A study of in-service teacher educator roles, with implications for a curriculum for their professional development

Abstract

Cataloged from PDF version of article.In-service educators have a crucial role to play in meeting the professional learning needs of teachers of the future, according to the Council of Europe’s ‘ET 2020’, although it is less clear what that role entails. This empirical study, undertaken in a university school of English language in Turkey, explores the everyday experience of a team of wholly school-based in-service educators and develops a model of their role based on an analysis of questionnaire, interview and focus group data. The results attest to the complexities of the in-service educator’s role, revealing them to be more than simply effective teachers. Catering for affective needs, coaching a broad range of clients, interpreting contextual variables and providing appropriate feedback represent some of the challenges in-service educators are facing in the research context, which set them apart and suggest important lessons for the development of an in-service educator training curriculum. © 2014, © 2014 Association for Teacher Education in Europe

Developing the developers: supporting and researching the learning of professional development facilitators

“…They also reflected on their embodiment as facilitators through their physical presence in the room, such as the use of humour or making eye contact. Their focus was on sharing and comparing strategies for particular facilitation scenarios; there was little interrogation into the choice of strategy or how different facilitator roles might be enacted, such as when it is appropriate to move from the role of expert or coach to that of listener or mentor (O'Dwyer & Atlı 2015). Even with this arguably superficial level of reflection, the change sequences we describe illustrate how these discussions led to changes and improvements in practice.…”

“…Facilitation therefore encompasses multifaceted layers of interaction drawing on the roles of listener, expert, critical friend, coach, mentor, as well as teacher and workshop leader (Krell & Dana 2012, O'Dwyer & Atlı 2015. PDFs must know when and how to deploy these roles (Higgins 2008, Elliott et al 2009, Stein et al 1999) in response to the Finally, in addition to knowledge and skills of teaching and facilitation, PDFs need to understand the professional learning of teachers who carry with them their own beliefs and experiences (Ince 2016).…”

“…For PDFs to be credible, they must have and be able to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject matter of the professional development activity, including subject specific pedagogical content knowledge (O'Dwyer & Atlı 2015).…”

“…In this study, we focus on practitioners of the latter, that is, those who design and facilitate teacher professional development activities. Although a number of recent studies recognise that teacher leadership often involves facilitation of professional development (Fleet et al 2015, Margolis 2012, Margolis & Deuel 2009, Fairman & Mackenzie 2014, there is limited research into the practice of professional development facilitators and therefore little knowledge of how to support them to learn, carry out and improve their roles (van Driel et al 2012, Lange & Meaney 2013, O'Dwyer & Atlı 2015.…”

İngilizce Öğretmenlerinin Mesleki Kimlik Açısından Öğretmen Yeterlikleri Hakkındaki Görüşleri

“…The importance of professional development and lifelong learning is regarded as a must for improving teacher quality. Roles of in-service trainers in Turkish MoNE were categorized as developing trust, active counseling, responding to practice, imparting knowledge and experience and establishing role identity (O'Dwyer & Atlı, 2014).…”