Engaging in and engaging with research: teacher inquiry and development

The connection between teacher inquiry, professional development and school improvement was recognised 30 years ago by Lawrence Stenhouse. Stenhouse contributed many valuable insights into the role of practitioner enquiry in creating and utilising knowledge about teaching and learning, much of which is still to be applied systematically in teacher education and professional development. This paper draws on the Learning to Learn Phase 3 Evaluation, a three‐year‐action research project in which teachers in primary and secondary schools across the UK completed three cycles of practitioner inquiry to explore tools, pedagogies and other innovations which would promote dispositions of ‘learning to learn’ (L2L). The paper focuses on identifying those aspects of being involved in L2L that support teachers’ learning and the way that the teachers themselves understand the impact on their professional development. Data from over 60 semi‐structured interviews undertaken over the three years of the project, the case study reports compiled by teachers at the end of each year of the project and collaborative workshops involving teachers and university researchers as co‐inquirers are used to explore teachers’ learning. Qualitative methods are used to develop a thematic analysis of the interviews, case studies and the teachers’ understanding of the relationships between inquiry, research and continuing professional development (CPD) in order to identify categories and generate key concepts that can inform a theoretical understanding of the impact of professional inquiry on teachers’ learning. The findings contribute to our understanding of the role of inquiry and research in schools in supporting professional learning by suggesting how tools and models of working are developed.     

Preservice teachers’ inquiry in a professional development school context: Implications for the practicum

Professional development school (PDS) contexts are increasingly being viewed as powerful sites for the preparation of future teachers in the USA. One of their documented strengths is in the fostering of preservice teachers’ inquiry within collaborative frameworks that result from the partnerships between university teacher education programmes and schools. This article focuses on one inquiry-based PDS programme, describes five inquiry projects carried out by interns in the programme, and presents interns’ perceptions on engaging in inquiry during their yearlong internship. The discussion that follows explores the potential of the inquiry approach in PDS contexts to reform the teacher education practicum.     

Promoting teachers’ instructional practices in alternative assessment through teacher collaboration

This paper reports the findings of a study which aims to examine the processes and effectiveness of the collaboration between teachers in their professional learning which some Singapore schools are currently engaged in. The learning process attempted to raise the profile of teacher professionalism in classroom alternative assessment through action research. A total of nine schools participated in this two-year study. Participants included teachers and school leaders. Guided by a university researcher and supported by a cluster superintendent and school leaders, the collaboration helped familiarise teachers with alternative ways of assessing student learning, connect theories with practice in their classroom assessment, and acquire the skills of doing research. Facilitated by a structure that supports the development of partnerships between teachers from different schools, the collaboration focused on teachers working on a common task. The data reveal how teachers took ownership of their own learning through this process and led their peers in their respective schools in curriculum customisation through alternative assessment practices. Such an education reform process, which has driven the effectiveness of the collaborative teacher learning in promoting teachers’ instructional practices, is analysed from four dimensions, namely, (a) macro level (systemic reform), (b) school level (school improvement plans), (c) teacher level (teacher community), and (d) micro level (classroom level). This paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges in sustaining teacher collaboration across schools in Singapore.     

Examining what we mean by collaboration in collaborative action research: a cross-case analysis

The purpose of this paper is to report on the nature of collaboration in a multi-year, large-scale collaborative action research project in which a teachers’ federation (in Ontario, Canada), university researchers and teachers partnered to investigate teacher-selected topics for inquiry. Over two years, 14 case studies were generated involving six university researchers and 61 teacher researchers. As teacher researchers collected their topic-specific data, university researchers worked in parallel on case studies at the 14 sites in an attempt to gain insights into the types and value of collaboration in collaborative action research. University researchers gathered 20–30 points of data for each case-study site (including teacher researcher final reports as well as journal entries, focus group interviews, field notes, video footage and questionnaires). Through comprehensive cross-case analysis, researchers were able to examine common traits as well as relationships between the nature of the teams, the nature of the projects and their relative success, to highlight conditions that led to robust collaborations. Through pattern matching, hypothesised events were compared with observations to test the claim that a triad of relationships between the team, the team lead and the researchers functioned as a positive collaborative force that propelled teacher team success in a generative ethos, even when faced with substantial challenges.     

Creating foundations for collaboration in schools: Utilizing professional learning communities to support teacher candidate learning and visions of teaching

Despite widespread acknowledgment of the power of professional collaboration, the norm in most schools is teachers working in isolation. Our study examined the impact of multiple layers of professional collaboration intentionally integrated into a one-year preservice teacher education program working in two elementary schools. Analysis of 23 teacher candidates' written reflections, focus group interviews, and classroom observations indicated that supported by collaboration with colleagues, they developed the skills and commitment to teach each student for understanding. Based on our research, we propose a shift in teacher education toward collaborative inquiry about teaching and learning within school/university partnerships.     

Transformational professional development: (re)claiming agency and change (in the margins)

With performativity and evidence-based teaching, the development of action research (AR) by teachers brings tensions and challenges as teachers move outside their comfort zones and question their practice. This article draws on a small-scale research study developed with teachers. It was funded as part of a professional development initiative by a Teaching School Alliance to support partner schools with university support to build teacher-led systematic research into everyday practice. The dataset combined interviews with teachers about their motivations and experiences, field notes from the sessions, the teachers’ final written reports and their evaluation surveys about the project. This article offers a unique perspective on teachers as researchers in a new age of work-based AR with the risk of research by teachers in schools being regarded as part of an uncritical ‘tick box’ performative and celebratory culture. However, the authors argue that teacher research can contribute to a transformational approach to professional development working as an antidote and a source of (re)professionalization based on the outcomes of collaboration, reflection and attention to the singularity of their ‘contexts-for action’ and specific pupils’ needs.     

Facilitating Chemistry Teachers to Implement Inquiry-based Laboratory Work

Science teachers generally find inquiry-based laboratory work very difficult to manage. This research project aimed at facilitating chemistry teachers to implement inquiry-based laboratory work in Hong Kong secondary schools. The major concerns of seven chemistry teachers were identified. They were most concerned about the lack of class time, shortage of effective instructional materials, and the need to teach large classes. To allay teacher concerns, teaching strategies were developed to aid teachers. The strategies include the use of guided inquiry rather than open inquiry, development of ten examples of authentic inquiry, and inclusion of student oral presentations as a key component of the inquiry process. Trials done in schools indicated that these strategies are useful.     

The Impact of Action Research for Professional Development: case studies in two Manchester schools

Teacher professional development has come to be recognised as a major policy tool as part of the UK Government's agenda for raising standards and school improvement. These demands call for new approaches to professional development. We need to reconceptualise what teachers learn while at work as professional development which can complement direct work with children. The study reported on in this article is an attempt to investigate the impact of teacher inquiry as part of an action research project on three teachers involved in the North West Consortium for the Study of Effectiveness in Urban Schools (NWCSEUS). This was a partnership of schools, Manchester and Salford local education authorities, the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University set up with the intention of establishing a research culture in schools in order to improve practice and raise teaching standards. The aim of this particular study was to undertake a critical analysis of the impact of the NWCSEUS project on three teachers’ professional development as well as to provide relevant information on the critical components of teacher inquiry. Using the methodology of a multiple‐case design, a cross‐case analysis was drawn up NUD*IST software was used to aid analysis and category development. The teachers reported on demonstrated the positive impact that teacher inquiry can have on both individual teachers and the school as a whole, as through a teacher inquiry culture, schools can become learning environments where teachers continuously plan and evaluate for school improvement and effectiveness.     

Using insider research in MEd final projects to bridge the theory/practice gap

This paper aims to identify key issues involved in MEd final project supervision and to highlight the potential of supervision from an academic institution to change educational reality through the postgraduate student-teachers’ work-based final project as insider researchers in Israeli schools. It draws on analysis of case-study data from two supervision workshops for student-teachers (Although most students studying for MEd degrees in Israel are teachers or even principals with years of experience of teaching and sometimes management they will be referred to in this paper as student-teachers for uniformity and clarity.) in a master’s degree programme in Educational Leadership. It focuses on data generated from interviews with three supervisees. The paper’s findings highlight the supervision process, indicating stages of this process that assist students to develop their research skills in order to change school reality in different scopes and dimensions and to adopt inquiry as a stance. The student-teachers identify difficulties in schools and motivate and help to implement educational change. In short, the paper provides a model that can potentially enrich practice in the field with knowledge generated by academic research and bridge the gap between theory and practice.     

Talking back: teaching and learning through autobiographies in multicultural education

This research essay is intended to situate the curriculum in my multicultural education courses – of talking back through autobiographical inquiry – within real schools, a site where curriculum theorists rarely situate their work. The literature by curriculum theorists that precedes my study generally has focused on how pre-service teachers in multicultural education courses are changed (or not) as a result of course readings, discussions, and critical autobiographical reflection, all of which happen within the confines of the university classroom. My research essay extends the work of curriculum theorists on autobiography in education by focusing on the ways in which pre-service teachers use autobiographical inquiry to reflect on the impact of the context of real public schools and K-12 students on their constructions of themselves as teachers. In my extension of this work, I draw on bell hooks’ notion of “talking back” as an overarching framework in analyzing the autobiographical reflections of pre-service teachers.     

Collaborative action research in Northern Canadian rural and Indigenous schools: learning about young children’s oral language in play contexts

This article reports on collaborative action research in twelve northern rural and Indigenous communities in four Canadian provinces. Pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, grade one, and Aboriginal Head Start teachers worked with university researchers in three universities to create action research projects with the aim of supporting children’s oral language and writing through play in their classrooms. Inductive analysis of focus group data shows that teachers gained understandings about play as a context both for supporting and for authentic assessment of young children’s oral language. The building of trusting relationships, built through ongoing collaboration with colleagues within their schools and across four provinces, in addition to collaboration with university researchers over a number of years, was viewed as particularly influential to teachers’ professional learning. Additionally, teachers talked about the value of opportunities to contribute to the development of teaching and assessment tools. Participating teachers came to see themselves as making valuable contributions to professional knowledge beyond their northern communities. The 4R’s for conducting research in Indigenous contexts (reciprocity, respect, relevance, and responsibility) provide a framework for deriving implications from this collaborative research. It is important that the results of collaborative action research conducted in rural and Indigenous schools be widely disseminated to provide alternative perspectives to curriculum, research and practice that tend to be urban-oriented.     

‘I was kind of teaching myself’: teachers’ conversations about social justice and teaching for change

This article shares teachers’ conversations within teacher inquiry groups and considers how this reflective approach has potential for transforming teachers’ practices. Conversations took place at the early stages of a longer teacher inquiry project and centred on the critical interrogation of social justice-oriented children’s literature. These conversations served as a forum to help teacher professional learning communities and to reconcile understandings about social justice, action and agency within larger political and cultural forums of teaching. The teacher inquiry sessions shared in this paper explore teachers’ beginning struggles with conceptualizations of social justice, and the teacher’s role in imparting values to students. Teacher participants imparted their experience and practice as they negotiated their own understanding and implementation of social justice education in their schools. The teacher inquiry groups provided a needed supportive space where classroom teachers’ struggles were shared alongside their beliefs and pedagogical approaches so that a social justice agenda could be achieved.     

A Case Study of Cross‐curricular Practice through Partnership

This paper is concerned with a curriculum development project, framed around the cross‐curricular themes as suggested by the NCC guidelines (1991‐a‐f). It is structured as a teacher partnership experience involving close collaboration between university tutors, student teachers and practising teachers in a local school. From the university's perspective, the curriculum development project grew out of the review and evaluation of the education courses which forms 50% of the four year BA/BSc Hons (Education) degree offered for students preparing to be secondary school teachers. From the school's perspective it offered an opportunity to develop a more formal incorporation of cross‐ curriculum themes into the subject curriculum. The paper discusses the project from three perspectives: the university tutors’, the school teachers’ and the students’, describing professional tutoring partnership in practice.     

Interdisciplinary collaboration as a prerequisite for inclusive education

This article reports on findings from a research project on interdisciplinary collaboration between mainstream school teachers and special school teachers. The aim of the research project has been to examine the knowledge of special school teachers and how this knowledge can contribute to the development of an inclusive learning environment in mainstream schools. Not as a simple task of transferring knowledge, but as a process of transforming knowledge through interdisciplinary collaboration and co-teaching. The design of the study is inspired by the notion of participation within action research as a research approach. Thus the thick data generated from reflective activities in the study design are analysed within a narrative and practice directed strategy of analysis.     

Assessing Technology Based Instruction in Biology and Geography

Abstract

The article is a report on a development project arising from collaboration between the Department of Education in the University of Oulu, the university training school in Oulu, and some secondary schools in Northern Finland. The key aims of the project have been to promote the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teacher education and in schools, to develop methods for distant education, and to train student teachers in telematics instruction in biology and geography. The concept of pedagogical action, socio-cultural communicative perspective, constructivist views of pedagogy, ideas of reflective teachers and learners, and new forms of assessment provided the theoretical basis for the project. The main findings were that student teachers are able to plan, conduct, and evaluate telematics instruction. The greatest problems are technical problems and lack of time. Sustained and effective communication between students, local teachers, student teachers, and supervisors is seen to be the key to the successful cooperative work in developing curricula and instructional methods in telematics learning environment.     

Teacher collaboration in the context of the Responsive Classroom approach

This mixed‐method study examined characteristics and predictors of teacher collaboration. Limited research exists that describes the characteristics of teacher collaboration, and surprisingly little work explains the ways in which teaching experience and teachers’ perceptions of the school environment influence teacher collaboration. Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 118 elementary school teachers in six schools in a northeast urban school district, and interviews were conducted with administrators in each school. Three schools were in their second year implementing the Responsive Classroom ^® (RC) approach, and three schools were comparison schools. Teachers reported collaborating approximately once or twice per month, generally with fellow grade‐level teachers about student‐centered topics. Teachers in RC schools reported more frequent formal collaboration than comparison school teachers. In regards to predicting teacher collaboration, teachers who used more RC practices and/or resources reported collaborating more, valuing collaboration to a higher degree, and perceiving greater involvement in school decision‐making, controlling for whether they taught at a RC school. Also, teachers’ perceptions of the school environment related positively to teacher collaboration. The current study adds to the understanding of teacher collaboration and its antecedents, contributing uniquely to the literature on how a school‐wide educational initiative is associated with teachers’ perceptions of their school environment as well as their collaborative behaviors and beliefs.     

Primary Teachers’ Reflections on Inquiry- and Context-Based Science Education

Inquiry- and context-based teaching strategies have been proven to stimulate and motivate students’ interests in learning science. In this study, 12 teachers reflected on these strategies after using them in primary schools. The teachers participated in a continuous professional development (CPD) programme. During the programme, they were also introduced to a teaching model from a European project, where inquiry- and context-based education (IC-BaSE) strategies were fused. The research question related to teachers’ reflections on these teaching strategies, and whether they found the model to be useful in primary schools after testing it with their students. Data collection was performed during the CPD programme and consisted of audio-recorded group discussions, individual portfolios and field notes collected by researchers. Results showed that compared with using only one instructional strategy, teachers found the new teaching model to be a useful complement. However, their discussions also showed that they did not reflect on choices of strategies or purposes and aims relating to students’ understanding, or the content to be taught. Before the CPD programme, teachers discussed the use of inquiry mainly from the aspect that students enjoy practical work. After the programme, they identified additional reasons for using inquiry and discussed the importance of knowing why inquiry is performed. However, to develop teachers’ knowledge of instructional strategies as well as purposes for using certain strategies, there is need for further investigations among primary school teachers.     

Power,participation and decision making in the primary classroom: children as action researchers

This article discusses a project focused on children researching their role in decision making in their classrooms and schools, with a view to increasing their involvement. The action research project was carried out by children, their class teachers and university researchers in six Norfolk primary schools from 2004 to 2006. As the project aimed to introduce more participatory approaches to decision making in classrooms, this necessarily had implications for the ways in which adults worked with children as action researchers. The article explores the constraints encountered by both children and teachers in sharing decisions and in carrying out action research, and identifies two dimensions: the teachers’ thinking and action, as well as children’s research and decision making. The teachers struggled with their need to mediate the project aims in the context of the changing nature of their professional role in the current target‐driven school culture.     

Developing collaborative approaches to enhance the professional development of primary mathematics teachers

This research project promoted a collaborative model of professional development between lead teachers from three schools, supported by a project coordinator and a researcher from a local university. Each lead teacher worked with their head teacher to design, lead, and evaluate an innovative, personalised, and school-based mathematics continuing professional development (CPD) programme in their school. University staff helped to facilitate project meetings across the schools and monitored impacts within each school. Professional development meetings, involving all teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) from the schools (n?=?55), were designed to encourage a whole-school approach. The project also provided structured opportunities for the lead teacher to work with colleagues in the classroom, for example, through lesson observation and/or collaborative teaching. The outcomes from this project confirmed that collaborative models of CPD, as opposed to transmission, formal training, and ‘top-down’ models, were welcomed by teachers and head teachers – some of whom reported early indications of improvements in student performance. Commenting on what constitutes the most effective forms of CPD, there was a reiteration of the importance of combining peer and external support through a collaborative process.     

Municipal consultants’ participation in building networks to support science teachers’ work

This paper focuses particularly on the role of municipal science consultants in developing and maintaining network activities and connections among primary school science teachers. The hypothesis is that consultants play a crucial role in supporting strategic planning, and sustaining contacts and activities within professional learning networks. The research is framed by a project that involved 80 primary science teachers in 20 schools. The aim of the project was to develop network activities that facilitate sustainable change of the participating schools’ collective culture and practice of science teaching. The authors were involved as researchers and evaluators in the project. Data consist of reports from the consultants about their participation in various network activities, school assessment reports and a longitudinal survey. Three distinct cases are analysed through the use of a framework of professional learning networks to assess the consultants’ opportunities and constraints in terms of participating in network development. The results indicate that the consultants’ roles in successful network formation is characterized by personal stable contacts within the science teacher community in the municipality, availability of municipal resources to support network activities, participation in strategic planning of municipal network support, and facilitation of the development of new teaching activities within schools or in collaboration between schools. These four distinctive features of municipal science consultants’ participation in supporting network activities enable the participants to share and develop teaching activities.