Implementing innovative ideas and practices in the classroom: Lessons for teacher education and professional development Erik De Corte Center for Instructional Psychology and Technology University of Leuven, Belgium

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Implementing innovative ideas and practices in
the classroom Lessons for teacher education and
professional developmentErik De CorteCenter
for Instructional Psychology and Technology
University of Leuven, Belgium

• Invited lecture presented at the Conference on
  Education and Training of Secondary Education
  Teachers
• Lefkosia, Cyprus, January 22, 2011

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Overview of the presentation

• A research-based perspective on the objectives of
  school education and effective learning
• Implementing new ideas and practices A trail
  with obstacles
• Remedies toward sustainable implementation of
  innovations Teachers involvement and intensive
  professional development

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A research-based perspective on the objectives of
school education and effective learning

• Overall goal of education Adaptive competence
  (AC)
• the ability to apply meaningfully learned
  knowledge and skills flexibly and creatively in
  different situations
• opposed to routine expertise being able to
  complete typical school tasks quickly and
  accurately but without understanding
• Building AC in a domain requires the acquisition
  of several cognitive, affective and motivational
  components

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Adaptive Competence

• 11. A well-organized and flexibly accessible
  domain-specific knowledge base
• 2.  Heuristics methods, i.e. search strategies
  for problem analysis and transformation
• 3.  Metaknowledge. i.e. knowledge about ones
  cognitive functioning (metacognitive knowl.),
  and about ones motivation and emotions that
  can be actively used to improve learning
• 4. Self-regulatory skills relating to the
  regulation of ones cognitive processes
  (metacognition) or cognitive self- regulation,
  and motivational and emotional processes
  (motivational self- regulation)
• 5.  Positive beliefs about the self in relation
  to learning in a domain, about the social
  context in which learning activities take place,
  and about the content domain and learning and
  problem solving in that domain

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• Traditional teacher-directed learning not the
  most and certainly not the only appropriate way
  in view of achieving adaptive competence (AC)

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To support progressive acquisition of AC novel
classroom practices and cultures are needed that
create the conditions for a major shift from
the dominance of direct teaching toward the
balanced and integrated use of structure and
guidance by the teacher where and when needed,
combined with substantial opportunities and
space for self- regulated and self-determined
learning by students
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Taking also into account the importance of
contextualand social aspects impacting learning,
thisinvolves that learning from instruction in
schoolsneeds to embody more than was
traditionally the case the following
characteristics of learning Constructive
Self-regulated Situated Collaborativebuild
ing thereby on students prior knowledge and
taking into account individual differences
This CSSC view integrates the acquisition and
participation metaphors of learning (Sfard,
1998), or the individual and social aspects of
learning (Salomon Perkins, 1998)
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Implementing new ideas and practices A trail
with obstacles

• The preceding perspective on the goals and the
  nature of learning and instruction has
  influenced reform movements in education
  world-wide
• more accent on understanding, reasoning and
  problem solving in domains like mathematics and
  science
• more accent on strategy teaching in reading and
  writing instruction
• more attention to the development in students
  of self- regulation skills
• more attention to fostering positive beliefs
  about learning and about subject-matter domains

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An example from Flanders, Belgium

• In the Flemish part of Belgium new standards for
  primary education became operational in the
  school year 1998-1999
• Mathematics these standards stress more than was
  hitherto the case
• the importance of mathematical reasoning and
  problem- solving skills (heuristics and
  self-regulatory skills) and their applicability
  to real-life situations
• the development of more positive attitudes and
  beliefs toward mathematics

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These innovative ideas about the standards have
of course had a strong influence they led to
revising the curriculum and to a new generation
of textbooks for primary math teaching, based on
this new perspective on the objectives of math
education Important question To what
extent do the innovative ideas underlying the
new curriculum and textbooks effectively and
appropriately impact classroom practices in
todays regular Flemish classes?
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Evidence from a video-based study

• Theoretical background socio-constructivist
  perspective
• Participants
• 10 sixth-grade classrooms / 206 students
• same reform-based textbook Eurobasis
• Data collection
• Same two problem-solving lessons videotaped in
  all 10 classes
• Students beliefs questionnaire consisting of 2
  scales
• S1 pleasure and persistence while solving
  problems
• S2 problem- and process-oriented view on
  problem solving
• Problem-solving test 10 non-routine problems

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Analysis of the videotapes

• Focus of the learning environment
• Instructional strategies
• Classroom organization forms
• Nature of the problem
• Focus of the learning environment on
• 14 heuristics and self-regulation skills
• e.g., distinguish relevant from irrelevant data
• overall metacognitive strategy for PS
• 10 beliefs about PS
• e.g., a problem can be solved in different ways
  or can have different solutions
• it is useful to listen to the ways in
  which other students have solved a problem

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Nature of the problems Realistic the
problem refers to situations that relate to
students experiential world and the
questions raised are meaningful for the
students Complex the problem
is not merely a routine task but goes beyond
the mere application of a previously learnt
formula or procedure, thus forcing students
to use heuristic or and self-regulations skills
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Results

• Focus of the learning environment
• Heuristic and self-regulation (SR) skills
• Some heuristic/SR skills are frequently
  emphasized e.g. distinguish relevant from
  irrelevant data
• make a scheme or a table
• Most skills are hardly addressed e.g. guess
  and check
• overall metacognitive strategy for
  solving math problems
• Little or no informed instruction !!
• Striking differences between the teachers
  approaches e.g. distinguish relevant from
  irrelevant data frequency range from
  5 to 47

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Results (cont.)

• Norms
• Little or no attention is paid to the explicit
  teaching of norms
• To a small extent A problem can be solved in
  different ways e.g. All roads lead to Rome, as
  long as you take the one that is the
  easiest for you

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Results (cont.)

• Nature of the problems
• Realistic problems more than 95 of the
  problems that were discussed in the classes
  were realistic
• Complex problems only 22 of the tasks
  were complex
• Group work totally absent in 4 out of the 10
  classrooms

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Conclusions

• Introducing in textbooks a new, innovative way
  of teaching problem solving does not easily and
  certainly not automatically lead to a
  high-fidelity implementation of the intended
  approach in regular classroom practices
• This finding is in accordance with previous
  research
• A major reason for this observation
• Teachers play an active role in the
  implementation of new ideas and curriculum
  materials they interpret - often unconsciously
  the new ideas through their existing prior
  knowledge, beliefs and experience. As argued by
  Spillane, Reiser, and Reimer (2002)
• Implementation failure results not because
  implementing agents reject the reform ideas
  advanced via standard-based reform but because
  they understand them differently (p. 419)

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Moreover teachers are constraint by their
specific working conditions while
implementing a curriculum, such as time
pressure, students prior knowledge, etc.
teaching students how to approach and solve
non-routine problems seems to be challenging
and complex for teachersChallenging
question How can we bridge the
implementation gap
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Toward sustainable implementation of innovations

• Research in which new reform-based learning
  environments were designed and applied in
  classrooms provide evidence, that sustainable
  implementation of innovative ideas and practices
  is possible conditional however on the
  involvement and intensive training and guidance
  of teachers
• Several such design studies in different
  subject-matter domains illustrate and support
  this standpoint
• One example A powerful learning environment (LE)
  for mathematical problem solving in sixth grade

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Designing a LE in partnership with educational
professionals

• Research project commissioned by the Flemish
  Ministry of Education - aiming at the design and
  evaluation of a powerful LE that can elicit in
  students the appropriate learning processes for
  acquiring the new standards for math education
• The LE (consisting of 20 lessons) in 4 classrooms
  was fundamentally changed with respect to the
  following components
• the content of learning and teaching
• the nature of the problems
• the instructional techniques
• the classroom culture

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Competence Competent problem-solving model An
overall SR-strategy for solving mathematical
problems
STEP 1 BUILD A MENTAL REPRESENTATION OF THE
PROBLEM
STEP 2 DECIDE HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM
STEP 3 EXECUTE THE NECESSARY CALCULATIONS
STEP 4 INTERPRET THE OUTCOME AND FORMULATE AN
ANSWER
STEP 5 EVALUATE THE SOLUTION
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Acquiring this problem-solving strategy involves

• 1. Awareness training becoming aware of the
  different phases of the SR strategy
• 2. Self-regulation training becoming able to
  monitor and evaluate ones actions during the
  different phases of the solution process
• 3. Heuristic strategy training gaining mastery
  of the eight heuristic strategies (involved in
  step 1 and 2 of the strategy)

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Varied set of carefully designed realistic (or
authentic), complex, and open problems that
differ substantially from the traditional
textbook tasks
Moreover, these problems were presented in
different formats a text, a newspaper article, a
brochure, a comic strip, a table, or a
combination of several of these formats
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Example of a problem used in one of the project
lessons

• Pete and Annie are building a miniature town
  with cardboard. The space between the church and
  the town hall seems the perfect location for a
  big parking lot. The available space has the
  format of a square with a side of 50 cm and is
  surrounded by walls except for its street side.
  Pete has already made a cardboard square of the
  appropriate size. What will be the maximum
  capacity of their parking lot?

1. Fill in the maximum capacity of the parking
lot on the banner 2. Draw on the cardboard
square how you can best divide the parking lot in
parking spaces 3 . Explain how you came to your
plan for the parking lot
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A learning community was created through the
application of a varied set of activating and
interactive instructional techniques

• The basic instructional model for each lesson
  period consisted of the following sequence of
  classroom activities
• (1) a short whole-class introduction
• (2) two group assignments solved in fixed
  heterogeneous
• groups of three to four pupils, each of
  which was followed
• by a whole-class discussion
• (3) an individual task also with a subsequent
  whole-class
• discussion
• Throughout the whole lesson the teacher's role
  was to encourage and scaffold pupils to engage
  in, and to reflect upon, the kinds of cognitive
  and SR activities involved in the model of
  skilled problem solving. These instructional
  supports were gradually faded out

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Innovative classroom culture

• Establishment of new social norms about
  learning and teaching math problem solving
• (1) stimulating pupils to articulate and
  reflect
• upon their solution strategies,
• (mis)conceptions, beliefs, and feelings
• relating to math problem solving
• (2) discussing about what counts as a good
• problem, a good response, and a good
• solution procedure
• (3) reconsidering the role of the teacher and
  the pupils in the mathematics classroom

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This LE was elaborated in partnership with the
teachers of the experimental classes and their
principals

• The teachers were involved at each stage of the
  study, from the pre-intervention planning to the
  postintervention evaluation
• Meetings were organized to encourage reflection
  and input from all members of the research team,
  the teachers and their principals
• The model of teacher development adopted
  emphasized the creation of a social context
  wherein teachers and researchers learn from each
  other through continuous discussion and
  reflection on the basic principles of the LE, the
  learning materials developed, and the teachers'
  practices during the lessons

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This has resulted, for example, in a set of ten
general guidelines for the teachers comprising
specific actions they should take and ways they
should be involved with students before, during,
and after the individual and group assignments in
order to strengthen the power of the LE In the
teachers guide, each of these ten guidelines was
accompanied by an explanation of its purpose, as
well as by several worked-out examples of their
implementation
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Guidelines before, during and after the group and
individual assignmentsBEFORERelate the new
aspect (heuristic, problem-solving step...) to
what has already been learned beforeProvide a
good orientation to the new task DURING Observe
the group work and provide appropriate hints
when neededStimulate articulation and
reflectionStimulate the active thinking and
co-operation of all group members (especially the
weaker ones) AFTERDemonstrate the existence of
different appropriate solutions and solution
methods for the same problemAvoid to impose
solutions and solution methods onto pupilsPay
attention to the intended heuristics and
metacognitive skills of the competent
problem-solving model, and use this model as a
basis for the discussionStimulate as much pupils
as possible to engage in and contribute to the
whole-class discussionAddress (positive as well
as negative) aspects of the group dynamics 
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Results

• Intervention had a significant and stable
  positive effect on the experimental pupils
  skill in solving math problems (in comparison
  with a control group)
• The LE had also a significant, albeit small
  positive impact on students pleasure and
  persistence in solving problems and on their
  math-related beliefs and attitudes
• Significant transfer effect the exp. pupils
  performed significantly better on a standardized
  achievement test that covers the whole math
  curriculum
• There was a substantial significant increase in
  the exp. students spontaneous use of heuristic
  and SR skills
• Not only the high-ability but also the
  low-ability students benefited significantly
  from the intervention.

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Results (cont.)

• Video-analyses of a sample of lessons showed
  that the teachers implemented the LE
  appropriately, although there were differences
  in their implementation profiles
• Most importantly the intervention yielded a
  sustainable effect the teacher continued to
  apply the innovative approach to math teaching
  after the research was ended
• But these results were only obtained because of
  the very intense collaboration with and guidance
  of the participating teachers and their
  principals

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Implications for teacher training en professional
development

• Considering both studies one can conclude that
• it is possible to train and qualify teachers in
  the sustainable implementation of powerful LEs
• but this does not happen overnight and requires
  intensive guidance and support
• Indeed, as argued by the Cognition and
  Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1997) with
  respect to professional development, the changes
  we are asking teachers to make are much to
  complex to be communicated succinctly in a
  workshop and then enacted in isolation once the
  teachers returned to their school (p. 116)

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Implications (cont.)

• Difficulty acquiring mastery and agency of new
  ideas and practices is not just a matter of
  picking up a set of new instructional techniques,
  but it calls for a fundamental and profound
  change in teachers beliefs, attitude and
  mentality
• This requires
• for initial teacher training that student
  teachers are immersed during their own training
  in the kind of LEs that they are supposed to
  create and enact later in their own classroom
• for professional development that throughout
  their career teachers get continued intensive
  guidance and support in the sustained
  implementation of powerful LEs

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Teacher professional learning

• To make significant changes in practice teachers
  need time and multiple opportunities in a variety
  of activities (e.g. modeling, coaching) to learn
  new info and grasp its implications for practice
• Teachers need to develop SR skills that will
  enable them to monitor and reflect on the
  effectiveness of changes they make to their
  practice (reflective practitioner)
• Active leadership key role in organizing and
  promoting teachers engagement in professional
  learning opportunities
• External expertise necessary to challenge
  existing assumptions and beliefs and to develop
  the kinds of new knowledge, skills and beliefs
  associated with the new concept of learning
• Timperley, H. (2008), Teacher professional
  learning and development. (Educational Practices
  Series, 18.) Geneva International Bureau of
  Education (IBE) and International Academy of
  Education (IAE).

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Booklets in the Educational Practices
Serieshttp//www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/on
line-materials/publications/educational-practice
http//www.iaoed.org/node/29s.html
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Thank you for your attentionerik.decorte_at_ped.ku
leuven.behttp//perswww.kuleuven.be/u0004455