Transformations and Unintended Consequences: Developing the Professional Identity of Trainee Teachers

Author(s):

Helen Boulton(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 06 D, Poverty and Initial Teacher Education: Policy, Practice, and Social Justice.

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

A-105

Chair:

Ian Thompson

Contribution

This paper reports key findings from a Teaching Agency funded project (2012-13) investigating whether Web 2.0 collaborative technologies can help to develop literacy skills for learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and engage disaffected learners, encouraging pupils to be explorers, communicators and producers of knowledge. The project involved trainee teachers at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom (UK) working with ‘expert’ teachers in schools. The project was intended to enhance trainee teachers’ experience of successful technology-based practice within core subjects (English, maths and science) while exposing them to excellent teaching, and encouraging reflective and collaborative practice. The project provided opportunity for the ‘expert’ teachers to develop practice in using new technologies in their subject to identify, through research with the trainee teachers, whether this increased engagement and raised literacy levels.

The project, led by NTU, involved six trainee teachers on a one-year full-time Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course and one trainee teacher from a Graduate Teacher Programme at NTU working with ‘expert’ teachers in core subjects. Five secondary schools were involved in the project.

The project concerned the trainee teachers developing a high level of skills in using a range of Web 2.0 technologies to become confident users and to develop a good understanding of pedagogy. The ‘expert’ teachers were expert in their subject area but generally less experienced with using Web 2.0 technologies in their classroom. Thus the project, through an iterative process, developed both the trainee and expert teachers’ digital pedagogy and digital wisdom (Prensky, 2009). The trainee teachers were involved in the evaluation of the project enabling them to become insider-researchers within a framework of action researcher methodology and reflective practitioners.

The project resulted in an emerging model of digital pedagogy for schools to disseminate both internally and externally. This model has formed part of the dissemination and final case study. The project demonstrates how schools can organise effective training environments so that trainees, pupils and school staff can benefit. It is intended that the project will not only support and motivate existing teachers and trainees but also support the achievement of higher level goals for learners (Drent and Meelissen, 2008; Hadjithoma and Karagiorgi, 2009; Meyer et al, 2011).

The paper will focus on the trainee teachers’ experiences of being involved with the project, their learning and developing pedagogy, how the project was embedded into course assessment and how this is being shared across the programme and beyond NTU. It will also examine how the teacher trainees were able to develop leadership skills, plan for the effective use of technology in core subjects and work collaboratively with expert teachers to engage and secure progression. Thus developing their professional knowledge, contributing to the developing knowledge of other professionals and developing their professional identity.

Method

This research project was mainly qualitative in data collection reflecting a small scale case study with a view to improving practice (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998; Bassey, 1999) using a mixed methods approach (Gorard and Taylor, 2004). The approach was both interpretivist and evaluative. Having taken this approach, the research included data derived from a number of sources to add rigour to the work through methodological triangulation (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007). Each school involved in the project named an appropriate teacher from one of their core subjects to be involved in the project. Trainee teachers were then selected based on the level of ICT skills and placement. The model for digital pedagogy for teachers wanting to use emerging Web 2.0 technologies in their classroom is based on a constructive methodology (Judson, 2006; Gaffney, 2010). Methods of data collection included: • Interviews with expert teachers involved in the project at each of the 5 schools. • Interviews with trainee teachers using both open and closed questions. • Observations of the project in progress in each school. • Analysis of data held by schools on literacy levels for pupils prior to and immediately after the project intertenvion.

Expected Outcomes

The data indicates the trainee teachers benefited in a number of ways through engagement with this project; key findings will be reported in this paper. The evidence shows that the trainee teachers were able to support the expert teacher, developing the expert teacher’s knowledge of using new technologies in their subject area, while also developing their own understanding of pedagogy in core subject areas. Additional benefits include opportunity for professional discourse with core teachers, decision making around which pupils would benefit from the intervention, measuring improvements in literacy and engagement (becoming a researcher), joint preparation of lesson plans and resources for the intervention, reflection with an expert teacher, and developing leadership skills. Additional benefits included learning how to use a new/emerging technology within the classroom and identifying how to measure the impact on pupils thus developing their sense of ‘researcher’. The conclusions include: • increased confidence of trainee teachers as researcher; • emerging pedagogy; • evolving role of trainee teacher as researcher; • impact on trainee teacher’s developing professional identity; • development of leadership skills; • increased confidence in using new technologies in the classroom; • confidence in raising ambition with learners in their own classrooms, drawing on expert knowledge.

References

BASSEY, M., 1999. Case Study Research in Educational Settings. Buckingham: Open University Press. BOGDAN, R.C., and BIKLEN, S.K., 1998. Qualitative Research for Education An Introduction to Theory and Methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. COHEN, L., MANION, L. and MORRISON, K., 2007. Research Methods in Education. 6th ed. London and New York: Routledge. CROOK, C., FISHER, T., GRABER, R., HARRISON, C., LEWIN, C., LOGAN, K., LUCKIN, R. and OLIVER, M., 2008. Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape - opportunities, challenges and tensions. London: Becta. DRENT, M., and MEELISSEN, M., 2008. Which factors obstruct or stimulate teacher educators to use ICT innovatively? Computers & Education, 51 (1), 187-199. GAFFNEY, M., 2010. Enhancing Teachers’ Take-up of Digital Content: Factors and Design Principles in Technology Adoption. Retrieved 6th November, . GORARD, S., and TAYLOR, C., 2004. Combining methods in educational and social research. Buckingham: Open University Press. HADJITHOMA, C., and KARAGIORGI, Y., 2009. The use of ICT in primary schools within emerging communities of implementation. Computers & Education, 52 (1), 83-91. JUDSON, E., 2006. How teachers integrate technology and their beliefs about learning: Is there a connection? Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 14 (3), 581. MEYER, E., ABRAMI, P.C., WADE, C.A., ASLAN, O., and DEAULT, L., 2010. Improving literacy and metacognition with electronic portfolios: Teaching and learning with ePEARL. Computers & Education, 55 (1), 84-91. PRENSKY, M., 2009. H. sapiens digital: From digital immigrants and digital natives to digital wisdom. Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 5 (3), 1-9.

Author Information

Helen Boulton (presenting / submitting)

Nottingham Trent University

School of Education

Nottingham

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.