The importance of data…

…in Teacher Professional Development.

Hello all. Welcome to the 148th edition of TEPS Weekly!

We have been working with teachers for more than 5 years as an organisation, and we have members who have been working with teachers for more than 15 years. Over the last 5 years, we have observed multiple patterns with schools getting their teacher professional development (TPD) right or wrong. We had earlier written about why TPD fails or how TPD is effective when it is continuous. Apart from overall patterns, there have been specific incidents with schools where TPD has spectacularly failed and needed to be modified or just spectacularly failed and we never got a chance to work with the teachers again. Most of the schools that we have worked with have not been trigger-happy, and we have worked with them for more than a year – and some even for five years.

The educational board along with our partner organisation had done a needs analysis which helped us in planning this PD programme for teachers from KGBV schools in Andhra Pradesh.

One of the times that TPD failed was when the school management wanted us to work with their teachers to expose them to Project-based Learning (PBL), and to ensure that they start integrating PBL into their lesson plans. This was supposed to be a year-long programme. But by the time we got done with the first few sessions, we noticed that the teachers didn’t even create their own lesson plans. They did not know what learning outcomes were. This is when we paused the PBL track, spoke to the school management and changed course – and started with the basics. The management was understanding in this case, and agreed with us.

On another occasion with another school in a tier-3 city, a similar thing happened with another pedagogical approach. We figured that the teachers were not clear on the basics, and took a couple of steps back to start at their level. But in this case, the management was not keen on this approach. 

So why do such disparities exist? Why are some school leaders not aware of the gap? Is there something that can be done? Yes! There are ways to check for what the teachers know or what they can and cannot do in a classroom. Data-informed teacher professional development is the way forward.

Before this programme for foundational years' teachers, we did an assessment to decide on the focus of the programme.

What sort of data can we get on teachers? We can get data based on their knowledge and understanding of pedagogy, classroom management, subject expertise, assessment conduct, lesson planning, technology integration and teacher practice. 

What should the data be able to tell us?

1. Which areas need the most attention – pedagogy, classroom management, subject expertise, technology, etc?

2. Which teacher groups need what – new vs. experienced, primary vs. secondary, subject clusters?

3. What specific skills within each domain are weak – questioning, checks for understanding, routines, misconceptions, etc.?

4. What is causing the gap – knowledge, beliefs, resources, time, teaching practice?

5. What type of  support will work – workshops, coaching, online resources, peer learning,etc.?

6. How will we measure improvement during the year?

How do we collect this data?

1. Teacher surveys

These can be questions assessing teacher skills, knowledge, beliefs, challenges and so on.

For example: 

What is the best time to conduct formative assessments?

1. During the lesson

2. After the lesson

3. At the end of the term

4. At the end of a month

What is a learning outcome?

1. A statement that tells the teacher what to teach

2. A statement that tells the teacher how to teach

3. A statement that tells the teacher what the students should know

4. A statement that tells the teacher how the students will learn 

We can also ask scale questions to assess their confidence (or lack thereof) on their own skills. 

For example: 

How confident are you in creating your own lesson plans?

1. Very confident

2. Somewhat confident

3. Under confident

4. Not confident at all

We can then ask more open-ended questions on what teachers are willing to work on for the upcoming year, or what type of support they think works best for them.  

For example: 

One thing I want to get better at this year is…

2. Classroom observations

Classroom observations should be created in a way to understand teachers’ teaching practices. 2-3 classroom observations through the year along with 5-6 classroom walk-throughs should be a decent number. Classroom observations can be structured by asking questions that reveal traits that are measurable and observable.

For example:

How frequently does the teacher use analogies or alternate explanations in the classroom?

1. Never

2. 1-2

3. More than 2 times 

This informs us on teachers’ subject expertise and pedagogical practice.

How much time does the teacher take in the beginning of the class in setting up?

1. Less than 2 minutes

2. Between 2 to 5 minutes

3. More than 5 minutes

This informs us on teachers’ planning and classroom management skills.

3. Audit of teaching-learning materials

This helps us in understanding how and what the teachers plan for their classes. We can look at the lesson plan or assessment that they have created. In this we check for alignment with the learning outcomes, if students are allowed to work independently, is the scaffolding level okay, and so on. 

4. Student and/or parent surveys

Student surveys are important to understand whether the teachers’ methods are useful in helping students learn. This is also a good way to understand student behaviour in specific teachers’ classes. 

For example:

I know what I am supposed to learn in class.

1. Very strongly agree

2. Strongly agree

3. Agree

4. Strongly disagree

5. Very strongly disagree 

I find myself not paying attention in class.

1. Very strongly agree

2. Strongly agree

3. Agree

4. Strongly disagree

5. Very strongly disagree 

5. Student learning outcomes

This is, of course, the main aim of all TPD. Teacher development in itself is important for teachers, as humans, but students learning better and deeper is the endeavour of all educational programmes. Student assessments and the learning data we get from them should also inform the type of TPD teachers need.

How do we integrate this data into meaningful information?

All 5-6 sources of data have their strengths and weaknesses. Teachers’ knowledge and skills can be best tested through surveys and classroom observations, but the ability of teachers to execute their knowledge and skills can only be assessed through classroom observations. Classroom observations and audits of teaching-learning material will give us insights into teachers’ ability to plan and stick to the plan or innovate. And whether any of this is effective or not can be assessed by student assessments and surveys.

School Management gets such reports from us informing them on further course of action.

So there will be a need to triangulate all the information collected from the different sources in a coherent way to be able to decide the path for TPD a school should take. Otherwise, we could end up in a situation where we are trying to work with teachers on advanced pedagogical approaches like active learning experiences, but the teachers are struggling with subject expertise. 

If you are a school that is looking to have a data-informed approach to TPD, please reach out to us at info@things-education.com or +91 9898469961.

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Edition: 5.03