S M Hafizur Rahman :
Quality education, especially in science education at the secondary school level, remains a major concern (Ministry of Education, 2005) in Bangladesh. However, no major change has occurred up until now with regard to the teaching-learning methods of science used in Bangladesh (Tapan, 2010). This chapter will, therefore, investigate how an intervention helps teachers to observe, critique and use a new teaching approach (Predict Observe Explain – POE) and engage themselves in professional learning through observing, sharing and challenging each other’s teaching practices. Data were drawn from 14 voluntary participant science teachers who were formed into seven peer pairs, from seven schools in Bangladesh. The findings of this research show that the use of a constructivist teaching approach (POE) encouraged participant teachers to change their teaching perceptions, which had been based on a traditional (didactic) approach. The intervention process guided participant teachers to develop the capacity for building shared leadership through sharing their teaching practices. The findings of this chapter have implications for policy makers to understand the nature of change in science teachers’ teaching perceptions regarding content knowledge, pedagogy and the classroom as a learning environment as well as the culture of teachers’ professional practice.
Professional learning (FL) has emerged as an important educational descriptor that is indicative of a shift in ways of understanding the development of teachers and teaching (Loughran, 2008). With increasing recognition of teaching as complex work (Goodson & Hargreaves, 1996; Loughran, 2010), professional learning has recently emerged as an issue of concern, because, as a construct it differs from that of traditional views of professional development (Hoban, 2002). With the global trends in education over the past two decades, the nature of teachers’ work has been challenged and that has led to a need to focus more on the subsequent professional learning (Pickering, Daly & Pacwer, 2007).
Quality education, especially in science education at the secondary school level, remains a major concern in Bangladesh (Ministry of Education, 2005). Throughout at least the last two decades, measures have been taken to change science teaching practice mainly through government and donor funded projects. However, no major change has occurred up until now with regard to the teaching-learning methods of science used in Bangladesh (Tapan, 2010). Teachers, in most cases, tend to teach the same things in the same ways they were taught when they were students.
Moreover, the teaching community also works in what appears to some to be a state of isolation with a lack of collegiality clearly apparent (Hossain, 2000). The current reform efforts in Bangladesh, therefore, require a substantive change in how science is taught; an equally substantive change is needed in the culture of professional practice.
This chapter, therefore, sets out to explore two basic aspects of secondary science teaching in Bangladesh. One is to guide participant teachers in changing their traditional teaching approach through the use of a concrete example of new teaching approach which is known as Predict, Observe and Explain (FOE). The second is to assist participant science teachers to change the culture of their existing professional practice. Specifically, the following research questions offer one way of thinking how to map the terrain of science teaching in the junior secondary level in Bangladesh and show how this research was organised.
1. How does learning about a new constructivist teaching approaches influence science teachers’ teaching perceptions about their practice?
2. How can science teacher’s professional learning influence the ways in which these teachers learn about, and develop, their professional practice?
The constructivist view of knowledge and learning has led to changes in teaching approaches in science education. These views have had a major influence on the thinking of science educators over the last two decades (Fensham, Gunstone, & White, 1994). Students come to class with their existing ideas from which they make sense of their world.
From a constructivist teaching point of view, the main concern in teaching science is “how to organize the physical and social experiences in a science classroom so as to encourage development or change in learners’ conceptions from their informal ideas to those of accepted school science” (Scott, Asoko, Driver, & Emberton, 1994, p. 201).
Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) is one example of a constructivist teaching strategy developed by White and Gunstone (1992). The POE strategy is often used in science teaching mostly in developed countries. It requires three tasks to be carried out. This strategy helps to uncover individual students’ predictions, and their reasons for making these about a specific event. Then students describe what they see in the demonstration – observation. Finally, students must reconcile any conflict between their prediction and observation – explanation (White & Gunstone, 1992). POEs can therefore be used to explore students’ ideas at the beginning of a topic, or to develop ideas during a topic, or to enhance understanding at the end of a topic (Gunstone & Mitchell, 1998). It is not about telling students the right answer at the end (Loughran, 2010).
Professional learning communities (PLCs)
Professional learning communities (PLCs), in general, focus on the process of learning for improvement and change in schools (Alberta Education, 2006; Kruse, Louis & Bryk, 1994). These communities also commit to fundamental changes in teaching practice (Kruse, et al., 1994). A PLC consists of a group of people who take “an active, reflective, collaborative, learning-oriented and growth-promoting approach toward both the mysteries and the problems of teaching and learning” (Mitchell & SacKney, 2001, p. 2). In essence, a PLC is explicitly a place where caring, responsible people nourish others’ learning in the context of authentic interactions.
Learning through classroom observation within a PLC
Teachers who are committed to improving their teaching practice like to be involved with their colleagues to improve their strategies (Roberts & Pruitt, 2009). The opportunity for observing each other’s classes particularly provides teachers with constructive feedback from their peers. It is not for collection of evidence for critique or evaluation of their teaching; rather it helps peers to collect evidence to critically analyse and work toward improving teaching practice. This ultimately helps teachers to learn about, reflect on and improve their instructional practice. Sergiovanni and Starratt (2007) also argued that the peer classroom observation processes help teachers to construct a shared pedagogical belief and strength as well as foster a culture in which they collaborate and learn from one another.
In essence, the outcome helps to build a community and a culture of collaborative instruction that enhances teaching and learning through job embedded training.
Moreover, all schools have their own culture. These cultural norms exert a powerful influence on how people think, feel and act (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). The school culture influences the cultures of professional practice of its members (Barth, 2001). Making a cultural shift is important for organisational improvement rather than its structural changes (DuFour, et aL, 2008; Eaker, DuFour & DuFour, 2002). DuFour, Eaker, DuFour, and Many (2006) cited some of the cultural shifts in teachers’ practice regarding purpose, students’ responses, teachers’ work, focus of daily activities, and approaches to professional development using their learning through classroom within a PLC.
The benefits of PLCs are well established in the literature. According to Hord (2004), involvement in PLCs helps to reduce isolation and encourages collaborative cultures between teachers. It also mobilises teachers in making major changes in how they interact with their colleagues in school. This process leads to increasing conversations between colleagues to demonstrate a higher commitment to their vision, mission, values and goals. In addition teachers find opportunities to gain deeper understandings and meaning related to their content area and to the overall curriculum in the school. PLCs also increase efficacy and collective responsibility of teachers (Hard, 2004; Lows & Kruse, 1995). Teachers in a PLC demonstrate higher confidence as they support each other, which leads them to feel renewed and inspired professionally.
This study followed a mixed method research design with a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A mixed research design allows a better understanding of this research problem since it allows quantification of participants’ responses in broad terms as well as providing qualitative detail about their personal perceptions (plano Clark & Creswell, 2010). To address the abovementioned two research questions of the study, I used an intervention. This intervention combined the following items sequentially.
(i) Using a new constructivist teaching approach Predict-Observe-Explain (POE)
(ii) (ii) Observing colleagues’ teaching practice
(iii) Reflecting on classroom observation schedule
(iv) Attending a post-teaching discussion
(v) Attending a professional workshop
Items (i) to (v) constituted a cycle sequentially. In this research, I conducted this cycle four times, in order to better understand the intervention and possible changes to teachers’ practice. It is also noted that after each cycle participant teachers within each peer pair went back to teaching and observation as before with a swap of responsibility. They also use different topics for their teaching in each cycle.
Data were collected from seven conveniently selected secondary schools. There were 14 voluntarily participant science teachers altogether in this study. One peer pair of voluntarily participant science teachers was formed from all available science teachers in each school. Each individual peer pair was then followed up through classroom observations, post-teaching discussion and professional workshops to see how ideas from different components of the intervention influenced their science teaching practices and culture of professional practice.
A range of different instruments was used in this study. These included a classroom observation schedule, guidelines for the post teaching discussion, professional workshop, field notes.
In analysing the classroom observation schedule, I used a framework named, ‘ARLA’ (Activity-Reflection-Learning-Action). This framework is derived from the work of Roberts and Pruitt (2009) for the analysis of learning through classroom observation. I analysed how activities in the classroom, post-teaching discussion and professional workshops prompted participant teachers to learn through reconstruction of their subjective meanings about the interventions that guided change in their teaching perceptions in collaboration with their colleagues. The analysis then examined how much participant teachers transformed their learning from the intervention process into action. The accompanying notes from post-teaching discussion and professional workshop were transcribed and analysed using NVivo software.
This section of the chapter looks at the results of the intervention used in this study. These findings then serve as a guide to identify the changes both in teaching perceptions and the culture of professional practice within the teacher participants and their professional community.
The teaching topic-1 was from the Physics section of General Science in Grade VII. The teachers demonstrated an experiment for understanding the characteristics of the pressure of liquid. The teaching topic-2 was from the Chemistry section of General Science in grade VII. The teacher demonstrated an experiment by preparing a saturated solution by adding salt/sugar to an unsaturated solution. The teaching topic-3 was from the Physics part of -General Science- in Grade VIII. The teacher did an experiment with the refraction of light. The teacher used some water in a cup/glass/beaker and dipped a thin stick/pen obliquely into it. The teaching topic-4 was from the Biology part of General Science in Grade VIII. The teacher used a model and a chart of the human brain to explain its different parts. The participant science teachers planned their teaching based on the use of the POE teaching approach.
The lesson was then reflected upon, individually, after each teaching session using a classroom observation schedule. The schedule comprised four sections: (i) resources; (ii) content knowledge and its organization; (iii) pedagogy; and, (iv) classroom learning environment. Each individual section contained several items of interest. This schedule provided a choice based on three categories in terms of the extent to which the teacher emphasised each of the four sections: did not emphasise; recommended more emphasis; and, accomplished very well for an individual item.
The following tables (Tables 1-4) present changes recorded in the reflection observation schedule. These changes are basically for any specific items in the observation schedule from the first time that the teacher taught a class while being observed. This was then compared with the second time when the same teacher taught a class based on both self and observer reflection schedule. It is also notable that the changes here are reported in terms of individual teachers.
(To be continued)
(S.M.Hafizur Rahman works in University of Dhaka)
Quality education, especially in science education at the secondary school level, remains a major concern (Ministry of Education, 2005) in Bangladesh. However, no major change has occurred up until now with regard to the teaching-learning methods of science used in Bangladesh (Tapan, 2010). This chapter will, therefore, investigate how an intervention helps teachers to observe, critique and use a new teaching approach (Predict Observe Explain – POE) and engage themselves in professional learning through observing, sharing and challenging each other’s teaching practices. Data were drawn from 14 voluntary participant science teachers who were formed into seven peer pairs, from seven schools in Bangladesh. The findings of this research show that the use of a constructivist teaching approach (POE) encouraged participant teachers to change their teaching perceptions, which had been based on a traditional (didactic) approach. The intervention process guided participant teachers to develop the capacity for building shared leadership through sharing their teaching practices. The findings of this chapter have implications for policy makers to understand the nature of change in science teachers’ teaching perceptions regarding content knowledge, pedagogy and the classroom as a learning environment as well as the culture of teachers’ professional practice.
Professional learning (FL) has emerged as an important educational descriptor that is indicative of a shift in ways of understanding the development of teachers and teaching (Loughran, 2008). With increasing recognition of teaching as complex work (Goodson & Hargreaves, 1996; Loughran, 2010), professional learning has recently emerged as an issue of concern, because, as a construct it differs from that of traditional views of professional development (Hoban, 2002). With the global trends in education over the past two decades, the nature of teachers’ work has been challenged and that has led to a need to focus more on the subsequent professional learning (Pickering, Daly & Pacwer, 2007).
Quality education, especially in science education at the secondary school level, remains a major concern in Bangladesh (Ministry of Education, 2005). Throughout at least the last two decades, measures have been taken to change science teaching practice mainly through government and donor funded projects. However, no major change has occurred up until now with regard to the teaching-learning methods of science used in Bangladesh (Tapan, 2010). Teachers, in most cases, tend to teach the same things in the same ways they were taught when they were students.
Moreover, the teaching community also works in what appears to some to be a state of isolation with a lack of collegiality clearly apparent (Hossain, 2000). The current reform efforts in Bangladesh, therefore, require a substantive change in how science is taught; an equally substantive change is needed in the culture of professional practice.
This chapter, therefore, sets out to explore two basic aspects of secondary science teaching in Bangladesh. One is to guide participant teachers in changing their traditional teaching approach through the use of a concrete example of new teaching approach which is known as Predict, Observe and Explain (FOE). The second is to assist participant science teachers to change the culture of their existing professional practice. Specifically, the following research questions offer one way of thinking how to map the terrain of science teaching in the junior secondary level in Bangladesh and show how this research was organised.
1. How does learning about a new constructivist teaching approaches influence science teachers’ teaching perceptions about their practice?
2. How can science teacher’s professional learning influence the ways in which these teachers learn about, and develop, their professional practice?
The constructivist view of knowledge and learning has led to changes in teaching approaches in science education. These views have had a major influence on the thinking of science educators over the last two decades (Fensham, Gunstone, & White, 1994). Students come to class with their existing ideas from which they make sense of their world.
From a constructivist teaching point of view, the main concern in teaching science is “how to organize the physical and social experiences in a science classroom so as to encourage development or change in learners’ conceptions from their informal ideas to those of accepted school science” (Scott, Asoko, Driver, & Emberton, 1994, p. 201).
Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) is one example of a constructivist teaching strategy developed by White and Gunstone (1992). The POE strategy is often used in science teaching mostly in developed countries. It requires three tasks to be carried out. This strategy helps to uncover individual students’ predictions, and their reasons for making these about a specific event. Then students describe what they see in the demonstration – observation. Finally, students must reconcile any conflict between their prediction and observation – explanation (White & Gunstone, 1992). POEs can therefore be used to explore students’ ideas at the beginning of a topic, or to develop ideas during a topic, or to enhance understanding at the end of a topic (Gunstone & Mitchell, 1998). It is not about telling students the right answer at the end (Loughran, 2010).
Professional learning communities (PLCs)
Professional learning communities (PLCs), in general, focus on the process of learning for improvement and change in schools (Alberta Education, 2006; Kruse, Louis & Bryk, 1994). These communities also commit to fundamental changes in teaching practice (Kruse, et al., 1994). A PLC consists of a group of people who take “an active, reflective, collaborative, learning-oriented and growth-promoting approach toward both the mysteries and the problems of teaching and learning” (Mitchell & SacKney, 2001, p. 2). In essence, a PLC is explicitly a place where caring, responsible people nourish others’ learning in the context of authentic interactions.
Learning through classroom observation within a PLC
Teachers who are committed to improving their teaching practice like to be involved with their colleagues to improve their strategies (Roberts & Pruitt, 2009). The opportunity for observing each other’s classes particularly provides teachers with constructive feedback from their peers. It is not for collection of evidence for critique or evaluation of their teaching; rather it helps peers to collect evidence to critically analyse and work toward improving teaching practice. This ultimately helps teachers to learn about, reflect on and improve their instructional practice. Sergiovanni and Starratt (2007) also argued that the peer classroom observation processes help teachers to construct a shared pedagogical belief and strength as well as foster a culture in which they collaborate and learn from one another.
In essence, the outcome helps to build a community and a culture of collaborative instruction that enhances teaching and learning through job embedded training.
Moreover, all schools have their own culture. These cultural norms exert a powerful influence on how people think, feel and act (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). The school culture influences the cultures of professional practice of its members (Barth, 2001). Making a cultural shift is important for organisational improvement rather than its structural changes (DuFour, et aL, 2008; Eaker, DuFour & DuFour, 2002). DuFour, Eaker, DuFour, and Many (2006) cited some of the cultural shifts in teachers’ practice regarding purpose, students’ responses, teachers’ work, focus of daily activities, and approaches to professional development using their learning through classroom within a PLC.
The benefits of PLCs are well established in the literature. According to Hord (2004), involvement in PLCs helps to reduce isolation and encourages collaborative cultures between teachers. It also mobilises teachers in making major changes in how they interact with their colleagues in school. This process leads to increasing conversations between colleagues to demonstrate a higher commitment to their vision, mission, values and goals. In addition teachers find opportunities to gain deeper understandings and meaning related to their content area and to the overall curriculum in the school. PLCs also increase efficacy and collective responsibility of teachers (Hard, 2004; Lows & Kruse, 1995). Teachers in a PLC demonstrate higher confidence as they support each other, which leads them to feel renewed and inspired professionally.
This study followed a mixed method research design with a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A mixed research design allows a better understanding of this research problem since it allows quantification of participants’ responses in broad terms as well as providing qualitative detail about their personal perceptions (plano Clark & Creswell, 2010). To address the abovementioned two research questions of the study, I used an intervention. This intervention combined the following items sequentially.
(i) Using a new constructivist teaching approach Predict-Observe-Explain (POE)
(ii) (ii) Observing colleagues’ teaching practice
(iii) Reflecting on classroom observation schedule
(iv) Attending a post-teaching discussion
(v) Attending a professional workshop
Items (i) to (v) constituted a cycle sequentially. In this research, I conducted this cycle four times, in order to better understand the intervention and possible changes to teachers’ practice. It is also noted that after each cycle participant teachers within each peer pair went back to teaching and observation as before with a swap of responsibility. They also use different topics for their teaching in each cycle.
Data were collected from seven conveniently selected secondary schools. There were 14 voluntarily participant science teachers altogether in this study. One peer pair of voluntarily participant science teachers was formed from all available science teachers in each school. Each individual peer pair was then followed up through classroom observations, post-teaching discussion and professional workshops to see how ideas from different components of the intervention influenced their science teaching practices and culture of professional practice.
A range of different instruments was used in this study. These included a classroom observation schedule, guidelines for the post teaching discussion, professional workshop, field notes.
In analysing the classroom observation schedule, I used a framework named, ‘ARLA’ (Activity-Reflection-Learning-Action). This framework is derived from the work of Roberts and Pruitt (2009) for the analysis of learning through classroom observation. I analysed how activities in the classroom, post-teaching discussion and professional workshops prompted participant teachers to learn through reconstruction of their subjective meanings about the interventions that guided change in their teaching perceptions in collaboration with their colleagues. The analysis then examined how much participant teachers transformed their learning from the intervention process into action. The accompanying notes from post-teaching discussion and professional workshop were transcribed and analysed using NVivo software.
This section of the chapter looks at the results of the intervention used in this study. These findings then serve as a guide to identify the changes both in teaching perceptions and the culture of professional practice within the teacher participants and their professional community.
The teaching topic-1 was from the Physics section of General Science in Grade VII. The teachers demonstrated an experiment for understanding the characteristics of the pressure of liquid. The teaching topic-2 was from the Chemistry section of General Science in grade VII. The teacher demonstrated an experiment by preparing a saturated solution by adding salt/sugar to an unsaturated solution. The teaching topic-3 was from the Physics part of -General Science- in Grade VIII. The teacher did an experiment with the refraction of light. The teacher used some water in a cup/glass/beaker and dipped a thin stick/pen obliquely into it. The teaching topic-4 was from the Biology part of General Science in Grade VIII. The teacher used a model and a chart of the human brain to explain its different parts. The participant science teachers planned their teaching based on the use of the POE teaching approach.
The lesson was then reflected upon, individually, after each teaching session using a classroom observation schedule. The schedule comprised four sections: (i) resources; (ii) content knowledge and its organization; (iii) pedagogy; and, (iv) classroom learning environment. Each individual section contained several items of interest. This schedule provided a choice based on three categories in terms of the extent to which the teacher emphasised each of the four sections: did not emphasise; recommended more emphasis; and, accomplished very well for an individual item.
The following tables (Tables 1-4) present changes recorded in the reflection observation schedule. These changes are basically for any specific items in the observation schedule from the first time that the teacher taught a class while being observed. This was then compared with the second time when the same teacher taught a class based on both self and observer reflection schedule. It is also notable that the changes here are reported in terms of individual teachers.
(To be continued)
(S.M.Hafizur Rahman works in University of Dhaka)
