Secondary PGCE Training for Senior Professional Tutors

June 24 2015

Mark JonesUWE PGCE Teaching and Learning Fellow

Role of professional dialogue in teachers’ professional development

Role of professional dialogue in teachers’ professional development

• What are the characteristics of a good trainee teacher/NQT/teacher?

• What types of teacher models do we know about?• What is my current practice (as a SPT/ Induction Tutor/

mentor /coach)?- observations - professional dialogue

What are the characteristics of a good trainee teacher/NQT/teacher?

Inside the black box

August/Sept – June

Pre- ITT NQTPGCE

What are the characteristics of a good trainee teacher/ NQT/ teacher ?

What are the characteristics of a good trainee teacher/NQT/teacher?

Inside the black box

August/Sept – June

Pre- ITT NQTPGCE

Teachers’ Standards (DfE, 2013)

Literature and research

School/ academy/ federation descriptors

Subject specific literature and research

Ofsted and Estyn

UCET/ HEI descriptors and formative tools e.g. TPT. Trainee profiles

Other sources e.g. popular texts; blog postings, Teach Meets

• ‘Continuum of ‘restricted professional to ‘extended professional’ (Hoyle, 1974)

• Teacher typology - The effective teacher- The reflective teacher- The enquiring teacher - The transformative teacher (Menter et al, 2010, pp.21-24)

What types of teacher models do we know about ?

The effective teacher: standards and competences

- dominant discourse – 1980s onwards -technical accomplishment and on measurement-accountability and performativity agenda-Policy-led model

The largest scale studies of initial teacher education undertaken in England by Furlong et al (2000) found that about 70 per cent of teacher educationprogrammes led from universities and colleges were informed by some versionof ‘reflective teaching’. (Menter et al , 2010, p. 23)

The reflective teacher

1. Rapid reflection (immediate and automatic reflection-in-action)

2. Repair (thoughtful reflection-in-action)

3. Review (less formal reflection-on-action at a particular time)

4. Research (more systematic reflection-on-action over a period of time)

5. Re-theorizing and Research (Long-term reflection-on-action informed bypublic academic theories.

(Griffiths and Tann 1992)

‘Reflection in action’ is in the moment and often implicit

‘Reflection on action’ is after the event and is a conscious attempt to improve future action (Schön, 1983)

The reflective teacher

Critical incidents (Tripp, 1993) a form of ‘critical’ reflection after action

• Implies just one right way of doing things

• Teachers implement plans handed down

• Theory is externally pre-determined

• Values are unquestioned• Significance of context is

ignored

• There is more than one way of doing things

• Teachers plan, implement and evaluate

• Theory and practice are intimately linked in ‘living educational theories’

• Teaching is a values driven activity

• Practice must take account of context

Teacher as technician Teacher as ‘reflective practitioner’

‘I considered educational theory to be entirely irrelevant to classroom practice.’

(Evans, 2002, p. 123)

Teacher professionality ‘- an ideologically-, attitudinally-, intellectually- and epistemologically-based stance on the part of an individual, in relation to the practice of the profession to which s/he belongs, and which influences her/his professional practice.’ (Ibid., p.130)

About the author

What are the characteristics of a good trainee teacher/NQT/teacher?

- Teacher as researcher - undertake systematic enquiry in own classroom

The enquiring teacher

High quality teaching is now widely acknowledged to be the most important school-level factor influencing student achievement.

This in turn has focused attention on the importance of teacher education, from initial training and induction for beginning teachers, to on-going professional development to help update teachers’ knowledge, deepen their understanding and advance their skills as expert practitioners.’

(BERA-RSA, 2014a, p.5)

BERA-RSA (2014a) The role of research in teacher education: reviewing the evidence: interim report of the BERA-RSA

Inquiry .

BERA-RSA (2014) Research and the Teaching Profession; building the capacity for a self-improving education system. Final report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the role of research in teacher education. London: BERA. Available from: https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf [Accessed 21 June 2015]

BERA-RSA (2014b) Research and the Teaching Profession; building the capacity for a self-improving education system. Final report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the role of research in teacher education. London: BERA. Available from: https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf [Accessed 21 June 2015]

First, the content of teacher education programmes may be informed byresearch-based knowledge and scholarship, emanating from a range of academic disciplines and epistemological traditions.

Ÿ Second, research can be used to inform the design and structure of teacher education programmes.

Ÿ Third, teachers and teacher educators can be equipped to engage with and be discerning consumers of research.

Ÿ Fourth, teachers and teacher educators may be equipped to conduct theirown research, individually and collectively, to investigate the impact of particular interventions or to explore the positive and negative effects of educational practice.

(BERA-RSA, 2014b, pp. 10-11)

Furlong, J. ( 2015) Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers A Report to Huw Lewis, AM, Minister for Education and SkillsJOHN FURLONG ITT Adviser to the Welsh Government March, 2015 Options for the future of initial teacher education in Wales.

(Furlong, 2015, p.8)

The transformative teacher

- ‘activist’-‘ If the prevalent view of the teacher is someone whose contribution to society is to transmit knowledge and prepare pupils for the existing world, the view here is that teachers’ responsibilities go beyond that; they should be contributing to social change and be preparing their pupils to contribute to change in society.’ (Menter et al, 2010, p.24)

What is my current practice (as a SPT/ Induction Tutor/ mentor /coach)?

Inside the black box

August/Sept – June

Pre- ITT NQT

Observations

PGCE

Peer learning Team teaching

Organising speakers Video-review

Mock interviewsCritic

al friend

The componential structure of professional development (Evans, 2014, p.191)

Evans, L (2014) Leadership for Professional Development and Learning: enhancing our understanding of how teachers develop, Cambridge Journal of Education , 44 (2), pp. 179-198.

‘… important is engagement in collaborative enquiry, structured observations and peer support, enhanced by the use of professional dialogue and reciprocal risk taking, which gives teachers the chance to ‘learn to learn from looking’ and to explore why things do and don’t work in different contexts’

(BERA-RSA 2014a, p.7)

Professional dialogue is an essential component of high quality mentoring

(Lofthouse and Hall, 2014)

Question. How do I currently approach the SPT meeting or post –observation meeting?

SPT/ mentor –trainee/s meeting

SPT/ mentor post-observation

This paper demonstrates how teachers who were working in a range of developmental relationships with researchers used Coaching Dimensions to understand, describe, analyse and improve the quality of their coaching and mentoring conversations.

The findings are based on analysis of transcriptions of case studies ofone-to-one professional dialogue practice. The dimensions of coaching provide a language and mechanism through which teachers can analyse and reflect on their ‘coaching’ practice. They can act as a metacognitive tool for teachers, providing them with the opportunity to engage with the complexity of their practice.

Such self-knowledge enables productive practice development, and an ability to talk with peers about how their practice is developing.

This can help teachers to plan for, and be more responsive within, coaching or mentoring meetings.

‘Conditions need to be conducive to professional dialogue, and participants need to be aware of how to use the dialogue to best effect’

(Lofthouse and Hall, 2014, p. 758)

Role of professional dialogue in teachers’ professional development

‘Dialogue is recognised as an essential component of what Kemmis and Heikkenen (2012) propose as a ‘Theory of Practice Architecture’ creating ‘semantic space’ in which practice unfolds and work is undertaken’ (ibid. p.759)

-fluid, intuitive-‘profession within a profession’ -Coaching Dimensions as a tool

Initiation – recognising which participant was responsible for each new sectionor unit of analysis in the conversation (usually consisting of several conversational‘turns’). This is significant in developing a sense of ‘ownership’ within the coaching conversation.

Stimulus – noting what evidence or stimulus was cited to support the conversation.Typical examples of stimuli included video extracts, lesson plans, recall, observation, attainment data and pupils’ work. The use of stimuli helps to root the conversation in practice evidence and can help to challenge the assumptions and perceptions held by the participants.

Tone – rated on a five-point scale from very negative, through neutral to verypositive. The tone adopted can suggest a hidden agenda, an emotional state or a learned behaviour.

Scale – rated from one to five in terms of the scope of the unit of discussion:1 relating to critical moments, 2 to lesson episodes, 3 to the lesson as a whole, 4 to teaching and learning themes crossing lesson boundaries and 5 relating towide school or societal issues. The use of scale determines the scope of thediscussion, and where participants make links across the scales indicatesenhanced reflection

Coaching Dimensions as a tool - the Coaching Dimensions were initially developed as a framework for analysing coaching and mentoring conversations

Time – recognising four time references depending on whether the segmentreferred to the planning of the lesson (past), to the lesson events, to futurespecific lessons and, finally, to no specific time reference. An indication of relevanttime-frames is indicative of the way participants seek links betweenexperiences and planning, and suggest the potential of coaching for futurepractice.

Interaction function – noting that each ‘turn’ in the conversation serves afunction, 17 sub-categories of the conversational function were identified;capturing elements of the purposes, processes and outcomes of interaction.The range of functions included question, explanation, evaluation, challenge,summary, context, dissonance, suggestion, defence and acceptance. Patterns ofinteraction tend to exist. Table 1 summarises the interaction functionsidentified in the original research.

Co-construction – usually occurring over a number of ‘turns’ that are characteristically short and where the participants in the coaching or mentoring conversation are collaboratively developing an idea, building on the successivecontributions of their partner. In the original research this was not commonbut did mark more productive coaching conversations as co-construction indicatescognitive development occurring within the conversation. This is thepoint at which reflection and learning through coaching are greatest

Case study one - Jenny has used the Coaching Dimensions primarily as ascaffold, bridging her own and her coachees’ understanding of the process in an overtly developmental way.

The data and extracts above are snapshots of a significant dataset collected by Jenny to help her scrutinise her own practice as a coach. They demonstrate the potential role of analysing dimensions of coaching dialogue in helping coaches to internalise the qualities of coaching and develop more conscious and productive practice.

When they are first introduced to coaching per se, the concept of‘restraint’ recognised as critical for creating thinking space and opening up dialogue(Jewett and MacPhee 2012) can be misconceived and result in non-committal conversations in which the coach offers no opinion, instead requiring the coachee toself-evaluate but gain little feedback or support for deeper reflection.

This is often in stark contrast to the practice of mentoring student-teachers or new entrants to the profession through a series of pre-determined and externally derived standards, which can lead mentors into the ‘judgementoring’ scenario described by Hobson and Malderez (2013). In any of these situations there is little opportunity for the dialogue to be co-constructive; and it thus fails to draw on the unique expertise, curiosities or experiences of the participants’

‘To maximise the value of professional dialogue (in its various forms) as aprofessional development resource, it is critical that when conversations between colleagues can be scheduled they are productive and thus have the potential to impact on teachers’ future practice, professional knowledge and understanding.’

(Lofthouse and Hall, 2014, p. 777)

Final thoughts

Reference list

BERA-RSA (2014a) The role of research in teacher education: reviewing the evidence: interim report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry Available from: https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/research-and-teacher-education [Accessed 21 June 2015]

BERA-RSA (2014b) Research and the Teaching Profession; building the capacity for a self-improving education system. Final report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the role of research in teacher education . London: BERA. Available from: https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf [Accessed 21 June 2015]

Centre for the use of research and evidence in education (CUREE) (2005) Mentoring and Coaching CPD Capacity Building Project: National Framework for Mentoring and Coaching. Available from: http://www.curee.co.uk/files/publication/1219925968/National-framework-for-mentoring-and-coaching.pdf [Accessed 20 June 2015]

Furlong, J. ( 2015) Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers A Report to Huw Lewis, AM, Minister for Education and Skills Available from: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150309-teaching-tomorrows-teachers-final.pdf [Accessed 21 June 2015]

Griffiths, M. and Tann, S. (1992) Using reflective practice to link personal and public theories, Journal of Education for Teaching, 18 (1), pp. 69-84

Hoyle, E. (1975) Professionality, professionalism and control in teaching. In: V. Houghton et al. (eds), Management in Education: the management of organisations and individuals. London: Ward Lock Educational in association with OpenUniversity Press.

Lofthouse, R. and Hall, E. (2014) Developing practices in teachers’ professional dialogue in England: using Coaching Dimensions as an epistemic tool. Professional Development in Education, 40 (5), pp. 758-778.

Mentor, I., Hulme, M., Elliot, D. and Lewin, J. (2010) Literature Review on Teacher Education in the 21st Century Available from: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/325663/0105011.pdf [Accessed 23 June 2015]

Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Book