Support Teacher Learning Research Articles

How to Support Teacher Learning of Integrated STEM Curriculum Design

How to Support Teacher Learning of Integrated STEM Curriculum Design

Computer science for English learners: supporting teacher learning and improved practice to engage multilinguals in AP computer science principles

Multilingual learners, also known as English learners (ELs), are underrepresented in K-12 computer science (CS) courses, where they often struggle. This paper demonstrates how a Computer Science for English Learners (CSforEL) professional development (PD) program supported Advanced Placement CS Principles (APCSP) teachers in attending to both content and language demands while teaching ELs. We highlight qualitative findings showcasing how CSforEL PD yielded (micro)shifts in teacher practice and EL Student-Content interactions. Specifically, we discuss how unique instructional scaffolds offered within the PD shifted teachers’ awareness regarding EL students’ needs, and helped them support their EL students more effectively.

Differences in leading and learning professional learning communities

PurposeThis study aims to understand how to develop, support and utilize professional learning community (PLCs) to build organizational capacity to support teacher learning and collaboration. Although literature highlights the importance of leadership in creating a PLC, there is little research on specific actions leaders can take to create an authentic, sustainable PLC.Design/methodology/approachWe employed a multicase study approach at three school sites within the same district. Our research was guided by the following questions: (1) How are learning communities developed and sustained in school settings?; (2) What is the role of administrators in cultivating learning communities?; and (3) What factors contribute to and hinder the success of learning communities?FindingsDespite being in the same school district, the three schools’ PLCs operated differently. The schools displayed characteristics of PLCs, with minimal implementation of all components. Developing a professional learning community at all three sites began with implementing structural factors and mandating specific activities such as weekly grade-level planning. Social factors were much more complex to control by administration, affecting the fidelity of learning and collaboration within the PLCs.Originality/valueAlthough the literature highlights the importance of leadership in creating a PLC, there is little research that supports specific actions leaders can take to create an authentic, sustainable community of practice. In addition, there is limited literature supporting how administrators use PLCs to build organizational capacity and support teacher learning. Our study contributes to building the empirical knowledge base related to these two areas.

Learning and constructions of us and them in teachers’ collaborative groups

ABSTRACT Background Many studies have pointed to the importance of trust and inclusiveness in teachers’ collaborative groups. Here, we investigate how teachers negotiate dividing lines between “us” and “them” in moment-to-moment interaction. We also examine relationships between these negotiations, local arrangements, and teachers’ opportunities to learn. Methods We analyzed video recordings of two teacher groups, both oriented toward equitable mathematics instruction. We coordinated microinteractional analyses of four episodes with analyses of local arrangements that shaped interaction. Findings In both groups, participants worked to construct a sense of solidarity as “us.” Yet the threat of being positioned outside this “us”—as one of “them”—narrowed opportunities for teachers in both groups to engage in the vulnerable work of grappling with tensions and contradictions together. The salience of this threat was greater in one group than the other, however. We trace this to local arrangements that were differently designed, with different affordances for constructing “us” and “them.” Contribution The social negotiation of exclusion and belonging in teacher groups is highly consequential for teacher learning. Better supporting teacher learning is not just a matter of remediating individuals’ skills or dispositions; it requires learning environments designed to support engagement with the tensions inherent in teaching..

Exploring the enactment of a coaching stance: Findings from one coach–teacher dyad

AbstractCoaching teachers is complex work as coaches must navigate multiple and competing roles of expert and colleague. Within mathematics education, there is a lack of research exploring how coaches enact their stance for coaching, balancing the roles of expert and colleague, in ways that best support teacher learning. Furthermore, little is known about the specific discursive practices coaches use when enacting different stances during mathematics interactions with teachers. Drawing on data collected from one coaching cycle for one coach–teacher dyad during mathematics instruction, including transcripts of two planning meetings, one modeled lesson, one reflection meeting, and five semi‐structured interviews, this study explores one instructional coach's discursive enactment of their coaching stance. Qualitative analyses indicate that the coach had the goal of enacting a responsive coaching stance, and in her practice the coach discursively enacted multiple coaching stances. Furthermore, findings indicate that the coach's disciplinary expertise seemed to influence the discursive enactment of her coaching stance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Understanding teacher burnout following COVID-19

ABSTRACT Teachers have faced a multitude of demands over the past two years and faced new challenges as schools returned in the fall of 2021. Using the Job Demands-Resources model as a framework, the current study identified factors contributing to teacher burnout following the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine predictors of teacher burnout, the authors collected survey data from 779 teachers across the USA. The analysis included hierarchical regression models including demographics, COVID-19 implementations, and demands/resources to predict teacher burnout. The results found using learning management systems, administrative support, teacher autonomy, and teacher mental health were all significant predictors of teacher burnout at the end of the 2021–22 school year. The results are important to consider for teacher retention and teacher well-being. School leaders must find ways to support teacher learning of learning management systems, provide administrative support within each building, allow for teacher autonomy within the classroom, and support teacher well-being.

How might rubric-based observations better support teacher learning and development?

ABSTRACT Background Many education systems internationally expect schools to participate in continuous instructional improvement programmes. One tool used within these processes is the structured, rubric-based classroom observation, focused on the evaluation of teaching. Such observations are a common feature of formative evaluation systems, teacher coaching programmes, within-school teacher collaborative structures, and other local, regional or national frameworks. However, a question arises as to how rubric-based observations may better support teacher learning and development. Purpose and sources Drawing on existing theoretical arguments and empirical work, this paper seeks to contribute to discussion about rubric-based classroom observation and its relationship with teacher learning and instructional improvement. Main arguments Observation rubrics can be regarded as summaries of a community’s understanding of good instruction. When generated in a way that makes this understanding accessible to teachers in the context of their own practice, they have the potential to place the rubric’s, and teachers’, understandings of good teaching ‘in conversation’ with each other. This could provide valuable opportunities for teachers to refine and expand their understandings of good instruction. Embedding rubric-based observations in school structures can, thus, facilitate continuous improvement efforts by better supporting teacher self-reflection, feedback, and collaboration. However, many uses of observation within school contexts tend to prioritise the rubric’s, rather than teachers’, understanding of good teaching. This risks turning observations from tools of learning into tools of judgement, disrupting the pathway through which they might support teacher learning and instructional improvement. Conclusion Our discussion draws attention to the potential benefits yielded and the challenges that may occur in using rubric-based observations to support teacher learning. It highlights factors that need consideration in efforts to leverage rubric-based observations to better promote continuous teacher learning, ultimately positively influencing student learning.

Acceptance of educational robotics: Evolution and validation of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology via structural equation modeling

Fully understanding factors that are related to teachers’ behavioural intentions to use and acceptance of Educational Robotics (ER) in their classes, particularly among students with disabilities, is a big challenge. In particular, social psychology models may be used more consistently to inform scholars about the paths and the strength of interrelated factors influencing learning support teachers’ acceptance of ER. In this study, the Almere model, an evolution and adaptation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as used in Conti and colleagues was validated. The model is directed to measure acceptance of ER in a sample of 319 learning support teachers via structural equation modeling. Results showed a model explaining a good percentage of variance. In the learning support teachers’ intentions to use ER with students with disabilities, positive and direct effects were exerted by teachers’ positive attitudes toward robotics, and by their perception of the enjoyment and usefulness of robotics. Furthermore, results showed that perception of enjoyment in using ER was strongly and positively associated with perceived sociability and this, in turn, was positively associated with levels of trust. Finally, perceived sociability was positively associated with social presence perceptions.

Fostering expansive and connective sensemaking with preservice secondary science teachers

AbstractPreservice secondary science teachers often experience science learning in narrow and marginalizing ways in their science preparation. These experiences cause harm, particularly for preservice teachers of color. They also limit the disciplinary resources they can develop for later teaching science in ways that value and sustain their students' ways of knowing and being in the world. Our research explores possibilities for cultivating new spaces for preservice secondary science teachers to engage in science. In a content‐focused education course, we designed for and studied preservice teachers' engagement in expansive and connective sensemaking, incorporating heterogeneity, power, and historicity in pursuits of explanatory accounts of the natural world. In this article, we examined how this course design can support preservice teachers to attune to heterogeneity in ways of knowing in science and to connect to identity and historicity in scientific sensemaking. Our analysis suggests that students' final projects reflected attunements to diverse knowing, communicating, and relating in science and deep connections with their identities and future‐making, yet had fewer connections to sociohistorical narratives and structures. We developed illustrative case studies of four student projects, highlighting the personal, social, and political possibilities of creating space for future educators to imagine more expansive and connective forms of science. This study contributes a novel model for preservice science teacher education to support teacher learning to value and sustain their students' ways of knowing and being in the world.

The student hat in professional development: Building epistemic empathy to support teacher learning

AbstractProfessional development (PD) can support science teachers to learn about instructional reforms, but more work needs to be done on broadening our understanding of how specific PD activities support teacher learning. One understudied PD activity is the student hat: when teachers engage in student learning activities while considering ideas, language, and feelings students might have to build their empathy for how student experience reform instruction. Little is known about if and how student hat activities support teacher learning. I conducted a single embedded case study of a 2.5‐day PD for middle school science teachers using the OpenSciEd curriculum. I interviewed 12 participants to understand how they perceived the student hat activities and analyzed 36 hours of PD video, focusing specifically on moments in which participants struggled to act in student hat, to gain insights on how it helped them to learn. Teachers found student hat difficult, but it helped them better understand science ideas, their students, and the instructional approach. These learning outcomes likely occurred because of two mechanisms: creating a safe environment to be wrong and building epistemic empathy with students. By allowing teachers to feel safe expressing confusion with content ideas, the student hat helped teachers to build their science understanding. Developing teachers' epistemic empathy for students helped them to understand how students might think and feel while engaging in reform instruction.

The case of the model classroom: cognition and authenticity in teacher professional development

ABSTRACT A persistent challenge for teacher professional development is how to best support the translation of knowledge into practice. Building on scholarship that characterizes teacher learning as both a cognitive and situated process, we examine one district’s effort to enact a model classroom approach to professional development. Based on qualitative interviews, observations, and survey data, we find that teachers who engaged in the model classroom in sustained ways reported incorporating specific strategies into their practice. The model classroom had key characteristics that supported teacher learning: the ability of teachers to observe real-life practice with students present and the alignment of model classroom activities to teachers’ own teaching contexts. According to teachers' self-reports, these dimensions of authenticity triggered a range of cognitive responses and prompted self-reported changes in teacher practice. Most importantly, how teachers reported feeling during a model classroom visit was related to how much teachers reported internalizing what they observed and how much teachers made plans to incorporate new ideas into their practice.

Getting comfortable with discomfort: supporting primary science teacher educators’ capacity for socially just pedagogy

ABSTRACT Despite longstanding calls for social justice-oriented teaching, there remains limited understanding of how to achieve it. This paper reports findings from a research-development project that explored the experiences of UK-based primary science teacher educators participating in a nine-month equity-oriented professional development programme and offers insights for supporting teacher learning for social justice. Analysis of written reflections and open-ended interviews with 15 teacher educators identified three types of reflection that supported justice-oriented practice: personal privilege in relation to race, class, gender and science; the norms and values of educational professional development; and practical implementation of justice-orientated professional development with teachers and schools. We discuss the importance of creating safe and brave spaces for critical reflection for primary science teacher educators and highlight the productive potential of experiences of discomfort that generated humility, empathy and insights that resulted in more equitable practice. The paper underlines the value of supporting educators to embrace discomfort as part of social justice-orientated professional development and calls for a greater valuing of and support for expanded models of professional development that foreground critical reflection and go beyond ‘top tips’, ‘quick fixes’, and dominant norms around professional ‘politeness’.

How do on-site teacher educators approach professional development? A study of insider/outsider hybridity

ABSTRACT In-service professional development is important for improving teaching. However, little research has examined how the roles, beliefs, and backgrounds of the individuals providing professional development can best be leveraged to create effective professional development programmes. A particularly understudied group are community-based On-Site Teacher Educators (OSTEs) who can serve as the bridge between university-based faculty and school employees. OSTEs are aware of the realities of classroom spaces, yet work outside of them, giving them a hybrid capacity to support teacher learning. In this exploratory qualitative multiple case study, the perspectives and practices of three OSTEs are examined as they supported elementary science teachers (n = 119) in multi-year professional development. Findings indicate that OSTEs have strong alignment between their professional development practices and their beliefs about knowledge and learning. OSTEs revealed that they are introspective about managing the gap between university faculty and classroom teachers. Cross-case analysis revealed that OSTEs identify a tension between affirming teachers as professionals and productively challenging teachers’ assumptions. To address this, they use modelling, co-teaching, and dialogue inside a stance of teaching as intellectual work. In sum, this research suggests that professional development provided by OSTEs can lead to transformative change in schools.

It's the journey, not the arrival that matters – Teachers' perceptions of their practice after participating in a continuing professional development program in physically active learning

Continuing professional development (CPD) programs have been suggested as a way of supporting teachers' use of physically active learning (PAL) to enhance pupils' learning. Drawing on Dewey's theory of ‘education as growth’ (1916), this qualitative study explored teachers' perceptions of their practice after participating in a CPD program in PAL. Findings from eleven semi-structured interviews analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis illustrated that the teachers viewed their participation as beneficial by diversifying their teaching practice, stimulating their professional reflectiveness, and encouraging collaborative learning. These findings indicate that using and reflecting on PAL may support teacher learning in the longer term.

Teachers’ professional development for cooperative learning: A constructive controversy between long-term versus short-term professional development

Abstract:
 Previous scientific research has recognised the pedagogical model of cooperative learning (CL) as a best-practice pedagogy, which facilitates students’ academic and social learning. Teachers are crucial for implementing CL in the classroom. While they value the method, they often find it complex and challenging to use. Thus, it is crucial to support effective CL professional development (PD) for teachers. Various approaches, forms and lengths of PD in CL are available for teachers, and long- and short-term approaches have been debated in the literature. Based on the perspective of constructive controversy, the goal of this study is to examine teachers’ PD in CL, with a particular focus on long- and short-term PD. Drawing on our different perspectives and experiences with long- and short-term PD in CL, we aim to contribute knowledge that can support teachers’ learning and implementation of CL. To provide insights and reflections along with theoretical findings, we utilise a narrative approach, with one narrative on long-term PD and one on short-term PD. One issue that becomes clear is the lack of a consensus on what counts as PD for teachers, as PD is a holistic multidimensional construct. We propose four common characteristics that should be considered in developing successful PD regardless of the CL approach or the length of the PD: 1) It enables participating teachers to acquire a shared understanding and knowledge of the theoretical framework of CL; 2) It supports teachers in taking ownership of CL; 3) It involves collaboration (in different forms); and 4) It includes support structures. While both long- and short-term PD can support teacher learning, how the time is used is the most important factor for a successful outcome. Hence, short-term PD is better than no PD at all.

A YouTube video club for teacher learning: Empowering early childhood educators to teach STEM

AbstractA lack of evidence bridging the chasm between professional learning practices and commonly used, publicly available resources such as YouTube videos, remains a long‐term challenge in both research and practice. The study introduced a YouTube video club for female early childhood teachers in Hong Kong (N = 29) to view, analyse and discuss STEM teaching videos. The participants wrote reflections and discussed with peers to exchange views on teaching content and strategies. All participants completed pre‐ and post‐intervention surveys reporting their teaching beliefs, and five participants from the experimental group were invited for individual interviews. The questionnaire survey data were analysed using statistical analysis, while the interview data were analysed through inductive thematic analysis. The study, which was pre‐post quasi‐experimental, showed that the video club enhanced teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards professional practices in early childhood education. Qualitative analysis of teacher interviews revealed benefits and constraints of using YouTube videos for professional learning. The study transformed video clubs into a web‐mediated mode using YouTube, Google Classroom and Zoom. The results have implications for the design and implementation of video clubs in teacher learning programmes. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic As the largest and most popular video‐sharing service, YouTube hosts a wide range of freely accessible video types that can be used for professional education in various disciplines. There are worldwide efforts to improve early childhood teachers' ability to teach STEM. Video recordings of classroom observations have been used in the context of video clubs since the 1990s to support teacher learning. What this paper adds We introduced the design of a YouTube video club focusing on STEM teaching, in which the participants were asked to view and analyse video excerpts, write reflection as guided by the facilitator and discuss with peers in groups to exchange views on the teaching content and strategies demonstrated in the video excerpts. We extended prior research on video clubs by transforming video clubs into a fully web‐mediated mode using the technologies of YouTube, Google Classroom and Zoom. This design‐based study evaluated the design of YouTube video club in terms of affording and constraining teachers' professional learning in STEM education. Implications for practice and/or policy Results of this study can inform the design of teacher learning programmes using YouTube videos. YouTube videos can be used in web‐mediated video clubs to enhance teachers' professional beliefs, as well as the pedagogical content knowledge in specific learning domains (eg, STEM). More enhancements should be made to optimize the design of YouTube video club.

Using Performance Tasks to Provide Feedback and Assess Progress in Teacher Preparation

This report presents results from a survey of 64 elementary mathematics and reading language arts teacher educators providing feedback on a new type of short performance task. The performance tasks each present a brief teaching scenario and then require a short performance as if teaching actual students. Teacher educators participating in the study first reviewed six performance tasks, followed by a more in‐depth review of two of the tasks. After reviewing the tasks, teacher educators completed an online survey providing input on the value of the tasks and on potential uses to support teacher preparation. The survey responses were positive with the majority of teacher educators supporting a variety of different uses of the performance tasks to support teacher preparation. The report concludes by proposing a larger theory for how the performance tasks can be used as both formative assessment tools to support teacher learning and summative assessments to guide decisions about candidates' readiness for the classroom.

Becoming Equitable Educators: Practical Measures to Support Teachers’ Dispositional Growth

Animating equity in teaching and learning depends on teacher dispositions—orientations to self, others, and society that underlie how we think and act. Teacher dispositions are virtues or qualities of moral character that modify the ways we interact with students and educator colleagues. Although interest in “measuring to improve” teaching and teacher education has grown recently, most measures lack validity evidence for practical usefulness. Integrating Messick’s “unified validity framework” with Janssen et al.’s notion of “practicality” (as face validity), we find through an iterative, mixed-methods analysis of interviews with equitable educators and survey responses from teacher candidates that incorporating recognizability, relevance, and feasibility concerns of equity disposition concepts (i.e., Social Awareness, Meekness, Advocacy for Students) within survey items enhances item-to-factor structure of a self-report measure. We discuss implications (a) to develop and appraise formative measures and (b) to support teacher learning and development to become equitable educators.

Supporting Teacher Learning During Modeled Mathematics Instruction

Although modeling instruction has been identified as a productive professional development activity that coaches can use with teachers in their classrooms, coaches are provided with little guidance regarding how to support teacher learning as they model mathematics instruction. While previous research points to the importance of providing teachers with examples of high-quality instruction through the coach’s model, teachers may need additional support as instruction unfolds to make sense of what they are observing. As part of the current study, I partnered with one mathematics coach and explored how she explicitly sought to augment teacher learning while modeling mathematics instruction. Findings indicate that the coach leveraged three approaches: engaging the teacher in verbal asides during modeled instruction, providing the teacher with written asides in the scripted lesson plan, and scaffolding the observing teacher’s responsibilities. Implications are provided for research and practice.

Examining the Impact of Teacher Learning Communities on Self-Efficacy and Professional Learning: An Application of the Theory-Driven Evaluation

Collaborative professional learning is essential for teachers to work collectively in facilitating student learning. A program of Learning Community under Leadership for Learning was launched to support teacher learning in authentic situations in Taiwan. Applying the theory-driven evaluation model, the study aimed to investigate the impact of a program component of teacher learning communities (TLCs) on professional learning beliefs and behaviors. A sample of 226 elementary and junior high school teachers in Taiwan was surveyed and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that the experiences in TLCs had an impact on teachers’ professional learning beliefs and behaviors through their self-efficacy. Additionally, teacher self-efficacy was found to have a direct impact on their beliefs and behaviors, and beliefs were found to affect behaviors significantly. This study has expanded the understanding of self-efficacy in relation to professional learning beliefs and behaviors and provided practical insights for effective strategies for teacher development.