How to become an accomplished teacher (parts of the story, with leads to other parts thrown in)

Cate Watson & Valerie Drew

Research Summary

The idea of the ‘accomplished teacher’ has emerged in educational policy, in various countries. It is a term designed to capture the dispositions and skills of highly practised professionals. ‘Accomplishment’ is connected with life-long, or career-long, professional learning, which is concerned with continual self-development. This paper focuses on ideas of ‘accomplishment’ held by a group of early-career teachers undertaking a masters certificate in professional enquiry. These ideas, and their relation to the masters course, emerge through the teachers’ talk with one another. Through the ‘small stories’ they tell of their work, their identities as accomplished teachers, and their desire for career-long professional learning, are built. The researchers ask: how far can ‘accomplishment’ be developed through masters-level study? Does the policy emphasis on ‘accomplishment’ relate to the teachers’ stories? The research could be of use and interest to RE teachers and to all teachers who are interested in the possibility of using further academic study to enhance their professional development.

Researchers

Cate Watson & Valerie Drew

Research Institution

University of Stirling

What is this about?

This research focuses on the Scottish system. The questions addressed are: how is ‘accomplishment’ understood by early-career teachers; to what extent can ‘accomplishment’ be fostered through intellectual engagement at masters-level; and how does the policy of ‘accomplishment’ relate to the teachers’ stories?

What was done?

The research involved a cohort of 19 early career teachers undertaking a Masters level Certificate in Professional Enquiry. The teachers were formed into four groups each with three or four members and were asked to discuss the question: ‘In what ways has undertaking the postgraduate certificate in professional enquiry contributed to your development as an accomplished teacher?’ The discussions lasted around one hour and were audio recorded and later listened to, transcribed, and analysed by the authors independently.

Main findings and outputs

Professional reflection was identified as an important element of accomplishment. For some of the respondents, it was best done collegially, e.g. in departmental discussions. Why do we do this this way? Might there be a better way to do it? How can we improve? What is the purpose of education and within that, what is the purpose of what we are doing?
Professional values became more important to the teachers as a result of the course. They became more likely to view situations in school in moral terms.
The role of the university was to give the teachers the space to discuss, deliberate and form an identity as ‘accomplished’. Often they contrasted themselves with colleagues seen as unreflective and not open to change and development.
The masters-level, ‘critical’ nature of the course – involving reflecting on and asking questions about one’s own teaching and experience in school – enabled this level of deliberation.
The teachers saw accomplishment as a matter of career-long learning. They desired to be accomplished teachers, identified with this policy, and brought the object of the policy into being within their own context and work. They had their own stories of growth, which were part of their understanding of professionalism.

Relevance to RE

What is striking about this article is the focus on teachers’ accounts of professional reflection and how important it is to professional development. RE and other teachers can certainly take a lead from the article in trying to make space for collegial, critical discussion about what they should be trying to achieve, educationally, and how they can continue to improve their efforts to do so. The article’s emphasis on continuing professional development is very welcome. What is missing is pedagogy (descriptions of what accomplished teachers do in the classroom) – but this is an important question for colleagues to take up and discuss themselves.

Where to start? See Hans-Ulrich Grunder (The image of teachers: the perception of others as impulses for the professionalisation of teaching, British Journal of Religious Education 38.2 pages 159-60): ‘ good teachers . . .are able to design and deliver instruction that enables students to acquire relevant content based on effective teaching and learning processes in an atmosphere conducive to learning. Good teachers organise, prepare and guide. They utilise a variety of teaching methods, they . . . utilise curricula, educational psychology and appropriate methods of instruction taking their students’ own learning biography into account. ‘

Generalisability and potential limitations

Whilst the findings do not provide a generalisable definition of an accomplished teacher and how to become one, or go into any detail about pedagogy, they illustrate some important processes, such as reflection, critical conversation and identification with positive professional values.

Find out more

Teachers’ desire for career-long learning: becoming ‘accomplished’—and masterly, British Educational Research Journal 41.3 pages 448-461 (published online 20 June 2014), 10.1002/berj.3149

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3149/abstract