Deborah Tidwell

The Relationship Between Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Reading Comprehension Instruction

This article presents the findings of a study designed to determine the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the teaching of reading comprehension and their classroom practices. The study, dealing with teachers from grades 4, 5, and 6, uses a beliefs interview technique borrowed from anthropology. Predictions about teaching practices were made from the belief interviews of 39 teachers and were related to practices observed in their classrooms. The study demonstrates that the beliefs of teachers in this sample relate to their classroom practices in the teaching of reading comprehension. A case study explores a situation in which the teacher’s beliefs did not relate to her practices. This case suggests that the teacher was in the process of changing beliefs and practices, but that the changes in beliefs were preceding changes in practices.

Self-Study As Teaching

The title of this chapter reflects an interesting connection between the process of self-study and the process of teaching, the notion that self-study is indeed teaching. With self-study, the teacher – whether in a classroom in a school setting or in a classroom at a university – searches for connections between beliefs and practices with a desire to make positive meaningful change in the learning environment. This chapter makes the case for self-study as teaching. To make this case we use the story of one teacher-researcher, an associate professor of literacy education at a teaching university in the Midwestern United States. She will share her journey into self-study through the spiraling nature of her research focus: self as the evaluator, effective practice process, actions in practice related to beliefs, and the construction of self. Through the story of her journey we will examine the similarities across the cyclical dynamics of research, of reflection, and of teaching.

Self-Study and Diversity

The two volumes of Self-Study and Diversity serve as landmarks on the journey of the self-study methodology and community in responding to issues of diversity, equity and social justice in teacher education.

Different Voices, Many Journeys: Explorations of the transformative nature of the self-study of teacher education practices

This special issue presents nine research articles that explore the transformative nature of self-study of teacher education practices from a variety of international perspectives and in different sociocultural contexts. The Ninth International Conference on Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices held at Herstmonceux Castle in August 2012 offered a wide range of papers reflecting the transformative nature of self-study research and practice. A number of papers clearly underscored the many and varied contexts in which self-study is conducted and the importance of recognizing the role of self-study research in transforming teaching–learning processes and practice. Following the conference and further close readings of papers published in the conference proceedings, we invited a number of authors to consider revision and expansion of their papers into research articles for publication. As a result, the articles in this special issue offer international perspectives and thought-provoking insights on the transformative potential of self-study, as illustrated through ongoing inquiries and lived experiences of the contributors, all of whom are teacher-researchers seeking to understand and improve their continuously evolving practice and personal narratives of being and becoming teacher educators. Taken together, and in the words of Clandinin (2010), these articles suggest that:

Creating a Professional Learning Community through Self-Study

This article describes the use of self-study as a frame for professional learning that grew out of a professional development program for teachers examining their practice in a dual-language K-4 school. Located in the center of the rural state of Iowa, the schools development of a bilingual program for native speakers of both English and Spanish created challenges for the educators involved. The authors reflect the spectrum of collegial partnerships fostered by the experience, representing two classroom teachers, a program coordinator, and two university professors. They present their analysis of the development of a dual language program and the impact of their collegial self-study on how they thought about their practice, how they engaged with others, and how they were able to achieve change within and across their practice.

The Evolution of Framing Professional Learning

Taking a Fresh Look at Education: Framing Professional Learning in Education through Self-Study is a book that has been in the making for several years. The chapters in this book reflect the work that has grown out of the scholarship of self-study of teacher education practice. This type of inquiry focuses upon teaching practice in an effort to better inform and improve practice (Loughran, Hamilton, LaBoskey, & Russell, 2004).

The Collaborative Process in Educators’ Self-Study of Practice

Our intention of connecting professional development with self-study of practice reflects the idea that educators benefit from various forms of knowledge, including formal and practical, which relate to the what and how of teaching (LaBoskey, 2004). Since self-study of practice is intended to improve upon one’s immediate practice (LaBoskey) and to align theory to practice (Loughran, 2007), the use of self-study seemed like an effective way to connect the educators’ professional development work with their change in practice.