The present article’s aim is to evaluate studies that promote teacher reflection. Through programmes of professional development, teachers are being encouraged to improve their reflective practice. This paper explores the grounding of what is advocated as reflective teaching and looks at possible differences between what is evidenced in research and what is promoted in practice. For this purpose, the content of a collection of texts published in teacher journals was analysed. The texts disseminated reflections on action to teachers. An analytical framework was used to evaluate the professional development proposals for teachers’ reflective practice. The findings indicated there was a lack of agreement about how to conduct reflection, as well as a wide variety of types of reflection. Many proposals lacked empirical and theoretical support. A strong trend was noted towards prescription, despite the fact that little justification was provided for the advice. This led us to conclude that teachers are provided with only limited information on how to improve their reflective practice, which may hamper its use.

In this article knowledge productivity, a process that creates conceptual artifacts, is used as a way to investigate the outcomes of collaborative and enquiry‐oriented activity by teaching professionals. It is an outcome of the motivation to learn (self‐regulation) in that it studies the issues from different professional perspectives (reflection on action) while aiming towards the construction of new knowledge and understanding (conceptual change). A team approach was used in order to examine how teachers working together as a team could become knowledge‐productive learners in their work environment. In three different cases the outcomes of the study team process were evaluated against three different criteria of knowledge productivity: (a) improving knowledge and understanding; (b) shifting individual perspectives; (c) achieving commitment to the outcomes for professional practice. Process accounts and retrospective evaluations by the three study teams themselves were the basis for judging evidence of knowledge productivity. The approach has revealed insights into ways in which the teachers accepted the study team’s (collaborative) outcomes, especially their initial (un)easiness for sharing existing knowledge and their (un)certainties about practicing the results of their collaborative enquiry.

Background Secondary vocational schools are engaged in a process of innovation and improving their instructional formats to help students acquire the necessary skills in occupational settings. Teachers in vocational education are increasingly being required to offer instructional environments that stimulate students to organize their own learning and take responsibility for extending their knowledge and skills. Among these skills, self-regulated learning strategies have become basic for both school and work. Purpose In this study, we analysed learning environments for self-regulation in secondary vocational schools in The Netherlands. Student perceptions of learning environments were related to their motivation and learning strategies used for self-regulation. Sample Data for this study were collected based on a sample of 623 students participating in five differently arranged programmes of vocational education in The Netherlands. Design and methods Questionnaires were used and partly developed to measure student motivation, perceived teaching behaviour and use of self-regulation strategies. A categorization scheme to analyse learning environments was developed for the purpose of this study. Results Our findings indicate that some types of learning environments presently offered in secondary vocational schools do offer positive experiences for self-regulation of students. Positive relationships were found between students' motivation for learning and the strategies used for self-regulated learning. Conclusions Based on a categorization of design features of learning environments, we suggest some directions on how to create powerful learning environments in vocational schools.

Teachers' written reflections on their work, which report on a change in their practice, were the object of this research. Taking teachers' articulation of their plans and actions in teacher journals as our source, this study's aim is twofold: (1) to describe how teacher reflect in a self‐initiated and non‐framed way on their own practice, and (2) to review teacher self generated reflections in reference to models of reflection. In this way, we tried to disclose what precisely teachers write (said) when reflecting on their work (did) in order to appreciate their way of describing what matters in their work; and position this in reference to models that conceptualise (“talk”) on how to actualise (‘walk’) reflection. This ‘double’ articulation of reflection is gauged in two ways, i.e., on: a) completeness, that is, whether it includes relevant components of reflection (models) to be found in the literature, and on b) recursiveness, that is, whether the written account gives evidence of an integrated cyclical, i.e., recursive process of re‐view, which appraises and looks back on what has been accomplished. The results show that teachers do not work along the lines identified in current reflection models (i.e. providing clear problem definition, searching for evidence, planning for change, and reviewing plans). Instead, many teachers use a narrative and valuing appraisal of their accomplishments; not so much cautiously reviewing their actions but prospectively commenting on plans and solutions for future action. The data lead us to be cautious about the prominence of reflection models as advocated in the literature to be applied to teachers' written accounts of their practice.

Teacher-educators’ conceptions of teaching may influence their teaching practice in a variety of ways. The concept of dilemma may provide an adequate framework to disclose how teacher-educators realise their conceptions of teaching in actual teaching practice. In our view, dilemmas constitute a powerful conceptualisation to find out about the professional's beliefs concerning teaching student teachers learning to teach and the choices the teacher-educator makes with regard to teaching strategies in actual practice. Twenty-three Dutch and twelve Israeli teacher-educators were interviewed in-depth on this topic. The results were interpreted around two axes: internally or externally attributed dilemmas and student- or professionally- (i.e., self-related) attributed dilemmas. The teacher-educators identified several dilemmas about their teaching, as well as strategies to cope with them. The study showed teacher-educators were cognisant of dealing with the tensions in realising their goals, attributing them to external (i.e., conditions, students) as well as internal sources (approaches, self). Strategies to deal with them involved ways of motivating students and creating learning environments that stimulate inquiry and study, taking into account differences among students.