Identification of Science Teacher Profiles Based on Lesson Observation Data

Abstract

It is characteristic that besides other duties teacher competence management and development is becoming a part of school responsibilities. Still, school leaders lack the experience and instruments to accomplish these duties. From a teacher’s perspective competence management and development can be seen as the process of identification and implementation of professional development (PD). An effective competence management approach that is widely used in business environments is the identification of required and actual competence profiles to judge which development is needed. Such a competence management approach isn’t characteristic of school environments, still a promising perspective on how to solve challenges regarding teacher PD (TPD). TPD interventions are often criticized as being too general (“one size fits all” dominates); therefore, the search for practices on how to “tailor” PD initiatives to individual teacher needs is topical for TPD research. An effective way to personalize TPD could be the determination of TPD profiles and the design of the PD around these profiles. Person-centered approaches dominate in the identification of science teacher profiles, as surveys and tests are commonly used. Examples, of how the identification of science teacher profiles can be done using lesson observation data are missing. Science teaching is a complex process; to limit the complexity of this study, the authors focus on teaching that promotes student conceptual understanding (CU). A mixed method study was designed and conducted in a sample of 26 science teachers, who represented urban municipalities’ science teacher population. The study included science teacher lesson observation and analysis, and determination of science teacher performance regarded teaching that promotes student CU. Science teacher performance data were used to identify teachers with similar performance across the selected criteria and to create science teacher profiles. A methodology for how lesson observation data can be used to identify teacher profiles in small teacher samples is described. Six various science teacher profiles in teaching that promote student understanding were identified, characterizing the variety of science TPD needs.