The use of online technology within universities is increasing. However, this expansion is not accompanied by an associated increase in investment in lecturers' pedagogical knowledge to assist them in the transition. The major challenge now is to encourage the use of pedagogically sound technologies. At present, lecturers often lack the tools to…

This paper describes a collaborative action research approach used to explore peer observation of teaching (POT) within the online environment. Although POT has become familiar in face-to-face teaching contexts, little is understood of its potential role in online settings. We conducted "virtual" focus groups to explore the experience…

The powerful role of prior experiences and cultural schemata in guiding novice teachers' conceptions of how to teach is hardly contested. We report on a "reflective practicum" at the very beginning of a pre-service teacher education course that interconnects prior beliefs, reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action and that, in principle,…

This paper comments on strengths and weaknesses of the papers on communities of practice in this special issue of "Technology, Pedagogy and Education." First it discusses the character of communities of practice and the question of whether schools are environments that are conducive to the development of teacher communities of practice. It then…

Reflective journals have been used widely in teacher education programs to promote reflective thinking (Freidus, 1998; Carter & Francis, 2000; Yost, Senter & Forlenzo-Bailey, 2000). Smyth (1992) advocated that posing a series of questions to be answered in written journals could enhance reflective thinking. It was for this reason that…

Instructional designers regularly engage in a process of professional and personal transformation that has the potential to transform the culture of institutions through faculty-client relationships. Instructional designers promote new ideas and understandings in social contexts that include other designers and clients, among others. This research…

This study reports on the impact of mentor teachers using an explicit pedagogy with their student teachers. Seven mentors participated in workshops before the school year started and received ongoing support throughout the year about how to explicitly teach student teachers the strategies and skills needed to be an effective teacher. Observations…

Middle school teachers are not unique in their lack of time to contemplate their profession in any systematic way. Educators could benefit from journal-keeping as a means to reflect on their practice, their attitudes towards what they do in the classroom, and the obstacles they all face in teaching. This article presents excerpt from a teacher's…

This paper extends the previous application of Alfred Whitehead's educational ideas to the domain of enterprise education. In doing so, a unique approach to enterprise education is illustrated that links students to their reality whilst also connecting the curriculum to contemporary entrepreneurship theory. The paper reports upon past cycles of…

This paper introduces autobiographical analysis as a "disruptive strategy" that is deliberately structured to enable preservice teachers to develop new ways of thinking about teaching. Specifically, we: 1) describe how we incorporate a process of critical examination of preservice teachers' biases and assumptions throughout their…

The title of this article came from a student who joined the author's PGCE tutor group in the second semester of last year. It was made during a group reflection activity. The title was fascinating, as was the response from other members of the group: "there's no hiding in here--we all talk." Collaborative journal writing between mentor…

In this self-study of a secondary teacher education course, the authors investigated whether there was evidence of critically reflective problem solving on the part of prospective teachers who participated in a peer-led online discussion of a teaching case about English-language learners. They also examined what approaches to multicultural…

This paper explores whether a professional development weblog could support work-based learning in a TAFE Library. The paper includes both a literature review of material dealing with work-based learning in the VET sector, weblogs and their possible use as a professional development tool and an evaluation of a weblog project devised to support…

This article presents evidence that maths diagnostic assessments, consequent individualized learning programmes and face-to-face maths study support can combine to significantly increase maths related module pass rates and scores for undergraduate engineering students. It is argued that simply having a quiet, relaxed, supported study area,…

This article details the ongoing collaboration between two teacher training providers in the UK and Finland in the development and use of portfolios to support reflective practice in teacher education programmes. The use of portfolios for assessment in teacher education has developed extensively over a number of years to support the student to…