Do We Practise What We Preach?: putting policy into practice in teacher education

Abstract

There are substantial pressures for changes in teaching practice which are now clearly reflected in government policy. It is argued that these pressures have emerged from changes in the culture of technologically based societies and the resulting changes in the needs of all students in schools. The implications of recent theories of learning and new needs for learners are discussed with respect to teacher education. An attempt to change the way in which students are prepared in mathematics education is reported. Data collected as part of the study indicate the need for a system-wide approach to change.

Web-based conferencing: Pedagogical asset or constraint?

“…In the area of mathematics education, a topic which lends itself well to discussion by prospective primary school teachers is their beliefs about the nature of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning. A strong body of literature in mathematics education points to the fact that many prospective primary school teachers perceive mathematics in very restricted, instrumentalist terms -see, for example Mayers (1994), Burton (1996), and Crawford and Deer (1993). Instead of approaching mathematics as a creative endeavour with cultural and social relevance, many prospective primary school teachers see it as a rule-based set of procedures which is learnt most effectively by rote.…”

The Impact of Formal Course Work on Teachers' and School Administrators' Perceptions of Supervision

“…From the data, we built Table I to summarise our findings related to the university subject: the detail of recall of the teaching process used in the university-based subject seems to support research (Duckworth, 1987;Crawford & Deer, 1993) which indicates that teachers are motivated to change when they are taught about their work using processes that not only reference the rhetoric, but are believable in terms of the way teachers view their work. The perceived quality of the context, the use of familiar language in the development of new theory and reflection on theory from experience and activity rather than expecting theory to inform practice, all affect the quality of the perceived outcomes.…”

Is GBL Good for Teachers? A Game for Teachers on How to Foster Students’ Self-Regulated Learning

“…In fact, although several studies have investigated GBL in combination with TPD, the above three reviews conclude unanimously that most of them are aimed at sensitizing or training teachers on the use of GBL in their classrooms (TPD on GBL) rather than using GBL to enhance the outcomes of teacher training (GBL for TPD). This finding is quite paradoxical because it suggests that, almost 20 years after [12] published their paper entitled "Do we practice what we preach? : putting policy into practice in teacher education" in teacher education and TPD, we are still not practicing what we preach, perhaps due to an implicit belief that GBL is not good for adults, let alone teachers.…”

“…Having said that, when training teachers on how to design their teaching activities so that they foster learners' SRL, an experiential approach is needed [48,49]. In other words, teacher training on SRL is yet another case where there are good reasons for trainers to "practise what they preach" [2,12] by adopting approaches where trainees are engaged in real-world tasks, in this case, in the design of learning activities for their students, and at the same time reflect on what they are learning. GBL is particularly suited to achieve this aim because it has been found to support reflection and SRL skills development [50,51].…”