Further Education and the Development of Knowledge in School

Author(s):

May Britt Postholm(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

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

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 10 A, Professional Learning and the Development of Knowledge (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 01 SES 10 B

Time:

2016-08-25

15:30-17:00

Room:

OB-Theatre F

Chair:

May Britt Postholm

Contribution

With a concern connected to teachers’ competence in the subjects they are teaching in the primary and secondary schools, the national authorities in Norway have used considerable resources on further education. Several studies have had as the intention to find out what this further education has meant for the teachers, their teaching practice and the pupils’ learning. These studies have been conducted as surveys and have thus presented an overview of the participants’ experiences with further education. The study which this paper is based on had the intention to study in depth how participants perceived the further education program they had attended. The problem formulation for the study was the following: How does further education contribute to individual and collective learning in school? It was teachers and leaders at four upper secondary schools that were interviewed.

Oxford Research conducted an evaluation of the strategy for teachers’ further education in 2012. The teachers answered that the education had contributed to more reflection on own their own practice (66%), that the further education had contributed to other approaches (75%), and to the pupils’ learning (59%). In another study conducted by NIFU in 2014 the participants also answered that the further education had contributed to that they reflected more on their teaching practice (85%), and that they had also become more engaged in their teaching (77%).

Scottish school researchers have found that further education with practice related research work and a content that integrate research in own teaching, is the most powerful further education for teachers (McMahon, Reeves, Devlin, Simpson, & Jaap, 2007). Darling-Hammond and Richardson (2009) utter that it is important for teachers to read theories and furthermore experiment with these theories in practice. If theories are connected to concrete work in school, this connection can create a reflection room in which both theory and practice can constitute the reflection tools (Postholm & Rokkones, 2013). Research shows that teachers value further education if it is connected to the teachers’ everyday practice. When the further education is close to and relevant for the teachers’ teaching practice, they perceive that the time they use on further education is well spent (Parise & Spillane, 2010). In a study conducted in OECD-countries (TALIS, 2009) Norwegian participants answered that further education including that they could be researchers in their own practice, had most impact on their professional development. Research findings also tell that if more than one teacher from each school participate, further education has more impact on the pupils’ learning.

The culture at a school will also influence what impact further education will have on teachers’ learning and their practice at school. If the teachers work in an environment that is positive to development, further education will have more impact both on each teacher’s development and also for the collective learning at the school (Hagen & Nyen, 2009; Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex, 2010). It is according to Kennedy (2011) a school leader’s task to create a good atmosphere and good relations between teachers as the foundation for good collaboration at a school. Opher, Pedder and Lavicza (2011) state that it is important that the school has a clear vision and that school leaders support the teachers’ professional development. Timperley, Wilson, Barrar and Fung (2007) found in a metastudy of 97 individual and groups of studies that the school leaders support and the arrangement for development at school had importance both for the teachers’ and the pupils’ learning.

Method

The study was conducted as a qualitative interview study (Kvale & Brinkman, 2009). Four teachers that had taken a two year masters’ degree as their further education were interviewed. The intention with this education was that the teachers should learn how to conduct research and development work (R&D work) in their own school, and support the school leaders in leading R&D work. The teachers finished their study in 2013, and they were interviewed two years after. Two of the teachers were working at the same school, so I visited three schools. I also interviewed the school leaders at the three schools. I conducted semi-structured interviews (Fontana & Frey, 1998) with both the teachers and the leaders. The themes that I brought into the interviews were the same, but I adapted the questions to whether I interviewed a leader or a teacher. As the interviews were semi-structured it was also possible for the teachers and the leaders to bring themes into the dialogue, themes that I even had not thought of beforehand. The transcriptions therefore became the starting point for the analyses after the interviews. I developed categories from what had been said. I first developed categories from the data material collected at each school. Afterwards I conducted cross-case analyses, and developed common categories for the three schools. The common categories that were developed were the following: “Further education at the school”, Further education and its influence on the teachers’ practice”, Further education and its influence on the colleagues”, and “Collective activity at the school”. These categories structure the presentation of the findings. To secure quality of the study the teachers and the leaders have read the descriptions of the activity at the schools and the implications of the further education at the schools. They uttered that they recognized what they read. In the study ethical principles about informed consent and anonymization are followed. Just fictive names are therefore used.

Expected Outcomes

Upper secondary schools are usually big schools with many teachers and sections. As one of the school leaders uttered, they had started with joint gatherings with development as the intention at each section. The different sections at the schools do have arenas for development, but the study shows that there is a gap between intentions and what is possible and what is actually done. Structures and cultures comprise both organizational frames and relations and forms of collaboration within these frames. If there is to be created a will and a motivation for development in school, it is decisive that the persons concerned by the development processes perceive that they have a purpose for themselves, and that it therefore will be meaningful to offer some effort both for oneself and for others. Research shows that it is expedient that two or more persons from the same school attend further education (Buczynski & Hansen, 2010). This did not become a preference for the teachers from one of the schools, as the school they were working at was not receptive for their competence. If schools create a collective learning culture, at the school or in each section, and develop aims for the work that all the involved teachers are allowed to form together (Timperley et al., 2007) the need for further development will occur from a collective perceived need. The knowledge and the understanding that the further education contributes with, will thus most likely in a meaningful way be brought further to all the teachers at the school or section.

References

Buczynski, S., & Hansen, C.B. (2010). Impact of professional development on teacher practice: uncovering connections. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(3), 599-607. Darling-Hammond, L., & Richardson, N. (2009). Teacher learning: what matters? Educational leadership, 66(5), 46-53. Fontana, A., & Frey, J. H. (1998). Interviewing: The Art of Science. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (ed.), Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials (p. 47-78). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. Hagen, A., & Nyen, T. (2009) Kompetanseutvikling for lærere [Competence development for teacher]. Utdanning 2009, læringsutbytte og kompetanse [Development 2009, learning outcome and competence]. p. 149-165. Oslo/Kongsvinger: Statistisk Sentralbyrå. Jurasaite-Harbison, E., & Rex, L.A. (2010). School cultures as contexts for informal teacher learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 267-277. Kennedy, A. (2011). Collaborative continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers in Scotland: aspirations, opportunities and barriers. European Journal of Teacher Education, 34(1), 25-41. Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Det kvalitative forskningsintervju [The qualitative research interview]. Oslo: Gyldendal akademisk. McMahon, M., Reeves, J., Devlin, A., Simpson, J., & Jaap, A. (2007) Evaluating the impact of Chartered Teacher in Scotland: the views of Chartered Teachers. Project Report. General Teaching Council Scotland, Edinburgh. NIFU. (2014). Deltakerundersøkelsen 2014 [Participant study]. Rapport 36/2014 [Report 36/2014]. http://evalueringsportalen.no/evaluering/deltakerundersokelsen-2014-resultater-av-en-sporreundersokelse-blant-ansatte-i-skolen-som-har-tatt-videreutdanning-i-regi-av-strategien-kompetanse-for-kvalitet Lastet ned 01.09.2015. Downloaded 1. September 2015. Opfer, V.D., Pedder, D.G., & Lavicza, Z. (2011). The influence of school orientation to learning on teachers’ professional learning change. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 22(2), 193-214. Oxford Research (2012). Evaluering av nasjonal strategi for videreutdanning av lærere. Sluttrapport. [Evaluation of a national strategy for teachers’ further development. Conclusion report]. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitet. Institut for uddannelse og pædagogikk (DPU). Parise, L.M., & Spillane, J.P. (2010). Teacher learning and instructional change: how formal and on-the-job learning opportunities predict change in elementary school teachers’ practice. The Elementary School Journal, 110(3), 323-346. Postholm, M.B. & Rokkones, K. (2013). Videreutdanning i yrkesfaglige programfag: [Further education in vocational programme subjects]. Tidsskriftet FoU i praksis, 7(2) 93-111. Talis (2009) OECD, Utdanningsdirektoratet, & NIFUSTEP (2009). OECDs internasjonale studie av undervisning og læring [OECD’s international study of teaching and learning]. http://www.udir.no/upload/Rapporter/TALIS-2008/TALIS08_sammendrag.pdf Downloaded 9. June 2011. Timperley, H., Wilson, A. Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher professional learning and development: Best evidence synthesis iteration. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/16901/TPLandDBESentire.pdf Downloaded 9. June 2011.

Author Information

May Britt Postholm (presenting / submitting)

NTNU

Programme for Teacher Education

Trondheim

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