Marco Snoek

Who is responsible for the professional development of teachers?

Teachers’ ownership of professionalismIPDA 2009 Annual conference Birmingham

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Policy versus practice???

• Is there a dilemma?• Are there conflicting demands?

Aims

Policy Practice

Providing conditions Putting it into practice

Strategies

Consistency

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Outline

• Policy debates on teacher professionalism in Europe

• Perspectives on Teacher Professionalism• The role of

– Governments– Teacher education institutes– Schools– Teachers

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EU, education and the teacher

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The open method of coordination

• EU has ambitions but no authority in the area of education

• How to influence national policies: OMC– Normative: Defining targets and indicators– Organizing benchmarks and rankings– Support and direction through policy papers and council

conclusions• Common European Principles• Improving teacher education• Key competences for life long learning• Professional development on teachers and school leaders

(Nov2009)

– Focus on mutual or peer learning: sharing policy practices

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Low achievers in reading

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Benchmarks for teachers• ‘Develop indicators that better reflect the issues involved in improving education

and training for teachers and their recruitment, and report on progress in the quality of teacher education through the biennial reports on the Education and Training 2010 programme (‘Improving the quality of TE’, EC2007)

• TALIS 2009– Engagement in CPD and in progressive forms of collaboration higher self-

efficacy and use of a wider array of methods– Addressing teachers’ attitudes, beliefs and practices can lead to considerable

improvement in teaching and learning, rather through individualised support for teachers than whole-school/system-wide interventions.

– 55% of the teachers: wish for more professional development (in areas like special learning needs, ICT teaching skills, student behaviour)

– Where teachers paid for their own development, they tended to do more. – The greatest perceived impact of CPD activities is in teacher research and

qualification programmes– High unmet needs: 42% of teachers report a lack of suitable professional

development on offer.

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Professional development of teachers and school leaders (Eur. Council, Nov2009)

Need for • A clear profile for perspective teachers• Teachers that take greater responsibility in their LLL• A coherent continuum of LLL• With induction programmes for all new

teachers• Sufficient needs-based CPD opportunities• Including advanced programmes and

engagement in pedagogical research• Strengthened learning mobility and

networks• Regular feedback on performances

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A topic for peer learning: Cluster Teacher & Trainers

Aims• to develop a common understanding of success factors for the

improvement of policy-making and the implementation of reform;• to identify and disseminate key conclusions which can be fed

into policy-making and implementation at the national level and European level.

Through• Peer learning activities (PLAs)

How to get from goals to policy to practice?

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Structure of PLAs

• 7 Thematic peer learning activities: Intensive (4 days), intensive & small scale

• 8 – 10 interested countries • Policy makers, researchers & practitioners• Policy examples and reflections on general

underlying policy issues• Next practices?

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Continuous Professional Development

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Continuous Professional Development

• Lifelong learning: pre-service, induction, in-service• Focus on classroom teaching, subjects and outcomes• Active involvement: curriculum development, new

strategies, research• Facilitating and promoting CPD (time/salaries)• Roles and responsibilities: ministry, schools, teachers,

teacher education

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School as Learning Communities

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School as Learning Communities

• CPD is not an isolated and individual responsibility and activity• Learning cultures within schools; role models for pupils • Learners’ autonomy, room for experiments• Communities of student teachers, beginning teachers and

experienced teachers• Focus on pupils’ performances• Supported and facilitated by schools, ministry, Inspectorate,

TEI

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Relationships between Teacher Education Institutes and Schools

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Relationships between Teacher Education Institutes and Schools

• Partnerships to provide the best education for pupils: Focus on – improving methods for teaching and learning,– raising the quality of teachers, and– developing knowledge about teaching and learning through research

• Partnerships as support systems: Integrated and powerful learning environment for student teachers and teachers

• Intentional steering by the government giving room for local differences and variations

• Focus on long term partnerships, sustainability, quality assurance• Identify benefits for schools, TEI, (student) teachers, the system• All schools or selected schools?

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Policies on the Induction of new teachers

Teacher

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Policies on the Induction of new teachers

• Induction is the period at the beginning of a teacher’s career in which beginning teachers, having completed their period of initial teacher education, first assume full professional responsibility for learners.

• A effective induction programme – Bridges (and gives feedback to) initial teacher education and CPD– Provides personal support, social support, professional support and

emotional support – can be a catalyst for the further development of the school as a

learning community, and for increasing the school’s collective learning potential.

– Requires adequate qualities and competence of all the actors (with emphasis on mentors and schoolleaders)

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Common Themes

• A well educated profession (at master’s level?)• Teachers’ Lifelong Learning

– Importance of competences & standards– Support systems

• Ownership, self-esteem & self-accountability (extended professionalism)

• Leadership (of school leaders and teachers)

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• Partnerships between Education & Training and the workplace

• Trust: support versus control• Policies for the whole system and long term planning• The quality of teacher educators• Steering and autonomy

Common Themes

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Exciting new insights?

Maybe not, but …• Collaborative learning of policymakers, researchers

and practicioners, bridging polcy and practice• Input to question and improve existing policies

• Peer learning on a national level? (Leadership academy in Austria)

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Perspectives on teacher professionalism

I am g

reat

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Teacher professionalism: a combined effort

TEACHERTEACHERPROFESSIONALISMPROFESSIONALISM

Governments

TeachersTeacher education

Schools &schoolleaders

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Teachers and schoolleaders: Conflicting spheres

Schoolleader Teacher

Growing autonomy Decreasing autonomy?

Conflicting spheres (Hanson, 1976): • Keep the spheres of the schoolleader and the

professional seperated• …Or create equal partners and a professional debate

…Demands on the professionalism of teachers!

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Restricted Professionality Extended Professionality

Skills derived from experience Skills derived from a mediation between experience and theory

Perspective limited to the immediate in time and place

Perspective embracing the broader social context of education

Workplace events perceived in isolation Workplace events perceived in relation to policies and goals

Introspective with regard to methods Methods compared with those of colleagues and with reports of practice

Value placed on autonomy Value placed on professional collaboration

Limited involvement in non immediate professional activities

High involvement in non immediate professional activities (eg networks, research, professional associations)

Infrequent reading of professional literature Regular reading of professional literature

Involvement in professional development limited and confined to practical courses

Involvement in professional development considerable and includes learning of theoretical nature

Work seen as an intuitive activity Work seen as a rational activity

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Need for a strong teacher force?

Government interference?

Teachers and the government

“The outstanding characteristic of the extended professional is a capacity for autonomous professional self-development through systematic self-study, through the study of the work of other teachers and through the testing of ideas by classroom research procedures” (Stenhouse, 1975: 144).

“When the knowledge base is organized outside the members of the profession themselves, it will not only have a negative infuence on the quality of education. It will also be the end of pretending that the teaching profession is a real profession.” (Korver, 2007).

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What qualities do extended professionals need ?

• Leadership (Suleiman & Moore, Hargreaves)• System thinking (Senge, Fullan)• Quality awareness (Hoyle)• Professional Learning Communities (Hord, Senge, Hargreaves)• Classroom research (Stenhouse, Cochran-Smith & Lytle)• Entrepreneurship: ‘an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action, including

creativity, innovation and risk taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives and to seize opportunities’ (EC, 2006)

• External awareness

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Teacher professionalism: the role of …

TEACHERTEACHERPROFESSIONALISMPROFESSIONALISM

Governments

TeachersTeacher education

Schools &schoolleaders

Need for constructice alignment

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Government perspective

• The use of standards• Level of detail of standards• Ownership of standards• Steering or supporting

TEACHERTEACHERLEARNINGLEARNING

Governments

TeachersTeacher education

Schools &schoolleaders

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Policy makers on teacher quality:Comparing national documents

Comparing• 4 European policy documents

– Teachers matter (OECD)– Common principles (Eur Comm)– Improving the quality of TE (Eur Comm)– Teacher Education in Europe (ETUCE)

• 9 country documents with formal teacher standards (Be/Fl, Cz, Gr, NL, No, Pol, Port, Slov, Sw, UK/Eng)

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Outcomes 1

• Application of most documents is limited to teacher education curricula

• Half of the national documents: involvement of wide variety of stakeholders

• EU-level: little input from stakeholders• Impact of the stakeholders’ input?• Categories vary:

– Main tasks of a teacher

– The context of work

– Taxonomy of knowledge (K-S-A)

• 1 to 2 pages (3 countries), 5 – 8 pages (3 countries), 16 – 21 pages (2 countries)

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Outcomes 2

• Main headings for teacher quality vary considerably• Most common:

– Ped-did competence – effective teaching – Co-operation/partnership– Reflection and CPD

• Unique in EU documents:– International co-operation– Co-operation with other schools– Professional autonomy– Working with knowledge

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The government perspective

• A shared language is missing! On a national and on a European level

• One standard versus room for diversity?– Schools and their local contexts and needs are different.

– Teachers are different. Quality indicators for teachers should reflect the collaborative nature of teaching (ATEE, 2006).

• Do government policies strengthen or hinder the (extended) professionalism of teachers (constructive alignment)?

– The need for the professional involvement of and ownership by teachers. (ATEE, 2006).

– The pitfall to take over responsibilities that teachers should take care of.

– Instruments for control or for development?

• Involvement of teachers in the policy debate? (McKinsey, PISA, OECD scenarios,. …)

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School perspective

• Do schools create the conditions for a strong and professional teacher force, fostering, ownership, leadership and entrepreneurship of teachers?

– In their structures and conditions– In their human resource policies– …

TEACHERTEACHERLEARNINGLEARNING

Governments

TeachersTeacher education

Schools &schoolleaders

Individual professionalism

Collective professionalism

ControlTrust?

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Teacher perspective

“a distinction between

those who talk and those who are talked about …”

• Teachers’ views on teacher standards• Willing and prepared?• Accountability?

TEACHERTEACHERLEARNINGLEARNING

Governments

TeachersTeacher education

Schools &schoolleaders

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Teachers’ views on teacher quality

• Comenius Project Identifying Teacher Quality• Development of reflectiontools focussing on the concept of

teacher quality• Questionnaire during the pilots: ‘What do you identify as the 10

most essential teacher qualities?’• 402 responents ( 343 teachers & student teachers), 8 countries

(Cz, Gr, NL, Pol, Por, Slov., Sw, UK/Eng)

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Overlaps & differences

Por Eng Sw Gre Slo Pol Cz NL

Portugal   2 2 3 1 3 2 0

England 2   5 2 0 2 3 4

Sweden 2 5   2 1 0 1 2

Greece 3 2 2   3 3 2 2

Slovenia 1 0 1 3   3 1 1

Poland 3 2 0 3 3   4 1

Czech 2 3 1 2 1 4   2

Netherlands 0 4 2 2 1 1 2  

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Emphasis on categories

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Conclusions

• Strong emphasis on personal qualities (fair/honest, patient, creative, understanding, open, empathetic, humorous, consequent)

• More conceptual consensus exists on the knowledge category

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Willing and prepared

• Are teachers willing and prepared to take the responsibility?

• Schoolcultures are dominated by laissez-faire

• Teachers hardly address each other?

• If teachers won’t do it, others will …!

• Professional development connected to professional accountability!

• “a right and a responsibility!”

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Teacher education perspective

• Do we emphasize extended professionalism in the curricula in TE?

• Do we emphasize personal qualities in the curricula in TE?

• What about professionalism of teacher educators (being role models)?

TEACHERTEACHERLEARNINGLEARNING

Governments

TeachersTeacher education

Schools &schoolleaders

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And IPDA???

• Policy makers and civil servants?• School leaders

• ‘Return of the teacher’? While the debate is dominated by ‘educational experts’.

Where are teachers in IPDA???

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References

• ATEE (2006). The quality of teachers. Recommendations on the development of indicators to identify teacher quality. Brussels, ATEE.

• European Commission Cluster Teachers and Trainers. Reports from PLAs: http://ec.europa.eu/education/school-education/doc836_en.htm

• European Council (2009) Council conclusions on the professional development of teachers and school leaders. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/111471.pdf

• Identifying Teacher Quality: Comenius project on the development of reflection tools: www.teacherqualitytoolbox.eu

• OECD (2009). Teaching and Learning International Survey TALIS. www.oecd.org/talis.

• Snoek, M. (2009). Policy development in teacher education through peer learning of policy makers.  Paper presented at the International Conference on Teacher Education and Development Udaipur , India 23-25 February 2009. http://www.kenniscentrumonderwijsopvoeding.hva.nl/content/kenniscentrum/lereneninnoveren/documenten/India-paper-Snoek.doc

• Snoek, M. et al. (2009). European Confusion on teacher quality:How do formal documents in European Member states identify teacher quality? Draft paper presented at the ATEE conference Mallorca, 2009.

Marco Snoek

Marco Snoek

Reader at the

Hogeschool van Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Institute of Education

M.Snoek@hva.nl