Lærerne I centrum og fremtidens skole The Change Room Action research to promote professional development

Transcription

1 Lærerne I centrum og fremtidens skole The Change Room Action research to promote professional development Nordiska Lärarorganisationers Samråd NLS Sektormöte Faroe Islands Hjördís Þorgeirsdóttir Skúli Þór Magnússon

2 Hjördís Þorgeirsdóttir 2010

3 The aim is to improve practice My aim: Enhance professional development of teachers in the school. Increase teacher s agency to change and transform practice. Enhance students learning outcome. The overall aim of the teachers project: Find ways to encourage students to become more responsible for their learning.

4 Methodological and theoretical background Action research Jean McNiff Activity theory Yrjö Engeström The Change Laboratory The Expansive Learning Cycle - Engeström A Method of Double Stimulation Vygotsky

5 Teachers professional development Three categories: 1) Professional development programs 2) Continuous professional development 3) Professional learning The professional growth a teacher achieves as a result of gaining increased experience and examining his or her teaching systematically (Glatthorn, 1995, p.41). A continuous conscious process that leads to improvement and positive development. It is directly linked to the teachers daily work with students and organised around real professional tasks (Fagráð, 2016, p.3)

6 Tensions around traditional models of teachers professional development A short or a long term process. Formal and outside work or informal inside the workplace. Individual or collective learning process. Implement knowledge or creating and co-constructing own knowledge.

7 The action reflection cycle move in new directions modify observe Methods for data gathering: Research diary Interviews Questionnaires Audio recordings Video recordings Students output evaluate change reflect (McNiff, 2006, p. 9)

8 Meeting with Jean McNiff in 2013 Hjördís Þorgeirsdóttir 2013

9 The work frame Long term Cooperative Self-directed Empowering group members. Outside consultant. Group meetings. Critical friends. Diary- Reflection Group leader. Various individual research projects. Many different ways to gather data. Presentations of findings.

10 Discussion What is your understanding of action research? How is it similar and different from this description? Please discuss with the person sitting next to you for 2 minutes.

11 The Change Room Methods: Conversations Interviews Presentations Reports Survey Research diary Project with 21 participants. Connected together activity theory and action research Participants created data about workplace experience (first stimuli). My role was to transcribe, interpret the data and present it within the activity system (second stimuli). 11

12 The expansive learning cycle in the Change Room Consolidating the new practice 1. Questioning Sept Nov 2009 Group discussions 6. Reflecting and evaluating the process Mars 2010-May 2011 Individuals present AR projects Group discussions AR projects put in AT system Individual action research 5. Implementing the new model 4. Examining the new model Feb 2010, Oct 2010 and Feb 2011 Group discussions Focus on conflicts 2. A Historical analysis 2. B Actual-empirical analysis 3. Modeling the new solution 12 Des Feb 2010 Interviews in pairs Goup discussions on interpretation of data Focus on AT system and conflicts Feb 2010, Oct 2010 and Feb 2011 Individuals present ideas for action research projects Based on Engeström 1999b, 2001, 2007)

13 The Activity System of the Classroom Teacher s values and ideas about teaching and learning Teaching and learning methods, material and instruments Assessment and evaluation methods and tools Teacher s knowledge of the students Subject Teacher Tools Object Students learning (Based on Engeström) Competent students with knowledge and skills for further education, work and citizenship Outcome Curriculum Cover material Time schedule Grades Schoolrules Rules Community Division of labour Teachers in faculty Action research group Parents School Teacher as subject specialist and classroom manager Students listen, learn and obey

14 Change Room Tensions in the Activity System of the Classroom Tools One or two way communication. Subject Students passive or active. Object Outcome Coverage or depth. Rules Community Division of labour Based on Engeström, 2001

15 Changes in Classroom Practice Students as Active Learners Students collaboration Pair and group work Cooperative learning Students ownership of learning Databanks on the intra net Presentations Students boundary- crossing Expedition to a nursery home School visit to Denmark

16 Changes in Classroom Practice Listening to Students Voices Individualising students assessment Activation of students ideas Students answers used as teaching material Students influencing their learning environment Students evaluation of teaching Students evaluation of their own learning Students evaluation of teaching methods

17 The Change Room The activity system of the classroom COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN BIOLOGY Individual and group assignments. Cooperative learning. Role division in assignments. Station training. Creative products. Cell claying. Multiple intelligence. Teacher s ideas about learning and assessment. Tools Teacher in biology One or two way communication. Subject Students passive or active in lessons. Students learning Biology in 1. year social science study line Object Outcome Students more active and interested in lessons. Continuous assessment. Teaching term plan. Textbook. Rules Community Division of labour The class, the Biology department, the action research group. Teacher directs and evaluates students learning. Students active in assignments.

18 The Change Room The activity system of the classroom ALPHA BETA GAMMA Exams, individual- and group assignments, students teaching, students assessing each others work, teacher s ideas about assessment, mathematical terms, alpha-beta-gamma system. Tools Students passive or active. Exam calmness or anxiety. Teacher in Mathematics Subject Individual assessment or same assessment for all students? Dissatisfaction with exam outcome. Students learning Mathematics in 3. and 4. year economics line Object Outcome More peace, more work, less exam anxiety, better grades Assessment composition described in term plan. Assessment in curriculum. Rules Community Division of labour The class, the Mathematic department, the action research group A change from the teacher deciding one assessment for all students to each choosing between three options

19 Discussion What tensions are teachers experiencing in the classroom in your country? How is it similar and different from this description? Please discuss with the person sitting next to you for 2 minutes.

20 Modalities of learning in the action research group Individual: Affirmation Transferability Creating own personal theory Collective Knotworking Analysing tensions Transformation

21 The outside consultant Professional guidance Individual help with presentations Advice on program for meetings Active participation in discussions Phrase and encouragement Questioning and challenging Links to pedagogy and literature Suggesting ways forward

22 Agency to change practice The capability of a self to take actions that will have impact on a social situation (Somekh, 2006, p. 15). Three stages of agency to change: Recognising a need for change Contemplating change Explaining change

23 Cross curriculum agency The will and capacity to work with others to change the object of teaching and learning Collaboration at meetings of ar group Cross curriculum optional courses Collaboration on cooperative learning

24 Strengths of action research Improves practice. Works against teacher s isolation. Brings the teacher and students closer together. Increases cross curriculum cooperation. Works against teacher s burn out. Leads to school development. From teaching to learning Creation of new situated knowledge.

25 Obstacles - Tensions Shortage of time. School culture puts constrains on cross curriculum cooperation. Lack of a support system. Insecurity with methodology. Theoretical application is complicated. Hard to criticise oneself constructively.

26 Hafsteinn Óskarsson 2010

27 Conclusion Change agents. Individual and collective learning. The action research group is developing a pedagogy of active students learning Emphasis on listening to students voices.

28 Thank you Thank you Takk fyrir Skúli Þór Magnússon Skúli Þór Magnússon 2009