Practice-based Professional Development Research Articles

Middle school educators’ experiences in a cross-institutional professional development model for enhancing writing instruction

PurposeThis paper explores a five-year case example of two educators engaged in practice-based professional development (PBPD) for the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model in a middle school. It examines the transformative effects and challenges of improving writing instruction, the activities involved and alternative PBPD delivery methods. Highlighting a collaborative effort between an institute of higher education (IHE), a middle school and ThinkSRSD, a PBPD for SRSD developer, the example underscores the long-term benefits and innovative insights into engaging with PBPD for SRSD over multiple years.Design/methodology/approachThe case involves analyzing survey data collected over five years. These surveys, which included specific SRSD-related queries and open-ended questions, were instrumental in assessing the evolution of the educators’ perceptions regarding SRSD and their engagement with PBPD. Additionally, the paper details PBPD activities as documented in a research journal, providing a comprehensive account of the developmental process.FindingsThrough a cross-institutional partnership, two middle school general educators participated in PBPD for SRSD for 30 h across five years. Their engagement with PBPD progressed from initial introduction and implementation to facilitating PBPD for SRSD among peers and at the national level. Over time, the most consistently enacted SRSD action was “memorize it,” while actions such as “discuss it,” “support it” and “independent performance” showed greater variability. Both educators consistently praised SRSD and sought continued PBPD engagement over the five years.Originality/valueOur case example is the first five-year analysis of PBPD for SRSD among general middle school educators, highlighting the benefits and challenges of adopting evidence-based writing instruction. Our example emphasizes the need for continuous and focused professional development in areas crucial for student success, including self-regulation, prewriting strategies and techniques for fostering independent performance. Moreover, the two middle school educators’ critical feedback is invaluable for refining PBPD for SRSD. This work also enriches professional development schools (PDS) literature by offering effective strategies to support middle school teachers in developing a vibrant writing community, a cornerstone for student advancement in writing.

Supporting K-8 Teachers’ Capacity to Develop Quality Formative Science Assessments

ABSTRACT During a two-year span, a cohort of K-8 science teachers undertook the task of creating formative assessments aligned with the Next-Generation Science Standards for their individual classrooms. Practice-based professional development was utilized to support teachers in a cyclical manner as they cooperatively developed, administered, and reflected on a series of assessments they designed across two study phases. In order to measure developmental progression of the formative assessments across the study’s two phases, project leadership designed an assessment quality rating instrument targeting four components of a given formative assessment: (a) learning goal(s), (b) task/prompt, (c) success criteria, and (d) next instructional steps. Using this criterion-based instrument, 123 assessments were subjected to consensus scoring using a 0–3 rating for each component (e.g. learning goals). Results indicated teachers developed higher quality formative assessments during the project’s second phase. More specifically, they developed learning goals and success criteria that were identified as being multi-dimensional, meaning the assessment component was designed to assess more than content. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed, specifically related to the supports needed for teachers learning to progressively design and implement full spectrum, science-based, formative assessments. Finally, suggestions for future research are discussed given the potential value of using assessment design to introduce a cycle of teacher-driven self-reflection.

“I’m Not a Writing Teacher!”: Practice-Based Professional Development to Support Writing Instruction for General and Special Educators

Given the writing struggles of students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) served in general and special education classrooms, it is imperative that teachers provide effective writing instruction. One way to learn effective writing skills is through writing instruction through practice-based professional development that scaffolds instructional methods to teach evidence-based writing strategies. Within this article, a framework is described to develop an effective professional development for general and special education teachers who work with struggling writers with and at risk for EBD.

Instructional Coaches in Elementary Settings: Writing the Wave to Success with Self-Regulated Strategy Development for the Informational Genre

Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an evidence-based practice for writing that is effective in improving the writing performance of elementary students with learning disabilities and the broader student population. In this manuscript, we provide guidance for elementary instructional coaches in facilitating a schoolwide adoption of SRSD for writing instruction. We outline the steps for instructional coaches to conduct practice-based professional development and then discuss ways instructional coaches can support teachers and oversee schoolwide SRSD implementation. Finally, we present ways that instructional coaches can be a valuable resource for teachers in differentiating SRSD instruction to meet students’ needs and to track students’ growth. By fostering a schoolwide implementation, coaches can harness the power of additive knowledge, increase teacher knowledge of evidence-based pedagogical practices, and increase the writing skills of all students, including those with learning disabilities.

Workforce training needs to address social and emotional wellbeing in home-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged care.

Objective To explore the training needs of the home care workforce in supporting the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples receiving aged care services through the Home Care Package (HCP) Program. Methods A mixed-methods design including (1) a focus group and interview with coordinators of HCP Program services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across metropolitan and rural South Australia in April and June 2022, and (2) a desktop review of training, professional development opportunities and resources for existing and pre-entry workforce addressing the SEWB of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in aged care across the Vocational Education Training and higher education sectors in South Australia, the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, the Department of Health and Aged Care website and aged care email alerts between December 2021 and September 2022. Results Five themes representing workforce training needs were identified: cultural safety, trauma-informed care, case management, compliance with funding rules and preferred formats for training. The desktop review identified a paucity of formal training, professional development and resources within the context of addressing the SEWB of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in aged care. Conclusions These findings suggest that ongoing practice-based professional development learning opportunities are needed within organisations to enhance peer-learning and support. These need to be available together with dedicated formal training programs and practical resources on meeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' SEWB in aged care.

Towards practice-based professional development by teacher educators

Teacher education reform has advocated the implementation of widely espoused pedagogic changes in many contexts, particularly in Sub-Saharan African countries. This paper focused on the central agents in the reform process, i.e., teacher educators. Framed within the emerging conceptualizations of practice-based professional development of teacher educators, the study explores perspectives for improving educators’ teaching based on the self-study experiences of the first author while supporting the reflective practices of a group of student teachers in Eritrea. Self-study methods and tools including interactive discussions among colleague educators and critical friends, journaling, and course artifacts were used while developing the findings. The findings identified the dynamics of how researching situated concerns of teaching and learning frames problems of practice and also invokes sources and situations for developing motivations of educators in maintaining inquiry and improvement stances. We argue that such a dynamic is critical in productively engaging with teacher educators' professional learning in practice in similar contexts.

Write, talk and rewrite: the effectiveness of a dialogic writing intervention in upper elementary education

In this research, we developed and empirically tested a dialogic writing intervention, an integrated language approach in which grade 5/6 students learn how to write, talk about their writing with peers, and rewrite. The effectiveness of this intervention was experimentally tested in ten classes from eight schools, using a pretest–posttest control group design. Classes were randomly assigned to the intervention group (5 classes; 95 students) or control group (5 classes; 115 students). Both groups followed the same eight lessons in which students wrote four argumentative texts about sustainability. For each text, students wrote a draft version, which they discussed in groups of three students. Based on these peer conversations, students revised their text. The intervention group received additional support to foster dialogic peer conversations, including a conversation chart for students and a practice-based professional development program for teachers. Improvements in writing were measured by an argumentative writing task (same genre, but different topic; near transfer) and an instructional writing task (different genre and topic; far transfer). Text quality was holistically assessed using a benchmark rating procedure. Results show that our dialogic writing intervention with support for dialogic talk significantly improved students’ argumentative writing skills (ES = 1.09), but that the effects were not automatically transferable to another genre. Based on these results we conclude that a dialogic writing intervention is a promising approach to teach students how to talk about their texts and to write texts that are more persuasive to readers.

On designing better structures for feedback in practice-based professional development: Using “failure” to innovate

On designing better structures for feedback in practice-based professional development: Using “failure” to innovate

Teaching argument writing in math class: challenges and solutions to improve the performance of 4th and 5th graders with disabilities.

Incorporating argument writing as a learning activity has been found to increase students' mathematics performance. However, teachers report receiving little to no preservice or inservice preparation to use writing to support students' learning. This is especially concerning for special education teachers who provide highly specialized mathematics instruction (i.e., Tier 3) to students with mathematics disabilities (MLD). The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of teachers providing content-focused open-ended questioning strategies, which included both argument writing and foundational fraction content, using Practice-Based Professional Development (PBPD) and Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) for implementing a writing-to-learn strategy called FACT-R2C2. We report the relative number of higher-order mathematical content questions that teachers asked during instruction, from among three different-level question types: Level 1: yes/no questions focused on the mathematics content; Level 2: one-word responses focused on the mathematics content; and Level 3: higher-order open-ended responses centered around four mathematical practices from the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Within a well-controlled single-case multiple-baseline design, seven special education teachers were randomly assigned to each PBPD + FACT-R2C2 intervention tier. Results indicated that: (1) teachers' relative use of Level 3 questions increased following the introduction of the FACT intervention; (2) this increase was apart from the professional development training that the teachers had initially received; and (3) students' writing quality improved to some extent with the increase in teachers' relative use of Level 3 questions. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Professional development for evidence-based SRSD writing instruction: Elevating fourth grade outcomes

Writing is a critical skill for success in all areas of life, but it is one of the least taught skills in school. Teachers consistently report being unprepared to teach writing. In this study, set in a Southern U.S. boomtown, teachers received two days of practice-based professional development for a ten-week implementation of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), an evidence-based writing intervention, to support student persuasive and informational writing as well as performance on the state standardized writing exam. This multi-site cluster randomized controlled study evaluated the effectiveness of SRSD on student writing outcomes including prompt adherence, elements, and holistic quality. Multilevel modeling analysis was used to evaluate data from 418 fourth -grade students (256 treatment, 162 control) nested across 33 classes (n = 17 treatment taught by 8 departmentalized teachers; 16 control, 9 departmentalized teachers) within 11 schools randomly assigned to condition. Teachers implemented SRSD with high fidelity (M = 92%; range 91–100%). SRSD had a statistically significant and large effect on prompt adherence (p < .001; Hedges’ g = 1.87), elements (p < .001; Hedges’ g = 0.84) and holistic scores (p < .001; Hedges’ g = 0.87), while holding gender and pretest scores constant. Effects of SRSD on all writing measures were not significantly moderated by students’ gender, students’ pretest scores, or schools’ pretest scores. There were complications with teacher observations, especially related to technology. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Practice-Based Professional Development for Self-Regulated Strategy Development Writing Instruction With Secondary Teachers

Students with disabilities need high-quality instruction to effectively wield writing as a tool to powerfully shape both academic and economic outcomes. Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is a powerful intervention demonstrated to improve student growth and writing performance for students with learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Moreover, it has been extended to show benefits beyond those populations into general education settings at the secondary level and to also support both reading and content area knowledge acquisition. That said, it’s a complex intervention that requires intensive support through professional development. In this manuscript, we outline how instructional coaches and other teacher leaders can best support teachers in middle and high school settings as they adopt SRSD, an evidence-based writing practice, through a practice-based professional development model. We offer step-by-step directions for planning, implementing, supporting, and evaluating the implementation.

Pedagogical and epistemic uncertainty in collaborative teacher learning

Studies of teacher learning often focus on individual teacher uncertainty as a source for reflection and inquiry. This study examines the emergence of group uncertainty during practice-based professional development, and the ways participants manage it. Through linguistic ethnographic discourse analysis, we examine two contrasting teacher discussions about the concept of feedback in one teacher meeting. In our analyses, we distinguish between pedagogical uncertainty and epistemic uncertainty and explore the strategies participants employ to navigate them. Specifically, we highlight the importance of examining socio-epistemic positioning and epistemic moves to better understand how participants respond to group uncertainty.

Kindergarten Teacher Responses to a Contextualized Professional Development Workshop on STEAM Teaching

This study examined the supports and barriers encountered by kindergarten teachers when participating in a STEAM professional development (PD) workshop that took place in their own classrooms. This study draws on Practice-Based Professional Development framework and adult learning theories to guide the design of the workshop and analysis of results. A teacher focus group with five participants was conducted and analyzed through emergent coding. Teachers identified several supports and challenges when implementing strategies learned during the workshop, providing important insights on improving PD experiences in this innovative approach to education. This paper will present a reconceptualized approach to short-term PD interventions in STEAM that capitalizes on important best practices from recent coaching literature, yet maintains the low cost and time investments of traditional PD approaches. We describe participating kindergarten teachers’ responses to this PD intervention, as well as identify lessons learned to inform PD experiences in the future.

Teacher-developed Multi-Dimensional Science Assessments Supporting Elementary Teacher Learning about the Next Generation Science Standards

ABSTRACT The onset of the Next-Generation Science Standards [NGSS] has created a need for elementary teachers to develop purposeful, multi-dimensional formative assessments (FAs). In order to promote this process, we utilized teacher learning communities (TLCs) and practice-based professional development focused on key aspects of the reform while documenting how four teachers in rural elementary schools cyclically developed and revised several FAs during a two-year project. Utilizing a multi-case embedded case study design, primary data collected included multiple teacher-developed, classroom-embedded FAs (including student work samples), recurrent audio of conversations wherein teachers discussed the results of their FAs with peers in their TLC, and five teacher interviews. The findings, though not intended to be generalizable, detail how developing FAs helped two of the teachers expose both instructional and assessment-related vulnerabilities as they learned more about the NGSS and the value of purposefully eliciting their student’s thinking in a multi-dimensional manner. Conversely, the other two teachers maintained a prior preference for developing FAs that targeted the memorization of science content—though they did provide students with more “space” to reveal their thinking via more open-ended prompts. This adjustment unfortunately caused numerous challenges for students, as they struggled to provide the “correct” responses the pair sought. Implications discuss how the connections between instruction and assessment can become more tightly intertwined whilst cyclically designing FAs, with an emphasis on the science and engineering practices. Recommendations for future research stemming from outside and within the classroom, as well as practitioner-based supports are discussed.

Impact of A Practice-Based Professional Development on Secondary Science Teachers’ Use of Disciplinary Literacy Practices: A Design Research Project

ABSTRACT This design-based research investigated the context and impact of a three-year practice-based professional development (PD) project introducing science teachers to pedagogical shifts required for full implementation and synergy among disciplinary literacy components of Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core State Standards- Literacy. Participants included 42 middle school teachers from 12 primarily urban districts from one northeastern state. Researchers utilized a Theory of Change to guide the study. The interdisciplinary project team immersed teachers in experiencing innovative, standards-based, three-dimensional (3D) earth and space science (ESS) curricular units with embedded disciplinary literacy (DL) strategies. Teachers then adapted the 3D+DL units and implemented with students. Researchers used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to examine quantitative and qualitative data in the form of classroom observations to determine fidelity of implementation of 3D+DL practices, frequency of 3D+DL practices on the self-reported Science Literacy Survey, and focus group interviews to assess impacts of the PD project on teaching. Analyses revealed that teachers valued and embraced 3D+DL instructional shifts that supported teacher and student sensemaking in science. Teachers attributed project success to (a) project team collaboration to develop ESS units, (b) adaptability of ESS units, (c) explicit and direct instruction of 3D+DL, and (d) teacher sharing and reflecting on student success. The shift in teachers’ understanding and practices of 3D+DL teaching and learning is likely attributed to teachers having the opportunity for sensemaking as learners with rigorous ESS units prior to implementing 3D+DL instruction with their students, which may provide guidance for future PD.

Writing expository essays from social studies texts: a self-regulated strategy development study

This study examined the effectiveness of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) to improve students’ ability to write expository essays after reading social studies text. Third-grade general education teachers (N = 14) were randomly assigned by clusters to SRSD or a business as usual control condition. One hundred and eighty consented students participated in the full study. Teachers in the SRSD condition participated in 12 h of practice-based professional development (PBPD) before implementing the SRSD intervention. They also received 30-min biweekly coaching sessions across the 16 weeks of the study. Initially, teachers provided SRSD strategy instruction in TIDE (Topic Sentence, Important Details, Explain Details, Ending) for planning and writing expository essays. Then, teachers spent an additional 8 weeks teaching students to use TIDE for close reading, planning, and writing expository essays using social studies text. Multilevel random effects models indicated SRSD students included more genre elements in their expository essays (ESg = 1.07) and produced essays of higher holistic quality (ESg = 0.72) than control students when writing an expository essay using a source text. Students in the SRSD condition also included more genre elements when writing an expository essay drawing content from memory (ESg = 1.09), and outperformed control students on a norm-referenced writing measure (ESg = 0.79). Findings support implementation of the SRSD intervention in general education classrooms within content-areas and underscore future directions for combining writing, reading, and social studies instruction.

Learning in, and from, practice-based professional development initiatives in ECEC: a research agenda in Denmark

ABSTRACT Quality in early-childhood education and care is a decisive element in children’s development and learning, with professional standards of practitioners a critical element in ensuring quality provision. An on-going research project into professional development (PD) initiatives for ECEC practitioners in Denmark focuses on a practice-based initiative engaging with the Abecedarian Approach to adult–child interactions. This considers the facilitation of collaborative learning, as well as how the influence of such initiatives may be studied. A mixed-method’s pilot study shows an innovative implementation framework inspired by principles of organisational learning, coupled with content from Abecedarian, encouraged practitioners’ reflection on and in specific work practices. Insights from the pilot inform the on-going research agenda, in the design of a model for sustainable practice-based PD geared towards improving the quality of ECEC provision, enabling further contemplation on how to support and study practice-based collaborative learning processes.

The complexities of assuming the ‘teacher of teachers’ role during lesson study

ABSTRACT Changes in society demand constantly evolving education systems. Teachers’ practice is crucial to the successful implementation of educational reforms. A major obstacle for practicing teachers in implementing reform mathematics is that they have not experienced it themselves as learners. Consequently, teachers require extended, practice-based professional development to support them in the implementation phase of reform endeavours. Japanese Lesson Study has increased in popularity internationally as a professional development model due to its potential to facilitate teachers to learn in and from the practice of teaching. This self-study examines two mathematics teacher educators’ first experience of facilitating Lesson Study with Irish primary in-service teachers. Reflection on the Lesson Study carried out with in-service teachers in 8 urban schools revealed three critical incidents that promoted deeper understanding of the context. The findings provide insights into the realities of managing and leading Lesson Study with in-service teachers, in particular the various barriers affecting teacher engagement. Alternative approaches to practice to address these challenges are also identified.

EXAMINING CHANGE IN PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE TEACHERS ABOUT E-STEM

Professional development programs might affect teachers' perceptions of how STEM disciplines are interconnected. The purpose of this research was to examine the change in perceptions of science teachers particularly in disadvantageous schools, who participated in a practice-based professional development program offered in Turkey, about STEM, entrepreneurship, and E-STEM, and their experiences related to E-STEM. This qualitative research had a phenomenological design. The participants were totally 30 science teachers who were teaching in each of the seven geographical regions of Turkey. The data were collected through semi-structured pre- and post-focus group interview forms finalized after the expert review and pilot study. Furthermore, the science teachers were asked to keep a diary about the implementation process throughout the research. The data collected through focus group interviews were examined using content analysis and the data collected through the diaries were examined using descriptive analysis. The findings of the study indicate that the science teachers defined E-STEM as a process containing the aspects of entrepreneurship (communication, perseverance and determination, self-confidence, motivation, risk-taking, presentation, and marketing) more comprehensively compared to the pre-interviews. Keywords: STEM education, E-STEM education, science teacher, teacher education

TEACHERS’ AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF STUDENTS’ CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF GEOMETRIC SHAPES

Few research studies have been conducted in a primary school in early mathematical education about the teaching of geometry. This research aims to contribute with knowledge of how teachers’ awareness and understanding of necessary conditions to enhance students’ abilities to discern two- and three-dimensional shapes develop. In this research, qualitative methods were used to analyse data from a lesson study in grade 4 in the subject of mathematics. Data were primarily collected through audio-recorded conversations with teachers before and after the lesson, and the results of students’ pre- and post-test. The results of this research showed increased awareness of using collaboration opportunities to apply professional classroom instructions and activities to enhance students’ knowledge of two- and three-dimensional shapes. This research elucidates how the practice-based professional development approach emphasised the teachers’ teaching targets for understanding students’ content knowledge of geometric shapes. Additionally, the result highlighted teachers’ awareness and understanding of the challenges students face in learning about three-dimensional shapes from two-dimensional representations. Future research should develop a more iterative and revised research lesson design to develop more powerful content knowledge and classroom activity in this topic area. Keywords: early mathematics education, geometric shapes, practice-based professional development, lesson study