Teacher-research approach for sustainable and scalable professional development

Good teachers continuously reflect on their practices and seek feedback to ensure that they are meeting individual learning needs of their class. In Bangladesh, English in Action (EIA) project has introduced school based... [ view full abstract ]

Good teachers continuously reflect on their practices and seek feedback to ensure that they are meeting individual learning needs of their class. In Bangladesh, English in Action (EIA) project has introduced school based professional development activities using mobile technology to provide examples of communicative teaching approaches. Teachers are encouraged to practise the approaches and to reflect on them with peers. EIA has now tried to extend this practice by supporting teachers to conduct action research in their classrooms. This presentation explores the following questions:

• What effect does it have on teachers when they are supported to systematically research an aspect of change in their classroom?
• How can systematic reflective questioning bring about classroom change?
• How does action research lead to sustainable change in learning and teaching?

Around 150 teachers from diverse backgrounds were provided support for conducting classroom-research through workshops and peer mentoring. Throughout the year-long journey each teacher researched one specific aspect of their classrooms completing three cycles of research, which included observation, collecting feedback from pupils and peers and systemically recording their findings in a reflective journal. Many teachers also shared their experience through social media. Finally, they presented their research findings at a conference titled “Teachers’ Voices Conference (TVC)”.

We found that enabling teachers to inquire into their own classrooms using evidence-based reflection helped them to see value in seeking opinions of their peers and pupils and planning their next lessons. They became strongly motivated to explore their classroom practices collaboratively on a continuing basis. This presentation will discuss these changes with the help of teachers’ research projects and videos of case studies demonstrating the effect of classroom research on teachers and students. Implications of such an initiative for scalability and sustainability will be discussed.