TDG – Improving Student Teachers’ Professional Learning through the Development of Learning Communities

Abstract

The goal of this project is to improve the professional learning of student teachers in PGDE and BEd programmes through the use of video workshops and the learning study approach. In the first approach, curriculum resources centered around videos of exemplary science teaching in authentic classroom situations were developed and used as prompts for discussion in a series of video workshops. To track student teachers’ individual learning, they were asked to undertake progressive reflection on another set of videos at three different points (entry, middle and exit) of the course. Results indicated that both communal learning taking place in the video workshops and progressive reflection undertaken individually had interacted synergistically in enhancing student teachers’ learning.

In the second approach, student teachers were introduced to the learning study model grounded in variation theory and engaged in collaborative action research on their professional practices. Interviews were conducted with them before and after the learning study. Results showed that most of them demonstrated progression in their ways of understanding teaching and learned professionally. They expressed that the learning study is conducive to developing their professional capabilities of designing appropriate learning environment for pupils, as the inquiry and reflection was evidence-based and conducted collaboratively.

Deliverables