Section archive - Teacher Education Programs

This article reviews the literature on adaptive expertise. The article proposes a conceptual framework, and presents implications for special educator preparation to promote cognitive and metacognitve skills and adaptive dispositions that are critical to professional growth and effectiveness.

In this article, the authors are interested to know whether male and female students in the Netherland perceive the curriculum differently. The following research question was guided this study: Can gender-specific student factors be identified in relation to the initial teacher education curriculum that leads to the differences in the dropout rate? The authors found gender differences in student factors as well as in the way male and female students perceive the curriculum. Concerning the student factors, males and females differ in professional motivation and expectations concerning the curriculum at the start of their training and after two-and-a-half years.

The objective for this study was to gain new knowledge about the experience of teachers in the early stage of professional learning community (PLC) development. This study reports findings from semi-structured focus group interviews with teachers in an urban/suburban high school after one year of school-wide professional development introducing the PLC as a school-wide practice. The authors conclude that The authors claim that as long as PLC work is perceived by teachers as a professional development option that they may choose to embrace or ignore, then systemwide change is unlikely to occur. The authors suggest that by establishing an urgent cause, the leader may then offer assistance to the staff in addressing the problem in the form of an initiative to cultivate collaborative reflective practice with the goal of transforming the school into a PLC.

The purpose of this study was to examine the various representations of the author's development as a beginning teacher educator offered through his methodology of self-study through narrative inquiry. Analysis of these narratives revealed how certain ongoing, and at times paradoxical, tensions influenced the author's thinking about his initial practices as a teacher educator. At the same time as he was refining his vision for social studies and coming to understand the potential significance of his teaching, he was also, sometimes paradoxically, exhibiting fear of regression in his work, displaying apathy or exhaustion, exhibiting frustration and restlessness, and struggling to navigate interpersonal relationships with his students.