Knowledge, Policy and Practice in Teacher Education reviews the evolution of education policy on initial teacher education as an indicator of the knowledge that is considered important for nation building. It also looks at research on approaches and structures to initial teacher learning as an indication of the intellectual and moral direction to which schooling must aspire. Contributors look at these dynamics across a range of societies including Australia, the Czech Republic, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, and the USA. Using a review of the literature approach within a comparative framework, the book seeks to answer the following questions for each country: What has been the evolution of different approaches to learning to teach in each setting, and what factors have influenced change over the years? What are the underlying theories that characterize past and current thinking about the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed by teachers and what evidence is used to support these theories? What does a review on the state of the knowledge about teacher education over the past 30 years reveal about the evolution of the research and knowledge traditions that have supported current and past innovations in teacher education? Maria Teresa Tatto and Ian Menter explore international variability in different conceptions of knowledge in the context of learning to teach and explore the way in which national and international influences interact in the developing trajectories of teacher education policy and practice, considering what knowledge is considered important for teachers to have.

This state-of-the-art Companion assembles and assesses the extant research available on teacher education and provides clear guidelines on future directions. It addresses an important need in a collection that will be of value for teachers, teacher educators, policymakers and politicians. There has been little sustained, long-term or systematic research to provide empirical support for the broad aspects of teacher education policy, largely because such research has been chronically underfunded and based on traditional practitioner knowledge. Many of the changes to teacher education are contentious and yet are occurring in rapid succession. These policies and movements have important consequences for education, teacher quality and the future of the teaching profession. At the same time, the policies and initiatives that support these changes seem to be based more on ideology, business interests and tradition than on research and empirical findings. The nature, quality and effectiveness of teacher preparation have increasingly become a central focus for education policy worldwide in a fiercely argued debate among governments, think-tanks, world policy agencies, education researchers and teacher organisations.

Is there an 'ideal' primary school curriculum? Who should decide what the curriculum is? Should teachers have autonomy over how they teach? The curriculum is the heart of what teachers teach and learners learn: effective teaching is only possible with an effective curriculum. Yet in spite of its importance, there has been a crisis in curriculum that has been caused in large part by governments assuming direct control over the curriculum, assessment, and increasingly, pedagogy. Creating the Curriculum tackles this thorny issue head on, challenging student and practising primary school teachers to think critically about past and present issues and to engage with a new wave of curriculum thinking and development. Considering curriculum construction and its impact on teaching and learning in the four countries of the UK, key issues considered include: who should decide the curriculum, its aims and its values the extent to which issues in primary education swing back and forth Subjects versus thematic organisation, stages and phases, progression, breadth and balance prescription versus teacher autonomy the key features of effective classroom practice strategies for assessing the whole curriculum how language in the classroom influences curriculum design understanding curricula in the context of children's social and personal circumstances creativity, curriculum and the classroom. Illustrated throughout with strategies and case studies from the classroom, Creating the Curriculum accessibly links the latest research and evidence with concrete examples of good practice. It is a timely exploration of what makes an effective and meanginful curriculum and how teachers can bring new relevance, motivation and powerful values to what they teach.

Good teacher education, informed by relevant research, is judged by policy makers and practitioners alike to be central to increasing the quality of schooling in many countries of the world. Yet, in the UK, research on teacher education is often acknowledged to be less well developed than other areas of educational research and to be over-determined by education policy. It has also been accused of a lack of rigour and of being atheoretical. A further challenge in developing good research in teacher education is that new teacher educators commonly face the challenge of moving into academic work without relevant research skills and the ready capacity to produce high quality research outputs. For these reasons, then, strengthening research in and on teacher education is high on educational agendas in the UK.

This book examines the exact nature of these challenges in teacher education and the initiatives arising to address them in different settings across the four nations of the UK. The central theme of all the chapters is how to build ?research capacity? so that teacher education can contribute more strongly to the improvement of schooling, as well as becoming a high quality, research-informed enterprise in its own right. The insights will be valuable to teacher educators around the world.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Education and Teaching.

In-the-moment dilemmas and situational awareness are central to teachers' work, but these concepts may not always find their way into teacher education - as they often get pushed aside in favour of curriculum coverage and compliance agendas. This book challenges a technicist and mechanistic view of teaching and learning to examine how teacher educators might best prepare soon-to-be teachers to make sound professional judgements in their classroom practice. It discusses evidence in the literature that teaching does not directly 'produce' learning and that nurturing learning is a complex business which relies on both 'art and science'. Current policies and compliancy agendas influencing the content of ITE programmes are analysed, and the text provides practical suggestions for how to nurture professional judgement in trainee teachers through HE provision and school-based mentoring.  It describes the dynamism of those who teach in classrooms and reminds teacher educators of the value and necessity of managing structure and improvisation, protocol and intuition which are at the heart of what it means to be a professional.  A new addition to our Critical Guides for Teacher Educators series.

You can successfully develop your higher education research profile while balancing the demands of training teachers and administration. While teacher education is key to preparing qualified teachers who can educate pupils for the demands of the twenty-first century, many university-based teacher educators experience conflicting demands in their professional practice. Their lives are often so dominated by teaching and associated work that their aspirations to develop a research profile are hampered. This text explores the critical issues faced by those working in teacher education and how they have negotiated the expectations and requirements of the Academy to establish themselves as leading international teacher education researchers. Through a series of autobiographical cases, this book demonstrates a range of trajectories in different contexts which have facilitated the development of teacher educators' successful research profiles. Understandings and realities of the policy context, the professional context, the research context (including funding, metrics, type of research valued), the institutional context and various personal positionings are examined in order to illuminate stories of research success and demonstrate their relevance to all teacher educators.

This book provides teacher educators with an understanding of the issues around mathematics anxiety and a framework of teaching strategies to support undergraduates, trainee teachers and established professionals in primary settings in developing confidence in learning and teaching mathematics. The existence of mathematics anxiety in adults is both prevalent and well documented, and there is a real concern that adults who are anxious or lacking in confidence in their own mathematical ability may affect the quality of teaching and learning for those in their care. Research has identified that there are lower levels of mathematical confidence in adults working with children in primary rather than secondary schools, and that where adults are anxious this can be passed on to the pupils with whom they work. This book addresses issues related to the effect that mathematics anxiety has on those teaching and working with primary aged children and supports teacher educators to develop confidence in both trainee teachers and established professionals.

An essential guide to a number of important theories of professional learning, of particular value both to those taking on new responsibilities in relation to initial teacher education (ITE) and those interested in developing new ways of working in partnership. Each chapter provides a concise and critical overview of a key theory and then considers how it might impact on the processes and organisation of teacher education, drawing on key pieces of literature throughout. The book responds to the growth of interest and research in professional and work-based learning including ideas such as communities of practice, activity theory and socio-cultural theory alongside already established models such as those of Schoen, Eraut and Shulman. In addition changing models of teacher education mean there are new ways of understanding professional learning as practices, roles and identities are re-established.

This book supports all those involved in initial teacher education (ITE) and with an interest in partnership working. Such partnerships are at the heart of ITE practices, both in the UK and internationally, but more recently models of partnership have become ever more complex as a result of government reforms, the rapid diversification of routes into teaching and significant increase in the number of SCITTs. The nature of partnerships in ITE remains contested with partnership working often reduced to a series of prescriptions for effective practice, ignoring both its pedagogic potential and inherent tensions. This book surveys and critiques partnership developments in recent years and then analyses a single case study of a school that exemplifies the current complexity of ITE partnerships using both policy and practice perspectives. It concludes with a series of principles that might underpin effective partnership working.

This book examines the history, recent developments, and direction of travel of Russian teacher education. It draws on scholarly expertise and professional experience in Russia and locates the policies and practices that are discussed within the context of the continuing global reform of teacher education. Providing a rich description of the trajectory of teacher education in Russia, the book analyses the processes of change between the history, current practice, and future directions for Russian teacher education. The chapters consider the relationship between research, policy, and practice and examine the respective influences of the former USSR, of processes of wider reform in the Russian Federation since 'glasnost' and 'perestroika', and of globalisation within education. What emerges from the book is that the Russian case is a prime example of 'vernacular globalisation' in teacher education. Many important insights into processes of education reform and some of the major themes in teacher education are discussed, thus providing new perspectives that are likely to be of interest to scholars and researchers of comparative education and teacher education, as well as policymakers.

Raymond Williams' major contributions to intellectual progress are usually categorised within cultural theory, media studies or neo-Marxist studies. Serious analysis of his contributions to education as a field of practice as well as a field of study have been relatively neglected. This is the first book to redress that omission, focusing on how his writing and thought have helped us to understand education in Britain and also provide analytical tools that have helped to shape educational studies in the USA and internationally. Ian Menter draws on Williams' several novels, including Border Country, as well as on his seminal contributions to cultural theory, including Culture and Society, The Long Revolution, Keywords and Marxism and Literature. Menter also examines how Williams' life shaped his understanding of education including his early involvement in adult education and his deeply ambivalent relationship with the academy. Public education is positioned as a key arena of social struggle where decisions shaping the nature of our futures and crucial to creating a democratic and just society. The book includes a foreword by Michael Apple who is John Boscom Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, which makes reference to the importance of Williams' work in relation to education in the USA.

This handbook provides a comprehensive, scholarly overview of teacher education in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), since the fall of communism in 1989. It looks closely at recent trends, emerging practices, and possible futures for teacher education in twenty-one CEE countries - reaching from the Balkans, through the Visegrad Group, to Eastern Europe and the Baltics. The contributing authors reflect on their own countries' uphill battles and journeys towards modernising teacher education over the last three decades. Subsequently, contemporary teacher education policies, structures, and practices are explored in light of Bologna reforms, EU higher education policies, and globalisation processes. Each chapter also offers some predictions about likely future trajectories - with concrete suggestions on how to develop and improve teacher education systems in response to the growing pressures of neoliberal ideologies. The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education in Central and Eastern Europe provides a valuable reference that enriches the work of scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners across CEE and beyond.

A critical text on feedback and assessment for all teacher educators. Feedback can be key to learning, but its potential value is not always fulfilled in practice. Developing a more nuanced understanding of feedback is particularly crucial in the ITE sector where ITE students receive feedback as learners but also give feedback to their pupils, and teacher educators need to provide feedback to their students and also guide them to give effective feedback to their pupils. This book explores what feedback means in the ITE sector and more broadly within education. It discusses the relational, pedagogical and moral dimensions of feedback conceptualized by student teachers, drawing on research data and supporting teacher educators considering the implications for their own practice. It includes discussion of placement and academic assessment / feedback practice as well as referencing the Teachers' Standards, the Core Framework for ITT and recommendations from the Carter Review.

This book provides a call to action for post-compulsory teacher education professionals, both in the UK and internationally, to unite around key principles and practices. The professional, educational and funding turbulence experienced by post-compulsory teacher education since 2008 has been significant. Austerity financing and increasing government intervention have provided many new and difficult challenges. At the same time evidence is building that the quality of teaching is the most important contributor to the quality of learning and achievement, and teacher education is demonstrably one of the most important influences on that teaching quality. The mainly workplace-based partnership model of teacher education used in the post-compulsory education (PCE) sector resonates well with a number of key current developments in the UK and broader field of teacher education. PCE teacher educators are particularly well placed to tell their story and share their vision of a better future for teachers through their own experiences, values and principles. Written by a range of post-compulsory teacher educators, the text therefore is an informed and passionate argument for: improving the professional recognition of teacher education and teacher educators; demonstrating how teacher education already connects teaching professionals into an engaged and collaborative professional community; providing strategies to enact this vision through connected, democratic professionalism. This title is part of the successful Critical Guides for Teacher Educators series edited by Ian Menter.

A research-based, critical yet practical exploration of the benefits of using digital video in teacher education. Digital video is easy to use and student teachers find it incredibly helpful. Since Dwight Allen first used microteaching five decades ago, video has been recognised as an ideal medium for capturing the complex nature of teaching. Through its accurate and honest representation of reality it reveals both the cognitive and affective aspects of learning to teach. This book serves as a theory-related rationale and a practice-informed critical guide for teacher educators considering how best to use video within their programmes. It explores how video technology can be used to enrich learning in both higher education and school settings, enhancing the continuity of the learning experience. Using evidence-based examples of best practice and critical discussions relating theory and policy to practice, it encourages teacher educators to engage with the use of video technology and explore how it meets the needs of learners and the current requirements of initial teacher education.

International trends in initial teacher education (ITE) and induction increasingly emphasise the importance of school-based learning for beginning teachers, and recent policy shifts have given many more schools a leading role in ITE. This book focuses directly on what has been learned from within well-established partnerships about the nature of beginning teachers' learning in schools and explores the ways in which teacher educators - both those that are school-based and those in universities who work in partnership with them - can most effectively support that learning. Beginning Teaching is part of the successful Critical Guides for Teacher Educators series edited by Ian Menter.

This book addresses key issues related to teaching pupils from disadvantaged and impoverished backgrounds and provides a valuable reference and pedagogical tool for teachers and teacher educators. Research has consistently shown that the most economically disadvantaged pupils have the poorest educational outcomes. Austerity government policies and pressures of performativity on schools may have exacerbated this inequality. Yet many teachers remain ill-informed about the effects of social disadvantage on students' learning and consequently are ill-prepared in appropriate teaching methods. The text critically examines the lessons from previous policy and practice, discusses cognitive and affective aspects of school learning for disadvantaged children and explores the pedagogic implications of research evidence. Using insights from existing research, the book examines the reasons why some trainees and teachers lack a critical perspective on the contexts of poverty and may hold deficit views of students in poverty that suggests they are unable to learn and need to be controlled. It explains some of the links between poverty, special needs, literacy and educational achievement and focuses on strategies for improvement.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Is there an ideal primary school curriculum?

Who should decide what the curriculum is?

Should teachers have autonomy over how they teach?

The curriculum is the heart of what teachers teach and learners learn: effective teaching is only possible with an effective curriculum. Yet in spite of its importance, there has been a crisis in curriculum that has been caused in large part by governments assuming direct control over the curriculum, assessment, and increasingly, pedagogy.

Creating the Curriculum tackles this thorny issue head on, challenging student and practising primary school teachers to think critically about past and present issues and to engage with a new wave of curriculum thinking and development. Considering curriculum construction and its impact on teaching and learning in the four countries of the UK, key issues considered include:

• who should decide the curriculum, its aims and its values
• the extent to which issues in primary education swing back and forth
• Subjects versus thematic organisation, stages and phases, progression, breadth and balance
• prescription versus teacher autonomy
• the key features of effective classroom practice
• strategies for assessing the whole curriculum
• how language in the classroom influences curriculum design
• understanding curricula in the context of children s social and personal circumstances
• creativity, curriculum and the classroom.

Illustrated throughout with strategies and case studies from the classroom, Creating the Curriculum accessibly links the latest research and evidence with concrete examples of good practice. It is a timely exploration of what makes an effective and meanginful curriculum and how teachers can bring new relevance, motivation and powerful values to what they teach.

This book links theory, policy and practice in a critical examination of the relationship between the professional identity, knowledge, learning needs and research experience of teacher educators. The book concludes by drawing these themes together as a means to support the induction and further professional development of teacher educators. Teacher educators have, until relatively recently, been invisible in the eyes of policy makers with little attention given to their induction and professional learning needs. This book draws on a growing body of research on this diverse profession within a context where, in many countries, the school practicum plays an increasing role in the training and education of teachers. The recent policy gaze of the European Commission has added further momentum to the attention being given to teacher education, its educators and the role they play in pupil achievement. However for many beginning teacher educators little support is offered at the start of their new career trajectories in schools, colleges or universities. This book examines some of the issues surrounding these career transitions and the implications they have for professional learning. It serves as an invaluable yet accessible source of knowledge for all those interested in the professional learning needs and recognition of this heterogeneous occupation.

'[A] really important book [...] the growth of interest in teachers in England taking part in educational research is significant.' - John Furlong, Emeritus Professor of Education, Oxford University, UK. Mobilising Teacher Researchers brings together the results of a research project carried out over a two-year period, commissioned by the National College for Teaching and Leadership and involving over 650 schools in England. An internationally renowned group of contributors present crucial and intriguing lessons learnt from the 'Closing the Gap: Test and Learn' project, aimed at identifying ways in which to close the attainment gap, raise the achievement of disadvantaged children in England, and introduce new research methods into schools. From the project's policy origins to its implementation, the book captures the diverse range of outcomes from the project, both intended and unexpected. It reveals the ways and extent to which teachers were mobilised as researchers, and how analysis will impact on the future of research-informed practice in schools. This resulting collection of evolutionary debates focuses on topics such as new forms of governance, teacher engagement and the effectiveness of Randomised Controlled Trials. It foregrounds new approaches to school-based educational research, and is crucial reading for anyone concerned with educational research, and seeking to understand education for social mobility.

Trainees and school-based practitioners are being encouraged to engage more with evidence-based teaching methods. Teachers are now more responsible for the outcomes of their own practice and are charged with sourcing 'best practice' solutions in their pedagogical approaches. And schools are moving more towards in-house professional development approaches that have a clear focus on raising standards in the classroom. This book focuses on how universities and primary schools can work together to lead, manage and sustain a culture of teacher inquiry. It examines the role of the university in providing a critical perspective on teaching and learning and how academics can support schools by working as 'knowledgeable others' and advocates of classroom-based research. As a case study, it explores the journey taken by one particular primary school, in partnership with a university, over a two-year period, detailing how this work has impacted on the professional lives of staff, the children they teach, the overall culture of the school and the impact on school improvement. Chapters are contributed by professional school leaders, university academics and primary teachers and there is a focus on the rigorous examination of models of evidenced-based teaching, practical examples demonstrating some of the best and most sustainable approaches, and positive outcomes.

This book provides a concise and comprehensive overview of the practice of coteaching, including its benefits and educational and social implications. Coteaching plays an important role in enhancing the experience and effectiveness of pre-service and in-service teachers during school experience at a time when teacher retention rates are a concern both nationally and internationally. Traditional practice in school experience, generally comprising observation followed by complete take-over of classes, has not altered in more than a century, despite significant changes in the role of the teacher, the needs of students, the learning environment and the functioning of schools. Coteaching provides a pedagogy which supports pre-service teachers more actively and promotes teacher professional development, as they work together in co-planning, co-practice and co-evaluating lessons during school-based experience. Co-teaching in Teacher Education is part of the successful Critical Guides for Teacher Educators series edited by Ian Menter.

The use of ability-grouping is currently increasing in primary schools. Teachers and teacher educators are placed in the unenviable position of having to marry research evidence suggesting that ability-grouping is ineffectual with current policy advocating this approach.This book links theory, policy and practice in a critical examination of ability-grouping practices and their implications in primary schools, with particular reference to primary mathematics. It provides an accessible text for teacher educators to support their students in engaging with the key debates and reflecting upon their practice. Key changes in structural approaches, such as the movement between streaming, setting or mixed-ability teaching arrangements, are explored in the light of political trends, bringing this up to date with a discussion of current policy and practice.

The concepts of status and professionalism are key issues in teaching and teacher education across the United Kingdom and internationally. While there is increasing recognition that high quality teachers are crucial, this coexists with a persistent culture of blaming and shaming them. Student teachers will live out their careers within this maelstrom so need to be encouraged to consider the place of their profession both locally and globally, and teacher educators can support them to make a realistic yet ambitious analysis. This book answers a fundamental need for teachers to position themselves in their professional world. It uses an innovative Place Model to explore the professional learning of teachers, examining place in terms of both hierarchical status and as a cumulative journey of professional learning within ever expanding horizons. It looks at the nature of professionalism, why teacher status is important, where trainees might fit within the model and what infrastructure needs to be in place to support teachers' career long professional learning.