教師的藝術特色和專業發展-The Artistic and Professional Development of Teachers

The study discussed is dedicated to the problem of the artistic and professional development of teachers. Since the beginning of the study the author attempts to define the main objective of the study stating that the main objective is to understand the effectiveness of professional development programs of teachers from teachers’ point of view. However, it is worthy of mention that the purpose, being clearly stated, seems to be a bit abstract, at least such a definition implies basically qualitative analysis and research that actually contradicts to the quantitative analysis that was amply used further in the study.
本文專門討論教師的藝術和職業發展的問題。由于筆者研究開始時指出主要目的是從教師的角度來了解教師的專業發展課程的成效為主要目標。然而，值得一提的是這樣做的目的，被明確提出，似乎有點抽象，至少有這樣一個定義意味著基本上定性分析和研究，實際上矛盾的定量分析得到了進一步的研究。
 

Obviously, the problem researched by Narry Oreck is very important, especially in the current situation, when the role of arts is often underestimated and their potential is not fully used by teachers either for their professional development or in their professional work in educative purposes. This particular study will be quite useful not only from theoretical point of view but also from practical one since the author provides several specific recommendations for teachers’ professional development.
顯然，納里奧雷克研究的問題是非常重要的，尤其是在當前形勢下，藝術的作用往往被低估，他們的潛力沒有充分利用，教師無論是對自己的職業發展，或在他們的專業工作中的教育目的。這項研究將是非常有用的，不僅從理論角度而且從實際的問題，因為筆者提供教師專業發展的幾個具體建議。
 

As for the introduction, basically, it is well organized and structure. The author attempts to trace the background of the problem discussed in the research and underlines its significance. At the same time, Barry Oreck refers to previous researchers and states the basic goal of the current study.

However, it is worthy of mention that the literature review contains information that is not very up-to0date. To put it more precisely, the author uses literature sources which are quite distanced in time from the present days. As a result, along with relatively recent researches dating back to late 1990s, for instance, Wiggins 1998, the author also refers to the studies which date backs two or ore decades ago. Remarkably, he even refers to the experience of Dewey (1934) that may be quite relevant today but still the use of more recent researches would make the importance of the current research and its actuality more significant.#p#分頁標題#e#

Nonetheless, it is important to underline that the author amply refers to the primary sources rather than to other articles that indicates to the fact that Barry Oreck really attempts to conduct a study independent from other contemporary researches and the lack of more recent references indirectly supports this presupposition. At the same time, such a focus on primary sources makes it possible to speak about the intention of the author to support his research with evidences related to the primary sources and not just use other articles that would make research less authentic, original and unique.

On making a review, the author does not seem to tend to a profound critical analysis of the literature discussed. Instead, he rather attempts to demonstrate that the problem the study is focused on is really important and the review mainly represents the summary of the main achievements and findings in this filed till the moment when Barry Oreck has launched his own study. Anyway, even according to the author, he is more concerned not on the assessment but rather on the understanding of the problem he researches in his study.

In general, the review is well organized since the author attempts to chronologically trace the evolution of the problem of the research, notably the use of art in the professional development of teachers, though as for the latest data they are obviously omitted intentionally since the author provides his own research of this problem using the latest collected data.

In fact, the author attempts to use the previously conducted researches on the problem as the basis for his present research. At the same time, he uses the previous research in order to represent the problem of the artistic and professional development of teacher as a continuous process so that the current research turns to be a logical continuation of the past experience and is supposed to modify the existing views on the problem and adapt them to the modern conditions.

Obviously, one of the main purposes of the literature review within the discussed research is to underline the importance of the problem and its relevance at the present days. It should be pointed out that the author, on reviewing different works of different epochs, emphasizes that this problem was important in the past and its significance is maintained till the present epoch.

Basically, the problem is clearly stated and precisely defined since the author targets at the gathering data and information concerning teachers’ attitude and practices of art use in their professional development and work. However, the author also makes an assumption that with the help of this research it will be possible to strengthen the link between the professional development of teachers and the use of arts in their practices.

In fact, such a hypothesis is relevant to the literature review since the author repeatedly underline that arts were constantly used in the professional development of teachers though he underlines that its significance may be weaken in recent years and this is actually why he conducts the study that can help better understand the importance and significance of arts in the professional development of modern teachers.#p#分頁標題#e#

The problem discussed by the author, being very important, mainly communicates the variable sand types of research. However, it is worthy of mention that such a variable as ethnicity, for instance, was not included in the research as the author believed that this variable would make the prediction unstable because the subjects basically represented white ethnic group. As for the types of the research, the current study represents a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, though judging from the goals set by Barry Oreck it was possible to presuppose that qualitative analysis would be prior to quantitative, but in actuality, the research is characterized by the contrary trend.

Nevertheless, the problem raised by the author at the beginning of his study remains unchangeable and he does not reformulate it, insisting that his study is focused on the factors that contribute to the art use and make them essential and in such a way, the researcher attempts to understand what the role of arts in professional development of teachers is from the point of view of teachers.

As for the population, it should be said that the researcher carefully describes it and, what is more, he tends to take into consideration various factors that may influence the results of the research under the impact of population. This is why he depicts the population in details paying attention to different factors such as professional experience, gender, ethnicity, etc.

The same may be said about sampling of subjects, participants and the general information. However, it is worthy of mention that the response rate was quite low and this is why it is possible to speak about certain under-representation of the respondents.

Speaking about the method of selecting of sample is relatively clear and, apparently, the author tends to research the problem at large since he attempts to collect data from teachers working at the same grade level representing different schools, including urban, suburban and rural. However, it is necessary to underline that it is not very clear, for instance, what is the share of each group of teachers in the general amount of teachers involved in the research. In other words, it is not clear whether the representation was proportion or probably urban, suburban or rural teachers were dominating, or unequally represented. Similarly, some ethnic groups are also under-represented, as it has been already mentioned above. Naturally, such method of selection as well as any other would inevitably affect the results of the research. In fact, regardless the fact that some points of selecting samples remain unclear, the method of selection used makes it possible to influence the results of the research. For instance, ethnic under-representation is not practically taken into consideration, while it may be an important factor influencing the result of the research at large. The same may be said about whether urban, suburban and rural school teachers were proportionally represented.#p#分頁標題#e#

It is also worthy of mention that a part of the subjects of the research seem to be likely to give biased responses since, along with public schools classroom teachers there were also involved specialists working in gifted, arts, and special education. Obviously the latter category, i.e. specialists working in gifted, arts, and special education would be more likely to give biased responses since they are more concerned on the use of arts in their professional development and practice, while for public school teachers this may be a sort of problem they did not get used to work on.

Basically, the evidence for validity and reliability of the research are amply presented, but it should be said that some variables are not adequately represented, in this respect, it is worthy of mention the variable of ethnicity which is treated by the researcher as unpredictable, or else the low overall response rate makes it possible to presuppose that the respondents were not representative.

Furthermore, the author clearly depicts the instrument he used I his research and how it was used. To put it more precisely, he clearly presents what sort of data and the ways of their collection along with the providing information concerning how the validity of the research was tested.

As a result, it is possible to estimate that the author has managed to clearly describe the procedures for collecting information providing opportunity to trace how information concerning each of the three questions posed was collected.