This study explores the influence of mentor teachers in the meanings and practices that two elementary preservice teachers adopted about eliciting and using student ideas, while learning to teach science in the university science methods course and in the field placement classroom. Prior research on teacher development has shown that the high-leverage practice of eliciting and using student ideas can support preservice teachers in thinking about common problems of practice. I used four core problems of practice to examine the meanings and practices that preservice teachers adopted in eliciting and using student ideas as they planned, enacted and reflected on methods course assignments in the field placement classroom. Using sociocultural and situative perspectives on learning, I identified two factors that influenced the sense that preservice teachers constructed and the practices that they adopted about eliciting and using student ideas. These factors were mentor teacher's perspectives on learning and goals for student learning. I also examined three mechanisms by which mentor teacher's perspectives and goals influenced preservice teacher meanings and practices about eliciting and using student ideas in instruction, including mentor teacher's classroom practice, the nature and foci of mentor teacher and preservice teacher conversations and mentor teacher's use of preservice teachers' ideas in their conversations about instruction. The results suggest that preservice teachers come to make sense of and use student ideas in their instruction in ways that closely align with those of their mentors. They also indicate that preservice teachers' integration of experiences from different learning-to-teach contexts in making sense of student ideas may be related to the degree of alignment between mentor teachers' perspectives and goals and the perspectives and goals of the science methods course.

This study examines what and how classroom teachers and a music specialist learn on their own, with each other, and with their students when they engage in collaborative, multimodal teaching and learning experiences. Through excerpts from interviews, planning sessions, focus groups, and the retelling of classroom experiences, this action research-inspired narrative inquiry documents and explores the experiences of four elementary school teachers as they worked together over a 12-week period. Through a restructured music schedule—designed to facilitate sustainable integrated, multiple literacy experiences—the teachers collaborated with the children and with one another to co-construct authentic learning experiences which drew upon and expanded students' interests and inquiries, and which positioned music in new ways as another classroom language. The unfolding stories examined in this inquiry resonate with the ideas and the spirit of the atelier in Reggio Emilia schools, and they point to the importance of meaningful, collaborative relationships in teacher learning and reflection. The study has implications for the ways in which musical experiences may be structured, made more complex, and revalued in elementary schools.

This study examines what and how classroom teachers and a music specialist learn on their own, with each other, and with their students when they engage in collaborative, multimodal teaching and learning experiences. Through excerpts from interviews, planning sessions, focus groups, and the retelling of classroom experiences, this action research-inspired narrative inquiry documents and explores the experiences of four elementary school teachers as they worked together over a 12-week period. Through a restructured music schedule—designed to facilitate sustainable integrated, multiple literacy experiences—the teachers collaborated with the children and with one another to co-construct authentic learning experiences which drew upon and expanded students' interests and inquiries, and which positioned music in new ways as another classroom language. The unfolding stories examined in this inquiry resonate with the ideas and the spirit of the atelier in Reggio Emilia schools, and they point to the importance of meaningful, collaborative relationships in teacher learning and reflection. The study has implications for the ways in which musical experiences may be structured, made more complex, and revalued in elementary schools.

abstract: This qualitative study explores the learning experiences of two first-grade teachers in a progressive public elementary school in the southwestern U.S. Participants inquired into their literacy instruction practices within their reading-workshops. Weekly inquiry group conversations between teachers and researcher informed a perspective of learning as participation. During the semester-long study, two key questions guided design and implementation: 1) What is the nature of teachers' learning experiences related to their literacy instruction practices, contextualized within an inquiry group? 2) How do those learning experiences reflect and/or refract the community, interpersonal, and individual planes of analysis? An ethnographic perspective informed data collection and analysis; data were collected through weekly inquiry-group conversations, bi-weekly classroom observations, and in-depth interviews. A learning framework of community, interpersonal, and individual planes of analysis served as an analytic tool used in conjunction with a modified analytic induction. Teachers' case studies offer unique accounts of their learning, contextualized within their specific classrooms. Findings are discussed through narrative-based vignettes, which illustrate teachers' learning trajectories. On the community plane, apprenticeship relationships were evident in teachers' interactions with students' parents and with one another. Interpersonal interactions between teachers demonstrated patterns of participation wherein each tried to teach the other as they negotiated their professional identities. Analysis of the individual plane revealed that teachers' past experiences and personal identities contributed to ways of participation for both teachers that were highly personal and unique to each. Affective considerations in learning were a significant finding within this study, adding dimensionality to this particular sociocultural theory of learning. The ways teachers felt about themselves, their students, their community, and their work constituted a significant influence on what they said and did, as demonstrated on all three planes of analysis. Implications for practice include the significance of professional development efforts that begin at the site of teachers' questions, and attention to teachers' individual learning trajectories as a means to supporting educators to teach in more confident and connected ways. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

abstract: Few would argue that teacher effectiveness is a key lever in education reform and improving the overall quality of public education, especially in poor and working class communities. To that end, the importance of supporting and developing beginning teachers is of utmost importance in education, thus requiring deep understandings of the process of learning to teach. Yet, most conceptions of teacher learning struggle to capture the social, cultural, and historical context of teacher learning, particularly in understanding how learning and the production of knowledge is situated, active, and complex. One example of this limitation comes from the field of research on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and its importance in developing effective beginning teachers. This study characterizes beginning teachers' production of PCK within a cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) framework. This study finds that the teachers produce PCK mostly based on their own individual experiences and reflections, receiving little assistance from the structures intended to provide them with support. The self-produced PCK is uneven, underdeveloped, and relies on teachers to use their sense of agency and identity to navigate dissonant and unbalanced activity systems. Over time, PCK production remains uneven and underdeveloped, while the individual teachers find it more and more difficult to bring balance to their activity systems, ultimately resulting in their exit from the activity system of teaching in their district and school. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

abstract: This dissertation explored how a teacher learned to teach with and about unfamiliar (to her) media texts in her high school English classroom. This study also examined my role as the researcher/mentor in the teacher’s learning and development process. Through situated learning theories (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and discourse through identities (Gee, 2001; 2014a) theoretical frameworks, this study explored the ways the teacher accepted, resisted, and enacted her figured worlds and identities as an English teacher. Historically, texts in the English classroom consist of novels, poems, plays, and the occasional nonfiction book or essay, and English teacher education and development often keeps these texts at the center of English teachers’ content knowledge. However, research exploring students’ use of multiliteracies in out-of-classroom contexts advocates for a multiliteracies perspective within classrooms. Still, there is a lack of professional development opportunities for teachers to support multiliteracies practices in their classrooms. Further, teachers’ professional development is often provided in stand-alone experiences where teachers learn outside of their classroom teaching contexts. Taking place over a six-month time frame, this study is situated as one-on-one professional development mentoring and included researcher and teacher collaboration in multiple contexts including planning, teaching, and reflection. This qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998) sought to address a gap in the literature in how the collaboration of teachers and researchers impacted teacher learning. Using interpretive analysis (Erickson, 1986) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2014a; 2014b) I developed two assertions: (1) The process the teacher underwent from finding resources to teaching and reflection was complex and filled with many phases and challenges, and (2) I, as the researcher/mentor, served as a sounding board and resource for the teacher/learner throughout her process of learning about, teaching with, and reflecting on unfamiliar texts. Findings of this study indicate the teacher’s identities and figured worlds impacted both how she learned about and taught with unfamiliar texts, and how I approached my role as a researcher/mentor in the study. Further, findings also indicate collaborative, practice-based research models (Hinchman & Appleman, 2017) offer opportunities to provide teachers meaningful and impactful professional development experiences situated in classroom contexts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2017

The study investigates the rise of online platforms that support teacher-to-teacher knowledge mobilisation. The adoption of the interpretative approach focuses the investigation on how the online platforms, their resources and the learning opportunities they provide are conceptualised by teachers in relation to their broader teaching practice, workplace culture and professional learning. The study is framed by two overarching research questions. (1) What is the nature of the knowledge being shared and reconstructed by teachers in Internet-mediated knowledge mobilisation? (2) What is the nature of the learning arising from teacher-to-teacher Internet-mediated knowledge mobilisation? The study employs a multiple case-study design to investigate two United States based online platforms, which facilitate teacher-to-teacher knowledge sharing. Twenty teachers from across the two cases were selected to participate in the study. A qualitative methodology was utilised. Teachers participated in an individual, face-to-face interview. In the two months following the initial interview teachers completed a weekly journal log detailing their engagement with the platform. Upon the completion of their journal logs, teachers participated in a follow-up interview via Skype. To help to contextualise the individual teachers within the broader case and to enrich their personal stories, observations of the platforms occurred throughout the data collection period. The study proposes a new theoretical model for how to conceptualise Internet-mediated knowledge mobilisation, the knowledge that is produced and the learning that occurs through the reconstruction process. It emphasises the connection between offline and online contexts and the role the platforms play in breaking down the boundaries between teachers' school-based practice and online resources and learning opportunities. The framework encapsulates the combining of the individual and their contexts of action, together with the platform and the information and knowledge it contains, to determine and shape the operation of the knowledge reconstruction process and the learning that transpires. Internet-mediated knowledge mobilisation facilitates the development of teachers' personal, practical knowledge by providing insight into the instructional practice of teachers and exposing teachers to new ideas and perspectives, which support the expansion of their propositional structures and episodic knowledge. Access to relevant, teacher-created materials increases the efficiency and effectiveness with which teachers can undertake elements of their practice, while also promoting learning through participation in work-based tasks. Individualism emerges as the dominant mode of engagement and learning in the study, with individual teachers regulating not only how and when they engage but also determining the outcomes they construct from their actions. The Internet, as a knowledge mediator, opens up new possibilities that are not available in teachers' offline contexts. It not only breaks down boundaries between teachers, but it also collapses boundaries between the various settings of teachers' professional practice and learning, effectively merging the offline and online contexts of teachers' work. The dual contexts of the platforms offer specific affordances that help to shape teachers' engagement, while also acting to promote new learning processes that do not exist in offline knowledge mobilisation.

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