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Resumen La implicación del profesorado de primaria y de secundaria1 como investigadores de su práctica docente, considerada objeto de discusión a lo largo de varias décadas, constituye una práctica cada vez más importante en el mundo actual. Los resultados de la investigación sobre el conocimiento y el desarrollo profesional del profesorado apuntan a la importancia de la construcción de nuevos conocimientos, en respuesta a los diferentes desafíos y necesidades impuestos por la complejidad de los contextos educativos. Existe un amplio consenso por parte de los que defienden la implicación del profesorado como investigadores como una estrategia de toma de decisiones basada en la evidencia, la evaluación e innovación de las prácticas. Sin embargo, parece que existe menos consenso en relación con el concepto del papel de docente-investigador/a, así como en los contextos y formas de participación del profesorado como investigador. En este artículo, tenemos como objetivo reflexionar sobre el papel y las perspectivas actuales del profesorado-investigador en cuanto reconstructor de la profesionalidad docente, teniendo como base un marco conceptual formado por lo que designamos los pilares de la arquitectura educativa en el mundo actual. Esta reflexión nos permite concluir que la adopción por parte del profesorado de una actitud investigadora sobre la práctica, debe ser fundamentalmente un proceso sistemático de reflexión y crítica sobre la eficacia de su trabajo, no teniendo necesariamente que obedecer a la rigidez de los criterios tradicionales de la investigación académica. Abstract Involving primary and secondary school teachers2 as researchers of their craft is a topic that has been under discussion for many decades and which has garnered growing importance in today´s world. A study probing into knowledge acquisition and professional development by faculty fosters the importance of learning and acquiring new types of knowledge to respond to the different challenges and needs imposed by complex educational contexts. There is a broad consensus by those who defend the role of teachers as researchers as a decision-making, evidence-based strategy for assessment and innovation of practices. However, it seems that there is less of a consensus regarding the concept of the teacher as researcher and the actual research context. The goal of this article is to reflect on current roles and perspectives of teachers as researchers in reconstructing teacher expertise using a conceptual framework as an architectural baseline. This thought allows us to conclude that need for teachers to research their craft must, essentially, be a systematic process of reflection and thought on the efficacy of their work and not necessarily have to obey the stringent and traditional criteria of academic research.

This study employed a hermeneutic phenomenological theoretical perspective and methodology to explore the outcomes of a Scripture-focussed professional learning program in Israel; the Sion Scholarship Program (SSP). Since its introduction in 2005, four Australian primary school teachers from the Catholic Diocese of Sale were selected and funded annually to participate in the SSP. This study explores participants’ personal and professional response to the SSP, and provides a more substantive research-base to consider whether it is a means for transformative learning. Three themes were developed from a review of literature: Professional Learning, Professional Learning in Context, and Adult Transformative Learning. Mezirow’s (1981; 1990; 1997; 2009) theory of transformative learning informed the design of this study. Three main methods of data collection provide a robust corroboration of evidence: questionnaires, semi -structured interviews (focus groups and individuals), and a participant’s reflective journal. Researcher notes provided further corroboration. Fifteen questionnaire responses were received and fifteen participants from a range of SSP annual programs (2005-2015), were interviewed, ensuring a cross section of responses from different iterations of the program. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify themes. Analysis also included a crafted story; a reflective approach enabling participants’ meaning to become clearer through rich descriptions. Results showed that the SSP enabled personal and professional transformation due to immersion in Israel, the dedicated time for study and reflection, and the sense of belonging to a like-minded learning community. Personal faith was transformed and their experience, according to participants, enhanced their teaching of Scripture. Experiencing life in Israel led to a heightened awareness of the need for interreligious dialogue and respect for others. Results also revealed a lack of coordinated opportunity to maximise post-learning potential for participants and other non-program school members. This has implications for the design, implementation and follow-up for the SSP specifically, and for other immersion-forms of teacher professional learning more broadly.

In this study on motivations concerning professional development (PD) we interviewed 95 primary school teachers in the Netherlands. We coded these data using the Unified Model of Task-specific Motivation (de Brabander & Martens, 2014) in different decision contexts concerning who decides about teacher participation in PD: school board, teacher teams, or individual teachers. We analysed the valences that teachers associated with PD activities, their experiences of autonomy, and whether and how these variables were affected by decision context and teacher age. Results show that decision contexts relate differently to valences and autonomy experiences. Positive autonomy and positive valences increased going from schoolboard to team to individual decision contexts. Whereas the literature on effective teacher PD stresses the importance of PD design features, our study is the first to empirically demonstrate the crucial influence of decision contexts. Among older teachers, teaching experience informed the selection of PD content to transfer to their classrooms. Younger teachers tended to first explore whether PD worked in their classrooms before deciding about adoption. Direct applicability emerged as a dominant criterion for evaluating PD. Decision context and autonomy regarding PD programmes play important roles in ensuring applicability. Our research revealed that the dominance of the direct applicability criterion was not motivated by student benefits alone. It was also based in an attitude of efficiency among primary teachers, reflecting growing work pressures and a general prioritisation of classroom teaching above all other tasks, including PD.

This is a qualitative study with a twofold aim. The first aim is to describe and analyse teachers' perceptions of advantages and challenges with a model for continued professional development (CPD) for primary school teachers. The CPD course was about inquiry-based learning (IBL) in science education. The second aim of the study is to analyse the teachers' thoughts after implementing inquiry-based methods in their own science teaching. The empirical data, in the form of video transcriptions, notes, interviews and results from electronic forms, were collected during and after four separate in-service courses for teachers (N=26). The analysis of the data is done through thematic analysis. As positive results, the teachers emphasised the implementation of IBL with their students and the individual mentoring, which were parts of the CPD model. Teachers highlighted the importance of students' possibilities to make investigations based on their own questions, which proved to have a positive impact on students' interest and motivation. Teachers also saw the importance of their own planning and goal setting. The results indicate that the teachers perceived a tension between having control and relinquishing control, which can become a challenge. Two other challenges were teachers' perceived lack of time for planning and implementing but also teachers' deficient subject knowledge.

This study used an experimental, pretest-posttest control group design to investigate whether participation in a large-scale inquiry project would improve primary teachers’ attitudes towards teaching science and towards conducting inquiry. The inquiry project positively affected several elements of teachers’ attitudes. Teachers felt less anxious about teaching science and felt less dependent on contextual factors compared to the control group. With regard to attitude towards conducting inquiry, teachers felt less anxious and more able to conduct an inquiry project. There were no effects on other attitude components, such as self-efficacy beliefs or relevance beliefs, or on self-reported science teaching behaviour. These results indicate that practitioner research may have a partially positive effect on teachers’ attitudes, but that it may not be sufficient to fully change primary teachers’ attitudes and their actual science teaching behaviour. In comparison, a previous study showed that attitude-focused professional development in science education has a more profound impact on primary teachers’ attitudes and science teaching behaviour. In our view, future interventions aiming to stimulate science teaching should combine both approaches, an explicit focus on attitude change together with familiarisation with inquiry, in order to improve primary teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices.

In the current paper, we present an analysis of a case study in which we have followed Swedish primary teachers who voluntarily began using translated Finnish curriculum materials, i.e. a textbook and teacher guide, in order to reform their mathematics teaching. The multifaceted data, consisting of questionnaires, interviews, protocols from collegial meetings and classroom observations, were gathered during the period 2010-2014. The analysis of the interplay within this cross-cultural setting reveals the special characteristics and the challenges existing in practice. Both the experienced and inexperienced teachers offloaded a great deal of their agency to the materials in order to become familiar with the ideas they mediated. Yet, the lack of a clear rationale behind the organization of the materials, as well as the suggested activities connected to taken-for-granted features of the Finnish teaching tradition, made fruitful interaction problematic. The changes teachers made in their classroom practice were tightly connected to the support offered in the materials, without which the teachers abandoned their new classroom patterns. Based on the results of this study, we suggest a number of general aspects that we regard as important to consider when implementing curriculum materials developed within another cultural-educational context.

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The certification program aimed to certify all teachers by 2015. The program was rolled out at a rate of approximately 200,000 teachers each year. This report evaluates the certification program as it was implemented, in terms of its impact on student-learning outcomes. Results of the analysis are sobering: despite its massive fiscal implications, the certification program has not led to substantial improvements in student-learning outcomes so far. The report provides leads into how to gradually transform the system into one that can yield higher returns in educational performance going forward. It emphasizes the importance of a system that rewards useful demonstrated competencies, such as minimum levels of subject-matter knowledge, rather than loose proxies for quality such as bachelor’s degrees or seniority alone (which is essentially what the current certification program does). The report also highlights the need for reforms in the pre-service system of teacher training and teacher hiring. Chapter one gives decade on for teacher certification in Indonesia; chapter two presents an empirical review of the teacher certification program in Indonesia; chapter three presents beyond certification: what matters and what doesn’t matter for student learning?; and chapter four presents policy options for sizable and lasting changes in education quality.

This report presents results of the application of SABER teachers in Samoa. It describes Samoa’s performance with respect to each of the eight teacher policy goals, alongside comparative information from education systems that have consistently scored highly on international student achievement tests and have participated in SABER-Teachers. Additional detailed descriptive information on the teacher policies of the education systems of Samoa and other countries can be found on the SABER-teachers website.

The SABER teacher’s tool aims to help fill some of these gaps by collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and disseminating comprehensive information on teacher policies in primary and secondary education systems around the world. The main focus of SABER teachers is on policy design/intent, rather than on policy implementation. SABER teachers analyze the teacher policies formally adopted by education systems. However, policies ‘on the ground’, that is, policies as they are actually implemented at school or other institutional level, often differ quite substantially from policies as originally designed. This can be due to the political economy of the reform process, lack of capacity of the organizations in charge of implementing them, and/or the interaction between these policies and other specific contextual factors. Since SABER Teachers collects limited data on policy implementation, the assessment of teacher policies presented in this report needs to be complemented with detailed information that describes the actual configuration of teacher policies on the ground. This report presents the results of the application of SABER Teachers in Kenya. It describes Kenya’s performance with each of the eight teacher policy goals, alongside comparative information from education systems that have consistently scored high results in international student achievement tests and have participated in SABER teachers.

This report presents results of the application of SABER teachers in Moldova. It describes Moldova’s performance in each of the eight teacher policy goals, alongside comparative information from education systems that have consistently scored high results in international student achievement tests and have participated in SABER Teachers. Additional detailed descriptive information on Moldova’s and other education systems’ teacher policies can be found on the SABER teacher’s website. Data presented here are as of July 2014.

Students from low income background often fall behind early on their education journey. Without adequate and timely support to address their learning needs they continue to perform poorly. Eventually the students lagging behind, will keep failing to learn the basic literacy and numeracy skills, and most likely will end up dropping out of school illiterate. The majority of Global Education Partnership (GPE) countries have acknowledged in their education sector plans and strategies the need to address the problem of low learning levels, and of students not going efficiently through the public education system, which has resulted in wastage of financial and human resources. Ideally interventions that aimed to improve learning of low performing students should be included in the framework of a country's educational policies in alignment with other institutional arrangements such as teacher training, curriculum, assessment, available pedagogic materials, instructional time, language of instruction (when applicable), among others. However, many of these countries are yet to draft policies that will specifically focus on helping low performers. Currently, it can be concluded that academic improvements from remedial support may help students to pass the grade or yield fast improvements, however such interventions by themselves may have not been sufficient to raise achievement at adequate levels. Remedial education programs will likely be most effective when included as part of a country's overall strategic plan to deliver quality education for all of its students. Overall, the renewed focus on low performers, many times victims of teacher neglect and other social exclusion experiences, by the means of directing programs and resources to address learning gaps is already a huge step towards achieving learning for all.

This paper uses research from neuroscience and the psychology of mathematics to arrive at useful recommendations for teaching mathematics at primary level to poor students in developing countries. The enrollment rates of the poorer students have improved tremendously in the last decade. And the global Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) has improved since 2001 from 83.2 percent to 90-95 percent except in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Making teaching of math and other subjects efficient for the poor in developing countries is a great challenge, particularly in south Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Many developing countries have explored new means of teaching math and other subjects. Mongolia changed its mathematics education, aiming to build a new set of priorities and practices, given the abandonment of earlier traditions. Similar to international trends of the time, South Africa in the 1990s extensively applied the constructivist learning philosophy which relied on exploration and discovery, with little emphasis on memorization, drill, In conformity with a belief that teachers could develop their own learning programs, there was virtual absence of a national or provincial syllabus or textbooks. Students were expected to develop their own methods for arithmetic operations, but most found it impossible to progress on their own from counting to actual calculating. This study integrates pertinent research from neuroscience and the psychology of mathematics to arrive at recommendations for curricular and efficient means of mathematics instruction particularly for developing countries and poor students at primary level. Specifically, the latest research in neuroscience, cognitive science, and discussions of national benchmarks for primary school mathematics learning, form the basis of our recommendations. These recommendations have a reasonable chance of working in the situational contexts of developing countries, with their traditions and resources.