July 14 | International Portal of Teacher Education

Jul. 14, 2009

Dear subscriber,

MOFET ITEC Portal Newsletter

We are delighted to be sending you another edition of the MOFET ITEC Portal Update with a selection of the latest articles and significant trends published in academic journals focusing on teacher education, pedagogy and instruction.

We would like to draw your attention to the new MOFET ITEC Twitter page which will keep you abreast of everything pertaining to teacher education throughout the world.

Through Twitter, we hope to create an informal arena in which teacher educators, researchers, and educators can engage in a fruitful dialog. Please feel free to join our followers on Twitter.

As always, we welcome your comments and insights.

The MOFET ITEC Portal Team

July 14, 2009

International Portal of Teacher Education

July 2009

Featured Items

Reframing Professional Development Through Understanding Authentic Professional Learning

The author critiques the current professional development (PD) literature through a review of recent literature across professions. She proposes an alternative conceptualization, based on philosophical assumptions congruent with evidence about professional learning from seminal educational research of the past two decades. She concludes by considering implications for practice and future research possibilities extending from reconceptualizing PD and understanding more about authentic professional learning.

Impact of an Action Research Instructional Model: Student Teachers as Reflective Thinkers

In an effort to promote a critical reflective stance in the beginning teacher, this study developed an instructional model for preservice teachers at the undergraduate level. The authors' assumptions were that this assignment would help student teachers develop a readiness to engage in professional inquiry and that it would foster the development of a professional practice based on a critical reflective stance. The sample consisted of students in two sections of a student teaching seminar course taken during their last semester of undergraduate course work.

Evaluating Video Models of Evidence-Based Instructional Practices to Enhance Teacher Learning

In an attempt to address the research to practice gap, the authors developed and evaluated a process for creating and applying video models of effective practices for teacher education. The purpose of the project was to develop an effective process for creating video models of exemplary instructional practices in reading, math, and science. The project was a collaborative endeavor across three Florida university sites. Video models of strategies were field tested with preservice and practicing teachers working with diverse student populations. The authors present field-test data that demonstrate the influence of video modeling on teacher learning.

An Analysis of the Outcomes of a Unified Teacher Preparation Program

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which teacher candidates are successful in meeting the needs of all students, including those with disabilities.Units of 20 teacher candidates were examined to determine: (a) the learning demonstrated by students with disabilities; and, (b) the teaching models and strategies used by the teacher candidates. Evidence of student learning was determined through analysis of disaggregated data from class-wide results.

Understanding Technology Adoption: Theory and Future Directions for Informal Learning

This paper examines individuals' computing adoption processes through the lenses of three adoption theories: Rogers's innovation diffusion theory, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model, the Technology Acceptance Model, and the United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Therefore, the question this paper seeks to understand is this: Can any one of these theories (or a combination of theories) bring meaning and understanding to why an individual chooses to adopt or reject a particular innovation (and in particular a technology-based innovation)?

Diversity: Gatekeeping Knowledge and Maintaining Inequalities

This review illuminates key differences between the diversity model and emancipatory model in education. It discusses a range of conceptual, theoretical, empirical, historical, pedagogical, and legal scholarship. The body of work examined includes five categories of representative scholarship. This review concludes with a discussion of an emancipatory model of education that educators can build on as part of a paradigm shift grounded in the Black Studies intellectual tradition.