Can mentoring and reflection cause change in teaching practice? A professional development journey of a Canadian teacher educator

Making just tenure and promotion decisions using the objective knowledge growth framework

“…The unintended consequences resulted in John and the FTPC decisions may also be harmful and farther-reaching (Popper, 1961, Sect. 20;Chitpin, 2013). There is no doubt that some decisions we make have less harmful consequences and solve more problems.…”

“…Indeed, there is more than one way in which a mismatch between expectation and outcome can be turned into a problem. However, the task of formulating problems is not straightforward or value-free (Chitpin, 2013;Chitpin and Evers, 2012;Swann, 2003Swann, , 2009. This is because of one's values and preferences or beliefs.…”

“…If it is not sufficiently precise, the process is mere soothsaying (Chitpin, 2013;Swann, 2009). The prediction needs also to be bold in the sense that it is not overly consistent with prior expectation(s).…”

“…Furthermore, we can adopt only one trial solution at a time to solve our identified problem, not to mention that there are many possible trial solutions to a problem and various ways in which we can respond to the identified problem. Even though we can 317 Promotion decisions using the OKGF adopt a number of solutions, we need to be aware that one or some are more successful than others (Chitpin, 2013;Chitpin and Simon, 2012): By utilizing this schema, we may adopt one trial solution at a time as we strive to resolve the identified problem.…”

A new lens for supporting and studying science teacher reflections: situating the self in the [activity] system

“…Indeed, while there is a lack of consensus in the literature on the meaning of reflection (Denton 2011), there is agreement evident in that literature that the practice of reflection is associated with recognizing and responding to a need for change (Chitpin 2011). In this paper, we will (1) describe a lens our research group has developed to track the potential sites for change found within the reflections of Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in secondary science candidates and (2) apply that lens to the analysis of reflection documents for two of those candidates to illustrate its utility in describing the way those sites were related to the systems in which the candidates operated.…”