This book presents recent international research on how teacher educators, institutions and policy makers perceive, act on and experience the dual responsibility that teacher educators are required to develop. Teacher educators are both teachers and researchers, a hybrid position which might be challenging to fulfil. Teacher education has attracted much research over the years. It has also been subject to national and international debates about its goals and core features as well as issues of quality and effectiveness. More recently, attention has been given to the work, identity and professional development of teacher educators. The various chapters in the book address the topic of teacher educators as teachers and researchers in diverse countries and contexts, namely Australia, Belgium, England, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, Norway and the USA. Collectively, the authors examine the work of teacher educators considering their core mission, their professional development opportunities and the demands and needs of their working contexts. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of the European Journal of Teacher Education.

This book focuses on the professional development of teacher educators, forming a definitive and expert resource for all those interested in this area of professional learning. It offers an in-depth overview of existing international research and professional development initiatives in the area of teacher educators' learning. The book highlights relevant research on the topic, identifies the lessons learnt from recent initiatives, and indicates ways forward for teacher educators' professional learning internationally. It provides a unique combination of six years of pan-European collaborative work, resulting in a book with clear relevance and appeal to both academics and practitioners internationally. The book conceptualizes teacher educators' professional development, in order to deepen understanding of how and why learning occurs and conducts empirical research into the professional development needs of teacher educators internationally using quantitative and qualitative methods in order to redress gaps in existing research. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher education and professional development and learning.

This book focuses on the professional development of teacher educators, forming a definitive and expert resource for all those interested in this area of professional learning. It offers an in-depth overview of existing international research and professional development initiatives in the area of teacher educators' learning. The book highlights relevant research on the topic, identifies the lessons learnt from recent initiatives, and indicates ways forward for teacher educators' professional learning internationally. It provides a unique combination of six years of pan-European collaborative work, resulting in a book with clear relevance and appeal to both academics and practitioners internationally. The book conceptualizes teacher educators' professional development, in order to deepen understanding of how and why learning occurs and conducts empirical research into the professional development needs of teacher educators internationally using quantitative and qualitative methods in order to redress gaps in existing research. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher education and professional development and learning.

This book presents recent international research on how teacher educators, institutions and policy makers perceive, act on and experience the dual responsibility that teacher educators are required to develop. Teacher educators are both teachers and researchers, a hybrid position which might be challenging to fulfil. Teacher education has attracted much research over the years. It has also been subject to national and international debates about its goals and core features as well as issues of quality and effectiveness. More recently, attention has been given to the work, identity and professional development of teacher educators. The various chapters in the book address the topic of teacher educators as teachers and researchers in diverse countries and contexts, namely Australia, Belgium, England, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, Norway and the USA. Collectively, the authors examine the work of teacher educators considering their core mission, their professional development opportunities and the demands and needs of their working contexts. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of the European Journal of Teacher Education.

Many studies of teacher motivation have been conducted in different contexts over time. However, until fairly recently there has not been a reliable measure available to allow comparisons across samples and settings. This has resulted in an abundance of findings which cannot be directly compared or synthesised. The FIT-Choice instrument offers the opportunity to examine motivations across settings. The various studies in this book suggest that people who choose teaching as a career are motivated by a complex interaction of factors embedded within communities and cultural expectations, but seem generally to embrace a desire to undertake meaningful work that makes for a better society. Unlike some careers, where rewards are in the form of salary and status, by and large these factors are not strong drivers for people who want to become teachers. They want to work with children and adolescents, and believe they have the ability to teach.

Many studies of teacher motivation have been conducted in different contexts over time. However, until fairly recently there has not been a reliable measure available to allow comparisons across samples and settings. This has resulted in an abundance of findings which cannot be directly compared or synthesised. The FIT-Choice instrument offers the opportunity to examine motivations across settings. The various studies in this book suggest that people who choose teaching as a career are motivated by a complex interaction of factors embedded within communities and cultural expectations, but seem generally to embrace a desire to undertake meaningful work that makes for a better society. Unlike some careers, where rewards are in the form of salary and status, by and large these factors are not strong drivers for people who want to become teachers. They want to work with children and adolescents, and believe they have the ability to teach.

In assessment, the portfolio has gained significant interest as a tool to monitor and appraise competence development in multiple domains of professional learning. In this book, a developmental use of assessment instruments is advocated, stressing a personalised or self-regulative and learning-oriented deployment of the assessment tool. Portfolio assessment viewed this way can support knowledge productivity of professionals, thus enhancing professional development. By this we mean the construction of knowledge through feedback and dialogue about performances as a recursive loop to inform the professional about accomplishment. Portfolio assessment therefore informs and scaffolds the learner to develop' further; it, so to speak, is pioneering development. Since the first introduction in several settings, teaching education, professional preparation, instructional program evaluation, student learning in several domains: nursing, teaching, training, and human resource development, portfolios have been studied extensively. It is challenging to gauge the routes along which the reasons for the interest in portfolios have shifted from one problem to the other. As we interpret this journey of research it went more or less along the following lines during the past 15 years, shifting its perspective as insights grew and demands changed.