MOFET ITEC - Theories & Approaches

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to test the factor structure of a recently developed Norwegian scale for measuring teacher self-efficacy, and (2) to explore relations between teachers' perception of the school context, teacher self-efficacy, collective teacher efficacy, teacher burnout, teacher job satisfaction, and teachers' beliefs that factors external to teaching puts limitations to what they can accomplish. Norwegian teachers in elementary school and middle school participated in this study.

This case study mapped candidates' responses to a pre-service literacy course. The course was designed with the intent of promoting critical reflection and complex understandings of literacy, teaching, and learning. As part of a broader qualitative case study including 71 participants over 8 months, this paper focuses on data gathered from 7 candidates. The analysis confirmed the effectiveness of certain conditions created in the course while pointing to a need for further attention to issues of power and the unconscious in learning to teach literacy.

Current models of initial teacher training (ITT) in England include substantial elements of school-based experience developed in collaborative partnerships with local schools involving university tutors working with experienced classroom teachers. This article focuses on a small-scale research project in which mentor and trainee dialogue is examined. Activity theory analysis was chosen as the methodological framework to be used to identify actions and changes in the organisation of teacher-education partnerships which sought to increase focus on pedagogical content knowledge as part of day-to-day reflection on trainees’ development in the school.

In this article, the authors present a study that investigated intercultural teaching through teachers’ collaborative conversations about critical intercultural incidents in schools. The research was conducted in Canada. The data were generated through Web-CT and face-to-face dialogues between preservice, inservice, and university teachers. Findings focus on teachers’ intercultural decision making and were organized into two subgroups: (a) decisions that tend to involve reflecting (minding) and (b) decisions that involve responding processes.