Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item Fostering Teacher Learning Communities: A Case Study of a School-Based Leadership Team's Action Research(2013) Fischer, Kenneth B.; Valli, Linda; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study is to examine how a school-based leadership team identifies and alters school conditions to foster the development of TLCs. Many educators, school leaders, and politicians have embraced teacher learning communities (TLCs) as a vehicle for school reform. Despite the considerable documentation of the capability for TLCs to influence teaching and learning, TLCs are not the norm in American schools. The development of advanced levels of TLCs is dependent, in part, on the presence of certain school leadership, professional development, and workplace design conditions. This study examines how school leaders and teachers conceptualize TLCs, how they identify and alter supportive conditions, and how those altered conditions influence the development of TLCs. The researcher conducted a single case study incorporating a practitioner inquiry stance with his own school where he served as an assistant principal. The study traced the influence of conditions altered by school leaders to two embedded subunits: the Math and World Language TLCs. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five school leader participants, focus group interviews with the two TLCs, observations, and document analysis. Participants identified six characteristics of TLCs capable of accomplishing goals: trusting relationships, common purpose, reflexive dialogue, collaborative activity, data-driven decisions, and agency. School leaders identified and altered 12 supportive conditions. Of those 12, participants reported that nine influenced their work and the development of their TLCs from traditional teacher teams to novice and intermediate professional communities. Although compatible with scholars' descriptions of TLCs, participants' descriptions represented an emerging/novice perspective suggesting a dynamic TLC conceptualization. Three of the six characteristics that participants' identify are precursors to other scholar's conceptualizations. These TLCs could reach advanced levels without developing shared values, deprivatizing practice, and focusing on student learning. The study's findings also suggest that school leaders seeking to foster TLCs provide time embedded into the teachers' regular workday and identify someone to serve as a resource/power broker to help teachers negotiate power relationships. By addressing their emerging/novice perspective and continuing to alter additional conditions, school leaders may influence the development of TLCs, eventually reducing teacher workload and improving teaching and learning.Item An Examination of Science Teachers' Learning in a Laboratory-Based Professional Development Program(2008-04-22) Kiehl, Melissa Lynn; McGinnis, James R; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Professional development generally refers to the collection of activities that systematically increase teachers' knowledge of academic subjects and advance teachers' understanding of instructional strategies. Given the complexity of the reform initiatives for science education in the United States of America as set forth by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996), professional development might provide a bridge for aligning teacher practice with national standards (Loucks-Horsley, 1995). However, the current model of professional growth, focused largely on expanding a repertoire of skills, is not adequate (Little, 1993). Understanding teacher learning theory and utilizing research on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) could be the differentiating factor for science teacher professional development; if utilized in design and evaluation, they may promote both knowing science in context and knowing how to tailor science learning to the needs of students (Shulman, 1987). The purpose of this study was to investigate how the Laboratory Science Teacher Professional Development Program (LSTPD), a three year professional development model that immerses teachers in learning science content through inquiry, impacts teachers' learning and classroom practice. It first aimed to analyze teacher learning and PCK; second, it examined their views on professional development; and third, whether they anticipate adapting their practice to include facets of their laboratory experience. Participants were teachers in their second or third year of participation in LSTPD. The study followed a qualitative case study design and made use of in-depth interviews and observations to examine teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practice. The study drew on a constructivist framework. Findings demonstrated that teachers' understanding of content, inquiry, and science as a living enterprise were greatly increased, and that teachers generated goals for practice that echoed their new understandings. Further, teachers articulated how they connected LSTPD to their classrooms, fueling further discussion of the role of PCK in their experience. This study has greater implications for the design of sustained research-based professional development experiences in promoting learning in teachers, and inquiry techniques in classrooms.