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Ene-Silvia sarv Teachers as developers of competences in classroom
Teachers as developers of general competences in classroom
(in Estonia)
Ene-Silvia Sarv
Institute for Educational Research, Tallinn Pedagogical University
Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, University of Hamburg, 17-20 September 2003
Abstract
The paper presents study of teachers’ skills to develop students’ general and area-competences. Triangulation included 3 parts: a questionnaire for teachers and its analysis, lesson-observations and their analysis, group-discussion with modelling in the field of competences as defined in the National Curriculum of Estonia. The meta-analysis resulted in outlining two dimensions for teacher typology in the field of competences-development and the description of four types of teachers. The multi-method research did show its possibilities to achieve complex results in the present situation of deficit of finances and human power for educational research in Estonia.
Introduction
One of the Estonian national educational goals is to develop the full potential of its human resources. This has resulted in the text of National curriculum of Estonia (curriculum 1996 and 2002) as system of competences: general, area and school-level competences. The system of competences identifies the core attributes necessary for effective participation in social, cultural, economic and political life and for life-long learning. Another change in general education in 1990ies was implementation of school curricula alongside with National curriculum. This means, that every school has to work out its own curriculum as adaptation of national curriculum. In general teachers were not used and not prepared to both of these processes. But there were schools and individual teachers who had participated in numerous teams and courses since Estonian school and education reform started in 1987. So the picture of readiness to curricular innovations had to be investigated.
In 2001 the newly founded Curriculum Development Center of the University of Tartu prepared a new redaction of the National Curriculum and in order to do this, set up the research- and development project ‘General and area-competences in the National Curriculum and possibilities of their realisation.’ In the framework of this project the investigation into competences-related abilities of the teachers of natural sciences and their potential to develop and implement this area in the school-curriculum. (Sarv, 2001)
The main objective of the research- and development project was:
1. to analyse the accordance of the competences-set in the National Curriculum of 1996 and 2001 with the general aims of the educational process, to compare it to the corresponding aspects in the Norwegian and Canadian (the province of Saskatchewan) curricula, taking into account the results of analysis by experts of OECD and Finland.
2. find out if the structure and wording of the competence-complex in the National Curriculum meet Estonian teachers’ abilities to work with general and other competences; whether and how state examinations and monitoring influence the development of the field of competences in real school life (Sarv, 2001, 3-4)
In addition to the research done for Curriculum Development Center of the University of Tartu, in 2002-2003 we carried out a meta-analysis of the results of the sub-researches from the point of view of the common categories of knowledge management and learning organisations. (Sarv, 2003)
In the present paper I deal with the part of the research that focused on the Estonian teacher as a developer of students’ competences – his/her understandings and abilities to work with general and area competences.
The resources for the research in terms of both time and finances were relatively limited. Therefore, a kind of methodology and methods had to be found which would enable accurate enough answers without processing too many data. Using methodical triangulation proved to be the best solution under the circumstances.
The object of the research was the curricula and the related materials as the background to specify the understanding of competence aspects, but first and foremost the teacher as the fulfiller of the curriculum in the real school life situation and the teacher’s self-conception (in connection with teacher competences). Problems related to the first aim of the research – the analysis of the curricula and other documents and its results – are not dealt with below.
1. On method and process of research
Triangulation as ‘…using two or more methods to gather data about human behaviour’ enables us to investigate a phenomenon in a fullier, more comprehensive way and it also guarantees greater validity. In social and educational sciences in triangulation’s as a multi-method’s case both normative and interpretative methods of analysis or their combination are used. (Cohen, 112 - 115, also Tech, 1990)
Critics of triangulation claim that multi-methods, etc do not guarantee any rise of validity and reliability nor greater accuracy. However, weighty counter-arguments have been put forward, especially in regard to the mutual elimination of mistakes. (Cohen, 115).
The key instrument of that kind of research is rather the researcher than the means of research. The importance of not only the result but the process is underlined, the inductive analysis of the data instead of speculations, as well as presenting the data in the respondents`, not the researcher’s wording. What’s important, is validation of respondents and including meanings and endeavours important to respondents. Validity involves principles like the justified choice of key-informators/respondents and the threshold of considering data (e.g. not to take into account information mentioned only once or twice) (Glick, 141). It is important to prevent any invalidity from ‘slipping into’ the research at whatever stage.
Both Cohen and Usher, talking about the meaning and interpretation of educational research, claim that using triangulation increases the reliability of research (Cohen, 310, Understanding ..., 1996, 150). What is connected with reliability is the difference of the meaning of classification for the researcher and participant, procedures (e.g. selection of data, phenomena or incidents for further analysis by at least three independent experts – consensus, revising the results by key persons / participants/ key- respondents – feedback). (Van de Ven, 166 -168) .
In the following research description the main criteria ensuring accuracy and reliability were first and foremost:
· selection of participants in the research (proportional representation of different teachers in terms of education, speciality, experience, etc);
· the threshold-criterion of information consideration – leaving out individual / isolated cases (and considering them as a separate set from the point of view of the meaning to the respondent);
· consensus in group activity and interpreting data;
· checking on the interpretation in the selected group of the participants.
The peculiarity of the present research project was the fact that it aimed not only for gaining new knowledge about the teacher but also certain practical results. One of the practical aspects was wording the definitions of the competences in the field of science and natural science in the National Curriculum (from now on NC) and describing the models of their development by the teachers’ group. Another practical aspect was self-education of the teachers participating in certain stages of the research – acquiring new teamwork methods, better understanding of the content of competences while communicating with colleagues with different backgrounds and working on some parts of the questionnaire and last but not least developing reflective skills.
So, we can speak about intergrating multi-method research with learning and curriculum-design activities. It has been schematically shown in figure 1. Parts of triangulation have been marked Tr 1 – questionnaire, Tr 2 – lesson observations and reflections, Tr 3 – group discussion and curriculum design seminar. Their more detailed description follows in the text below.
As result the report was written to The Curriculum Development Center of the University of Tartu. (Sarv, 2001)
Figure 1. Schema of research project
Tr 1, Tr 2, Tr 3 – sub-researches of triangulation
As mentioned above, a narrower aim of the research was to find out about teachers’ readiness for work on development of NC’s general competences in classroom. That brought the need to map teachers’ readiness and skills needed/expected for the realisation of the curriculum’s field of competences.
In the present research the triangulation of 3 different methods was used:
· limited survey: questionnaire to 30 subject and class teachers. Questionnaire included 220 questions, including 8 multi-component questions expecting textual responses, two of which called for analytical-comparative activity; (Tr 1, fig. 1)
· observation and analysis of lessons: more than 30 lessons in different grades and subjects were observed, 21 lessons were analysed, which was mainly done by experienced teachers; (Tr 2, fig 2)
· group-discussion – research and design seminar ‘Understandings related to
the teacher’s general and natural science competences’ (12 respondents to questionnaire, 8 of them had observed others’ lessons). On the background of general results of questionnaire and observations in design-process a consensus was reached in: 1) a pattern for wording general competences, convenient for the teacher; 2) a model of the teacher’s own competences regarding the need to develop general and area competences; 3) a model of competences in the field of natural science (and the activities needed to achieve them). (Tr 3, fig 1)
So, the central part of the research was the selection of the respondents’ group and the research process itself. This has been depicted in fig 2. A peculiarity of the research was also the fact that some teachers played the role of both a respondent ( filling in the questionnnaire, Tr 1) and a researcher (summing up the lesson observation, Tr 2, participating in group discussions, Tr 3). However, for the undersigned they remained respondents in all the parts of triangulation.
Figure 2 illustrates the formation of the respondents’ group and the chronological progress and course of activities in the research
Figure 2. Formation of the respondents’ group and the chronological progress and course of activities in the research.
As for the results of the first part of the research, the questionnaire, all the quantitative material can be generalised qualitatively, as a heuristic interpretation, rather than statistically. That is due to the small number of respondents. On the other hand, the volume and diversity of the questionnaire guaranteed diversity of every participant’s contribution (see 2.1).
2. Sub-researches and their results
Some abbreviations and notion used in following text:
Competence-complex or system, competence work, competence field – general notions related to competences in National curriculum. Terms are used depending on the context and include a) general, school-level (four levels in Estonian schools - grades 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10–12) and area competences and/or b) activities to develop them.
NC – the National Curriculum of General and Secondary Education of Estonia
NC–1996 – the 1996 variant of the NC; NC-2002 – the renewed variant of the National curriculum.
2.1. The questionnaire ‘General Competences in the Estonian Teacher’s Work’ – the method and results (Tr 1)
The aim of the research was to gather extensive data which would give us an idea of the Estonian teacher’s ability (and peculiarities) to work with the competence-complex, including necessary qualities for this work (methodological skills, learning abilities, etc). It was supposed that teachers fall into certain groups by their skills, attitudes and teaching peculiarities.
A questionnaire was filled in by 30 teachers in their schools. Some of them also participated in lesson-observation and analysis (Tr 2) as well as in the discussion and design seminar (Tr 3).
The questionnaire was distributed to the sample group that had been drawn so as to include schools both in town and in the country, teachers from every school-level and a wide range of subjects, both innovative teachers and those preferring more traditional methods. The age-variety was considered as well. Some of the respondents were selected by the researcher, some by the school’s administration considering the above-mentioned selection criteria.
The questionnaire was forwarded as hard copy or via the Internet, returned as hard copy. It took the respondents 2-4 hours to fill in the questionnaire. The questionnaire (except the open questions and charts) was processed using SPSS.
The questionnaire consisted of 5 sections. The questions were answered under one’s own name and school, but for the futher analysis and the whole presentation the respondents were given numerical codes 1-30. The same (personal) code was used in the other sub-researches of triangulation.
A short overview of the sections of quesionnaire and results of the separate sections of the questionnaire is presented below.
The questionnaire consisted of the following sections:
Section 1 – the data of the respondents
Section 2 – about in-service training and learning
Section 3 – the respondent’s perceptible need to acquire new knowledge and skills (the teacher’s conscious need to learn)
Section 4 – matters related to the National and school curriculum
Section 5 – a survey of using different study methods and their importance in development of general and area competences.
2.1.1. Section 1 – the data of the respondents
Respondents were working as a subject teacher in grades 7-12; as a subject teachers in basic school; as a subject teacher in primary school; as a class teacher; there were 2 head teachers and 2 authors of textbooks.
Teaching loads (lessons teached per week): from 3 to 40 lessons, while the loads of 80 % of the respondents range from 10 to 30 lessons.
The age of the respondents - 24 – 58 years.
The teaching experience - 1 – 34 years.
Three out of 30 respondents were men, which is in accordance with the gender division of Estonian teachers. All of them worked in schools whose teaching-learning language was Estonian.
2.1.2. Section 2 – about in-service training and learning
The section contained questions
· about in-service training in the last 5 years, important from the point of view of the respondent,
· about their interest in learning and preferable ways of learning on refreshment courses.
One third of the respondents rarely attend refreshment courses or they have not been worth mentioning in their opinion (0 – 2 refreshment courses mentioned since 1997).
Another third are active learners, even at their own expense (47% of the courses).
As especially meaningful for teachers was highlighted: a) the subject-related courses (especially new syllabus or new textbook): b) courses or learning activities on new methods, general problems of education and child development.