This paper provides a critique of the performative assumptions of the teacher professional learning policy direction being adopted in Australia. Through international policy borrowing, the policy direction in Australia is similar to many other countries in that it encourages increasingly standardised teaching practice to afford a more quantitative…

In this article, we report on a small-scale study in which we investigated English-language teachers' engagement with educational research. We conceptualized engagement with research as reading and systematically using research for professional development. Using questionnaires and in-depth interviews, we gathered empirical materials from 40…

The context of the present paper is a school of professional development for teacher educators. One of the school's unique features is the employment of tutors/mentors, who are colleagues of their tutees in different study programmes. It has been established that many teacher educators enter the profession "accidentally," whether…

Innovative educational approaches for schooling require changes to the traditional teacher role towards operating as co-facilitators and co-learners, and working in teacher teams, with considerable professional learning supporting this. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been acknowledged as highly effective, with their characteristics…

Lesson demonstration within the context of school-based coaching can give teachers practical examples of a new curriculum in action, thereby reinforcing the key messages introduced in initial in-service training. At the same time, the demonstration needs to be sufficiently invitational so that teachers feel positively about the new programme and…

This study focuses on mathematics teachers' professional development through elements of Japanese lesson study. The teachers designed a research lesson with regard to sense-making of the derivative using the integration of GeoGebra. In the second year of the four-year lesson study project, seven secondary school teachers--from different Dutch…

This paper considers the implications of UK policy approaches to ICT (Information Communication Technology) in education by exploring the views of early years (0-8 years) educators about their ICT CPD (continuing professional development) needs. UK policy approaches to ICT may be visualised as a "house that Jack built." The policies are…

The main goal of the Learning and Teaching Geometry project is to build professional development materials that provide opportunities for teachers to learn about mathematical similarity through the use of videocases, in which specific and increasingly complex mathematical ideas are presented within the dynamics of classroom practice. The central…

This paper draws on a broader qualitative study of professional learning in schools of the Peoples of the Book (Christians, Jews and Muslims) in post-colonial Australia, addressing the role that the growing number of Australian faith-based schools play in shaping a just and inclusive Australian society. By reviewing material in the public domain,…

Successive governments in England have regarded classroom observation as an essential tool for monitoring and improving teacher performance. Despite its importance in national policy for teacher development, the impact of classroom observation on individual teachers, and on improving quality and standards in teaching and learning, remain…

This paper reports the outcomes of a "lesson study" project conducted in a mathematics department with four serving teachers in a secondary school in England. Using Dudley's lesson study framework and drawing on Hargreaves and Fullan's notion of professional capital, the feasibility and value of collaborative lesson study as a…

In order to contribute towards the construction of an empirically-grounded theory of effective continuing professional development (CPD), this paper seeks to develop a model of the effects of teachers' CPD or in-service education and training (INSET). It builds on an earlier typology of INSET outcomes and compares it to two previous…

Across the country of Ethiopia, a centrally planned and prescribed professional development programme was implemented in schools, with the intention of enhancing teachers' knowledge, skills and disposition, thereby improving student learning and achievement. This article explores and describes the lived experiences of teachers involved in…

Michael Fielding has written about the dangers of over-emphasis on the functional in schooling and a subordination of the personal. He wrote of, "… the need to situate our work within an historical context that requires judgement about matters of significance and purpose, not mere efficiency and effectiveness …" (Fielding 2007, p. 383).…

Health disparities related to food choices, nutrition behaviours and smoking habits in urban communities in the United States signal the importance of health education (HE) in schools, yet educators in urban communities face unique cultural challenges often unaddressed in professional development (PD). The purpose of this study was to use a…