Becoming a highly accomplished teacher

1
Becoming a highly accomplished teacher

• Professional learning experiences that count
• Dr Anne Jasman
• DEST Research Fellow 2001-2

2
The Research Project

• Teacher professional expertise its
• nature,
• development,
• enhancement, and
• assessment for recognition and reward.

3
Aims of the research

• What are the elements of teacher professional
  expertise?
• How does the development and enhancement of
  professional expertise occur?
• What qualities of professional expertise should
  be recognized at what stages of a teachers
  career?
• How might professional expertise be assessed to
  enable recognition and reward?

4
Answering the research questions

• What are the elements of teacher professional
  expertise?
• Data from a previous study of experienced
  teachers and a review of the literature has led
  to the following articulation of the critical
  elements contributing to teacher professional
  expertise.

5
Elements of teacher professional expertise

• the knowledge and skills that teachers have and
  demonstrate (theoretical, practical and
  pedagogical knowledge)
• to enable student learning
• (focus of concern on students)
• with regard to their attributes, dispositions,
  values and commitment (qualities)

6
Elements of teacher professional expertise

• through the professional judgments and decisions
  they make and enact (pedagogical reasoning)
• taking account of the context (situational
  understanding)
• through reflection research on their knowledge
  and professional practices
• (action inquiry)

7
Elements of teacher professional expertise

• working with colleagues and others in various
  communities (collaboration)
• beyond the classroom
• (sphere of influence)
• to change and innovate for the
• (change agent)
• improvement of student learning opportunities and
  outcomes.
• (improvement orientation)

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Elements of teacher professional expertise

• Jasman, A. (2002) Initial teacher education
  changing curriculum, pedagogy and assessment,
  p.14
• Paper presented at the Challenging Futures
  Conference, Armidale, NSW.

9
Answering the research questions.

• How does the development and enhancement of
  professional expertise occur?
• Interviews were conducted with 34 teachers to
  identify professional learning experiences
  contributing to the development of their
  expertise.

10
Research sample

• Two groups of teachers have been approached and
  interviewed.
• NSW Quality Award recipients
• Level 3 Classroom Teachers in WA.
• These teachers were identified as highly
  accomplished through similar selection processes.

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Research sample

• The assessments were characterized as follows
• Participation was voluntary.
• Accomplishment was assessed using portfolios.
• Teachers addressed standards and/or competencies.
  
• Supporting evidence was provided.
• A validation exercise or visit was also included.

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Interview questions

• What experiences contribute to the development of
  teacher professional expertise?
• What experiences detract from the development of
  teacher professional expertise?
• Are there significant differences in the needs of
  teachers for professional learning at different
  times, in different contexts and at different
  levels of expertise?

13
Developing professional expertise

• Teacher attributes, dispositions, values and
  commitment are individual qualities that
  contribute to professional expertise.
• These qualities may change with time, as a result
  of workplace experience and/or specific learning
  activities or may remain the same throughout
  their career.

14
Developing professional expertise

• Having and demonstrating knowledge and skills
  making and enacting professional judgments and
  decisions are two elements that appear to be
  learnt during teacher education programs.
• These elements are further developed as teachers
  gain experience, learn new knowledge and skills
  in formal and informal settings.

15
Developing professional expertise

• a focus of concern on the student and taking
  account of the context appear to develop during
  the first years of teaching.
• The focus of concern shifts from the teacher to
  the student as knowledge and skills develop. As
  teachers encounter different classes and schools
  they take more account of context in planning for
  learning.

16
Developing professional expertise

• A wider sphere of influence and reflection
  research on knowledge and professional practices
  seem to be evident later in a teachers career.
• As teachers gain experience, knowledge and
  particularly confidence they are willing to
  question existing practice and exercise a wider
  sphere of influence.

17
Developing professional expertise

• Acting as a change agent and having an
  improvement orientation seem to be more related
  to the context in which a teacher works.
• It is hard for a teacher to demonstrate these
  elements of professional expertise when the
  context does not support or value change and
  improvement.

18
Developing professional expertise

• Working collaboratively is related to the context
  in which a teacher works, qualities they bring
  and their experience within the profession.
• This element is more likely to be demonstrated by
  experienced teachers, working in a context that
  values collaboration and who tend to prefer
  working in teams than independently.

19
Enhancing teacher professional expertise

• A significant other in early career
• Almost all teachers interviewed identified the
  importance of a significant other, usually a
  colleague or super-ordinate.
• This person was critical to a teachers early
  learning and in some cases to continuation in the
  profession.
• These relationships were usually of the
  mentor/coach type.
• A significant number have developed into career
  long friendships.

20
Enhancing teacher professional expertise

• Creativity, risk-taking and innovation
• Many teachers interviewed said that being
  creative, taking risks and innovation were
  critical to developing professional expertise.
• These qualities usually developed after an
  initial period of teaching.
• Teachers were usually supported but in a few
  cases the teachers did it anyway.
• Teachers who showed CRI expressed the desire to
  do things differently not to become stuck in a
  routine and to improve.

21
Enhancing teacher professional expertise

• Collaborative activities in later career
• Collaboration and team activities was
  particularly evident in later stages of their
  careers with some indicating the importance of
  team approaches to their development of
  professional expertise earlier in their career.
• A few teachers who were younger or entered the
  profession later indicated this was significant
  for their professional learning from the early
  stages of their careers.

22
Enhancing teacher professional expertise

• Breaks in teaching service
• These largely reflected the feminised nature of
  the teaching force. Many of the women interviewed
  took time out for child bearing and rearing
  before returning through casual and relief
  teaching positions.
• Some men and women also had service breaks to
  travel, pursue other careers and/ or engage in
  further study.

23
Enhancing teacher professional expertise

• Further study, practice of knowledge or subject
  base and/or research and development.
• These professional learning experiences occurred
  at different stages of a teachers career and
  seemed to be more dependent on opportunities
  being available at a convenient time either
  personally or professionally.
• However, these opportunities are actively sought
  by these teachers in order to enhance their
  knowledge and/or skills in ways relevant to their
  teaching contexts.

24
Some policy issues and unanswered questions

• The majority of teachers interviewed were in
  their late 40s or early 50s who began teaching
  in the late 60s and during the 70s.
• How well does their experience translate to
  teachers beginning a career today?

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Some policy issues and unanswered questions

• Most of these teachers had a break in service
  that was a positive professional learning
  experience.
• What are the implications of this for succession
  planning, teacher supply and demand, retention of
  skilled teachers and provision of appropriate
  professional learning experiences for teachers
  today?

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Some policy issues and unanswered questions

• Teaching has traditionally been seen as a
  conservative profession, that values the tried
  and tested more than creativity, innovation and
  risk taking.
• If being creative, innovative and taking risks
  is so important for developing expertise how can
  this be encouraged in schools?

27
Some policy issues and unanswered questions

• These accomplished teachers update their
  pedagogical, curriculum and subject knowledge
  and/or learn new specializations. Most
  post-graduate opportunities are now full-fee.
  Where there are HECS places, teachers add to an
  existing HECS debt.
• How can teachers be encouraged to take advantage
  of opportunities for lifelong learning, both
  formal and informal ?

28
Some policy issues and unanswered questions

• Most teachers work in relative isolation with
  limited opportunities for sharing what they do
  and seeing what other teachers do.
• If collaboration is so important for the
  development of professional expertise, how can we
  encourage and support collaboration between
  teachers?

29
Some policy issues and unanswered questions

• Many of these highly accomplished teachers will
  be leaving the teaching force over the next five
  to ten years.
• How can their expertise be tapped into and
  shared with others particularly for induction of
  new teachers, teachers returning to the
  profession and for supporting the continuing
  professional learning of others?

30
Teachers learning from each other

• Improvements are devised within the classroom in
  the first place The challenge now becomes that
  of identifying the kinds of changes that will
  improve student learning in the classroom and,
  once the changes are identified, of sharing this
  knowledge with other teachers who face similar
  problems, or share similar goals in the
  classroom. (p.110)
• Stigler, J. and Heibert, J. (1999) The teaching
  gap. Glencoe, IL Free Press