In contemporary times educators must be able to work effectively within contexts of change, paradox and instability. This has implications for programs that prepare teachers. In particular, teacher education programs should seek to develop teachers who can enquire systematically and critically into their educational practices. However, current…

This study examined the use of digital video editing as the main venue for fostering reflection. The impact of digital video editing technology on preservice teachers' beliefs included shifts in (a) reflections regarding children's thinking, (b) planning and instruction informed by reflection, and (c) notions of teaching expertise and requisite…

This article describes activities and experiences that encourage students to construct and reconstruct knowledge of self and teaching through community building and reflective practices. Following the assumption that teacher education should focus on the human and ethical dimensions of teaching, and the conscious development of a sense of self,…

This article presents a polyphonic narrative of reflection in action across two institutional contexts; a university and a primary (elementary) school. It traces an honours student's research on reflection and her supervisor's reactions as reader. Both engage in construction and reconstruction of their basic beliefs about reflective practice as…

Reflective practice has been adopted by many teachers, including dissertation advisors who provide 1:1 teaching of research students. This paper discusses issues arising from our use of qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) for reflective practice and provides an analysis of the thematic coding and word/pattern searches of feedback given to…

Our least-served students are taught by our least-experienced teachers. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, teachers in high-poverty public schools are twice as likely to transfer to another school as their colleagues in low-poverty public schools. Consequently, many students in high-poverty, urban public schools spend…

Over the last decade, teacher performance assessments (TPAs) have begun to find appeal in the context of teacher education programs and teacher licensing for their innovative ways of assessing teacher knowledge and skills but primarily for their potential to promote teacher learning and reflective teaching. Studies of preservice teachers who have…

This article describes and critically reflects on an action research project used for professional development purposes in a Middle Eastern Gulf State. The aim of the project was to improve professional development experiences for a group of in-service teacher educators, who were English as Second Language advisers. The initial discussion…

Teacher educators may have different views on what constitutes knowledge base for teacher education. Most of them, however, would agree that field experiences are indispensable for shaping and maintaining high-quality teachers. Unlike teacher training courses in the UK and US, fieldwork components are not always an option in Taiwan. This study,…

For David E. Kirkland, the New English Education locates English language arts in the realities of youth, where texts emerge from students' lives, and the notions of reading and writing in English classrooms are open to revision. Kirkland reflects on how "postmodern Black experience, especially as seen in hip-hop, gives English teachers one way of…

This study investigated student engagement in class discussions in a university-level, literature-based writing class. The research questions were 1) Does multiple-source learning provide a new lens for the observation of reflective teaching and learning practices? 2) Is there evidence that shows that the practices adopted by one teacher actually…

Prospective teachers in their third year of a Bachelor of Education degree in secondary teacher education use a journal to respond to a range of questions about their experiences as learners prior to, during and after their first practicum. These stories are used as a source of data to analyze how 14 prospective secondary teachers understand the…

Teacher diaries have wide-ranging applications for professional development, as they give teachers an increased sense of responsibility and seek new ways of improving their teaching. This article shares my personal experience of undertaking three teacher diary studies at two-year intervals and reveals how my teaching methodologies and philosophies…

This article describes a process whereby faculty can self-assess their cross-cultural sensitivity as it relates to promoting a positive learning environment in our multicultural classrooms. This self-assessment measure encourages personal reflection and is intended to perpetuate professional growth that can use self-understanding as a foundation…

"Just as we 'do' laundry in a certain way...so, too, we 'do' school. As educators, we gather students, we sort them (by grade level, ability, or both), we teach them, we test them, and we grade them." --From the Preface. The 20 thought-provoking poems in this collection are meant to promote reflective conversation about how educators do school.…