In-service Education of Teacher Educators: A National Survey

Rush, Gary S.; Wood, Judy W.

doi:10.1080/01626620.1982.10519108

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…On the other hand, teacher educators may become knowledgeable about the subjects they teach and other areas of the curiculum through individual studies pursued outside the framework of formal graduate studies, or through in-service training. But only about half of the teacher educators in one survey had the opportunity to participate in institution-sponsored inservice activities (Rush and Wood, 1982). Seventy-five percent of the teacher educators in the same study indicated a personal desire for inservice training in order to update knowledge and skills or to gain additional knowledge.…”

Section: Professional Characteristics and Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 97%

The teacher educator's experience: case studies of practical professional knowledge

John

2002

Teaching and Teacher Education

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This exploratory study is an attempt to provide some evidence relating to the experiences, assumptions, practical knowledge and expertise that teacher educators hold and use. It aspires to present an illuminative view of some of the roles they fulfil, and tries to capture the sorts of knowledge and understandings that underpins their work with student teachers. Five PGCE tutors from the School of Education at the University of Bristol were the key units of analysis. The investigation harnessed a qualitative methodology in order to answer four key research questions: to what extent has the teacher educator's past experience shaped their practical professional knowledge? How and in what ways do they describe their experiences in teacher education? What is the nature and character of the knowledge they hold and use? How do they use their knowledge in the context of their subject work? The five detailed person-in-context case studies and the resulting cross-case thematic analysis reveal the tutors' knowledge to be characterised by seven key themes: intentionality; practicality; subject specificity; ethicality; generativity; efficacy and ambiguity. Furthermore, the investigation shows the knowledge of tutors to be deeply biographical, intensely practical and distinctive in a number of ways. Initially, they bring to their work considerable craft wisdom derived from their time as school teachers; this knowledge is added to by the experience of working in higher education thus creating new forms of knowledge, in particular, knowledge of student teachers as professional learners, knowledge of teacher education pedagogy and knowledge of a wide range of professional contexts. This practical professional knowledge is put to use in the training of teachers in a number of ways: first, they select and provide a range of purposeful activities that enable students to focus on various aspects of practice. Second, these activities are carried out in an environment which is flexible, independent, safe and comfortable. Third, they engage their students in collaborative, carefully focussed, inquiry-oriented tasks aimed at reconceptualising their implicit theories about their subjects, teaching and learning to teach. Fourth, they offer their students the modelling of reasoned practice, substantively in terms of suggestions for practice, and stylistically through their own engagement with the teaching process. Finally, the tutors engage their students in tasks that attempt to transform their knowledge and understanding as well as inculcating professional reflection, practical inquiry and a professional vocabulary. Author's note A number of the chapters in this study are based on previously published work but significantly revised in the light of the writing of this dissertation. They also represent the progressive development of my thinking over a number of years. The introduction and conclusion are partly based on Teacher education: the prime suspect, in The Oxford Review of Education,

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Section: Professional Characteristics and Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 97%

The teacher educator's experience: case studies of practical professional knowledge

John

2002

Teaching and Teacher Education

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“…Studies cited in this paper, for instance, suggest that more productive colleagial relationships among teacher educators may be desirable (Carter, 1981;Myers and Mager, 1980), that many teacher educators feel they could benefit from staff development opportunities (Rush and Wood, 1982), and that teacher educators need to expand their range of instructional strategies to include recent developments in teacher education (Katz and Raths, 1982;. While a body of knowledge about teacher educators is beginning to emerge, further research is needed.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…According to Carter (1981), all of the teacher educators in her survey had public school teaching experience of reasonable length and at levels appropriate for their subsequent teaching assignments as teacher educators. Rush and Wood (1982) reported a lesser amount of teaching experience for the teacher educators in their survey : a mean of 2.74 years ofK-12 classroom teaching. On the basis of these studies, it seems reasonable to conclude that most teacher educators have an adequate amount of public school teaching experience.…”

Section: Level Of Interest In Teachingmentioning

confidence: 88%

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A Synthesis of Research on the Characteristics of Teacher Educators

Troyer

1986

Journal of Teacher Education

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Although teacher educators have not been the focus of extensive research efforts, a body of knowledge about them is beginning to emerge. Troyer summarizes the research conducted during the past two decades that focuses on teacher educators and suggests areas in need of additional study. he quality of any teacher education program is at least partially dependent on the quality of its professoriatethe men and women who develop, implement, and evaluate programs of teacher education. For a variety of reasons, however, teacher educators have not been the focus of much research on teacher education. Perhaps we are fearful that common criticisms of teacher educators will be substantiated, or that additional criticism will be forthcoming as a result of new fndings. Perhaps we are hesitant to consign a complex and divergent population with whom we identify so closely to the few lines of simplistic findings that may result from some research efforts or, perhaps we perceive research on teacher educators as less salient than other lines of educational inquiry. Cruicl~shank (1984) articulated reasons for the dearth of research on teacher education in general. These reasons would seem to apply to the lack of research on teacher educators as well. The importunate state of inquiry can be attributed to a number of causes including : the culture of teacher education that, to a large extent, is based upon professional wisdom, common sense, and commitments ; lack of aptitude for or training in inquiry by teacher educators; absence of time, support, and reward for inquiry; the promotion of inquirers into unrelated positions; the near absence of vehicles that encourage and transmit scholarly knowledge ; the commonly held belief that teacher education is too complex a phenomenon to be successfully studied; and perhaps most notably the absence of paradigmatic communities of teacher education researchers. (p. 45) Whatever the reasons, research on teacher educators appears limited not only in comparison to other lines of inquiry in teacher education, but also in comparison to research on the professoriate in general. Finkelstein (1984), WII ,=.;B1: for example, identified over 300 systematic, explanatory, empirical studies of college and university faculty since 1942, in addition to hundreds of purely descriptive and demographic studies.The far more limited number of studies on teacher educators may be due in part to the relatively recent emergence of teacher preparation as a function of colleges and universities.

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“…Yarger, Howey and Joyce (1977), in the study described earlier in this review, could claim that their research indicated strong support for a variety of curricular configurations including student counseling, and program development in the areas of multicultural education and educating poor children. In the study by Rush and Woods (1982), using a nationally derived random sample of responses to a questionnaire, it was found that inservice training was seen as necessary by the m ajority of teacher educators and conferences and release time for independent study were the preferred methods. Stark (1986) drew on the results from a review of nearly 3000 journal articles in 12 professional fields and survey responses from 2,230 professional-field faculty in 732 entry-level programs in 346 colleges.…”

Section: Role (Job) Dissatisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Professional Self-Esteem of Teacher Educators

Reynolds

1995

Journal of Teacher Education

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This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer.The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. O rd er N u m b e r 9227363 T h e p rofession al self-esteem o f teach er ed u ca to rs. (V olum es I a n d II)

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In-service Education of Teacher Educators: A National Survey

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

The teacher educator's experience: case studies of practical professional knowledge

The teacher educator's experience: case studies of practical professional knowledge

A Synthesis of Research on the Characteristics of Teacher Educators

The Professional Self-Esteem of Teacher Educators

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