Teachers ’ professional growth: a collaborative ambition

Teachers’ professional growth: a collaborative ambition Dirk Van Damme Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress division - OECD/EDU Education International Research Network meeting, Brussels – 11 April 2013

Context and agency in teaching practices agency context

Features of professional communities • Five central features of professional learning communities • Cooperation • Exchange • Teach jointly • Shared vision • A focus on learning • Reflective inquiry • De-privatisation of practice

Features of professional communities In 20 out of 23 TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were separated on this item • Five central features of professional learning communities • Cooperation • Exchange • Teach jointly • Shared vision • A focus on learning • Reflective inquiry • De-privatisation of practice

Features of professional communities In 20 out of 23 TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were separated on this item In half of the TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were also separated on this item • Five central features of professional learning communities • Cooperation • Exchange • Teach jointly • Shared vision • A focus on learning • Reflective inquiry • De-privatisation of practice

Features of professional communities In 20 out of 23 TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were separated on this item In some of the TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were also separated on this item In half of the TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were also separated on this item • Five central features of professional learning communities • Cooperation • Exchange • Teach jointly • Shared vision • A focus on learning • Reflective inquiry • De-privatisation of practice

Features of professional communities In 20 out of 23 TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were separated on this item In some of the TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were also separated on this item In half of the TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were also separated on this item In one of the TALIS 2008 countries teacher profiles were also separated on this item • Five central features of professional learning communities • Cooperation • Exchange • Teach jointly • Shared vision • A focus on learning • Reflective inquiry • De-privatisation of practice

Features of professional communities • Ideally, a professional community exists only if all 5 features are realized • It makes a lot of sense to see ‘joint teaching’ as the most critical (advanced?) feature of teacher professionalism • Teacher profiles discriminate most on this item, in most of the TALIS countries • Instead of looking at the overall distribution, it is better to compare differences in factor scores between teacher profiles across countries

Country examples: Group 1Austria, Belgium (Fl.), Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, and Turkey

Country examples: Group 2Ireland, Malta, Mexico, and Spain

Country examples: Group 3Australia, Brazil, and Denmark

Country examples: Exception Korea

Collaborative practice is the heart of teacher professionalism • Teachers who participate more in collaborative practice are more ‘professional’ • Use more diverse teaching practices • Report higher levels of self-efficacy • Receive more feedback and appraisal, more specifically for innovative teaching • Report being more involved in PD outside school, especially PD which is in itself collaborative • Report being more engaged in mentoring

Results of multinomial multilevel regression predicting teacher membership in profiles of participation in professional learning communities – overview over teacher level effects in all countries

Results of multinomial multilevel regression predicting teacher membership in profiles of participation in professional learning communities – overview over teacher level effects in all countries Participation in collaborative practice is not associated with constructivist beliefs

Results of multinomial multilevel regression predicting teacher membership in profiles of participation in professional learning communities – overview over school level effects in all countries

Relationship between teachers' professional development activities and teacher cooperation (2007-08)Net effects of professional development on teacher cooperation (standardised beta coefficients), controlling for teacher gender, experience, level of education and subject taught in the target class

Distribution of variance for collaborative practice agency context

Analysis Professional collaboration – especially in its strongest form of teaching jointly – and de-privatisation of teaching are the most critical – and contested – dimensions of teacher professionalism Belonging to teacher profiles which score highly on professional collaboration is associated with specific forms of professional development which are also collaborative, not individual Yet, schools do not yet function as learning organisations supporting the development of professional communities. School-level factors do not seem to matter a lot.

Interpretation Teacher professionalism is characterised by collaborative practice and constructed by collective action. A teacher profession is best defined as a learning community. Practices which reduce individual autonomy in exchange of professional collaboration are also the most difficult to realise. To realise them more ‘agency’ is needed to ‘beat’ the context. But they are also associated with higher self-efficacy.

Speculation • Overcoming an individual definition of teacher quality is perhaps the most critical step in • The professional growth of teachers • The development of the profession. • Professional growth can only be realised through collaborative practice and collective action

Thank you ! dirk.vandamme@oecd.org www.oecd.org/edu/ceri twitter @VanDammeEDU

Teachers ’ professional growth: a collaborative ambition