Highly Accomplished Teachers: Understanding the Complexities of Skilled Pedagogical Practices

• In Event: Fostering Curiosity and Disrupting Power: Teacher Professional Development for Transformative Classrooms

Abstract

Introduction: This research seeks to untangle the thinking and practices of a group of highly accomplished teachers (HATs) to better understand the processes and mechanisms that support the development of their pedagogy. HATs think deeply about skilled pedagogy in ways that illuminate its complexity and the challenges of pedagogical change (Author et al., 2021). HATs recognise the complex relationship between teaching and learning and direct their focus more on student learning than classroom management (Schoenfeld, 2011). However, while much research has been produced about experienced and expert teachers, literature on HATs, including their thinking and actions has been largely neglected. We argue that greater insights into the processes and mechanisms that support the development of sophisticated pedagogical thinking and practice of HATs is valuable in contributing to strengthened collective professional knowledge of practice.

Method: Utilizing a longitudinal, qualitative, small-scale approach within an interpretive paradigm (Guba & Lincoln, 1989), this study used focus group interviews to investigate the experiences of a group of Australian HATs following an intensive professional development experience focusing on classroom discourse. The study was guided by the research question: How do HATs talk about the development of their knowledge about, and practices of, quality learning following their participation in a PD program? An inductive thematic analysis (Bryman, 2016) was used to understand how HATs integrate their knowledge when making pedagogical decisions. This analytical process built on our previous work (Author et al., 2021; Author et al. 2023), allowing for further analysis to highlight recurring aspects of HATs’ knowledge and practice.

Findings and Conclusion: Our findings offer insights into the complexities of skilled pedagogy and practice and its development over time. While for some of the HATs involved in this study, the practices they learned in the PD simply affirmed or extended things that they already understood and supported, for others, they began digging into new issues in ways that involved fundamental changes in thinking and practice. For example, Natalie identified a “big shift” that she had made in terms of understanding content from a “big ideas” perspective saying,

“When we're talking about the big ideas that my teaching is much more tuned in to the concept that I'm teaching than I've been before. And that's been quite a big shift. And the learning success criteria, that metacognition of students and developing that in students… it’s one of the things I've been doing with my year 12 years to develop agency in students… to take responsibility for their learning…little things sort of
trickled through.”

Understanding change in, and complexity of, pedagogical practices and pedagogical leadership of HATs is valuable to affirm and support their capabilities and retain high quality teachers in the profession. We need to recognise this category of teacher - highly accomplished. To do so, we need to understand what highly accomplished means and how highly accomplished teachers develop themselves according to their different contexts. We have some evidence of that from the data we collected from teachers that we will share in the presentation.

Authors

• Rebecca Cooper, Monash University

• Jared Carpendale, Massey University

• Amanda K. Berry, RMIT University

• Blake Cutler, Monash University

• Ian James Mitchell, Monash University

• Katie Danielson, University of Portland