Quality of Teacher Education and Learning Theory and Practice

This edited book is on the theory and practice of teacher education from the most distinguished and experienced scholars in the field around the world. In this book, they explored the most urgent and significant issues in teacher education in this globalized time. The dealing of these issues can directly impact the quality of teacher education and education in general. How to improve the quality of teacher education is a global issue that many countries, no matter developed or developing, face. This book provides multiple perspectives to address the challenges and possibilities for improving teacher quality. A point needs to further highlight in this book is that the researchers pay more attention to the inner landscape of teachers, such as the issue of identity, sense of person, etc. In this book, the readers can learn the insights and multiple perspectives of the best scholars in teacher education.

Part I:Theoretical discussion.- Building theoretical Framework of the Teacher professional development (Xudong Zhu).- The Historical Context of the Role, Status and Identity of Scholars and Teachers in Traditional China: A Synopsis (Leslie Lo).- School Leadership as an Influence on Teacher Quality (C. Day).- Quality in teacher education: Challenging assumptions, building understanding through foundation principles (John Loughran).- Part II: Teaching and Learning in Teacher Preparation.- An international comparative analysis of the motivations and challenges that cooperating teachers encounter in their work with student teachers in practicum settings (Anthony Clarke).- Beyond the Reach of Teaching: Learning as Experience in Teacher Education (Michael Schratz).- Professional Ethics and Conduct: Perspectives of Chinese pre-service teachers (John Chi-Kin Lee).- Part III: Teachers’ Self and Identity.- Sustaining Beginning Teachers: Attending to the “Best-Loved Self” in Teacher Preparation and Beyond (Cheryl Craig).- Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools: Building and Sustaining Quality in Testing Times (Qing Gu).- Essential issues in developing a professional identity as a teacher (Paulien C. Meijer).- Part IV: The inter-cultural conversation on teacher education.- Teaching in the context of globalization:  Implications for teacher education (Lynn Paine).- The Complexities of Transformative Learning: Evaluating Student Teacher Narratives of a Global Citizenship Field Experience Course (George Richardson).- Part V: Teachers and Educational Reform.- The Person in the World Project: On the Relation between Persons and Roles in Teaching and Teacher Education (David Hansen).- Teachers’ Practical Reasoning in Dilemmas of the Curriculum Reform  (Chen Xiangming).- Definitional, Design, and Dispositional Understandings: Essential Competencies for Teacher Excellence in Creative Pedagogy (Sarah Thomas).