Volume 11, Number 1, 2010
Editorial
Kurt Clausen, Editor
Correspondance
None this Issue
Articles
Dereje Tadesse
Abstact
This study was prompted by experiential confrontation with prospective teachers’ opting for fending off effective reflection and harboring of silence, each of which debilitated developing adequate skills of planning appropriate lessons and presenting them meaningfully. Choosing a practitioner inquiry design formulated based upon works of Schön (1983, 1987) and Brookfield (1986, 1995), this study inquired into ways for effective reflection within the existing condition. Ten pre-service EFL student teachers were selected purposefully to take part in the study. Reflective journaling was employed both as a research method and strategy of reflection. The finding indicates that Schön’s theory of trainer-trainee collaborative reflection upon problematic materials of their situations is not only a robust explanatory theory but also practical and useful strategy of EFL reflective practicum.
Zuochen Zhang
Abstract
This paper describes how an online space has been used as a venue for action research in a teacher education program. The research context is a general methods course on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for elementary and secondary school teacher candidates in a teacher education program. This blended course used an online discussion forum to encourage teacher candidates to share with their peers as well as the instructor their experiences, needs and expectations of the course, their suggestions on modification, their observations of ICT availability and usage in their placement schools, and their reflections on learning experiences in the course. Teacher candidates’ inputs have been seriously taken into consideration to improve the design and delivery of the course.
Shelley Stagg Peterson
Abstract
This paper focuses on one teacher team and the university facilitators who supported their collaborative action research within a province-wide professional development initiative designed by the provincial elementary teacher union to bring together teachers and university faculty in teacher-directed action research. The paper is collaboratively written by three teachers, their principal, two university facilitators, and the teacher union’s director of the project. We identify the principal’s and university facilitators’ involvement as important contributors to the success of the initiative, but underline the significance of the research as being teacher-led and collaborative with funding for release days as features that follow the democratic principles of teacher autonomy and equality to support teachers’ professional learning for change.
Reviews
Announcements
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