Self-regulated learning microanalysis as a tool to inform professional development delivery in real-time

Elementary teachers in the United States are tasked with teaching all core subject matter and have training that involves many topics, which may limit the depth of their subject matter knowledge. Since they have low content knowledge, they often feel less confident about teaching technical subject matter, such as science (Bleicher Journal of Science Teacher Education 17:165–187, 2006). The problem of low confidence of elementary teachers for science instruction is exacerbated when they are expected to teach science using inquiry (Hanuscin et al. Science Education 95:145–167, 2010). Self-regulated learning microanalysis, which supports both instruction and assessment, can help teachers reflect on their learning processes. This technique may provide clues for teachers to improve strategies for learning and give information to professional development instructors to inform teacher professional development experiences. The purpose of this study was to examine self-regulatory learning cycles that fourteen elementary teachers experienced while engaged in learning about inquiry during a professional development. Results of this study showed that before the professional development, teachers reported low self-efficacy but high task value and perceived instrumentality for learning about inquiry. As the professional development progressed, teachers improved their goal setting skills, self-monitoring performance, and learning tactics. The self-regulated learning microanalysis revealed information not communicated in the professional development experience, which led to adaptation of the activities in real-time to meet the needs indicated on the self-regulated learning microanalysis reports. Measuring teacher learning processes allowed the professional development instructors to pinpoint difficulties and successes during the learning tasks, which aided in precise adaptation of experiences for teacher needs.     

From pilot to program: Evaluating the progress of a professional development school

Abstract

Much of the professional development school (PDS) literature to date has centered on (a) how best to define professional development schools; (b) the benefits of PDSs for teacher preparation programs; (c) identifying the obstacles encountered when working with a PDS; and (d) the lessons learned from early PDS experiences. Only recently has the effectiveness of the PDS taken center stage as a primary issue. This article describes four broad criterion themes that emerged from our literature review—issues of marginality, changing roles, reward structure, and ongoing inquiry. These four measures are then applied to ongoing PDS projects in an effort to assess progress toward fully developed professional sites.     

Evaluating teaching effectiveness and teaching improvement: A language for institutional policies and academic development practices

Demands for institutional accountability in higher education have been increasing and have led to greater attention to the evaluation of teaching, the assumption being that improved teaching will result in enhanced learning. In our work as academic developers, we are increasingly helping academic managers make explicit teaching policies and practices that seem fair and equitable. To help us in this work, we have developed a framework for evaluating the practice of teaching. What is unique about this framework is the language it provides to differentiate aspects of teaching. For instance, it provides a basis for differentiating and linking criteria to standards, i.e. the level of achievement desired or expected. Standards are critical if the evaluation of teaching is to be seen as fair and equitable, yet they are often unexamined in other representations of the evaluation of teaching. Although the original intent of our efforts was to provide a framework for academic managers, we have come to find it useful in our own work as university teachers and as academic developers. Examples of all three uses are provided in the paper.     

Reconceptualising academic work as professional practice: implications for academic development

Despite increasing research and scholarship in the area of academic development in recent years, it remains an under-theorised field of endeavour. The paper proposes that academic developers take a view on what constitutes academic work and see it as a form of professional practice. It discusses the features of practice theory that illuminate professional practice and identifies three foci for the application of these ideas within academic development: practice development, fostering learning-conducive work and deliberately locating activity within practice. It also suggests that academic development be viewed as a practice and points to features within its own traditions on which to build.     

Evaluating the effects of faculty development: theoretical framework and empirical implementation

ABSTRACT

This article implements a systemic framework to evaluate the long-term effects of a program characterized by a SoTL approach and a hybrid learning environment. The importance of the difference between the perception of long-term effects on individual professional development on the one hand and the development of collective practices on the other, is interpreted with reference to certain shortcomings of the faculty development program’s learning design and its non-alignment with institutional practices. Based on this in-depth research, concrete ways to take account of the complexity of faculty development programs are proposed, both for research into and development of such programs and their impact at individual and institutional levels.     

Impact of discipline-specific professional development: implementation of core instructional practices

A study of a discipline-specific teacher development project designed to prepare teachers to implement a series of core instructional practices for pre-collegiate history teaching is described as a model that can be applied to any content discipline. Teachers were surveyed concerning the success of the project in achieving the goals it set, implementation of and feelings about the new strategies learned for ‘doing history’ and the impact of the PD activities provided. A variation on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model was used to measure the levels of use and stages of concern of the teachers with regard to the strategies. Teachers reported a high level of adoption of and comfort with the strategies. Implications for structuring successful PD activities that are discipline-specific, collaborative, use active learning, have a coherent vision and sufficient duration are presented.     

Images as orienting activity: using theory to inform classroom practices

Conceptualizations of teacher knowledge have shifted to focusing on the role of experiential rather than theoretical knowledge. There are different approaches to this, but the idea of an image that guides practice is widespread. One approach to images that has not been frequently investigated in studies of second language teachers is through sociocultural theory, specifically in the contribution of activity theory known as orienting activity. In this view, images mediate teaching actions by linking theoretical knowledge and practical experience. This article will use orienting activity to examine the role that images play in an English as a second language teacher’s personal practical knowledge by drawing on classroom observations, informal discussions, simulated recall interviews and documentary evidence collected over a nine month period. Analysis of the data shows that several key images mediated the teacher’s classroom actions. These emerged in the observations and in the teacher’s commentary on planned and spontaneous, routine and novel and successful and unsuccessful activities. The images appeared to have developed through both tacit knowledge associated with practical experience and theoretical knowledge associated with research and theory. This demonstrates the usefulness of orienting activity as a theoretical framework for exploring classroom practices and teacher development through the links it can make between theory and practice.     

The adoption of student-centered teaching materials as a professional development experience for college faculty

Efforts to promote the use of student-centered learning environments in STEM education have been tempered by a lack of professional development strategies that help faculty overcome common barriers to reform. This study investigated the impact that adopting a suite of student-centered teaching materials had on the teaching practices and beliefs of eight geoscience faculty at a variety of US institutions. Each instructor adopted 18 class lessons that were developed as part of the InTeGrate (Interdisciplinary Teaching about the Earth for a Sustainable Future) project into a semester-long course. The Teaching Practices Inventory (TPI) and Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) were used to collect data on teaching practices whereas instructor beliefs were captured with the Teacher Beliefs Interview (TBI). Data were collected over three semesters, a control semester using traditional materials, a pilot semester using the new materials, and a final treatment semester. While the TPI survey showed no self-reported changes in the practices, RTOP observations recorded the incorporation of more student-centered teaching practices. TBI results confirm that most of the instructors also made at least moderate shifts toward more student-centered beliefs about teaching and learning. These findings demonstrate that the adoption of well-crafted, student-centered instructional materials can have a positive impact on both the teaching practices and beliefs of college faculty.     

Continuing professional development of EMI teachers: a Chinese case study

This brief article reports on a professional development programme aiming to provide professional training and support to EMI teachers in a university in China. Drawing on interview data with five participants, the findings show that the programme improved the teachers’ self-efficacy by guiding teachers to think about the nature of EMI and its role in content learning, and providing modelling and microteaching practice in a learning community. The study concludes with some implications for university teacher development.     

An investigation of academic writing in secondary schools to inform the development of diagnostic classroom assessments

Despite the high stakes attached to students’ performance on assessments of academic writing, we still know little about the challenges students face when composing in academic contexts. To begin to address this problem, two studies were designed with the following aims: to identify and describe the most prevalent types of academic writing at the secondary level, and to characterize the challenges that both English Language Learners (ELLs) and non-English-Language Learners (non-ELLs) experience with this type of writing. Findings from these studies reveal that (1) in the context of New York City schools, exposition/argument is the most prevalent genre assigned as a writing task in secondary classrooms, as well as the most valued; and that (2) while both Intermediate ELLs and non-ELLs articulated Translating (the process of articulating ideas in the conventions of written English) as the most frequent challenge, the two groups differed in the kinds of Translating challenges and in the types and range of other challenges they articulated: ELLs articulated fewer challenges specifically related to the genre of exposition than did non-ELLs. Based on these findings we suggest several new approaches to classroom diagnostic assessment of writing, and raise issues to be considered in these approaches.     

Framing of transitional pedagogic practices in the sciences: enabling access

Educational literature shows that students from working-class backgrounds are significantly less likely to persist to completion in higher education than middle-class students. This paper draws theoretically and analytically on Bernstein’s ([1990. Class, Codes and Control, Volume IV: The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. London: Routledge; 2000. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield]) thesis that, through differential framing of pedagogic practices, the curriculum has capacity to accommodate all groups of students. Pedagogic practices in both a science foundation course and four first-year mainstream science courses in a higher education institution in the South African context are examined. Whilst the foundation course exhibits modalities that generally favour access, the mainstream courses have some modalities that appear to be constraining. It is argued from a social justice perspective that holistic curriculum transformations that better enable epistemic transitions are an urgent imperative, and that consideration of differential framing of pedagogic modalities offer a close-up empirical means of conceptualising such reforms.     

Setting strategic direction in academic institutions: the case of the business school

Setting the strategic direction in academic institutions cannot be fully likened to the same challenge in corporations, due to their essential “product” of value creation. Further, the role of the dean is inherently different from that of the CEO; he does not have the same power. Though a business school and a company are not run in the same way, there is no less of a need for the school to make the strategic choices necessary to achieve an internal balance and to create the kind of value the customer expects. In this article, four approaches to strategy in business schools are proposed in order to ensure that the main missions — research, teaching, and citizenship — of the school are operationally carried out.     

Promoting NQT linguistic awareness of dialogic teaching practices: a dialogic model of professional development

This study offers an insight into the experiences of three newly qualified English primary teachers and their pupils as they sought to develop dialogic teaching in lessons. It draws upon a range of literature from the field of classroom talk, with a particular focus on the work of Robin Alexander to underpin teacher/researcher professional discussion and analysis of periodic video recordings of talk in these classrooms. Supplemented by teacher interviews, the research examines the extent to which a dialogic approach to teacher professional development might facilitate teacher self‐evaluation as a means of developing a more dialogic classroom. In doing so, it seeks to exemplify key talk moves (dialogic bids) that these teachers used to open up dialogic spaces in lessons. The research concludes that raising teacher awareness of such talk moves through professional discussion and reflection upon teaching can provide teachers with a metacognitive resource for talking about and furthering dialogic teaching practices.