01.Professional Learning and Development
Paper
School Principals´ Roles in Establishing Teacher Professional Learning Communities to Connect Cultures. A Comparative Study of Europe and Latin America
Denise Vaillant1, Ester Mancebo2
1UNIVERSIDAD ORT URUGUAY; 2UNIVERSIDAD DE LA REPÚBLICA
Presenting Author: Vaillant, Denise;
Mancebo, Ester
Teacher´s professional development is an essential process to contribute to the improvement of student learning (Gordon, 2006). However, teacher education is based on solitary, individual training strategies, rather than models that enhance collaborative work (Vaillant & Marcelo, 2018). The collaborative dimension of the teaching activity is often not reflected in the leadership of most schools. Building spaces that promote collaborative learning and connect communities and cultures is a real challenge for today educational systems.
The main purpose of this study is to examine how principals support professional learning communities in Europe and Latin America from a comparative perspective. At present professional learning communities have become a key idea in the educational field. Principal´s leadership plays a significant role in the ability of a school to become a professional learning community that enhances student learning. This study explore what kind of principal creates a professional learning community in his/her school in Europe and in Latin America and contribute to integrate different cultures.
Research questions:
- What is the principals’ role to establish and develop teachers’ professional learning communities in ten European and ten Latin American countries participating in PISA 2018?
- What kind of leadership do principals exercise to connect different cultures and promote student-centered pedagogical practices?
- What differences emerge from the comparison between countries and regions?
- What factors contribute to explaining such differences?
Objectives:
This study is guided by two main objectives. The first one is to generate knowledge about the principals’ role to create and foster teachers’ professional learning communities. The second one looks forward to understanding the relationship between school principals’ leadership and the connection of diverse cultures in the European and Latin American countries participating in PISA 2018.
Theoretical framework:
The theoretical framework of this research is based on the accumulation of the so-called "professional learning communities." “community of practice”, “learning community” or “professional learning community” are terms that focus on the communitarian dimension of teaching activity. As Leclerc (2012) has pointed out, these terms are is based on the idea that the mutual commitment of the participants of a school constitutes a fundamental factor for the development of shared learning.
In “professional learning communities”, group meetings are held periodically - virtual or face-to-face- so as to strengthen work teams, contribute to teacher professionalization and foster the creation of a professional culture with common values and priorities (Gairín, 2018). In particular, in the educational field, “profesional learning communities” aspire to build communities with a high degree of teaching professionalism and high expectations regarding student learning.
Additionally, the study is also supported by the literature on school leadership, which has grown significantly in recent years (OECD, 2013; UNESCO-IIPE-IWGE, 2012; Weinstein, Muñoz & Hernández, 2014). In the past, school leadership was synonymous with the management teams of schools. In the last decade, the conceptualization has varied and it emphasizes that leadership involves the generation of a common culture of expectations, in which all school actors are responsible for their contribution to the collective results related to student learning (Leithwood & Louis, 2011).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis is a multiple case study of a comparative and quantitative nature.
The main source of data is PISA 2018 in which 79 countries participated, including multiple European and several Latin American countries. As in all its editions, PISA 2018 focused on the evaluation of 15-year-old students' learning in different areas (through standardized tests) and also collected social and pedagogical data through several self-administered questionnaires (principals, teachers, students and parents).
The research will compare the information of Latin America as a whole, Europe as a whole, the 10 participating Latinamerican countries and 10 selected European countries.
Among the available forms, the analysis will privilege the questionnaire applied to school principals. In particular, the analysis will exploit data from these questionnaires on the school system, the learning environment, the development of a school culture in continuous improvement, the promotion of teaching practices based on recent educational research and the promotion of professional development activities.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn Latin American and European countries there are school principals with a clear conviction that their role is to promote the professional development of teachers, build professional learning communities and exercise their leadership in such a way that the school contributes to socio-cultural inclusion of students and the implementation of pedagogical practices that take the student as a center.
It is expected to find both similarities and differences between Europe and Latin America, as well as among the countries of the two regions. The similarities are probably associated with the school format that has historically prevailed in schools and the scarce tradition of collaborative work in the professional teaching culture. The differences should be linked to the specificities of each of the educational systems under study.
Finally, school principals’ discourse must be confirmed through studies of effective practices in the referred dimensions.
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Dufour, R. (2011). Work together: But only if you want to. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(5), 57-61. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171109200513
Harris, A. (2020). Leading school and system improvement: Why context matters. European Journal of Education, 55(2), 143-145. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12393
Harris, A., & Jones, M. (2020). COVID 19 – school leadership in disruptive times. School Leadership & Management, 40(4), 243-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2020.1811479
Leithwood, K., & Seashore-Louis, K. (2012). Linking Leadership to Student Learning. Jossey-Bass.
OEI. (2017). Miradas sobre la Educación en Iberoamérica. Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (OEI).
OREALC-Unesco (2014). El liderazgo escolar en América Latina y el Caribe. Un estado del arte en base a ocho sistemas escolares de la región. OREALC-Unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232799?posInSet=1&queryId=13f1fd96-5d24-4f23-b7cc-848bb869361b
Vaillant, D. (2017). Directivos y comunidades de aprendizaje docente: un campo en construcción. En J. Weinstein & G. Muñoz (Eds.), Mejoramiento y liderazgo en la escuela: once miradas (pp. 263-294). CEDLE; Universidad Diego Portales.
Vaillant, D. (2019a). Experiencias innovadoras en el desarrollo profesional de directivos. CAF.
Vaillant, D. (2019b). Directivos y comunidades de aprendizaje docente: un campo en construcción. Revista Electronica de Educacao, 13(1), 87-106. https://doi.org/10.14244/198271993073
Vaillant, D., & Rodríguez Zidán, E. (2016). Prácticas de liderazgo para el aprendizaje en América Latina: un análisis a partir de PISA 2012. Ensaio: Avaliação e Políticas Públicas em Educação, 24(91), 253-274. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-40362016000200001
Weinstein J., Muñoz G., & Flessa, J. (2019). Liderazgo directivo para la calidad de la 2educación: aprendizajes desde un campo de investigación emergente. Revista Calidad de la educación, (51), 10-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.31619/caledu.n51.793
Weinstein, J., Hernández, M., Cuéllar, C., & Fless, J. (2015). Liderazgo escolar en América Latina y el Caribe. Experiencias innovadoras de formación de directivos escolares en la región. OREALC-Unesco.
01.Professional Learning and Development
Paper
Professional Development of Czech teachers (ISCED 2 level)
Kristýna Šejnohová1, Stanislav Michek2, Martin Chvál1
1Charles University, Czech Republic; 2University of Hradec Králové, Faculty of Education, Czech Republic
Presenting Author: Šejnohová, Kristýna
From the data of the TALIS 2018 survey, we can state that the participation of Czech teachers in professional development (PD) is one of the highest in comparison with other countries, and they have a more positive attitude towards PD activities. The most common forms of PD are reading literature and attending seminars, but below-average is team teaching or mutual observation of teachers in the classroom. (Boudová et al., 2020) According to Czech School Inspectorate (CSI), in about one-fourth of the monitored schools, the CSI assesses care for the professional development of teachers as "requiring improvement" or "unsatisfactory". (Pražáková, 2021)
The importance of PD is perceived worldwide as a subject that can affect the quality of teaching or the professional motivation of the teacher (Starý et al., 2012). Current research relates to examining the process of PD in terms of its quality and effectiveness (Gore et al., 2017; Garet et al., 2001; Darling-Hammond et al., 2017), but also as a tool that has an impact on pupils' school success (Starý et al., 2012; Yoon et al., 2007). Continuous professional development is related to teacher self-efficacy and classroom climate. Teachers' self-efficacy, which affects relationships with colleagues and parents, is also an important factor that allows them to appreciate their colleagues and school management. (Caprara et al., 2006) Feedback and evaluation of teachers' work together with the overall school climate are factors that affect a teacher's confidence and job satisfaction. (Badri et al. 2017).
Our study aims to describe some characteristics of the professional development of Czech teachers on the ISCED 2 level (upper grades of primary school). For the secondary analysis, we will use data sets from the TALIS survey in 2013 and 2018 and data from the 2015 research conducted by S. Michek (2016) in cooperation with NIDV (National Institute for Further Education). We will describe how teachers in the selected datasets perceive professional development activities, how they engage in these activities, what factors are associated with them, and how they are related to the age and length of teaching practice. Due to changes in TALIS questionnaires and the fact that the 2015 sample does not meet all criteria for the representative sample is a description based on time development limited. However, we can focus our perspective on how the statements of teachers differ in individual datasets based on their age and length of teaching experience.
Our research question is: How does the teacher's length of teaching experience affect his or her active participation in professional development? What is the relationship between the length of teaching experience, the assessment of professional development activities, the influence of feedback, and school climate? What types of professional development activities do teachers choose based on the length of their teaching experience?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe Czech Republic participated in the TALIS survey in 2013 and 2018. The representative sample includes approximately 200 schools in each country and 20 teachers in each school. In the Czech Republic, 220 schools and 3 219 teachers were involved in the TALIS survey in 2013, and 219 schools and 3 447 teachers in TALIS 2018. For the TALIS data set we selected only teachers from primary schools since within the ISCED 2 category in the Czech Republic there are also teachers of lower grades of secondary schools. For TALIS 2013 our sample has n = 2346, 73 % of the total set, and for TALIS 2018, n = 2517, 73 % of the total set. The third source was from the research of Michek's survey from 2015, which has n = 429, 17% of the total set. The survey was organized by the NIDV institute (Michek, 2015), and they used a questionnaire inspired by the TALIS survey, which was distributed among teachers’ contacts in their database (those contacts were teachers who already attended some of the PD activities offered by the institute).
As a main tool for the secondary analysis, we used a free version of the JAMOVI software. We created seven categories of teachers from open questions on age and length of teaching experience in all three data sets.
Secondly, we created indexes from several TALIS questionnaire items. These were formulated slightly differently in both waves of the TALIS survey. The number of items and Cronbach's alpha in the order 2013, and 2018 are given in parentheses. Professional Development Index (7, 0.81; 7; 0.70), Feedback Index (5, 0.92; 6, 0.78), and School Climate Index (5, 0.88; 8, 0.89).
Finally, to fulfill the descriptive research question, we measured the percentage of respondents participating in individual types of professional development activities across our categories. Furthermore, all three datasets contain identical batteries with scale items related to barriers to participation in professional development activities.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn general, 2015 data have lower informative potential than the TALIS 2013 and 2018 datasets, which have a representative sample selection. However, the data can illustrate the situation in the interim period of the TALIS survey. For categories 1 and 7 in all three datasets, there is a smaller representation within the sample, therefore also a lower reliability and informative value for these two categories.
RQ1: Overall we see in the data an increasing trend in teacher participation across different types of professional development activities. All three datasets show a clear downward trend, meaning with increasing age and length of teaching experience, teachers perceive fewer obstacles to their participation in professional development activities. It is also important to mention that, overall, teachers do not perceive the mentioned obstacles as significant for overall participation in professional development.
RQ2: It was shown in TALIS data sets that older and more experienced teachers evaluate the contribution of professional development activities more positively than their younger colleagues. The benefit of feedback is generally rated as rather small across age categories. Correlation analysis between the indices showed weaker mutual but logical connections. Teachers who value the benefit of professional development activities also tend to value the benefit of provided feedback (r "2013" = 0.21; "2018" = 0.23), and these teachers also evaluate the climate of their school more positively (r with the professional development index "2013" = 0.13; "2018" = 0.17; r with feedback index "2013" = 0.27; "2018" = 0.16).
RQ3: The highest participation across all categories is declared for the activity Courses and seminars, which are one-time activities that, from the point of view of research findings, are bringing the least benefit to teachers.
ReferencesBadri, M., Alnuaimi, A., Yang, G., Al Rashidi, A., & Al Sumaiti, R. (2017). A Structural Equation Model of Determinants of the Perceived Impact of Teachers’ Professional Development—The Abu Dhabi Application. SAGE Open, 7, 1-18. DOI:10.1177/2158244017702198.
Boudová, S., Šťastný, V., Basl, J., Zatloukal, T., Andrys, O., & Pražáková, D. (2020). Mezinárodní šetření TALIS 2018: zkušenosti, názory a postoje učitelů a ředitelů škol : národní zpráva. Česká školní inspekce.
Caprara, G., Barbaranelli, C., Steca, P., & Malone, P. (2006). Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs as determinants of job satisfaction and students’ academic achievement: A study at the school level. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 473-490.
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Effective_Teacher_Professional_Development_REPORT.pdf
Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What Makes Professional Development Effective? Results From a National Sample of Teachers. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 38, 915-945. https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/aera_designing_0.pdf
Gore, J., Lloyd, A., Smith, M., Bowe, J. J., Ellis, H., & Lubans, D. (2017). Effects of professional development on the quality of teaching: Results from a randomised controlled trial of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 68, 99-113. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X17304225
Michek, S. (2015). Zpráva z dotazníkového šetření ke zjištění názorů cílové skupiny učitelů pro plánování projektu IMKA (Implementace kariérního systému) – souhrn odpovědí. NIDV: Praha.
Michek, S. (2016). Využití aktivit podporujících profesní rozvoj a vnímání jejich překážek učiteli základních a středních škol. Pedagogika, 66(4). https://doi.org/10.14712/23362189.2016.316
OECD (2019). TALIS 2018 Technical Report. Paris: OECD.
Pražáková, D. (2021, 10. května). Profesní rozvoj učitelů v datech ČŠI. Řízení školy.
Starý, K., Dvořák, D., Greger, D., & Duschinská, K. (2012). Profesní rozvoj učitelů. Podpora učitelů pro zlepšování výsledků žáků. Karolinum.
Yoon, K. S., Duncan, T., Lee, S. W.-Y., Scarloss, B., & Shapley, K. (2007). Reviewing the evidence on how teacher professional development affects student achievement (Issues & Answers Report, REL 2007–No. 033). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs
01.Professional Learning and Development
Paper
Supporting Inclusive Science Teachers' Use of Evidence-Based Vocabulary Practices
Michael Kennedy
University of Virginia, United States of America
Presenting Author: Kennedy, Michael
In America, as is the case around the world, students with disabilities are taught in the general education (regular) classroom alongside peers without disabilities. However, content area teachers (e.g., science, history, mathematics) do not always receive ample preparation to support these students' unique behavioral and learning needs (Kahn & Lewis, 2014). As a result, students with disabilities that impact their capacity to learn such as learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and behavioral disorders may not receive the type of instruction needed to support positive academic outcomes (Kennedy et al., 2018). When younger adolescents do not succeed in content area coursework they can become turned off to the discipline, and thus potential career pathways (Blondal & Adalbjardardottir, 2012).
The purpose of this randomized control trial was to explore the impact of a multimedia professional development process on the quality and quantity of vocabulary instruction for inclusive middle school science teachers and corresponding learning of students with and without disabilities. The conceptual framework for the treatment intervention is cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et al., 1991), and the looks and sounds of the intervention components reflect Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning (2020). The PD package reflects cognitive apprenticeship by scaffolding declarative, procedural, and conditional learning for teachers using three main components.
The first is a series of multimedia vignettes called content acquisiton podcasts (CAPs) (Kennedy et al., 2018). CAPs are short vignettes designed using Mayer's CTML and associated design principles and can be watched and rewatched as needed by teachers (or those in training). We produced five CAPs for this project corresponding to key evidence-based vocabulary practices known to be effective for teaching students with disabilities (e.g., using student-friendly language, using examples, conducting a demonstration, and breaking terms into morphological word parts). CAPs help build what Collins and colleagues call declarative and preliminary procedural knowledge, as each video explains the steps of the practice, and shows a model teacher implementing. An example CAP can be seen here https://vimeo.com/444031616.
The second component of the intervention is the team provides teachers with customizable instructional materials in the form of PowerPoint slides to use during vocabulary instruction. Over 100 slideshows were produced and checked for accuracy by experts in special education and science instruction. The slideshows use the instructional practices taught by the CAPs, and also adhere to Mayer's principles. These slides can be used during live instruction or recorded for student use. These slides also help build declarative and procedural knowledge of key instructional practices. Sample slides can be seen at www.vocabsupport.com.
Finally, the team developed a combination observation and feedback took called COACHED (Kennedy & Kunemund, 2020). COACHED contains the Classroom Teaching (CT) Scan observation instrument, which documents in real time instructional moves made by teachers for later reflection and identification of areas to improve. Data generated by the CT Scan is translated within COACHED into a customizable feedback template that does not give a quality score, but instead focuses on the extent to which a teacher used each practice with fidelity. COACHED is a free tool and flexible for use in a variety of formats (https://coachedweb.azurewebsites.net/). The feedback from COACHED helps develop conditional knowledge of teachers in that they receive notes on how, when, with whom practices are used.
Although science teachers are taught and reinforced for using inquiry approaches, many of these colleagues fear too much time is given to vocabulary instruction (Parsons & Bryant, 2016). While we agree the traditions of the paradigm should be honoroed (inquiry), students with disabilities are unlikely to succeed without the type of explicit instruction proposed in this study (VanUitert et al., 2022).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedResearchers used a randomized control trial design to evaluate impact of the multimedia PD on teacher and student participants. A total of 980 sixth grade students and thirteen teachers participated. The 13 teachers were all qualified science instructors with an average of 13.3 years in the classroom. Amongst the students were 117 with a disability. Students completed two measures, the Misconceptions-Oriented Standards-Based Assessment Resources for Teachers (MOSART) standardized science learning instrument, and researcher-created curriculum-based measures containing vocabulary terms. Students took the MOSART as a pre- and posttest, and the CBM probes once per month. The MOSART instrument had a reliability alpha of .81 in this study, and the CBM probes had a reliability of .83. Teachers were observed using the CT Scan low-inference observation tool. Researchers recorded which practices were used, for how much time, and with what quality using the CT Scan.
The 13 teachers were randomly assigned to either participate in the multimedia PD (n = 7) or teach as normal (n = 6). Each teacher was observed three times in the fall semester of the school year. Observers were blind to which condition participants were in. Thus, after each observation coaching notes were written, and a 3rd party not involved in the study with the master list of who was in which condition forwarded or withheld coaching notes. Included in the coaching notes were references to the CAP vignettes to remind them to re-watch as needed to support implementation, to use the slides, and to do other practices as noticed. Two scorers were sent to over 30% of observations to ensure inter-scorer reliability of the CT Scan data and also coaching notes.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which disability status, exposure to instruction by teachers who did or did not participate in the multimedia PD, and students' average performance on vocabulary-knowledge CBMs are associated with the student MOSART posttest performance measuring science content knowledge. Overall, students without disabilities significantly outperformed students with disabilities on the MOSART posttest when they were from the same group (i.e., both had a teacher with access to the PD or both had a teacher with no access). Students with disabilities whose teachers had access to PD outperformed similarly classified peers whose teachers did not have access to the PD on the MOSART posttest. Likewise, students without disabilities whose teachers had access to the PD performed better on the MOSART posttest than students without disabilities whose teachers did not have access to the PD. Similar to Kennedy et al.'s (2018) study, we found that students with disabilities who had a teacher who participated in PD significantly outperformed peers whose teacher did not participate in the PD on the MOSART posttest and science CBMs; however, our analyses also indicated that students with disabilities whose teacher participated in PD scored significantly higher on science vocabulary and content knowledge measures than both students with and without disabilities who had a teacher that did not participate in PD. A large effect size was yielded between students whose teachers participated in PD and those whose teachers did not. Students whose teachers participated in PD had an approximately two-point higher score compared to those whose teachers did not. In consideration of this being a 15-point assessment, two points would be a considerable difference in the students' scores (over a 10% score gain).
ReferencesBlondal, K. S., & Adalbjarnardottir, S. (2012). Student disengagement in relation to expected and unexpected educational pathways. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 56(1), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 00313831.2011.568607
Kahn, S., & Lewis, A. R. (2014). Survey on teaching science to K-12 student with disabilities: Teacher prepared- ness attitudes. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 25(8), 885–910. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-014- 9406-z
Kennedy, M. J., Rodgers, W. J., Romig, J. E., Matthews, H. M., & Peeples, K. N. (2018). Introducing the content acquisition podcast professional development process: Supporting vocabulary instruction for inclusive mid- dle school science teachers. Teacher Education and Special Education, 41(2), 140–157. https://doi.org/10. 1177/0888406417745655
Mayer, R. E. (2020). Multimedia learning. Cambridge University. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316941355
VanUitert, V. J., Kennedy, M. J., Romig, J. E., & Carlisle, L. M. (2020). Enhancing science vocabulary knowledge of students with learning disabilities using explicit instruction and multimedia. Learning Disabilities: A Con- temporary Journal, 18(1), 3–25.
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