Slides to accompany discussion of a pre-evaluative research paper [Self-organised professional development - the TeachMeet phenomenon] presented by Mags Amond on behalf of herself, Keith Johnston, and Richard Millwood.

1. Self-organised
professional
development -
the
TeachMeet
phenomenon
Ms Mags Amond
Dr Keith Johnston
Dr Richard Millwood

2. This paper presents a pre-evaluative narrative describing the evolution of a recently developed form of self-organised teacher Continuing
Professional Development (CPD), known as TeachMeet. A TeachMeet is an event held after-hours between teachers to share practice and ideas,
making short presentations and hosting conversations in a convivial and playful atmosphere. The paper reports work in progress on the
consolidation of various sources of information into a dataset in preparation for further analysis and evaluation. Defined as “a model of CPD which
involves those attending as participants in delivering the training as well as receiving it”, TeachMeet came into existence in 2006 in Scotland. The
first event was organised by three educators who were publishing online and who wanted to continue discussion face-to-face. The subtitle given to
the event by the founders was “teachers sharing ideas with teachers”. This paper explores how TeachMeet combines the philosophy and practices
of three unconference forms - Open Space Technology, PechaKucha, BarCamp - and is empowered by the open connectivity afforded by
communication channels of contemporary social media. This use of tools and practices of online collaboration enabled the self-organised
TeachMeet professional development movement to develop globally and grow organically, unincorporated, without formal constitution or
management structure, in a way that seems at present to be sustainable. Although there is a wealth of informal personal reflection on TeachMeet to
be found online, a search in the academic literature reveals very little direct examination of the phenomenon, although other similar unconference
activity has been reported. This paper draws on data available online and teacher comments recorded via social media as a means of analysing the
frequency of TeachMeets in a given period and teacher reactions towards their participation in such meets. An analysis of such data suggests that
distinct elements of Community of Practice (CoP) - shared domain, connected community, reflection on developing practice - are visible in online
exchanges. Recently, government agencies are beginning to experiment with the format for their formal professional development provision. Taken
together, and combined with recently published results in evaluative reports of a similar unconference meeting format, Edcamp, these observations
would suggest the phenomenon deserves further research to describe its essential elements and evaluate its effectiveness and impact. Informal
comments and reports by attendees, presenters and organisers constantly refer to TeachMeet as “the best CPD yet” or more recently as “our CoP”.
This paper outlines how TeachMeet might best be situated within the world of professional learning, by mapping characteristics to Kennedy’s
models of CPD; and how TeachMeet participants may be identified within the Wenger-Trayner Levels of Participation model. The paper outlines
how classic CPD and CoP evaluation frameworks, such as those of Kirkpatrick, Guskey, Desimone, Wenger, might be used in order to frame
continuing research among the TeachMeet community members, taking a mixed methods pragmatic approach. Results of this research will help to
fill a gap in knowledge concerning a phenomenon that Bennett, in the only formal academic paper directly related to this subject to date, has termed
“guerrilla CPD”.
TeachMeet
‘self-organised CPD’
‘teachers sharing ideas
with teachers’
‘guerrilla CPD’
(Bennett 2012)
1 INTRODUCTION

3. ‘unconference’ meets social media
Open Space Technology
1980s
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
wiki blog 1990s
Pecha Kucha 2003
Barcamp 2005
Twitter 2006
2 CONTEXT

4. 3 METHODOLOGY

5. 4 FINDINGS
TeachMeet events in UK and Ireland, Jan-Jun 2016
Profile of TeachMeet Organisers

6. 4 FINDINGS
TeachMeet events in UK and Ireland, Jan-Jun 2016
TeachMeet ‘topics’ / themes

7. 4 FINDINGS
::: ‘the transformative nature of TeachMeets in one’s own personal learning
network rather than its erstwhile claim to be a cure-all for attainment in education’ :::
‘as TeachMeets are organised by whoever has the energy and good will it doesn’t
really matter if you don’t like the format: you can change it. The power of
TeachMeets is not, for me, the format but the proof that people can organise and
share in a way that is not top down’ ::: ‘nobody owns TeachMeet’ ::: ‘TeachMeet
is about winning hearts and minds’ ::: ‘it is by its nature a very political animal,
maybe even quasi-religious in fervour and opinion’ ::: ‘a desire to share the
idea of TeachMeet’ ::: ‘I enjoy the laid back, collaboration inspired feel of
TeachMeet’ ::: ‘The key with traditional PD is that the teachers don't have a choice,
TeachMeets give them choices’ ::: ‘Another key to learning at TeachMeets are the
twitter backchannels - networking, sharing, & discussions all happen’ ::: ‘it's about
agency, choice, method, context’ ::: ‘free CPD’ ::: ‘the best CPD ever’ ::: ‘learning
network (personal and professional)’::: ‘community of practice’ :::

8. 4 FINDINGS
Summary of Australia community views, 2014:

9. 5 DISCUSSION
Unconference
Self-organised
Connectivism
Rhizomatic
Learning Network
Professional Learning
Community of Practice

10. 5 DISCUSSION
personal
learning
network
PLN
community of
practice
CoP
teacher
learning
TL
TeachMeet
Perspective of
profession

11. 6 CONCLUSION
Suggested next steps:
Evaluative research, to establish
> validity and sustainability of TeachMeet
> what makes TeachMeet valued and valuable
> what is the niche of TeachMeet ?

12. Thank You :: Go Raibh Maith Agaibh
Self-organised Professional Development -
theTeachMeet phenomenon
Ms Mags Amond, Dr Keith Johnston, Dr Richard Millwood
More information:
magsamond.com/research
Contact amondm@tcd.ie
Follow #teachmeet