Listening to teachers talk about CPD: a multi-national case study

Слушане на учители говорят за CPD: мултинационални казусПартньорство около

продължително обучение на преподаватели

Alex Kendall, Adrian Kacian, Andrea Kybalíková, Vlasta Cabanová, Pierre Vignes, Victor Cavaleiro, Dina Pereira, Phil Taylor

Project Objectives

• To achieve a better understanding of teachers’ experiences of CPD in each country

• To identify and share examples of good practice

• To develop a framework tool to support effective practice

Contexts for PaCTTRethinking Education: Investing in skills for

better socio-economic outcomes (EC: Nov 2012)

“The perceived need by teachers for professional development seems to be greater than the actual possibilities they have. Many teaching staff either do not find suitable professional development, or cannot attend because of conflicting work schedules. A considerable proportion of teachers feel that they require more professional development than they currently receive.”

However, current provision for in-service training is often not as effective as it should be, and for a large proportion of teaching staff the need is felt for more. The 2010 Joint Progress Report of the Council and the Commission found that although curricular change is under way…for the majority of teachers already in service there are few systematic opportunities to update their competences accordingly. This is a serious shortcoming as high-performing schools are characterised by systematic and well supported professional development, which is longer in duration, more active and more collaborative.

PaCTT Project

• Birmingham City University, UK• University of Beira Interior, Portugal• Capa Anatolio Teacher Training School, Turkey• National Institute for Training and Career

Development in Education (NIOKSO), Bulgaria• Novancia Business School Paris, France• University of Zilina, Slovakia

Project Activities• Strand 1 – Mapping • Strand 2 – E-survey • Strand 3 – Focus group interviews with

teachers• Visiting schools and colleges• Idea exchange and case studies

Outputs

• Searchable Project wiki- Mapping- Templates- Data- Processes

• Project report and CPD Framework Tool

Interview data

Grounded theory approach • Inductive• Multiple sources of data – including individuals who

do not share a common culture• Data collection, coding and analysis occur

concurrently• Researcher enters the field and discovers the main

concerns of participants and the way they resolve these problems

High level coding

• Conceptualisations of teachers and teaching• Relationships with ITE• Modalities of CPD• CPD decision making• Motivators• Spaces and Places• High Value Learning• Low Value Learning• Impact of CPD

Conceptualisations of teachers and teaching

Teachers’ concepts of teaching are complex and varied

• Lifelong aspiration.• Value of working with children and young people.

Pragmatic fit to lifestyle.• ‘Runs in the family’ or is an accidental career. • Subject knowledge is important but not enough…

Pedagogical skills and relationships with learners are crucial

“First of all the good teacher should be a good person. The good teacher should also love children but from that they should be

good professionals.”

Relationships with ITE

Insufficient practice during ITE

Lack of knowledge of CPD through ITE

• Time spent in classrooms varied considerably from just a few weeks to several months.

• The general consensus was that it is not enough. • Practising teaching skills on peers rather than actual

learners was seen as artificial.• Some developed a proactive attititude towards

their own learning throughout their careers. • Few teachers found that promoting this attitude

was embedded explicitly within ITE.

“What I missed was more practice.”

Modalities of CPD

CPD may be ‘bolted on’ or integrated; formal or informal

• ‘Bolt-on’ CPD is seen as important, but additional to their day-to-day role.

• Integrated CPD is almost a ‘habit of mind’ and intrinsic to being a teacher, through formal or informal opportunities.

“We, the secondary teachers, we have to have a minimum of 25 hours training every year. So, we have to go wherever it is.”

“We need to be in constant teacher training.”

CPD decision making

Choice of CPD may be individual or negotiated

• For some teachers CPD is defined by their employers.

• It is more likely to be negotiated or fully controlled by teachers.

“…every teacher decides for themselves…”

“…basically you can do anything that is of particular interest for you.”

“…it’s, I would say, mutual.”

Motivators

Motivation for CPD is wide-ranging

• Common drivers – updating and innovation, learner-centeredness in meeting changing or specific needs.

• External motivators – CPD linked to credits (Portugal) or pay progression (Slovakia)

• Internal motivators – self-esteem, continual personal development and pleasure from students’ enjoyment of lessons.

“I never stop working on myself.”

Motivators

“…I think every teacher should be interested in innovations in

teaching and implementation of interesting methods in the

classroom because the time in which we live is very dynamic and

requires new approaches to ways of teaching and we need to

understand the needs of the students...”

Spaces and Places

Spaces and places for CPD are diverse

• Local, ‘in-house’ (micro) CPD.• Regional, national and international (macro) CPD –

conferences, networking and visits. • Obstacles – lack of time, insufficient funding and

limited choice.• Reading, e-learning and social networking were

common forms of informal CPD.

“I had four days out of school to train externally but mostly it’s here on the job.”

Spaces and Places

“I’m a geek … I follow a lots of things on Twitter and on the internet and read a lot of the government stuff.”

“I just ride in online…with the foreign teacher, foreigners, other teachers from other countries. And we share, we exchange our

ideas, methods, you know, which techniques they use…”

“There are teacher blogs. So I get some research, some new ideas from them and publishers, institutions…”

High Value Learning 1

High value CPD – micro communities of practice

• Sharing ideas, grappling with problems and talking to others formally and informally.

• More immersive activities, such as observing others, coaching and working collaboratively.

“What I value most is the communication with the teachers during the CPD opportunities; the exchange of experience with the other colleagues

during the workshops; the discussion of new methods and strategies.”

“… seeing how to do it is really very essential and then having the reflection or the reflective moments after that, you can think about what

you’ve done.”

High Value Learning 2

High value CPD – macro communities of practice

• Visits to other countries and international collaboration.

• Macro becomes micro through local application of their learning.

• Many teachers expressed a desire to be involved in macro communities of practice.

“I’m always chatting with my colleagues from other European countries and it’s really useful. We not only chat on the topic of the project. We

also talk about our teaching experiences and we share new websites and we learn a lot from each other.”

Low Value Learning

Low value learning is less applicable to practice

• Abstract teaching of theory.• Learning was not important, relevant or

applicable to practice.• Externally imposed with insufficient time to

embed in practice.

“I learned more from the other teachers than from the methodical part”.

Impact of CPD

Impact involves application

• Immediate application to benefit students.• Sometimes long-term impact was noticed. • Teachers described the influence of CPD on their

self-esteem, confidence, recognition and promotion.

• Dissemination to colleagues, in particular verbally, was routine for many teachers.

“…everything that we do should have a positive impact on the pupils…”

“Well, the biggest impact is that I learnt to see each of my students as a unique… she has, he has different interests.”

Impact of CPD

“If I learn new things, new methods, I try to apply them in my classes as well as I can…”

“For me, I think that what I’m always looking for is to have some input on how I can do it better with my students. How can I transmit

whatever I think is needed for them in a better way and that they will be interested in learning it, in listening to it.”

“…recently I went on some literacy training, something that another school does. And I brought things back into the school and we’ve already implemented them and started using them at school…”

Impact of CPD

“My CPD has made me much more reflective and self-aware within the school and within my management role. “

“And also, with my new development, professional development, not only teaching and learning process, I changed my overall life, my

private life, you know, my life in society…”

“…you would pass on the knowledge, the skills, the understanding that you have been given through training to others. And so it keeps

going and keeps going.”