Who is responsible for the professional development of teachers

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Who is responsible for the professional
development of teachers?

• Teachers ownership of professionalism
• IPDA 2009 Annual conference Birmingham

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Policy versus practice???

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

Aims
Policy
Practice
Consistency
Providing conditions
Putting it into practice
Strategies
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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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How to get from goals to policy to practice?

• 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)

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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
  teachers 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 schools 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 masters 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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Common Themes

• 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

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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

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Teacher professionalism a combined effort
Schools schoolleaders
Governments
TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM
Teachers
Teacher education
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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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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 individuals 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
Need for constructice alignment
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Models for professional development

• Traditional model of teacher learning
• Initiatives by individual teachers
• In-service programmes provided by the government
• Focussed on individual professional quality

Successful programmes involve teachers in
learning activities that are similar to ones they
will use with their students, and encourage the
development of teachers learning communities. A
key strategy involves finding ways for teachers
to share their expertise and experience more
systematically. There is growing interest in ways
to build cumulative knowledge across the
profession, for example by strengthening
connections between research and practice and
encouraging schools to develop as learning
organisations. OECD, 2005
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Government perspective
Schools schoolleaders
Governments
TEACHER LEARNING
Teachers
Teacher education

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

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Policy makers on teacher qualityComparing
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
Schools schoolleaders
Governments
TEACHER LEARNING
Teachers
Teacher education

• 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

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Teacher perspective
Schools schoolleaders
Governments
TEACHER LEARNING
Teachers
Teacher education

• a distinction between
• those who talk and those who are talked about
• Teachers views on teacher standards
• Willing and prepared?
• Accountability?

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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
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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 wont do it, others will !
• Professional development connected to
  professional accountability!
• a right and a responsibility!

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Teacher education perspective
Schools schoolleaders
Governments
TEACHER LEARNING
Teachers
Teacher education

• 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)?

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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/e
  ducation/school-education/doc836_en.htm
• European Council (2009) Council conclusions on
  the professional development of teachers and
  school leaders. http//www.consilium.europa.eu/ued
  ocs/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 qualityHow do formal documents in
  European Member states identify teacher quality?
  Draft paper presented at the ATEE conference
  Mallorca, 2009.

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• Marco Snoek
• Reader at the
• Hogeschool van Amsterdam University of Applied
  Sciences
• Institute of Education
• M.Snoek_at_hva.nl