J. Dengerink

Teacher educators working on their own professional development: goals, activities and outcomes of a project for the professional development of teacher educators

This article reports on the professional development of teacher educators within the context of a national project, ‘Professional Quality of Teacher Educators,’ where a professional standard and a standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development have been created and effectively implemented. This project offered a unique opportunity to analyze the goals, activities and outcomes of the process of professional development of teacher educators in a situation in which this development is promoted by the professional group as a whole. In our research, we used 25 completed portfolios made by teacher educators participating in the standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development. We found that teacher educators, participating in this procedure, prefer the development of their knowledge and skills over the development of their attitudes and beliefs. For their professional development, the teacher educators experiment with new activities within the work‐situation and interact with colleagues within their professional community, more than that they study theory or reflect on their work. The participating teacher educators experience a positive impact at the personal level (change in cognition and behavior). More than one‐third of them share outcomes with others. Above, they report a more positive self‐esteem and more enthusiasm for teacher education. This article may motivate other countries or institutions to invest in the professional development of teacher educators. Further research is necessary on the essence of the professional qualities of teacher educators and the relation of their professional development with student learning.

The Professional Teacher Educator. Roles, Behaviour, and Professional Development of Teacher Educators

En la busqueda de aportes al desarrollo sostenible desde la construccion y tomando como referencia la aceptacion y aplicacion practica de los pavimentos con neumaticos reciclados, se realiza una investigacion cuantitativa con el objetivo de establecer las propiedades mecanicas de un concreto a los 28 dias, sustituyendo parcialmente el agregado fino en porcentajes de 5%, 10% y 15% en volumen, por neumatico triturado reciclado sin ningun tratamiento previo. Como aspectos positivos, los resultados muestran una reduccion en el peso unitario y un aumento en la resistencia a la traccion indirecta; sin embargo, se ve afectada la manejabilidad, la resistencia a la compresion, la resistencia a la flexion y se incrementa la absorcion inicial. De igual manera, en del desarrollo de la investigacion, fue analizado visualmente el comportamiento del neumatico dentro de la mezcla, observando una distribucion heterogenea y una adherencia parcial con la matriz.Marine algal seaweed species are often regarded as an underutilized bioresource many have been used as a source of food, industrial raw materials, and in therapeutic and botanical applications for centuries. Seaweeds are best known for the natural polysaccharides. Moreover, seaweed and seaweed-derived products have been widely used as a key ingredient in many pharmaceutical preparations like tablets, as rate retardant in sustained and extended release dosage forms, as stabilizer in liquid orals, cosmetics, implants and as bioplastic in packaging industry. This article provides a comprehensive review of various seaweed species and seaweed products with an emphasis on the use of this renewable bioresource in pharmaceutical industry and medical field.During the Chilean earthquakes of May, 1960, a number of tall, slender structures survived the ground shaking whereas more stable appearing structures were severely damaged. An analysis is made of the rocking motion of structures of inverted pendulum type. It is shown that there is a scale effect which makes tall slender structures more stable against overturning than might have been expected, and, therefore, the survival of such structures during earthquakes is not surprising.La necesidad de preparar al sector de tecnologias de la informacion y las comunicaciones de Colombia para hacer frente a los desafios que trae consigo el desarrollo de la convergencia tecnologica, institucional y de mercados, implicaba plantear un nuevo equilibrio entre la promocion del desarrollo competitivo del sector y el cumplimiento de los fines sociales de mayor cobertura y acceso de los ciudadanos, empresas e instituciones publicas a las TIC, derivados de la naturaleza de servicio publico que ostentan las telecomunicaciones. En consecuencia, el Gobierno colombiano trabajo desde mediados de 2006, con una permanente retroalimentacion intragubernamental y sectorial, en una revision del marco normativo del sector de comunicaciones con el fin de actualizarlo a la dinamica institucional y de mercado, prepararlo para anticipar los rapidos cambios tecnologicos y fortalecer el enfoque de la politica publica orientada a promover la masificacion de las TIC en todos los ambitos sociales, geograficos y economicos.De destacar como avances importantes de este nuevo marco legislativo esta contar con la Habilitacion General para que los proveedores de redes y servicios de telecomunicaciones puedan operar; la unificacion de la contraprestacion periodica a favor del Fondo de Tecnologias de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones; la introduccion del principio de Neutralidad Tecnologica mediante el cual el Estado garantiza la libre adopcion de tecnologias en la provision de redes y servicios; la creacion de la Agencia Nacional del Espectro como ente tecnico especializado; el fortalecimiento y claridad de la capacidad de intervencion del Estado en el sector; la precision del alcance del regimen de proteccion a los usuarios de los servicios de comunicaciones; la unificacion y actualizacion de las normas de radiodifusion sonora; y, la eliminacion del caracter domiciliario de los servicios publicos de comunicaciones.

What and how teacher educators prefer to learn

In which areas and domains do individual teacher educators prefer to work on their professional development? What kind of learning activities do they want to take on and with whom? Are there significant differences in these preferences between teacher educators? This article reports on a recent survey (N = 268) about the professional development of teacher educators and differences in learning preferences between less and more experienced teacher educators and between university-based and school-based teacher educators. Findings show, for example, that while most university-based teacher educators were mainly interested in improving their teaching, less experienced school-based teacher educators were more focussed on aspects such as coaching skills. In this study, ‘learning profiles’ have been developed for four categories of teacher educators. These profiles may help to create more meaningful arrangements for teacher educators’ initial education and further professional development in a context where teacher education is required to have a more school-based as well as a more research-based orientation.

The Dutch Case

As stated in the previous chapters of this book, teacher educators play a crucial role in maintaining and developing the quality of teachers, both at the primary and the secondary level (Liston, Borko, & Whitcomb, 2008). As we have seen in recent years, a variety of scholars have emphasised this implies that teacher educators have a profession of their own, which should be distinguished from the profession of teachers, and that there is a need for the further professional development of teacher educators (Murray & Male, 2005; Swennen, Jones, & Volman, 2010).

Supporting the professional development of teacher educators in a productive way

This study reports on what 13 teacher educators going through a procedure to become registered as a teacher educator in 2011–2012 learned, what goals they formulated for their further professional development and what activities they planned to achieve these goals. The methods used in this study are mainly the same as were used at the time the first cohort went through the registration procedure in 2002. The 2012 cohort participated in a supportive programme, whereas the 2002 cohort did not. This enables a comparison of the results of both studies and thus some insight into the possible benefits of integrating a registration procedure with a supportive programme for the professional development of teacher educators.

Conclusions and Discussion

In Chapter 1, we discussed that since the 1990s, there has been more attention to the crucial role of teacher educators in the educational chain. This has led to many studies about and by teacher educators. However, the research in this area has been quite scattered and missing until now was a clear, research-based overview of what is known internationally about the professional functioning of teacher educators.