Awea Anouke Bakx

Collaborative teacher learning in different primary school settings

During the last two decades there has been a growing awareness of the potentially strong role teacher collaboration can play in relation to teacher and team learning. Teachers collaborate with their colleagues in different formal and informal settings. Because most studies have focused on teacher learning in one collaborative setting or are related to a specific innovation, little is known about how teachers learn within the different collaborative settings that emerge out of their teaching work. The aim of this exploratory study was to gain deeper insight into collaborative teacher learning during regular work at primary schools. Collaborative teacher learning was investigated within multiple settings, taking into account both the undertaken learning activities by teachers and the learning outcomes. Teacher and principal perceptions were collected through semi-structured interviews that were conducted with two teachers and one principal per school, including seven primary schools. Results show that teacher learning occurred within different collaborative settings in schools, however, with different degrees of intensity and outcomes across these various settings. Thus, depending on the collaborative setting, more or less different learning activities and learning outcomes were reported by teachers and principals. The results suggest that high quality team meetings can be a powerful context for teacher learning.

Pupils’ Perceptions of Geography in Dutch Primary Schools: Goals, Outcomes, Classrooms Environment, and Teacher Knowledge and Performance

Concerns about the decreasing quality of geography education within primary schools can be linked to a decrease of time spent on geography education and, for example, to low achievement on national or school-specific tests. Learning outcomes for geography stay behind in relation to what experts believe that pupils should perform. Results indicate that pupils would like to gain more theoretical knowledge and get more help from teachers to apply actual and conceptual knowledge within new subject content. Pupils also wish to have more active, inquiry-based teacher activities during the lessons, and to be actively coached and motivated by the teacher.

Teacher Educators' Collaboration in Subject Departments: Collaborative Activities and Social Relations.

Teacher educators’ collaboration plays an important role in the improvement of teacher education. Many studies in educational research focus on collaboration from 1 particular perspective. A focus on 2 perspectives, a qualitative (focusing on collaborative activities) as well as a quantitative (focusing on relations) perspective, and relating both perspectives, can add to our knowledge. Data were collected in 3 subject departments of a teacher education institute. Findings indicated that educators’ collaborative networks inside the departments could gain from more coherent and dense relations, and that key players were important to support and sustain collaboration. Both perspectives were mildly related, correlations were found for “degree” and “information” (r = .31, p < .05), “degree” and “joint work” (r = .38, p < .01), and “reciprocity” and “joint work” (r = .33, p < .05), no correlations were found for “degree” or “reciprocity” and “discussing”. At the department level, only mathematics showed significant correlations. Results indicated that, in further research, qualitative aspects as well as quantitative aspects should be included.