Summer 2007

Teachers and Teaching

Becoming a better teacher

Denis Goodrum examines professional learning and development, and explores the value of different strategies and the impact on student learning.

In his book Teacher Man, Frank McCourt (author of Angela’s Ashes) describes his first day of teaching in which he is almost dismissed for eating the sandwich of a high school student. His hilarious recollections capture the tensions of dealing with unmotivated and disinterested high school students in a way that many beginning teachers can identify. The book shares his subsequent experiences in the classroom and beyond as he matures to become an inspiring teacher.

What are your memories of your first days as a teacher? How would you compare your teaching now with those embryonic experiences? What influenced your coming of age as a teacher? And importantly what will be the nature of your teaching in five or ten years time?

These changes in teaching we commonly attribute to ‘professional learning’. The term ‘professional learning’ is a relatively new phrase that has entered the education literature. It embraces a range of previous expressions including professional development, teacher change, in-service teacher education and teacher renewal.

Professional learning is in keeping with the philosophy of lifelong learning and the lifelong learner. Learning is not static but a continuous dynamic process. The term also captures the importance of the teacher as a professional. Instead of the education system or society imposing its expectations and changes on teachers there is a view, embraced by this term, that teachers and their profession will be the catalysts for change and improvement.

Teachers update their skills and knowledge throughout their career by the process of professional learning. Successful professional learning can reduce stress and improve low morale. It can also have a substantial impact on improving the quality of teaching and learning.

Research on teacher education indicates that improved pre-service teacher education, although important and influential, will never be the key impetus to education reform. The potential for significantly improving the education system lies with professional learning. In this sense the term professional learning refers to qualified teachers and their responsibility to continually improve their practice. Furthermore, successful teacher professional growth needs to be addressed in the school context with changes initiated in a systemic and sustained manner.

Professional learning is the basis of educational innovation, reform and improvement. Research findings emphasise repeatedly that the most important factor in improving learning is the teacher. Teachers also need support to develop the understandings and skills needed to make the changes possible. Leadership in schools and systems is also important, but it must be balanced by teacher input. Research has also shown that imposed change without teacher engagement and ownership of the change brings little effective improvement in the longer term. The power for improvement lies in the collegial efforts of teachers and their profession.

Changes to teachers’ professional practice involve significant shifts in beliefs and professional knowledge, and consequently, take considerable time, resources and effort. A teaching style that emphasises an inquiry-oriented, student-centred, outcomes-focused approach requires more sophisticated teaching skills than those associated with traditional didactic methods. To do this with large classes, poor resources and potentially disruptive students presents problems that many teachers find too difficult to overcome. It is easier to maintain the status quo. If change is to occur, there is a need to develop realistic curriculum and professional learning resources that help teachers translate the intended curriculum into classroom action.

Teachers working alone in their classroom can make small steps towards change. Teachers working together can make larger strides. Schools collaborating make a greater impact still. But quality education curriculum and professional development resources are very expensive and require the very best expertise to develop. Collaborative ventures that pool the financial and human resources from a number of jurisdictions have the potential to produce the quality materials that are required for a contemporary, relevant and engaging education for all students.

Strategies for professional development

Professional learning and development covers a wide range of courses and training activities as well as a variety of ‘on the job’ experiences. Loucks-Horsley, Hewson, Love and Stiles (1998) in their book, Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics, outline 15 different strategies that are used to undertake professional development. While some of these strategies have greater potential than others in improving teaching and learning, each can make a contribution depending on the special circumstances and settings in which teachers find themselves.

The 15 strategies are grouped within five categories:

1. immersion
2. examining practice
3. collaborative work
4. curriculum
5. other courses.

Immersion

The immersion strategies entail teachers being involved in science investigations or industry-related activities. The assumption underlying these strategies is that to teach science successfully you should have had first-hand experience with the scientific enterprise.

Examining practice

In examining approaches related to practice, teachers have the opportunity to engage in issues and problems directly relevant to the classroom. Such approaches include action research and case studies. Action research requires the teacher or teachers to inquire into classroom problems by collecting data or evidence. Case studies provide the opportunity for observations and reflection. Many teachers also gain by examining and comparing student work. The improvement in their assessment skills has a beneficial effect on their teaching.

Collaborative work

Just as collaboration can be important in helping students to learn, so collaborative strategies can assist teachers to improve their teaching. The cooperative activities can occur in a variety of ways, including study groups, partnerships or personal network arrangements. Collaboration can be between teachers or between teachers and other groups, including administrators, parents and scientists.

Curriculum

Loucks-Horsley et al. describe three different types of professional learning strategies associated with curriculum: Curriculum Replacement, Curriculum Implementation and Curriculum Development. Curriculum Replacement refers to the implementation of a high quality curriculum unit that addresses one topic or concept and incorporates effective teaching and learning strategies to accomplish learning outcomes. Curriculum Implementation usually implies the learning and refining use of a broad-based set of curriculum resource materials in the classroom and school. Curriculum Development, as the name suggests, describes the creating of new instructional materials or adapting existing resources to needs of particular student groups.

Using a meta-analysis approach Tinoca suggests that the professional learning strategies outlined by Loucks-Horsley et al. impact on science student learning in various ways. On the basis of an analysis of 37 professional learning studies, he found there was evidence of different effects on student learning of science. The results of this research are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: Impact of professional learning on student learning
Source: Tinoca (2004)

High impact strategies on student learning were those associated with Curriculum Replacement and Curriculum Development, while medium impact approaches involved Curriculum Implementation and Partnerships. A range of strategies appeared to have a limited impact on student science learning including projects associated with Partnerships with scientists. Perhaps the most surprising result was that the Action research strategies had no impact on student learning. For education systems that have strongly promoted this approach in recent years, there is a need to reflect on the value of the strategy and more carefully examine the impact on student learning.

During the past decades we have gained a greater understanding of learning but there is still much we do not understand. The current media debate on reading is but one example of the limits of our knowledge. For professional learning, the limits of our knowledge are even more apparent. Such a situation reinforces the need for quality research and concrete evidence. Professional learning is expensive. It is, therefore, important that funds are used in strategies that maximise the opportunity for success.

References

Loucks-Horsley, S, Hewson, P W, Love, N, & Stiles, K E (1998). Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics, Corwin Press Inc., San Francisco.

Tinoca, L (2004). From Professional Development for Science Teachers to Student Learning in Science, PhD Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.

Denis Goodrum is the head of the School of Education & Community Studies at University of Canberra.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au