Conference Agenda

Tackling uncertainty with genuine hope for the future relies, in part, on quality education. Indeed, hope and education are inextricably linked, with both rooted in ideas of the future, of formation, of becoming. However, delivering on education’s potential requires more than stating goals or hoping for a better future. Beyond rhetoric, we need to find paths of action teachers and leaders in education can take that make a positive difference and create genuine hope (Gore, 2022).

Efforts to develop, test and scale meaningful approaches to educational improvement are all the more urgent in the context of the PISA 2022 results (OECD, 2023) which showed an overall downward trend in student achievement and highlighted enduring gross inequities – students from disadvantaged backgrounds fared worse than their advantaged counterparts across all countries and economies represented. A nation’s overall prosperity and collective welfare is critically reliant on the quality of the schooling it offers, yet most education systems struggle to significantly and measurably increase quality. This situation is highlighted in the United Nations’ declaration that the world is falling drastically behind in achieving SDG4 Quality Education and the estimate that by 2030, 300 million students will lack basic literacy and numeracy skills worldwide (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, n.d.).

In attempts to improve the quality of education globally, billions of dollars are spent each year on teacher professional development (PD). These learning opportunities for teachers promise much, but often fail to deliver lasting change. Arguably, sustainable, genuine improvement to education requires robust evidence and the alignment of research, policy, and practice. Borko (2004) describes three phases of PD research: 1) research of a single PD program offered at one site; 2) scaling up a single PD program and examining how it plays out in different contexts; and 3) comparisons of different PD programs. Most research on teacher PD falls into the first category, although there are signs of more phase 2 studies (Sztajn et al., 2017). Still, relatively little is known about how contextual factors influence the scaling up of PD, particularly when examining the same PD program in different countries. There are of course exceptions (see for example Maas & Engeln, 2018).

In this symposium, we explore the challenge of scaling teacher PD in three different countries – Albania, Australia, and Sweden – all of which engaged with the PD program known as Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR). Developed in Australia, with compelling evidence of statistically significant positive effects on mathematics and reading outcomes, including slightly stronger effects for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, (Gore et al., 2021, 2023), we consider the viability of scaling QTR as a way to address pressing global issues of quality education (Ritchie et al., 2023). The papers explore the application of QTR across these diverse national contexts as a specific case of scaling PD. In so doing, we demonstrate how genuine hope for positive educational change in uncertain times might be generated.

Despite massive global investment in professional development (PD), goals to improve student outcomes, including greater equity, are often unmet. In this paper, we report on a program of research, conducted over the past 20 years, which shows positive effects for both teachers and students of Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) PD. The research, which includes randomised controlled trials, replication studies, and independent evaluation and traverses conceptual, qualitative, and quantitative analyses, highlights three components of the PD that were critical to establishing its potential for scaling in other nations. First, QTR puts pedagogy at the centre of PD. We argue that pedagogy has been widely misunderstood and overlooked in school improvement efforts. By centring pedagogy, we question the emerging consensus on “effective PD” as needing to be content-focused and argue for additional theoretical and empirical work on what is effective (Gore et al., 2023). The focus on pedagogy means QTR applies to teachers across grades, subjects, and at all career stages (Gore & Rosser, 2020) which contributes to the scalability of the approach, including in the resource-constrained environments facing many nations. Second, QTR attends carefully to the power dynamics – based on experience, seniority, and positional authority – which often get in the way of critical analytical work among teachers (Bowe & Gore, 2017). Underpinned by a Foucauldian understanding of power as productive and circulating (Foucault, 1988), QTR deliberately flattens school power hierarchies, creating multiple opportunities for all teachers to be heard and building trusting professional relationships. These processes empower teachers to drive the PD with minimal external input – a feature which adds to its scalability, sustainability, and impact. Third, QTR is backed by rigorous research, including four separate RCTs that collectively demonstrate (statistically significant) positive effects of the approach on the quality of teaching, teacher morale, teacher efficacy and student achievement/ attainment (Gore et al., 2017, 2021). At a time when schools and teachers are under enormous pressure, exacerbated by the pandemic and dire teacher shortages (Fray et al., 2023), we argue that investment in PD with demonstrated impact is critical and urgent. Efforts to scale QTR PD, especially across international borders as reported in the remaining papers, would not have happened without such strong evidence.

Bowe, J. M., & Gore, J. M. (2017). Reassembling teacher professional development: The case for Quality Teaching Rounds. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 23, 352–366. Foucault, M. (1988). Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977 (C. Gordon, Ed.). Knopf US. Fray, L., Jaremus, F., Gore, J., Miller, A., & Harris, J. (2023). Under pressure and overlooked: The impact of COVID-19 on teachers in NSW public schools. The Australian Educational Researcher, 50, 701 – 727. Gore, J., Lloyd, A., Smith, M., Bowe, J., Ellis, H., & Lubans, D. (2017). Effects of Professional Development on the quality of teaching: Results from an RCT of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 68, 99–113. Gore, J., Miller, A., Fray, L., Harris, J., & Prieto-Rodriguez, E. (2021). Improving student achievement through Professional Development: Results from an RCT of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101, Article 103297. Gore, J., Patfield, S., & Fray, L. (2023). Questioning the consensus on effective Professional Development. In R. J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Erkican. (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (Volume 5). Elsevier (pp.511–517). Gore, J., & Rosser, B. (2020). Beyond content-focused PD: Powerful professional learning across grades and subjects. PD in Education, 48(2), 218–232.

In December 1990, the Albanian government was thrust into the democratic world as a result of the fall of communism. Since then, Albanian education continues to be subjected to global pressures in an attempt to ‘catch-up’ with the west (Gardinier, et al., 2010; Sota, 2014). However, efforts to improve the education system and in particular teaching practice, largely through policy initiatives, have produced minimal change in the classroom (Council of Ministers, 2016). Today, students are faced with predominantly direct textbook-led instruction and basic knowledge recall, with little deep understanding or application, resulting in poor outcomes (UNESCO, 2017). PISA 2022 scores demonstrate a downturn on previous scores (OECD, 2023). Even when accounting for various factors that potentially contributed to this slide, previous results have been consistently lower than the OECD mean. In one attempt to achieve the goal of improved educational provision and outcomes, Albania has addressed aspects of initial teacher education. However, research indicates the most recent graduates are unable to move far from the confines of the traditional teacher-led practices they experienced during their teacher training (Zaçellari, 2019). Therefore, improving the quality of initial teacher education remains a key national priority (Maghnouj, et al., 2020). Addressing this key priority from a transactional-realist perspective, I explored the potential impact and value of the QT Model, at the core of QTR PD, for Albanian teacher training. Participants were drawn from three levels of initial teacher education, Master of Teaching students, teacher-interns, and teacher educators. Through workshops, the QT Model, a highly refined and widely tested conceptualisation of what constitutes quality teaching, was introduced to participants as a tool for developing their capacity to continually improve the quality of their practice. These QT workshops enabled practical engagement with the Model and the process of lesson ‘coding,’ while real-world insight into its value was gleaned from those on internship who were able to experiment with the Model and coding process in their classrooms. Does QT offer cause for hope? It appears so. Initial results from pre and post intervention observations and interviews demonstrate a positive response to the Model and coding, providing clear potential for direct impact on classroom practice. This paper represents the first intervention-based study to provide practical support for Albanian pre-service teachers to recognise and develop high-quality teaching practice. The study has important implications for the wider application of the QT Model in future Albanian teacher education, and beyond.

Council of Ministers. (2016). National strategy for development and integration 2015-2020. Republic of Albania Council of Ministers. https://ips.gov.al/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/NSDI-eng.pdf Gardinier, M. P., & Anderson Worden, E. (2010). The semblance of progress amidst the absence of change: Educating for an imagined Europe in Moldova and Albania. In I. Silova (Ed.), International Perspectives on Education and Society (pp. 183–211). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000014010 Maghnouj, S., Fordham, E., Guthrie, C., Henderson, K., & Trujillo, D. (2020). OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment in education: Albania. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/d267dc93-en OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 Results: Factsheets—Albania. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/country-notes/ Sota, J. (2014). Educational phenomena in Albania in the years of communist dictatorship and the reformation efforts after [the] nineties. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 11(0). https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2011.v11n0p%p UNESCO. (2017). Albania: Education policy review; issues and recommendations, extended report (p. 220). http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002592/259245e.pdf Zaçellari, M. (2019). Teaching practice in the Albanian context: Student-teachers’ perceptions regarding their experience in teaching. In M. Kowalczuk-Walêdziak, A. Korzeniecka-Bondar, W. Danilewicz, & G. Lauwers (Eds.), Rethinking teacher education for the 21st century (1st ed., pp. 168–183). Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpb3xhh.15

It is becoming widely accepted that teachers’ professional development (PD) is key when it comes to the development of instructional quality and student achievement. At the same time, results show slightly negative effects of the PD that teachers usually participate in (Kirsten et al., 2023). Considering the need to support teacher professionalization, frameworks of critical features of effective PD have been proposed, for example that the PD should include multiple sessions spread over a longer period of time (duration) during which teachers, together with their colleagues (collective participation), actively engage in activities such as planning and revising their instructional practices (active learning, e.g., Desimone, 2009). However, even PD programs designed according to these frameworks have difficulty demonstrating positive effects, especially if implemented on a larger scale (e.g., Jacob et al., 2017). The above issue is also evident in Sweden, where several national scale PD programs, corresponding to the core critical features frameworks, have been implemented during the past decade with effects that can be questioned (e.g., Lindvall et al., 2022). In particular, the collegial meetings in these programs seem to hold little potential for learning. The discussions during teacher meetings tend to focus on student characteristics and lesson design (e.g., group work or individual work) instead of critical discussions regarding instructional practices and teachers’ classroom actions (e.g., Kaufmann & Ryve, 2022). In order to support teachers to engage in constructive discussions about instructional practices with the aim of developing instructional quality, we have recently engaged in a combined research and developmental project, where we collaborate with four schools to try out and adapt QTR to a Swedish context. Based on data from surveys, interviews, and videotaped lessons pre and post teachers’ PD participation, we present results regarding how QTR has affected teachers' instructional practices and collegial collaboration, as well as how these effects are mediated by teachers' visions of instructional quality. The concept of instructional vision is of particular interest, given recent studies have shown that even though aspects such as teachers' education and subject knowledge can be important for the changes that are implemented in teaching, it is visions of high quality instruction that are of greatest importance (Munter & Wilhelm, 2020). Also, implicit national instructional visions in Sweden (in particular regarding the role of the teacher) can affect PD implementation (Kaufmann & Ryve, 2022; Ryve & Hemmi, 2019).

Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38(3), 181–199 Kaufmann, O. T., & Ryve, A. (2022). Teachers’ framing of students’ difficulties in mathematics learning in collegial discussions. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1-17. Kirsten, N., Lindvall, J., Ryve, A., & Gustafsson, J. E. (2023). How effective is the professional development in which teachers typically participate? Quasi-experimental analyses of effects on student achievement based on TIMSS 2003–2019. Teaching and Teacher Education, 132, 1-10. Jacob, R., Hill, H., & Corey, D. (2017). The impact of a professional development program on teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, instruction, and student achievement. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(2), 379-407. Lindvall, J., Helenius, O., Eriksson, K., & Ryve, A. (2022). Impact and design of a national-scale professional development program for mathematics teachers. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 66(5), 744-759. Munter, C., & Wilhelm, A.G. (2021). Mathematics teachers’ knowledge, networks, practice, and change in instructional visions. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(3), 342-354. Ryve, A., & Hemmi, K. (2019). Educational policy to improve mathematics instruction at scale: Conceptualizing contextual factors. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 102(3), 379-394