This article describes a seminar process in which poetry is used with student teachers to provide a focal point for reflection and introspection. Through this reflection process, students have been able to reflect deeply and personally on their student-teaching experiences, on their own personalities in the context of those experiences, and on…

This article explores the discursive work done by different notions of professional development in adult education. In particular we outline the ways in which the discourses of technical expertise, competence and reflective practice are deployed to mobilise professional practices and identities in particular ways and position certain practices and…

In responding to Jim Hartley, with whom I very largely agree, I first reflect on my own experience of teaching Psychology in an institution which was successively college of technology, polytechnic and university. In the second a new and fruitful method of assessing higher education essentially by peer review was developed, only to be destroyed in…

This one-year long ethnographic case study seeks to add to the body of literature on EFL teachers' identities in Colombia by drawing on ethnographic methods and sociocultural theories to examine the identity construction of four EFL teachers at the university level. Specifically, this study explores how EFL teachers' identities shaped and were…

Critical reflective teaching has been a goal of English teacher preparation program. Although many English educators have promoted and carried out reflective teaching in their methodology courses, success of such practice has been limited, not sufficiently reflecting what has been desired. Questions have been raised whether reflective teaching…

Critics encourage the process of "reflection" as a prerequisite for professionalizing how teachers behave in the classroom. Reflection helps in recognizing areas in need of improvement. Self-reflection is hence one of the teacher's most important skills in order to work constantly on one's teaching and how to improve it. However, the…

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards calls upon social studies teachers to enhance the rigor of civics, economics, geography, history and the other social studies disciplines while building the critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills of students to help them become actively…

Results of the evaluation suggest the SLO process is related to some positive outcomes for teachers and students. However, evidence indicates a need for program refinements to address discrepancies in SLO performance by staff role and school. A separate report was published in September 2013 [ED629046].

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore strategies to develop communities of practice (CoP) to improve teaching in a school context. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional questionnaire is developed to collect data from participants in a project that aims to cultivate a CoP to improve their small class teaching skills. A total of…

There is much literature to indicate that, in the field of teacher leadership, teachers can enact a reflective practice role as they operate as action researchers in their classrooms and schools. However, novice teachers are seldom considered as leaders or researchers, particularly in the South African schooling context. We report on a qualitative…

Work contexts are frequently referred to as spaces of learning and production of individual and/or collective knowledge. In such contexts specific dynamics are developed which cause the processes of learning and of knowledge production to have particularities. This paper aims at accounting for some dynamics that are associated with those…

In this article, the author asserts that whether we write creatively or academically (or both) it takes time to understand the reasons why we "want" to write, and the more we write, the more we fully begin to appreciate why we have to write in the ?rst place. From an early age, nearly every day, Rachel Hains-Wesson actively participated in…

The purpose of this study is to contribute to existing research on teacher supervision, instructional leadership, and teacher reflectivity and teacher reflexivity by examining: teachers' personal perceptions and reflections about improving instructional effectiveness through observations of their own lessons when using a standards-based appraisal…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore reflective practices of lived experiences of collegiate educators as they progressed from novice to distinction. Specifically, this study investigated how a phenomenon connects to consciousness from lived experiences of teachers who proceeded from novice to a distinguished collegiate…

Through the use of the metaphoric tool of topography, two educational researchers explore the development of their understanding of collaboration in self-study of teacher education practices research. The researchers communicate their perceptions through the presentation of four topographic moments. Each topographic moment is represented by a poem…