Teacher Professional Development in Changing Conditions
Contributors: Douwe Beijaard (Editor); Pauline C. Meijer (Editor); Greta Morine-Dershimer (Editor); Tillema Harm (Editor)
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Springer
Published: August 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 369
ISBN-13: 9781402037009
Subjects: Research; Education; Education / Teaching; General; Professional Development; Education / General; In-service training; Study and teaching; Teachers; Training of
Description: This book presents some highlights from the deliberations of the 2003 conference of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT). Part 1 presents the five keynote addresses of the conference, while Parts 2 through 4 present selected papers related to each of three sub-themes: knowledge construction and learning to teach, perspectives on teachers’ personal and professional lives, and teachers’ workplace as context for learning. The chapters in this book provide an array of approaches to understanding the process of teacher learning within the current context of the changing workplace environment. They also provide an important international perspective on the complex issues revolving around the international educational reform movement. Basically, they show how teachers’ workplace (inside and outside schools) are more than ever subject to continuous change and that, subsequently, standards for teaching must be flexible to these changing conditions. This asks for a redefinition of teacher professionalism in which the role of context in teacher learning is emphasized as well as the improvement of the quality of teacher thinking and learning. Related to the ever-changing context of teaching, a dynamic approach to teaching and teacher learning is required, in which identity development is crucial. Researchers have an important role to play in revealing and explaining how teachers can build their professional identity, through self-awareness and reflection, in the ever-changing educational contexts throughout the world.