the factors that impact on teacher engagement with continuing professional development: an overview...

The Factors that Impact on Teacher Engagement with Continuing

Professional Development:

An Overview in the SDP ContextJoe O’ Connell

Outline of Sessions 1&2

CPD: The Irish experiencePractitioner Learning: Some

ConceptualisationsUnderstanding Group DynamicsConsideration of the Factors that Impact on

Teacher Engagement with CPDSession 2WorkshopPlenary

2J O' Connell SDPI Summer School August 2008

Our experience of CPD in IrelandThe Systemic ContextRelatively recent phenomenon from the DES (OECD 1991) Serves (ed) the introduction of revised or new syllabi The predominant model that we have been exposed to is that of

the teacher as technician: the teacher is positioned as the uncritical implementer of outside policies

The Deficit Model

Inner knowledge, judgement and wisdom of the professional teacher viewed as one of the greatest resources available to children

Staff development embedded in the workplace with increased inquiry into new practices and the implementation of school improvement initiatives

The teacher therefore has as much to give as he/she has to receive


Our experience of CPD in IrelandSocial and Cultural Context:

The changing pillars of Irish Society: The destabilisation of the traditional canons

From School Master to Redeemer


The absence of a P?

The case for CPPD


Information has become a commodity...

… traditional canons are destabilized

… traditional canons are destabilized

…the shelf-life of knowledge is getting shorter

…the shelf-life of knowledge is getting shorter


Two of the Leading Current Conceptualisations of Practitioner Learning: Action Learning

Community of Practice Theory


Action Learning


Action LearningIt is defined as being used when there is a need

to find a solution to real problems, it is often used when learning is voluntary and learner driven

The model rests on the premise that the learners develop questioning insights based on experiences at work to find solutions to work related problems or issues

Activity grows out of the particularities of a given situation and its immediacy


Some assumptions in Action LearningAn Implicit assumption that the learners are

open to trying out new approachesAn assumption that the learners are willing to

reflect on the results of such activity An assumption that the learners are willing to

share the experiences with othersBased on a context where a culture of

enquiry fuels engagement and participation


Communities of Practice Theory


Wenger: Education and Identity

“Education, in its deepest sense and at whatever age it takes place, concerns the openings of identities- exploring new ways of being that lie beyond our current state. Whereas training aims to create an inbound trajectory targeted at competence in a specific practice, education must strive to open new dimensions for the negotiation of the self. It places students on an outbound trajectory toward a broad field of possible identities. Education is not merely formative- it is transformative.” (p.263)

Wenger, E.(1998). Communities of Practice, Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge University Press.


Knowledge, Knowing and Knowers

Wenger has 4 assumptions as to what matters about learning and as to the nature of knowledge, knowing and knowers:

1.We are social beings, this is a central aspect of learning.

2.Knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises.

3.Knowing is a matter of participating in the pursuit of such enterprises, that is, of active engagement in the world.

4. Meaning – our ability to experience the world and our engagement with it as meaningful- is ultimately what learning is to produce.


… a group of practitioners, who

share similar challenges

interact regularly

learn from and with each other

improve their ability to address their

challenges


learningpractice

community

meaning

identityWhat are we doing?

Where do webelong

Who are webecoming?

What is ourexperience?


Some Assumptions in C of P TheoryA C of P exists because participants sustain

dense relations of mutual engagement organised around what they are there to do

Whatever it takes to make mutual engagement possible is an essential component of any practice

The mutuality of engagement as opposed to the individual’s reasons for engaging….. Membership of the C of P rather than the decision to become a member


TogethernessTogetherness

ConnectednessConnectedness


A Critical Issue

Understanding Group Dynamics


J O' Connell SDPI Summer School August 2008 19

Group Interaction: The Operating ForcesThere are three levels of analysis:

1. Within Individuals

2. Between Individuals

3. The Group as a Whole

Group Interaction


Interaction…..Physical, Verbal and Non verbal, Emotional

Structure….. Stable Relationships, Status, Authority

Cohesiveness….. Self Esteem

Size….. Social Loafing

Temporal Change…. Members can be changed by the group, a group can be changed by a member

The Factors that Impact on Teacher Engagement with CPD


Current Conceptual Framework: Describing and Understanding Engagement


Some Significant FeaturesThe Unit of Analysis is on the Individual

Teacher

The power of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators

Disposition of those in authorityThe quality, frequency and variety of learning

activitiesCareer profileEveryday life


Session 2 Workshop

Question 1

In your experience of participating in, organising or promoting SDP as CPD in your school which factors impact most and why?


Factors to be consideredPersonal career, Prospects, Context and exposure

National PolicyContractual or regulatory requirements

Professional Disposition and Outlook

Teachers’ personal and social commitments

Legislative requirement for organisational policy

Understanding of role of a teacher

The School’s own context, traditions and settings

Introduction of a myriad of new programmes and syllabi

Teachers sense of professionalism

The possibility for advancement in the system

National focus on teaching and learning

Teachers’ attitudes to personal reflection and inquiry

The influence and style of school management

Registration requirements in the future

Teachers’ willingness to engage in innovative and developmental practices


Workshop

Question 2 What do you consider to be the most effective

strategies that can be deployed to promote teacher engagement with SDP/CPD?


Strategies to be consideredIn-school Systemic

BOM /Trustee Mandated Increased level of WSE

Post Holder and Team Negotiation re Time in School/Contractual obligation/Incentivisation

Formal Department Structures School self determination re CPD/SDP and delegated budget

Reform of Staff meeting Structures

Increased focus on TPN

Timetabled SDP Activity Inter school collaboration and cooperation on a formal basis

Embed organisational planning and move focus to teaching and learning

Increased parental involvement

Project based activity, i.e. the Learning School

Regulatory requirement: Teaching Council


Plenary

Feedback from Discussions


Mar Fhocail ScoirFullan offers eight lessons arising from the new paradigm of

dynamic change that can support this new way of thinking about change. He advises that one cannot mandate what matters and the more complex the change the less one can force it. He states that change is a journey and not a blueprint and that it is non-linear and loaded with uncertainty and excitement and is sometimes perverse. He argues for problems to be viewed in a positive light, he sees them as inevitable and argues that one cannot learn without them. He claims that vision and strategic planning, the gods of previous thinking must now come at a later stage and that premature visions and planning can blind. He supports equality between individualism and collectivism arguing that there are no one sided solutions. He argues that both top down and bottom up strategies are necessary, that neither centralisation nor decentralisation works. He stresses that connection with the wider environment is critical for success and critically he argues that every person is an agent for change.


Managing Change It should be borne in mind that there is nothing

more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than initiating changes in a state’s constitution. The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new. Their support is lukewarm partly from the fear of their adversaries, who have the existing laws on their side, and partly because men are generally incredulous, never really trusting new things unless they have tested them by experience.

Machiavelli (1541, p 51)


Mo bhuíochas


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