The major issue of this thesis is that for effective change in teachers'
classroom practice to occur, multiple actions are required at different
levels of participation, from federal and state education jurisdictions
through to school communities and individual classroom teachers. The
thesis supposition is that practical action factors in schools and the
community can be found which meet the needs of the change.
The history of attempts to achieve educational change through changed
classroom practice is littered with a range of different approaches, usually
one-off events. They have sometimes succeeded. Stakeholders, including
parents, social pressure groups and particularly governments have
increasing expectations of what it is that teachers can achieve in terms of
their students' learning outcomes. The degree to which actual teaching
practices are changed at the classroom level will depend on the degree to
which teachers are able to manage and implement change. However,
studies in the area of curriculum change reveal that the gap between
policy and practice remains an ongoing concern.
This thesis draws upon theory and applied research findings from the
traditions of educational change, health education, models of change,
evaluation and social science research methods. The purpose of this
thesis is to identify and make comparisons in the practical action factors
which enhance the capacity of teachers to change their classroom practice.
These are investigated through a multiple case study consideration of the
school context, the professional development inputs, and the classroom
programs. The patterns of effective practical action in the research study
would support the thesis supposition.
A multiple case study-theory building approach was used to analyse the
data from twelve school sites selected from the School Development in
Health Education (SDHE) Project. Data analysis employed the technique
of matrix displays, with several rounds of analysis in order to generate
some significant factors related to teacher change. The results were
considered for endorsement by an expert panel from the field in order to
enhance confidence in the validity and the reliability of the research
study.
Results from first round of analysis in the multiple case study showed
school team commitment, teachers' attitude to professional development
and community cooperation to be important factors in educational
change. The second round of analysis highlighted the importance of
placing the teacher at the centre of change when planning professional
development. Finally, the third round presents a summary of the factors
emerging from the analyses in five major focus areas: professional
development; principal leadership; school organisation and culture;
school team; and system support. The importance of the relationships
among these factors was recognised in their impact on teachers' abilities to
make educational changes in their classrooms.
The thesis has found that the professional decision-making and practice
of teachers is value added by the actions of other players - professional
development providers, school principals and education systems.
Teachers' capacity to change is enhanced by appropriate school-based
professional development, flexible school organisation, and the
opportunity to work collaboratively in school teams.
From the patterns emerging from the strong and weak clusters of cases
the thesis is able to make conclusions about teachers' professional practice,
professional development approaches, principal leadership, school
organisation, education systems and the nature of change. This thesis
shows that educational change requires multiple actions at different
levels of participation. Finally, the thesis offers recommendations to the
different players in the field: education systems, principals and
professional development providers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219293 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Richmond, Pam, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Pam Richmond |
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