A Study of Pre-service Teachers’ Development through use of Action Research and Lesson Study

Author(s):

Rose Dolan(presenting / submitting)Anthony Malone(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 10 D, Reflections and Considerations from the Practice

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

15:30-17:00

Room:

K5.07

Chair:

Anna Beck

Contribution

A recent European policy document indicates that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is an area where the foundations are laid for teachers’ capacity to adapt to changing contexts and circumstances (European Commission, 2015). It suggests that processes such as action research can be used in ITE to develop collaboration, reflection and inquiry. It also suggests that lesson study can be used by experienced teachers as part of their Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The use of action research as a development strategy for pre-service teachers is not a new one. Strategies have also been developed to further prompt pre-service teachers to reflect critically on their “personal theories” (Bullough and Gitlin, 1995) and to think about “who they are as teachers and students” (Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 1999, 283). This involves refining critical skills through systematic, autonomous and collaborative engagement in teacher led research. Toom et al (2010, 333) stress the need for “reflective teachers who are capable of using research in their teaching … able to base their pedagogical decision-making on a theoretical foundation.”

This paper describes the results of pre-service teachers’ research into their pedagogic practices through engagement in action research and lesson study projects. These activities are required components of a two-year postgraduate initial teacher education programme in a university in Ireland. In year 1, each pre-service teacher is tasked to individually identify a pedagogical dilemma, to undertake detailed Reconnaissance from which they plan and implement a course of action. The process and significant outcomes are presented in a research report which is formally assessed and accredited. In addition to the report, the pre-service teachers are asked to address the following three questions:

What is your self-identified pedagogical problem?
What assumptions about teaching and learning were challenged during your engagement with this project?
What were the pedagogic benefits and challenges for you in conducting this research?

In year 2, the same pre-service teachers undertake Lesson Study in self-selected, cross-curricular groups. They are tasked to work together to identify an overarching, shared pedagogic goal common to all. Each group sets about researching, planning, teaching and critiquing (in evidenced ways) a number of study lessons (iteratively linked) based on the agreed pedagogic dilemma. The process and significant outcomes are presented in a public poster event which charts key points of learning. Posters are neither formally assessed nor accredited.

The frame for this research combines Schon’s (1983:40) concept of problem setting as “a process in which, interactively, we name the things to which we will attend and frame the context in which we will attend to them” with Loughran’s (2002:35) view that “a problem is unlikely to be acted on if it is not viewed as a problem” and Brookfield’s (1995) assertion that we should engage in hunting the assumptions that underpin our practice.

Method

Qualitative data was gathered from students during their first year of the programme over the course of semester 2 (February-April) 2016. Further qualitative data was gathered from the same cohort in December 2016 when they had completed the lesson study component of year 2. Through detailed cross analysis of documentary evidence common themes were identified. These themes were then used to code the responses using the following subheadings. 1. Pedagogical problem: a. Developing pupils higher order thinking through use of questioning b. Assessment – for and of learning c. Increasing pupil engagement in the lesson – active strategies d. Planning for different abilities– differentiated lessons e. Use of resource material f. Other 2. Assumptions: a. About pupils’ abilities and dispositions b. About pedagogical strategies c. About learning processes d. About learning environments 3. Benefits and challenges: a. For the pre-service teacher b. For the pupil c. For the relationships of learning The pedagogical problems were clearly identifiable from the descriptions given by the pre-service teachers and, in most instances, directly related to the pedagogical strategies that they had learned about in the professional studies modules on the programme. Data were also categorised in relation to benefits and challenges. These were generally presented as benefits to self, with increased self-confidence and greater skill set among the most common benefits. Benefits to others tended to be expressed as a noticeable increase in pupil learning and achievement while the category called relationships of learning was composed primarily of comments concerned with increased pupil participation and more positive classroom climate. The challenges identified by the pre-service teachers were exclusively related to self and included procedural issues such as data collection and time management, and more complex challenges such as the opinions of other teachers and how to sustain the changes to practice on an on-going basis.

Expected Outcomes

On initial examination, the data suggests some of what is already known about pre-service teachers’ orientation to learning to teach. In year 1, the majority of the problems identified related to strategies directly connected to improving pupils’ learning. This desire to teach differently, with a focus on improving pupil learning rather than on improving teacher performance, is significant. Many of the year one pre-service teachers described the most significant challenge as the shift in thinking which required them to uncover and implement new ways of working. This points to a correlation between the assumptions identified and the strategies implemented, as pre-service teachers could not comfortably enact these strategies while retaining their original assumptions. Such challenges might usefully be conceptualised as contradictions between deeply held assumptions and current experiences. Lesson study posters from year 2 showed a more advanced interaction with pedagogical strategies. Students identified how it offered opportunity to collaboratively uncover, interrogate, defend, adapt and/or adopt differing perspectives on meaning and interpretation as well as challenge one another’s theories in use. Working in these ways engaged them in questioning substantive philosophical, sociological and historical issues as to how strategies may work in certain schools but not others. The lesson study activity as designed within the formal curriculum served to disrupt monologic socialisation patterns where ‘the object and motive of the activity are reconceptualised to embrace a radically wider horizon of possibilities’ (Engeström, 2001, 137). The implication of this was that former understandings and interpretive perspectives were in part unmade and learners themselves changed in terms of their conceptual and professional capabilities for engaging in the world of teaching. Cultivating these kinds of capabilities enabled student teachers to become their own best critics and develop greater levels of professional responsibility and autonomy.

References

Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Bullough, R. V., & Gitlin, A. D. (1995). Becoming a student of teaching: Methodologies for exploring self and school context. New Yprk: Garland Pub. Cochran-Smith, M & Lytle, S. (1999). Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities Review of Research in Education, 24: 249-305 European Commission. ET2020 Working Group on Schools Policy. (2015). Shaping career-long perspectives on teaching: a guide on policies to improve initial teacher education. Loughran, J.J. (2002). Effective Reflective Practice : In Search of Meaning in Learning about Teaching Journal of Teacher Education 53: 33-43 Schön, D, (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action London: Temple Smith. Toom, A., Kynäslahti, H., Krokfors, L., Jyrhämä, R., Byman, R., Stenberg, K., Maaranen, K. & Kansanen, P. (2010). Experiences of a Research‐based Approach to Teacher Education: suggestions for future policies. European Journal of Education, 45(2), 331-344.

Author Information

Rose Dolan (presenting / submitting)

Maynooth University, Ireland

Anthony Malone (presenting)