Section archive - Theories & Approaches

This article presents key findings from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) conducted in 2007-2008. The aim was to provide comparative insights into the conditions of teaching and learning at their school, the leadership in their schools, their preparation and professional development, and the feedback and appraisal which they do—or do not—receive. TALIS yields important insights into current teaching practices in secondary school as well as teachers’ beliefs and attitudes. TALIS highlights not only that better and more targeted professional development is an important lever toward improvement but also that systems need to do better in matching the costs and benefit as well as supply and demand for professional development.

This paper describes a graduate literacy teacher education course that compelled students to think in terms of design and multimodality. The authors saw this qualitative case study as a way to understand the interrelationships of learning processes, principles of design and multimodal texts, and how these might inform pedagogy. Building on years of work in the areas of multimodality and multiliteracies, the authors observed how eight teachers with varying degrees of comfort with multimodality moved into a design-oriented approach to literacy education.

In this article, the authors explore inquiry through the efforts of one pre-service teacher, Toni, during her practicum experience in a secondary mathematics classroom. Drawing on aspects of Bourdieu’s social field theory, the authors highlight the tensions between two different “fields', as well as the tensions within Toni herself in her efforts to identify and become proficient with inquiry pedagogy.

Using self-study approach, the author was interested to learn about teaching teachers. The author positioned herself as a novice in the unfamiliar context of learning to ride a horse. Two themes emerged through pattern analysis. The first theme to emerge through the author's early journal entries was empathy for her students’ anxiety and vulnerability when learning a new skill with such high stakes. The second theme was the fact that the author had fallen but got back in the saddle with renewed confidence spoke volumes about learning.