Professional development and its impact on teachers’ and pupils’ learning: A community of practice case study in South Korea

Author(s):

Keejoon Yoon(presenting / submitting)Kathleen Armour

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES H 14, Teachers and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-08

11:00-12:30

Room:

393. [Main]

Chair:

Iryna Kushnir

Contribution

In South Korea, the new national physical education (PE) curriculum that was developed in 2011 explicitly requires secondary school PE teachers to devise and teach ‘creativity’ and ‘character’ through their PE classes (Ministry of Education, 2011). This dramatic change in national curriculum means that additional continuing professional development (CPD) is needed in order to support PE teachers. As has already been widely reported, however, there are concerns about the effectiveness of many forms of PE-CPD (Park, 2006).

The success of education reform hinges on the professional quality of teachers and the nature and effectiveness of their professional learning (Villegas-Reimers, 2003). It has been argued that some forms of CPD are ineffective in supporting teachers’ learning (Borko, 2004; Guskey, 2002). The concept of teacher learning communities, however, has emerged as an alternative to the traditional CPD approaches and it is argued that this can be more effective because it offers supportive and collaborative learning opportunities (Lieberman & Miller, 2011; van Es, 2012). Communities of practice (CoP) as proposed by Wenger (1998) is an example of a theoretical framework that can be used to map, analyse, and understand how learning is undertaken in teacher learning communities. In this framework, learning is not regarded as the acquisition of external resources or knowledge; instead, it is a process of participation in communities which are situated (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

Findings from research on CPD in the field of PE largely mirror those in the wider education community. It has been argued, for example, that traditional PE-CPD programs are unlikely to be effective in supporting PE teachers’ learning (Armour, 2010; Armour & Makopoulou, 2012; Armour & Yelling, 2004). In addition, some empirical research on PE teacher learning communities has been conducted and has found that school-based PE teacher learning communities have the potential to change teachers’ practices (Duncombe & Armour, 2004; Goodyear & Casey, 2013; Keay, 2006).

To date, very little research on school-based PE teacher learning communities has examined the link between teacher learning and subsequent impact on pupils’ learning (Duncombe & Armour, 2004; Goodyear & Casey, 2013; Keay, 2006). Although it is recognized that it is challenging to make direct links between teachers’ professional development and pupils’ learning outcomes (Wayne, Yoon, Zhu, Cronen, & Garet, 2008), this is essential component of effective CPD (Guskey, 2002). In addition, there is considerable data on the barriers to professional learning in a school context; for example, lack of support from department or school administrators (Duncombe & Armour, 2004), and the importance of a supportive culture in the work place (Keay, 2006).

The research reported in this paper focused on a PE teacher learning community that was created in 2003 in South Korea. This CoP brings teachers together from different schools, and focuses on developing and sharing PE teaching skills. The CoP shares the ‘X’ teaching model that focuses on whole-person education through PE classes, and teachers meet regularly in order to refine the X teaching model and further develop their pedagogies and practice. The aim of this project was threefold: to examine i) what kinds of professional learning were supported in the community, ii) how members learnt and developed their pedagogies and practices, and iii) how participation in the community influenced teachers’ learning in ways that impacts on pupils.

Method

This two phases project was conducted in a case study framework and grounded in a social constructivist paradigm. Each phase was conducted over one school semester in South Korea. Research participants were: a professor who created and led the CoP, all teachers who are members of the CoP, and selected pupils who were taught by these teachers. The case study in this study is defined as all the participants in the CoP. This paper reports data from the first phase of the project (data collected from the 17 September 2014 to 10 January 2015). In order to answer the research questions, the following research activities were undertaken: 3 interviews with the lead professor, 27 individual interviews with 4 different physical education teachers in the CoP, 7 focus groups with pupils, a focus group with selected members of the CoP, 19 observations of physical education classes, 2 observations of the CoP regular meetings, analysis of relevant documents (for example, teaching plans or minutes of the CoP regular meetings), and an open-ended questionnaire for individual teachers and pupils. Although a range of methods was used, the primary data collection tool was semi-structured interviews and data from the document analysis and class observations were used to inform the design of questions in the individual interviews and focus groups. Data analysis began immediately as the researcher collected and transcribed the data, and was an iterative process throughout the data collection. Data analysis was undertaken using the ‘Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) as defined by Charmaz (2014). In the early stages of the data analysis process, the researcher described potential initial codes in the margin of the documents while reading the raw data repeatedly. Following that, data formatted by the word processor program were inputted into the software program ‘NVivo 10’ and coded chunk by chunk (in meaning units) to identify initial codes. In the second phase, initial codes were merged and synthesized into focused codes to develop the major themes that form findings of the research.

Expected Outcomes

The findings indicate that, similar to previous studies, PE teachers’ professional learning in this CoP was supported and enhanced by i) receiving good stimuli from members and the community itself, ii) sharing individuals’ plans for PE classes and iii) planning PE classes systematically. As a result, teachers felt they were able to offer pupils new and fresh PE classes, and pupils participated actively and enthusiastically in many of the classes observed. On the other hand, the CoP also faced some challenges in sustaining teachers’ learning. In contrast to a situated school-based PE-CoP model, the trans-school model made it difficult for teachers to attend all of the regular meetings and, as the community grew in number, there was a feeling that the original focus of sharing practice was somewhat lost. In addition, this CoP faced the particular challenge of supporting teachers to teach ‘character’ and ‘creativity’ through PE as directed by the Government, and it is here that some interesting findings emerge. Teachers developed a number of strategies intended to teach character education through their PE classes; for example, i) emphasizing ‘indirect teaching behaviours’ (ITB) (Jung & Choi, 2014) by modeling kind and considerate behaviours; ii) developing specific activities linked to character education in PE classes, for example, asking pupils to keep a ‘PE diary’ and ensuring all pupils had a valued role in lessons; and iii) continuously drawing pupils’ attention to the importance of ‘good’ character. In response to this, it became clear that although pupils were able to recognize and recount what they had been taught about character, they found it difficult to see how it would transfer to specific outcomes in or beyond PE classes. In this paper, we will focus on these findings and the implications for teacher and pupil learning as a result of establishing CoPs.

References

Armour, K. M. (2010). The physical education profession and its professional responsibility… or… why ‘12 weeks paid holiday’will never be enough. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 15(1), 1-13. Armour, K. M., & Makopoulou, K. (2012). Great expectations: Teacher learning in a national professional development programme. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(3), 336-346. Armour, K. M., & Yelling, M. (2004). Professional "Development" and Professional" Learning": Bridging the Gap for Experienced Physical Education Teachers. European Physical Education Review, 10(1), 71-93. Borko, H. (2004). Professional Development and Teacher Learning: Mapping the Terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15. doi: 10.3102/0013189x033008003 Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory. London: Sage. Duncombe, R., & Armour, K. M. (2004). Collaborative Professional Learning: from theory to practice. Journal of In-Service Education, 30(1), 141-166. doi: 10.1080/13674580400200230 Goodyear, V. A., & Casey, A. (2013). Innovation with change: developing a community of practice to help teachers move beyond the ‘honeymoon’ of pedagogical renovation. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 1-18. doi: 10.1080/17408989.2013.817012 Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional Development and Teacher Change. Teachers and Teaching, 8(3), 381-391. doi: 10.1080/135406002100000512 Jung, H., & Choi, E. (2014). The importance of indirect teaching behaviour and its educational effects in physical education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy(ahead-of-print), 1-16. doi: 10.1080/17408989.2014.923990 Keay, J. (2006). Collaborative learning in physical education teachers' early-career professional development. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 11(3), 285-305. doi: 10.1080/17408980600986322 Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2011). Learning communite: The starting point for professional learning is in schools and classrooms. Journal of Staff Development, 32(4), 16-20. Ministry of Education, S. a. T. (2011). National School Physical Education Curriculum Seoul: Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Park. (2006). A study on Improvement and Analysis of the Present State for the Secondary 1st Grade Physical Education Teachers Qualification Training. Korean Journal of Sport Pedagogy, 37(2), 264-284. van Es, E. A. (2012). Examining the development of a teacher learning community: The case of a video club. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(2), 182-192. Villegas-Reimers, E. (2003). Teacher professional development: an international review of the literature: International Institute for Educational Planning Paris. Wayne, A. J., Yoon, K. S., Zhu, P., Cronen, S., & Garet, M. S. (2008). Experimenting with teacher professional development: Motives and methods. Educational Researcher, 37(8), 469-479. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity: Cambridge university press.

Author Information

Keejoon Yoon (presenting / submitting)

University of Birmingham

Sport Pedagogy

Uiwang

Kathleen Armour

University of Birmingham

School of Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation Sciences

birmingham

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