Teacher Collaboration to Support Problem-Based Education: An Interactional Ethnography

• In Event: Educational Responsibilities in Problem-Based Education (PBE): Principles, Practices, and Networks Creating and Supporting PBE

Abstract

Objectives
The cultivation of problem-based learning (PBL) for students is frequently the focus of teacher collaboration. Applying a problem-based task at the senior secondary school level is considered as valuable training (Ho & Chan, 2015), especially for pre-university students (Wray, 2013). This poster presents the development of teacher collaboration, supporting such a learning experience. A comparative analysis aims to explore the process that regulates the teachers’ professional learning over time.

Perspectives
This study is an Interactional Ethnography (IE) (Green & Bridges, 2018), which studied professional learning through teacher collaboration to create a problem-based experience from students. By constructing their learning opportunities, teachers establish a common ground for their future work and are motivated to collaborate further. This approach reinforces professional learning regulation through teacher collaboration, which supports transformative changes (Butler & Schnellert, 2012).

Methods
Guided by IE’s principles, this study framed a telling case study of collaborative meetings of two teams of teachers over one academic year (Mitchell, 1984). Within the bounded context, the teachers created activities to support students in conducting independent research studies with problem-based nature. Three key events from each team served as the anchoripoints of analysis, which laid the foundation for subsequent analyses of other records. As a logic of inquiry, IE generates empirically warranted claims based on a chain of evidence. Discourse analysis was adopted to investigate the interaction and the context of the supporting materials.

Data sources
The primary data source consisted of 42 video records of teacher meetings across one academic year. Other data sources included instructional materials, student work, teacher interviews, and field notes. The participants were five experienced teachers who collaborated to support students (Year 10-11) of the case school.

Results
Results illustrated that through collaboration over time, the two teams of teachers co-constructed different collaborative rules to support the implementation of a problem-based learning experience. Team One emphasized setting standards, while Team Two was established based on the research process. The difference in pattern reflected the nature of the problem-based academic task. Specifically, it highlights the dilemma of designing the process and assessing the outcome. The teachers’ collaborative practice over time identified the centrality of students' needs. However, learner diversity limited the problem-based task design for the pedagogical transformation. Besides, it was challenging for teachers to devise tailor-made strategies for individual students within the confined reality at a school level.

Scholarly significance
This study shed light on teacher collaboration in problem-based education. The two identified features, i.e., setting up the standard and guiding students, enrich the current understanding of its framework. By building up the knowledge through learning activity and outcomes, the implications extend the model of PBL in secondary school learning environments (Ertmer & Simons, 2006). It fills the knowledge gap in how teachers take up learners' diversity in the process and maintain academic standards. Overall, their role in these two aspects is indispensable to develop a personalized experience for students.

Author

• Ivy Lau, The University of Hong Kong