Teachers as Learning Specialists – Implications for Teachers' Pedagogical Knowledge and Professionalism

Brussels, 18 June 2014

 

 

Background and Objectives

This symposium, co-hosted by CERI in the framework of the Innovative Teaching for Effective Learning (ITEL) project and by the Department of Education and Training of the Flemish Ministry, focused on teachers’ pedagogical knowledge. The main objective was to get a good understanding of how teacher knowledge can be conceptualised and measured and what elements might influence this knowledge. The themes also included the potential of integrating new findings from the Science of Learning (e.g., in particular, the neurosciences) in this knowledge and what impact the increasing demand on teaching 21st century skills might have on teacher knowledge.

The objective of this Symposium was to engage in discussions with leading experts in order to inform the development of a conceptual framework for developing an instrument to profile the pedagogical knowledge base of teachers. The Symposium brought together leading researchers in the field, who made presentations of their conceptual and empirical work to begin exploring the following questions:

• What is the pedagogical knowledge base of the teaching profession?
  • How is teachers' general pedagogical knowledge conceptualized? For instance, is it multi-dimensional, and if so, what are the various cognitive dimensions and can these be measured?
  • How do teachers’ motivations and beliefs about teaching (e.g., self-regulation, self-efficacy, professional responsibility) relate to teacher knowledge and how can these relationships can be measured?
  • How does teacher pedagogical knowledge impact student learning outcomes?
  • What is the relationship between pedagogical knowledge and professionalism, and how can it be measured?

• Is teachers' pedagogical knowledge up-to-date?
  • Does the knowledge base of teachers sufficiently incorporate the latest scientific research on learning? Can neuroscience research inform teachers on how to create effective teaching-learning situations?
  • Does teachers' knowledge base meet the expectations for teaching and learning '21st century skills'? What does the research say about how these skills are learned and developed?

Download the Project Background Report, which describes the policy context and the project objectives and gives a brief synthesis of the research literature.

 

Programme

Download the Symposium Programme, which also contains the speakers' biographies.

 

Presentations

 

Sigrid Blömeke	Modelling teachers' professional competence as a multi-dimensional construct	Summary	Slides
Thamar Voss	Teachers' general pedagogical/psychological knowledge: Conceptualization and test construction (Thamar Voss was not able to present at the symposium.)	Summary	Slides
Johannes König	Motivations for teaching and relationship to pedagogical knowledge	Summary	Slides
Fani Lauermann	Teacher responsibility: ties to pedagogical knowledge and professionalism	Summary	Slides
Daniel Ansari	Why should teachers care about cognitive neuroscience?	Summary	Slides
James W. Pellegrino	What is the evidence on teaching and learning 21st century skills?	Summary	Slides
Kirsti Klette	Measuring teaching expertise from the point of classroom observations	Summary	Slides
Fien Depaepe	Discussant and Moderator for a Panel Discussion with Sigrid Blömeke, Fani Lauermann, and Johannes König		Slides

 

Summary Report

Download the Symposium Summary Report containing brief summaries of the presentations and discussions of the break-out sessions.