Abstract
This article presents an analysis showing how collegial interactions can augment the mechanism of teachers’ learning from professional development. The analysis relies on social network data and self-reports of writing instructional practices from teachers in 20 different schools that were part of a longitudinal study of the National Writing Project’s partnership activities. The results indicate that both organized professional development and interactions with colleagues who gained instructional expertise from participating in prior professional development were associated with the extent to which teachers changed their writing processes instruction. Furthermore, the effects of professional development varied by teachers’ baseline practices. The study illustrates the potential for using data on teachers’ social networks to investigate indirect effects of professional development and the variation in professional development effects associated with different initial levels of expertise.
Highlights
A separate body of research has focused on teacher learning from collegial interactions
We used this variation in exposure to professional development within schools to study how professional development could be augmented by collegial interactions, as well as how this mechanism worked differently for different groups of teachers, by drawing upon social network data and self-report data on instructional practice collected from annual surveys over the course of the first 3 years of the study
In professional development related to writing processes, teachers who engage in those instructional practices less frequently may be more likely to change their instructional practices when they participate in organized professional development than their colleagues who use those same practices more frequently
Summary
A separate body of research has focused on teacher learning from collegial interactions. 104 American Journal of Education is coparticipation in professional development with colleagues, as reported by teachers (e.g., Garet et al 2001) This approach has shown that participating with peers is a correlate of effective professional development, it offers little insight into how collegial interactions might matter for teacher learning. Leaders in Local Writing Project (LWP) sites and schools codesigned and led professional development that had a common content focus (writing), but they employed a wide range of strategies for reaching and supporting teachers that varied in their duration We used this variation in exposure to professional development within schools to study how professional development could be augmented by collegial interactions, as well as how this mechanism worked differently for different groups of teachers, by drawing upon social network data and self-report data on instructional practice collected from annual surveys over the course of the first 3 years of the study
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