Browsing by Author "Philander, Christa Joline"
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- ItemNatural sciences teachers' continuous professional development through a community of practice(Education Association of South Africa, 2021) Philander, Christa Joline; Botha, Marie-LouiseYears of research on teacher quality indicate that the quality and effectiveness of teachers have a significant influence on learner achievements. The quality of teachers and their teaching practice is widely debated where quality may depend on the teacher having acquired sound and relevant knowledge and skills to ensure effective teaching. The continuous professional development of teachers is a key element in ensuring the required quality in teaching to enhance learners’ achievements. Utilising Wenger’s construct of a Community of Practice (CoP) as theoretical framework, with the investigation reported on here, we aimed to understand how natural sciences teachers, from a specific rural school district in the Western Cape province, South Africa, experienced a CoP as a continuing professional teacher development (CPTD) strategy. This investigation was informed by a naturalistic case study method where open-ended questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations were utilised for data generation during CoP sessions. Thematic data-analysis revealed themes (words/phrases) for interpretation and discussion. Preliminary findings highlighted some emerging characteristics that influenced the effective operation of a CoP and suggested that participants acknowledged the importance of a CoP, indicating that their natural sciences knowledge and skills had notably increased. We argue that emerging CoP characteristics can assist in the advancement of motivation, effectiveness and professional development of natural sciences teachers in rural areas, affording quality teachers and teaching practices.
- ItemThe professional development of natural sciences teachers : possibilities of a community of practice(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-12) Philander, Christa Joline; Botha, Marie Louise; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Continuing professional teacher development (CPTD) that is effectively undertaken presents a significant opportunity to reform education in South Africa. However, CPTD is currently trapped in traditional transmissionist approaches that are misaligned to teachers’ needs and their shortcomings. As a result, education practitioners and researchers are increasingly calling to abandon these low-impact initiatives in favour of CPTD models that improve teachers’ subject content knowledge and pedagogy by affording teachers opportunities to collaborate. A community of practice (CoP) for teachers, which is known to foster teacher collaboration has design characteristics appealing to the effective facilitation of CPTD. Taking a dissident position, this study intended setting up a teacher CoP with the researcher as the initiator and facilitator, to determine its potential contributions to the professional development of ten participating Senior Phase Natural Sciences teachers from the rural school district of Vredendal, Western Cape Province. This study also aimed to establish the principles and aspects influencing the effective operation of such a teacher CoP. In South Africa, CPTD is regulated by guidelines contained in the National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development (NPFTED), hence the theoretical framework considered for this study needed alignment to it. A descripto-exploratory research design, underpinned by a social constructivist ontology, interpretivist epistemology and a multi-method qualitative case study methodology was found appropriate for observing the experiences of the participating teachers in a naturalistic setting. This study embraces Wenger’s (1998) CoP construct as a theoretical framework. A CoP, by original definition, features the following three foundational elements, namely the domain, the community and the practice. In this study, the domain encapsulates the CPTD, the participating teachers and the researcher as an observer-participant represent the community, and the practice includes different strategies used during the CoP sessions that were used to explain and demonstrate specific contexts as well as the corresponding concepts. Primary data were collected via different techniques including questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and CoP observations. Secondary data encompassed participant diaries, field notes, the researcher’s reflective journal and an extensive document review. The construct of rigour was applied to ensure that the experiences of the teacher participants reflected the study accurately and demonstrated the credibility of the research. Transcribed and re-organised data were subsequently categorised, coded and subjected to thematic analysis to answer the research questions. The results highlight two critical problems. Firstly, teacher participants admitted that they are not adequately equipped to teach the subject content effectively and expressed a need to understand 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 teachers have difficulties to collaborate due to the vast distances between schools, a poor telecommunications network, lack of finances and inadequate facilities and equipment. The CoP intervention augmented the professional identity of the teacher participants meaningfully by helping to build specific competences required by the authoritative norms set out in the NPFTED. Participants improved their subject content knowledge, notably. They developed the ability to teach Natural Sciences theory relevant to real-life situations and raised their skill level to conduct demonstrations and practical work more confidently. Opportunities for self-reflection appeared instrumental in entrenching the newly acquired teaching practices. These positive changes are considered to have benefitted from including the participants in key aspects of the design and operation of the CoP. Teacher participants explicitly appreciated the constructive interaction and collaboration in the CoP sessions and approved of its enabling influences on their professional development. An inclusive CoP structure, established professional relationships among CoP members and a motivated CoP membership proved to be the critical aspects essential to the effective operation of a teacher CoP. This study found that professional relationships built on mutual respect and trust are the most significant enabler for accomplishing successful teacher collaboration. The findings of this study support global research, indicating that teacher collaboration is the common foundation of effective CPTD strategies. Accordingly, a CoP presents an enticing opportunity to facilitate CPD effectively as it is purposely designed to foster teacher collaboration, and it is recognised to break down teacher isolation, which is especially prevalent in rural school environments. Potentially operationalising teacher CoPs in the South African education system, both as a standalone 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 leading role. A blended CoP approach, with its characteristic focus on deriving value from employing information and communications technologies and smart electronic teaching aids, could improve the operation of a teacher CoP.