Emergent teacher training

1. STEM Education, Gender
& Online Education
EMERGENT Cyprus online
training
2-4 December 2020
Gender awareness and
implementation strategies in STEM
education

2. Training for Science
Teachers
Science Teacher Education
and Development
Loucas T. Louca
Associate Professor, Science Education

4. Introduction

5. What is important when it comes to
teacher training?
Reflection

6. • Teacher training
• Professional development
– Initial Professional development
– Continuing Professional development
• Learning communities
Types of teacher education

7. • All types of professional learning undertaken by
all teachers beyond the initial point of training.
• Goal – positive and specific impact upon
student learning
• Deep understanding of the new ideas or
concepts, related to document school/student
needs
What is Teacher Professional Develpoment

8. • Telling teachers what and how to teach
• Simply showing teachers “new” ways to
teach that are not direcly related to their
daily practise
• A day/afternoon out of their schools
• Large scale and short time
What is NOT Teacher Professional
Develpoment (PD)

9. • Professional development should involve
teachers in
– the identification of what they need to learn
– the process to be used (when possible)
• Professional development should provide
learning opportunities that relate to individual
needs but are, for the most part, organized
around collaborative problem solving.
Organizing Teacher Professional
Develpoment

10. • Continuous and ongoing, involving follow up and
support for further learning
• Not a one-shot deal
• Sustainable
• Collaborative
• Hands-on
– Just like in class, get people involved and active during
PD experiences. Don’t put people to sleep in their chairs
Teacher Professional Develpoment should be…

11. • Includes formal and informal activities
• Peer-leanring vs. formal training
– Peer learning is a strong form of PD for teachers, more effective
than formal training, directly connected to teachers’ needs.
– By coming together with peers to discuss, collaborate or observe
each other, teachers develop professional
• Should be multi-dimensional: Content, process, context
Teacher Professional Develpoment should be…

12. Provision of professional devlopment in EU

13. Characteristics of
Professional Development

14. • the content of the PD program;
• the organization and the structure of the PD
program’s activities;
• the degree of consistency between new experiences
provided to teachers and the national standards;
• the context in which the PD program takes place;
• the degree to which the activities in PDs emphasize
the collective participation of teachers.
5+2 Characteristics of PD

15. • The content focus of teacher learning is one of the most
influential features of PD, including
– the overall focus of the PD
– which teacher knowledge, skills and experiences are targeted.
• This can range between focusing on the science content,
pedagogical content knowledge and teaching strategies or a
mixture of these
• A relationship between PD activities focusing on subject matter
content as well as how students learn that content with
improvements in teacher knowledge, skills, teaching practice
and student achievement
The content of the PD program

16. • The organization and the structure of the PD activities and the ways teachers
are engaged in them.
• Reform-based PD formats of study groups, teacher networks, mentoring
relationships, internships, or teacher research centers are much more likely to
lead to stainable teacher change,
– Rather than traditional learning formats such as one-off workshops, limited-time
courses and conferences, which function more as “style shows”
• PD activities take place during the regular school day as part of the process of
classroom instruction or during regularly scheduled teacher planning time.
• Engaging teachers in active learning is also related to the effectiveness of PD
– Active learning may take a number of forms, such as observing expert teachers or
being observed, providing or receiving interactive feedback, and reflecting upon
student work
The organization & structure of the PDP

17. • One-time PD workshops, such as conference and
one-or-two day courses, often take place outside the
school context, are not typically aligned with ongoing
teaching practice, and do not reliably lead to
changes in classroom teaching
• Workshop formats of PD are generally criticized for
being ineffective in providing teachers with sufficient
time, activities, and content necessary to increase
their knowledge and promote meaningful changes in
their teaching practices.
The organization & structure of the PDP

18. • Productive PD need to provide teachers with rich
and diverse experiences related to the novel ideas
on which the PD focuses.
• The degree of consistency may also be enhanced by
incorporating experiences that are consistent with
the participating teachers’ goals.
• What about the particular needs within particular
schools?
The degree of consistency between new
experiences and the national standards

19. • Formality: Usually external expertise in the form of courses, workshops or formal
qualification programs, or alternatively through more informal forms that may include
collaboration at school or teacher level, both within or across schools
• Participation: Choice of participation
– Participants who volunteer differ from teachers required to participate, in terms of their motivation
to learn, their commitment to change, and their willingness to be risk takers
– The needs of volunteers and non-volunteers may differ substantially
– The more participants from a school or department the better the impact
• Duration: Teachers need time to develop, absorb, discuss, and implement new practice
and knowledge, which relates to both the span of time over which the PD activities are
spread and the number of hours spent in the PD activities.
– Time to apply new knowledge in the classroom
– This is the most demanding part of the PD
The context in which the PD takes place

20. • PD is more effective in affecting teacher learning and
practice if teachers from the same school,
department, area or student grade-level participate
collectively
• Change in teaching behavior becomes an ongoing
and collective responsibility and can be enhanced by
extending collaboration between teachers, school-
based teacher mentors, university researchers and
curriculum developer mentors
Collective participation of teachers

21. • Support from schools or departments is
essential for the success of the PDP
• Both financial and conceptual
• Participation of leadership is also important
The role of leadership

22. • Sustainability
• Hands-on
• Collaboration
• Peer-leanring vs. formal training
– Peer learning is a strong form of PD for teachers, more
effective than formal training, directly connected to
teachers’ needs.
– By coming together with peers to discuss, collaborate or
observe each other, teachers develop professionall
The notion of sustainability

23. • The role of the PD facilitator is also important
• The support for teachers to clarify ideas and reflect on
practice depends on:
– The expertise of the mentor or collaborator
– The time allocated for teachers to work with him/her during
the PD program
• Facilitators must be able to establish a community of
learners in which inquiry is valued, and they must
structure the learning experiences for that community
The role of the PD facilitator…

24. • Teaching a little of everythng and nothing in depth!
• Embracing novelty for the novelty’s sake
– If it’s new, it must be better…
• Avoiding confrontation of ineffective practices or
ideas
– Need to successfully try new ideas
• Focusing on superficial indicators, instead of student
outcomes to determine if change is needed
Common counter-productive habits of PDPs

25. • ... are relevant to their context
– subject, school, studnets, specific issues they are facing
• … helps them plan and improve their instruction
• … are teacher driven
• … include hands-on strategies applicable to their classrooms
– Not only practical issues…
• … highly interactive
• … are sustained over time
– Long term, with follow-ups and futher feedback/support
• … recognize they are professionals with valuable insights
Teachers prefer PD programs that…

26. A few additional ideas…

27. • Preparation of appropriate
environment
– soils, nutrients, humidity,
temperature
• Sowing
• In the dark for 2-4 weeks
• At the end of the period:
you chop and ship them!
The analogy of growing mushrooms

28. • Concentrated practice
– Summer institutes, year-long meetings, retreat meetings
• Application of ideas, reflection, continuous assessment
– study groups,
– collaborative teams,
– individual projects,
– observation and feedback,
– co-teaching,
– demonstrations,
– classroom research projects,
– distance learning
Ways of application

29. • On going reflection on student learning
• Collection of classroom and student data
– not necessarily of data to be used on reseach
data!
Focus on student learning and
achievement

30. • Understanding the idea, concept or routine
– Build an image of what is wanted
– Connect with previous experiences
– Identify current needs
• Observing a model in action
– Practise with guidance and support
• Practicing in a safe context
• Apply independently
– trying out the behavior with support from an experienced expert
• Evaluate and adjust, refine or revise
– assessing the effectiveness of the instruction once it is attempted
How adults learn

31. Inquiry-based teaching
Teachers and Professional
Learning Programs

32. • On-going science education reform efforts highlight the
importance of engaging students in a dynamic process of
constructing their own knowledge by engaging them in inquiry-
based processes. These processes include helping learners
(1) engage in producing and investigating scientifically oriented
questions,
(2) giving priority to using evidence when responding to questions,
(3) formulating explanations from evidence,
(4) connecting their constructed explanations to scientific knowledge,
(5) communicating and justifying their explanations to peers.
Inquiry-based teaching & learning

33. • Choose, design and implement inquiry-based
lessons
• the creation of classroom environments in which
teachers make pedagogical decisions in the midst of
instruction,
– for which they are expected to listen carefully to
children’s ideas and adapt teaching instruction based on
the ideas and reasoning that children raise
The role of teachers in inquiry-based
teaching

34. • Teachers need to develop an understanding of
how inquiry looks, and refine their abilities to
identify and promote children’s inquiry, and
respond appropriately from a repertoire of
strategies.
• Teachers need to develop their in-class
instincts regarding what they see and respond
to with little time for reflection
What teachers need for this…

35. Professional Learning
Communities

36. • In a professional learning
community, staff members will come
together to clarify what it is they
want students to learn, how they
will know when each student has
mastered the essential learning, how
they will respond when students
experience difficulty, and how they
will deepen the learning for each
student once they have mastered
the essential learning.
What is a Professional Learning Community?

37. • A program to be implemented
• A package of reforms to be adopted
• A step-by-step recipe for change
• A sure-fire system borrowed from another school
• One more thing to add to an already cluttered school
agenda
• It is rather a process that will change a school’s
culture
A Professional Learning Community is NOT

38. How are the programs of PD that you
organize different or similar to what
we have discussed?
Reflection