The professional development of natural sciences teachers : possibilities of a community of practice

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Continuing professional teacher development (CPTD) that is effectively undertaken presents asignificant opportunity to reform education in South Africa. However, CPTD is currentlytrapped in traditional transmissionist approaches that are misaligned to teachers' needs and theirshortcomings. As a result, education practitioners and researchers are increasingly calling toabandon these low-impact initiatives in favour of CPTD models that improve teachers' subjectcontent knowledge and pedagogy by affording teachers opportunities to collaborate.A community of practice (CoP) for teachers, which is known to foster teacher collaboration hasdesign characteristics appealing to the effective facilitation of CPTD. Taking a dissidentposition, this study intended setting up a teacher CoP with the researcher as the initiator andfacilitator, to determine its potential contributions to the professional development of tenparticipating Senior Phase Natural Sciences teachers from the rural school district of Vredendal,Western Cape Province. This study also aimed to establish the principles and aspectsinfluencing the effective operation of such a teacher CoP.In South Africa, CPTD is regulated by guidelines contained in the National Policy Frameworkfor Teacher Education and Development (NPFTED), hence the theoretical frameworkconsidered for this study needed alignment to it. A descripto-exploratory research design,underpinned by a social constructivist ontology, interpretivist epistemology and a multi-methodqualitative case study methodology was found appropriate for observing the experiences of theparticipating teachers in a naturalistic setting.This study embraces Wenger's (1998) CoP construct as a theoretical framework. A CoP, byoriginal definition, features the following three foundational elements, namely the domain, thecommunity and the practice. In this study, the domain encapsulates the CPTD, the participatingteachers and the researcher as an observer-participant represent the community, and the practiceincludes different strategies used during the CoP sessions that were used to explain anddemonstrate specific contexts as well as the corresponding concepts.Primary data were collected via different techniques including questionnaires, semi-structuredinterviews and CoP observations. Secondary data encompassed participant diaries, field notes,the researcher's reflective journal and an extensive document review. The construct of rigourwas applied to ensure that the experiences of the teacher participants reflected the studyaccurately and demonstrated the credibility of the research. Transcribed and re-organised datawere subsequently categorised, coded and subjected to thematic analysis to answer the researchquestions. The results highlight two critical problems. Firstly, teacher participants admitted that they arenot adequately equipped to teach the subject content effectively and expressed a need tounderstand the theory better, and to teach the subject relevant to everyday life. Secondly,teacher isolation hampers CPTD efforts in the Vredendal school district extensively as teachershave difficulties to collaborate due to the vast distances between schools, a poortelecommunications network, lack of finances and inadequate facilities and equipment.The CoP intervention augmented the professional identity of the teacher participantsmeaningfully by helping to build specific competences required by the authoritative norms setout in the NPFTED. Participants improved their subject content knowledge, notably. Theydeveloped the ability to teach Natural Sciences theory relevant to real-life situations and raisedtheir skill level to conduct demonstrations and practical work more confidently. Opportunitiesfor self-reflection appeared instrumental in entrenching the newly acquired teaching practices.These positive changes are considered to have benefitted from including the participants in keyaspects of the design and operation of the CoP.Teacher participants explicitly appreciated the constructive interaction and collaboration in theCoP sessions and approved of its enabling influences on their professional development. Aninclusive CoP structure, established professional relationships among CoP members and amotivated CoP membership proved to be the critical aspects essential to the effective operationof a teacher CoP. This study found that professional relationships built on mutual respect andtrust are the most significant enabler for accomplishing successful teacher collaboration.The findings of this study support global research, indicating that teacher collaboration is thecommon foundation of effective CPTD strategies. Accordingly, a CoP presents an enticingopportunity to facilitate CPD effectively as it is purposely designed to foster teachercollaboration, and it is recognised to break down teacher isolation, which is especially prevalentin rural school environments.Potentially operationalising teacher CoPs in the South African education system, both as astandalone initiative or integrated with endorsed professional learning communities (PLCs)requires modification of the original construct. In this context, a teacher CoP needs a formal,but an inclusive structure preferably with an education specialist as a facilitator in the leadingrole. A blended CoP approach, with its characteristic focus on deriving value from employinginformation and communications technologies and smart electronic teaching aids, couldimprove the operation of a teacher CoP.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University