Role of the principal concerning the professional development

The phenomenon of ‘achievement gap,’ as it is termed by educationalists, has become a big concern in my school in recent years. Students who have been learning well showed a good improvement in their achievements. However, the slow learners, who are the majority, showed a very low level of achievement. In our management meetings this issue always comes up for discussion. But a concrete solution to the problem of closing the achievement gap has not been reached. Being the head of the school and the motivation and encouragement I have received while doing my Postgraduate Diploma in school management led me to take on this issue in this course. I have been seriously thinking on why this gap between slow learners and better ones is increasing and teachers are unable to do much about it. Most often teachers try to put blame on the students’ side for lower achievements. At the same time, increased pressure from the community, especially parents, for improving the results of their children led me to look into this issue to reduce this gap and improve achievement.

In addition to this the changed educational policy of the new government in my country forces every school to raise its achievement level by a certain scale from year to year, which will be considered in any type of assistance for the school in the future. This policy of the government made me, as the principal of the school; think about motivating teachers to work more effectively among the low achievers, who are the majority in the classrooms, to improve their academic achievements. For this purpose I believe professional development is the only effective tool.

Another factor which leads my interest in this issue as a principal is that recently we have faced so much competition from the neighbouring schools in our province in increasing the student enrolment. Parents are so concerned with the school’s performance in admitting their children. So the school started to take effective steps in improving the academic achievement of their students. In my introspection of introducing innovative measures I started thinking much more about improving the skill and efficiency of the teaching staff and creating a positive attitude among teachers for taking up new instructional strategies. Thus, my interest in this issue of professional development is in closing the gap developed.

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Moreover, as a leader I believe it is my part to initiate some influence on teachers and other school communities to work together to close this gap. I took this as a challenge. I am so keen on learning what skills and qualities a principal should have to take this responsibility of professional development of teachers for reducing the achievement gap. I will sincerely look into my capacity and weakness in this matter while writing this dissertation and try to strengthen my abilities. In general, I feel the principal as a leader should act as an instructional leader and learner, and be able to create a learning environment. Moreover, the principal should have direct involvement in the design, delivery and content of professional development and assessment of its outcome. It is because I believe the principal is the one who clearly understands the needs of the school in terms of instructional strategies and their timely modifications.

In my experience when teachers are given in-service courses in far-away centers, very rarely do they practice it in their daily lessons. It may be mainly, I believe, due to the reason that in the work place no one may be there to guide and motivate the teachers to adopt the new instructional strategies learned and at the same time, the principal is not so aware about the content of the course and the methods taught. So those programmes aimed at improving teachers’ instructional skills have shown little fruit. Therefore for a professional development to be fruitful and effective, I believe, the principal should take the initiative and the role of leadership.

I have realized that only the principal with a strong leadership quality can lead others in their professional growth to benefit the school as whole. I will try to relate my earlier experiences in bringing changes to the school learning environment. These reflections on the resistance of the teachers towards changes, I hope, will help as a guideline in this course and to enrich my leadership qualities. So I will be looking into the aspect of the effective roles of the principal’s leadership in professional development of teachers. Therefore, this dissertation attempts to answer the question: What is the role of the principal concerning the professional development of teachers to reduce the achievement gap in the school?

I will be presenting this dissertation in the following manner: Following the introduction, I will discuss my reflections on this issue and then refer to the published works in this area as a part of the literature review. Next I will explain the use of questionnaires to collect relevant information from the principals in neighbouring schools on what their view on professional development is, how they have taken initiatives in this area and what challenges they have faced in the process. Next the interpretation of the data will be presented, after which I will be discussing the issues. Then this dissertation will be concluded by analyzing my understanding, limitations and the opening for further research on this issue.

I intend this dissertation to be useful for any school which tries to close the achievement gap by the way of professional development of teachers through the initiation of the principal. I believe the leadership quality of a principal is crucial for any such initiative to become successful. Thus, the principal’s organization along with strong leadership skills and the understanding of the importance of professional development can become more successful. Therefore, I believe a principal who wishes to act as a leader as well as a learner will be able to take up this kind of challenge.

CHAPTER TWO

LINIKG THEORY AND PRACTICE

In this chapter, first, I will present my reflections as a school principal in initiating the professional development programmes, and link these reflections to relevant literature. Next, based on the literature, I will discuss the following key areas: the principal’s role as an instructional leader and learner, creating a learning environment, assessing of professional development outcomes, getting the right professional development to close the achievement gap, following-up of professional development programmes and measures to be taken to change the attitude and classroom practice of teachers through professional development programmes.

Role of school principal

In the beginning of my profession as a principal, I had a notion that the principal’s primary role is as a manager of the school and related matters as is the case with other principals I know. I was happy with the way I handled my management responsibilities. However, the policy changes at the government level and the competition from neighbouring schools in academic achievements forced me to think about my role more significantly as an instructional leader. My first initiations to achieve higher learning of students were mainly focused on the direct learning strategies of students. Some of the decisions we made to implement improvements were remedial classes and learning clinics where individual students were given personal care, parents were motivated to see their children learning at home and the frequency of class tests was increased. However, I could remember only very insignificant improvements were brought about, especially among the low achieving students. Of course, a small group of high achievers did show remarkable improvement under this programme. But it was not the solution when viewing from the school as a whole. Therefore, I started to investigate what should be done effectively to bring a better change in the students’ learning in general so as to reduce the achievement gap. One of the main reasons for choosing this topic for this dissertation was also influenced by this inquiry. Towards this purpose, I started discussing various ways for improving students’ achievements with other principals and teachers. At the same time, I directed my lead teachers to make frequent classroom observations of the teachers and report on them. This manner of enquiry led to a realization that the problem of achievement of students partially lay in the teachers’ classroom practices. Until then we were focusing more attention on the student side to improve the academic achievement. Thus I started to think upon the improvement of the instructional skills of teachers so as to cater to the needs of individual students in diverse classrooms like ours. As Villegas-Reimers (2003) states,

Successful professional development experiences have a noticeable impact on teachers’ work, both in and out of the classroom, especially considering that a significant number of teachers throughout the world are under-prepared for their profession (p. 17)

So, I started to find research works and journals which talked about professional development and its various aspects. As Bredeson (1999) states, “Professional development refers to learning opportunities that engage teachers’ creative and reflective capacities to strengthen their practice” (p. 4).

Most of the published works on professional development reveal that the school principal’s role is quite significant in making the professional development more effective and practical. This encourages my looking into my capability as a leader to lead the teachers as an instructional community. Bredeson and Johansson (2000) identified four areas where principals have substantial influence on teacher learning which includes the principal as an instructional leader and learner, the creation of a learning environment, direct involvement in the design, delivery and content of professional development and assessment of professional development outcomes. In support of this view Loucks-Horsley et al (1988) state that,

The support of leaders – those in positions of authority such as principals and those with more expertise than teachers taking part in the professional development- legitimates changes, provides resources, and creates expectations that changes will occur (p. 199).

Lead me on to the next section

The Principal as instructional leader and learner

I was much motivated to see these four areas where a principal has such an important role to play. As an instructional leader the principal has four key roles to play namely: stewards, models, experts and instructional leaders (Bredeson and Johansson, 2000). As these two authors explained, the principal as steward communicates the importance of professional development, as an integral part of school improvement to all stakeholders of a school. He keeps the focus and goal of teachers’ professional development as student learning. He serves the needs of students and the school in a fair and unique manner. Next, the principal as a model demonstrates great enthusiasm by practicing what he talks. He demonstrates his interest in learning by actively taking part in professional development programmes. Then the principal as an expert must possess ‘specialized knowledge and skills in such areas as cognition and learning theory, models of teaching, human growth and development’ (pp. 9-10). Lastly, the principal, as instructional leader influences teacher professional development. The principal should use varieties of activities to encourage and celebrate learning. Principals should follow-through in the form of modeling, feedback, coaching and support for teachers in order to bring changes in their classroom practices.

Creating a learning environment

Another important role of a principal in teacher professional development is that of creating suitable situations where teachers will be willing to undertake changes in their classroom practices through learning. In this regard, the principal should act as communicator, supporter and manager (Bredeson and Johansson, 2000). As a communicator, the principal can create a strong and a collective view among teachers on the effectiveness of professional development in student learning, through his daily interaction with teachers as the

principal is in a unique position to impart messages through communication with the teachers daily. Talk is an important part of principal’s work and they also need to listen, which empowers others too in this process of professional development. Principals in their conversations should try to influence teachers’ thinking and ultimately their practice by posing questions, challenging assumptions and collaborative problem solving.

A principal, as a supporter in creating a learning environment, is the single most important element in a school system in extending valuable support in various ways – financially by allocating budget and by creating favourable conditions for professional development of teachers. Teachers also look to the principal as a source of professional knowledge and expertise.

A principal’s role as manager is to establish and maintain a healthy learning environment in the school. Towards this purpose, a principal should have effective management skills which include the appointment of teachers who wish to learn within the profession, coordination of professional development activities, making decisions on school resources and priorities, time management, identification of new resources, and training of the teachers and visiting classrooms and evaluations.

Professional development design, delivery and content

The principal has an effective role in design, delivery and content of professional development. In fact, the principal is the most influential person in the school community to influence others and carry out professional development activities in the right direction. As Bredeson and Johansson (2000) identify, the principal should take the initiative in aligning professional development with school goals and teacher needs, empower teachers as decision makers, identify needs, develop ongoing planning processes, create dialogues on professional development, support a variety of learning opportunities for teachers and keep the focus on student learning. Collaborative planning, joint work, curriculum design; school based inquiry and deep conversations about teaching and learning represent different delivery strategies for meeting teachers’ needs.

Assessment of Professional Development Outcomes

Most of the literature findings see for example???as well as practical approaches of evaluating professional development activities use a survey conducted among the participants. However, the principal should develop processes for the systematic collection and analysis of information on professional development in the school to decide where they are in the process of teacher learning and the effectiveness of professional development activities so far conducted (Bredson and Johanasson, 2000).

In my school, I conduct classroom observations through lead teachers and often myself. These classroom observations, especially after the professional development activities, help to evaluate how far the professional development has helped the teachers to change their classroom practices and to redirect them to improve on their weaker areas. Guskey (2000) has developed a five level set of criteria for professional development evaluation. Level one considers participants’ reactions. It is the most common way of evaluating evidence for professional development programmes. However, it is also the least informative as participants’ reactions to the professional development tend to be biased and subjective. Level two comprises participants’ learning from professional development programmes. This evaluation needs various methods since the learning may be cognitive, affective or behavioural. The third level consists of organizational support and change. It emphasises the need for support and motivation from the institution to have a long lasting effect of professional development in teachers’ practices. The fourth level emphasises the participants’ use of new knowledge and skills. It is essential to evaluate where the participants’ are actually putting into practice the new knowledge they gained in professional development. The fifth level considers the student outcomes as a part of the evaluation of the programmes. It is one of the most important elements of evaluation because it assesses the impact on student learning. The principal, as an instructional leader, should be able to convince the teachers of the real benefit of professional development in achieving the targets through evidence. As King (2002) observes, ‘instructional leadership is anything leaders do to improve teaching and learning by gathering evidence of student achievement that demonstrates improvement’ (p. 61).

Most often, our evaluation of teacher practices become more summative rather than formative. In fact, formative evaluation helps teachers to grow professionally and studies Show formative evaluations are more suitable since they motivate teachers to implement the new methods of teaching they have learned in the professional development programmes. A good formative evaluation should be making teachers aware of the evaluation criteria ahead of time, providing feedback afterward, giving them the opportunity to discuss their evaluation and offering them support to target the areas in which they need improvement (Little, Goe and Bell, 2009).

Getting the right professional development to close the achievement gap

In this part of the literature review, I would like to discuss the effective strategies for professional development of teachers to close the achievement gap in light of the published literature. I believe any professional development programme, to be effective, should consider various aspects such as personal, social and occupational. Bell and Gilbert (1996) identify the personal and social aspects of professional development. The personal aspect includes teachers’ beliefs, values and attitudes which are important considerations when building up a suitable professional development programme. Similarly, the social aspect that supports teachers’ learning is that the school community, in a collaborative manner, should support teachers in learning. Not a sentencePowerful and socially mediated learning (Falk and Dierking, 2000) with other people perceived to be knowledgeable, for example, facilitators or more experienced colleagues. The development of the occupational aspect of teacher learning shown by Clerke and Hollingsworth (2002) points out that there should be a link between theory and practice. The ‘professional experimentation’ – making sense of practical experiences, particularly those positive outcomes can lead to conceptual change and acceptance of theory. And also the professional development activities should be intellectually stimulating and professionally relevant. In other words it should be transformative professional learning (Sprinthall et al, 1996).

As a part of developing effective professional development strategies, I believe there should be proper planning beforehand. In this regard, the model developed by O’Sullivan (2002) – INSET (In-Service Education and Training) Strategies Model – is of great use. It has six stages. They are needs assessment, organization, determination of content, training process, follow up and evaluation. In my search for other models, I came across a number of modelssuch as?. Almost all agree with most of these stages of planning and implementation method of professional development activities.

Figure 1. INSET strategies model for the professional development (Source: O”Sullivan, p. 183)

In my school, I follow primarily classroom observation with the help of lead teachers to find out the needs of teachers to form a better strategy for professional development. I believe, since many of the teachers in my school are undertrained or unqualified, they are lacking some basic skills and ideas of instruction, especially the modern classroom practices. So I feel observation is the most appropriate method that can be followed to formulate the needs of teachers to be addressed in professional development. Moreover, since my search in this dissertation is to find solutions to reduce the achievement gap through professional development, I want to find evidence from the student learning outcomes to show there is a wide achievement gap among the studentsI thought you knew that – this diss is to address the issue, not to see if it exists?? . It is clear evidence that the teachers are lacking proper skills to handle a diverse classroom effectively. As Hawley and Valli (1990) state, ‘the content of professional development focuses on what students are to learn and how to address the different problems students may have in learning the material’ (p. 65). It emphasises two aspects of professional development such as the ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ (Shulman, 1986page needed) and the instructional strategies to be used to teach the content.

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It is so important for teachers to be competent in the content knowledge of their discipline to teach effectively and improve student outcomes. It is evident from the literature that the successful teachers are the ones with deep content knowledge. Shulman (1986) argues that successful teaching requires teachers to understand their discipline in such a way that they are able to anticipate common misconceptions that student bring to the study of that subject and can provide alternative representation of the material for students who have difficulty in learning it. Agreeing with this view, Diana Rigden (2000) explains that ,

You are expecting me to work out what she says – this quote is too long – you need to give me the key points of her argument, not ask me to work it outResearch demonstrates that there is a strong reliable relationship between teachers’ content knowledge and quality of their instruction. Teachers with a deep conceptual understanding of their subject ask a great number of high level questions, encourage students to apply and transfer knowledge, help students see and understand relationships between and among ideas and concepts and make other choices in their instruction that engage students and challenge them to learn (p. 1).

At the same time as what/ the use of effective instructional skills is also equally important to achieve higher student learning outcomes and to cater to the needs of individual students in the class for closing the achievement gap. As Spark (2002) observes, the ‘most powerful form of professional development engages teachers in the continuous improvement of their teaching and expands the repertoire of instructional approaches they used to teach that content’, (p. 3). So an effective professional development plan should plan for introducing modern and effective approaches of instruction. One of the effective methods to improve teaching as pointed out by Spark (2002) is that ‘teachers continuously work with colleagues to improve the quality of their lesson and examining student work to see the effectiveness. One such technique is the Japanese technique of “lesson study” (Stingluar and Hiebert, 1997). Other than that instructional improvement can occur through training, coaching, study groups and other reflective processes (Spark, 2002).

Moreover, a widely discussed means for improving the instructional and learning processes in the classroom is integrating ICT in the teaching and learning process. Successful technology integration in schools requires ICT as an integral part of teacher preparation programmes (Duffield, 2005; Vrasidas and Glass, 2005). So integrating ICT in the professional development helps in two ways. First, it helps to continue professional development and helps teachers to improve their classroom practices. A combination of face-to-face workshops along with online interaction can provide a sustainable model for ongoing teacher development (Clark, 2000). Moreover, use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) leads to the development of community of practice (Vrasidas and Zembylas, 2004). It means sites of mutual learning are important contributors to the success of knowledge-dependent organizations. It provides formal and informal learning opportunities to teachers. Some of these sites are Supporting Teachers with Anywhere/Anytime Resources (STAR)-online and Virtual Teaching and Learning Community (VTLC). On the other hand, the skills in ICT help teachers to teach effectively in a diverse classroom where all find it easy to learn leading to reduction of the achievement gap. As Blackmore et al (2003) describes,

ICT can improve learning when teachers are intensively trained to make professional judgments about the appropriateness of particular ICT and the needs of their students. Therefore, there is a need for a significant shift in approaches to ICT professional development (p. 17-18). This font is different

However, I find the use of ICT in professional development has its own limitations and challenges, one of which is the time required to train the teachers in ICT. According to Donnlley and Colleagues (2002) studies have shown that teachers need three to six years of sustained practice to integrate ICT fully in to the classroom. In this regard, Adelman and colleagues (2002) found that teachers identified that time as the most significant barrier to integrate ICT in classroom – time to learn how to use ICT, how to develop educational activities and how to implement them in the classroom. Another difficulty regarding the implementation of ICT is that it becomes obsolete (Vrasidas and Glass (2005) with new developments so teachers need to keep the pace up for updating their knowledge in ICT and its tools which often become difficult for teachers mainly due to lack of financial support as well as resources. Moreover, introduction of ICT has certain internal and external obstacles. Ertmer (1998) observes some extrinsic factors as first order barriers to ICT integration which includes the lack of access to hardware and software, insufficient time for teachers to plan instruction and familiarize themselves with ICT, inadequate technical training and administrative support. According to Dede (1998) the second-order barriers which are more internal, may be more difficult to overcome as they are more personal, emotionally connected and therefore, more deeply ingrained. This barrier includes teachers’ apparent unwillingness or reluctance to embrace ICT as a means towards improving teaching and learning.

So are you for it or against it?

Follow-up

In the INSET strategies model for professional development by O’Sullivan (2002), follow-up is a very important part of an effective and continuing professional development programme. There are many empirical studies in the literature which strongly support follow-up as an effective strategy to implement the new ideas and styles in classroom practices. Studies have proved limited implementation of training in classroom in the industrialized countries (Yoger, 1997). As Beeby (1980) observes, ‘without continuing encouragement and support (upon completion of workshops and courses), the average teacher has a remarkable capacity for reverting back to old practices under a new name’, (p. 466). When teachers receive training followed by classroom observations and feedback, there will be more encouragement for them to take up the new strategies of instructions and implement them effectively in their classes. Harvey’s (1999) study showed that ‘teachers who received coaching made substantial changes (in their classroom teaching), whereas most teachers who received workshops only remained similar to the controlled group (who received no training)’, (p. 191). So the experts who organize professional development have an extensive role of follow-up to bring a real change in the old practices of teachers in their classroom. Spark’s study (1981) found that, ‘unless those who organize in-services training visit the teachers in the classroom following the in-service training, little transfer of knowledge takes place’ (p. 192). So there must be a systematic and regular follow-up programme followed by any professional development session. O’Sullivan (2002) suggests follow-up strategies by the trainer such as lesson observation, learner assessment, progress meetings, check list, trainer role and demonstration lesson. He also provides teacher follow-up strategies such as workshop handouts, diaries, and self evaluation forms and peer coaching.

Change in teachers’ attitude

Another aspect of professional development which I would like to analyse in light of the literature is how teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards professional development will be changed. As Guskey (2002) states, ‘professional development programmes are systematic efforts to bring about change in the classroom practices of teachers, in their attitudes and beliefs, and in the learning outcomes of students’ (p. 2). I feel it is important to understand this because in my school some of the initiatives which I put forward in professional development, to an extent did not see much fruit due to the negative attitude of some of the experienced teachers. I think it may be that they believe their existing practices are sufficient and there is no strong evidence for them to change. In my search for literature in this area, I could only find a limited number of published works. One of the works was published by Guskey (2002). He strongly argues that it is crucial for a professional development programme to bring change in the attitude and beliefs of teachers for effective changes to be brought in their classroom practices. He denotes two crucial factors for the failure of professional development programmes which do not take into account namely: what motivates teachers to engage in professional development and the process in which change in teachers typically occurswhy italics? (Guskey, 1986any quote?).

The motivation of teachers to take up professional development comes from their belief that it will expand their knowledge, contribute their growth and enhance their effectiveness with students (Guskey, 2002). This belief and attitude of teachers is in turn influenced by the student learning outcome through innovation in classroom practices by teachers who receive professional development. It is explained in the ‘model of teacher change’ developed by Guskey (2002). The three major goals of a professional development programme are changing classroom practices of teachers, changing their attitudes and beliefs and changing the learning outcomes of students. According to this model significant change in teachers’ attitudes and beliefs acquire primarily after they gain evidence of improvements in student learning (Guskey, 2002). In support of this view, Bolster (1983, p. 298) states that ‘new ideas and principles about teaching are believed to be true by teachers when they give rise to actions that work.’ So it is clear that providing professional development activities alone will not help, but successful implementation will change the attitudes and beliefs of teachers and such change will lead to specific changes in their classroom behaviours and practices which will result in the improvement of student outcome. The studies by Crandall (1983) and Huberman (1981) also show that teachers’ attitudes and beliefs change only after some change in student learning has been evidenced.

The second factor, as per Guskey (2002), to be considered in professional development for teachers to bring change, is the process of implementing professional development by which changes in teachers can occur. Towards this goal, I believe it is important for teachers to be actively engaged in using new id