Teacher Development : Exploring Our Own Practice

This selection of carefully chosen articles invites teachers to explore their own professional development and review their practice in schools. It draws together the multifaceted nature of primary teaching through a focus upon historical, cultural and political influences and considers the impact this has upon the way primary teachers develop professional knowledge.

Issues explored in the book include: changing approaches to: curriculum selection; school organization and; curriculum planning.

These are situated and considered in the personal contexts of primary teachers′ continuing professional development. Themes explored include: analysis of critical incidents as a strategy for developingreflective practice; issues embedded in individual versus collaborative approaches to

using reflective practice in professional development; the teacher as researcher.

This innovative book draws together issues concerning the way primary teachers develop professional knowledge and the influence this has upon their practice in schools. At the same time it encourages teachers to apply their reading to their own personal context and research an aspect of their own practice. It includes both some of the most recent research alongside classic articles, drawing on the work of some of the most renowned figures in primary education.

Anna Craft is Professor of Education at the University of Exeter, England, where she leads the CREATE research cluster. She is also Reader at The Open University, England, and Director of The Open Creativity Centre. She is founding Co-Editor Thinking Skills and Creativity (Elsevier) and founding Co-Convenor of the British Educational Research Association Special Interest Group, Creativity in Education. She holds a Visiting appointment at Harvard University and has held visiting appointments at Hong Kong Institute of Education. Her most recent books include Creative Learning 3-11 and how we document it (Trentham Books, 2007), Creativity in Schools: Tensions and Dilemmas (Routledge, 2005), Creativity and Early Years Education (Continuum, 2002), Creativity Across the Primary Curriculum (RoutledgeFalmer, 2000). Her empirical work, informed by constructivist and socio-cultural views of learning, seeks to impact practice, policy and theory.

Hilary Burgess, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Research and Development in Teacher Education (CReTE), Faculty of Education and Language Studies, The Open University.