Whatever your reactions to the first three trends, it is important to realize that they have contributed to a fourth trend, an increase in professionalism of teachers. By most definitions, an occupation (like medicine or law -- or in this case teaching) is a profession if its members take personal responsibility for the quality of their work, hold each other accountable for its quality, and recognize and require special training in order to practice it.
By this definition, teaching has definitely become more professional than in the past (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005). Increased expectations of achievement by students mean that teachers have increased responsibility not only for their students' academic success, but also for their own development as teachers. Becoming a new teacher now requires more specialized work than in the past, as reflected in the increased requirements for certification and licensing in many societies and regions. The increased requirements are partly a response to the complexities created by the increasing diversity of students and increasing use of technology in classrooms.
Greater professionalism has also been encouraged by initiatives from educators themselves to study and improve their own practice. One way to do so, for example, is through action research (sometimes also called teacher research), a form of investigation carried out by teachers about their own students or their own teaching. Action research studies lead to concrete decisions that improve teaching and learning in particular educational contexts (Mertler, 2006; Stringer, 2004). The studies can take many forms, but here are a few brief examples:
- How precisely do individual children learn to read? In an action research study, the teacher might observe and track one child's reading progress carefully for an extended time. From the observations she can get clues about how to help not only that particular child to read better, but also other children in her class or even in colleagues' classes.
- Does it really matter if a high school social studies teacher uses more, rather than fewer, open-ended questions? As an action of research study, the teacher might videotape his own lessons, and systematically compare students' responses to his open-ended questions compared to their responses to more closed questions (the ones with more fixed answers). The analysis might suggest when and how much it is indeed desirable to use open-ended questions.
- Can an art teacher actually entice students to take more creative risks with their drawings? As an action research study, the teacher might examine the students' drawings carefully for signs of visual novelty and innovation, and then see if the signs increase if she encourages novelty and innovation explicitly.
|
Steps in action research Project |
Example 1: students' use ofthe Internet |
Example 2: a teacher's helpfulness to ESL students |
|
Purpose of the research (as expressed by the teacher doing the research) |
“In doing assignments, how successful are my students at finding high-quality, relevant information?” |
“Am I responding to my ESL students as fully and helpfully as to my English-speaking students, and why or why not?” |
|
Who is doing the study? |
Classroom teacher (elementary level) and school computer specialist teacher |
Classroom teacher (senior high level) -- studying self; Possibly collaborating with other teachers or with ESL specialist. |
|
How information is gathered and Recorded |
Assessing students' assignments; Observing students while they search the Internet. Interviewing students about their search experiences |
Videotaping of self-interacting during class discussions; Journal diary by teacher of experiences with ESL vs other students; Interviews with teacher's ESL students |
|
How information is analyzed |
Look for obstacles and “search tips” expressed by several students; Look for common strengths and problems with research cited on assignments. |
Look for differences in type and amount of interactions with ESL vs. other students; Look for patterns in the differences; Try altering the patterns of interaction and observe the result. |
|
How information is reported and communicated |
Write a brief report of results for fellow staff; Give a brief oral report to fellow staff about results |
Write a summary of the results in teacher's journal diary; Share results with fellow staff; Share results with teacher's students. |
Two other, more complete examples of action research are summarized in the above Table 1.1. Although these examples, like many action research studies, resemble “especially good teaching practice”, they are planned more thoughtfully than usual, carried out and recorded more systematically, and shared with fellow teachers more thoroughly and openly. As such, they yield special benefits to teachers as professionals, though they also take special time and effort. For now, the important point is that use of action research simultaneously reflects the increasing professionalism of teachers, but at the same time creates higher standards for teachers when they teach.
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