Perry den Brok

Professional identity tensions of beginning teachers

This study reports on interviews with 24 beginning teachers about tensions they experienced regarding their professional identity. The interviewees reported a total of 59 tensions of tension that fell into three themes: (1) the change in role from student to teacher; (2) conflicts between desired and actual support given to students; and (3) conflicting conceptions of learning to teach. Most of the tensions experienced conform with those found in the literature. Tensions were often accompanied by feelings of helplessness, frustration or anger, and the teachers had a strong desire to learn to cope with them. Because of their negative impact on beginning teachers’ professional development, it is important that teacher educators and mentors in schools pay serious attention to tensions like these that relate to beginning teachers’ professional identity.

Tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity development, accompanying feelings and coping strategies

This study examined tensions encountered by 182 beginning teachers during their professional identity development, the feelings that accompanied these tensions and the ways they tried to cope with these. Professional identity tensions stem from an unbalanced personal and professional side of (becoming) a teacher. Tensions that are often mentioned by beginning teachers concerned conflicts between what they desire and what is possible in reality. Female teachers reported more tensions than their male colleagues, while final-year student teachers did not differ from first-year in-practice teachers in the number of tensions they experienced. Tensions were often accompanied by feelings of helplessness, anger or an awareness of shortcomings. Most beginning teachers tried to cope with their tensions by speaking to their significant others or by searching for a solution themselves. Insights into professional identity tensions experienced by beginning teachers are important in order to form a better understanding of the support they need.

Perceptions of Asian-American and Hispanic-American teachers and their students on teacher interpersonal communication style

The study investigated the relationship of teacher and student ethnic background to their perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour. It is theoretically linked to research on multicultural education and teacher interpersonal communication styles. Perceptions of 27 Asian-American and Hispanic-American teachers and their students in culturally diverse high schools were gathered by means of questionnaires and structured interviews. Teachers had more favourable perceptions of their own behaviour than their students did. Student and teacher ethnic background had a small but significant impact on students’ perceptions of their teachers. Interview data provided some evidence that concepts studied in relation to the cultural dimensions of communication, such as respect from students, closeness, and identification of students with their teachers, are helpful in explaining the relationship between ethnic background and perceptions of students and teachers. The results merit further research into the effects of culture on perceptions and provide recommendations for improvements in culturally responsive education.

Cultural influences on students' perceptions of videotaped lessons

This study investigated the effect of students’ cultural background on their perceptions of videotaped teacher behavior. Earlier research was not able to determine if behaviors perceived differently by students from various cultural groups were caused by dissimilar teacher treatment or differences with respect to students’ norms, values, and needs. By keeping teacher behavior constant, further evidence was sought for the second of these two possible causes. Seventy-eight students in four cultural groups (Asian-American, Hispanic-American, African-American and White-American) watched four video lesson segments and completed a questionnaire on interpersonal teacher behavior. Asian-American students felt the teachers displayed more uncertainty than their peers from other ethnic groups, while students mainly speaking Spanish at home perceived more helpful, friendly and understanding behavior. The outcomes provide further support for the assumption that students’ perceptions are influenced by their cultural background.

Differences and similarities in the use of the portfolio and personal development plan for career guidance in various vocational schools in The Netherlands

In The Netherlands, a growing number of vocational education and training institutes are implementing competence‐based approaches to learning, including new career guidance practices. These practices often involve instruments such as portfolios or personal development plans, and are aimed at supporting students in their search for a sense of direction, occupational choice and developing their identities. In this study perceptions of teachers, career counsellors and students on portfolios and personal development plans for career development were investigated at two vocational schools and one prevocational school. The results suggest that these instruments are perceived to be useful when used in a dialogical context. If used in a context without reflexive dialogues between teachers and students, students perceived the instruments as not useful and showed coping behaviour, such as not committing themselves to the actual goals or completing the instruments for external purposes/credits only.

The importance of teacher–student interpersonal relationships for Turkish students’ attitudes towards science

The purpose of this study was to examine associations between Turkish high school students’ perceptions of their science teachers’ interpersonal behaviour and their attitudes towards science. Students’ perceptions of the teacher–student interpersonal relationship were mapped with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), which uses two relational dimensions: influence and proximity. Data on Students’ subject‐related attitudes were collected with the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA). A total of 7484 students (Grades 9 to 11) from 278 science classes (55 public schools) in 13 major Turkish cities participated in the study. Multilevel analyses of variance indicated that influence was related with student enjoyment, while proximity was associated with attitudes towards inquiry and with enjoyment.

Career conversations in vocational schools

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine career conversations between teachers and students in competence-based vocational education in the Netherlands. A total of 32 career conversations were observed and analysed with respect to four elements: content, teacher activities, student activities and relationship. Results showed that career conversations often focused on school issues (such as students progress and course curriculum) rather than career issues (such as future ambitions or characteristics of a profession). Furthermore, teachers hardly facilitated students in the development of self-directedness. Students asked few questions and teachers often dominated discussions. The findings revealed implications for the practice of career guidance in schools, for example for teachers to change their role from that of a traditional knowledge transmitter to facilitator, provide students with more opportunities for self-direction, and put career issues more centrally and elaborately on the agenda of discussions.

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.

Let’s Make Things Better

Philips, the Dutch multinational, had as its mission until 2004 “Let’s make things better”. We chose this sentence as the title of our contribution to this book because despite considerable progress in the study of interpersonal relationships in education during the last two decades, a great deal of work remains. Two topics are particularly relevant. First, further development is needed on the theoretical basis of the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behaviour and the instrument based on this model, the Questionnaire for Teacher Interaction (QTI; Wubbels, Brekelmans, Den Brok & Van Tartwijk, 2006). Second, attention is needed for the search for (causal) relationships between moment-to-moment interactions in the classroom and the patterns of interpersonal relationships between teacher and students. The first is a sine qua non for sustainable progress in the field and the development towards a more parsimonious model. The second will advance progress in providing formative guidance and professional development to teachers in pre and in-service programmes.

Teacher research in Dutch professional development schools: perceptions of the actual and preferred situation in terms of the context, process and outcomes of research

This study aims to provide deeper insight into participants’ (e.g. school principals, teachers and student teachers) perceptions of the actual and preferred situation in terms of the context, process and outcomes of practice-based research through teachers-as-researchers at Dutch professional development schools. We interviewed eight school principals, 10 teachers, and six student teachers from four professional development schools in the Netherlands. A trend displayed across all types of participants was their focus on the context dimension of research. Moreover, respondents often focussed in rather general terms on the process of conducting teacher research within the school and the content of this research. A major difference exists between perceptions of the actual and preferred situation related to the effects of teacher research on pupils’ outcomes: despite the central focus of research on pupil learning and learning results, according to participants effects on pupil level were not (yet) reached at this moment. These results suggest that in Dutch professional development schools increased attention is needed both by researchers and practitioners on the process and outcome dimensions of doing teacher research.