Different studies refer to school culture as an indicator of the school’s ethos and social environment (traditions, beliefs). The concept covers the operation of the administrative and organisational structures, and how these interact to facilitate or constrict teacher workplace learning. Comparative studies of schools in different geographical locations and their opportunities for teacher learning serve to illustrate how beliefs, traditions, types of institutional arrangements affect the extent of teachers’ informal engagement in pedagogic exchanges.
Professional development that incorporates all-school inquiry can either be hindered by the school’s organisational context or on the contrary, under certain conditions, can contribute towards commitment to learning goals and collaboration in school. Subject departments as forms of school organisation have positive effects on teacher professional growth and active pedagogic leadership provided they operate as communities that seek to have influence on the whole school environment.
While most of the studies reviewed consider some form of impact of professional development on teachers’ knowledge and practice, including effects on pupils, some set out explicitly to explore the effectiveness of programmes on personal changes of teachers cognitions, beliefs and practice as well as pupil change and teacher satisfaction.
Changes in cognition took several forms in the studies reviewed. Different modalities of professional development improved curricular knowledge and understanding in areas as diverse as reading comprehension and science, as well as fostering of student motivation. Changes in teacher beliefs or expectations of student achievement in low-income communities, was an outcome sustained over two years of professional development. The effects of a yearlong experience in developing literacy instruction skills resulted in high and low implementers. Differences between them were explained in terms of their levels of general, personal and collective efficacy.
By: Mary Grace G. Canare | Teacher I | Mabatang Elementary School | Abucay, Bataan
