Abstract
In the current rapidly changing world, demands on teacher quality and teacher change are ever- increasing. One important and powerful way to transform schools is through teacher professional development focusing on teachers’ reflective skills. But the development of reflective skills is challenging not only from a practical standpoint but also in terms of the demands it places on teachers’ cognitive operations. In our study we examined how a specific highly-structured method called WANDA facilitates the development of teachers’ reflective skills. WANDA is a form of professional development through group reflection embedded in a five-stage reflective cycle. We connected the stages with cognitive operations employed in the development of reflective skills, and assessed how teachers respond to each stage. Our case study draws on a qualitative research inquiry including semi-structured interviews with nine WANDA participants who teach in a Czech primary school. Our results show that a crucial phase of WANDA that comes early in the process imposes very high demands on teachers’ cognitive operations. Teachers might be better prepared to engage in this phase if it comes later in the process and is swapped with another stage that the teachers found highly engaging and fun thanks to its playful form. Overall, WANDA appears to be a meaningful tool in developing teachers’ reflective skills, leading them to metacognition, the ultimate peak of self-reflection. Keywords: professional development, WANDA method, group reflection, professional learning communities
Highlights
In a rapidly changing world, old models of schooling become outdated and educational systems worldwide have to adjust
We walk through the individual phases of the WANDA cycle and interpret the teachers’ development of the reflective skills of the WANDA method in terms of the cognitive operations
The WANDA method develops this skill systematically and teachers identified this advantage in the following manner, e.g.: “While in the situation itself, a person usually doesn’t have the time and space to think why they said this or that, but only once we look at it in retrospect, we’re able to think about it while taking a step back and seeing it more objectively
Summary
In a rapidly changing world, old models of schooling become outdated and educational systems worldwide have to adjust. Schools are increasingly expected to develop students’ knowledge and equip them with key competences and dispositions for life-long learning, as well as prepare them to be flexible and able to adapt to the fastchanging world. This cannot happen without teachers who are able to facilitate the development of these competences. We know that students’ socio-economic background plays an even stronger role, but it is a variable that is hard to change, whereas teacher quality can be enhanced (Starý et al, 2012) In this light, it is logical to support teachers’ professional development and many regions and institutions around the world have taken steps to do so. The European Commission (2013) has drawn up recommendations encouraging its member states to stimulate teachers’ active engagement in professional development, assess the development of teachers’ competences, and provide coherent relevant learning opportunities (pp. 34-35)
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