SIG11 on Teaching and Teacher Education will devote its Invited Symposium to discussing some research gaps in European research and will invite participants to join in on a discussion of what research is needed for the future development of  European research on teaching and teacher education and how SIG11 can contribute to this.

 

The papers presented cover different areas;

 

Harm Tillema, the Netherlands, questions research methodology concerned with studies of teachers’ reflection and how for instance researchers’ choices and deliberations in designing a study can ameliorate critical subjectivity while analyzing and interpreting accounts of teaching.

 

Michal Zellermayer, Israel, approaches the question of research from a teacher education standpoint. She will analyze the new scholarship in teacher education colleges during the last decade and will show that, rather than competing with the universities in research on teacher education, they have developed research for teacher education with immediate implications for curriculum and teaching.

Katrin Hjort, Denmark, addresses relations between the more traditional professional knowledge of the teachers and the new types of knowledge about teaching required at the moment are in focus. Types of knowledge and politics of knowledge will be a main concern, and what kind of research is needed to develop knowledge on supporting teachers’ professional practice.

 

Kirsti Klette, Norway, has professional repertoires in classrooms as a departure point. She will discuss research gaps revealed throughout classroom studies in the Nordic countries, the poor link, engagement and conversation between knowledge gained within the research field of education and its practical dissemination and use. Finally, she will address the need to develop more operational, technical and instrumental tools that could support and contribute to research based teaching and learning.

In doing research on teaching one has to acknowledge the ways in which researchers’ intentions interact with the process of study, and how they serve to shape research outcomes. Such a recognition calls for attention to working in the interpretive zone (Wasser & Bressler, 1996). Based on our own studies on teachers’ reflective expertise (Mena Marcos & Tillema, 2006; Tillema & Orland Barak, 2006) it is exemplified how articulation of researchers’ choice and deliberation in designing a study could ameliorate critical subjectivity while analyzing and interpreting accounts of teaching and clarify interactions between researcher and teacher. By contrasting researchers’ intentions and subsequent interpretations of data or ‘findings’ a conceptual figure is created to illustrate the need for clarity on researchers’ construction of knowledge in studies on teaching. One study will be used as a case, and the findings of this study are elucidated against the conceptual figure which comprises four pitfalls of working in the interpretive zone. This analysis will lead to a demand for further clarification of research findings as well as an improved conception of the study’s design. This case analysis is taken to derive certain criteria or strongholds that could orient researchers in the design of their studies. Based on a review of studies of reflection (Mena Marcos & Tillema, 2006) our search has further substantiated criteria of appraising research on teaching that refer to a) selection of instruments, b) analysis and coverage of data, and c) integration of findings. Finally, although there is no ‘should’ in ‘research’ (only ‘search’), some guidelines are offered to construct future research designs.

In doing research on teaching one has to acknowledge the ways in which researchers’ intentions interact with the process of study, and how they serve to shape research outcomes. Such a recognition calls for attention to working in the interpretive zone (Wasser & Bressler, 1996). Based on our own studies on teachers’ reflective expertise (Mena Marcos & Tillema, 2006; Tillema & Orland Barak, 2006) it is exemplified how articulation of researchers’ choice and deliberation in designing a study could ameliorate critical subjectivity while analyzing and interpreting accounts of teaching and clarify interactions between researcher and teacher. By contrasting researchers’ intentions and subsequent interpretations of data or ‘findings’ a conceptual figure is created to illustrate the need for clarity on researchers’ construction of knowledge in studies on teaching. One study will be used as a case, and the findings of this study are elucidated against the conceptual figure which comprises four pitfalls of working in the interpretive zone. This analysis will lead to a demand for further clarification of research findings as well as an improved conception of the study’s design. This case analysis is taken to derive certain criteria or strongholds that could orient researchers in the design of their studies. Based on a review of studies of reflection (Mena Marcos & Tillema, 2006) our search has further substantiated criteria of appraising research on teaching that refer to a) selection of instruments, b) analysis and coverage of data, and c) integration of findings. Finally, although there is no ‘should’ in ‘research’ (only ‘search’), some guidelines are offered to construct future research designs.

In doing research on teaching one has to acknowledge the ways in which researchers’ intentions interact with the process of study, and how they serve to shape research outcomes. Such a recognition calls for attention to working in the interpretive zone (Wasser & Bressler, 1996). Based on our own studies on teachers’ reflective expertise (Mena Marcos & Tillema, 2006; Tillema & Orland Barak, 2006) it is exemplified how articulation of researchers’ choice and deliberation in designing a study could ameliorate critical subjectivity while analyzing and interpreting accounts of teaching and clarify interactions between researcher and teacher. By contrasting researchers’ intentions and subsequent interpretations of data or ‘findings’ a conceptual figure is created to illustrate the need for clarity on researchers’ construction of knowledge in studies on teaching. One study will be used as a case, and the findings of this study are elucidated against the conceptual figure which comprises four pitfalls of working in the interpretive zone. This analysis will lead to a demand for further clarification of research findings as well as an improved conception of the study’s design. This case analysis is taken to derive certain criteria or strongholds that could orient researchers in the design of their studies. Based on a review of studies of reflection (Mena Marcos & Tillema, 2006) our search has further substantiated criteria of appraising research on teaching that refer to a) selection of instruments, b) analysis and coverage of data, and c) integration of findings. Finally, although there is no ‘should’ in ‘research’ (only ‘search’), some guidelines are offered to construct future research designs.

 

There are two paths for teacher preparation in Israel:

1. Two-year postgraduate Teaching Certificate university programs for candidates holding BA degrees in one of the high school disciplines.

2. A four year undergraduate teacher education program in teacher colleges preparing early childhood to 10^th grade teachers. The majority (85%) of teachers are educated in 28 colleges around the country.

Until the nineties, the universities took the lead in producing research in this field and the teacher colleges did not develop a culture of research on teacher education. In a survey of research on teacher education in Israel of that period (Ben-Peretz, 1990), there is no reference to studies initiated and conducted by the teacher-colleges faculty members.

In the early nineties, when teacher education colleges in Europe and in the US were closed or integrated in universities, an academization process supported by The Commission for Higher Education began (Ariav, 1993), which strengthened the status of the colleges, and encouraged their faculty members to engage in research.

This presentation will analyze the new scholarship in teacher education colleges during the last decade and will show that, rather than competing with the universities in research on teacher education, they have developed research for teacher education with immediate implications for curriculum and teaching.

 

 

There are two paths for teacher preparation in Israel:

1. Two-year postgraduate Teaching Certificate university programs for candidates holding BA degrees in one of the high school disciplines.

2. A four year undergraduate teacher education program in teacher colleges preparing early childhood to 10^th grade teachers. The majority (85%) of teachers are educated in 28 colleges around the country.

Until the nineties, the universities took the lead in producing research in this field and the teacher colleges did not develop a culture of research on teacher education. In a survey of research on teacher education in Israel of that period (Ben-Peretz, 1990), there is no reference to studies initiated and conducted by the teacher-colleges faculty members.

In the early nineties, when teacher education colleges in Europe and in the US were closed or integrated in universities, an academization process supported by The Commission for Higher Education began (Ariav, 1993), which strengthened the status of the colleges, and encouraged their faculty members to engage in research.

This presentation will analyze the new scholarship in teacher education colleges during the last decade and will show that, rather than competing with the universities in research on teacher education, they have developed research for teacher education with immediate implications for curriculum and teaching.

 

 

There are two paths for teacher preparation in Israel:

1. Two-year postgraduate Teaching Certificate university programs for candidates holding BA degrees in one of the high school disciplines.

2. A four year undergraduate teacher education program in teacher colleges preparing early childhood to 10^th grade teachers. The majority (85%) of teachers are educated in 28 colleges around the country.

Until the nineties, the universities took the lead in producing research in this field and the teacher colleges did not develop a culture of research on teacher education. In a survey of research on teacher education in Israel of that period (Ben-Peretz, 1990), there is no reference to studies initiated and conducted by the teacher-colleges faculty members.

In the early nineties, when teacher education colleges in Europe and in the US were closed or integrated in universities, an academization process supported by The Commission for Higher Education began (Ariav, 1993), which strengthened the status of the colleges, and encouraged their faculty members to engage in research.

This presentation will analyze the new scholarship in teacher education colleges during the last decade and will show that, rather than competing with the universities in research on teacher education, they have developed research for teacher education with immediate implications for curriculum and teaching.

 

 

There are two paths for teacher preparation in Israel:

1. Two-year postgraduate Teaching Certificate university programs for candidates holding BA degrees in one of the high school disciplines.

2. A four year undergraduate teacher education program in teacher colleges preparing early childhood to 10^th grade teachers. The majority (85%) of teachers are educated in 28 colleges around the country.

Until the nineties, the universities took the lead in producing research in this field and the teacher colleges did not develop a culture of research on teacher education. In a survey of research on teacher education in Israel of that period (Ben-Peretz, 1990), there is no reference to studies initiated and conducted by the teacher-colleges faculty members.

In the early nineties, when teacher education colleges in Europe and in the US were closed or integrated in universities, an academization process supported by The Commission for Higher Education began (Ariav, 1993), which strengthened the status of the colleges, and encouraged their faculty members to engage in research.

This presentation will analyze the new scholarship in teacher education colleges during the last decade and will show that, rather than competing with the universities in research on teacher education, they have developed research for teacher education with immediate implications for curriculum and teaching.

 

 

 

The upper secondary school in Denmark is undergoing a great reform as a part of the general modernisation or transformation process of the Scandinavian Welfare States. The reform represents important new challenges to the teachers, including demands to produce new types of knowledge in order to document their activities and the outcome of their work. Teaching has to be more transparent and open to external evaluations and accountancy. This paper takes its point of departure in a present research project financed by the Danish States Research Council and explores – inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of Power/Knowledge – the relations between the more traditional professional knowledge of the teachers and the new types of knowledge about teaching required at the moment. The paper analyse the competition between the different types of knowledge as representing power relations or power struggles between different politics of knowledge and discuss the possibility of developing knowledge able to support the teachers professional practice.  

 

The upper secondary school in Denmark is undergoing a great reform as a part of the general modernisation or transformation process of the Scandinavian Welfare States. The reform represents important new challenges to the teachers, including demands to produce new types of knowledge in order to document their activities and the outcome of their work. Teaching has to be more transparent and open to external evaluations and accountancy. This paper takes its point of departure in a present research project financed by the Danish States Research Council and explores – inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of Power/Knowledge – the relations between the more traditional professional knowledge of the teachers and the new types of knowledge about teaching required at the moment. The paper analyse the competition between the different types of knowledge as representing power relations or power struggles between different politics of knowledge and discuss the possibility of developing knowledge able to support the teachers professional practice.  

 

The upper secondary school in Denmark is undergoing a great reform as a part of the general modernisation or transformation process of the Scandinavian Welfare States. The reform represents important new challenges to the teachers, including demands to produce new types of knowledge in order to document their activities and the outcome of their work. Teaching has to be more transparent and open to external evaluations and accountancy. This paper takes its point of departure in a present research project financed by the Danish States Research Council and explores – inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of Power/Knowledge – the relations between the more traditional professional knowledge of the teachers and the new types of knowledge about teaching required at the moment. The paper analyse the competition between the different types of knowledge as representing power relations or power struggles between different politics of knowledge and discuss the possibility of developing knowledge able to support the teachers professional practice.  

 

The upper secondary school in Denmark is undergoing a great reform as a part of the general modernisation or transformation process of the Scandinavian Welfare States. The reform represents important new challenges to the teachers, including demands to produce new types of knowledge in order to document their activities and the outcome of their work. Teaching has to be more transparent and open to external evaluations and accountancy. This paper takes its point of departure in a present research project financed by the Danish States Research Council and explores – inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of Power/Knowledge – the relations between the more traditional professional knowledge of the teachers and the new types of knowledge about teaching required at the moment. The paper analyse the competition between the different types of knowledge as representing power relations or power struggles between different politics of knowledge and discuss the possibility of developing knowledge able to support the teachers professional practice.  

 

 

The aim of this paper is to discuss research gaps in teaching and teacher education from the point of view of studies of professional repertoires in classrooms. Despite massive research within the field of education trying to grasp the relation between the who, the how and the what at the classroom level, our disciplinary area still suffers from a lack of an analytical and methodological framework that integrates the three elements as well as the relation between them. Studies of teachers and teaching have been poorly aligned with studies of students’ operational learning and vice versa and we know little about to what extent - and how - differences in teachers’ activities are related to students’ learning. Few studies of teachers and teaching have examined the extent to which differences in teacher effectiveness are related to differences in teachers’ subject matter knowledge. Two decades after Shulman and his colleagues’ prominent research program on pedagogic content knowledge as a special amalgam of content and pedagogy essential to teachers’ professional understanding we still tend to discuss teaching and learning in general terms separated from the content coverage involved.

In my contribution I will link knowledge challenges in teaching and teacher education to:

i)                    current research gaps revealed throughout classroom studies in the Nordic countries

ii)                   the poor link, engagement and conversation between knowledge gained within the research field of education and it’s practical dissemination and use at the operational classroom level, and

iii)                 the need to develop more operational, technical and instrumental tools that could support and contribute to research based teaching and learning

The aim of this paper is to discuss research gaps in teaching and teacher education from the point of view of studies of professional repertoires in classrooms. Despite massive research within the field of education trying to grasp the relation between the who, the how and the what at the classroom level, our disciplinary area still suffers from a lack of an analytical and methodological framework that integrates the three elements as well as the relation between them. Studies of teachers and teaching have been poorly aligned with studies of students’ operational learning and vice versa and we know little about to what extent - and how - differences in teachers’ activities are related to students’ learning. Few studies of teachers and teaching have examined the extent to which differences in teacher effectiveness are related to differences in teachers’ subject matter knowledge. Two decades after Shulman and his colleagues’ prominent research program on pedagogic content knowledge as a special amalgam of content and pedagogy essential to teachers’ professional understanding we still tend to discuss teaching and learning in general terms separated from the content coverage involved.

In my contribution I will link knowledge challenges in teaching and teacher education to:

i)                    current research gaps revealed throughout classroom studies in the Nordic countries

ii)                   the poor link, engagement and conversation between knowledge gained within the research field of education and it’s practical dissemination and use at the operational classroom level, and

iii)                 the need to develop more operational, technical and instrumental tools that could support and contribute to research based teaching and learning

The aim of this paper is to discuss research gaps in teaching and teacher education from the point of view of studies of professional repertoires in classrooms. Despite massive research within the field of education trying to grasp the relation between the who, the how and the what at the classroom level, our disciplinary area still suffers from a lack of an analytical and methodological framework that integrates the three elements as well as the relation between them. Studies of teachers and teaching have been poorly aligned with studies of students’ operational learning and vice versa and we know little about to what extent - and how - differences in teachers’ activities are related to students’ learning. Few studies of teachers and teaching have examined the extent to which differences in teacher effectiveness are related to differences in teachers’ subject matter knowledge. Two decades after Shulman and his colleagues’ prominent research program on pedagogic content knowledge as a special amalgam of content and pedagogy essential to teachers’ professional understanding we still tend to discuss teaching and learning in general terms separated from the content coverage involved.

In my contribution I will link knowledge challenges in teaching and teacher education to:

iv)                 current research gaps revealed throughout classroom studies in the Nordic countries

v)                  the poor link, engagement and conversation between knowledge gained within the research field of education and it’s practical dissemination and use at the operational classroom level, and

vi)                 the need to develop more operational, technical and instrumental tools that could support and contribute to research based teaching and learning

The aim of this paper is to discuss research gaps in teaching and teacher education from the point of view of studies of professional repertoires in classrooms. Despite massive research within the field of education trying to grasp the relation between the who, the how and the what at the classroom level, our disciplinary area still suffers from a lack of an analytical and methodological framework that integrates the three elements as well as the relation between them. Studies of teachers and teaching have been poorly aligned with studies of students’ operational learning and vice versa and we know little about to what extent - and how - differences in teachers’ activities are related to students’ learning. Few studies of teachers and teaching have examined the extent to which differences in teacher effectiveness are related to differences in teachers’ subject matter knowledge. Two decades after Shulman and his colleagues’ prominent research program on pedagogic content knowledge as a special amalgam of content and pedagogy essential to teachers’ professional understanding we still tend to discuss teaching and learning in general terms separated from the content coverage involved.

In my contribution I will link knowledge challenges in teaching and teacher education to:

vii)               current research gaps revealed throughout classroom studies in the Nordic countries

viii)              the poor link, engagement and conversation between knowledge gained within the research field of education and it’s practical dissemination and use at the operational classroom level, and

ix)                 the need to develop more operational, technical and instrumental tools that could support and contribute to research based teaching and learning