Participation in a PDS can improve practice.

Abstract

This qualitative study, conducted in an urban PDS with five cooperating teachers, explains how the participants perceived their classroom practice as improving as a result of working in a PDS context. This paper discusses the effect of the presence of student teachers on classroom teachers. Furthermore, the paper describes both how the cooperating teachers reacted to their interactions with the student teachers and how these interactions facilitated the growth of the practicing teachers as professionals. The study ties the teachers' perceptions directly to the PDS.

Introduction

The following study documents the professional development of five cooperating teachers participating in a PDS collaboration, as seen through the eyes of the participants. This study is significant in that it provides evidence of how a PDS has impacted practicing teachers as professionals.

Professional Development Schools (PDSs) emerged in the mid-1980s with the fundamental mission of professional development of preservice, novice, and practicing teachers for the ultimate goal of improving education for children. The assumption made by many is that the mere presence of a PDS will enhance education for children, preservice teachers, inservice teachers and university based educators. However, simply because these two entities have merged to try to create a new institution does not inherently produce higher quality. Now that many schools and universities have 'partners' it is time to document if and how these partnerships are working effectively. This study focuses on the PDS goal of professional development of practicing teachers.

In a PDS it is important to focus on the cooperating teacher, as he/she plays an integral part in the PDS relationship. The cooperating teacher is the person who shares his/her classroom with student teachers and demonstrates how theories and strategies learned at the university are implemented in the school. The cooperating teacher, therefore is one of the primary instructors for the student teacher. As well, the cooperating teacher is often times involved in other PDS activities at the school site, such as: attending PDS school site meetings (which may involve planning and structuring PDS activities); participating in action research projects, study groups, or support groups; and enrolling in university courses offered at the school site. The cooperating teacher plays a vital role in the PDS collaboration. The school site and the university depend on the willingness of the cooperating teachers to work collaboratively. This study adds to the literature of evidence that PDSs improve the quality of teaching in ways that ultimately improve student learning (Chance, 2000; Ridley, Hurwitz, Hackett & Miller, 2005; Teitel, 2000; Teitel, 2001) and extends it by finding that the presence of a student teacher can improve the classroom practice of a cooperating teacher and ties this finding directly to the PDS partnership.

Setting

A school engaged in a Professional Development relationship and five cooperating teachers were selected for the study. PS 999 is an elementary public school located in a large urban city. (The names of all the institutions and participants in the study have been changed to insure anonymity). At the time of the study, PS 999 was attended by approximately 505 students with 19 classroom teachers. Approximately 95% of those students are African-American. The remaining 5% are considered 'other,' a mixture of Hispanic, Indian and African among others. Almost 100% of the students qualify for free lunch. The student population is decidedly less wealthy than many of the other schools in the district. Its reputation is one of a failing school and according to the principal has, "test scores that are in the toilet".

There is a high turn-over of teachers and administration. A new principal began the year prior to this study. Previously there was an interim principal for one year who was preceded by a principal who was in place for eight years. One cooperating teacher stated, "We've had administration in and out". Many of the teachers who are considered leaders have been at the school for less than five years. "Staff morale at the school is very low," said one teacher. PS 999 is partners with a graduate teacher education program (GTEP) at a university in the same large urban city, located in the same district. PS 999 collaborates with the childhood education program and receives approximately four student teachers from the GTEP each semester. The GTEP program also has PDS partnerships in the district with three other elementary schools and two middle/junior high schools.

Participants

The sample consists of five elementary teachers at PS 999. Each of the teachers had student teachers from GTEP placed in their classrooms. Each entered into the study voluntarily. Lydia is a European American teacher who has been teaching at PS 999 for five years. She began her teaching career at PS 999. Iris has been at PS 999 for four years and it is the only school where she has taught. Iris, is an Armenian-American, and was hired directly after finishing her Master's at GTEP. Andrea, a European American teacher, had been teaching for four years. Two of those years have been at PS 999. Carol is a first grade teacher and has been teaching for 14 years. She is an African-American teacher. She has been at several different schools in the district. Vanessa, an African-American teacher, has been at the school for eight years and acquired her Master's by attending graduate school part-time on a scholarship, while teaching full-time at PS 999.

Design

Since this study attempts to give voice to the teachers' perceptions on their own professional development, a qualitative research design was implemented. My entrance into the PS 999 PDS began in September. I supervised student teachers on site for the GTEP and led weekly support group meetings for cooperating teachers. Formal data collection began in January (using the fall to get acquainted with the participants and the setting) and extended until the following November. Each cooperating teacher was interviewed separately in the Spring, as was the principal. Follow-up interviews took place with each cooperating teacher the following fall. All interviews and support groups took place on site, in person and were audio-taped.

In addition, from January through June, the cooperating teachers implemented a peer coaching action-research project, for which I was the facilitator. The impetus for this research project came solely from the cooperating teachers and they had complete ownership of the study. They created schedules in which they observed each other teaching with their respective student teachers. After each observation the two cooperating teachers and two student teachers met to reflect on the lesson and observation. These meetings were audio-taped and I was provided with transcriptions. I, as a researcher kept a reflective journal and took extensive descriptive field notes. There were also many opportunities for informal dialogues and conversations that took place between me and the cooperating teachers; and between me and the principal. While these were not audio-taped, they increased my understanding of the context and the perceptions of the cooperating teachers.

Responses to all the interviews, support group meetings, observation notes, reflective conversations and any miscellaneous information collected was used to construct a description depicting the perceptions of these teachers. The teachers were given their personal portions to review and clarify before the final analysis was made. Any misunderstandings were noted and any needed corrections were made.

The data were read and codes were created. The codes were developed through searching for patterns of thinking or behavior, words or phrases, and events that appeared regularly or stood out for some reason. The data were reduced and synthesized for description and interpretation. This reduction served as a check for the frequency of each code. Each pile of passages was read to ensure that they were similar and a category was developed for each. Further investigation took place in the form of follow-up interviews with the cooperating teachers and reformation of questions was based on the information realized during the process of analysis. The process of coding was then repeated with the new information. A second member-check was performed.

Findings

The cooperating teachers felt that their PDS involvement encouraged deeper reflection which improved their classroom practice; which indicates that the cooperating teachers perceive themselves as improving as practitioners as a result of the PDS. Since entering the partnership, the cooperating teachers received student teachers from the graduate teacher education program. (GTEP) Each identified the fact that having a student teacher had made them more reflective practitioners. They each recalled an instance when this reflection had an impact on their classroom practice.

Lydia: Having a student teacher ... makes you double think about what you are doing in the classroom and what the person (student teacher) is picking up ... And it's really made me think about how I have to change some things.

Lydia continues this conversation by giving a specific example of how she implemented response logs with her children because when a student teacher entered her room she started to think about what her practice looked like and recognized the need to make a change. Additionally, Andrea feels strongly that her classroom has changed due to the reflection she does because a student teacher is in her classroom:

Andrea: ... Having a student teacher has definitely influenced my classroom practice because it strengthens my own practice. I question everything I do now. Whether Loretta (student teacher) is here or not, because I know the next day she will be and I need to be able to explain everything we are doing ... In trying to help someone else see the big picture, I try to reflect on the big picture as well. and I'm always talking through stuff as well when I'm teaching and someone is watching me. and then I'll say, "Oh, I think this went well, this I'd change." But if no one was watching me you really don't talk about it as much, you reflect more in your head, so there's probably not as much depth to the reflection.

She continues this conversation by giving an example of how she was watching her student teacher do a lesson and she picked up a new technique for reading poems from her student teacher. She recalls how excited she was to have learned something new that she will use with her class next year. Similar feelings about reflection were shared by Iris as well:

Iris: A lot of reflection occurs when I have a student teacher. Because I have an adult in the room to talk to, I'm not just talking to myself. There's someone to say, "okay", even if it's two minutes here, five minutes here, whether it's a prep or whether it's during a transition in the classroom, I can verbalize, we can verbalize, we can say "what just happened?"

She continues to talk about how a literacy block did not go well and she and her student teacher sat down and talked about what and how they could improve it for tomorrow. Strategies were brainstormed so that the classroom could work more productively. She also emphasized the amount of reflection she does as a result of being a cooperating teacher in the follow-up interview:

Iris: I know that as a cooperating teacher I question myself a lot more because I have to explain everything or I feel the need to explain everything because I want to make sure my student teacher understands exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing. So even if they don't ask I find myself explaining it whether they want to know or not because, I know they are going to need to know at some point. If someone says to me today, you know I notice that the other teachers do silent reading, quiet reading after lunch, why do you do it in the morning? Why do I do it in the morning? Was it done in the morning when I was a student teacher? I do it in the morning because at PS 999 I only had half of my class in the morning. I couldn't get my day started. Also, I found that they needed to be more social in the morning. Get it out, so we can get the day going. I hadn't really thought about it until today when she (student teacher) asked ... It just pushes me to ask myself questions and when they ask me questions it's like staff development. It's like pushing me. Sometimes I can't answer the questions and if I can't answer the questions then I know I really have some thinking to do.

As well, Carol was very specific about identifying how she has become a more reflective practitioner because of the presence of a student teacher and speaks to how she feels this can benefit the children in her classroom.

Carol: I think it has helped me ... it made me really, really think about my profession more ... It made me, at night, go home and say I have to sit down tonight and plan ... try to think about what I could do the next day that I didn't do before to make it better for my class or for this student teacher ... It pushes you to reflect more on your practice. It really pushes you to, because you don't want to say, "Hey, I'm just going to do this," no, I would sit down every night and just go back over it and say, "I did this today, maybe tomorrow I'll try it a little different," if it didn't work out. It really helps you to reflect more on your practice.

On two different occasions, Vanessa comments that she is reflecting more also, directly due to the fact that she has a student teacher. She shares with her peers in the support group how she began keeping a journal when she received a student teacher:

Carol: A daily journal?

Vanessa: A reflection on what I do that day, how I felt, what I thought. For instance Anna (student teacher), what I thought she was doing or how I felt about something she did or how I liked or didn't like or felt uncomfortable, uneasy or whatever. Just write about my whole day. I just recall what I did with Anna. This past Monday I looked at the last page ... after Anna left, honestly, I didn't do anything. And then Melanie (new student teacher) came and back at it I was--pull it (journal) out.

During the first individual interview with Vanessa, she was commenting on how her perception of professional development has changed or "shifted." She comments on how she used to teach just by "doing a lot of stuff, but not really knowing why." And that now she was questioning herself more and becoming a "problem-solver inside". It sounded as if she were alluding to reflective activities so I asked her if in fact that was what she thought she was doing:

Researcher: It sounds like maybe you're reflecting more?

Vanessa: YEAH!, I'm reflecting, yeah that's it, you're going through the reflection process. Someone (student teacher) comes in there and goes, "Why do you do what you do?" So you describe it. Right. and then you analyze it. And then you get challenged like, wait a minute, why am I doing it? And then you start changing.

In each case there were very specific references to the student teachers who are placed by the PDS and how they have made the cooperating teachers more aware of their classrooms and their practice through reflection. Further, each cooperating teacher was able to provide an example of how this reflection has had an impact on her classroom practice. In addition to the support groups and interviews, the post observation dialogues that the cooperating teachers and student teachers had after each peer observation were filled with reflective language. As part of the action research that they engaged in, in conjunction with the PDS, the cooperating teachers taped and transcribed these post observation dialogues. Much of the discussion centered around what the cooperating teacher and student teacher had observed in the peer's classroom. This talk led to the cooperating teachers reflecting on certain aspects of their classroom.

For example Iris and her student teacher had observed Vanessa teaching a math lesson. Iris commented how it was helpful that Vanessa had put examples up on the board during the introduction to the lesson. That way, the children had a visual to refer to when they were working. Vanessa reflected on that aspect of her teaching:

Vanessa: Yes, and I am surprised that I have something on the board because that is an area that I lack. I would tell you and hope that you look here, but I don't have it so that it is always right there. I don't always have it situated in the room to help you. I guess I am relying on more folks around you more than just having it. Maybe that the folks that, who are not apt to talk to a partner or that other person they feel they can help. I need to keep it in mind to have it up more. Because I have it up all day ... but I have to remember.

Having the opportunity to be observed by a colleague provided yet another forum for the classroom teachers to look at themselves objectively and to have professional dialogues about their practice and what their strengths and weaknesses might be. These dialogues provided the time to share reflections so that possible solutions could be considered in conjunction with a peer, thus breaking down some of the barriers of isolation so often felt by classroom teachers.

While it is difficult to directly relate reflection to good teaching, in the eyes of the cooperating teachers there were many instances where being involved with a PDS forced them to reflect on their practice and that these reflections have changed their practice as classroom teachers and as teacher educators. They believe that they have become better teachers because of this deliberate act of reflecting. They are able to present examples of how they have changed what they do in their classroom for the better because they sat down and thought out the rationale for implementing certain activities or routines in their classroom. Their actions and teachings have become subject to constant scrutiny and are molded and shifted as the teachers deem necessary. This, the cooperating teachers feel, can only benefit the children in their classroom.

Concluding Remarks

The cooperating teachers seemed to feel that constant reflection on their practice was key in facilitating their development as professionals. Taking part in discussions and research appeared to motivate these teachers to think about what they do in their classrooms. Most noticeably, reflection was promoted by simply having a student teacher present in their classroom. This sentiment was not unique to the cooperating teachers at PS 999, but seems to be a perception shared by cooperating teachers in PDSs in general. As Boles and Troen (1997) state in Making Professional Development Schools Work:</p> <pre> Veteran teachers learn more about the theory and practice of teaching as they begin to teach preservice teachers. Theory is demystified quickly as intersections between research, theory and practice are built through collaborative meetings, discussions, and informal interactions. Teachers find their own knowledge base deepening, and they recognize that their teaching becomes more reflective (p. 67). </pre> <p>The ability level of the student teachers did not seem to relate to the amount of reflection done by the cooperating teacher. The teachers expressed continuously that the mere presence of a student teacher in their classroom forced them to think more deeply about their classroom practice. All shared the conclusion that this kind of reflection facilitated their growth as professionals and related it directly to their association with the PDS. While transference to improvement for learning for the children cannot be and has not been documented (Lemke, 2003), it was the perception of these participants that teachers who are always examining their practice are improving instruction for children and in turn children are learning more. Moreover, the literature (Lieberman & Miller, 1990; Richardson, 1994; NFIE, 1996) also suggests that teachers who engage in this type of practice are improving instruction.

Finally, the cooperating teachers felt that by working with student teachers they improved their own teaching skills and techniques. These particular teachers received student teachers solely as a result of the PDS partnership. Furthermore, the presence of student teachers coupled with the presence of a PDS liaison who served as a supervisor, and facilitator of support groups and an action research project on site, brought professional reflection and changes in classroom practice to the forefront of their daily work with students. The PDS partnership provided the mechanisms and structures for these teachers to improve their practice. This study finds that participation in a PDS can improve classroom practice.

References

Boles, K. and Troen, V. (1997). How the emergence of teacher leadership helped build a professional development school. In M. Levine & R. Trachtman (Eds.), Making professional development schools work (pp. 52-75). New York: Teachers College Press.

Chance, L. (Ed.) (2000). Professional development schools: Combining school improvement with teacher preparation. Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Lemke, J. L. (2003) Modeling change: The dynamics of place, time, and identity. Keynote address at the Ethnography and Education Forum, Philadelphia, PA, February 28-March 1. On line: www.umich.edu/~jaylemke/penn_forum.ht

Lieberman, A. & Miller. (1990, Fall). Teacher development in professional practice schools. Teachers College Record, 92 (1), 105-122.

National Foundation for the Improvement of Education. (1996). Teachers take charge of their learning, Washington, DC: Author.

Richardson, V. (1994). In Sockett & Hollingsworth(Eds.), Teacher research and educational reform. The 93rd yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. (pp. 186-203). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ridley, D.; Hurwitz, S; Hackett, M and Miller, K. (2005). Comparing PDS and campus-based preservice teacher preparation: Is PDS-based preparation really better? Journal of Teacher Education, 56, (1) 46-56.

Teitel, L (2000). The professional development schools handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Teitel, L. (2001). How professional development schools make a difference: A review of the research. Washington, DC: National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

Alexandria Lawrence Ross, Lehman College, City University of New York 

Alexandria Lawrence Ross, Ed.D., specializes in the areas of school-university collaborations and teacher preparation.