Science Teachers' Identity Processes in the Context of Professional Development: A Diary Study

• In Event: Teacher Identity and Motivation: Concepts, Research Designs, and Empirical Examples

Abstract

Objectives
Despite continuous efforts to promote student-centered teaching, research suggests that science teachers struggle to implement such strategies into practice (Singer & Schweingruber, 2012), even following professional development (PD) that focuses on reform-oriented, inquiry-based teaching (Capps & Crawford, 2013; Vicens & Caspersen, 2014). The objective of this study was to investigate the processes that underlie the motivation of science teacher PD participants to incorporate student-centered inquiry-based science instruction into their practices.

Theoretical Perspective
The Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) (Kaplan, 2014), the study’s framework, views teachers’ motivations to implement new teaching practices as based in changes in their professional identities. The DSMRI suggests new practices are implemented when they coordinate with the teacher’s dynamically changing ontological and epistemological beliefs, goals for teaching, self-perceptions, and perceived action possibilities.

Methods and Data Sources
Ten secondary science teachers from different domains (biology, chemistry, physics, earth science) attended an 8-day, hands-on science PD institute that used an inquiry-based instructional approach. Each participant wrote a daily reflection in response to two prompts asking about: (1) the relevance of each day’s activity, and (2) the activity’s potential impact on their classroom teaching. A qualitative data analysis followed a combined deductive (based on the DSMRI components and their relations) and inductive (data-driven) approach to result in a depiction of the identity and motivational processes and their fluctuations across the 8 days of the institute for each participant. Cross-participant comparisons identified unique and shared processes.

Findings
The analysis indicated that participants noted all four components of the DSMRI in their daily reflections; however, the most salient and oft-referenced components were ontological and epistemological beliefs and action possibilities in teaching, with the content of these components relating to the particular topic presented in the PD of each day. For instance, on days involving group work, participants’ reflections included beliefs regarding students needing extensive time for successful inquiry-based group learning, which were aligned with their stronger or weaker endorsement of inquiry-oriented instruction as action possibilities based upon the possibility of actually providing such time. Participants’ intentions to change differed; for some, the PD triggered a sense of tension between newly acquired beliefs (e.g., effective assessment) and current actions that prompted intentions for change (e.g., investing more time to ensure alignment among course goals, design, and assessments). Participants’ self-perceptions and teaching goals were less prominent in the data, albeit still present, and were aligned with the other DSMRI components. Finally, the analysis highlighted that participants often integrated their PD participant role and teaching role.

Scholarly Significance
The DSMRI-based analysis of the data provided an in-depth and systematic insight into the processes underlying participants’ connection of their PD experiences to their teacher role and intended instructional practice. The analysis highlighted the shared and unique processes by which the identity components that were salient to the teachers framed their PD experiences and guided their motivation to incorporate changes in their classrooms. Effective PD requires attention to the professional identities of the participating teachers, as these frame their reactions to PD.

Authors

• Melissa St. Pierre, Community College of Philadelphia

• Mariel Halpern, Temple University