Transforming teaching practice through a continuous training pathway, as a means of impacting student learning

• In Event: Diverse Approaches to Teacher Training and Teacher Education: Experiences from the Field

Proposal

The endless discussion about school effectiveness and student performance that is reflected in the diversity of official instruments and resources which never seem to find an answer to that question, suggests that perhaps we need to broaden our view of connections between effectiveness and performance. Any given finding is not an isolated event, but rather the result of multiple intervening actions, training experiences and learning resources. In view of this, this paper intends to discuss a training pathway, and its impact on students, designed and implemented by the Creative Schools Program. This pathway arose from an investment in a training experience with teachers from the Municipal Education Network of Curitiba - PR (Brazil) that sought to improve their practices and their students’ learning. This training experience was designed and implemented by the Creative Schools Program.

Teacher training as a transformative mechanism
Education has long needed a methodological review and redefinition of the roles of teacher and student (Moran, 2014; Freire, 2021; Papert, 2008; Resnick, 2020), where the instructional strategies are supporting the autonomous and protagonist stance that students are rehearsing in society, providing them feedback (PERRENOUD, 1994; Viegas & Osório, 2016; Freire, 2021). This need often leads to a series of public policies for technological investment, but this does not always result in the much-needed educational transformation.

Far from devaluing the need for constant material and structural investment, Santos, Almeida and Zanotello (2018) raise a debate on the unique role that teacher training plays in this process both in an instrumental aspect of building teaching skills but in the broader aspect of a systemic need to invest in the professional development (PD) of teachers, so that PD moves beyond the accumulation of new facts and techniques to fostering a shift in the teaching and learning paradigm, changing teachers' attitudes and improve students' academic results (MARCELO, 2009, pp.10).

Educational approaches such as Creative Learning (RESNICK, 2020) and Learning through Play (Hopkins et al. 2017) have the potential to support professional development, aiming at impacting both teaching practice and student learning. Both approaches are based on the creation of learning environments and experiences that provide active engagement with a personally significant problem, social interaction, experimentation through iterative processes, and the establishment of a joyful, playful, and exploratory atmosphere. Building off of Schön’s idea of the reflective practitioner (1983), Creative Learning offers valuable opportunities to enable educators in continuing education activities to experiment and reflect on pedagogical practices that value creativity and exploration, in contrast to rigid and prescribed pedagogical models. This approach supports the creation of a more dynamic and adaptive training environment for teachers that develops reflective and experimental skills. Integrating Creative Learning into continuing education actions favors teachers’ adoption of pedagogical strategies that help overcome complex challenges in teaching practice, and promotes more innovative and effective teaching, expanding the teaching repertoire in ways that create more engaging learning experiences adapted to student needs.

Methodology
This research — a partnership between the Creative Schools Program, the Education Development Center and the LEPES-USP — aimed to observe the impacts arising from a formative intervention both in the transformation of teaching practice and in student performance. In addition to the current discussion, it is important to highlight that one of the fundamental pillars of the Creative Schools Program is that professional development can be a strategy for building local capacity and fostering the sustainability of local actions and strategies.

The exploratory study was conducted in 2023 in Curitiba - Paraná (Brazil) and worked directly with 14 teachers with 377 students in the 3rd year of elementary school (Ensino Fundamental I), in eight schools. The sample was divided into comparison and intervention groups. In order to establish a baseline and monitor the results of the intervention, initial and final tests were applied. The assessments were modeled on an official large-scale assessment in Brazil (Avaliação Nacional de Alfabetização). The tests assessed core reading and writing skills aligned to national standards that are covered in the Curitiba municipal curriculum for the year/cycle when the intervention took place.

Between October and November, intervention teachers participated in a structured training course to deepen their conceptual understanding of Creative Learning (Resnick, 2020) and familiarize them with a set of guiding Didactic Sequences (Unit Plans). The course consisted of synchronous, in-person and remote meetings, a training platform and support materials. At the same time, unstructured training strategies, such as in-person mentoring via local professionals and online mentoring was carried out by the Program. The use of a logbook and creation of a Community of Practice, promoted the procedural and reflective aspect (FREIRE, 1987).

Results, discussions and considerations
This exploratory study found successful and promising results, both in relation to teacher learning and in student learning.

Regarding teacher training, data collected during the coaching process, the logbooks, teacher reports and interviews with teachers, show the procedural aspect of training contributed to the professional development and deep learning of the teachers involved. Seeing themselves as learners of a methodological approach where openness to trial and error, both for teachers and students, is a mechanism for transformation and deep learning, contributed significantly to a reinterpretation of the mediating role they play as teachers and how they create opportunities to promote student autonomy and protagonism. Creating a safe space for teachers to exchange and share reflections for this learning goal was a fundamental difference from traditional teacher training experiences. This was directly reflected in the performance of the students involved. A one-way Analysis of Variance found a significant difference between treatment and comparison students on the final assessment at the p>.05 level, [F(1,375) = 5.519, p = .019]. The partial ETA squared (ηp .02) suggests a small effect size, despite being a six-week intervention.

We believe that combining well-trained teachers, confident in their professional development, with an educational approach that promotes the social function and significance of teaching and learning within a meaningful context, will contribute to the integral formation of more conscientious and autonomous citizens, which will be reflected in improved school performance.

Authors

• Ana Beatriz Bretos, Escolas Criativas

• Ana Cabral Melo NEtto, Programa Escolas Criativas

• Daniel Light, DRL Research Consulting

• Veronica Gomes dos Santos, Programa Escolas criativas

• Thais Eastwood Vaine, Creative Schools