Session Information
99 ERC SES 03 B, Didactics - Learning and Teaching
Paper Session
Contribution
The aim of this small-scale research is to explore whether there is an improvement teaching and learning practices resulting from the collaborative action research focused on Student Engagement in Classroom Learning, implemented in 22 SHARE schools (School Hub for Action Research in Education) in Astana city, Kazakhstan.
The SHARE project is an educational initiative, implemented since 2019 by the Astana city Department of Education in collaboration with esteemed scholars, including the Emeritus Professor of the University of Cambridge, Professor Colleen McLaughlin, a former Principal of Bottisham Village College Mrs. Kate Evans and Dr Nazipa Ayubayeva, the University of Cambridge graduate and prominent advocate for action research in Kazakhstan, who also serves as a national coordinator for the SHARE. The coordination and implementation of the SHARE are carried out by the Center for Education Modernisation along with 22 school coordinators, four of whom are the authors of this paper.
The primary goal of the SHARE is to bring about the changes into teachers’ practice, ensuring that every child benefits from the initiative. In contemporary educational settings, there exists a need to explore innovative methodologies that actively engage students in the learning process. Scholarly enquiries by Elliott (1991), Townsend (2013), Pollard (2014), and other education practitioners highlight the transformative impact of action research on the educational paradigm, fostering to enhance learning outcomes. In response to this context, Calhoun (1993) has emphasized three distinct approaches aimed at supporting teachers to improve teaching and learning practices by engaging inaction research: 1. Individual teacher research, 2. Collaborative action research, and 3. School-wide action research. Manfra's (2019) research findings suggest that collaborative action research approaches are particularly effective in empowering teachers to modify their teaching practices. Moreover, Oranga and Gisore(2023) in their research focus their attention on improving problem-solving effectiveness through comprehensive school-wide initiatives.
Hence, the SHARE, that started as a collaborative action research within and across different schools of Astana city has a significant potential to help teachers to improve teaching, enhance their own learning and share ideas and practices for other to learn from.The implementation of any small-scale action research project within the SHARE centers around four domains of change: 1) acquiring knowledge about action research methodology; 2) improving teaching and learning; 3) fostering teacher leadership; 4) establishing conditions for sustained engagement in the initiative and beyond.
As such, during the 2022-2023 academic year all 22 SHARE schools implemented a small-scale action research project about student engagement in classroom learning. During academic year teachers were guided by the core team of scholar show to implement the project, including reading about student engagement, conducting classes, filling in the protocols of class observation and video-recording lessons for the analysis and etc., in order to learn about student engagement in classroom settings. Whereas SHARE school-coordinators were guided by a national coordinator to research teachers’ perception about the four domains of SHARE. Specifically, our team consisting of a national coordinator and four school-coordinators came together to research teachers’ perception about one of the SHARE domains. That is, to learn about changes in teaching and learning practices steaming from the implementation of student engagement in classroom settings, implemented across 22 SHARE schools.
Thus, the research is intended to assist conducting a literature review about teachers’ perception of changes and contribute to better understanding of how teachers perceive the changes and improvements in their practices within SHARE initiatives.
Method
In this study, three main sources of information were used: a literature review to learn about the changes in teaching and learning among teachers, SHARE teachers’ reflective accounts and survey data conducted in SHARE schools. The systematic literature review was conducted in English, Kazakh, and Russian languages and guided by the main research question. Google Scholar was the primary source for literature search due to the restricted access to subscription -based databases in the schools. Survey data was collected via Google Forms. This choice was guided by several factors, including time constraints and the necessity to reach a substantial number of respondents. A questionnaire comprising of thirteen questions was designed along with other three teams researching SHARE domains. General information about the respondents, including their role in the student engagement project and in the SHARE project, was collected to be used during the analysis by all four teams exploring the four domains. Among the thirteen questions, two were specifically focused to teachers’ perception about the changes in their practices. The survey was carried out anonymously. Anonymity was considered essential in creating an open and honest environment for participants, encouraging a greater willingness to share their perceptions without fear of judgment or misunderstanding. This approach aimed to produce more accurate and truthful insights into the participants' perspectives on changes in learning. The SHARE teacher’s’ reflective accounts provided by SHARE teachers served as a valuable complement to the survey data, enhancing our understanding of subjective views. The segmentation and descriptive analyses were employed to identify trends in responses, allowing for a differentiated examination of feedback from both new and long-standing project participants. This approach aimed to offer nuanced insights into the evolving perspectives and experiences of teachers involved in the Student Engagement in Classroom Learning project.
Expected Outcomes
The survey data was validated with 171 responses. Preliminary findings highlighted the positive effect of the Student Engagement in Classroom Learning project on teacher practice. The findings indicated that teachers engaged in the project for over three years either fully or partially agreed that the project prompted changes in their practices. However, a quarter of the teachers with less than two years of project experience responded that they found it challenging to respond, citing a lack of time, a common sentiment among SHARE teacher early in the project. Nonetheless, a growing number of teachers now recognise and affirm that the creating conditions for changes lies in the hands. Reflective accounts reveal instances of teachers exercising autonomy, in such areas as selecting a critical friend and making time to meet to discuss teaching strategies and student related issues in the school, even when there is no dedicated space and time is set in their daily schedule. In general, the findings underscore the success of the “Student Engagement in Learning” project and its impact on teachers’ perception about the changes in teaching and learning in long run. Future research endeavors could explore in more depth the specific aspects of SHARE initiative contributing to improving teaching and learning in schools.
References
Calhoun, E. F. (1993). Action Research: Three Approaches. Educational leadership, 51(2), 62-65. Elliot, J. (1991). Action research for educational change. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Farrell, T. S. (2011). ‘Keeping SCORE’: Reflective practice through classroom observations. RELC Journal, 42(3), 265-272. Manfra, M. M. (2019). Action research and systematic, intentional change in teaching practice. Review of Research in Education, 43(1), 163-196. Oranga, J., &Gisore, B. (2023). Action Research in Education. Open Access Library Journal, 10(7), 1-10. Pollard, A., Black-Hawkins, K., Cliff-Hodges, G., Dudley, P., & James, M. (2014). Reflective teaching in schools: Evidence-informed professional practice. Bloomsbury Publishing. Townsend, A. (2013). Action research: The challenges of changing and researching practice: The challenges of understanding and changing practice. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
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