating classroom discussions are multifaceted and hard to analyze in real time, there is a growing interest in how…

Mentor teachers need a versatile supervisory skills repertoire. Besides taking the prevalent role of daily advisor and instructor, mentor teachers should also be able to stimulate reflection in student teachers. Video recordings of 60 mentoring dialogues were analysed, both before and after a mentor teacher training aimed at developing the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the content of reflective dialogues between student teachers in music and their cooperating teachers, as well as to understand the effects of reflective dialogue on professional development. I was guided in this analysis of 49 transcriptions of interviews and reflective dialogues between student teachers…

While supervising a student teacher in school, an incident occurred that highlighted a contradiction between my practice and my beliefs and prompted me to question why I do not always live the values I profess. The aim of this article is to investigate how self-study can help me to understand the complex and context-based situations of my…

The learning opportunities for student-teachers in practicum settings has long been acknowledged and studied in considerable depth. However, the learning opportunities for cooperating teachers, while celebrated and extolled as an important reciprocal benefit, have not been verified to the same degree. Drawing on the concept of reflection, and…

This study explored how interaction between student teachers and supervisors create professional development opportunities during practicum. Often, student teachers are considered as the "apprentices" and their supervising teachers are the "masters." Is it really true? Do prospective teachers learn everything from their supervising teachers? Or is…

This article articulates a theory of "presence" in teaching and seeks to establish a theoretical foundation for presence that can serve as a platform for further research. It seeks to address the current educational climate that sees teaching as a check list of behaviors, dispositions, measures, and standards, and to articulate the essential but…

One preservice teacher's images and metaphors about teaching and learning were used to investigate his difficulties in the classroom. Data from journal entries, observations, and interviews indicated that examination of metaphors and images encouraged him to reflect on his beliefs, assumptions, and approaches to teaching, providing a language that…

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of a self-study project which required explicit self-monitoring as a tool for initiating reflection in a group of novice teachers during their student teaching experience. The study was structured to encourage student teachers to bring to a conscious level of awareness a problem within their…