Section archive - Theories & Approaches

In this article, the authors have explored the impact of Undergraduate Research Bursaries at Northampton (URB@N) on undergraduate students’ experience of conducting pedagogic research; of acquiring the skills of a nascent researcher; and of working with an academic research leader. The findings demonstrate the positive impact of the scheme for undergraduate learners. Students were able to reflect on their own learning and recognise the value obtained from their ‘hands-on’ experience of conducting pedagogic research in partnership with staff. Students articulated both tangible and intangible benefits from their learning and participation in the scheme. Alongside this, they showed strong allegiance to improving the student experience by wanting to share their findings and contribute to enhancing the learning and teaching environment for current and future learners.

The purpose of this project is to describe how one of the largest teacher education programs in the nation has taken a lead position toward evaluating itself, and has begun to take responsibility for its impact on the public school system. This research also presents the process of establishing a self-evaluation initiative across the state of Arizona and provides a roadmap for how other colleges and universities might begin a similar process. This work resulted in a set of seven “beyond excuses” imperatives that participants involved in the T-PREP consortium developed and participants at the local level carried forward. The seven key imperatives are important for other colleges of education to consider as they too embark on pathways toward examining their teacher education programs and using evaluation results in both formative and summative ways.

In this study, the authors investigate how field-based teacher preparation supports candidates’ evolving understanding and learning about the nature of educational policy in practice. The findings indicate that candidates developed enduring understandings regarding the relationship between educational policy and classroom practice through the field-based module. In addition, candidates understand the multiple layers and actors in educational policy, including the central role of teachers in implementing policy in practice to meet the needs of diverse students. The authors emphasize the importance of field-based teacher education.

The present study reports on how student teachers’ workplace experiences were transformed into learning experiences. In total, 26 stories from 10 student teachers were collected by means of digital logs and in-depth interviews and unraveled using a new technique of reconstructing stories into webs. The results show that student teachers’ learning from experiences is a process involving many interrelated personal and social aspects, including past and present experiences gained in multiple situations and contexts over time. The findings indicate that reconstructing stories into webs is a promising technique for unraveling the complexity of learning from workplace experiences.