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Practical, accessible and up-to-date, this book draws directly on the work of teachers and other professional trainers concerned with programs for continuing professional development.
This book is a guide to research methods for practitioner research. Written in friendly and accessible language, it includes numerous practical examples based on the authors′ own experiences in the field, to support readers. The authors provide information and guidance on developing research skills such as gathering and analysing information and data, reporting findings and research design. They offer critical perspectives to help users reflect on research approaches and to scrutinise key issues in devising research questions. This book is for undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers and practitioners in practitioner research development and leadership programmes. The team of authors are all within the School of Education at the University of Glasgow and have significant experience of working with practitioner researchers in education.
`This is a really useful book. It is full of helpful ideas and examples and discusses the importance of research for teachers. While addressing both the why and the how of practitioner research in school settings the authors have kept closely in touch with the practical concerns of busy professionals′ - Professor Anne Edwards, School of Education, University of Birmingham This is a book about how to do your research. It′s aimed at teachers involved in classroom-based research projects such as Best Practice Research Scholarships and Networked Learning Communities. This book is a significant text for teachers involved in practitioner research. It will discuss how the notion of classroom research has evolved from previous movements based upon school effectiveness and action research. It will show how being able to conduct and understand research is vital for the professional development of teachers. The text will then consider the practical issues of the design and carrying out of classroom-based research. The book contains practical examples to illustrate points where appropriate. Each chapter includes recommended further reading and practical tasks.
There is now a widespread expectation that teachers and coaches should be reflective practitioners, an expectation written into national standards of education in many countries. This innovative book introduces the methods by which teachers and coaches can conduct research into their own professional practice and therefore become more effective reflective practitioners, improving their students’ learning as a result. As the only book on practitioner research that focuses specifically on the unique challenges of working in a physical education or youth sport environment, it uses real-life case studies and applied practical examples to guide the reader through the research process step-by-step. Examining the what, why and how of four key research methods in particular – action research, narrative enquiry, autoethnography and self-study – it provides an expert analysis of the strengths and limitations of each method and demonstrates how conducting reflective research can produce tangible results in improving both teaching and learning. This is an invaluable resource for all those interested in enhancing their professional development as students, practitioners or researchers of physical education and youth sport.
Practitioner Enquiry: Professional Development with Impact for Teachers, Schools and Systems offers an accessible, step-by-step guide to practitioner enquiry, describing what practitioner enquiry is, what its adoption in schools entails, and what research and experience says about its benefits and possible pitfalls. Written by an experienced Headteacher who has worked with many schools to support their own engagement with practitioner enquiry, and who has been using the approach himself for over eight years, the chapters examine all aspects of its theory, practice and engagement. The book includes a variety of case studies to explore the effect of practitioner enquiry across a range of settings, and to show how you can bring about deep, sustainable and embedded change that has positive impacts for all learners. Chapters cover: how you can create the conditions for succeeding with practitioner enquiry the process of enquiring into your practice the role of school leaders and teachers in successful enquiry processes the benefits you may expect from such enquiry case studies from a number of different contexts, showing enquiry in action examples of research posters produced by teachers involved in enquiry. Practitioner Enquiry serves as a much-needed injection of up-to-date research into the field, combining theory and practice in an engaging and comprehensive style. It will be key reading for teachers and school leaders in both primary and secondary sectors.
′Wow, this book has some inspiring ideas... It comes at a perfect time as schools try to mesh school improvement with performance management, new standards for various career stages and staff development... Well written, with an attractive layout and a consistently clear voice, it draws on wide and up-to-date research and writing from all parts of the United Kingdom... There are no easy answers in this book, but plenty of powerful ideas that might help us ask useful questions about how CPD encourages a commitment to professional and personal growth, and increases self-confidence, job satisfaction and enthusiasm for working with children and colleagues. This is what being a professional is all about′ - Times Educational Supplement, Book of the Week Teaching professionals need to be able to successfully respond to change, and when necessary drive change within schools. To accomplish this, teachers need to be secure in their understanding of their place within the profession and their teaching identity. The focus of this book is upon enabling teachers to explore new ways of working with children, with colleagues and with communities. This book provides teachers working towards Advanced Skills Teacher or Chartered Teacher status, and those on other Continuing Professional Development courses, with an essential text to assist in this process of personal and professional reflection and development planning. The authors focus upon the social, cultural and political aspects of professional development, and explore issues of professional identity.
The connections between reflective practice and professional development are the focus for this book, which offers guidance to support lasting change and provides strategies to enable self-initiated professional development. The book includes: - traditional approaches to reflective practice - how to enhance the effectiveness of reflective practice - putting reflective practice in context - how reflective practice can improve attainment for students and staff - an Appendix of useful resources. With case studies and examples of relective practice from trainee teachers and from students studying across a range of Education courses, this book equips the reader to develop their own reflective practice framework. Relevant also to practitioners working across the children′s workforce, it encourages personal and professional development for the whole range of professionals working in education and care. Peter Tarrant is a Teaching Fellow at the Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh.
Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers are underrepresented in public schools across the United States of America, with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color making up roughly 37% of the adult population and 50% of children, but just 19% of the teaching force. Yet research over decades has indicated their positive impact on student learning and social and emotional development, particularly for Students of Color and Indigenous Students. A first of its kind, the Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers addresses key issues and obstacles to ethnoracial diversity across the life course of teachers’ careers, such as recruitment and retention, professional development, and the role of minority-serving institutions. Including chapters from leading researchers and policy makers, the Handbook is designed to be an important resource to help bridge the gap between scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. In doing so, this research will serve as a launching pad for discussion and change at this critical moment in our country’s history. The volume’s goal is to drive conversations around the issue of ethnoracial teacher diversity and to provide concrete practices for policy makers and practitioners to enable them to make evidence-based decisions for supporting an ethnoracially diverse educator workforce, now and in the future.
Teachers are constantly faced with a plethora of challenges, but none has been more prevalent in the 21st century than educating a diverse collection of students. In the midst of the current challenges in teaching P-12 students, pre-service teachers may be under district contract but may not be prepared for teaching students with disabilities, the homeless, second language learners recently immigrated to the United States, or students who face emotional challenges or addiction. Overcoming Current Challenges in the P-12 Teaching Profession is an essential reference book that provides insight, strategies, and solutions to overcome current challenges experienced by P-12 teachers in general and special education. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as global education, professional development, and responsive teaching, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, school psychologists, counselors, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on culturally responsive teaching.
Teacher education in the United States is changing to meet new policy demands for centering clinical practice and developing robust school-university partnerships to better prepare high-quality teachers for tomorrow’s schools. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCHOOLS (PDSs) have recently been cited in national reports as exemplars of high-quality school-university partnerships in the clinical preparation of teachers. According to the National Association for Professional Development Schools, PDSs have Nine Essentials that distinguish them from other school-university collaborations. But even with that guidance, working across the boundaries of schools and universities remains messy, complex, and, quite frankly, hard. That’s why, perhaps, there is such diversity in school-university partnerships. For the last thirty years, educators have been fascinated yet puzzled with how to build PDSs. Clinically Based Teacher Education in Action: Cases from PDSs addresses that perplexity by providing images of the possible in school-university collaboration. Each chapter closely examines one of the NAPDS Nine Essentials and then provides three cases from PDSs that target that particular essential. In this way, readers can see how different PDSs from across the globe are innovating to actualize that essential in PDS development. The editors provide commentary, addressing themes across the three cases. Each chapter ends with questions to start collaborative conversations and a field-based activity meant to propel your PDS work forward.
