The more things change: Enhancing the capacity of teachers to change their classroom practice

Abstract

The major issue of this thesis is that for effective change in teachers' classroom practice to occur, multiple actions are required at different levels of participation, from federal and state education jurisdictions through to school communities and individual classroom teachers. The thesis supposition is that practical action factors in schools and the community can be found which meet the needs of the change.
The history of attempts to achieve educational change through changed classroom practice is littered with a range of different approaches, usually one-off events. They have sometimes succeeded. Stakeholders, including parents, social pressure groups and particularly governments have increasing expectations of what it is that teachers can achieve in terms of their students' learning outcomes. The degree to which actual teaching practices are changed at the classroom level will depend on the degree to which teachers are able to manage and implement change. However, studies in the area of curriculum change reveal that the gap between policy and practice remains an ongoing concern.
This thesis draws upon theory and applied research findings from the traditions of educational change, health education, models of change, evaluation and social science research methods. The purpose of this thesis is to identify and make comparisons in the practical action factors which enhance the capacity of teachers to change their classroom practice. These are investigated through a multiple case study consideration of the school context, the professional development inputs, and the classroom programs. The patterns of effective practical action in the research study would support the thesis supposition.
A multiple case study-theory building approach was used to analyse the data from twelve school sites selected from the School Development in Health Education (SDHE) Project. Data analysis employed the technique of matrix displays, with several rounds of analysis in order to generate some significant factors related to teacher change. The results were considered for endorsement by an expert panel from the field in order to enhance confidence in the validity and the reliability of the research study.
Results from first round of analysis in the multiple case study showed school team commitment, teachers' attitude to professional development and community cooperation to be important factors in educational change. The second round of analysis highlighted the importance of placing the teacher at the centre of change when planning professional development. Finally, the third round presents a summary of the factors emerging from the analyses in five major focus areas: professional development; principal leadership; school organisation and culture; school team; and system support. The importance of the relationships among these factors was recognised in their impact on teachers' abilities to make educational changes in their classrooms.
The thesis has found that the professional decision-making and practice of teachers is value added by the actions of other players - professional development providers, school principals and education systems. Teachers' capacity to change is enhanced by appropriate school-based professional development, flexible school organisation, and the opportunity to work collaboratively in school teams.
From the patterns emerging from the strong and weak clusters of cases the thesis is able to make conclusions about teachers' professional practice, professional development approaches, principal leadership, school organisation, education systems and the nature of change. This thesis shows that educational change requires multiple actions at different levels of participation. Finally, the thesis offers recommendations to the different players in the field: education systems, principals and professional development providers.

Date of Award	1997
Original language	English
Supervisor	Robert Irwin (Supervisor)