Researching the professional learning needs of teacher educators: Results from international research

This chapter reports on an international study, a rare and much-needed example of large-scale research into the professional development of higher education-based teacher educators. The first section contextualises the study, identifying from previous research the complexities associated with these teacher educators’ roles and professional development. The methods used for this study were an initial survey of 1,158 teacher educators from Belgium, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland and England, followed by in-depth interviews with 61 participants to enable a deeper understanding of the questionnaire data. The major findings reported include the need for the following areas of professional development: teaching and learning, including up-skilling in new pedagogies associated with particular subject disciplines and acquiring more generic teaching and learning strategies; support with research and writing for publication in ways that recognise the importance of research-informed teaching and the active production of research for some teacher educators; and the importance of collaboration, with mentoring and communal learning seen as key to effective learning processes. The conclusion to the chapter identifies that much more needs to be done to foster teacher educators’ professional learning needs, not least through ensuring the integration of formal provision and informal work-placed learning.