Foundations for Change

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
District Leaders ◽  
Teacher Capacity ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Natural Progression ◽  
Collaborative Interactions ◽  
Teacher Professional

Historically, educators, leaders, and policymakers have described teacher professional learning as professional development or trainings, which imply teachers receive information rather than acknowledging and accepting personal learning as an ongoing, natural progression toward improving the craft of teaching. Consensus exists regarding standards for professional learning, which includes the elements of embedded learning in contextually relevant locations, content focused practices, collaborative interactions, ongoing and sustained opportunities, and alignment to district and school goals. However, many school and district leaders have not yet made the paradigm shift to valuing the importance of teacher agency and cultivating an environment for building capacity. This chapter is devoted to sharing a research-based personalized professional learning model for change, which focuses on building greater teacher capacity and improved student learning.

Supporting teacher professional learning in Oman: The effects of principal leadership, teacher trust, and teacher agency

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322110644
Author(s):  
Yasser F. Hendawy Al-Mahdy ◽  
Philip Hallinger ◽  
Mahmoud Emam ◽  
Waheed Hammad ◽  
Khalaf Marhoun Alabri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Learning Factor ◽  
Learning Centered ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Teacher Trust

Lagging student performance in the Sultanate of Oman has, in recent years, led the Ministry of Education to target teachers’ professional learning as a key strategic pillar in its efforts to reform the education system. While international evidence finds principal leadership can make a meaningful difference in teacher engagement in professional learning, this has yet to be studied in Arab societies. The current study collected data from 887 teachers in 78 Omani middle schools with the aim of understanding if and how their principals’ learning-centered leadership influences teacher agency, teacher trust and teacher professional learning. Factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping were used to explore both partial and full mediation models of these relationships. Results validated a partial mediation model in which learning-centered leadership had moderate direct and indirect effects on teacher professional learning. The validated model also highlights the important role that principals can play in creating a climate of trust where teachers believe that investing their time and effort in professional learning will be beneficial for themselves and their schools. The results from Oman are compared with findings from other Asian societies and implications discussed.

Modeling the relationship between principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Kuwait: The mediating effects of Trust and Teacher Agency

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322110380
Author(s):  
Ayeshah A Alazmi ◽  
Waheed Hammad
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Learning ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Learning Centered ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Teacher Trust ◽  
The Relationship

Research has revealed that appropriate school leadership practices can positively support and promote teacher learning. This study examines the influences of Learning-Centered Leadership upon Teacher Agency, Trust and professional learning in a Kuwaiti context. Following results from recent empirical research, this study tested a model of principal leadership effects upon teacher learning via the mediators of Teacher Trust and Agency. The researchers collected data from 1060 teachers working at 64 Kuwaiti public schools and analyzed this data using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results validated this model, showing that Learning-Centered Leadership affects teacher professional development via Teacher Trust and Agency. This improves our understanding of the relationship between school leadership and teacher professional learning both in Kuwait and internationally; relevant recommendations are listed.

Improving Teacher Professional Learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Addie Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
District Leaders ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Career Teachers

This chapter examines the role of effective teacher professional learning as a support for early career teachers. It establishes the importance of teacher professional learning as a mechanism of increasing student achievement and investigates traditional professional development models' ineffectiveness. This chapter also includes a discussion of the merits of the cycle of inquiry model of teacher professional learning and explores the need to develop teachers as whole persons. The author identifies effective professional learning for teachers and asserts best practices for school administrators, district leaders, decision-makers, and other stakeholders to design and implement effective teacher professional learning that ultimately increases student achievement. This chapter concludes that cycles of inquiry that develop the whole teacher will enhance teacher professional learning and offer the greatest and most effective support for early career teachers.

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.

Exploring the relationship between school leadership and teacher professional learning through structural equation modeling

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1237-1251
Author(s):  
Jarrent Tayag ◽  
Nunilon Ayuyao
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation Modeling ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Teacher Trust ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the relationship between leadership and teacher professional learning considering two mediating variables – teacher trust and teacher agency.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized structural equation modeling in analyzing the responses from 1,654 secondary public teachers from 43 schools in the Philippines.FindingsLeadership does not have a direct relationship with teacher professional learning. The established relationship of leadership and professional learning from literature exists through the mediation of teacher trust and teacher agency.Originality/valueThe results point out that school leaders must affect teacher trust and teacher agency to influence the engagement of teachers to professional learning. Contrary to what has been accepted in educational management that leaders can directly impact teachers, the findings of this study dictate that the full effects of leadership are coursed through mediating pathways.

Addressing the achievement gap

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 717-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patnaree Piyaman ◽  
Philip Hallinger ◽  
Pongsin Viseshsiri
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning Centered ◽  
Teacher Professional

Purpose Developing countries in many parts of the world have experienced a disturbing trend in the differential pace of economic development among urban and rural communities. These inequities have been observed in education systems in Asia, Africa, and Latin America where researchers have documented differences not only in resource allocation but also in the academic performance among students in urban and rural schools. Recently researchers have shifted their focus from examining financial and physical resources to investigating the nature and impact of differences in human resources. The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in school organization processes associated with learning-centered leadership and teacher learning among urban and rural primary schools in Thailand. Teacher trust and teacher agency were proposed as possible mediators of leadership effects on teacher learning. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The authors collected survey data from 1,011 teachers and 60 principals in 30 urban and 30 rural primary schools in Thailand. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping were used to analyze the proposed model of leadership and teacher professional learning. More specifically, data analysis was aimed at determining the nature of relationships among the constructs in the conceptual model and whether patterns of leadership and teacher learning differed in urban and rural primary schools. Findings The results affirmed a model whereby school leadership exerted significant indirect effects on teacher learning in both urban and rural primary schools. Data analyses determined that the path of leadership effects moved through trust to agency and then to teacher professional learning. Thus, while the authors found a strong direct effect of leadership on teacher trust, there were only small direct effects of leadership on teacher agency and no meaningful direct effects of leadership on teacher professional learning. Thus, the research affirmed a full mediation model of leadership effects on teacher learning. Finally, the study also affirmed that the measured variables were perceived as significantly stronger in the urban schools than in the rural schools. Social implications The research expands on prior research on the “achievement gap” in Thailand by demonstrating the existence of a similar “human resource gap” when comparing urban and rural school leaders and teachers. This study implies that addressing the gap in student achievement will require action aimed at building the capacity of the principals and teachers who work with the rural pupils. Originality/value These results suggest differences in the quality of human resources between urban and rural primary schools in Thailand. There may be potential benefit to be gained from providing training focused on “learning-centered leadership” for principals and middle level leaders, as well as expanding access to quality professional development opportunities for rural teachers.

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 Integrated STEM for Teacher Professional Learning and Development: “I Need Time for Practice”

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Burrows ◽  
Mike Borowczak ◽  
Adam Myers ◽  
Andria C. Schwortz ◽  
Courtney McKim
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Authentic Science ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Integrated Stem ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
K 12

This study compares three pre-collegiate teacher professional learning and development (PLD) integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experiences framed in astronomy. The study is set in the western United States (USA) and involves 60 pre-collegiate teachers (in the USA these are K-12 teachers) over the course of three years (June 2014–May 2017). During the PLDs, astronomy acted as a vehicle for pre-collegiate STEM teachers to increase their STEM content knowledge as well as create and implement integrated STEM classroom lessons. The authors collected quantitative and qualitative data to address five research questions and embraced social constructionism as the theoretical framework. Findings show that STEM pre-collegiate teachers are largely engaged with integrated STEM PLD content and embrace astronomy content and authentic science. Importantly, they need time to practice, interpret, translate, and use the integrated STEM content in classroom lessons. Recommendations for PLD STEM teacher support are provided. Implications of this study are vast, as gaps in authentic science, utilizing astronomy, PLD structure, and STEM integration are ripe for exploration.

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