Innovations at the boundary: an exploratory case study of a New Zealand school-university partnership in initial teacher education

21st century initial teacher education [ITE] requires teachers and teacher educators to work together in the design and delivery of innovative learning experiences for student teachers. This study investigates a partnership that enabled the co-construction of one core course within a graduate ITE programme in New Zealand. Our partnership aimed to help student teachers to make links between theory taught at the university, and day-to-day practices in classroom settings. Using case study methodology, data were generated from participants in three primary/intermediate schools and one university to identify strategies that supported their collaborative process. Seven affordances were identified to facilitate this school-university collaboration, which enabled the development of a learning community wherein professional values and expertise were made visible, power was shared, and relational trust and respect grew. The findings offer insights for teacher educators and teachers seeking to open up a boundary space between universities and schools within which they might co-design and deliver an ITE course.     

Collaborative teacher learning across foci of collaboration: Perceived activities and outcomes

This study compared teacher collaboration with differing foci, in terms of various learning activities and learning outcomes. A total of 411 teachers from 49 primary schools participated by completing a questionnaire. Foci of collaboration explained significant differences in the frequency with which teachers perceived learning activities and learning outcomes to occur in their collaboration with colleagues. Moreover, the focus of collaboration explained a considerable amount of between-schools differences in teachers' reported learning activities and learning outcomes. These results suggest that the school context and the focus of collaboration are related and that these both influence collaborative teacher learning.     

Evaluation of a core team centred professional development programme for building a whole-school cooperative problem solving approach to conflict

This study evaluated a professional learning approach using a core team (CT) model to assist primary (elementary) schools to develop whole-school collaborative conflict resolution processes. Thirteen schools were matched and randomly assigned to the enhancing relationships in school communities programme (n?=?10) or a non-programme control group (n?=?3). Programme schools provided a core (professional learning) team, who attended professional learning days, and disseminated programme content throughout their schools. Programme schools also received one full school staff workshop. After one year, CT participants were more likely to apply a collaborative conflict resolution model to problem scenarios and report greater knowledge and skills compared to non-programme-school control participants. Compared to the non-programme control group, non-core team programme school staff described using more cooperative approaches to handling conflict, especially when they had received more professional development from their CT. Programme school teachers taught more hours conflict resolution curriculum, and increases in hours taught by programme (but not control) teachers were associated with teacher reported increases in student understanding and use of cooperative methods. Patterns also supported a role of self-efficacy in implementation. The potential usefulness of a CT professional learning model for assisting schools to develop cooperative conflict resolution approaches was supported.     

Technology 2000

Abstract

This article describes a collaborative university-school district project for improving teaching and learning by using state-of-the-art educational technologies. The work resulted in the simultaneous improvement of P-12 education and teacher education. The article illustrates some of the important outcomes of a project known as Technology 2000, a collaborative effort between a university, a school district, and a business partner. Through using appropriate educational technologies, pre-service teachers, in cooperation with their supervising teachers in five classrooms at two school sites, engaged in the collaborative alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment to facilitate student achievement. The participants believe that the outcomes of this educational technology project have important implications for improving teaching and learning in other schools and teacher education settings.     

A systematic review of teacher guidance during collaborative learning in primary and secondary education

For this review, we synthesized quantitative and qualitative research on collaborative learning to examine the relationship between teacher guidance strategies and the processes and outcomes of collaboration among students (66 studies). The results show that several aspects of teacher guidance are positively related to student collaboration, for example when teachers focus their attention on students’ problem solving strategies. During student collaboration, opportunities arise for students to engage in collaborative activities that support their learning process. The way teachers take more or less control of these moments determines whether these opportunities can be turned into real moments of learning for the students. This review highlights the important yet challenging role of the teacher during collaborative learning.     

School‐based teacher collaboration in Sweden and Greece: formal cooperation,deprivatized practices and personalized interaction in primary and lower secondary schools

During recent years, educational restructuring efforts have commonly regarded schools as both learning communities and sites for teachers’ professional development. A plethora of attributes influence prerequisites as well as outcomes of the efforts, while teachers’ local cultures constitute a cornerstone. More specifically, enhanced school‐based teacher collaboration is associated with upgraded school effectiveness and enhanced professional growth. However, the comparative study of school‐based teacher collaboration remains a subjective research area. The overall aim of this study is to highlight teacher collaboration in Sweden and Greece utilizing nationwide surveys with physical education teachers in both countries. The final sample consisted of 707 Swedish and 451 Greek professionals. The high response rate combined with restricted internal dropout forms the basis of the generalization of the findings. The presentation of the results is connected with issues of formal cooperation, deprivatized practices and personalized interaction in four teachers groups: primary and lower secondary schools in Sweden and in Greece. According to the data, formal cooperation and deprivatized practices occur more frequently in Sweden than in Greece. However, personalized interaction is rather high in Greek lower secondary schools. Despite differences between the four contexts, a second order model represents obtained information adequately with very good fit indexes. It seems that school‐based teacher collaboration in authentic settings can be connected to complex processes with multifaceted characteristics in different national contexts as well as in educational stages within one country as well. Manipulating distinct aspects of schooling may consequently jeopardize expected outcomes, as development ambitions should be targeting several interdependent dimensions. Swedish schools generally and lower secondary schools specifically constitute original examples of enhanced school‐based teacher collaboration, while an intensification of combined endeavours is needed in Greece. The comparative mapping of interconnected collaboration characteristics might contribute to more holistic restructuring struggles towards schools as learning communities and sites for teachers’ professional development.     

Talk,planning and decision‐making in interdisciplinary teacher teams: a case study

A diverse range of social structures, for instance teacher teams, professional communities and teacher learning communities, are established to advance collaboration among teachers. In Norway, Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams (ITTs) have become a common way of organising teachers in schools, recommended in a national curriculum reform in 1997. This study explores the internal structure, social meaning and potential resources for learning and development inherent in the planning and coordination of work in ITT meetings. Most studies of teacher teams as well as teacher learning communities are based on teachers’ experiences, expressed in interviews or surveys. The focus of this study is not on what teachers say about teams, but on what teachers say in teams. While most studies have addressed within‐department, subject‐specific teams, this study focuses on interdisciplinary teams. Team‐talk in two ITTs in two different lower secondary schools in Norway has been videotaped and analysed. Four patterns of interaction have been identified – preserving individualism: renegotiating individual autonomy and personal responsibility; coordination: assuring the social organisation of work; cooperation: creating a shared object or enterprise; and sharing: clarifying pedagogical motives. The study illustrates patterns in team‐talk, conceptualises the processes of decision‐making that take place in these ITTs and identifies resources for learning and development inherent in certain forms of interaction. The study contributes to the research literature by both focusing on the details of the interaction in team meetings and analysing the dynamics of the group interaction in the perspective of the situatedness and the object‐orientation of team‐talk.     

Integrating on-line technology into teaching activities to enhance student and teacher learning in a New Zealand primary school

Continuing emphasis given to computer technology resourcing in schools presents potential for web-based initiatives which focus on quality arts teaching and learning, as ways to improve arts outcomes for all students. An arts e-learning collaborative research project between specialist on-line teacher/researchers and generalist primary teachers was designed to investigate student learning, quality teaching, and implementation factors. Constructionist-based teaching activities using on-line technology were designed to engage students in a learner-centred e-learning environment where students and teachers collaborated to produce a media and learning artefact. A case study highlights the outcomes for four students who transferred learnt drama skills to other classroom contexts. This model has potential to provide drama learning for students and professional development for primary generalist teachers, contingent on the availability of rigorously planned and well-resourced programmes.     

Does principal leadership make a difference in teacher professional learning? A comparative study China and Thailand

This research explored the relationship of principal leadership and teacher professional learning in China and Thailand. The authors tested a conceptual model in which teacher trust and agency were proposed as mediators of the effects of the principal’s learning-centered leadership on teacher professional learning. Common survey measures had been used to collect data from 1259 teachers in 38 schools in mainland China and 1071 teachers in 60 schools in Thailand. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, multi-group structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping were employed to compare the proposed leadership and teacher learning processes in Chinese and Thai schools. The results confirmed a similar model of strong, statistically significant, ‘mediated effects’ of principal leadership on the professional learning of teachers in the two societies. These findings contribute to our understanding of leadership effects across societies and offer insight into how policymakers and practitioners can support school leadership, teacher development, and educational change.     

Teachers learning how to learn

School pupils learning how to learn (LHTL), aimed at helping them develop learning autonomy, requires teachers to develop new classroom practices. Hence teachers LHTL is equally important. The TLRP ‘Learning How to Learn in Classrooms, Schools and Networks’ project researched how practices were developed by teachers in 40 primary and secondary schools in England. Quantitative data were collected using teacher and pupil questionnaires, and qualitative data came from interviews with head teachers, school project co-ordinators and a sub-sample of classroom teachers. Some teachers were also observed and video-recorded. External constraints made it difficult for teachers to promote pupils' learning autonomy, unless they fundamentally changed the nature of classroom tasks and climate. A key factor was teachers' own engagement in collaborative classroom-focused inquiry. However, to be successful, this needed to be supported by school management and leadership. There were strong statistical relationships between school policy, teachers' professional learning and their capacity to promote learning autonomy in their pupils. Teacher learning through networking within their schools, and with other teachers in other schools, was also shown to be important.     

Taking active learning into the primary school: a matter of new practices?

This paper examines the extension of active learning pedagogical practices familiar in preschool settings to the first class of primary school. Policy and practice guidance in the UK is advocating the benefits of experiential learning as a way of engaging young children as they move into primary school but for teachers this means a move to new practices which can be in tension with other expectations. In this paper, the rationale for active learning is considered along with an account of the classroom activities of teachers and children in five primary schools that were implementing the policy shift to active learning. The children in these classes spent varying amounts of time in whole class activities led by the teacher or in small groups directed to engage with specific activities. They had opportunities to engage and respond verbally, through manipulating objects and with physical actions but the emphasis was on planned, teacher-directed learning activities. The characteristics of active learning as introduced in these innovative classes are compared with the expectations of practice guidance and theorising about early learning.     

How the structure and focus of teachers' collaborative activities facilitate and constrain teacher learning

What kinds of teacher collaboration are most likely to improve what teachers—and, ultimately, students—learn during their time in school? This study looks within and across different collaborative activities that occurred among one teacher team. Observational data analyzed through a sociocultural theoretical framework suggest how the structure and intended focus of collaborative activity can influence (1) how often and how concretely teachers discuss their teaching with colleagues; (2) which aspects of schooling collaboration will address; and (3) what opportunities for teacher learning are afforded and constrained. Intentionally focusing and structuring teachers' collaborative activity can improve its impact on schooling.     

教师校本学习的理念与实践

中小学教师培训首先显示为教师学习,而且是校本学习。校本培训转为教师校本学习的过程,是教师自我教育自我提升的过程,也是学校文化建设的过程。学校引导教师展开学习的活动,教师将从“读书”中获得“自我超越”的热情,学校教育改革将由原来的自上而下转向自下而上,既有针对教育问题的教师学习又有引起行动的反思的校本教研。     

Contesting continuing professional development: reflections from England

This paper argues the competing ways in which continuing professional development (CPD) is currently practised in schooling settings in England is a product of the complex social conditions within which teachers work and learn, and teachers’ efforts to make sense of these conditions. Specifically, the paper draws upon research into the teacher learning practices, and conditions of practice, of a group of 18 teachers from one inner-city comprehensive secondary school in the British Midlands. To make sense of competing approaches to CPD within the school, the paper analyses these teachers’ experiences in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of social practices as contested. The research reveals competing approaches to teacher CPD in relation to the management of teachers’ CPD, the focus upon improving test scores and the modes of learning in which teachers participate. The paper shows how conflicting pressures and demands in the context within which teachers work, and teachers’ responses to these demands, contribute to contested practices in and across these domains, both arising from and resulting in what is described as a ‘hybridised’ habitus. The research gestures towards the need to cultivate conditions conducive to more educationally oriented, critical, situated and collaborative CPD.     

Evidence informed practice for autism,special educational needs and disability in schools: expanding the scope of the research learning community model of professional development

Research learning communities (RLCs) are an increasingly popular form of collaborative professional development that takes participants into deep engagement with research evidence and empowers them to become researchers themselves. This study describes the use of the RLC model to make research about autism and school system change accessible to teachers in primary schools. An interdisciplinary team of specialists guided teams made up of a school leader and a class teacher through structured engagement with recent, high quality research. Participants devised and trialled evidence-informed interventions that supported pupils with autism and facilitated the improvement of whole school policy and practice on special education and disability (SEND). The RLC allowed them space to share their experiences with other teachers in a process of mutual reflection and learning. Evaluation showed that participants gained confidence in leading change and made effective use of research to develop SEND school policy and practice.     

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.     

The role of environmental factors in beginning teachers’ professional learning related to differentiated instruction

Little research has investigated factors that facilitate beginning teachers’ participation in professional learning activities related to differentiated instruction (DI). This study examines environmental factors for DI learning activities in a sample of 272 beginning teachers from 72 primary schools. Multilevel analyses show that teacher education, reflective dialogue, deprivatized practice, educational type, and diversity in student population are related to beginning teachers’ use of DI learning activities (i.e., learning in interaction and changes in practice). As such, the findings revealed that beginning teachers’ participation in such activities may depend on a multitude of factors. Several suggestions regarding these factors are made. First, teacher education can provide foundational knowledge of DI applications. Second, schools can enable teachers to have in-depth conversations with colleagues and provide opportunities to observe good teaching practices. Lastly, alternative schools and schools with diverse student populations can inspire other schools to enhance participation in DI learning activities.     

中国大陆教师专业学习社群的内涵与发展——基于对上海市中小学的调查研究

国际上越来越多的研究表明,专业学习社群能够促进教师专业发展及推动学校变革。本研究对专业学习社群进行概念化,并基于中国的学校背景,探索出一套教师专业学习社群的表现指标,对上海市7所中小学进行抽样调查。运用主成分分析法对数据进行分析,得到适用于中国大陆的指标体系,并进一步分析教师专业学习社群的内涵与发展状况。研究发现,所调查的学校在教师合作学习、专业能力、校长领导、结构支持方面均具有良好的表现,且组织变革障碍不大。可通过改善校长领导和结构支持,控制学校内部的组织变革障碍等途径促进教师合作学习和专业能力的发展,以进一步促进教师专业学习社群的发展。     

Educational reforms and the practices of professional learning community in Hong Kong primary schools

Abstract

This study explored the characteristics of professional learning communities (PLCs) in Hong Kong primary schools. It investigated the profiles of the strengths of professional learning community in schools under study and particularly examined the practices in schools which were identified as strong PLCs. It extends research on PLCs in the Hong Kong context and formulates a quantitative perspective to compare and validate PLC variables across schools in Hong Kong. The Professional Learning Community Questionnaire (PLCQ) for Hong Kong schools was developed to assess the PLC practices in six different areas: leadership for teacher learning, collaborative learning capacity, student-focused orientation, a culture of sharing, mutual understanding and support, and continuous professional development. A composite construct, the Professional Learning Community Index (PLCI) expressed in quantitative terms was utilized to assess the strength of PLC in a school. The research findings show that within the schools which were identified as strong professional learning communities, both the school leaders and teachers had strong emphases on the six subscales of the PLC practices.