Teacher Education Field Signature Method

In recent years, academic researches on teacherprofessionalization have got more and more attention. Thus therelevant conception like “signature pedagogy” and its effect on thedevelopment of teacher professionalization have also got greatattention. However, according to the documents and materials I haveright now, theoretical researches on “signature pedagogy” in the fieldof teacher education are quite scarce. Most of the articles only vaguelymentioned “signature pedagogy”, so there are short of systematicallytheoretical studies on it. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practicalsignificance for the in-depth study of this issue. This study attempts toexplore and discuss the issue on teacher professionalization, signaturepedagogy and its best candidates of signature pedagogy in teachereducation through the use of document study and material analysis.Meanwhile, this study is trying to deepen the understanding of teacherprofessionalization and trigger the thinking of “signature pedagogy”. Inaddition, this study also provides a reference and reflection about“signature pedagogy” in teacher education for further studies.The thesis is divided into four parts:Chapter One is about the study’s background, significance andvalue. And this part also interprets the purpose, ideas and methods ofthe study.The second chapter is theoretical analysis based on the relevantdocuments and materials. It explains the concept of "signaturepedagogy" and “professional education”. Besides, it compares“signature pedagogy” in the professional fields with thequasi-professional ones. In addition, it investigates characteristics ofsignature pedagogy as well as its effect on teacher professionalization.Chapter III clarifies that the theoretical cornerstone of signature pedagogy in teacher education is Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK). In this chapter, a systematic introduction to the concept of PCKand its main research results and theories are listed. It also discusses therelationship between signature pedagogy and PCK. It is very helpful forteacher students to get PCK by signature pedagogy.The fourth chapter carries out a detailed analysis and discussion ofsome pedagogies which are regarded as the best candidates of“signature pedagogy” I think from theoretical and practical level. Itexpounds the specific forms of signature pedagogies separatelyincluding case teaching, apprenticeship and behavioral research andbehavioral learning. And based on the theory of PCK, this part tries toexplain the importance of signature pedagogy in teacher educationand provides some ideas for future.The last section is about the significance of this study as well as thedirection for further researches.