On these pages the research group »Research on Teachers and Teacher Education« informs about current and finished research projects.
Project
Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development Using Feedback (BeProf-Feedback)
Teaching is a challenging activity that is characterized by many uncertainties. Competences initially acquired in teacher education at university and in practical training are not sufficient for a successful, lifelong teaching career. Thus, lifelong continuing professional development (CPD) is seen as a core aspect of teachers’ professionalization. In addition to institutionalized in-service training, informal learning opportunities represent an important part of CPD. Usually, informal learning opportunities must be initiated and controlled by the teachers themselves. These include obtaining teaching-related feedback from students and colleagues, which is considered to be extremely effective for teachers’ learning. However, findings indicate that few teachers in Germany obtain teaching-related feedback. This project uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine which teacher beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes have effects on the intention to use teaching-related feedback from colleagues and students. Furthermore, it will investigate to what extent these factors are influenced by characteristics of the (in-service) teacher education as well as by school related variables. Thus, we examine whether TPB is an appropriate model to explain teachers’ teaching-related feedback use and the possibilities for promoting the use of it, using a representative sample of teachers from Germany regarding their intention to use these tools. We additionally plan to examine not only the intention but also the actual use of feedback in a pre-post design, also extending to other types of self-initiated learning opportunities.
Publications