Teacher Learning In Communities Research Articles

Teacher educator learning to implement equitable mathematics teaching using technology through lesson study

PurposeThis paper examines how mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) learn to enact equitable mathematics instruction using technology through lesson study (LS).Design/methodology/approachA LS team with three MTEs conducted three iterations of LS on teaching the Pythagorean Theorem in an in-person, technology-mediated environment. Many forms of data were collected: Desmos activities, videos of research lessons (RLs), videos of MTE RL debriefings, artifacts of student learning in the Desmos Dashboard, and MTEs' written self-reflection. The authors investigate the teacher educators' learning through LS by analyzing the MTE debriefings of the RLs using Bannister’s (2015) framework for teacher learning in communities of practice.FindingsThe MTEs learned to enact equitable mathematics instruction using technology through addressing emerging issues related to intellectual authority and use of student thinking. Throughout the LS, the MTEs sought ways of promoting students' mathematical authority and using student thinking through features of the Desmos platform.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on MTEs' learning without examining participating preservice teachers' learning. It demonstrates the benefits of LS for MTEs' professional learning.Practical implicationsThis study showcases how a research-based Desmos activity is used and refined to promote MTE learning how to implement equitable mathematics instruction.Originality/valueThe study contributes to better understanding of how LS could be used to develop MTEs' professional learning. Moreover, the dual process of participation and reification was concretized through diagnostic and prognostic frames in the LS context, which enriches the concept of community of practice.

Efl Teacher Learning In Online Community Of Practice

Teachers’ professional development is essential for improving student learning outcomes and fostering overall educational quality. However, many teachers believe that TPD programs are ineffective. Teachers require ongoing programs, encouraging them to discuss ideas and give feedback, and do a collaboration. One of the programs is community of practice, which is a social learning process in which individuals with similar interest collaborate. Thus, this study aims to explore teachers’ learning in community of practice to develop their professional growth. This study adopted case study design involving a group of English teachers in Indonesia who joining an online TPD program. The data were gained through WhatsApp interaction between the teachers and the trainer, and among the teachers. The findings indicated that teachers learn in community of practice by getting proposed questions and given feedback by the trainers, getting teaching resources from the trainers and their fellow teachers, and presenting an issue related to their teaching. These aspects lead to interaction among them. Moreover, the presence of a group coordinator and administrator may help the teachers to foster teachers’ engagement towards the program.

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.

Teacher learning in communities of practice: The affordances of co‐planning for novice and veteran teachers' learning

AbstractCollaborative reflective inquiry in teacher communities of practice (CoP) supports their professional situated learning. However, the CoP model entails at least three limitations and challenges for teacher learning: novice teachers can seldom act as legitimate peripheral participants since they are obliged to do the same work that veterans do; veterans' learning is neglected since they are expected to teach the novices; and power dynamics between veterans and novices may constrain the group's reflective inquiry and, consequently, its learning. In this case‐study, we explore the dynamics between veteran and novice science teachers in a purposefully sampled case of three teachers engaged in collaborative planning in a professional development community. We examine the implications of these dynamics for the group's reflective inquiry, using linguistic ethnographic micro‐analytic methods to analyze audio‐ and video‐recordings of the planning session. The findings demonstrate how in a collaborative planning context, legitimate peripheral participation is afforded, thereby mitigating face threats and supporting learning for both novice and veteran teachers. The study highlights the unique affordances of collaborative planning for science teachers' reflective inquiry, advancing our understanding of the social dimension of teacher learning. This study contributes to the fields of teacher learning in CoPs and teacher planning.

Research Commentary: Theorizing Collaborative Mathematics Teacher Learning in Communities of Practice

Persistent disconnects within and among education research, practice, and policy are limiting the reach of professional mathematics teacher communities, one of the most promising levers for humanizing mathematics teaching and learning in schools. An overarching goal of this commentary is to convince the field of mathematics education to broaden our research agendas beyond individual classrooms to teacher collectives so that our combined efforts have a greater positive impact on how people experience mathematics in and out of school. The commentary begins with a focused review of extant literature on teacher community to establish context, clarify theoretical underpinnings, and describe three important problems of teacher community. The need for research on these problems is connected to the need for studies of mathematics teacher learning to better specify what counts as evidence of learning and how this evidence gets analyzed. In response, and for the sake of epistemological and ontological transparency, teacher learning is theorized from a community-of-practice perspective. A frame analysis methodology for empirical analysis of collaborative mathematics teacher learning within professional teacher community contexts is theorized, thereby contributing provisional tools for the field to use in this work.

Enacting principal leadership: exploiting situated possibilities to build school capacity for change

This paper attempts to identify leadership practices of school principals as they engaged in exploring and exploiting possibilities in and around the school contexts to develop school capacity for change. Based on interview data of school principals, this paper shows that the capabilities of school leaders to perceive and exploit situated possibilities to build school capacity are one of the key factors differentiating different levels of implementation efforts. Three school capacity-building practices are found to constitute efficacious principal leadership in contexts of educational change, namely fostering teacher learning in communities of practice and teacher participation in decision-making; promoting school–community connections to facilitate student learning through participation; and aligning external demands and schools’ internal circumstances. Implications for developing efficacious principal leadership in school capacity building are discussed.

The trajectory of learning in a teacher community of practice: a narrative inquiry of a language teacher’s identity in the workplace

A major criticism of the Community of Practice theory is that it mainly focuses on the inward induction process of learning while neglecting the outbound trajectory. Yet, this criticism still remains at the hypothetical level in most of the literature. This paper aims to advance the theory by addressing this criticism on an empirical basis. The research highlights a language teaching reform context where the traditional and liberal pedagogies co-existed in a Chinese university department. Based on a narrative inquiry of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher’s (Feng) experience during the reform, this paper reports four stories distilled from multiple ‘restorying cycles’ and knit together as a coherent narrative of Feng’s learning trajectory. The first story narrates how Feng was persuaded to join the department and lead the liberal pedagogical reform. The second story illustrates Feng’s loss of identity when she was confronted with the challenges of competing pedagogies and the conflicting identities of a liberal and a traditional practitioner. The third story recounts her identity crisis when she tried to put into practice liberal assumptions in parenting her daughter. The last story relates the critical incident that led to Feng’s self-exclusion from the community. The research findings indicate that teachers need to shift their identities to adapt to the new work order in the workplace. This process is intertwined with a two-way trajectory of learning, which can be shaped and reshaped by various power relationships in the community. The research findings have brought important messages for administrators and teachers alike to deal with the new challenges in the workplace. The research has also highlighted the theoretical importance of recognising the social-ness, bi-directionality and power-enactment of teacher learning in communities of practice.

Learning in practice: A first-year early childhood music teacher navigates the complexities of teaching

The purpose of this qualitative study was to contribute to the conversation on novice music teacher learning in communities and teacher learning in practice. Data is extracted from a larger study that focused on collaborative conversations as a means of professional development and support for early childhood music teacher learning in a community music school setting. This study focuses on the experiences, perceptions, and evolving practice of one of those teachers, a first-year early childhood music teacher who was learning how to teach music in practice and within a teacher learning community. Emerging themes included: structures and frameworks (processes and tools), building community (within classes and with children and colleagues), and collaboration (support, perspectives, validation, and vision). Implications are discussed and linked to suggestions for research to supplement current professional development practices in early childhood music education.

Chapter 8: Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities

Chapter 8: Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities

Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities

Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities