Understanding teachers' professional learning goals from their current professional concerns

In the day-to-day workplace teachers direct their own learning, but little is known about what drives their decisions about what they would like to learn. These decisions are assumed to be influenced by teachers' current professional concerns. Also, teachers in different professional life phases have different reasons for engaging in professional learning. In this study, we explored the professional concerns underlying teachers' learning goals in order to understand variation in professional learning over a teacher's career. In this qualitative study, we administered a semi-structured interview and a card sorting task to 15 secondary school teachers to elicit teachers' learning goals and current professional concerns. By conceptually combining teachers' learning goals with professional concerns in concern-goal pairs, we sought to understand the different reasons for teachers' learning. These concern-goal pairs were characterized in three different types of reasons: continuous, growth and improvement, and work-management. The results showed that early career teachers have mainly growth and improvement concerns, whereas mid-and late-career teachers have both continuous and growth and improvement concerns. Work-management concerns differ for early-and late-career teachers. Results are further discussed in terms of professional life phase models and teachers' developmental tasks throughout their career.</p

Declining trends in student performance in lower secondary education

Student performance is related to motivation to learn. As motivation generally declines during lower secondary education, one might expect performance to decline as well during this period. Though, until now, it has been unclear whether this pattern exists. In the present study, we examined student performance during the early years of secondary education from a developmental perspective. Participants were 1544 Dutch secondary school students across three grades (grades 7 to 9). To investigate student performance trends, we analysed report card grades by using hierarchical linear modelling with two levels (level 1, time point; level 2, student). Potential moderators to be examined were (1) gender, (2) school type and (3) initial level. A linear decline in report card grades from grade 7 to 9 was found for boys and girls, in all school types, and regardless of initial level. Two variables moderated the steepness of the decline: school type and initial level. Gender and school type had a main effect on performance level. The same pattern was observed for the subset of 'core subjects'-Dutch, English and mathematics. Motivational and cognitive factors that may explain the performance decline are discussed

Teachers' professional learning goals in relation to teaching experience

In this study, we explored the relationships between teachers' self-articulated professional learning goals and their teaching experience. Although those relationships seem self-evident, in programmes for teachers' professional development years of teaching experience are hardly taken into account. Sixteen teachers with varying years of experience and subjects were interviewed. The results show different learning goals, related to communication and organisation, curriculum and instruction, innovation, responsibilities, and themselves as professional. Various relationships between learning goals and teaching experience emerged, which clearly reflect the development from early- to mid- and late-career teachers. Issues related to curriculum and instruction appeared to be learning goals for early- and mid-career teachers. This implies that regardless of increasing teaching expertise, curriculum and instruction remain central to teachers' continuous learning. Late-career teachers were interested in learning about extra-curricular tasks and innovations. Models of professional life phases have been used to interpret these results

Promoting performance and motivation through a combination of intrinsic motivation stimulation and an extrinsic incentive

During the early stages of secondary education students’ motivation and performance levels decline. This study employed a case study approach to evaluate a learning environment called GUTS; Differentiated Challenging of Talent in School. GUTS was specifically designed to raise performance and motivation through a combination of (a) talent lessons as an intrinsic motivator and (b) a higher promotion standard as an extrinsic incentive. Participants were 156 students who started secondary education in grade 7 in school year 2013/2014, and participated in GUTS for three successive school years. Performance and motivation measures were longitudinally collected between grades 7 and 9 and were analysed in comparison to previous cohorts of students at the same school and students at other schools. Additionally, measures of well-being and self-esteem were included to explore possible collateral effects of the intervention. The GUTS cohort displayed generally higher levels of performance and motivation than the comparison groups. However, the GUTS cohort still showed the decline of performance and motivation between grades 7 and 9 that was also observed in the comparison groups. This study showed that performance and motivation levels were increased without collateral damage to the students’ overall sense of well-being and self-esteem, while GUTS was not a strong enough intervention to counter the motivation and performance decline over time. Possible reasons for the persistent decline of student performance and motivation are discussed in terms of various factors at the level of GUTS, the educational context and the needs of the developing adolescent

Exploring the relation between teachers' perceptions of workplace conditions and their professional learning goals

Schools’ structural workplace conditions (e.g. learning resources and professional development policies) and cultural workplace conditions (e.g. school leadership, teachers’ collaborative culture) have been found to affect the way teachers learn. It is not so much the objective conditions that support or impede professional learning but the way teachers perceive those workplace conditions that influence teachers’ learning. Not much is known, however, about how teachers’ perceptions relate to the way they direct their own learning. Using a sense-making approach, we explored how four teachers’ perceptions of cultural and structural workplace conditions were related with how they direct their own learning. The four cases were selected from a sample of 31 teachers from two secondary schools, and differed in the extent to which the teachers perceived their workplace as enabling or constraining their learning. We found that the content of teachers’ learning goals is related to their perception of shared vision and professional dialogue in their schools, and driven by individual classroombased concerns. Furthermore, teachers’ perceptions of cultural workplace conditions and supportive leadership practices seem to be more important influences for teachers’ self-directed learning than their perception of structural conditions

Promoting insight into algebraic formulas through graphing by hand

Student insight into algebraic formulas, including the ability to identify the structure of a formula and its components and to reason with and about formulas, is an issue in mathematics education. In this study, we investigated how 16- and 17-year-old pre-university students’ insight into algebraic formulas can be promoted through graphing formulas by hand. In an intervention of five 90-min lessons, 21 grade 11 students were taught to graph formulas by hand. The intervention’s design was based on experts’ strategies in graphing formulas, that is, using a combination of recognition and qualitative reasoning, and on principles of teaching complex skills. To assess the effect of this intervention, pre-, post-, and retention tests were administered, as well as a post-intervention questionnaire. Six students were asked to think aloud during the pre- and posttests. The results show that all students improved their abilities to graph formulas by hand. The think-aloud data suggest that the students improved both on recognition and reasoning, and give a detailed picture of how students used recognition and qualitative reasoning in combination. We conclude that graphing formulas by hand, based on the interplay of recognition and qualitative reasoning, might be a means to promote students’ insight into algebraic formulas

Relations of autonomous and controlled motivation with performance in secondary school students’ favoured and disfavoured subjects

Students in secondary education inevitably favour some subjects more than other subjects. This appraisal may affect how motivation relates to performance in these subjects. Whereas autonomous motivation is generally linked to positive school outcomes, the effect of controlled motivation is less clear. This study specifically focused on the associations of controlled motivation with performance in the context of favoured and disfavoured subjects. In the present study, secondary school students (N = 918) identified 2 favoured and 2 disfavoured subjects. Hierarchical linear modelling was performed to investigate the relationship of autonomous and controlled motivation with performance in these subjects. Results showed that autonomous motivation positively related to performance in both types of subjects. The association of controlled motivation with performance was negative in both contexts, and more negative in disfavoured subjects. For teaching practice, this means that teachers should always stimulate autonomous motivation, even for negatively appraised subjects