What do we know about the long-term effects of teachers' action research?

Author(s):

Stefan Zehetmeier

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 06 B, Teacher Action Research

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-29

10:30-12:00

Room:

NIG, HS II

Chair:

Stefan Zehetmeier

Contribution

Teachers are playing a central role when addressing the quality of schools and instruction. Various types of professional development (PD) projects are offered to support and qualify these teachers. Ingvarson, Meiers, and Beavis (2005) state: “PD for teachers is now recognised as a vital component of policies to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in our schools. Consequently, there is increased interest in research that identifies features of effective professional learning” (p. 2). Evaluations of such PD projects are in most cases conducted during or at the end of the initiative. So they exclusively provide results regarding short-term effects. Beyond that, also an analysis of sustainable effects is crucial: “Too many resources are invested in PD to ignore its impact over time” (Loucks-Horsley, Stiles, & Hewson, 1996, p. 5). But sustainability analysis is often missing because of a lack of material, financial and personal resources. (McLaughlin & Mitra, 2001). Research on this issue is rather scarce (Rogers, 2003): “Few studies have actually examined the sustainability of reforms over long periods of time” (Datnow, 2006, p. 133). Hargreaves (2002) summarises the situation as follows: “The sustainability of educational change has, in this sense, become one of the key priorities in the field” (p. 120). To deal with this key priority, a case study with 4 teachers who took part in an Austrian PD programme (IMST project; see Krainer, 2005, 2008) was conducted. The research questions framing this research were: • Which shot-term impact is caused by the teachers’ participation in the PD programme? • Which sustainable impact is caused by the teachers’ participation in the PD programme? • Which factors foster or hinder these kinds of impact? The theoretical background framing this research contains a model describing the impact of PD programmes: the IPROD-model (Impact of Professional Development model; Zehetmeier, 2008). This model comprises different levels of impact: The categories knowledge, beliefs, and practice are suitable to cover the impact on the teachers’ level (Lipowsky, 2004). But also on the levels of pupils, colleagues, principals, and parents all three categories (knowledge, beliefs, and practice) are respectively necessary to gather possible impact. Moreover, also beyond-school levels need to be considered when analyzing the impact of PD projects: e.g., other schools, media, policy, or scholarship (Zehetmeier, 2009b). The IPROD-model also includes an overview concerning factors fostering the impact of PD projects (Krainer & Zehetmeier, 2008; Zehetmeier, 2009a).

Method

The research project follows a case study design (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003). The study involves 4 teachers of a secondary school in Vienna, Austria. The teachers were participants in the Austrian IMST project (Krainer, 2005, 2008) for three years (2001-2004). They were interested in finding out what characteristics made their team teaching practice successful. To answer this question, they used methods of action research (Altrichter, Feldman, Posch, & Somekh, 2007), in particular joint analysis of their teaching videos. The case study has a longitudinal design and analyses the sustainable impact (three years after the end of the project) of teachers’ participation in the IMST project. The study includes data from varying sources and dates to gain validity by “convergence of evidence” (Yin, 2003, p. 100): Collection of data was done during 2001 and 2008 and contains documents, archival records, open-ended and structured interviews, and observations.

Expected Outcomes

The study’s results point – for each of the teachers – to various types of impact (e.g., short-term or sustainable; planned or unintended) on different levels: E.g., new knowledge about team teaching and situational reflection; changed beliefs about feedback and self-esteem; new teaching practice regarding collaboration and networking with colleagues. The study also provides answers to the question of factors fostering these kinds of impact: Networking and joint reflection turned out to be the most important factors facilitating the sustainability of impact (see also Lerman & Zehetmeier, 2008). More information concerning this case study’s results can be found in Zehetmeier (2008, in preparation).

References

Altrichter H., Feldman A., Posch P., & Somekh, B. (2007). Teachers Investigate their Work - An Introduction to Action Research Across the Professions. London: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. Datnow, A. (2006). Comments on Michael Fullan’s, “The future of educational change: System thinkers in action”. Journal of Educational Change, 7, 133-135. Hargreaves, A. (2002). Sustainability of educational change: the role of social geographies. Journal of Educational Change, 3, 189-214. Ingvarson, L., Meiers, M., & Beavis, A. (2005). Factors affecting the impact of professional development programs on teachers’ knowledge, practice, student outcomes and efficacy. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13(10), 1-28. Krainer, K. (2005). Das Projekt IMST² als Impulsgeber für das österreichische Bildungssystem – eine Bilanz [The IMST² project as trigger for the Austrian educational system]. Klagenfurt: Institut für Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung (IUS). Krainer, K. (2008). Innovations in Mathematics, Science and Technology Teaching. In J. Vincent, J. Dowsey, & R. Pierce (Eds.), Connected Maths. MAV Annual Conference 2008 (pp. 199-212). Brunswick, Vic: The Mathematical Association of Victoria (MAV). Krainer, K., & Zehetmeier, S. (2008). What do we know about the sustainability of professional development programmes? Paper presented in Discussion Group 7 at ICME 11 in Monterrey, Mexico (July 7, 2008). Lerman, S., & Zehetmeier, S. (2008). Face-to-face communites and networks of practising mathematics teachers. In K. Krainer (Ed.), International handbook of mathematics teacher education: Vol. 3. Participants in mathematics teacher education: individuals, teams, communities, and networks (pp. 133-154). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Lipowsky, F. (2004). Was macht Fortbildungen für Lehrkräfte erfolgreich? [What makes professional development successful?]. Die deutsche Schule, 96, 462-479. Loucks-Horsley, S., Stiles, K., & Hewson, P. (1996). Principles of effective professional development for mathematics and science education: A synthesis of standards. NISE Brief, 1(1), 1-6. McLaughlin, M., & Mitra, D. (2001). Theory-based change and change-based theory: Going deeper, going broader. Journal of Educational Change, 2, 301-323. Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press. Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Yin, R. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd Edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Zehetmeier, S. (2008). Zur Nachhaltigkeit von Lehrer/innenfortbildung [The sustainability of teacher professional development]. Doctoral thesis. Klagenfurt, Austria: University of Klagenfurt. Zehetmeier, S. (2009a). The sustainability of professional development. Paper presented in Working Group 10 at CERME6 in Lyon, France (January 30, 2009). Zehetmeier, S. (2009b). Modelling the sustainability of professional development programmes. Paper presented at PME33 in Thessaloniki, Greece (July, 2009). Zehetmeier, S. (in preparation). What remains? The sustainability of professional development programmes. Journal of mathematics teacher education.

Author Information

Stefan Zehetmeier

University of Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

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