Facilitate Teacher Learning Research Articles

Middle Leadership in Educational Teams: Practices and Effects on the Development of Learning Communities

In a new context of management and teaching action, framed by the organisation of the school into educational teams, middle leaders can play a key role in promoting learning communities, teacher development and improving teaching. Therefore, it seems relevant to understand the practices of these leaders that make their leadership effective. To this end, we adopted a qualitative research paradigm, operationalised through a case study, combining a quantitative and qualitative approach. Thus, we articulated data analysis processes based on descriptive statistics, which we subjected to structural and semantic analysis and interpretation, with a qualitative approach, essentially based on content analysis, to delve into some unique contexts and the perspective of individual actors. After analysing the data, we conclude that educational team coordinators play a fundamental role in facilitating the interpersonal characteristics of learning communities, involving teachers in a more collaborative and collegial working environment. However, their role in facilitating teacher learning is weaker, which hinders their contribution to deepening teacher learning and changing classroom practices.

Middle Leadership in Educational Teams: Practices and Effects on the Development of Learning Communities

In a new context of management and teaching action, framed by the organisation of the school into educational teams, middle leaders can play a key role in promoting learning communities, teacher development and improving teaching. Therefore, it seems relevant to understand the practices of these leaders that make their leadership effective. To this end, we adopted a qualitative research paradigm, operationalised through a case study, combining a quantitative and qualitative approach. Thus, we articulated data analysis processes based on descriptive statistics, which we subjected to structural and semantic analysis and interpretation, with a qualitative approach, essentially based on content analysis, to delve into some unique contexts and the perspective of individual actors. After analysing the data, we conclude that educational team coordinators play a fundamental role in facilitating the interpersonal characteristics of learning communities, involving teachers in a more collaborative and collegial working environment. However, their role in facilitating teacher learning is weaker, which hinders their contribution to deepening teacher learning and changing classroom practices.

‘Good Rain Nurtures Things Silently’: A Longitudinal Study of EFL Teacher Emotion and Identity Learning in Curriculum Reform

ABSTRACTIdentity serves as a valuable lens through which to investigate, understand and facilitate teacher learning during curriculum reform. Identity learning is the core process of educational change, with teacher emotion at the heart of professional learning processes. In this study, we traced the 1‐year journeys of four Chinese EFL teachers during a tertiary EFL curriculum reform that focused on ideological and political education. The Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity was utilised to understand identity learning. By drawing on interviews, documents and observations, we collected rich data and analysed four types of identity learning along a continuum from fake learning to transformation, mediated by teacher emotion. A multiplicity of emotions acted as indicators and potential catalysts for identity learning. However, an overly demanding context might lead to a retrogressive identity learning trajectory. The integration of ideological and political education in foreign language education was also discussed.

Feeling Incompetent Drives Me to Learn: Unraveling Teacher Learning Mechanisms in EFL Materials Development

The present study investigates the dynamics of teacher learning within the context of an English as a Foreign Language materials development project (MDP) in China. Drawing upon qualitative data from interviews and field observations, we identified four distinct teacher learning mechanisms that emerged during the MDP. These mechanisms included (1) identifying one's strengths and weaknesses, (2) growing through communicative connection, (3) reflecting on one's teaching and materials development experiences, and (4) transforming one's practices. Furthermore, we explored the influencing factors at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional levels that interacted with these learning mechanisms. Our findings revealed that teacher learning is a cyclical process that involves the identification of improvement needs, engagement in learning activities, and the transformation of teaching practices. The MDP served as a boundary broker, facilitating teacher learning by providing a platform for boundary-crossing between different educational contexts. These insights contribute to our understanding of how teachers engage in professional learning through MDPs and suggest implications for teacher learning programs and the development of professional learning communities.

Elementary school science teachers' discourse and on‐the‐job learning about student motivation

AbstractScience teachers' professional learning about student motivation can play a key role in developing their ability to nurture student motivation and cope with motivational challenges. To advance the understanding of how on‐the‐job discussions facilitate teacher learning about student motivation, this study investigated how elementary‐school science teachers described and reasoned about student motivation in school‐based team meetings, by analyzing 20 audio‐recorded meetings of three Israeli elementary school science teams. The analysis included characterizing 123 episodes in which teachers referred to student motivation, coding how central and specific the references to motivation were, what indicators of motivation teachers addressed, and what influencing factors they considered. It also included a thematic analysis of teachers' discussions about motivation‐promoting methods and a microanalysis of one select event, drawing on linguistic ethnographic concepts and methods. The findings showed that teachers often addressed student motivation, but briefly and in relation to other topics. They tended to address behavioral and emotional indicators of motivation much more than cognitive indicators. They focused on instructional methods, predominantly addressing motivational issues from a practical perspective and seldom considering them from the student perspective or accounting for internal factors. Teachers often offered methods for promoting student motivation, but they expressed reservations without critically exploring them. Furthermore, critical discussions about motivation‐supporting methods were frequently constrained by teachers' attempts to manage the face threat these discussions entailed. These findings highlight how a theory‐crossing framework that integrates theories of student motivation with a theory of teacher productive discourse can serve as a guide for teachers' on‐the‐job discussions to develop their motivation‐related professional learning and their capacity to support student motivation.

Mental simulations to facilitate teacher learning of ambitious mathematics instruction in coaching interactions

BackgroundMany studies have shown that ambitious, “student centered” approaches to STEM instruction benefit K-12 student learning. However, relatively little research has systematically investigated the learning processes that support teachers to skillfully enact these challenging pedagogies. In this study, we used a mixed-methods, case-comparison design to examine one kind of teacher learning routine, Mental Simulations for Teacher Reflection (MSTR), for advancing robust teacher learning in the context of one mathematics-focused instructional coaching intervention. Specifically, this study draws from a large, state-wide representative dataset to select carefully matched, contrasting cases to analyze the quality of coach–teacher conversations for teachers who showed very similar baseline instructional quality but then large differences in levels of improvement. We began by qualitatively coding detailed transcripts from selected coach–teacher pairs as they reflected on lesson artifacts (i.e., lesson plans, student work, and coach observations) using MSTR as an analytical lens. Next, quantitative analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which mental simulations characterized significant differences in the conversations of high- vs. low-instructional growth pairs. Lastly, additional qualitative analyses explored finer-grain distinctions in the quality of mental simulation talk in high- vs. low-growth pairs.ResultsQuantitative analyses showed high-growth pairs were significantly more likely to engage in mental simulation talk compared to their low-growth counterparts. Moreover, the high-growth pairs were much more likely to initiate (i.e., raise an instructional ambiguity or problem for discussion) as well as complete (i.e., generate and weigh alternative instructional strategies) a MSTR routine. Qualitative analyses further revealed that engaging teachers’ in-depth pedagogical reasoning to connect specific teaching moves to conceptual learning goals in mental simulations was a key distinction of the high-growth coaches.ConclusionsThese findings indicate MSTR captured meaningful variation in coaching quality in this context. Notably, all coaches discussed the same instructional topics with teachers (i.e., teaching–learning goals and dimensions) and engaged in the same training that did not explicitly include MSTR, suggesting the possibility that MSTR captured a more implicit process of effective coaches. This study thus offers insight into the ‘black box’ of teacher learning and how it can be supported in similar professional learning contexts.

Facilitating teacher learning in professional learning communities through action research: A qualitative case study in China

The study investigated teachers’ learning experiences in a subject-based professional learning community by conducting collaborative action research in a junior secondary school in Shanghai, China. Drawing on observations, documents, and interviews with nine teachers, the findings revealed that teachers developed new understandings and practices during the research process, despite the imposed task design. By integrating action research and professional learning communities, the findings suggest that the tension between bottom-up needs and top-down mandates can be balanced for teacher learning in communities through collective endeavours of external support, school leaders, and teachers in the Chinese context.

Does middle leaders’ learning-centred leadership matter in promoting teacher professional learning? A partial least squares analysis

The ignorance of the role of middle leaders as a ‘key broker’ between school principals and teachers in the literature has motivated this study to investigate the effects of middle leaders’ learning-centred leadership on teacher professional learning through teacher mastery goals and their self-efficacy with the moderating effect of the quality of communication between middle leaders and teachers. A total of 453 data were collected from 24 primary and secondary school teachers in six districts in Kedah. This study employed partial least squares structural equation modelling approach. Findings revealed that learning-centred leadership has a significant and positive effect on teacher professional learning. Teacher mastery goals and teacher self-efficacy have significant mediating effects on teacher professional learning. The effect of learning-centred leadership on teacher professional learning is stronger when the levels of quality of communication between leaders and teachers are higher compared to their counterparts. Hence, future principal preparation programmes should equip future principals with the knowledge of learning-centred leadership that could facilitate teacher learning happening and flourishing.

Using research to inform practice through research‐practice partnerships: A systematic literature review

AbstractResearch‐practice partnerships (RPPs) have drawn a great deal of attention as promising structures for bringing educational research and practice closer together. However, promising as RPPs may be, challenges still exist and there have been calls for studies investigating how research can be used within RPPs, and how to include practitioners more in the generation of research evidence. We address these calls by conducting a systematic review of the research literature on RPPs. Our review of 57 articles shows that research is used in various ways to inform both the methods and content for facilitating school improvement in RPPs. For instance, research on effective PD can be directly applied to a Professional Development (PD) programme to inform the methods of the intervention, or research findings can be used as the content of an intervention to facilitate teacher learning. Moreover, the results suggest that the type of research used to inform RPPs affects the kinds of opportunities for research use that are presented to practitioners; ranging from applying research directly to practice (instrumental use), to using research to extend understanding (conceptual use), or using research methods and methodologies in order to increase practitioners’ capacity for improving education (process use). Based on the results, we argue that the presented opportunities for research use in interventions strongly affect teachers’ opportunities to participate in the generation of research evidence and thereby achieve a more democratised evidence system.

“Doing authentic research” with artifacts to facilitate teacher learning across multiple communities

The current study reports the learning process of a group of teachers as they move across the school context and a research-oriented professional learning community (PLC). Using the framework of cultural-historical activity theory, this study analyzes the contradictions that teachers encounter among different activity systems and how these contradictions are resolved. The findings show that teachers are engaged in various research activities around “authentic” problems. Mediating tools are deliberately designed and used to address these problems, which facilitate teachers’ learning process and the transformation of the community culture. The role of structural design and teacher leadership for teacher learning in PLCs is discussed.

Evolving Problems of Practice: How a Teacher’s Reflective Courses of Action Contributed to Her Learning and Change

ABSTRACT Although literature emphasizes the value of recursive reflection on problems of practice to facilitate teacher learning and change, few studies investigate teachers’ iterative, evolving reflections on problems that emerge in their efforts to change their practice over time. This case study provides an in-depth, longitudinal analysis of one teacher’s incremental trajectory of change through examining her reflective discourse in pre- and post-observational planning and debriefing meetings with researchers over two-and-a-half school years. The middle school teacher was intentionally focused on changing her practice to support students’ historical inquiry, shifting from a more traditional, authoritative approach to a disciplinary-inquiry stance. Analysis entailed mapping the teacher’s talk about problems of practice in planning/debriefing meetings and how the evolution of her framing of problems was influenced by reflective courses of action. Analysis revealed the teacher’s courses of action differed depending on the type of problem she addressed and that these courses of action contributed to changes in her knowledge, practice, and dispositions. The paper addresses implications for studying and supporting teacher learning and change.

Biology Teachers: Knowledge in Authentic Assessment Through Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition Based Scientific Approach (Cirsa)

<span>Evaluation activities of biology learning process for learners is teachers’ and education units’ responsibility. An authentic assessment is crucial to be implemented in the learning process so that learners could be guided to have abilities in knowledge as well as attitudes and skills. The research aims in 2019 is to observe 50 biology teachers’ differences in biology teachers’ skills in Bekasi Regency, Indoensia in mastering authentic assessment knowledge in biology learning before and after the implementation of training activities through a Scientific Approach-based Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (Cirsa). Cirsa, a learning developed by integrating a CIRC-based scientific approach, axpected to facilitate teacher learning in accordance with the objectives. The research is a quasi-experiment using one group pretest-posttest design. The research independent variable includes Cirsa learning model, whereas the dependent variable is concept understanding of authentic assessment. The research data are analyzed using descriptive statistics that encompasses teachers’ response on learning and analysis of average pretest and posttest. The research results indicate that there is an influence of Cirsa learning application on the concept mastery of authentic assessments of Biology teachers</span><span lang="EN-US">.</span>

Exploring Content, Pedagogy, and Literacy Strategies among Preservice Teachers in CASE Institutes

Educational leaders implement professional development activities to facilitate teacher learning and growth. Each summer, scores of secondary agriculture teachers attend Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) institutes as a form of professional development. Recently, teacher preparation programs have begun offering CASE institutes for preservice teachers. This study explored the lived experiences of preservice teachers in two CASE institutes. Three central themes emerged from the data: 1) preservice participants wrestled with adoption of inquiry teaching strategies as a teaching method, 2) contextualized literacy in the agriculture classroom helped preservice participants understand their role as a teacher of literacy, and 3) participant content knowledge growth was intertwined with self-growth in formative assessment, classroom management/grouping, and literacy strategies. The findings were presented through vignettes to provide a thick, rich description of the case. Recommendations include offering modified CASE institutes for preservice teachers, use of lead teachers who are familiar with the developmental challenges of preservice teachers, and monitoring participant content knowledge to facilitate growth in pedagogical content knowledge.

Kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of whole-child development: The roles of leadership practices and professional learning communities

This study examined the relationships between leadership practices, professional learning communities, teachers’ efficacy beliefs and perceptions of whole-child development in the context of kindergarten education. A sample of 2120 teachers from 153 Hong Kong kindergartens participated in a questionnaire survey. The results showed that principals’ leadership practices had significant effects on all five professional learning community components. Leadership practices were also positively related to teachers’ perceptions of whole-child development directly and indirectly through the mediation of three professional learning community components, namely a shared sense of purpose, collaborative activities and a collective focus on children’s learning. Moreover, three professional learning community components (i.e. a collective focus on children’s learning, deprivatized practice and reflective dialogue) were positively associated with teachers’ perceptions of whole-child development via their efficacy beliefs. The findings support the mediating role of professional learning communities in developing kindergarten teachers’ collaboration for improving their efficacy beliefs and perceptions of the whole-child development of children. Kindergarten principals play a key role in cultivating a supportive culture and facilitating teacher learning.

Teacher Learning Opportunities Provided by Implementing Formative Assessment Lessons: Becoming Responsive to Student Mathematical Thinking

Teachers’ ways of using curriculum materials create not only meaningful learning opportunities for students but also opportunities for teachers to learn and change their teaching practices; however, not enough research has investigated precisely how. This study investigates how teachers’ implementation of innovative curriculum materials specifically designed to support formative assessment practices provides learning opportunities for teachers to become more responsive to student mathematical thinking. 2 teachers’ regular lessons as well as those delivered using the innovative curriculum materials were observed; each teacher was observed over the course of 1 academic year. The analysis of the 2 teachers’ cases demonstrates how their different curriculum adaptation strategies led to different learning opportunities for each of them. Although teachers’ enactment of innovative curriculum materials in class naturally creates opportunities for them to learn about the mathematical content as well as their students’ mathematical thinking, these findings discuss precisely how to promote teacher learning and improvement of teaching practices using formative assessment strategies guided by curriculum materials. The implications in relation to supporting teachers’ instructional improvement while implementing reform-oriented curriculum materials, and to designing curriculum materials facilitating teacher learning, are also discussed.

“This is English class”: Evolving identities and a literacy teacher's shifts in practice across figured worlds

Teacher learning should be regarded as a complex life-long process, one that may be best understood as interwoven with the life-long process of identity development. Using concepts like figured worlds, histories-in-person, cultural artifacts, and conceptual/procedural identity (Holland, Lachiotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998), this paper explores one secondary teacher's shifting from traditional methods of English teaching to a workshop approach. As the teacher perceived the figured nature of dominant narratives about schooling alongside his own history-in-person, emerging tensions became productive spaces. This paper concludes with implications about the usefulness of identity theories to examine and facilitate teacher learning over time.

Introducing Science Stories in Palestinian Elementary Classrooms: Facilitating Teacher Learning

ABSTRACTThis qualitative interpretive study aimed to explore the use of content-based story writing as an educative curriculum to promote science teachers’ professional learning. It also aimed to help teachers interact and reflect on their students’ science stories to generate and explore content and pedagogical content knowledge. This study was carried out in the fourth and fifth-grade classrooms of 6 science teachers in Jerusalem, Palestine, during the 2013–2014 school year. Classroom observations; video recordings; teachers’ focus group conversations; students’ stories; teachers’ reflections; and field notes from the teachers, the students, and the supervisor were collected and analyzed. Thematic analysis was used to develop themes that emerged from the data. The findings showed that teachers explained many educative features, including how their views and beliefs toward teaching science changed as a result of the use of educative curriculum materials (professional learning). Teachers understood more about their new roles as science teachers as students were engaged in the learning process through producing stories that acted in later stages as a fruitful resource of knowledge for teachers and students. Teachers experienced the development of content knowledge (personal growth and self-awareness) and pedagogical knowledge (the power of using stories to enhance classroom interaction and discussion, motivation and feedback as a strategy for enhancing writing and rewriting stories). Finally, the use of stories cultivated students’ imagination and identified areas in which students needed to develop further understanding. These findings imply that educative curriculum materials that support teachers in using content-based story writing have potential for supporting Palestinian teachers who work in a complex area with very limited resources.

Facilitating Teacher Learning When Using Different Representations of Practice

Providing opportunities for learning through professional development requires the examination of facilitation of sessions with teachers. This study investigates facilitation of professional development to promote teacher learning when using animations and videos in a study group with five teachers. We ask: What practices (and moves within those practices) do the facilitators enact during high-quality conversations and specific to the professional development activities? We found that moves for sustaining an inquiry stance were more frequently performed than other moves, suggesting that the facilitator’s practices increase teachers’ learning opportunities when studying representations of teaching. In addition, the study suggests that there are no significant differences when facilitating discussions of animations and videos. The teacher learning goals seem to be more important than the type of representations of teaching used for the enactment of facilitation moves. Our findings are relevant for designing and implementing professional development that supports teacher learning through inquiry and collaboration.

Expanding Instructional Horizons: A Case Study of Teacher Team-Outside Expert Partnerships

Background Despite increasing popularity and mounting evidence for teacher collaboration as a lever for school improvement, reported changes in teaching associated with collaboration are often subtle and incremental, rarely involving substantial shifts in instructional practice called for by advocates of deeper learning and next-generation standards. One reason more expansive teaching changes remain elusive is that existing “horizons of observation” constrain possibilities teacher teams consider and solutions they develop while collaborating to improve teaching and learning. Purpose This case study of two secondary school teacher teams explored the potential of collaborative partnerships with outside content experts (OCEs) for infusing new resources and perspectives that move beyond persistent images of classroom instruction. Setting The study context was the Learning Studios model from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF), in which interdisciplinary teacher teams partnered with local scientists and researchers to develop and implement yearlong project investigations with students. Research Design The study used a qualitative case study design, including live observations and narrative transcription of team planning and design sessions, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of web-based interactions to develop rich narrative descriptions of the two partnership cases during the 2014–2015 academic year. We also compared and analyzed prominent patterns of OCE facilitative action across the two cases. Findings Coding and analyses revealed several pivotal episodes of partnership interactions with clear evidence of OCE influence on teacher instructional plans. Cross-case analyses point to three OCE facilitative actions that preceded these effects—adapting expertise to local needs, following up between meetings, and judiciously applying pressure. Conclusions The pivotal episodes we captured provide some initial evidence to support previous researchers’ hypotheses that extended collaborative engagements can facilitate teacher learning in ways not readily achieved through traditional partnership models. The joint productive activity and depth of interaction observed in these cases opened up several opportunities to infuse knowledge and insights seldom documented in other teacher—expert studies involving loosely structured programs or short-lived externships. The two cases also provide initial evidence that outside experts can help to expand the horizons of possibilities teachers consider during instructional planning. Although these examples are instructive, we do not believe the reported effects are of sufficient magnitude or duration to be labeled “transformative shifts in practice.” We also cannot say whether these initial changes in instructional plans translated into changes in classroom teaching or improvements in student learning. These remain important questions for future research.

Learning in tandem: professional development for teachers and students as inquirers

This study explores the first year of a grant-funded professional development program that utilized collaborative inquiry to develop teachers’ capacities to enact inquiry learning with secondary students in a variety of content areas. Guided by a vision of inquiry as a complex endeavor, located along a continuum of decisions about authentic disciplinary tasks and student autonomy, as well as a situated view of teacher learning, researchers examined surveys, reflective writing and teacher work samples to explore the relationship between developing capacity for both student and teacher inquiry. Teachers reported satisfaction with their learning about teacher and student inquiry while exhibiting capacity at mostly beginning levels. Ultimately, these results led to discussion of the practical and conceptual dilemmas for facilitating teacher learning when the two inquiry processes for teachers and students are developed in tandem. While conceptual shifts in planning and assessment were noted, practical capacities of both were limited. Most teachers, however, evidenced interest in inquiry for engagement and no shift in embracing more self-directed views of their own learning in spite of professional development interventions.