Student Action Logging Creates Teacher Efficacy

Student action logging is a very practical way for teachers to understand what their students have actually learned, what they like and do not like, and where to go next. Action logging entails notebooks and forms used to regularly record student feedback, reflections, and evaluations related to the classroom and their learning. In this paper, three teachers who have been using action logging for different periods of time (1, 3, and 30 years) present their differing experiences of how action logs have shaped their teaching. The teacher perspectives in this paper reveal how action logs provide information that supports teaching decisions, enriches communication between teachers and students, and facilitates a habit of reflective practice. Despite some tensions that may surface from its initial implementation, it is argued that action logging can be adapted to a wide range of different contexts to the mutual benefit of teachers and learners. 学生によるアクションロギング（活動記録）は教員にとって、生徒達が実際に何を学んだのか、彼らは何が好きで何が嫌いなのか、また今後の授業はどこへ向かって行ったらよいのかを知る非常に実用的な方法である。アクションログとは、生徒達が授業や各自の学習について、フィードバック、考え、また評価を定期的に記入するノート又はフォームである。筆者三名はアクションログを各自一年、三年、三十年活用しており、アクションログの活用経験を通じてどのように各自の指導法が変化していったのかを論じている。本稿では、筆者三名の異なる観点から、アクションログから引き出される情報がどのように教授法の決断を支持し、生徒教員間の意思疎通を豊かにし、さらに内省の習慣を促進するかを明らかにする。導入初期には不安事項が出現するかもしれないが、アクションロギングは生徒教員双方にとって有益で、広範囲な指導環境において活用できると言えるだろう。

Systematic Selection of Innovative Pedagogies in Teacher Education Courses and Practica

The purpose for teaching is to prepare learners for lives in the 21st century. The availability of new forms of teaching to achieve 21st century learning outcomes across learner differences benefits from tapping a systematic approach for pedagogy selection. For those working in teacher education, the chapter first summarizes issues about new pedagogies, including the perspective of the preservice teacher. A systematic approach to selecting innovative pedagogies uses seven prompts. The first three review student needs including (1) teacher knowledge of student differences, (2) learning outcomes, and (3) the realities of the school setting. A second set of prompts address teaching decisions including (4) assessment of learning outcomes, (5) the mix of teaching models and strategies, (6) the enabling features of the new pedagogies during implementation, and (7) the adjustments of teaching decisions based on the responses to the above prompts. Recommendations for best practices and research directions are provided.

Mapping Your Place: Developing a Place-Conscious Music Classroom

When beginning music teachers enter a new classroom for the first time, they start a journey toward understanding a new context and community. Place consciousness develops as they become embedded in their community and begin to recognize how its culture and environment interact with their teaching practices. By mapping the objects, people, and history that inhabit the music classroom, a music teacher will develop a clearer understanding of what is happening and has happened in this place, prompting critical considerations for its future. Teaching decisions informed by place-conscious inquiry such as mapping may lead to the development of a music program that nurtures and sustains a deep and harmonious relationship with its students and surrounding community.

How Pre-service Teachers Use Knowledge of the Learner to Make in the Moment and Planned Teaching Decisions

Our research team examined pre-service teachers’ (undergraduate students studying education) case study projects to determine what types of decisions teachers make during guided reading instruction. We coded each teacher decision as either a “planning” or “in-the-moment” decision. Our research team then looked at what each teacher decision was related to: did the decision help a child with comprehension, solving for unknown words, etc. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers are able to make complex decisions that often lead to a focus on meaning-making and comprehension.

Teaching philosophy in practice: Developing compatibility through personal practical knowledge

As part of an MATESOL mentoring program, developing educators were paired with experienced professors. The authors explore how personal practical knowledge bridges the gap between teaching philosophy and classroom practice. The complex layers of experience and knowledge that a mentor can offer need to be prompted, however; they cannot simply be deduced by observing. Using observational notes, interviews, and reflection, we explore real-time teaching decisions as a way to elaborate and reconsider the usually succinct teaching philosophy statement. This is particularly important for new teachers and those who are teaching in contexts or with students whose culture is still being absorbed. Personal practice knowledge is seen as the stem from which both teaching philosophy and classroom practice bloom.