Sustainability and Capacity Building

There is also now strong evidence about the conditions required for teachers’ professional growth.

Findings from a UK wide study of the state of CPD nationwide (Pedder et al. 2009), which built on a

lager study carried out in the US (Desimone, 2009) recorded six features which increased teachers’

capacity to extend professional learning and also, more importantly, resulted in enhanced students’

learning (see Figure Two, p. 9). In essence the findings showed that the conditions necessary for

teacher learning to be transformative are that development of practice must be context specific and

embedded in a real classroom. Furthermore, development ought to involve a reflective stage where

teachers think deeply about what they are doing and why. The development activity must also be

sustained over an extended period of time, and include some form of collaborative inquiry-based

practice supported by more knowledgeable critical friend.

Sustain development through support and encouragement

The process of change requires hard work, determination and resilience on the part of everybody

involved. Part of the role of the CoE Cambridge and Kazakhstani trainers is to motivate teachers by

adopting a positive approach through encouragement and praise, and, more importantly, by helping to

build teachers’ beliefs that they are good at what they do whilst also holding them to account for

pupils’ learning and attainment. To this end the focus of the CoE programme is centred on making

classroom learning and teaching better for all learners in each classroom. This is achieved though

building on context specific evidence from all staff, parents and students in each school.

It is intended that the goals are realised though establishing a strong, positive and optimistic belief

that all pupils learning can develop that will be achieved through collaborative team work with experts

and novices working together to produce short and long term plans for schools and classrooms.

In summary, the key functions of the CoE programme are to sustain the will of teachers through

providing them with the skill to learn how to learn so that they understood how to bring about change.

When the key players have the necessary skill and knowledge of how to build capacity within the

school system then improvements are more likely to be pervasive and sustained. The CoE

programme started as a Cambridge programme but has now rapidly become a Kazakhstani CoE

programme.

Early Evidence of Capacity Building

There are some early signs of capacity building within the system.

i) Kazakhstani Expert assessor team

There is now a team of expert assessors who have completed all three Levels of CoE training and

who have also undertaken additional assessment training carried out by CIE. This team now oversees

the assessment process under the guidance of a support team lead by an original member of the CoE

planning team.

ii) Growth in the numbers of CoE offices with expert Directors supported by international trainers

There are now 17 centres of excellence throughout Kazakhstan supported by a fully trained team of

teachers and lecturers. These centres are located in Astana, Karaganda, Semey, Oskemen,

Taldykorgan, Almaty, Shymkent, Aktau, Atyrau, Aktobe, Pavlodar, Kokshetau, Taraz, Kyzylorda,

Kostanai, Petropavlovsk and Uralsk. (see Figure Three, p. 14). The Directors of the centres have

completed all three Levels of CoE training and carried out teacher training within their regions. Each 14

centre now has a recently recruited English speaking international trainer working in their team. The

Centres of Excellence will act as hubs for networks of teachers within the regions.

ii) Kazakhstani Expert trainer team

A team of expert trainers who have attended all three Levels of the CoE programme have been

appointed to work as co-trainers with the Cambridge team in the second cycle of Level Three train the

trainers programme in January 2013.

iv) Kazakhstani Expert ‘ambassador’ team

Although there is not an official team of ‘ambassadors’, there are a number of extremely competent,

articulate trainers who occupy senior positions within the Kazakhstani education system who have

completed all three Levels of CoE training and have also either trained or assessed teachers. Indeed,

at the December 2012 Teacher Professional Development: traditions and changes international

conference several CoE trainers presented papers related to their work with the CoE programme.

Action research reports and reflective accounts

The action research projects carried out by trainers during the school-based/on-line period have been

very influential in deepening trainers’ understanding of the process of learning and teaching through

structuring the systematic collection of classroom-based data about implementing change. The

programme’s seven themes were integrated into trainers’ school-based training and teachers’

classroom practice though more strategic medium term planning. This planning process helped

trainers and teachers to structure the integration of all the ideas from the programme into classroom

practice rather than as isolated discrete teaching strategies. The collection of data about the positive

effects of the programme on pupils’ learning and motivation served to reinforce trainers’ and teachers’ 15

determination to continue with the training programme. Whilst the research findings were presented to

peers in the second face-to-face seminars, these useful reports are largely inaccessible to Cambridge

trainers because they were usually written in either Russian or Kazakh.

Discussion

Introducing innovation and development of practice does not have a direct linear outcome because

there are many contributory mediating factors in place between the initial Cambridge training and

ultimate pupils’ outcomes. Consequently, it is not a straightforward process to monitor outcomes.

However, an ongoing monitoring and evaluation programme is in place to determine the impact of the

CoE programme as it is introduced and developed. The CoE evaluation process will look for evidence

of deep changes taking place which illustrate how teachers’ beliefs about the norms and pedagogical

practices of the classroom have changed. Data will continue to be gathered beyond the Cambridge

training stages to look for evidence of change and sustainability of the programme over time. The

three types of evidence being collected are:

• instrumental evidence: participants feedback, evidence of influencing the development

of practice or altering teachers’ and pupils’ behaviour;

• conceptual change: contributing to the understanding of the participants;

• evidence of capacity building: through technical and sustained personal skill development.

By early 2013 substantial data sets has been collected and this is summarised in Table Two (p. 16).

The next sections will present an analysis of the interim findings of these data.

Challenges facing the process of Reform at Scale

Monitoring and Evaluation

Broadening the definition of scale in the way we have described earlier highlights inherent tensions for

both monitoring and introducing the reform process. The broader conceptualization emphasizes

dimensions of scale that are more challenging to measure because it is more challenging to measure

conceptual change or enacted pedagogical principles than the presence or absence of activities or

materials. It is more challenging to measure the spread of norms of interaction than the number of

teachers or schools involved in such an initiative. It is also arguably more challenging to measure the

shift in authority over and knowledge of reform than reform adoption and sustainability. Evaluation

strategies that capture depth and shift in ownership, most often qualitative, will be more labour

intensive and time consuming than survey and other quantitative methods better suited to capture

breadth.

However, it is very important to solve these challenges to ensure that we develop research designs

that capture what is important rather than only what is easily measurable. To that end, we will

continue to analyze conceptual changes through the development of appropriate methodological

approaches. We plan to explore creative and cost-effective ways to study schools that have been 16

engaged in reform initiatives for more than a few years.

ConClusIons

school leaders can make a difference in school and student performance if they are granted the autonomy to make

important decisions. to do this effectively, they need to be able to adapt teaching programs to local needs, promote

teamwork among teachers, and engage in teacher monitoring, evaluation and professional development. they need

discretion in setting strategic direction and must be able to develop school plans and goals and monitor progress,

using data to improve practice. they also need to be able to influence teacher recruitment to improve the match

between candidates and their school’s needs. Last but not least, leadership preparation and training are central and

building networks of schools to stimulate and spread innovation and to develop diverse curricula, extended services

and professional support can bring substantial benefits.

!! Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills

Starting from the premise that learning to collaborate with others and connecting through technology are

essential skills in a knowledge-based economy, the assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project

brought together more than 250 researchers across 60 institutions worldwide who categorized 21st-century

skills internationally into four broad categories:

Ways of thinking. Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning

Ways of working. Communication and collaboration

Tools for working. information and communications technology (iCT) and information literacy

Skills for living in the world. Citizenship, life and career, and personal and social responsibility

The project also outlines the nature of assessment systems that can support changes in practice, illustrates

the use of technology to transform assessment systems and learning, and proposes a model for assessing

21st century skills.

!!! For example, the OECD’s comparative review of innovative learning environments

concludes that, in order to be

most effective, learning environments should:

• make learning central, encourage engagement, and be the place where students come to understand themselves

as learners;

• ensure that learning is social and often collaborative;

• be highly attuned to students’ motivations and the importance of emotions;

• be acutely sensitive to individual differences, including in prior knowledge;

• be demanding of every student, without overloading students;

• use assessments that emphasize formative feedback; and

• promote connections across activities and subjects, both in and out of school.

Taken together, these principles form a demanding framework on which teachers’ professionalism is based. In addition

to developing such individual skills, teachers also need to be able and have opportunities to work collaboratively with

others in designing learning environments, addressing the learning needs of particular groups of students, developing

themselves professionally, and teaching with others in team approaches. The OECD’s comparative review of innovative

learning environments concludes:

• teachers need to be well-versed in the subjects they teach in order to be adept at using different methods and, if

necessary, changing their approaches to optimize learning. this includes content-specific strategies and methods

to teach specific content.

• they need a rich repertoire of teaching strategies, the ability to combine approaches, and the knowledge of how

and when to use certain methods and strategies.

• the strategies used should include direct, whole-group teaching, guided discovery, group work, and the

facilitation of self-study and individual discovery. they should also include personalized feedback.

• Teachers need to have a deep understanding of how learning happens, in general, and of individual students’

motivations, emotions and lives outside the classroom, in particular.

• teachers need to be able to work in highly collaborative ways, working with other teachers, professionals

and para-professionals within the same organization, or with individuals in other organizations, networks of

professional communities and different partnership arrangements, which may include mentoring teachers.

• teachers need to acquire strong skills in technology and the use of technology as an effective teaching tool, to both

optimize the use of digital resources in their teaching and use information-management systems to track student

learning.

• teachers need to develop the capacity to help design, lead, manage and plan learning environments in collaboration

with others.

• last but not least, teachers need to reflect on their practices in order to learn from their experience.

Поиск по сайту: