The Fourth Wall of Professional Learning and Cultures of Collaboration

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013189X2110587
Author(s):  
Hala Ghousseini ◽  
Sarah Schneider Kavanagh ◽  
Elizabeth Dutro ◽  
Elham Kazemi
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Professional Collaboration ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
The Invisible

Recent innovations in professional development are rife with a wide array of efforts focused on teacher collaboration. In this essay, we address some of the unexamined assumptions about the nature and significance of interactions in teacher professional collaboration, drawing on the concept of the “fourth wall” from theater and film studies. The fourth wall is a term used to describe the invisible wall that separates actors from their audience. We use this metaphor to interrogate the function of the fourth wall in professional learning and argue that it reflects a culture of professional learning that, despite innovations that tout teacher collaboration, upholds isolation in teaching and teacher learning and deep embedded norms of noninterference in one another’s practice. We also attend to the possibilities for supporting teacher learning that breaching the fourth wall affords when shared enactments of practice are used as a context for teachers’ sensemaking and collaboration.

scholarly journals An activity theory approach toward teacher professional development at scale (TPD@Scale): A case study of a teacher learning center in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-538
Author(s):  
Cher Ping Lim ◽  
Juliana ◽  
Min Liang
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Learning Center ◽  
Teacher Professional

AbstractContinuous teacher professional development (TPD) ensures that teachers have the capacity to continually plan and implement quality teaching and learning that supports students in achieving their expected program/course learning outcomes. However, teachers’ access to quality TPD is a challenge due to geographical limitations, gender, special needs, marginalized communities, and the government’s policies, or lack of policies, regarding teachers. There are tensions between quality and equity, and cost implications that may hinder the scaling up of quality TPD programs. This paper adopts an activity theory approach to examine how a teacher learning center (TLC) in a regency of Indonesia enhances teachers’ access to quality TPD. The findings reveal that teachers learn in the TLC through different TPD activities. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are found to mediate the professional learning activities, learning resources, learning support, and assessments in the TLC. Furthermore, three key stakeholders—the local government, teacher working groups, and school principals—play significant roles in supporting teachers’ professional learning in the TLC.

scholarly journals Engaging Teachers in Dialogic Teaching as a Way to Promote Cultural Literacy Learning: A Reflection on Teacher Professional Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Riikka Hofmann ◽  
Maria Vrikki ◽  
Maria Evagorou
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Cultural Literacy ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Educational Innovations ◽  
Teacher Professional

AbstractEffective teacher professional development (PD) is an important part of successfully implementing educational innovations. However, research has shown that not all PD is effective, largely because it has not been developed based on theoretical understandings around teacher professional learning, such as reflective practice, teacher collaboration and teacher agency and inquiry. This chapter concerns the PD program developed as part of the DIALLS project. The chapter places particular emphasis on the ways in which the PD program was informed by the literature on teacher professional learning and effective features of PD, as well as the literature on promoting dialogic pedagogy.

scholarly journals Online Professional Learning in Response to COVID-19—Towards Robust Evaluation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Alireza Ahadi ◽  
Matt Bower ◽  
Abhay Singh ◽  
Michael Garrett
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Perceptions ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Online Mode ◽  
Evaluation Models ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Workshop Evaluation

As COVID-19 continues to impact upon education worldwide, systems and organizations are rapidly transiting their professional learning to online mode. This raises concerns, not simply about whether online professional learning can result in equivalent outcomes to face-to-face learning, but more importantly about how to best evaluate online professional learning so we can iteratively improve our approaches. This case study analyses the evaluation of an online teacher professional development workshop for the purpose of critically reflecting upon the efficacy of workshop evaluation techniques. The evaluation approach was theoretically based in a synthesis of six seminal workshop evaluation models, and structured around eight critical dimensions of educational technology evaluation. The approach involving collection of pre-workshop participant background information, pre-/post-teacher perceptions data, and post-workshop focus group perceptions, enabled the changes in teacher knowledge, skills, and beliefs to be objectively evaluated, at the same time as providing qualitative information to effectively improve future iterations of the workshops along a broad range of dimensions. The evaluation approach demonstrated that the professional learning that was shifted into online mode in response to COVID-19 could unequivocally result in significant improvements to professional learning outcomes. More importantly, the evaluation approach is critically contrasted with previous evaluation models, and a series of recommendations for the evaluation of technology-enhanced teacher professional development workshops are proposed.

scholarly journals Socio-Cultural Development Approach to Investigate Teacher Learning across Two Contexts

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Hee-Jeong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Development Approach

Teacher professional learning occurs across various contexts. Previous studies on teacher learning and changes in practice have focused on either classroom contexts or learning communities outside of school, but have rarely investigated teacher learning across multiple contexts. Investigating teacher learning across the double contexts of classroom and learning community has presented methodological challenges. In response, this paper proposes the suitability of adopting a socio-cultural development framework to further the analytical approach to such challenges. Using the framework, this paper considers the case study of a middle school mathematics teacher who resolved a problem of teaching practice through interacting with other members of the community of practice where they build shared goals and knowledge. This paper contributes to the field by expanding the scope of research on teacher learning across these two contexts, in which problem of practice becomes conceptual resources that the teacher uses in her teaching practice.

scholarly journals Professional Learning in a Digital Age / L’apprentissage professionnel à l’ère numérique

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charmaine Brooks ◽  
Susan Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Formation Professionnelle ◽  
De Re ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Online Teacher

While professional development (PD) has always been central to the teaching profession, increasingly traditional models of PD are out of step with contemporary ways of learning. Commiserate with the literature, we see the field moving along a continuum which reflects changes in what, how and when teachers learn. Following a brief sketch of the online teacher professional development (oTPD) field, we identify important considerations of emerging models of technology-mediated professional learning (TMPL). We posit the catalyst for the transformation of education, as envisioned by countless educational leaders, may lie in reimaging professional development as professional learning in a networked age. Alors que le perfectionnement professionnel (« PP ») a toujours été au cœur de la profession d’enseignant, les modèles traditionnels de PP sont de plus en plus décalés par rapport aux méthodes contemporaines d’apprentissage. Nous voyons ce domaine progresser dans un continuum qui reflète les changements dans ce que les enseignants apprennent, dans la façon et le moment où ils l’apprennent, et cette progression correspond à la littérature. Après un survol du domaine du perfectionnement professionnel en ligne pour les enseignants, nous cernons des considérations importantes sur les modèles émergents de la formation professionnelle assistée par ordinateur. Nous postulons que le catalyseur de la transformation de l’éducation, comme conçue par d’innombrables chefs de file de la pédagogie, pourrait être de ré-imaginer le perfectionnement professionnel comme une formation professionnelle à l’ère des réseaux.

scholarly journals Blog-based professional development of English teachers in Mumbai: The potential of innovative practice under scrutiny

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atiya Khan
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Interactive Workshop

The professional development of teachers in India is still, by and large, based on formal and outdated professional learning traditions, often characterised by crash courses and one-off workshops. In education, blogs have proven to be an effective means of establishing and maintaining collaborative learning networks and helping members reflect on their professional practices. Information and communications technology (ICT) enabled practices of teacher professional development is still in its infancy in India. Moreover, there is limited research in India to secure foundational understanding of how and in what ways teachers of English in India use blogs for their professional development. This study explores the use of teacher reflective practice, teacher networking, and teacher collaboration, beyond formal ICT training, through blog-based professional development of English teachers in the Mumbai region of India. Using data collected from 32 teachers from three private schools in Mumbai, through ICT interactive workshop observations, questionnaires, interviews, and blog comments, this action case study explains whether and why blogging, as a learning community, has the potential to add significant value to existing professional development of English teachers in Mumbai.

scholarly journals The Effects of Networked Professional Learning Communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 441-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rilana Prenger ◽  
Cindy L. Poortman ◽  
Adam Handelzalts
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Perceived Satisfaction ◽  
Teacher Professional

Teacher professional learning is considered crucial for improving the quality of education. Teacher collaboration in professional learning communities can contribute to the effectiveness of professional development efforts. In the past decade, there has been a shift from within-school to between-school professional learning communities. However, results regarding their effectiveness have been inconsistent. In this study, we examine the effects of 23 networked professional learning communities in the Dutch context, using a mixed-methods approach. Results showed moderately positive effects on teachers’ perceived satisfaction; the knowledge, skills, and attitude developed; and their application to practice. Considering the early stage of development of these professional learning communities, teachers’ participation in networked professional learning communities seems promising for enhancing their professional learning.

Chain Reaction

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-69
Author(s):  
John O'Reilly ◽  
Liam Guilfoyle ◽  
Louise Lehane
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School System ◽  
Professional Collaboration ◽  
Chain Reaction ◽  
Irish Context ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Student Reflections

This chapter presents a case study of the experience of the Irish Chain Reaction (CR) team, which took place during a time of significant curriculum change in the lower secondary school system. As such, it is hoped that those interested in teacher professional development will find the case of interest while acknowledging the varied cultural, material and structural resources, and limitations that influence the context of any educational change process. The authors have placed a significant focus on describing the Irish context to begin this chapter, initially comparing the old science syllabus with the new “specification,” with thought given to the existing modalities of student learning and the nature of teacher professional collaboration and the developments that will be required by the new curriculum. The authors then summarize the plan for CR implementation through a professional learning community (PLC) focused on supporting teacher agency and autonomy in the design of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) classes. Teacher and student reflections of experience are presented.

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