An Analysis of Secondary Mathematics Teacher Learning in the Midwest Master Teacher Partnership

This case study investigates the professional learning and changes in teaching practices and leadership of four experienced, mid-career secondary mathematics teachers as a result of participation in the Midwest Master Teacher Partnership, a professional development partnership between a research university and a large, urban school district. The design of the professional development was based primarily on teacher action research; it placed the teacher at the center of the learning experiences, and included considerations of teachers’ existing knowledge, contexts, community, and assessment.The primary research question is, “How have teachers’ practices changed through their participation in a practice-based professional development project?” To answer this question, this study considers three aspects of teacher learning and practice: (1) The trajectories of teachers’ changes in practice and the way the nature of their participation in MMTP impacted their pedagogical practice; (2) The evolution of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching and beliefs about teaching mathematics over the course of MMTP; and (3) The pathways that teachers took in their professional learning with MMTP, the factors that shaped their movement on the pathways, and ways that the nature of their participation in MMTP impacted teachers’ attitudes toward professional development and their thoughts about future engagement in professional learning. A qualitative analysis was performed on written, video recorded, and audio recorded artifacts collected over the duration of the Midwest Master Teacher Partnership and the teachers’ work was examined for changes in knowledge, beliefs, and teaching practices over time. The findings provide evidence that the four teachers each experienced individual changes in practice: changing notions of student success, building trust in students to take ownership over their learning, building a community of learners, and changing beliefs about students and how they learn. In addition, the four teachers each experienced individual changes leadership: establishing credibility, sharing knowledge with the larger community, gaining confidence as an expert, and shared leadership and collective vision. This case study demonstrates that consideration of experienced teachers needs when planning and implementing practice-based professional development and using teacher action research to drive teacher learning can promote productive changes in teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, teaching practices, and beliefs about teaching and learning

(Re)Production of community nursing - The journey of professional socialisation: A grounded theory study of community nurse practice teachers

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This study explored how community nurse practice teachers understand their experiences with the aim of illuminating the concept of practice teaching in community nurse education and gaining an insight into what it is like to be a community nurse practice teacher. The study also explored the understandings community nurse practice teachers have of their own development as educators of community nursing students. This study is timely as no previous research has undertaken an in-depth qualitative study with community nurse practice teachers, thus narratives do not exist of what it feels like to be a practice teacher. No studies have explored how such practitioners develop their role and how this development impacts on community nurse students. The study took a constructivist grounded theory approach to explain the social processes involved in the professional development of community nurse students and practice teachers. Semi-structured interviews with thirty community nurse practice teachers resulted in interview data which was explored and interpreted for emerging categories. Analysis was informed by a theoretical framework developed within situated learning and community of practice literature (Brown et al. 1988, Lave and Wenger 199 1). Tension between a grounded theory approach and use of an existing theoretical framework was reconciled through the application of the concept of 'emergent fit' (Glaser 1978). The findings from this research were analysed to develop a substantive theory of practice teaching in community nursing settings, in doing so this study discovered the underlying social process involved in community nurse and practice teacher professional development, a discovery which has implications for practice and education related to community nursing education. This study identified that the primary focus is on identity transformation with the change seen to take the form of a journey. The ultimate aim is to create new members of the community nursing profession and develop existing members to become skilled in creating new members. The outcome of the process is the professional (re)production of community nurses and community nursing communities of practice

Do as we do and not as we say: teacher educators supporting student teachers to learn on teaching practice

This paper reports data from a larger study into the ways in which Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students engaged in professional learning during teaching practice (TP) in Ireland. The study comprised one umbrella case study of Greendale University, schools and PETE students that consisted of five individual cases: tetrads of PETE student teacher, cooperating teacher (CT), University tutor (UT) and School Principal (SP). Each tetrad was defined as a unique community of practice located within the wider structures of school, education and university policies on teacher education. Data were collected over one academic year using qualitative research methods and grounded theory as a systematic data analysis tool. Findings indicate that in each of the five cases, support for PETE student learning was, to some degree, dysfunctional. In particular, it became evident that there were two conflicting teacher-learning curricula in operation. The official curriculum, expressed in policy and by SPs, UTs and CTs (also referred to as mentors), valued a PETE student who cared for pupils, had a rich pedagogical content knowledge, knew how to plan for and assess pupils’ learning, valued reflection, and was an active member of a community of practice. The unofficial but essentially more powerful enacted curriculum, encouraged PETE students to draw upon their own resources to learn pedagogical content knowledge in an isolated and unsupported manner. The data highlight the force of the unofficial curriculum and the ways in which PETE students were guided to the core of the dysfunctional community of practice by untrained CTs (mentors) and untrained UTs. PETE students in this study learned to survive in a largely unsupportive professional learning environment and, just as theories of social reproduction intimate, indicated that they would reproduce this practice with PETE students in their care in the future. The findings suggest that in cases similar to those studied, there is a need for teacher educators in Ireland, (in both universities and schools) to critically interrogate their personal practices and implicit theories of teacher education and to engage in training for their role. There is also evidence to suggest that PETE students in Ireland could benefit from the development of school–university partnerships that act as fundamental units of high quality professional learning. In the cases studied, this may have led to a stronger focus on the intended or official curriculum of TP, led by the revised maxim: ‘Do as we say and as we do’

Developing great teachers through professional development: a comparative international case study in England, Israel, South Korea, and Turkey

This comparative international case study explores teacher quality, that is, how teachers, who are regarded as great, train and develop. In particular, the thesis investigates ways in which participation in professional development programmes contributes to teachers’ professional knowledge and the personal virtues involved in teaching chemistry at secondary school level in England, Israel, South Korea, and Turkey as case study nations. The study employs a comparative case study approach. Empirical data collection was preceded by a document analysis and a comprehensive literature review which revealed three themes, namely community of practice, pedagogical content knowledge, and professional beliefs and virtues as impacting teachers in becoming great teachers. These themes were explored in practice utilising qualitative data collection methods, namely semi structured interviews with science teachers (mainly chemistry) who participated in professional development programmes and through observing lessons and professional development activities of teachers teaching science to 14-18-year-olds. Data was collected in South Korea, Israel, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (England) over a 1-year period. A volunteer sample of 40 science teachers (10 teachers for each country) were interviewed. Ten professional development activities were observed. The total length of observed PD activities was 1500 minutes. Nine science teachers were observed in four countries. The total length of observed lessons was 525 minutes. Four focus group interviews with the participation of 18 teachers were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The data shows that great teacher appears differently in the four nations. A great teacher is identified variously as an amalgamation of a lifelong learner (South Korea), a moral exemplar (Turkey), a reflective practitioner (England), and an educator (Israel). Great teachers as lifelong learners promote students’ practical wisdom and wise decision-making ability, skills which are required to live a good life. Moral exemplars transmit their personal moral values to their students. Reflective practitioner teachers demonstrate intellectual and performance virtues in practice. As educators, great teachers motivate their students to be good human beings. The results of the study reveal that practical wisdom is an essential lens for making teachers educationally wise people. Great teacher is perceived to empower practical wisdom, which helps teachers establish mutual understanding and let them have more space to draw ii upon intellectual, social, moral and performance virtues through collaboration, mutual engagement and sharing in community of practice. The teachers in the study who participated in community-based professional development programmes enhanced the intellectual, moral, performance, and social virtues, pedagogical content knowledge associated with being a great teacher. The study finds that nations whose educational systems build strong connections between teachers through development and application of learning communities tend to generate a higher proportion of great teachers and that those teachers have positive and extensive influences on each other’s intellectual and personal development. This research also found that one of the most important dispositions that enable teachers to become responsible for students' learning is passion in science teaching. The teachers' passion, motivation, and love for teaching helped them to expand their professional knowledge and techniques of instruction in distinctive manners. The character traits that a great teacher must possess should receive a lot of consideration. Emphasise also should be on developing character strengths in the professional development. Community of practice has potential to achieve this through mutual engagement, shared repertoire and joint enterprise. The research emphasizes the vital role of teachers' passion for science teaching in enabling them to take responsibility for their students' learning. It advocates for the development of character strengths in teacher professional development, particularly through the cultivation of community of practice, characterized by mutual engagement, shared repertoire, and joint enterprise. This comparative study offers valuable insights into the dynamic interplay of teacher development, enhancing the quality of education across diverse contexts

Exploring teachers’ learning of instructional practice in professional development

Decades of research on mathematics teaching have identified fundamental instructional practices that promote deep learning of mathematics for all students. In contrast with more traditional and direct approaches to teaching, these core instructional practices of mathematics instruction foster student engagement, understanding, and collaboration and represent a significant shift in the practice of teaching for many mathematics teachers. Though recent efforts by mathematics teacher educators have focused on assisting novices to learn core practices in teacher preparation programs, there is little research on the ways teachers learn to enact these practices in professional development. The purpose of this study is to understand teachers’ learning in mathematics professional development focused on the core practice of leading mathematics discussions and changes in their classroom enactments of the practice. This multiple case study investigates four teachers’ trajectories of participation as they engaged in 108 hours of professional development designed to assist teachers in learning to lead mathematics discussions. Video recordings of professional development sessions and classroom enactments, interviews, and teacher journals were analyzed to understand how these four teachers’ patterns of participation in the professional development related to their practice of leading discussions in their classrooms. Though each of the four teachers’ participation over time was unique, findings indicated that three teachers’ trajectories of participation, which resulted in an alignment between learning in the professional development and in classroom enactments, centralized student learning and led to full membership in the emerging professional development community. In contrast, a persistent focus on her own learning that characterized the fourth teacher’s trajectory did not enable her to align her learning and practice, and yielded only marginal participation in the community. These results suggest that teachers with established professional identities and strong commitments to student learning were able to transform their identities as reform mathematics teachers, negotiate multi-membership, and span boundaries across perspectives. The study’s implications for district leaders making decisions about mathematics professional development, teacher educators working with teachers to improve their practice of leading mathematics discussions, and researchers examining teacher learning and instructional change are discussed

A Personalized Approach to Professional Development Through a Community of Practice

Personalized learning has gained traction in the United States as schools look to improve student learning through means that are less focused on standardized tests and are more focused on individualized student needs (Cavanagh, 2014). To successfully implement a new learning initiative such as personalized learning, high-caliber training must be provided. Research indicates a teacher\u27s expertise and effectiveness account for the most significant difference in student achievement (Ferguson, 2001; Hattie, 2012), and therefore quality teacher professional development is paramount. One way to improve a teacher’s excellence and effectiveness is through sustained, collaborative, and meaningful professional development. In this study, I used a collaborative network within a K-12 school setting as a means to provide high-quality professional development that enhanced conditions for organizational learning. A community of practice was designed, with stakeholder input, to best meet the needs of both teachers and students. The use of a Community of Practice allowed me to provide teachers with an experiential approach to personalized learning as well as to design and test a professional development structure that could be continued in other contextual settings. Using a mixed-methods action-research design, I examined strategies for professional growth and measured self-efficacy to teach in personalized learning environments. The findings from this study suggest that a Community of Practice is a viable model for professional development to help teachers build self-efficacy and find value in the experience

Exploring Learning in Practice to support Construction Teachers’ Professional Development

I am a teacher trainer. I work for an FE institution that specialises in construction education. In this study I report on an action research project carried out with the coparticipation of the construction teachers (my students) with whom I work. I engage with my students as I set out to nurture a professional development community of practice, seeking to free them from conventional teacher development practices. My informal approach to professional development, based on the principles of theories of situated cognition, suggests learning through abstraction can occur in formal and informal contexts and traverse contexts. At the start, I asked my students to volunteer to work with me. On recruitment, I explained the purpose of my research and discussed what I saw as the key ideas of communities of practice explicitly. This provided the initial abstraction. Activity developed co-participants’ understanding of communities of practice, leading us to identify communities of practice that we saw as influencing their developing teacher identity. Co-participants then used this understanding in lesson-study activity. As we progressed, we agreed that we had become a professional development community of practice. Membership encouraged a proactive positive teacher identity, equipping coparticipants with new tools for teaching. Co-participation was empowering. It inspired the creation of innovative teaching resources (in-tune with their students’ identity) for proactive learning. Our powerful teaching community of practice formed out of the initial abstract concept I provided, in collaborative negotiated activity. Those co-participants who had recently completed formal teacher training became central to our professional development community of practice. The engagement of others was more peripheral. Co-participants who were more central had a greater understanding of learning and were better equipped to teach their own students. Legitimate peripheral participants learnt from these co-participants. At the same time as my approach develops individual mental processes, it enculturates teachers into our college. The project supported the development of critically reflective and reflexive practitioners, with what look to be sustainable effects. Data provides insight into the bridges and barriers to establishing a professional development community of practice and teacher identity formation

Building Community: Strengthening Student Connectedness And Sense Of Belonging In Our Schools

All students want to attend a school they feel a sense of belonging to, one with caring adults and shared experiences for our young learners. Research shows that student connectedness and the quality of student–teacher relationships are associated with students’ engagement in school and academic performance (Bosman et al., 2018) and significantly impact student outcomes (Settanni, 2015). This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) investigated the impact intentional professional learning for teachers focused on social and emotional competencies and increased shared experiences for students has on students’ sense of belonging and connectedness in a middle school. With a two-pronged intervention driven by professional learning workshops for adults and a shared experience for students (Wingman), this action research study utilizes the Improvement Science model and a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design. As part of the Improvement Science process, the researcher identified a problem of practice, conducted end-user consultations, reviewed existing data, completed a root cause analysis, reviewed relevant literature, and developed a working theory of improvement. The researcher developed three professional learning workshops that embedded social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies throughout, followed by self-reported feedback slips. Students participated in a shared experience through Wingman; the research team conducted walkthroughs using a walkthrough tool to collect data on the implementation and fidelity of Wingman for students. After a thorough data analysis, findings revealed that teacher professional learning focused on social-emotional learning and providing students with shared experiences significantly improves student sense of belonging and connectedness to a school community

Personalized Professional Development Using Improvement Science: Induction Teachers’ Sense of Teacher Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of personalized professional development (PPD) on induction teachers’ sense of teacher self-efficacy when employed to address a teacher-identified, student-centered problem of practice using improvement science. Induction teachers’ problem of practice focused on at least one of three areas: instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management. The following research questions were examined in this study: 1. What problems (e.g., instructional strategies, student engagement, classroom management) are induction teachers encountering? 2. How does PPD affect teacher self-efficacy? This study focused on PPD accomplished by means of a job-embedded approach tied to a continuous improvement model through use of a networked improvement community (NIC), the fishbone activity, and the Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) model. Data collected from interviews, field observation notes, and a focus group were analyzed using deductive coding to identify key patterns and themes. From this study, four themes emerged related to problems that induction teachers encounter and the ways in which PPD affects teacher self-efficacy: (a) planning of effective instructional strategies and teacher self-efficacy, (b) student engagement in learning and teacher self-efficacy, (c) classroom management challenges and teacher self-efficacy, and (d) traditional professional development and teacher self-efficacy. Prior findings, based on the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale, suggest that induction teachers encounter problems related to instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management. Analysis of data for Research Question 1 revealed that induction teachers encountered problems helping students master letter sounds. They also encountered challenges keeping students engaged and motivated in learning, with some students being uninterested in assignments. Teachers also struggled to teach students how to give one another specific feedback. Finally, teachers struggled with classroom management and with getting students to work independently for extended periods to complete work. Research Question 2 focused on how PPD affects teacher self-efficacy. Key findings included (1) the perceived benefits of a PPD improvement science intervention, (2) development of teacher self-efficacy to support instructional strategies and student engagement, and (3) a lack of development of teacher self-efficacy related to classroom management. Data from this study show that use of improvement science helped teachers increase their self-efficacy when addressing a teacher-identified, student-centered problem of practice. Teachers saw value in discussing problems of practice and strategies for addressing each problem within the NIC. Participants also noted that traditional professional development (PD) often misses the mark when addressing problems of practice that are relevant to induction teachers, with PD frequently too generic. Implications for practice and policy, along with recommendations for future research—such as strategies for addressing the issues induction teachers face—are provided based on the findings of this study

Curricular Agents: Adolescent Immigrant Students in a Third-Space-Imagined-Community

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Education, 2015This study was designed using a practitioner-research model (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). Serving in dual roles – ESL teacher and researcher of her own instructional practice – the researcher critically examined what happens when adolescent immigrant students are positioned as significant contributors to their literacy curriculum. Engaging a student-led, inquiry based pedagogical model, the students chose 'immigration in the U.S.' as a curricular topic of focus, which guided them into a year-long inquiry of U.S. immigration history and, consequently, a study of racial oppression and discrimination. The teacher-researcher approached her role(s) through the lens of critical multiculturalism (McLaren & Torres, 1999), pursuing greater understanding of race-based, systemic biases, which contributed to generative conversations within the classroom community, as well as personal and professional growth. The work presents the concept of a ‘third-space-imagined-community’, which offers concrete connections between theory and practice with respect to teaching and learning environments that include immigrant youth. Four main cyclical, intertwining and inter-temporal elements of theory and practice contribute to the third-space-imagined-community framework. Each cycle informs each other both independently and collectively, creating the potential for dynamic, authentic, and personally relevant learning as well as positive identity development for historically marginalized students and their teacher