An exploration of teacher learning during initial teacher educationthrough reflection from a sociocultural and dialogical perspective: Professional dialogue or professional monologue?This study investigated how student teachers on a Scottish teacher education programme learn by reflecting on professional dialogue experiences. Reflection on one's own experiences and practices is at the heart of all activities that teachers do. By linking professional dialogue with reflective practices, we examined factors that contribute to students' general approaches to professional learning on the programme and the way in which meaning is co-constructed and negotiated in professional dialogue. The results showed that the thought, discourse and social-affective dimensions of professional dialogue are interrelated. Furthermore, both student teachers' personal background and the learning context may be related to their approaches to professional learning. In addition, students'their reflection tended to be descriptive with little or no consideration of the underlying educational issues or theories. Moreover, there was a tendency for one speaker to dominate professional dialogue or rather 'professional monologue'. Therefore, we argue that there is a need for teacher education institutions to develop student teachers' awareness of the value of professional dialogue and of the dialogic space it creates which helps realise its potential as a tool for transforming professional learning.
Her research interests span education policy, education reform and professional learning. She draws on network ethnographic methods in order to uncover policy processes, with a particular focus on the representation of teacher voice. Her current research explores the rise of evidence-based practice in Scotland, England and Germany and the politicisation of teacher research. She is a Co-Investigator on the Scottish Government funded MQuITE project.Dr Paul Adams' work is primarily concerned with theoretical expositions on education policy. He has published widely in the areas of English and Scottish education policy, in particular when applied to pedagogy and on heuristic proposals for an understanding of policy processes and research. His work uses theoretical positions such as Positioning Theory, and philosophy to examine the ways in which policy might be better understood as an essentially intersubjective experience. He is currently Co-Principal Investigator on the Scottish Government funded MQuITE project.
Placement, the part of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) involving Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) working in school, is a marked feature of ITE programmes that involve Higher Education Institution (HEI) input. In Scotland, placement is a feature of ITE, forms a major plank of the assessment of teaching quality and occurs in partnership arrangements between HEIs, schools and other organisations. As part of the Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE) research project, HEI-staff in the nine Scottish institutions offering ITE were surveyed for their views on a range of ITE matters. This paper discusses 150 respondents' answers regarding placement within current partnership arrangements. Using positioning theory (cf. Harré, 2004) as the frame for thematic analysis, data highlighted concerns, but significant desire for continuing development of partnership as a mechanism to develop PSTs. The paper has international implications for systems that utilise placement within a standards-based approach to ITE partnership.
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