Teacher educators' professional development: conceptualisation and operationalisation of teacher educators' researcherly disposition

From the beginning of the twenty-first century, workplace learning receives increased attention in both research literature and policy documents. In this respect, teacher educators are often perceived as a unique vocational group with specific vocational needs. Focusing on these specific needs and characteristics, teacher educators’ professional development can be conceptualized as the development of a researcherly disposition. This refers to teacher educators’ habit of mind to engage in research – as both a consumer of research and a producer of research to improve their own practice and to contribute to the knowledge base on teacher education. In the current study, this concept is operationalized into a valid and reliable measurement instrument ‘The Teacher Educators’ Researcherly Disposition Scale – TERDS’ enabling the measurement of teacher educators’ professional development. Taking into account the shortcomings in the emerging research field on teacher educators’ professional development - which is largely characterized by small-scaled and qualitative studies - a large-scale quantitative survey study (n = 944) was conducted. An exploratory factor analysis (n= 472) and a confirmative factor analysis (n=472) revealed a valid and reliable four-factor structure of teacher educators’ researcherly disposition consisting of: (1) ‘Valuing research as a teacher educator’(α= .86), (2) ‘Being a smart consumer of research’ (α= .89), (3) ‘Being able to conduct research as a teacher educator’(α= .82), and (4) ‘Conducting research as a teacher educator’(α= .87). Goodness of fit estimates were calculated, all indicating good fit. To conclude, implications for further research and practices on teacher educators’ professional development are discussed