Abstracts - Earli

C 829 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 0.89 JedlikSymposiumUnderstanding and improving teacher learning: the gateway toeducational innovationChair: Jan Vermunt, Utrecht University, NetherlandsOrganiser: Jan Vermunt, Utrecht University, NetherlandsOrganiser: Kirsti Lonka, University of Helsinki, FinlandDiscussant: RobertJan Simons, Utrecht University, NetherlandsTeachers are supposed to be experts in learning. Although there is a lot of research on howteachers may promote student learning, the scarcity of systematic research on understanding andimproving learning processes of teachers themselves is striking. Yet, teachers are the mostimportant agents in shaping education for students and in bringing about change and innovation ineducational practices. Too often educational innovations failed because they did not recognize theneed for teacher learning. Professional development throughout a teaching career presupposeslifelong learning processes and willingness to learn from teachers. Educational innovations put ahigh demand on teacher learning processes and teachers’ willingness to learn. Teachers may reactdifferently, varying from rejecting the innovation and a concurrent perception of no need to learn,to seeing the innovation as a potential for learning. This symposium aims to bring together fivestudies on teacher learning from a variety of perspectives. They cover various phases of teachers’professional career from student teachers to experienced teachers. They cover a variety of contextsand topics dealt with: teachers’ learning activities, learning outcomes, and orientations of learningto teach; teachers’ learning from work in practice; teachers learning from researching theirstudents’ learning; teachers learning from comprehensive school reform; teachers’ learning fromcollaborative action research in the context of educational innovation, teachers’ learning in anational educational innovation project on student learning; and the school as learningenvironment for teachers. The scientific relevance of the symposium lies in the advancement ofour understanding of teacher learning in the context of teacher education, lifelong professionaldevelopment and educational innovation and change. Relevance for educational practice lies in thegrowing awareness that any attempt to improve education should put teachers and their learning inthe central focus of attention.Developing student teacher learning: a longitudinal studyVincent Donche, University of Antwerp, BelgiumPeter Van Petegem, University of Antwerp, BelgiumThis study explores whether orientations to learning to teach are subject to change across time andwhether these changes, as former research findings suggest, exhibit a tendency from moresurvival-oriented towards more meaning-oriented learning (e.g. Oosterheert & Vermunt, 2001).253 third-year student teachers from an initial pre-service teacher education institute in Belgiumoffering a 3-year non-academic teacher education programme participated in this study. A pretest/post-test-designwas used. Students filled in the Inventory Learning To Teach Process (ILTP)questionnaire on two occasions: 1) at the beginning of the second semester and 2) at the end of thesecond semester of the academic year. The two measurement moments were separated by a long– 138 –