Impacting on Teacher Development: A Practice Framework to Improve Teaching in Australia

• In Event: International Perspectives on Using Frameworks of Practice to Improve Teaching

Abstract

Purpose
While there is growing advocacy of the need for pedagogical frameworks to guide the improvement of teaching, this paper cautions against the use of frameworks that over-simplify the complex, multi-dimensional enterprise of teaching (Jackson, 1968). Instead of focussing on specific teaching practices, as is the case in some frameworks the argument is made here for a framework that highlights ‘the practice of teaching’ (Lampert, 2009), with potentially profound consequences for teachers’ intellectual, attitudinal and behavioural learning (Evans, 2014). The paper explores the impact of the featured framework, Quality Teaching (NSW DET, 2003), using both observational and interview data gathered within the context of a randomised controlled trial.

Theoretical perspective
This paper begins from the premise that teacher development is critical to the improvement of teaching. It also acknowledges a dearth of empirical research demonstrating professional development activities that impact on teaching practice (Hill, Beisiegel, & Jacob, 2013; Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008). Acknowledging issues with both conceptualisation and measurement in the use of frameworks, this paper outlines how the Quality Teaching framework’s emphasis on three dimensions of the practice of teaching – intellectual quality, a quality learning environment, and significance – and specification of what these look like in practice, provides teachers with a framework that is comprehensive enough to encompass their concerns, manageable enough to give focus to their thinking and practice, and open enough to enable their critical engagement (Author, under review).

Method and data sources
Quality Teaching is an evidence-based pedagogical framework, which was used in the study reported here to structure teachers’ lesson observations, analysis, diagnosis, and discussion. Teachers (n=192) in 24 schools participated in a randomised controlled trial, in which two full-lesson observations, as well as surveys and interviews, were undertaken at baseline, six-month, and 12-month time points. Analyses were conducted to examine the impact of the framework on the quality of teaching produced and on teachers’ perceptions of their learning.

Findings
The paper reports on the extent to which this pedagogical framework helped teachers, individually and collectively, to investigate and refine their teaching practice. Preliminary findings indicate statistically significant (effect size .34) and practically significant effects on the quality of teaching, as well as powerful impacts on teachers’ individual learning and the learning culture among teachers.

Significance
Much of the work on frameworks has focused on measurement concerns about the reliability, validity, and stability of judgements (Goldring et al., 2015) and the robust preparation of observers for using observation protocols derived from these frameworks (Strong et al., 2011). This paper goes beyond these concerns to also consider the conceptual adequacy of frameworks as a representation of teaching and as a guide for enhancing teaching practice. The Quality Teaching framework, as tested under rigorous conditions, was found to be a powerful means of enhancing the conceptual and linguistic bases of teachers’ learning work. These findings have implications for the use of frameworks in guiding the substance of preservice and inservice teacher preparation programs and for broadening the international evidence-base for improving teaching.

Authors

• Jennifer M. Gore, The University of Newcastle

• Julie Maree Bowe, The University of Newcastle

• Max Smith, University of Newcastle

• David Lubans, University of Newcastle, Australia