This study reports on how student teachers learn in the workplace. Data from 10 student teachers were collected by means of digital logs and in-depth interviews. By reconstructing data into stories ...and unravelling these stories, it became clear that the learning process of each student teacher was dominated by one specific theme, such as student-centred teaching or creating a positive learning climate. These themes could be typified as professional identity themes, because all appeared to be both personal and professional. Five student teachers experienced their workplace learning process as continuous: they integrated their teaching experiences relatively easily into their personal conceptual framework. The other five experienced their workplace learning process as discontinuous: they experienced tensions caused by frictions between personal and professional aspects of becoming a teacher. Both types of learning can stimulate and hinder student teachers' professional development. The findings indicate that reconstructing data into stories and unravelling these stories is a useful technique for understanding student teacher workplace learning as a result of the interaction between personal and professional aspects of becoming a teacher.
This article discusses measuring learning strategies by means of questionnaires. In ‘multi-method’ research, in which think-aloud measures are compared with questionnaires, low or moderate ...correlations are found. A conclusion often drawn is that learners are not able to verbally report on their learning activities. Alternative explanations concern two other possibilities: first, that different
learning strategies
may be measured by the two methods; second, that the measuring methods may be aimed at different
learning tasks.
Keeping these prerequisites in mind, we constructed a task-specific questionnaire directly based on a taxonomy for coding think-aloud protocols in text studying. We found a higher correlation (r=.51) between the questionnaire and think-aloud protocols than is regularly reported. A case-study, in which four students answered the questionnaire while thinking aloud, led to new insights into why a questionnaire may lead to somewhat different ratings of activities than the think-aloud method. Based on these results, task-specific questionnaires may be improved. Our studies involved a fair comparison between a questionnaire and think-aloud protocols. We cautiously conclude that if task-specific questionnaires are meticulously constructed and examined in new ways, they might become reasonably adequate alternatives for the labor-intensive think-aloud method in measuring learners’ learning strategies.
Teaching and assessing metacognitive activities are important educational objectives, and teachers are calling for efficient instruments. The advantages of questionnaires in measuring metacognitive ...activities are obvious, but serious validity issues appear. For example, correlations of questionnaire data with think-aloud measures are generally moderate to low. An explanation may be that these questionnaires are not constructed in line with the metacognitive activities measured by the think-aloud method. In the present study, a questionnaire is constructed based directly on a taxonomy for coding think-aloud protocols. Twenty ninth-graders studied a text while thinking aloud, after which they immediately received the questionnaire. The overall correlation between the questionnaire and the think-aloud protocols (r=0.63) was promising. However, scale and item analyses clearly demonstrate some new validity issues. Comparing the questionnaire and the think-aloud results, the students seem to report overt metacognitive activities corresponding more with their behavior reported in the protocols than covert ones. In-depth explorations are presented.
Students ask historical questions when they are engaged in historical reasoning and trying to understand a particular historical phenomenon. Student questioning can be regarded as the engine and a ...destination of historical reasoning. This study is aimed at deeper insight into thinking processes underlying students’ historical questions using a general model of questioning and a domain-specific model of historical reasoning. Thirty-three secondary school students were instructed to read a text and underline striking text segments. At the point of underlining, students were asked to verbalize their thoughts. In our protocol analysis we focused on the questions students spontaneously asked while verbalizing their prior knowledge, reasoning, and feelings. It appeared that in half of the 251 analyzed fragments (episodes) students verbalized an extent of historical reasoning and expressed feelings. Questions were mostly asked when students expressed a knowledge deficit, but spontaneous questions were also present in episodes with historical reasoning and episodes with affective responses. All components, activating prior knowledge, realizing a knowledge deficit, historical reasoning and experiencing affective thoughts, help students to ask their questions and help them to process the introduction into a historical topic.
This study reports on a systematic review of what, how, and why teacher educators learn. For this purpose, seventy-five research articles were analyzed. Results show that research on teacher ...educators' professional learning appears to be a growing field of interest but fragmented in focus. Our review indicates: (a) there is no clear knowledge base essential for teacher educators' work, (b) teacher educators undertake different activities from which to learn, and (c) they generally experience the need to learn to do their work as teacher educators. Our study may contribute to understanding and supporting teacher educators' professional learning during their career.
•Research on teacher educators' professional learning remains fragmented in focus.•A clear knowledge base essential for the work of teacher educators is lacking.•Teacher educators learn from different kinds of learning activities.•Teacher educators feel both intrinsic and extrinsic needs to learn.•Our study contributes to developing a professional development program for teacher educators.
Developing a professional identity is a key element of the transition into the teaching profession.
Limited research exists on professional development activities and ideas that support beginning
...teachers’ development of their professional identity in practice. For this study teachers
participated in an induction programme that focused on beginning teachers’ professional
identity. This study reports on the development and testing of three online professional identity
assignments with 46 beginning teachers from 11 secondary schools. These assignments
were based on research findings regarding the influence of ‘significant others’ and ‘stories to
live by’ on teachers’ professional identity development. Analysis of the results reveals that
the assignments each provide valuable input for doing identity work with beginning teachers
in view of their further professional development. It can be concluded that the assignments
we developed are useful for beginning teachers to reflect on and make sense of who they are
and want to become.
This study focuses on the complexity and uniqueness of 45 beginning teachers' professional identity, an important perspective that is usually not an explicit part of induction programmes. Data were ...collected in four workshops designed to support beginning teachers in reflecting on personal and contextual aspects that influence (the development of) their professional identity. Based on these reflections, portraits of each teacher were constructed. Five overarching identity themes emerged from these portraits: Classroom management, Students learning, Workload, Collaboration and Standing up for oneself. All themes were visualised into a configuration consisting of personal and contextual aspects, arranged according to three foci: focus on oneself, on students, and on team/organisation. The configurations differ in their magnitude but do justice to the unique and complex nature of each teacher. Constructing configurations is a promising way for understanding what really matters in beginning teachers' professional identity development and helping them deepen their reflection.
This survey study explores how teacher educators perceive relevant aspects of professional learning in their practice. These aspects were considered as important by teacher educators in a previous ...review study. A total of 583 Dutch and Chinese teacher educators completed a digital questionnaire regarding the content of teacher educators' learning, their learning activities, and reasons for learning. Most teacher educators perceived all professional learning aspects as relevant for their practice. The professional learning scales showed correlations with several background variables, such as educational degree and how teacher educators perceive their identity in the teacher education institutes. When comparing Dutch and Chinese teacher educators, significant differences were only found in their perceptions of research-related scales and the scale "getting input from others". It can be concluded that all aspects are essential for learning and functioning. The differences between Dutch and Chinese teacher educators were related to the contexts in which they work.
Recently, research considering SRL among primary school students has increased since it has been acknowledged that even young students can regulate their learning. However, in-depth and longitudinal ...information regarding upper primary school children's SRL is still lacking, especially of students at risk of school failure. Through a longitudinal multiple case study eight at-risk students were followed during two successive school years by using think-aloud protocols (six measurement occasions). The results confirm that at-risk upper primary students do engage in SRL, however on a rather superficial level. Moreover, their strategy use remained rather stable over time. Furthermore, differential results in the Sudoku and text studying task confirm that SRL can vary across tasks and domains. Regarding the assessment of SRL, the current study illustrates that think-aloud protocols are valuable tools to provide in-depth information, while also indicating the need for a multi-method design, especially in order to grasp motivational aspects of SRL.
•At-risk upper primary students engage in SRL, but on a rather superficial level.•Strategy use remained rather stable across six measurement occasions.•SRL is highly individual.•Results confirm that SRL can vary across tasks and domains.
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