This is the English language contents page for E&SD 13(1)
Nick Rushby
Editorial: Pages into sentences: writing better abstracts 6
Colin Latchem
21st century learning, technology and the professional development of teachers 10
Liesl Leonard, Carolynne Kies, Norina Braaf
Reflections: eLearning Colloquia enhance a Community of Practice 19
Ian Menter
Defining teachers’ professional knowledge: the interaction of global and national influences 32
Christine Sleeter
A framework to improve teaching in multicultural contexts 43
Anna I. Akhmetzyanova, Lira V. Artishcheva
Significant situations of interaction of children with disabilities 55
Peggy Germer
Development of competencies of L2 teachers in student teacher internships (competence area: teacher language in the classroom) 65
Viara T. Gyurova
Role of the non-formal education’s institutions for the teacher qualification in Bulgaria 75
Sergey A. Sedov
The determinants of the quality of higher education of teacher professional training 83
Notes for authors 105
There are a number of similarities between writing a research article and preparing
teaching materials.
The teaching materials must gain – and hold – the interest of the students. When
you start to speak you have about 15 seconds to get the attention of your audience and
convince them that what you have to say is worth listening to. Many teachers (perhaps
most teachers) will have had the demoralising experience of losing their audience at the
beginning of a lesson and then being unable to win them back. There are strong parallels
for a research article.
There is a high demand for teacher vocational training in secondary vocational educational
institutions. The training of such teachers in post-secondary institutions needs to take into account
the factors (determinants) of its quality and the challenges facing modern educational practice.
Building on earlier work by Russian researchers, particular attention is paid to the ideas about the
quality determinism of higher professional and pedagogical education by integration processes in
the society. However, in the works reviewed there is no agreement of the quality determinants with
the tasks of vocational training teachers’ qualifications as well as with their solutions.
The article highlights the determinants of the quality of vocational training teachers’ qualifications
in higher education, based on the analysis of the actual tasks of vocational training teachers’
qualifications. The research used substantive and formalized approaches to investigate the content
and interrelation of the determinants of the quality of the higher professional and pedagogical
education, together with the actual tasks of preparation and their solutions. It shows the
interdependence not only of the tasks facing educational practice, but also their solutions. In order
to ensure the sustainable development of a society and the knowledge economy, decisions on the
implementation of standards and recommendations of quality assurance in the European Higher
Education Area, must take into account:
• the interdependence of the main spheres of society’s life,
• the integration of competence and cultural approaches in the qualifications of future teacher
vocational training,
• and the orientation of higher professional and pedagogical education.
This work has led to further detailed research in the context of the essence of higher professional and
pedagogical educational quality.
This article describes the ongoing changes in the teachers’ qualification system and the role of nonformal
education institutions in Bulgaria. The changes are related to the improvement of the quality
of school education and the new functions and roles of the 21st century teacher. It describes some
basic problems in the implementation of the new model for qualification of Bulgarian teachers
which emerged after the first year of applying the reform in practice. It analyses the main issues of
the normative base, and discusses the problem of the role of the non-governmental sector in the
reform. The findings are based on the opinions of 44 teachers from the country, 14 of whom are
students in the Master’s Program in Educational Management of the Faculty of Education at the
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
The research shows that teachers regard more seriously their needs for additional knowledge and
skills, and relate these to future courses and plans for professional and personal development. The
article recommends that there should be a national survey of the results of the implementation of
the new model of continuous teachers’ qualification and a re-examination of the increase in the
“benefits” (both moral and material) of the qualification for teachers.
This evaluation study on tandem learning among future teachers of Russian in school-based
internships aims at examining the development of teacher language competences for institutional
Russian teaching. The focus is on development of competencies of L2- teachers in student teacher
internships. The article deals with the tandem-method as one of the ways of training teacher language
for educational purposes in the classroom. Teacher language always has didactic implications. The
teacher serves as an educational role model in his foreign verbal actions, but the level of command
of the language for using it professionally as teacher language in university internships is very
heterogeneous. The reasons are manifold and related to worldwide migration and the efforts of
reforming the educational system in Europe. That is why the subject of interest for this research is
the development of teacher language as a part of linguistic competence. The individual perception of
future Russian teachers of the functional logic and quality of tandem language learning and support
is examined on the basis of learning diaries and interviews. The paper concludes with discussion
and results of providing external support – firstly, the autonomous learner, secondly, the partnerorientated
learner and thirdly, the learner who is determined by others. Depending on this typology,
the qualitative research shows that tandem work has a future role in the context of teacher training
and migration.
The successful socialization and adaptation to new conditions socialization of children with
disabilities is conditioned by the attitudes they form to key situations of interaction. Understanding
and reflecting on the causes of these situation, contributes to successful forecasting. This article
is aimed at identifying the specifics of the relationship of children with disabilities to significant
situations in their lives and to understanding their causes. The research is based on interviews and
content analysis of the responses of 78 children with disorders (visual, hearing, musculoskeletal
and speech disorders). The study revealed that the causes of traumatic situations in children with
disabilities can be partly categorized and that the specificity of the violation determines the attitude
to different situations of children’s activity.
Teachers in multicultural contexts often have difficulty teaching their diverse students. Multicultural
education theorists have advanced frameworks for reforming classroom teaching; one of the
most widely used is Banks’s (2013) five dimensions of multicultural education. Research supports
the connection between these five dimensions and student learning, particularly integrating knowledge
from students’ cultural backgrounds into academic content, using pedagogy that is culturally
responsive to students, and addressing stereotypes about diverse groups. Research confirms that a
culturally inclusive curriculum, taught to high expectations and through trusting teacher-student
relationships, improves students’ academic achievement. This paper addresses how teachers can
learn to use these dimensions, using a planning framework that has been shown to improve curriculum
planning and teaching (Sleeter & Flores Carmona, 2017). After expanding on this framework
and its research foundations, this paper will illustrate a teacher learning to use it through a case study
of Angela, a second-year elementary teacher.
This paper draws on a cross-national study1 of definitions of teachers’ professional knowledge. The
paper seeks to link what has been revealed about international influences and trends to the broader
literature on the processes of globalisation and internationalisation. The concepts of ‘glocalization’
and ‘vernacular globalisation’ are critically reviewed in the light of the emergent findings. Six emergent
themes are identified that form a typology through which teacher education systems may be
categorised. These themes enable us to clarify both global trends and local distinctiveness within the
systems under review.
In this context specific reflection on an annual eLearning Colloquia hosted by the Centre for Innovative
Education and Communication Technologies (CIECT) at the University of the Western Cape
(UWC), in Cape Town, South Africa; the researchers explore how the colloquia contributed to the
institutional Community of Practice (CoP). Furthermore, it highlights the shifts in the institutional
discourse on blended teaching and learning practices over an eight year period. The paper showcases
CIECT’s efforts in driving the effective use of eTools to increase awareness and understanding of
concepts such as agency, culture and structure. This awareness is critical in a post-modern Higher
Education (HE) setting where the need to create a knowledge-intensive institutional culture exists.
The human agents are central to the formation of a sustainable CoP which contributes to effective
teaching and learning practices. Secondary data was used for the study and non-probability, purposive
sampling resulted in a sample group of 78 individuals comprising of the Instructional Design
team as well as the academic staff members at UWC who utilize the institutional Learning Management
System or a range of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) in their teaching and learning
practices.
There are two imperatives for transforming K-12 teaching and learning.
The educational imperative. The World Economic Forum concludes that at a time of fast-paced
digital change, countries need innovative places of learning that can provide the next generation
with the skills of the future (Kruchoski, 2016).
The technology imperative. The information technology revolution presents technology-rich
innovative learning environments for improving and extending teaching and learning and the
affordance of customisation of learning to individual learner needs, a concept which is highly
supported by the learning sciences (Groff, 2013).
The first part of this paper examines the competencies learners need for tomorrow’s world and the
innovative technology-based methods of learning needed for the regeneration of education systems.
The later parts of the paper focus on the teachers’ pre-service and in-service training needs in regard
to information and communications technology (ICT) integration in the classroom and how ICT
can be used to provide professional development for teachers and principals.