This paper reports on findings from an exploratory study carried out in Portugal and Sweden, concerning student teacher recruitment to Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes. It addresses issues such as the motivations and expectations of the student teachers regarding the teaching profession. Drawing upon existing related literature, a questionnaire was designed and sent to student teachers in Portugal and in Sweden. In total, 112 and 157 student teachers participated in the study, respectively. Data suggest a given profile of a student teacher making it possible to analyse some of key characteristics in both countries. The comparison between countries in combination with suggestions and recommendations from student teachers indicate that the recruitment process may be supported if the information about the design, content and the aims of ITE programmes are clarified and made explicit.
This paper presents and discusses findings from a European project concerning strengthening the teacher's voice in defining professional quality. In the project tools were developed and evaluated to help teachers reflect on their professional quality. Twelve countries participated and twelve tools were tested with help of student teachers, teachers, teacher educators, school leaders and policy makers. Evaluations were completed by the tool testers and the test leaders through questionnaires and, in the case of the tool designers, through reflective journals on their experiences. Findings showed that the tool design was a success in aiding professional development via discussion about teacher quality amongst the participants. Even though the result was mainly positive, findings also showed that the tools can be further developed. Overall, the findings demonstrate that there are other ways of encouraging teachers to consider what constitutes good quality in teaching rather than imposing external standards.
The aim with this study is to highlight the role of administrators and present and discuss their communication efforts during change. The changes in question concerned restructuring of a partnership between a university and organisers of preschool to upper secondary, K-12, within Initial Teacher Education. Findings from interviews with operative administrators showed that there was successful communication effort and re-organisation was carried out. In contrast, the communication efforts offered an arena for unresolved issues concerning the partnership, the communication efforts were directed to a higher degree to external rather than internal stakeholders, and the national sense-making differed from the local sense-making. The study shows the importance of the administrator role in communication efforts during change in higher education partnerships. In their role they balance between keeping legally mandated structure and change. The conclusion is that it is essential to further study the role of administrators, especially communication efforts during change.
The aim with this study is to increase our knowledge about the relation between structures of governance and local initiatives by professionals. Based on theory of professional agency, staff from different levels in an organization offering preschool were asked about follow up systems and possibility of professional agency. The result showed that the national curricula for preschool and the Education Act created a situation where the curriculum was perceived as a foundation for equally good “educare”, but at the same time every “level” created a variety of additional follow-up activities. The conclusion is that a national governance by objectives and results creates a situation where local authorities and organizers, as well as professionals, to a certain extent, can re-create follow up systems and activities which suits their administrative and most of all, pedagogic needs. The “cost” for this local and professional agency is that the additional several follow up systems/activities increases the administrative burden for the staff.
Pedagogic practice often involves preparing the student for different roles in society as well as personal development. The aim of the thesis is to investigate how the concept citizen is understood by single individuals and is shaped in pedagogic practice. Its theoretical starting points are taken from sociological theories about society and from theories about education. It is primarily Jürgen Habermas’ theories about society and communication that provide the framework for this investigation and discussion. Even the criticism which Habermas has received is presented and discussed. Society is presented as divided in a private and a public sphere where the individual fulfils the role as a citizen by acting in the public sphere. Four empirical studies are carried out; interviews with single individuals, observations at a folk high school, observations in study associations and analysis of reports from European projects where folk high schools and study associations participated. The public sphere that is most apparent is an every day, local public sphere where single individuals and participants in folk high school and study associations discuss common matters. In the discussion there are few references to public political discussions on national or international level. Assuming that citizen is defined broader than as a relation between the individual and the state, the study presents and discusses a variety of ways to act as a citizen within and outside pedagogic practice, and also the obstacles. The thesis provides arguments for a discussion about the concept citizen and citizen action within pedagogic practice. There are also arguments for independent citizen actions outside the pedagogic context. Thereby the citizen action can be brought back to the pedagogic discussion for reflection.
The background to the study is increased demands for skills in mentoring as one possibility to increase quality in ITE. A way to achieve the goal is professional development for mentors, but few studies are carried out to study such courses. As a case study, a formal course for mentors offered at university is presented and critically discussed. The central content in the course was theories about learning and mentoring and formulating an individual practical professional theory (PPT). The content aligns well with earlier research about mentoring and the mentors gave mainly positive comments about the content of the course and the form. What they questioned was the academic level approach when lectures were not relevant and academic writing became a problematic issue. In addition, the pre-requisites for participating in the course varied too much. A proposition is that design of course for mentors needs to have clarity about its aims, form and pre-requisites for participants, not to create expectations among stakeholders, which cannot be fulfilled.
Förändringar på alla nivåer i skolsystemet är vad som krävs för att motverka de fallande resultaten för svenska elever i Pisa-mätningarna. Det är slutsatsen i den rapport som OECD (2015) har skrivit angående den svenska grundskolan. Här finns förslag till organisationsförändring på nationell nivå, en omstrukturering av professionsutvecklingen och ett tydligare ansvarsutkrävande från nationell nivå till lärare i klassrum där uppföljning och utvärdering förstärks för att stärka elevers måluppfyllelse. Skolledarens roll och ansvar som pedagogisk ledare uppmärksammas också.
The background of the study is a perceived need of increasing quality in practice during Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Sweden. In order to achieve higher quality, the government encourages reorganization towards a limited number of practice schools, competence development for supervisors and research focusing on the selected practice schools. The aim of this study is to present and critically discuss prerequisites for implementation of the reform. The paper focuses on how a preliminary logic model and a SWOT analysis can show challenges encountered during the implementation of the reorganization. By using the logic model and the SWOT analysis an ex-ante evaluation was carried out in two steps. The results disclosed that the motivation behind reorganization, improving the quality of practicum, might meet some challenges. Indicators of higher quality being attained are not provided; the local organization is expected to construct such indicators during the process. In contrast to the challenges the results showed that the implementation was supported by earlier good relations and a common idea of developing practicum in ITE. The implication for implementation is a need to have a dialogue about indicators for quality among different stakeholders in ITE. Without such a dialogue it can be disputed whether the change in practicum was successful.
Review of: Perspectives on learning cities and regions: Policy, practice and participation, by Norman Longworth and Michael Osborne (Eds.), Leicester: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, NIACE, 2010, 362 pp., ISBN 978-1-86201-448-0
This article present and discuss school leader´s perception of a trial with practices schools during Initial Teacher Education in Sweden. The change was initiated from a national level and resulted in fewer partnership schools, increased amount of student teachers at each school, and mentors with a mentor education. As school leaders are responsible for everyday activities in school, also changes in the practicum organization become a question. The school leaders acknowledged the need of receiving student teachers from a recruitment point of view, but also because it created a possibility to have dialogues between schools and the University concerning Initial Teacher Education. The information from the University about the trial with practice schools was enough and in time, but there were also issues to be clarified. Some old problems prevailed, like lack of information of students arriving and difference between practice courses and short field studies during subject courses. Problems related to the trial were new concepts, concern about too few mentors, large groups of student teachers at schools and unclear roles and responsibilities between school and university. A conclusion is that in comparison with national and local steering directives for school leaders concerning different school forms, steering directives for Initial Teacher Education has been less acknowledged and critically discussed. A whole school approach, where the school leader role and contribution is clarified is an issue to be further explored.
After spending years in school themselves, student teachers enter a new situation: they have earned their degree and are ready to apply for a teaching job. Earlier research shows that information about the transition to working life during Initial Teacher Education (ITE) varies, including whether an induction programme can be expected for the new teacher. The induction period can be perceived as bridging the transition into working life and supporting a professional identity. Extensive research on the induction period shows that the organisation and results of these programmes vary among countries. Based on results from induction programmes and earlier studies of transition from education a question is raised about possibilities to further develop research on how the transition from ITE to in-service is carried out, including the time when student teachers are ending ITE. The research question concerns what the crucial components are during the transition from ITE to working life. Different induction models are presented, based on which an additional model is presented including individual and organisational components during the last term in ITE. The chapter ends with a critical discussion concerning structured transition from ITE to working life.
The aim of the paper is to increase our knowledge of the transition from being a classroom teacher to becoming a Teacher Educator in a university-based Teacher Education program. The data collection consists of interviews with teachers from compulsory school who have some years of experience being Teacher Educators. Just as earlier results show, the Teacher Educators felt comfortable with their previous teaching experience and sought credibility as teachers. However, in contrast to earlier studies the Teacher Educators did not find the transition troublesome in general, even if they had suggestions for improvement of the support given. All perceived that they were engaged in their own learning, mainly through self-study and seminars, not through their own research. Their self-understanding is focusing on being a teacher and is to a less degree completed with any activity or thought of research. The conclusion is that a group of Teacher Educators may not develop a complementary self-understanding including research. Neither this study nor earlier studies show that sufficient time during the recruitment process or in-service of Teacher Educators is used to discuss the balance between teaching and research.
Depending on the national context school principals are more or less used to continuous development. The initiative for development can come from different sectors such as professional organizations or research studies, or different levels such as national or local initiatives. In Sweden several initiatives for development of teaching have been initiated since 2010, due to lower test results in mathematics (PISA and TIMMS) and based on research. Therefore, an increase in teaching hours for mathematics in compulsory school was decided on a national level in 2012. The aim of the study is to present and discuss how principals coped with this change. As the change mostly concerned grades 1–3 (primary school pupils age 7–9), principals responsible for this level were interviewed and also answered an e-mail questionnaire. The findings show that the principals gave priority to organizational changes. All schedules for teachers, for pupils, sometimes for recreational instructors and even for school buses had to be revised. Continuing education in mathematics for the teachers was also promoted by the principals. All changes were accepted by principals, staff and parents. In contrast, few pedagogical issues were otherwise brought up and the follow-up to the change was not systematic. The different levels in a steering chain show that all levels trust that the next level, or the level above, should carry out their duty concerning organization. On the other hand, the entire national initiative with time allocation and continuing education can be perceived as distrust in how the local level and professionals have handled the development of teaching math.
The expectations placed on practice teaching in initial teacher education are high. During practice, student teachers should combine theory with practice, make themselves familiar with multicultural classrooms in general, and become aware of different factors that affect learning and teaching. The aim of this study is to increase our knowledge about how work is carried out within practicum placements to help student teachers to understand differing cultural and socioeconomic characteristics of educational settings as a basis for discussing social justice. Staff at practice schools, the practicum team at a university and student teachers were asked about their definitions of different factors that condition learning and teaching, and routines for visiting preschools characterized by different educational conditions. Staff at practice school and university gave examples of different factors, but there was a general lack of organized work with this issue, such as visiting different preschools and holding discussions afterwards. This was confirmed by student teachers, few of whom had visited other preschools and had subsequent discussions. Instead some had experienced variation in work routines, children with special needs and multilingual groups in different sections of their own unit. Experiencing educational environments with different cultural and socioeconomic conditions was considered valuable by the student teachers but was not always given priority. It is concluded that individual variations and needs are understood and formulated by staff and student teachers, but less attention is given to how group belongings and structural frameworks such as socioeconomics are affecting social justice.
Practice in Initial Teacher Education is an ongoing discussion with proponents for a
mainly university-based ITE and a mainly school-based ITE. Another focus of discussion in
constant change is how to organize practicums (i.e., student teaching). A national initiative was taken in Sweden during 2014 aiming to increase quality of practicums. The changes include fewer schools, increased expectation of competence development for mentors, and closer cooperation between practice schools and university concerning development. The aim of this article is to increase knowledge about implementation of the change in the organization of practicums. The data collection consists of responses from administrators working with the reorganization regarding a suggested timeline, a logic model and a SWOT analysis. The results revealed that a static conception of implementation can be disputed as there is a turnover of schools and thereby mentors. The quality issue is also a matter of continued exploration such as in how the change affects the balance between skills in how to teach and the knowledge and skills needed for reflection and critical discussion.
This study aims to increase our knowledge about how the main ideas in a national educational project concerning mathematics are implemented into ordinary activities. The original model included having a leadership form in common that involves local politicians, municipality administration, school leaders and teachers; creating joint routines; andadopting a common perspective that places high expectations on all pupils. In contrast to the original project, which was only for compulsory school, the selected local organizer engaged with preschool, compulsory school and upper-secondary school. The idea of having a common theme running throughout all school forms functioned for preschool and compulsory school but was hampered by the variety of choices of programs in upper-secondary school. The common perspective hat high expectations should be placed on all pupils was accepted, but it was difficult to reach a common understanding of the concept, and there were continuous discussions of what it meant in practice. Results from this exploratory study suggest that the local organizers created organizational ownership in different ways. However, a challenge was posed by the conceptual, didactic ownership of placing high expectations on the pupils. There were no problems with grasping the general idea, but during discussion it was difficult to reach a useful and relevant joint understanding of the concept. When a didactic perspective is included in a national change initiative, personnel in the education system need to translate the national perception, if any, into local terms.
A revised curriculum in Sweden is currently presented as a part of a lifelong learning. The intention is clear; work at preschool has to focus on knowledge. The National Agency for Education, NAE, shall support the implementation of the revised curriculum and this support is evaluated. As part of the evaluation a selection of managers in public and private preschools were interviewed. Among the questions were how they perceive the support, if the implementation has started, what consequences the implementation has and what obstacles there are for a successful implementation. A deeper reading of the results was used to trace if any side effects could be found in the answers. Further on the results were also to discuss whether the evaluation in itself could cause any side effects. The discussion is based upon earlier research and discussions concerning ethics, role of evaluator and Guiding Principles for Evaluators from AEA.
During 2011 several national reforms are implemented in Sweden, among them new curriculum fo rcompulsory school. To support the implementation the National Agency for Education is organizing conferences and producing information material, among other things. There are several target groups for the support, among them responsible authorities, such as private responsible authorities and public responsible authorities (municipalities, the state). How the support received and what is the further need for carrying out the implementation successfully? Has the implementation started? Arethere certain persons selected to work with the implementation at a local level? These were questions included in a questionnaire during spring 2011 to private responsible authorities and public responsible authorities. The result showed that support such as conference with information about reforms and information brochures were perceived as positive support and that the National Agency for Education had clarified different responsibility levels. Everything is not positive, for an example some written documents were late and still not produced autumn 2011 and the website is not easy touse. The implementation process has started according to most of the responsible authorities, some started as early as 2009, most of them autumn 2010. Some difficulties in the implementation process were mentioned, such as for example lack of time, some documents are or were late and other reorganizations also takes time. On the contrary, most of the staff is interested and a rewriting of curricula was perceived as needed. The conclusion is that the support from the National Agency for Education has been well organized and that the responsible authorities are positive to the support.The way the support is organized is suggesting that the National Agency for Education is using a model where the responsible authorities are but one part in a chain where other actors are going to continue. Further studies will explore whether the model is possible to describe the ongoing implementation.
When designing and working in an educational learning situation in higher education, the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is often a basic requirement. The aim of this study is to increase our knowledge about responses to expectations of using ICT in higher education settings. Data collection was carried out to investigate responses on different levels at one university in Sweden. The result showed responses from different levels, from the central level to the internal workshop level. Based on the results, even though limited, the conclusion is that there is an active response, but workshops and courses offered were, until recently, more technology focused than learner focused. A shift in didactical approach has led to an increased teacher-driven and learner-centred approach.
The aim of this article is to describe how field studies can be useful in teacher education. While participating in a specialty area called Play, learning and development, student teachers collected data about their own and young children's experience and perception of the outdoor environment. They observed, carried out interviews from a questionnaire, took photos, and drew pictures. After their own data collection, they were asked about their experiences of using these methods. The results showed that the student teachers were positive about the involvement of children, teachers, and parents in the data collection process. They also perceived that their knowledge had increased about children's ways of using the outdoor space. They did, however, find the questionnaire difficult to understand; and they thought it was hard to complete the assignment because of the time restraints. The authors conclude that field studies with varied methods are useful in teacher education. The way data were collected added to the student teachers' knowledge about children's outdoor environments and gave young children a chance to be involved.
A review of articles published in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, over the last eight years (2006–2013) on assessment in higher education, since the introduction of the Bologna process, is the subject of the paper. The first part discusses the key issue of assessment in higher education and the method used for selecting articles. The second part presents results according to the main emerging themes arising from data analysis: assessment methods, modes of assessment and assessment related to a given teaching and learning method. The paper concludes that the foci of the studies are aligned with assessment practices other than the written test, in accordance with a learner-oriented perspective. Although the implementation of the Bologna process has had different kinds of impact in different European countries, the review shows that the use and effects of a diversity of assessment methods in higher education have been investigated, particularly those pointing to the so-called alternative methods. Implications of the findings are discussed.
This paper aims at investigating students’ perceptions about assessment, especially the ways in which it is put into practice. Data were collected through questionnaires in different programmes in Portugal and Sweden. In total, 173 students from Portugal and 72 from Sweden participated in the study. Findings showed that students had similar ideas about assessment, such as verification of knowledge and learning, tests and grades. Their experiences of assessment methods used varied in the two countries, which can partly be explained by differences in national education systems. A learner-oriented perspective is prominent in the use of assessment methods, but at the same time student influence on assessment is perceived as low in both countries. Implications of the findings are analysed, namely issues regarding a learner-oriented perspective and the effectiveness, influence, trust, times and methods of assessment.