Kari Smith

The transition from being a student teacher to taking on the full responsibility as a teacher is experienced as challenging for many novice teachers. In this book, ten newly qualified teachers from five countries, Australia, England, Finland, Israel and Norway, tell their stories as they came through in individual interviews. The narratives, written by the authors, were all approved by the teachers as 'their' stories. What can we learn from listening to the narratives? What can we bring to decision-makers about how to support new teachers? Do new teachers face similar challenges around the world, or do experiences depend on their respective contexts? There are more similarities than differences. Relevant research literature is used in discussing the cases. Much of the literature on novice teachers focuses on difficulties, and the stories presented in this book confirm that the first year is tough. However, the resilience, motivation and enthusiasm reflected in the stories provide reasons for optimism as regards teachers’ satisfaction with their career choice. A major reason for deciding to stay in the profession is in the relations they created with the students. Satisfaction or stress related to the curriculum or achievements in their respective teaching subjects was not mentioned. The lessons learned from the ten novice teachers are useful when discussing the teaching profession and, not least, the induction phase of a teaching career.

The transition from being a student teacher to taking on the full responsibility as a teacher is experienced as challenging for many novice teachers. In this book, ten newly qualified teachers from five countries, Australia, England, Finland, Israel and Norway, tell their stories as they came through in individual interviews. The narratives, written by the authors, were all approved by the teachers as 'their' stories. What can we learn from listening to the narratives? What can we bring to decision-makers about how to support new teachers? Do new teachers face similar challenges around the world, or do experiences depend on their respective contexts? There are more similarities than differences. Relevant research literature is used in discussing the cases. Much of the literature on novice teachers focuses on difficulties, and the stories presented in this book confirm that the first year is tough. However, the resilience, motivation and enthusiasm reflected in the stories provide reasons for optimism as regards teachers' satisfaction with their career choice. A major reason for deciding to stay in the profession is in the relations they created with the students. Satisfaction or stress related to the curriculum or achievements in their respective teaching subjects was not mentioned. The lessons learned from the ten novice teachers are useful when discussing the teaching profession and, not least, the induction phase of a teaching career.

Begrepet evaluering kan brukes på mange måter. I dag brukes det ofte for å sammenlikne skolesystemene på nasjonalt nivå, og resultatet blir at evaluering i stigende grad blir et begrep for prestasjonsmåling på avgrensede områder. I denne boken bruker forfatterne evalueringsbegrepet på en annen måte: å sikre at alle elever får en optimal utvikling. Evaluering er en felles oppgave for elever og lærere, og det er viktig å fastholde det dialogiske perspektivet. Ved å sikre dette blir evaluering ikke bare en avslutning på noe, men noe som motiverer og gir konkrete råd til det videre læringsforløpet. Et dialogisk perspektiv på evaluering er derfor avgjørende for at skolen på lang sikt kan få de resultatene den ønsker. Forfatterne behandler evalueringsbegrepet både teoretisk og praktisk, og de diskuterer forskjellige oppfatninger av begrepet og de konsekvenser for praksis de forskjellige oppfatningene kan medføre. Evaluering er et relevant tema for alle som er interessert i skole og utdanning. Boken vil derfor passe for studenter i lærerutdanningen og for lærere, skoleledere og skolepolitikere.

In assessment, the portfolio has gained significant interest as a tool to monitor and appraise competence development in multiple domains of professional learning. In this book, a developmental use of assessment instruments is advocated, stressing a personalised or self-regulative and learning-oriented deployment of the assessment tool. Portfolio assessment viewed this way can support knowledge productivity of professionals, thus enhancing professional development. By this we mean the construction of knowledge through feedback and dialogue about performances as a recursive loop to inform the professional about accomplishment. Portfolio assessment therefore informs and scaffolds the learner to develop' further; it, so to speak, is pioneering development. Since the first introduction in several settings, teaching education, professional preparation, instructional program evaluation, student learning in several domains: nursing, teaching, training, and human resource development, portfolios have been studied extensively. It is challenging to gauge the routes along which the reasons for the interest in portfolios have shifted from one problem to the other. As we interpret this journey of research it went more or less along the following lines during the past 15 years, shifting its perspective as insights grew and demands changed.