Jacobiene Meirink

A closer look at teachers’ individual learning in collaborative settings

A considerable amount of current research on teaching and teacher education focuses on teacher collaboration. Teacher collaboration is presumed to be a powerful learning environment for teachers’ professional development. However, empirical research about how teachers actually learn in collaborative settings is lacking. In this study, learning activities were explored in relation to reported changes in cognition and/or behaviour of six teachers that participated in collaborative groups. These six teachers were interviewed after group meetings and also asked to report learning experiences in a digital logbook six times during a period of one year. Qualitative analyses of both data sources resulted in seven configurations of (successions of) learning activities and reported changes in cognition and/or behaviour. A closer look at these configurations showed that (successions of) learning activities in collaborative settings resulted mostly in reported changes in cognition. These reported changes in cognition often concerned confirmation of own ideas or teaching methods. The high number of confirmations of own ideas or teaching methods may be explained by the reform context in which these teachers work. Teachers who are experimenting with new teaching methods can feel insecure about these newly acquired methods and, therefore, seek confirmation from their colleagues.

Teacher learning and collaboration in innovative teams

In this study the relationship between teacher learning and collaboration in innovative teams was explored. A comparative case study was conducted in five temporary teams in secondary schools. Several quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used to examine collaboration, teacher learning, and the context for learning and collaboration. In cross‐site analysis two complementary patterns of teacher learning and collaboration were identified. Collaboration in all teams could be characterized as ‘sharing’. However, sharing was further specified with regard to differences in the content and aims of sharing. Different types of sharing were related to teacher learning. The results give cause to rethink the nature of interdependence in collaboration, and the nature of the relationship between collaboration and learning. A practical result may be that collaboration in innovative, temporary, and voluntary teams could be a promising direction for teacher professional development.

Key experiences in student teachers' development

This study focuses on the question of why student teachers stay in teaching even after a profound ‘practice shock,’ i.e., a shock that in itself seems to characterize the complex and emotionally challenging first year of student teaching. Using a line drawing technique, the study investigates student teachers’ views of their first year of teaching by examining how they picture their development, their key experiences during that development, and the ways in which they coped with these experiences. The results suggest that most student teachers perceive their own development not as a steadily ascending line as is often suggested by research on the development of teachers’ professional identity. Instead, we now surmise that most student teachers view their development as a path with highs and lows that include transformative moments or periods. This relates to the idea of transformative learning and to theories on identity development that suggest people need a crisis for identity development to occur. During such a crisis, we saw that student teachers explicitly reconsidered their connections to teaching and that this reconsideration led to a regained motivation for teaching. It appeared that supervisors or mentor teachers played a significant role in first‐year (student) teachers’ regaining motivation for teaching.

How do teachers learn in the workplace? An examination of teacher learning activities

In this study, two data collection instruments were used to examine how Dutch secondary school teachers learn in the workplace. Firstly, they completed a questionnaire on their preferences for learning activities on two occasions. Secondly, during the intermediate period, they reported learning experiences in digital logs. Results of both instruments indicate that teachers often learn by critical individual reflection and by involving colleagues in particular challenging or problematic situations. An additional finding concerns the reporting of sequences of learning activities in the digital logs which is clearly different from the focus on single learning activities as found in most literature and as used in the questionnaire. Furthermore, the digital logs provided a fine‐tuning of the concepts of ‘involvement of colleagues’ and ‘experimentation’ in relation to teacher learning. The study concludes with a critical reflection on both data collection instruments. Finally, implications for future research on how teachers learn are discussed.

Current trends and missing links in studies on teacher professional development in science education: a review of design features and quality of research

This review provides an overview of the the current state of research on professional development in science education. An analytical frame was used, based on what is known about PD from educational research. Clarke and Hollingsworth’s model for teacher professional growth was also used to categorise the studies according to their aims and outcomes. Exemplar studies in each category are highlighted. In total, 44 recent studies were selected, all referring to science PD. The results show an increase in the number of PD studies in science education in recent years. Most PD programmes are aimed at enhancing teacher cognitions as well as classroom practice. Most recently, there seems to have been an increase in programmes that also aim at improving student outcomes through PD. All studies applied most of the characteristics drawn from research on what makes PD effective. However, school organisational conditions were not usually taken into account. Moreover, there has been a very little research on the role of facilitators and their impact on the outcomes of a PD programme.

Understanding the Complexity of Teacher Interaction in a Teacher Professional Learning Community.

In this study, we examine a professional learning community of primary school teachers developing a joint school-based curriculum for science and technology (S&T) education. Team meetings were observed over the course of one school year and the participating teachers and school head were interviewed. An essential factor in the team’s collaboration was its ability to achieve synthesis, that is, the extent to which the teachers were able to abstract from concrete experiences in S&T education in order to formulate and develop a shared vision and curriculum. They exchanged many examples and were able to create a shared idea highlighting critical elements in their approach to teaching this school subject. However, the teachers experienced difficulties in determining the level at which a school-based curriculum should be defined. The outcomes of this team’s collaboration are discussed in terms of leadership and the aims of the S&T innovation.

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 classroom-based 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.

Self-study in a Community of Learning Researchers: what can we do to help teachers/teacher educators benefit from our research?

This article reports on the results of an intensive summer course in which a community of learners, consisting of three teaching and teacher education academics and 17 European PhD students in the field of education, conducted a collective self-study. The international collective self-study offered a unique opportunity to go beyond parochial and local perspectives on the process of research and knowledge creation. The central question in this summer course was: ‘What can we, as researchers, do to help teachers/teacher educators benefit from our research and what can be learned through this research on research?’ The participants first studied relevant literature about the — relatively new — concepts of self-study and a community of learners. Secondly, they studied and discussed their own research projects through the lens of a self-study methodology. The critical study and discussions of both literature and the research projects resulted in a list of 15 guidelines. In addition, the doctoral students experienced and learned that forming a community of learners can be an effective environment for collaborative inquiry learning and that conducting a collective self-study can be an effective way of carrying out research. A Mediterrannean island, a research question and twenty researchers …

Teachers' professional learning goals in relation to teaching experience

Abstract 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.

Understanding teachers’ professional learning goals from their current professional concerns

Abstract 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.