Coaching has been used increasingly in schools since 2000. This has been partly due to research showing that it is a more effective form of CPD (continuing professional development) for staff and also due to links made between coaching and school improvement. However, writers have found that there is a lack of research into the benefits of coaching and that much of the existing evidence base builds on hypothetical beliefs. The current study explored through a postal questionnaire the range of coaching being used in 10 urban mainstream secondary schools. All schools were found to be using at least one coaching activity, with specialist and co-coaching the most dominant types. Benefits of specialist and co-coaching were explored through interviews with six CPD co-ordinators and five staff who had been coached. The interviews were analysed through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to explore patterns in how the interviewees perceived coaching. Benefits were found of both coaching types at all three of the levels proposed in the study which were: individual personal! emotional; individual daily practice; and school-wide. It was found that the level of impact was influenced by the role and situation of the coachee (e.g. NOT, middle leader, teacher). How coaching in the schools was supporting the development of professional learning communities was also explored as school improvement literature indicates that developing a reflective and self-sustaining culture is paramount for schools wishing to improve. Specifically the ways in which coaching supported the four processes proposed by Bolam et al (2005) to help create, maintain and sustain a professional learning community were explored. Coaching was found to support all four processes in different ways. Therefore it has been concluded that coaching may be a useful tool for senior managers to consider with regard to school improvement as it can support both individual staff development and whole-school reculturing.

This dissertation is an exploratory study that examines teachers’ professional identities in the knowledge-based economy. It uses the UK as a case study. The dissertation theorises the research problem from a sociological viewpoint. First, it interrogates the concept of time in an educational context. It demonstrates that the organisation of time in schools can be complex, and is often used as a means of control. However, there can be misunderstandings between policymakers and teachers regarding the nature of this control. This leads to areas of conflict, and confusion about the role of teachers within society in general. Building on the idea that there appears to be a relationship between conceptions of time, and conceptions of social identity, the dissertation then explores the nature of professional identity. Traditionally, there has been little recognition of the wide range of social identities within the teaching profession. There has also been insufficient awareness of the changing role of vocation within teaching. This has had a negative effect on teacher recruitment and retention. There is then an account of the fieldwork phase of the research. Through the use of semi-structured interviews and an interactive survey, it has been possible to build up a picture of some views of education professional towards the future of their own profession. Three methods of data analysis have been used to explore this data. The dissertation concludes that the research participants painted a picture of a profession under siege, from a range of external bodies anxious to influence their professional practice. However, there are deeper issues to do with the role of youth within society. Rapid changes in teaching and learning patterns mean that many institutions are currently uncomfortable places for both pupils and teachers. Unless this is recognised, and changes to institutional structures made, there are grave implications for the future effectiveness of education delivery systems in the UK.

This study addresses the mathematics that student teachers bring to primary teacher education and examines how their mathematics might be developed. The study is conducted in three tiers. Tier One examines the mathematical knowledge for teaching of a cohort of second year B.Ed students using a self-audit designed for the purpose in the UK. Tier Two studies the actual teaching of mathematics of a sample of second year student teachers during their spring teaching placement. Tier Three describes a mathematics teacher development intervention in which six students chose to participate during their final year B.Ed programme. The intervention consisted of forming a Community of Practice dedicated to learning how to teach primary mathematics well. The Community of Practice adopted Japanese Lesson Study as a model for teacher development and three cycles of lesson study were pursued over the course of the study. In each cycle, student teacher participants prepared mathematics lessons collaboratively. Then, two students each taught a research lesson in different schools, observed by other students who studied children’s mathematical response to the research lesson. This experience was followed by a reflective meeting to analyse the lessons using the Knowledge Quartet framework as a means of focusing on different dimensions of the mathematical content of the lesson. I was party to the lesson study process as researcher and as Knowledgeable Other. Community members also interrogated their previous, possibly negative relationships with mathematics and engaged in doing mathematics as part of the lesson study enterprise. Indications are that participants in a community of practice where the members engage in lesson study results in enhanced mathematical content knowledge for teaching and the development of a mathematics teacher identity. To engage in Lesson Study is to learn mathematics for teaching.

This thesis examines the professional development of English as a foreign language teachers engaged in a teacher preparation programme of reflective teaching in a university in China. Situated in the context of the reforms of English language teaching and teacher education, this study focuses on how, if at all, reflective teaching contributes to Chinese university EFL teachers’ development in thinking about English language teaching and their own classroom practice. Adopting an interpretivist and constructivist epistemological paradigm, and drawing on key aspects of reflective teaching theory, the study reconceptualises EFL teachers’ professional development in reflective teaching practice at the group level and the individual level respectively. I investigate how the novice, developing and experienced teachers differed in their views about reflective practice; how the teachers’ thinking about English language teaching developed; how the teachers’ performance in EFL classroom practice developed; and how the teachers dealt with the changes during the period of the teacher education programme. The research design uses a research strategy of case study and action research, which generated a wide range of data from questionnaires, interviews, observations, reflective writings, and audio recordings. Analysis of the questionnaire data completed by 30 university EFL teachers at the university department reveals how the participant novice, developing and experienced teachers differed in their views about reflective practice in the following areas: focus of reflection, basic views about reflective teaching, use of strategies in reflective teaching, and engagement in action research. Analysis of the qualitative data focusing on 10 teachers from the sample indicates that the teachers’ understanding of pedagogical philosophy and aims of English teaching, of EFL pedagogy, of how students learn EFL, awareness of students’ needs and understanding of the role and image of the teacher were transformed through reflection when they were engaged in the reflective teaching process.

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