Browsing by Author "Cooper R"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A Reading Group for Science Educators: an Approach for Developing Personal and Collective Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education
    (Springer Nature, 5/03/2022) Cooper R; Fitzgerald A; Carpendale J
    Reading, at its core, is a basic yet critical way to undertake learning and growth. This paper shares a professional learning and development initiative for science educators, which was underpinned by the popularity and premise of the reading group. In moving from simply being a vehicle for targeted discussion, the reading group facilitators sought to support the participants in taking a deeper dive into their practice with the impact ultimately being changes to their personal pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for science. This small-scale qualitative study was informed by the voices of three science educators at different stages and career trajectories, who participated in interviews. The data revealed that their participation in the reading group informed the development of their personal and collective PCK by (a) creating conditions that encouraged meaningful links to be made between theory and practice, (b) encouraging the adoption of an inquiry stance as a means for engaging purposively with professional knowledge, and (c) initiating a transformation in their contemporary understandings of science and science education. By drawing on the participants’ narratives, this study brings to the fore both the simplicity and depth of complexity that can be achieved through a reading group focused on professional learning and development. The implications of this research are wide reaching as the reading group as a concept can be applied to a variety of contexts and shaped to reach a variety of educational needs.
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    Career transitions in teacher education: ‘Stories’ from three teacher educators
    (Springer Nature for The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc., 2024-09-21) Fitzgerald A; Cooper R; Carpendale J; Mansfield J
    Career transitions are often studied from the perspective of changing from one career to the next. Missing from this definition, however, is that transitions can take place within a career. In the case of teacher education and academia, these transitions are often seen as well laid out with an accepted view of ‘success’ and those taking an alternate path being viewed as ‘less successful’. In this self-study, three teacher educators at different stages of their careers were guided by the question: What are the barriers and enablers faced by teacher educators in relation to career transitions? The objective of this paper was to reconsider the notion of career transitions and trajectory. Situated within a small-scale research paradigm underpinned by interpretivism, this self-study presents an analysis of the ‘stories’ of three teacher educators and their lived experiences of career transitions within the academy. A descriptive case study approach was used to guide data collection over four phases to generate data using a narrative inquiry approach using timelines, individual portraits, collective stories and additional insights from a critical friend. The notion of critical friend was employed in two ways: the participants acted as critical friends for each other, and the fourth author challenged thinking and offered new perspectives. This self-study offers insights about the characteristics which have enabled and challenged the three teacher educators and may resonate with others, contributing to our understanding of conditions which can be created to support the intra-academy career transitions and professional development of teacher educators.
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    Navigating roadblocks and gates: longitudinal experiences of highly accomplished teachers following professional development
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-07-04) Cooper R; Carpendale J; Cutler B; Berry A; Mitchell I
    Highly Accomplished Teachers (HATs) think deeply about skilled pedagogy in ways that illuminate its complexity and the challenges of pedagogical change. The sophistication, breadth, and depth of their thinking often goes well beyond the way that teachers and their responses to professional development (PD) are typically positioned in the extensive, and often quite pessimistic literature on teacher PD. This study extends our previous research with a cohort of HATs immediately following their participation in an intensive PD programme, where we reported how they took ideas from the programme and extended and amplified them by exerting agency and high degrees of professionalism. Our current study reports research with the same cohort 2 years post-PD as they sought to introduce ideas inspired by the PD within their schools. While there were some clear successes, some of their ideas challenged existing thinking and practices in ways that school leadership did not expect. Thus, they encountered barriers that in some cases they were able to navigate and overcome. This paper foregrounds the new complexities of both pedagogy and change that flowed from the HATs’ ideas as well as how they exerted their professionalism to tackle these.
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    Supporting the Development of Science Pre-service Teachers’ Creativity and Critical Thinking in Secondary Science Initial Teacher Education
    (Springer, 3/03/2023) Marangio K; Carpendale J; Cooper R; Mansfield J
    Creative and critical thinking (C&CT) capabilities are essential qualities of future ready scientific literate citizens. As teacher educators, developing C&CT in science pre-service teachers (PSTs) requires supporting PSTs’ development of C&CT, in addition to supporting their understanding and capacity to teach for development of C&CT in their future school science students. In this study, four secondary science educators critically reflected on the development of our professional knowledge and practice for supporting secondary science PSTs’ understanding of, and capacity to teach, C&CT as future teachers of science. Meeting transcripts, reflective journaling and curriculum documents were inductively analysed for key themes, utilising an iterative approach with multiple cycles of review. Findings showed that integrating C&CT in explicit ways in our teaching and assessment tasks was not as straight-forward as initially imagined. Three themes were identified, showing how our thinking evolved, namely (1) becoming sensitised to C&CT in our science ITE practice; (2) developing a shared language and understanding for science education; and (3) illuminating the conditions for teaching C&CT. A recurring feature in all themes was the value of tensions for sensitising us to specific aspects of C&CT and its teaching. We offer recommendations for others seeking to develop science PSTs’ C&CT.