In-service Teacher Development Programmes Research Articles

Preparing culturally and linguistically responsive teachers of multilingual learners through teacher research

This article presents an overview of Project ELEECT (English Learners’ Educational Excellence Capitol Teacher Training Project), a U.S. Department of Education-funded program designed to prepare teachers in Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy (CLRP) for multilingual learners (ML). The purpose of Project ELEECT is to promote educational justice for MLs by revising a Master of Arts + ESL Licensure program for pre-service teachers and creating a professional development program for in-service teachers. It prepares pre-service and in-service teachers of MLs in CLRP through teacher research, and specifically offers a novel professional learning tool, which we call Impact on Learning Studies (IOLS). This teacher research tool represents a framework for the systematic and intentional self-study of their teaching practices. In this article, we lay the foundations for a research agenda that investigates pre-service and in-service teachers’ understanding and implementation of CLRP, documents concrete examples of CLRP in various classroom contexts, and examines the efficacy of teacher research initiatives to prepare teachers in CLRP. Project ELEECT prepares teachers to invite students’ cultural and linguistic experiences into their classrooms, create spaces for CLRP, and foster critical consciousness in learning settings, thus taking a major shift towards cultivation of anti-racist dispositions in education.

Quantum physics at high school: a collaboration between physics researchers and teachers to design teaching – learning sequences.

Quantum physics is changing the paradigms for understanding reality and is fostering scientific innovation. Nevertheless, the core concepts of the second quantum revolution are not included in the Italian physics curriculum. Our research project aims to generate the conditions for the development of the scientific competences related to the understanding of the fundamental concepts of contemporary physics at secondary school level. In the framework of Educational Reconstruction for Teacher Education (ERTE), we have developed a continuous professional development program for teachers to enable in-service physics teachers in secondary schools to introduce the superposition principle, quantum entanglement, and their technological applications into regular classroom activities. To achieve this goal, several types of activities have been planned to strengthen collaboration between high school teachers and physics researchers. The intended outcome is to create resources and materials that can help teachers and researchers create innovative physics curricula that can be used in normal secondary school teaching activities. In this paper we present the results of the first edition of a continuous professional development program for in-service teachers on introducing the superposition principle and quantum entanglement into online classroom activities during the schools Covid19 lockdown.

On the Shoulders of Giants: Benefits of Participating in a Dialogic Professional Development Program for In-Service Teachers.

This study explores the impact of a seminar on self-efficacy and argumentative skills on teachers’ professional development. In this seminar, called “On the Shoulders of Giants,” a group of teachers meet once a month. They debate scientific readings to critically discuss educational theory, which transforms their everyday practices in the school. A survey using a questionnaire was conducted to collect the data. The results show that teachers’ involvement in dialogic-based training positively impacts their ability to address current school problems and that the teachers transfer their new knowledge to their work. The effectiveness of the teachers’ practices increases and, consequently, their students’ learning also improves.

Creating a dialogic environment for transformative science teaching practices: towards an inclusive education for science

This paper focuses on the design and application of a teacher training strategy to promote the inclusive education of students with disabilities in the science classroom, through the creation of adult learning environments grounded on the principles of dialogic learning. Participants of the workshop proposal consisted of a group of twelve teachers who were working at various educational levels. Teacher teams proposed and implemented in their classroom, innovative, inclusive science-learning activities about a topic of their choice. Data were collected from interviews with teachers five months after the courses, teachers’ portfolios about their practice during implementation of such sequences, and researchers’ observations. The data suggest that it is possible to stimulate a gradual transformation of teaching practices through a teacher training proposal that promotes self-awareness and critical reflection, situated in the creation of meaning and a willingness to change in the spirit of solidarity and social action. We found elements to recommend the incorporation of these innovations at the curricular and practical level for teacher training schools and for in-service teacher development programmes in Mexico and elsewhere.

PLCs: Key PD component in learning transfer for teachers of English learners

As part of a two-year long professional development program for in-service teachers leading to endorsement in English as a Second Language (ESL), this investigation examined teachers' perceptions of the role of professional learning communities on their professional development experience, particularly on their sharing and transfer of learning into their instructional practice. Results from this mixed-methods research indicated that teachers perceived their professional learning communities, especially the reflective dialogue enacted during their weekly Try It Out discussion based on peers’ strategy implementations, as the most relevant component of their professional development program to their transferring of learning into their instructional practice.

Teachers’ Engrossment in Professional Development in Surkhet Valley

Since 2010, National Center for Educational Development (NCED) has extended teachers’ professional development program for in-service teachers to Resource Centre (RC) level while the service of the then 10 month teacher training was limited to Education Training Center (ETC) (NCED, 2011). All the secondary level teachers have got at least one opportunity to attend Teachers’ Professional Development (TPD) training in these last three years in Surkhet district. In institutional schools, teachers are deprived of such opportunities; however, they are seen equally potent and equally professional. On the other hand, if we compare teachers’ individual professionalism, we find much variation although there is same kind of opportunities given to them. With an assumption that the teachers are the main resources to be used in the school system, this article summarizes the survey carried out amidst teachers, to explain TPD and to reflect the situation of teachers’ engrossment in professional development initiatives (PDI) in Surkhet valley. This study has attempted to assess the situation of teachers’ engrossment in Teachers’ Professional Development Initiatives in Surkhet valley. Journal of NELTA Surkhet Vol.4 2014: 81-90

‘Short courses shouldn’t be short-lived!’ Enhancing longer-term impact of short English as a foreign language INSET initiatives in China

Short in-service teacher development (INSET) programmes have been globally used as a form of teacher development, but their impact has been under question. This study sought to examine teacher participants’ perceptions of short INSET programmes to come up with better solutions to enhancing their effect on teachers’ professional learning. A questionnaire survey was employed to investigate a cohort of 120 senior-school English as a foreign language teachers’ perspectives about their short programme experience. A high level of motivation for professional development was evident; however, in contrast with the high motivation, the level of endorsement for the programme was rather low. The underlying reason for the low satisfaction level was found to be the course features resulting from the one-shot and one-size-fits-all mentality of programme providers, rather than the nature of the short programme itself. The study suggests to various parties, such as INSET providers, teacher trainers, researchers and policy-makers, the need for a long-term view about teacher development initiatives to engender longer-term fundamental effect on INSET participants.

Trainee teachers' perception of their knowledge about expert teaching

The current global movement in the reform of education seems to focus on a number of issues that include standards, quality and teacher preparation. With regard to the latter, while teacher education curricula in most parts of the world attempt to strike a balance between content and professional training, the emerging scenario is that of training expert teachers. Three types of knowledge identified as necessary for expert teaching are content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. For Hong Kong to embark on a satisfactory and effective public education reform, it is essential that its most valuable human resource (i.e. teachers) must be comprehensively and adequately developed. Attention must be paid to both pre-service and in-service to raise an excellent quality-oriented teaching force. Teacher educators and researchers make important and well-informed decisions about what should be included in pre-service and in-service teacher development programmes. However, it is also important to take into account the teachers' own perceptions about the areas in which they feel confident and knowledgeable and those inwhich they do not. One practical avenue of sourcing such information is the teacher in training who is learning to acquire and display expertise. This paper reports on an investigation using a sample of 183 science and mathematics trainee teachers. A 60-item instrument, the Science and Mathematics Expert Teacher Preparation Survey (SMETPS),was developed to gather data on trainee teachers' perceptions of their current knowledge and what they think they need to know to become expert teachers. The data, analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, indicated some of the areas in which trainee teachers identified the need for future professional development that would contribute towards expert training. Several issues which emerged from the results are discussed, with reference to implications for current efforts in expert teacher training.

Statement on Education

Proposes two main educational initiatives:1. To revitalize preservice undergraduate curricula for future teachers2. To mount a national professional development program for inservice teachers

Innovating for a change: teacher development and innovation

Introduction In-service teacher-development programmes represent an attempt to implement some form of change. Often a change agent is brought into the programme, perhaps by an aid agency. I use the term ‘outsider’ for such a change agent, and the term ‘insiders’ for those who are directly involved in the change and who work in the situation where the change is to take place. These would typically be teachers, but there will be many other participants involved in the programme, such as Heads of Departments, Directors of institutions, and Ministry officials, who will play a role at intermediate levels between the change agent and the teachers. We need a term to distinguish these two categories, but for the moment we will call them both insiders, and categorize them simply as teachers and administrators. The distinction between them is that administrators traditionally take the decisions about the change that teachers have to implement, one which may or may not benefit the teachers and students concerned. I believe that we have developed many programmes on a basis that is largely intuitive, and that their success or failure has depended to a great extent on individual energy, accumulated experience, personalities, goodwill, and so on. I do not deny that these subjective, personal elements play a major part in successful programmes, but what I would like to argue for is a greater attention to some of the relevant principles of innovation which appear to be common across a range of fields, so that we may be more certain of the basis for alternative courses of action and their likely results. Innovation strategies I have elsewhere (Kennedy 1986) outlined a number of these principles and their application to project management and evaluation. All teachereducation programmes, as I have said, involve some form of innovation. One of the functions of the change agent is the management of the innovation, and one of the questions that change agents should ask themselves is, ‘How do I go about doing this, what strategies should I adopt for successful change?’ Chin and Benne (1970) suggest three main types of strategy: