Teacher Learning
By Melissa Eubank
Teacher Learning
 “If teachers are to prepare for an ever
more diverse group of students for more
challenging work… they will need
substantially more knowledge and
radically different skills than most have
and most schools of education now
develop.”
Teacher Learning
 This chapter…
 Considers the kinds of learning opportunities
available to teachers.
 Analyzes these opportunities from the
perspective of what is known about ways to
help people learn.
Teacher Learning
 Relatively new as a research topic, so
there is not a lot of data on it.
 Most of the research is in the form of
case studies.
 These case studies are based on the
assumption that what is known about
learning applies to teachers as well as to
their students.
Teacher Learning
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Opportunities for Practicing Teachers
Quality of Learning Opportunities
Action Research
Preservice Education
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 “Understanding teachers opportunities for
learning-including the constraints on
teachers’ time- is important for
developing a REALISTIC picture of
possibilities for lifelong learning.”
Opportunities For
Practicing Teachers
 Learn from their own practice.
 Learn through interactions with other teachers.
 Learn from teacher educators in their schools,
in degree programs, and in teacher
enhancement projects.
 Learn from graduate programs.
 Learn from sources outside of the classroom.
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Learn from their own Practice.
 By teaching in their own classrooms…
 Teachers gain new knowledge and
understanding of their students, schools,
curriculum and instructional methods.
 Teachers learn through creating journals, essays,
classroom studies and by students asking
questions and the teacher answering them.
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Teachers learn through their interactions
with other teachers.
 Formal
 Informal
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Formal Mentoring is when an experienced
teacher takes a new teacher under their wing
to provide insight and advise.
 Some Administrators are recognizing the
expertise in their schools and are encouraging
teachers to share it as inservice presenters.
 Examples:
 Massachusetts
 Workshops
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Massachusetts
 Massachusetts recognizes the inservice
programs as professional learning for these
teachers who are sharing their expertise
(inservice presenters) and are awarding
them with “professional development points”
for their time.
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Workshops
 Teachers teach outside of their schools at
workshops where they share their
knowledge with other teachers.
 Examples: (Workshops in instructional methods,
materials and content)
 Physics Teacher Resource Agent Project of the
American Association of Physics Teachers
 Woodrow Wilson Fellows
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Informal mentoring occurs through
conversations in hallways, teachers’
rooms, and other school settings.
 Teachers also learn through the supervision
of their classrooms by for example the
principle.
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Teachers learn in graduate programs.
 Some schools require a master’s degree or
continuing educations to keep their certification.
 Most school districts tie in teachers’ salaries to their
level of education. (i.e. Fort Worth)
 Usually, but not always, teachers take graduate
courses in education rather than their subject area
because they are more likely to be taught after
school hours or during the summer.
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 Teachers learn from sources outside the
classroom.
 Roles as parents: Learn about intellectual
and moral development.
 Coaching and other youth-related work in
their communities: Learn more hand-on
forms of instruction.
Opportunities for
Practicing Teachers
 If measured in financial terms, overall,
there are too few opportunities available
to teachers to continue their education.
 There is a minimal public investment in
continued teacher education. Most school
districts spend 1-3 percent of their budgets
on professional development.
 In the corporation world and in schools in other
countries this lack of investment in personnel is
unheard of.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
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Learner-Centered Environments
Knowledge-Centered Environments
Assessment-Centered Environments
Community-Centered Environments
(Chapter 6 – Patty)
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Learner-Centered Environments
 Attempt to build on the strengths, interests, and
needs of the learners.
 Efforts in teacher learning fall short in this regard.
 Usually the required lectures and workshops to not meet
the teachers needs.
 2/3 of U.S. teachers state they have no say in what or how
they learn in the professional development opportunities
provided by their schools.
 Example:
 Ellen and Molly
 Minds on Physics
 WTEPB
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Ellen and Molly
 Ellen: 25-year experienced English teacher
with a masters. For her continuing education
she wants to have meetings with other faculty
to develop curriculum.
 Molly: 2nd year science teacher who is mainly
concerned with classroom management and
must master that before she can think about
developing curriculum.
 These two ladies have different needs for
becoming better teachers.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Minds on Physics.
 A professional development project where the 37
teachers there taught at different levels, in different
settings and had different undergraduate majors.
They also had different amounts of graduate studies
and ranged from new teachers to teachers who had
taught for 30 years.
 The development team and evaluators realized they
didn’t have the resources to meet all the needs of
the individual teachers.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Wisconsin Teacher Enhancement
Program in Biology (WTEPB).
 Provides professional development
opportunities that change as the teachers
become more expert in teaching science.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Knowledge-Centered Environments
 Ideally teacher learning would focus on pedagogy with the
content of various disciplines, but the opportunities fall short.
 Workshops for teachers often focus on generic pedagogy.
 The knowledge taught by teachers to teachers is often not
supported by research about learning.
 Helping teachers rethink their subject matter as well as
teaching strategies is very important for teachers to be able to
continue their education but can be very difficult.
 Examples:
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Mrs. O
Minds on Physics
Professional Development projects, SummerMath
Project SEED
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Mrs. O – teaches math
 Attended several workshops that introduced her to
new teaching techniques and so she made changes
in her teaching to fit the new teaching methods.
 After attending these workshops she saw her
learning as complete and stopped short of
rethinking her knowledge of mathematics.
 She saw no need for additional education in her
subject matter mainly because of the workshops
she attended.
 The Workshops provided her only with teaching
techniques not with deeper understanding of math.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Minds on Physics.
 This professional development project provide
teachers with new teaching methods which the
teachers then implemented into their classrooms.
 However, their fundamental beliefs about their
students and about the purpose of high school
physics did not change.
 They continued to provide students with an overview of
physics with the thought that their students would never
take another physics class again.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 However, in several professional development projects
for teachers the teachers learn how to teach a subject
by focusing on their own experiences as learners.
 SummerMath
 Teachers solve mathematics problems together or participate
in authorizing texts. Also write case studies about their
students mathematics learning.
 This allows them to engage in their own subject matter
knowledge.
 Project SEED
 Elementary school teachers were provided opportunities to
learn about science content and pedagogy by working with the
curriculum kits they would be using in their own classrooms.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Why is it so difficult for teachers to rethink their
subject matter?
 Learning means being vulnerable and taking risks,
and this is not how teachers see their role. They
worry about admitting that they don’t know or
understand fearing how their administrators or how
other teachers will react.
 Also teachers know that they can affect students’
learning and are used to being in control. So the
thought encouraging students to explore issues in
their subject matter and then a student asking a
question that the teacher may not know can be very
threatening.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Assessment-Centered Environments
 Provide opportunities for learners to test their
understanding by trying out things and receiving
feedback.
 Importance of classroom based feedback…
 Teachers find out if ideas work
 “Exceptional Kids”
 Realizing errors
 Report from researchers
 Reflect and improve aspects of teaching
 Certification Programs-Billie Hicklin
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Finding out if Ideas work… “Exceptional Kids”
 A first grade teacher, Mazie Jenkins, was told that
first graders could solve addition and subtraction
word problems without being taught the procedures.
When she saw proof in a video she exclaimed that
the 5-year olds were exceptional, but when she tried
out a word problem on her kids with no instruction
on how to solve it they could solve it on their own
too. She learned that while she would have taught
the word problem as a standard subtraction problem
and there being no other way of solving it, most of
her students spontaneously generated the problem
as an addition problem.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Realizing errors…
 Researcher came up with some ideas and theories for
teaching and while they were familiar with the material
they found it difficult to implement the ideas into local
classrooms. They needed to get feedback from
teachers on their ideas in order to correct their errors.
The researchers realized they had not been clear
about the procedures on how to implement the new
idea for teaching in to the classroom. Without
feedback they could have never fixed this problem and
wouldn’t know what was wrong.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Certification programs are being developed to
help teachers reflect on and improve their
practice. Teachers preparing for certification
ask peers to provide feedback on their
teaching. This helps them to focus on aspects
of their teaching that they might not have
noticed.
 Billie Hicklin
 Seventh Grade teacher in NC who participated in the
National Board certification process.
 Found that the structured reflection that was required made
her make significant changes in her teaching.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Community-Centered Environments
 Involve norms that encourage collaboration and
learning.
 An approach that involves peers working and
learning together and teachers’ participation in
educational research and practice.
 Frederickson and White “video clubs”
 Annenberg Critical Friends Project
 Some communities are supported by school
districts.
 Teachers and collaborative discussions give way to
reflection of student understanding.
 Holt High School
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Frederickson and White “video clubs”.
 Teachers share tapes of lessons they have
taught and discuss the strengths and
weaknesses of what they see.
 Allows them to see the successes and
failures with pedagogy and curriculum
develpoment.
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 Annenberg Critical Friends Project
 Led by a teacher and/or coach who is
trained in process skills and diverse ways of
looking at student work.
 Involve issues such as…
 “What is good work?”
 “How do we know?”
 “How do we develop shared standard for good work?”
Quality of Learning
Opportunities
 At Holt High school everyday these two
algebra teachers got together to discuss and
agree on what to and how to teach their
students next. They were trying to create new
functions-based approaches to teaching
algebra. Discussing this caused them to reflect
on student understanding and reflection on the
texts of specific algebra problems.
 Also this allows for students in different classrooms
to get the same level of education in algebra.
Action Research
 Represents another approach to enhancing teacher learning by
proposing ideas to a community of learners.
 Active engagement in research on teaching and learning.
 Action research is another approach to professional development
in which teachers typically spend 1 or more years working on
classroom-based research projects.
 Contributes to sustained teacher learning and becomes a way for
teachers to teach other teachers.
 Examples:
 PTARG
 Expertise level
 Unfortunates
Action Research
 PTARG- Physics Teacher Action Research
Group
 Practice a form of action research called enhanced
normal practice.
 In regular group meetings the teachers discuss their
students’ work.
 Between meetings they try out the teaching and
curricular ideas form the group and then give
feedback the a the next meeting.
 This gave way to a better teaching and deeper
understanding of their subject area.
Action Research
 Action research can be work around the level
of expertise of the teachers needs.
 Actions research is set in a social situation so
the teachers’ beliefs about learning, their
students, and their conceptions of themselves
as learners are examined, challenged and
supported.
 This promotes the growth and development of
learning communities.
Action Research
 Unfortunately….
 The use of action research for continued
teacher learning is prevented by the lack
of time and lack of paid time.
 Some teachers don’t have time to participate
in action research and they don’t have the
funds. Most school districts don’t have the
funds to for their teachers either.
Preservice Education
 Programs that prepare new teachers.
 “The United States will need to hire 2 million
teachers over the next decade to meet the
demands of rapidly rising enrollments, growing
retirements, and attrition that can reach 30%
for beginning teachers in their initial years…All
will need to be prepared to teach an
increasingly diverse group of learners to everhigher standards of academic achievement.”
Preservice Education
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Differences in Programs.
Similarities in Programs.
Four philosophical traditions of practice.
Problems with teacher education
programs.
Preservice Education
 Differences
 Teacher education programs…
 Can be an Undergraduate major or a program that
is in addition to an academic major.
 Have different expectations as far as the time length
spent to complete the program.
 4 years of undergraduate study
 5 years or master degree program
 Teacher preparation can be college based or
primarily located in the field.
 Can be primarily academic programs or have the
main purpose of certification.
Preservice Education
 Similarities
 Most all teacher education programs…
 Have some subject-matter preparation.
 Usually liberal arts or general education for prospective
elementary teachers
 Are subject matter concentration for prospective secondary
teachers
 Have a series of foundational courses such as:
 Philosophy, sociology, history, and psychology of education.
 Have one or more developmental, learning and cognitive
psychology courses.
 Have “how to” courses.
 Have a sequence of field experiences.
Preservice Education
 Four philosophical traditions of practice:
 “An academic tradition that emphasizes teachers’ knowledge
of subject matter and their ability to transform that subject
matter to promote student understanding;
 A social efficiency tradition that emphasizes teachers’ abilities
to apply thoughtfully a “knowledge base” about teaching that
has been generated through research on teaching;
 A developmentalist tradition that stresses teachers’ abilities to
base their instruction on their direct knowledge of their
students-their mental readiness for particular activities; and
 A social reconstructionist tradition that emphasizes teachers’
abilities to analyze social contexts in terms of their contribution
to greater equality, justice and elevation of the human
condition in schooling and society.”
Preservice Education
 Problems with teacher education
programs.
 Disjointed
 Political factors having strong effects.
 National Commission on Teaching and
America’s Future examples.
 Effects of Problems
 Challenge of Transfer
 “Sink or Swim”
Preservice Education
 Teacher education programs are
disjointed.
 The collection of courses, field experiences,
and student teaching are often taught by
people who have little or no ongoing
communication with each other.
Preservice Education
 Political factors have strong effects on teacher
education programs which has a negative effect.
 Schools, colleges, accreditation boards, and state and
federal dept. of education have regulations that
interfere with the programs which causes them to be
less innovative.
 The majority of teachers are educated at state schools,
where their budgets are controlled by the state
legislators and governors. They also teach in public
schools that are affected by local politics through
school boards.
Preservice Education
 The National Commission on Teaching
and America’s Future identified several
problems with current preservice teacher
prep programs:
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Inadequate time
Fragmentation
Uninspired teaching methods
Superficial curriculum
Preservice Education
 Inadequate time.
 Four year undergraduate degrees make
it difficult for…
 Elementary teachers to learn subject matter.
 Secondary teachers to learn about the
nature of learners and learning.
Preservice Education
 Fragmentation
 The traditional program arrangement
(core courses, developmental psychology
courses, methods courses, and field
experience) offers disconnected courses
that prospective teachers (novices) are
expected to pull together into some
meaningful whole.
Preservice education
 Uninspired teaching methods.
 Although teachers are supposed to excite
students about learning, teacher prep
methods courses are often lecture style
courses. So, prospective teachers who
do not have hands on experiences with
learning are expected to provide these
kinds of experiences for students.
Preservice Education
 Superficial Curriculum
 The need to fulfill certification
requirements and degree requirements
leads to programs that provide little depth
on subject matter or in educational
studies, such as research on teaching
and learning. Not enough subject matter
courses are included in teachers’
preparation.
Preservice Education
 Effects of Problems.
 Impede lifelong learning.
 The message is sent to prospective teachers that research in
education on learning or teaching is not related to schooling, so
they don’t learn from the research done on learning.
 The importance of viewing themselves as subject matter experts
is not emphasized, which leads to teachers not being encouraged
to seek beyond their current knowledge and understanding of
their subject matter.
 Can be seen in the complaints that preservice education
program students have about the foundations courses.
 They say that they are too theoretical and have no bearing on
what real teachers would do in real situations with real students.
 Also that methods courses are time consuming with no intellectual
substance.
Preservice Education
 Teachers have problems transferring (chapter
3 – Michelle) what they have learned.
 Teachers have problems with transitioning form
a world dominated by college courses with
some supervised teaching experiences to a
world where they are the teachers. (Expert
learner to novice teacher – chapter 2).
 They need help in using the knowledge they
have, and they need feedback and reflection
on their teaching.
Preservice Education
 “Sink or Swim”
 New teachers are often given the most challenging
assignments:
 More students with special educational needs.
 Greatest number of class preparations.
 Many extracurricular activities
 They are usually asked to take on these
responsibilities with little or no support from
administrators or “senior” teachers.
 This leads to an extremely high turnover of new
teachers, esp. in the first 3 years of teaching.
In Conclusion…
 Successful learning for teachers requires
continued coordinated efforts that range
from preservice education to early
teaching to opportunities of lifelong
professional development. Creating
these opportunities, based on the
knowledge of learning and teaching
obtained from research, is a major
challenge but not impossible.