Session Information
32 SES 02, Cooperative Learning: Schools as Learning Communities (Part 1)
Paper Session
Contribution
This study focuses on changes in teacher practices with respect to teaching and lesson planning practices as well as teacher reasoning and reflections concerning their own teaching as the result of taking part in a 1 ½ yearlong national project. This project has been initiated by the government agency for teaching and learning, the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, and involves initiating development programs in all lower secondary schools in the country between 2012 and 2017. During this period, all schools will be offered tutoring and support from researchers in teacher education, aiding their collective professional development. The goal of the project is to create collective school development processes with the aim of improving teaching in “universal” skills (DeSeCo, 2005) including reading, writing and numeracy related to all school subjects. The project also includes a focus on developing class management and assessment for learning. These goals should also facilitate a development in teaching practices that make classes more practical, varied, relevant, and motivational, hence also reduce dropout rates in high schools.
The schools have been tutored twice a semester for three semesters, and the focus has ranged from class management strategies, to how to include reading, writing or numeracy in different school subjects, to class planning using Backwards by Design (Black and William 2006), to structured colleague observations for reflection and development.
Through working this closely with the teachers in the field, the teacher educators have gained new insight into the inner workings of school life in many different schools, and have had the opportunity to collect data throughout the process.
The central questions for this research has been on how or weather teachers find that this collective development project has influenced and changed their way of teaching and the way they think about their teaching. The study looks into how teachers, after having participated in the project view different elements of their teacher practices, through the categories professional responsibility, professional autonomy and research based knowledge vs. experience based knowledge (Mausethagen, 2015).
According to Wenger (2004), a common repertoire should be developed among the colleagues, a repertoire that expresses established knowledge and that functions as a foundation for further engagement with praxis. Fullan’s theories (2014) about collective cooperation capacity requires a culture where individual and collective development is mobilized to create a common improvement culture. This collective force will ensure that diverging aims and focus areas are brought together. Fullan emphasizes the importance of building a robust school organization that promotes student learning and development. Thus, the collective learning processes will contribute to the learning of the schools and the teachers through active and supportive development partners, a sharing culture and systematic thinking about quality and improvement.
With the size of this project, it is essential to look into what it is possible to accomplish through such a project, and what that may teach us about working with teacher development in the future.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Black, P. and Wiliam, D., (2006). “Assessment for learning in the classroom”. I J. Gardner (Red.), Assessment and learning. Theory, practice and policy. (p. 9–25). London. Sage Publications. Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory – A Practical Guide through. Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage Publications. DeSeCo (2005). Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo) Executive Summary. http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/definitionandselectionofcompetenciesdeseco.htm and http://www.oecd.org/pisa/35070367.pdf Accessed July 2015. Fullan, M. (2014). Å dra i samme retning – et skolesystem som virker. Oslo: Kommuneforlaget Kvale, S. og Brinkmann, S. (2009). Det kvalitative forskningsintervju. 2. utg. Oslo: Gyldendal akademisk. Malterud, K. (1996). Kvalitative metoder i medisinsk forskning – en innføring. Oslo: TANO. Mausethagen, S.. (2015). Læreren i endring? Om nye forventninger til lærerprofesjonen og lærerarbeidet. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Thagaard T. (2006). Systematikk og innlevelse, en innføring i kvalitativ metode. Sandviken: Fagbokforlaget. Wenger, E. (2004). Praksisfællesskaber – læring, mening og identitet. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
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