SM Hafizur Rahman :
(From previous issue)
The POE teaching approach may guide participant science teachers to bring about a change in the classroom learning environment. This claim is evident when in most teaching sessions, teachers received recommendations to provide opportunities for their students to mention their problems during the teaching sessions. These teachers considered this issue as their learning though they did not necessarily transform their learning into action in their subsequent teaching session as expected, The data suggest that such learning may help these teachers to provide more scope for students to mention their own problems regarding their understanding during the class and therefore could help these teachers review their teacher-centred approach.
Changing culture of professional practice
This section of the chapter discusses the impact of establishing a professional learning community among the participant science teachers. It has already been mentioned that through the intervention these teachers were supported in attempting to develop PLCs for their professional learning to encourage and help to improve their practice and therefore enhance their students’ learning of science. The discussions also sought to find out influences on the ways in which these teachers learnt about, and developed, their practice. These discussions ultimately led to a change in the culture of their professional practice.
This section discusses how the intervention process empowered participant teachers to share their power, authority and decision-making. The intervention process gradually helped participant teachers feel more comfortable to share their feedback with their colleagues. It is evident that initially these teachers felt shy or hesitant in sharing; however, gradually they realised that it helped them to improve their teaching and they felt more comfortable in so doing in the latter part of the intervention implementation stage. The collaborative process allowed them to expand their capacity in developing a personal vision for their own teaching practice for enhancing student learning (Senge, 2000). As a consequence of their experiences, these teachers may well find in the future that they have now developed ways of working together as a teaching community based on collaborative approaches rather than a state of isolation.
These collaborative processes also helped them to explore how they taught and the problems inherent in their teaching. For example, they identified the positive and negative aspects from the teaching of their colleagues and in many cases they reflected on these issues in their own teaching. These opportunities provided scope for them to reflect upon and know more about their own performance. In most cases they received constructive suggestions about their challenges from their practice and found an opportunity to exchange their views with other colleagues in their schools that allowed them to take the opportunity to know more about their own performance.
The process of shared personal practice also guided teachers to act as ‘change facilitators’ for individual and school improvement. This basically helped them to encourage and support each other. It is evident that participant teachers supported each other to adopt a new teaching strategy (POE) during the intervention process. They discussed failures and successes in implementing this teaching strategy and discussion helped them to facilitate students’ involvement in their learning during different teaching cycles. These discussions also supported the enhancement of subject and pedagogical knowledge through examining and questioning their existing practice.
The schedule and structure offered by this intervention also helped to reduce the state of isolation among these teachers, and such isolation is a very common complaint for teachers in Bangladesh. The intervention process also encouraged these teachers to find new approaches toward communication structures with their colleagues. This structure may have helped these teachers to come together as a unit to do the learning, and support decision making, problem solving, and creative work in way that characterise a professional learning community (Hord, 2004). Moreover, the intervention process helped these teachers to know each other regarding their knowledge and pedagogical aspects from a very personal level and facilitated face-to-face professional interaction within a learning community. These practices helped them to develop a collegial attitude and relationship. The intervention also supported these teachers to change their culture of professional practice.
Implications of the findings
The research findings have an implication for science teachers in terms of the use of resources in their teaching. Participant teachers conducted their teaching using teaching aids as purposeful tools due to the demands of implementing the POE teaching strategy. Moreover, it could be helpful to think about using more teaching aids to develop a sense of purpose in their students. It would also obviously be more worthwhile if they concentrated on collecting more from the local environment rather than relying on sophisticated or expensive aids as one way of counteracting the weak financial situation of their schools.
Participant teachers to some extent found difficulty in explaining substantive concepts of some science subjects to their students. The POE teaching approach and post-teaching discussions within the intervention process guided teachers to find ways to clarify their content knowledge. Teachers found their colleagues to be resources with whom they could share and clarify their content knowledge and share views about their personal practices. This means that it could be helpful for teachers to think about continuing to use a constructivist teaching approach in future and across more content areas in science. Moreover, their commitment to sharing could bring about a change in their practice, enabling them to explain their subject matter more confidently and overcome the tendency to conceive of science knowledge in narrow ways. Their students may then be encouraged to transform their approaches from surface to deep learning.
The findings of this research also reveal participant teachers’ lack of familiarity with real life examples regarding the relevance of science concepts to their students’ everyday lives. The intervention process motivated participating teachers to find ways of looking for the relevance to real-life situations. Students were then encouraged to make decisions about the utility and relevance of the subject to their everyday life. Moreover the collaborative practice during the intervention process helped these teachers to learn about more examples from their colleagues.
This means that it could be helpful for science teachers to actively search for relevance of science to the environment around them and to continue collaborative activities that foster these efforts through sharing among their colleagues within and across schools.
These teachers like to use traditional teaching methods based on talk, test and demonstrations. However, in using the POE teaching approach participant science teachers found a change in certain areas of their pedagogical knowledge. These included finding a theme to present the overall concept, upholding the purpose of the lesson by maintaining an appropriate and logical teaching sequence, and considering students’ prior knowledge. All of which helped to change the learning environment in the classrooms. Through sharing activities with colleagues within and across the schools these teachers found it helpful in making more informed decisions about teaching design. It could therefore be helpful for science teachers to think about how to continue a constructivist teaching approach and structures for continuing the sharing culture them made them more confident about their pedagogical decision-making in their practice.
The findings of this research also revealed that these teachers found it difficult to set challenging goals and to use hands-on teaching methods that involved collaborative activities with others. However, through using the POE and collaborating with colleagues they found themselves much more confident in developing and using hands on activities. The collaborative activities empowered them to share, which expanded their capacity to develop a personal vision for their own teaching practice.
The research findings also revealed that participant teachers were not satisfied with existing didactic professional development programs. First of all, in most cases they were not getting the content they needed. They were not satisfied with what was offered and found that it did not match their current needs regarding the complex nature of teaching and learning and had little impact on their practice because of the lack of account of the contextual realities of schools and their students. However, though they did not find time and were not used to sharing their practice, they showed positive views regarding their interest in sharing. The intervention process mainly encouraged these teachers to share with their colleagues to deal with ongoing problems in classroom practice. They found opportunities to share their current needs with their colleagues and these opportunities led to a greater degree of comfort about sharing.
They learnt more from colleagues and raised issues about their needs through this process of job-embedded training. This means it could be helpful for science teachers to think about incorporating a sharing culture rather than staying in isolation.
The findings of this research revealed that the intervention outcomes created new opportunities for participants to clarify their ideas, and design lessons with an appropriate teaching sequence that allowed them to change the learning environment of their classes. Moreover, they developed a positive attitude to learning through sharing. This means that it could helpful for all science background teachers to join in discussions with their science colleagues, to observe their classes and discuss the agenda for teaching with a focus on the development of cognitive skills for better understanding of science.
Participant science teachers found the collaborative ways of the intervention process as positive for enhancing their practice. They also expressed their commitment to continue these activities. So it could be helpful to think about professional development programs that could support these activities in schools in terms of resources rather than developing didactic professional development programs that have little impact on teachers’ practice and are poorly regarded by participants.
The status of secondary education in Bangladesh has drawn the attention of the government, educators, domestic and international NGOs and aid agencies. Improvement of the quality of secondary science teachers is the main focus of their concern. In Bangladesh, very little research has been conducted in the area of science teaching. Therefore, this study provides a new direction for policy in terms of what it might mean for implementing change in secondary science teaching in Bangladesh. The findings of this study may also help researchers in science education and the education authorities to come to grips with the current status of secondary science teaching and the extent to which that influences teacher and student learning. Through its exploration of a learning community, this study informs teacher educators about the conditions that support (or hinder) collegial development. Moreover, the above findings from this study should enable policy makers to plan more appropriately for ongoing professional development, and then the more important professional learning opportunities, for secondary science teachers in Bangladesh. The Teacher Quality Improvement -Phase II project will be the best place to address all of these issues to bring an immediate change in secondary science teaching 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 teachers’ experiences of using the POE approach guided them in changing their views about collecting and using teaching aids in their practice. Moreover, the POE approach also helped them come to see the importance of students’ prior knowledge and the value of exploring students’ alternative conceptions. The teachers also came to develop logical teaching sequences using the POE approach that may have helped them to build effective learning environments in their classrooms in ways different to that which they had previously experienced. In addition, the collaborative activities amongst their colleagues within and across the schools helped them to re-examine and reconstruct their understandings of teaching and its relationship to student learning. Moreover, the findings also show that the development of the idea of a PLC reinforced the value of professional learning through job-embedded learning.
(Concluded)
(From previous issue)
The POE teaching approach may guide participant science teachers to bring about a change in the classroom learning environment. This claim is evident when in most teaching sessions, teachers received recommendations to provide opportunities for their students to mention their problems during the teaching sessions. These teachers considered this issue as their learning though they did not necessarily transform their learning into action in their subsequent teaching session as expected, The data suggest that such learning may help these teachers to provide more scope for students to mention their own problems regarding their understanding during the class and therefore could help these teachers review their teacher-centred approach.
Changing culture of professional practice
This section of the chapter discusses the impact of establishing a professional learning community among the participant science teachers. It has already been mentioned that through the intervention these teachers were supported in attempting to develop PLCs for their professional learning to encourage and help to improve their practice and therefore enhance their students’ learning of science. The discussions also sought to find out influences on the ways in which these teachers learnt about, and developed, their practice. These discussions ultimately led to a change in the culture of their professional practice.
This section discusses how the intervention process empowered participant teachers to share their power, authority and decision-making. The intervention process gradually helped participant teachers feel more comfortable to share their feedback with their colleagues. It is evident that initially these teachers felt shy or hesitant in sharing; however, gradually they realised that it helped them to improve their teaching and they felt more comfortable in so doing in the latter part of the intervention implementation stage. The collaborative process allowed them to expand their capacity in developing a personal vision for their own teaching practice for enhancing student learning (Senge, 2000). As a consequence of their experiences, these teachers may well find in the future that they have now developed ways of working together as a teaching community based on collaborative approaches rather than a state of isolation.
These collaborative processes also helped them to explore how they taught and the problems inherent in their teaching. For example, they identified the positive and negative aspects from the teaching of their colleagues and in many cases they reflected on these issues in their own teaching. These opportunities provided scope for them to reflect upon and know more about their own performance. In most cases they received constructive suggestions about their challenges from their practice and found an opportunity to exchange their views with other colleagues in their schools that allowed them to take the opportunity to know more about their own performance.
The process of shared personal practice also guided teachers to act as ‘change facilitators’ for individual and school improvement. This basically helped them to encourage and support each other. It is evident that participant teachers supported each other to adopt a new teaching strategy (POE) during the intervention process. They discussed failures and successes in implementing this teaching strategy and discussion helped them to facilitate students’ involvement in their learning during different teaching cycles. These discussions also supported the enhancement of subject and pedagogical knowledge through examining and questioning their existing practice.
The schedule and structure offered by this intervention also helped to reduce the state of isolation among these teachers, and such isolation is a very common complaint for teachers in Bangladesh. The intervention process also encouraged these teachers to find new approaches toward communication structures with their colleagues. This structure may have helped these teachers to come together as a unit to do the learning, and support decision making, problem solving, and creative work in way that characterise a professional learning community (Hord, 2004). Moreover, the intervention process helped these teachers to know each other regarding their knowledge and pedagogical aspects from a very personal level and facilitated face-to-face professional interaction within a learning community. These practices helped them to develop a collegial attitude and relationship. The intervention also supported these teachers to change their culture of professional practice.
Implications of the findings
The research findings have an implication for science teachers in terms of the use of resources in their teaching. Participant teachers conducted their teaching using teaching aids as purposeful tools due to the demands of implementing the POE teaching strategy. Moreover, it could be helpful to think about using more teaching aids to develop a sense of purpose in their students. It would also obviously be more worthwhile if they concentrated on collecting more from the local environment rather than relying on sophisticated or expensive aids as one way of counteracting the weak financial situation of their schools.
Participant teachers to some extent found difficulty in explaining substantive concepts of some science subjects to their students. The POE teaching approach and post-teaching discussions within the intervention process guided teachers to find ways to clarify their content knowledge. Teachers found their colleagues to be resources with whom they could share and clarify their content knowledge and share views about their personal practices. This means that it could be helpful for teachers to think about continuing to use a constructivist teaching approach in future and across more content areas in science. Moreover, their commitment to sharing could bring about a change in their practice, enabling them to explain their subject matter more confidently and overcome the tendency to conceive of science knowledge in narrow ways. Their students may then be encouraged to transform their approaches from surface to deep learning.
The findings of this research also reveal participant teachers’ lack of familiarity with real life examples regarding the relevance of science concepts to their students’ everyday lives. The intervention process motivated participating teachers to find ways of looking for the relevance to real-life situations. Students were then encouraged to make decisions about the utility and relevance of the subject to their everyday life. Moreover the collaborative practice during the intervention process helped these teachers to learn about more examples from their colleagues.
This means that it could be helpful for science teachers to actively search for relevance of science to the environment around them and to continue collaborative activities that foster these efforts through sharing among their colleagues within and across schools.
These teachers like to use traditional teaching methods based on talk, test and demonstrations. However, in using the POE teaching approach participant science teachers found a change in certain areas of their pedagogical knowledge. These included finding a theme to present the overall concept, upholding the purpose of the lesson by maintaining an appropriate and logical teaching sequence, and considering students’ prior knowledge. All of which helped to change the learning environment in the classrooms. Through sharing activities with colleagues within and across the schools these teachers found it helpful in making more informed decisions about teaching design. It could therefore be helpful for science teachers to think about how to continue a constructivist teaching approach and structures for continuing the sharing culture them made them more confident about their pedagogical decision-making in their practice.
The findings of this research also revealed that these teachers found it difficult to set challenging goals and to use hands-on teaching methods that involved collaborative activities with others. However, through using the POE and collaborating with colleagues they found themselves much more confident in developing and using hands on activities. The collaborative activities empowered them to share, which expanded their capacity to develop a personal vision for their own teaching practice.
The research findings also revealed that participant teachers were not satisfied with existing didactic professional development programs. First of all, in most cases they were not getting the content they needed. They were not satisfied with what was offered and found that it did not match their current needs regarding the complex nature of teaching and learning and had little impact on their practice because of the lack of account of the contextual realities of schools and their students. However, though they did not find time and were not used to sharing their practice, they showed positive views regarding their interest in sharing. The intervention process mainly encouraged these teachers to share with their colleagues to deal with ongoing problems in classroom practice. They found opportunities to share their current needs with their colleagues and these opportunities led to a greater degree of comfort about sharing.
They learnt more from colleagues and raised issues about their needs through this process of job-embedded training. This means it could be helpful for science teachers to think about incorporating a sharing culture rather than staying in isolation.
The findings of this research revealed that the intervention outcomes created new opportunities for participants to clarify their ideas, and design lessons with an appropriate teaching sequence that allowed them to change the learning environment of their classes. Moreover, they developed a positive attitude to learning through sharing. This means that it could helpful for all science background teachers to join in discussions with their science colleagues, to observe their classes and discuss the agenda for teaching with a focus on the development of cognitive skills for better understanding of science.
Participant science teachers found the collaborative ways of the intervention process as positive for enhancing their practice. They also expressed their commitment to continue these activities. So it could be helpful to think about professional development programs that could support these activities in schools in terms of resources rather than developing didactic professional development programs that have little impact on teachers’ practice and are poorly regarded by participants.
The status of secondary education in Bangladesh has drawn the attention of the government, educators, domestic and international NGOs and aid agencies. Improvement of the quality of secondary science teachers is the main focus of their concern. In Bangladesh, very little research has been conducted in the area of science teaching. Therefore, this study provides a new direction for policy in terms of what it might mean for implementing change in secondary science teaching in Bangladesh. The findings of this study may also help researchers in science education and the education authorities to come to grips with the current status of secondary science teaching and the extent to which that influences teacher and student learning. Through its exploration of a learning community, this study informs teacher educators about the conditions that support (or hinder) collegial development. Moreover, the above findings from this study should enable policy makers to plan more appropriately for ongoing professional development, and then the more important professional learning opportunities, for secondary science teachers in Bangladesh. The Teacher Quality Improvement -Phase II project will be the best place to address all of these issues to bring an immediate change in secondary science teaching 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 teachers’ experiences of using the POE approach guided them in changing their views about collecting and using teaching aids in their practice. Moreover, the POE approach also helped them come to see the importance of students’ prior knowledge and the value of exploring students’ alternative conceptions. The teachers also came to develop logical teaching sequences using the POE approach that may have helped them to build effective learning environments in their classrooms in ways different to that which they had previously experienced. In addition, the collaborative activities amongst their colleagues within and across the schools helped them to re-examine and reconstruct their understandings of teaching and its relationship to student learning. Moreover, the findings also show that the development of the idea of a PLC reinforced the value of professional learning through job-embedded learning.
(Concluded)
