Transnational guidelines on skills and competencies for lifelong learning (OECD, 2018; EC, 2019) along with curriculum reforms to promote curriculum flexibility and autonomy in schools (Mouraz, & Cosme, 2021) are pressing teachers to be engaged in curriculum and pedagogical innovation focused on student-centred approaches favourable to the development of learner autonomy. In the Portuguese context, students struggle with the demand of increasing autonomy and workload, particularly at the entrance of upper secondary education (Torres & Mouraz, 2019), even tough they haven’t been trained on the socio-cognitive skills for learning autonomously due to persistent emphasis on content delivery and on preparing for high-stakes assessments. Changing this status quo requires teacher engagement with innovation. In turning engagement in isolated innovation actions into effective and sustained curriculum and pedagogical development, teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson, 2014) plays a key role. As such, working with teachers to promote curriculum innovation cannot be limited to engaging them with the reform guidelines, but includes working with them in addressing expectations, values and beliefs related to educational purposes and relationships, thus igniting their agency in turning innovation into sound and sustained pedagogical action. Design research has been defended for having the potential to support the development of more effective educational interventions while offering opportunities for the production of design principles, curricular programs or resources and professional development of the participants involved (McKenney, Nieveen, & van den Akker, 2006). As such, this paper introduces a project that lays on the assumption that design research applied in the development of a pedagogical innovation has the potential to promote teacher agency in engaging in sustained innovation. The WAY project involves researchers, teachers and secondary education students in the design, testing and validation of a pedagogical model of peer observation and feedback amongst students to promote the development of self-regulated learning competencies. The first cycle of the project design and implementation is on course in collaboration with four Portuguese public secondary schools. It started in the school year of 2023-2024 and involves a set of joint sessions of professional development and collaborative work between researchers and teachers to explore the theoretical framework underpinning the promotion of self-regulated learning in secondary education (Panadero, 2017; Zimmerman, & Moylan, 2009) through peer observation and peer feedback (Panadero, & Lipnevich, 2022). These sessions allow us to discuss and adjust the experiences in practice as well, namely from student feedback collected by the participant teachers and also feedback collected by the researchers through focus groups discussions with participant students. This communication is focused on the teachers’ experiences and presents and discusses a study aimed at identifying contributions to the development of teacher agency in curriculum and pedagogical innovation stemming from teachers’ engagement in design research about self-regulated learning. It draws upon a wide set of materials (collected notes through participant observation, experiences reported in Padlet virtual wall, questionnaires with open-ended questions and written reports) produced by participating teachers in this first cycle of the project. The specific objectives of the communication are to analyze how the participation of teachers in the implementation of a pedagogical model of peer observation and feedback among secondary school students contributed to pedagogical innovation and teacher agency and to identify features of the design-based research approach to professional development that are effective in developing pedagogical innovation and teacher agency. For that, we introduce the project, its theoretical and methodological background, objectives, participants and activities, and provide an analysis focused on the teachers’ perspectives about their experiences in the scope of the projects, considering effects on their professional development, namely in terms of curriculum and pedagogical actions.

This paper results from the development of a research project entitled WAY– ‘Who sAw You then and who sees you now: Promoting student self-regulated learning in the classroom through peer observation’. It is a 36-month funded national project, involving researchers from four universities, teachers and secondary education students of four partner schools from different regions in Portugal, in the design, testing and validation of a pedagogical model of peer observation and feedback among students to promote the development of self-regulated learning competencies. During the professional development sessions and joint work between researchers and teachers, which is taking place in the four partner Portuguese public secondary schools, the theoretical framework underlying the promotion of self-regulated learning in teaching practices was presented and discussed. Afterwards, discussions were promoted focusing deeper on the potential of peer observation and feedback among students for self-regulated learning and learner autonomy. Moreover, the designed model and supporting materials (e.g. phase and task flow of the model, observation guides) were co-constructed between researchers and participating teachers in the joint work sessions to encourage teacher engagement with the proposed innovation. The participant teachers initiated the intervention with a conversation with their students about how the model of peer observation and feedback would fit into the usual classroom practices and what would be expected of them. The model is being applied to all the group work activities in which one student takes on the role of participant observer of how his/her colleagues engage with the proposed learning task. At the end of the task, all the observer students give feedback to peers and class teacher and complete a brief observation guide anonymously. The teacher too completes a short questionnaire about the observed task. Moreover, the teachers are reporting their experiences on a Padlet virtual wall and in written reports. As such, the empirical evidence used in the presented study comprises participant observation notes of the joint work sessions, experiences reported in the Padlet virtual wall, responses to open-ended questions of the teacher questionnaires, and written reports prepared by the 27 participating teachers at the end of the 2023-2024 intervention. All the collected data is being subjected to a qualitative cross-analysis (Ladany, Thompson, & Hill, 2012), to identify common themes that converge on the idea of the development of teacher agency in curriculum and pedagogical innovation stemming from teachers’ engagement in design research about self-regulated learning in secondary schools.

In this paper, we present and discuss preliminary results of the project that relate to how teachers engaged themselves in the design research process, particularly in 3 axes: 1. Reflections about the design and implementation principles of the peer observation and feedback model. 2. Reflections about how peer observation and peer feedback promote self-regulated learning and learner autonomy 3. Reflections about introduced changes in their curriculum and pedagogical actions due to their experience in the project. Concerning axis 1, the preliminary results indicate that there was an effective collaboration between the participating teachers and researchers, involving the analysis of the design and the observation and feedback model to be implemented, as well as the sharing of teaching strategies between teachers that incorporated moments observation and feedback among students. Regarding axis 2, teachers highlight how students are actively enthusiastically participating in the proposed activities. By observing their colleagues, they become aware of their own difficulties, which motivates them to actively seek the knowledge necessary for their growth, thus promoting autonomy. In addition, the peer observation and feedback model not only boost individual learning but also strengthens social skills and teamwork capabilities. Finally, responding to axis 3, we highlight the teachers' enthusiasm and motivation that clearly stood out during the joint work and monitoring sessions, evidencing a positive response to the project. This approach recognized the importance of fostering student autonomy and self-regulation, establishing it as a viable pedagogical strategy. According to what teachers’ perspectives in all the presently collected material, it is possible to indicate that the project seems to be opening a favorable path for teacher agency regarding curriculum and pedagogical innovation. However, further analysis and discussions will be conducted in this ongoing project.

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