eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
Building on the concepts of professional competence that he introduced in his classic The Reflective Practitioner, Schon offers an approach for educating professional in all areas that will prepare them to handle the complex and unpredictable problems of actual practice with confidence, skill, and care.
?????????????????????????????????????????????? This free course is the Chinese version of Learning to teach: becoming a reflective practitioner, which is also available in English.
This book debunks the argument that quality in education can only be achieved by limiting, or trading off, equality. The quality of schooling is a major issue for Third World nations across the globe. However there is no single measure which is universally accepted. Whether it is, as some economists might argue, an issue of the number of desks per classroom or one of national sovereignty is widely disputed. Defining equality in education becomes increasingly difficult in an era of globalization in which there exists a wide gap between rich and poor, both within and between nations. In the context of an international move towards New Right politics and neo-liberal economic ideologies, both the quality and equality of education are imperiled. This book argues that any worthy definition of quality education must include the interests and participation of the underprivileged.
This pivot considers the impact of INSET courses on EFL teachers practicing under the national curriculum reform in China. Providing context-specific findings on the policy and implementation of INSET as well as its impact on teacher education initiatives in both China and similar contexts, it explores the limitations of one off training events such as INSET and the inconsistency between teacher learning results and their classroom practices. The book argues that teachers, when returning to pre-INSET teaching, are influenced by their prior deeply-rooted beliefs largely considered more powerful than newly-learnt theories. Addressing the rarely discussed fact that the complex and dynamic characteristics of teacher learning change over time and support the construct of teacher learning as a social event rather than a one-off event, the book also offers practical solutions on how to improve teacher education and enhance the long-term INSET impact on teacher development, with the ambition of promoting education reform for both teachers and students alike.
Examining the teacher education landscape in China, Xiaojing Yan focuses on how early career teachers (ECTs) build their competence during the initial years of teaching, challenges that come with teacher training and pathways to improve teacher competence. Although there is a growing trend in China to focus on teacher quality and professional development, teacher competence varies across teacher groups: ECTs, in particular, face a variety of challenges in the initial period. Using a qualitative-based approach, Yan examines 55 teacher education policies and 3 education laws between 1949 and 2019 in China. The chapters offer valuable insights into teacher education policy and practice, as well as teachers' professional development strategies and competence growth at the secondary level. With teacher’s needs in mind, this book provides a framework for policy development and teaching implementation, as well as for teachers' practices and effective professional learning. Discussing critical issues and opportunities in the development of ECTs competence, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners across the fields of teacher education and professional learning development. It will also be relevant and accessible to policymakers involved in education and teacher training.
It has been said there are more Chinese learning English than there are Americans. We all have a sense that the first decades of the third millennium, including the effects of the global financial recession, signal dramatic changes to the shape of the world to come. China’s emergence as a superpower is one of the few certainties in this rapidly changing world. What is less well realised is the critical role which China’s decisions about English will play in the world’s communication profile. This unique volume explores this question looking at the debates on identity, cultural values and communication practices. Taking a wide-ranging view and uniquely blending both Chinese and Western perspectives the volume explores the critically important cultural consequences of mass English learning in today’s world.
This volume covers advances that have occurred in the thirty year existence of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT), the organization that helped transition the study of teacher thinking to the study of teachers and teaching in all of its complexities.
A major concern of all education authorities around the world is the challenge that schools face in catering for learner diversity. That this concern is shared by authorities in East Asia, including the Education Bureau (EDB) of Hong Kong, is surprising given the high academic achievement of students from this part of the world. This book helps to meet this challenge for teachers in East Asia by focusing on specific research that helps explain the basis for diversity in the Chinese learner. Although there are many textbooks that cover the basic principles of educational psychology, few do not focus on the Chinese learner. This book makes the link between the broad field of educational psychology and how these theories contribute to our understanding of the Chinese learner. This book is unique in that it draws on recent research to illustrate the application of these theories, thereby helping teachers and students in teacher education progammes understand the variability in student achievement. Our book is based on the idea that the Chinese context is in many ways different to other cultural contexts, and that teachers can make a difference to the outcomes of student learning. We also draw on our many years of experience in educating future teachers where our students want us to focus on the Chinese classroom. Our student-teachers also want to be educated by professors who are themselves researchers. In drawing on research about the Chinese learner we also bring to our student-teachers the richness and value of educational research. We also encourage our student-teachers to think of themselves as “professional researchers” in terms of developing an understanding of the research literature and in finding solutions to their classroom problems.
Philosophers have warned of the perils of a life spent without reflection, but what constitutes reflective inquiry - and why it’s necessary in our lives - can be an elusive concept. Synthesizing ideas from minds as diverse as John Dewey and Paulo Freire, theHandbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry presents reflective thought in its most vital aspects, not as a fanciful or nostalgic exercise, but as a powerful means of seeing familiar events anew, encouraging critical thinking and crucial insight, teaching and learning. In its opening pages, two seasoned educators, Maxine Greene and Lee Shulman, discuss reflective inquiry as a form of active attention (Thoreau’s "wide-awakeness"), an act of consciousness, and a process by which people can understand themselves, their work (particularly in the form of life projects), and others. Building on this foundation, the Handbook analyzes through the work of 40 internationally oriented authors: - Definitional issues concerning reflection, what it is and is not; - Worldwide social and moral conditions contributing to the growing interest in reflective inquiry in professional education; - Reflection as promoted across professional educational domains, including K-12 education, teacher education, occupational therapy, and the law; - Methods of facilitating and scaffolding reflective engagement; - Current pedagogical and research practices in reflection; - Approaches to assessing reflective inquiry. Educators across the professions as well as adult educators, counselors and psychologists, and curriculum developers concerned with adult learning will find the Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry an invaluable teaching tool for challenging times.
