Transformative learning through open listening: a professional development experience with urban high school teachers

This article relates how an English teacher in an urban high school described his efforts to listen and to perceive a seemingly disaffected student in his efforts to support her learning. He observed her responding to his efforts in positive and unexpected ways that involved her increased involvement in learning in his class. This teacher described how this student had presented many challenges to his teaching and how difficult attending to her overt anger and sullenness in his class was for him. However, by doing so, he said that his perceptions and understandings of her and subsequently, another student, shifted profoundly in ways that he believed helped him help these two students learn more meaningfully in his classes. This example of open listening on the part of a teacher toward his two students opened up new possibilities for learning for all three and may indicate a cycle of transformative listening which will be defined and discussed in this article. Stuart’s experiences in a professional development seminar, facilitated by the author, where teachers’ interpretive and evaluative ideas were listened to openly by colleagues and the facilitator may have influenced Stuart in his responses to his students. His involvement in this study group may have contributed to his learning to see his students in new, unique, and fuller ways, which he said he thought helped him help these students learn better in his classes.

合肥地区中小学教师专业化发展情况实证调查

为全面了解合肥地区中小学教师专业化发展的现状,研究建立健全教师专业化发展的制度保障体系及运行机制,加快教师教育一体化进程,我们对合肥市中小学教师的专业化发展情况展开了一次问卷调查。通过调查与分析,指出合肥地区中小学教师专业化发展存在的一些不容忽视的问题,并以此为例,提出了有效推进区域教师专业化发展的对策和建议。     

Factors related to professional development of English language university teachers in Thailand

Professional development is deemed necessary for university teachers at all levels, as it helps to enhance teaching quality. However, the extent of English language university teachers’ professional development might depend on a number of factors. This paper reports on a study investigating English language university teachers’ professional development in Thailand, the factors related to their development, the activities they used and the obstacles they encountered. The study was conducted through the use of a questionnaire to collect data from 217 full-time English language university teachers at 14 universities in Bangkok metropolis, selected through the multi-stage sampling technique. The results indicate that the overall mean score of Thai university teachers’ professional development was at a moderate level, and the factors of gender, academic title, degree and job responsibility were not related to professional development. Only one factor, university type, was found to be related to their development. This means that private university teachers had more professional development than those in Rajabhat and government universities. Discussing or sharing knowledge with colleagues was the activity they used to develop themselves most, with heavy teaching loads being the main obstacle. In addition, students’ background knowledge was the main obstacle to implementation of the received knowledge in teaching.     

Effects of a professional development program on classroom practices and outcomes for Latino dual language learners

A randomized, controlled study was conducted to assess the effects of the Nuestros Niños professional development program on classroom practices and child outcomes related to language development and early literacy skills in both English and Spanish. Fifty-five teachers and 193 Latino dual language learners (DLLs) enrolled in the North Carolina More at Four Pre-Kindergarten Program participated in the study. The content of the professional development program consisted of research-based instructional practices designed to complement the core curriculum and scaffold learning for DLLs, and the format included professional development institutes, individualized consultation, and community of practice meetings. The results showed that the intervention led to measurable improvements in both the overall quality of teachers’ language and literacy practices as well as those specific to working with Latino DLLs, and greater gains in children's phonological awareness skills in their primary language.     

Facilitating professional development for teachers of English language learners

The study explores the process of facilitation in professional development for educators. The study relies on discourse analysis of interaction among K-12 teachers and administrators in a Midwestern U.S. state during a semester-long professional development program especially designed for educators working with English language learners (ELLs). The study examines the facilitation practices employed by the lead facilitator of the professional development program from three analytical lenses: context as participation, context as ideology, and content. The paper provides an empirical illustration of how recommendations in the literature about professional development for educators of ELLs can be put in practice.     

Not a one-shot deal: Generative professional development among experienced teachers

This study examines two experienced teachers’ transformations and sense of agency as they implemented a writer’s workshop curriculum with multi-lingual third grade students. Multiple lines of inquiry guide the study including communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), teacher identities in figured worlds (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998), and the ethic of care (Noddings, 1984/2003). A constant comparative method was used to analyze classroom observation notes, interviews and debriefing sessions (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Findings indicate that teachers transformed their pedagogical practices around writing, and at the same time reconsidered what it may mean to become renewed professionals.     

Effects of evidence-based professional development for preschool teachers in Albania

ABSTRACT

This research explores two ongoing professional development (PD) modalities for early childhood teachers and their effect to teachers’ performance. We compare training, teacher study groups and a combination of both to a control group in the Albanian preschool context. We aimed to obtain mоrе cоmplеtе understanding оf different facеts оf thе ongoing professional development оf еarly childhооd tеachеrs and its pоtеntial impact оn program quality and children’s dеvеlоpmеnt in different еarly childhооd sеttings, especially in countries of low and middle income. This study has led to policy changes in mоrе еfficiеntly planning rеsоurcеs, not only fоr еarly childhood tеachеrs’ PD, but tо tеachеrs and оthеr practitiоnеrs in thе field as well. This research has pushed for evidence-based policy reforms in teacher professionalization and career advancement in Albania.     

From pre-service to in-service teachers: a longitudinal investigation of the professional development of English language teachers in secondary schools

This study reports on a longitudinal inquiry into professional identity construction among six novice cross-border English language teachers from mainland China, who completed their pre-service teacher education in Hong Kong (HK) and began their teaching practice in local HK schools. The findings indicate that the participants navigated obstacles in teaching by deploying their own multiple languages as a cultural and linguistic repertoire. The findings also show that the teachers experienced difficulty legitimising their professional identity in the teaching community, where contextual issues and power interplays mediated the process. Furthermore, it is found that the participants’ commitment to teaching was negatively influenced by their non-legitimate position in the teaching community and the discordance between their teaching beliefs and the norms and values of their workplace. This study suggests that complex inter-relationships between marginal status in and legitimate membership of the community, between historical and cultural background, present practice, and future expectations, between social discourse and personal location, are involved in the process of identity construction. Measures to legitimate these teachers’ position and to transform the linguistic and cultural repertories of these teachers into valuable resources of the local schools are suggested. Implications for future research are outlined.     

Blended teacher professional development: A synthesis of three program evaluations

This study synthesized the findings of three program evaluations of teacher blended professional development programs from the perspective of situated design and implementation, development of community, changes in teacher practice, and impact on students. We found that the blended programs were effective in providing teachers with an opportunity for learning on the job and collaborating with other teachers, and they influenced teacher classroom practice moderately and affected student learning to a limited extent. Our study supports the contention that blended learning is a viable model for teacher professional development.     

Coteaching as professional development for cooperating teachers

Coteaching provides opportunities for teachers to collectively share responsibility for student learning. This paper reports on findings from a longitudinal study in which cooperating teachers cotaught science classes with student teachers. Through coteaching with student teachers, teachers expanded their teaching practice and developed new insights about their teaching. Coteaching served as professional development for the cooperating teachers. The experience provided them with renewed energy toward practice, opportunities to develop and implement curriculum, reflection as a catalyst for changing practice, and an expansion of professional roles into new arenas.     

Experiences of beginning teachers in a school‐based mentoring program in Sweden

Even though teacher education has been successful in preparing students for their future profession, the classroom reality can differ greatly from the inservice training. Many novice teachers therefore find the transition from student teacher to inservice teacher overwhelming To support beginning teachers, mentoring programs—where more experienced teachers support novice teachers—have become commonplace in many schools worldwide. In Sweden, mentoring for beginning teachers has been a frequent feature of support since 2001. This study, conducted in Sweden, examines seven novice teachers and the impact the mentoring process had upon them during their first‐year teaching. Based on interviews, it was found that these experienced both professional and personal support from their mentors. The study also showed the significance of observant leaders within the mentorship program following up on the development of the mentor–mentee relationship.     

Providing school-based learning in elementary school mathematics: the case of a professional development school partnership

Abstract

School–university partnerships also known as professional development school (PDS) partnerships provide potential for universities and schools to establish partnerships that can benefit university faculty, school teachers, university students, and school students. This study examines the impact of a PDS partnership in which the author served as a school-based mathematics coach for two years in a high-need elementary school. Data sources included interviews, surveys, and field notes from classroom observations. Inductive qualitative analyses which were situated in a multi-level framework for researching professional development found that teachers posed more cognitively demanding mathematical tasks and high-level questions in year two compared to year one of this project. Further, student achievement was noted on both state-wide and district-created assessments. Also teachers reported that the school-based approach to professional development led to some teachers taking on more informal leadership roles to support their colleagues’ mathematics instruction. Implications for school-based learning opportunities across the world include the need to establish specific university–school partnerships, and carefully designing research studies to examine the impact of these learning opportunities.     

Professionalising teaching: a corpus-based approach to the professional development of teachers in Singapore

This study explores the use of a corpus of classroom discourse data (Singapore Corpus of Research in Education or SCoRE) to facilitate the professional development of English language (EL) teachers in Singapore. A survey was first conducted to probe the knowledge base and belief system of EL teachers in three key domains: epistemology, pedagogy, and discourse. This was followed by a discourse analysis of the SCoRE corpus to mine resources that could address the specific professional needs of teachers identified through the survey. Survey findings suggest that EL teachers in Singapore are less secure in epistemology than pedagogy or discourse-related issues. The efficacy of using corpus-based materials to help teachers reflect on and develop their professional competencies was tested through a workshop. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of using authentic and situated corpus resources to facilitate teachers’ reflective practice and professional development.     

Restructuring a traditional student teacher supervision model: Fostering enhanced professional development and mentoring within a professional development school context

The purpose of this study was to pilot an alternative student teaching supervision model at a college of education in a US context. In the study, the collaborators used multiple paired dyads to supervise student teachers with multiple supports from college faculty. This study examined how teachers and university faculty planned the use of paired dyads and how participants responded to the innovation. The findings suggest teachers and junior faculty can undertake bottom-up reform within larger systemic constraints.     

Collaborative professional development for distributed teacher leadership towards school change

Professional development that aims to build school change capacity requires spaces for collaborative action and reflection. These spaces should promote learning and foster skills for distributed leadership in managing school change. The present study analyses the case of the Seminar for Critical Citizenship (SCC) established by teachers of infant, primary, secondary and higher education to experiment with and share innovative practices. A focus group was formed first to identify which factors SCC participants perceived as influencing the development of this leadership for change, and second, to verify whether the SCC offers a space where the development of distributed leadership is promoted. We find that while it enables a network for collaboration, egalitarian dialogue and empowerment, certain tensions persist between theory and practice, and in attitudes towards innovation and school culture.     

A model for the professional development of teachers of thinking

Teaching for the development of students’ thinking is not a straightforward matter. It requires pedagogical skills, which are different from those of normal good quality teaching for conceptual development. It follows that providing professional development (PD) for teachers of thinking is a ‘hard case’—we can learn much of general value to providers and clients of PD from the specific case of a PD programme for teachers of thinking. A series of empirical studies are summarised and, combined with 30 years worth of first hand experience and a thorough review of the literature, are used to build a model of the factors which have a direct impact on the effectiveness of PD, that effectiveness being defined in terms of measurable changes in students. A fuller account of the work summarised in this paper is available in Adey et al. [Adey, P., Hewitt, G., Hewitt, J., & Landau, N. (2004). The professional development of teachers: Practice and theory. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic].     

English language teaching and whole school professional development in Tanzania

This paper reports a two-year in-depth qualitative enquiry into English language teaching in a typical primary school in an economically disadvantaged ward of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The research found that modest but significant changes to teachers’ pedagogy, practice and understanding of the teaching of English could be achieved. One of the most important changes was the teachers’ increased understanding of the benefits of engaging learners in a greater range of interaction styles. Another important change was greater understanding of the importance of communicative intent and semantics in the teaching of English. The whole school approach to teacher development, including the research team's sustained engagement with the head teacher of the school, was an important context for the changes to practice.     

Collaborative learning processes in the context of a public health professional development program: a case study

The health promotion laboratory (HPL – Canada) is a public health professional development program building on a collaborative learning approach in order to support long-term practice change in local health services teams. This study aims to analyse the collaborative learning processes of two teams involved in the program during the first year of implementation. Based on a multiple case study design involving observations, interviews, and documentary sources, the study: (1) describes the learning process by which each team built a common understanding of the problem at hand and developed an intervention to address it; (2) identifies factors that facilitated or hindered these processes; and (3) proposes a cross-case explanation of the collaborative learning process in the HPL. The results demonstrate that the two teams learned by expanding their repertoire of actions, albeit experiencing different processes. Results point to the central role of shared mental models and key influencing factors, such as commitment and participation (team cohesion), team climate (psychological safety), and leadership style. Unlike previous studies on team learning that concentrated on existing teams in organisations, the current research studied purposely created teams working at transforming their practices and showed that they can successfully learn if specific conditions are achieved.     

浅谈高中语文教师专业化发展

如何培养教师的自我发展意识,让教师自主发展,这已经成为教育研究者的共识。如何提高语文教师和语文教学的专业化水平这是当前课程改革过程中每一个语文教学的研究者和从教者都必须思考的问题。文章紧扣语文课程中教师这一环节,从规划教师职业生涯、更新教学理念、明确语文教师发展方向、开发校本课程进行反思性实践等几个方面探讨语文教师的可持续专业发展的问题。