Impact of Professional Development on Teacher Project-Based Learning Practices Within Low-Income Districts

• In Event: Examining Impacts of Professional Development on Project-Based Learning Instructional Practices

Abstract

Objectives and Purpose
As Project Based Learning (PBL) becomes more prevalent and more researchers are trying to design Professional Development (PD), we need to ask questions about PD’s significance. Specifically, we do not know how professional development in PBL changes teachers’ practices within the dynamic of the classroom. Because teacher practices are fundamental to student learning growth, PD’s efficacy in providing equal opportunities in quality instruction for historically underrepresented students is an important consideration.
As such, exploration of the extent PD has on changing teacher practices within PBL classrooms will help inform future PD to better meet needs of teachers as they extend knowledge to practice.
In order to explore ways PD impacts teachers’ practices within differing PBL domains, we ask the following questions:

Q1. What aspects of PBL practice are related to prior professional development focused on project-based learning?
Q2. Is prior PBL-specific professional development predictive of classroom practice associated with PBL?
Method
Teachers (N= 40) from urban districts serving primarily students of color videotaped lessons from projects within their classrooms in the Spring of the school year before having undergone Penn professional development. At baseline, 52% did not have prior PD in PBL, but 47% did. Videos were coded using the PBL Protocol. (See Table 1 for reliability).

Results
Q1. Relation Between Teachers’ PBL Practices and Prior PD
One-way ANOVAs revealed that teachers who had past professional development in PBL worked more on projects, F(1, 38)=9.477,p=.004, provided clearer project expectations, F(1, 38)=6.790,p=.013, and connected the project to the specific lesson, F(1, 38)=5.545,p=.024, and to the content, F(1, 38)=4.429,p=.042. Additionally, PD teachers’ significantly had students collaborate more on projects, F(1,38)=6.759,p=.013 (See Table 1).

Q2. PD as a Predictor of PBL Teaching Practices.
OLS Regression was used to explore the predictive nature of teachers’ prior professional development on five teaching practices showing significant differences in mean scores.
Predictor variables, other than PD, for each of the five models included classroom subject (i.e., science- or humanities-based), grade level (i.e., middle school or high school), and teacher and discipline educational level.
Having prior PD uniquely predicted higher scores on Work on Projects (β=.456,p=.005), Project expectations (β=.335,p=.024), Project components (β=.325,p=.046), and Collaboration (β=.383,p=.026), but not Content to projects (β=.279,p=.101), net of the effect of other variables.

Discussion
The aim of the current research was to explore impacts of professional development in PBL on teaching practices within the dynamics of a classroom. We found that only Project-Oriented practices and Collaboration were uniquely linked to having prior PD, resulting in increased practices related to setting up and managing projects. Consequently, PD does not seem to affect teachers’ interactional processes during projects with students in high-needs districts to a) increase the academic rigor, b) scaffold higher level thinking processes, and c) support student choice. Moreover, while PD may achieve a switch in teachers’ approach to classroom learning from traditional to more inquiry-based projects, teachers still need more guidance and support to ground learning experiences for minoritized students in authentic tasks that are personally and socially relevant.

Authors

• JeanMarie Farrow, University of Pennsylvania

• Sarah Schneider Kavanagh, University of Pennsylvania

• Preeti Ganesh Samudra, SUNY - College at Plattsburgh

• Chenelle Boatswain, University of Pennsylvania