TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

[Pages:184]USAID, ADVANCING BASIC EDUCATION AND LITERACY PROJECT ssssssssssss

WORLD BANK, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT NETWORK, EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

MAKING AN IMPACT

Helen J. Craig

World Bank, Washington, DC Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC

Richard J. Kraft

University of Colorado?Boulder

Joy du Plessis

University of Colorado?Boulder

Teacher Development

Making an Impact

Helen J. Craig, Education Specialist

World Bank, Washington, DC Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC

Richard J. Kraft, Professor

University of Colorado?Boulder

Joy du Plessis, Research Associate

University of Colorado?Boulder

November 1998

Teacher Development: Making an Impact ii

Contents

Teacher Development: Making an Impact

Dedication ............................................................................................... v Preface .................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgments ................................................................................ ix Executive Summary .............................................................................. xi

1. Teacher Development: A Process Along a Continuum of Learning .... 1 Introduction to the Study ..................................................................... 1 Select Topics in Teacher Education ..................................................... 3 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 19

2. Case Studies of Initial Teacher Preparation Programs ....................... 21 Botswana Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP) ........ 21 The Basic Education Teacher Diploma (BETD)--Namibia .......... 32 The BRAC Experience--Bangladesh ................................................ 43

3. Lessons Learned About Initial Teacher Preparation Programs ......... 55 Beginning Teacher to More Experienced Teacher--What Are the Issues Typically Faced? ....................................................................... 56 Alternative Choices for Initial Teacher Preparation ...................... 56 Elements of Successful Traditional Formal Teacher Preparation Programs ............................................................................................... 60 The Move to General Education Programs ..................................... 63 Recruitment and Retention of an Adequate Teacher Supply ....... 64 Teacher Educators ................................................................................ 68 Induction Programs ............................................................................. 69 Classroom Supervision of Teachers .................................................. 72 Accreditation Standards for Teacher Education ............................. 73 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 74

4. Case Studies of Ongoing Professional Development Programs ....... 77 Guatemala: Changing Teacher Pedagogy in the Nueva Escuela Unitaria .................................................................................................. 77 Balochistan, Pakistan: Gender Equity, Mobile Teacher Training, and Mentoring ...................................................................................... 91

5. Lessons Learned About Ongoing Professional Development Programs ............................................................................................. 105 Definition of Terms ............................................................................ 105 What Works, What Does Not, and Why? ...................................... 105 Characteristics of Effective Programs ............................................ 106 Organizational Models ...................................................................... 112 Evaluation of Inservice Programs .................................................... 118 Teacher Evaluation as Part of Professional Development ........... 119 Snapshots of Eight Inservice/Professional Development Programs ............................................................................................. 123 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 140

6. Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................ 141 System Support .................................................................................. 141 Ongoing Professional Development--The Early Years .............. 142 Ongoing Professional Development--The Years After Initial Preparation .......................................................................................... 143

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Teacher Development: Making an Impact Annex 1: A Framework of Relationships and Priorities among Critical Issues Affecting Teachers' Work--Morale and Motivation. .................. 145 Annex 2: More and Less Effective Teacher Education Strategies in Developing Countries ............................................................................. 147 References .............................................................................................. 153

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Dedication

Teacher Development: Making an Impact

We dedicate this work to the thousands of classroom teachers, who despite low pay, overcrowded classrooms, often nonexistent initial teacher training, inadequate inservice development, lack of desks and chairs, few or nonexistent textbooks or other instructional materials, no library, poor sanitary facilities, and little or no transportation to their schools, somehow make it to school almost every day and attempt to teach their children. Our second dedication is to the millions of children, who go to school with the often vain hope that it will lead to a better life. One of the coauthors observed forty second graders in a West African nation "wait for teacher" for over four hours in searing heat, arriving on time, causing no discipline problems, but just patiently waiting for an adult to "teach" them. This level of dedication is seldom seen in the wealthier nations of the world, and we applaud it, but despair at the conditions that leave millions of children untaught each day of the year.

In the midst of these discouraging circumstances, however, we observed reflective teaching at its best: classrooms of a democratic variety to make John Dewey proud, communities and parents more empowered than those in many wealthy nations, creative problemsolving, and active learning utilizing the best of local culture and materials under the most difficult of circumstances.

While sound education exists in most industrialized nations with their tremendous resources, the fact that some of the most creative, reflective, and active-learning classrooms were observed in some of the most rural, poor, and multigrade settings in the world made it clear to us that when teachers are empowered, almost anything is possible. Many teachers, children, and communities of the world are ready, but regrettably, we cannot yet say the same for the governments and international agencies, who will be asked to fund or "bring to scale" these programs.

Outdated initial training programs; short, disconnected inservice training; inadequate textbooks; blackboard-based pedagogy; overly used norm-referenced summative evaluations; and a host of other challenges characterize too many millions of classrooms today. A few countries have permitted a few pilot programs to risk breaking this cycle. We have been privileged to catch a glimpse of some of these exceptional classrooms that function in a cost-effective, sustainable manner. Our only hope is that this manuscript can, in some small way, help to promote the exceptional programs and lessons learned from these experiences that these caring teachers, children, and communities have brought into existence.

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Teacher Development: Making an Impact vi

Preface

Teacher Development: Making an Impact

The ABEL2 Project (Advancing Basic Education and Literacy)--an initiative of the United States Agency for International Development under the auspices of the Academy for Educational Development--and the World Bank both sought an updating of promising practices in teacher education. ABEL2 also particularly requested that we address the question of whether teacher education affects children's learning. While this work was never intended to be a formal impact study, we undertook the case studies to look very carefully at this question. Rather than duplicate efforts, we decided to combine the ABEL2 and World Bank studies, making use of the extensive archives of USAID, the World Bank, and other multilateral and bilateral educational assistance projects. We specifically sought out programs that both internal and external evaluators considered "successful," and that evidenced both cost effectiveness and sustainability.

It became very clear that it is difficult to discuss teacher education and learning outcomes without referring to other aspects of teacher development, including incentives; management of teachers and the larger system; recruitment, deployment, and retention of teachers; evaluation; and the place of teachers in educational reform. We refer to aspects of these larger issues, but their greater exploration was beyond the scope of this study. We strongly encourage additional research and documentation of these processes, which will strengthen strategies to improve the quality of teachers' and children's learning.

After reading many reports, evaluations, and research studies, we visited some ongoing projects that appeared to have promising teacher education components and about which more extensive case studies could be written. The reader will find case studies on projects in Balochistan, Botswana, Guatemala, Bangladesh, and Namibia, as well as references to projects in various other countries. The case studies are in no way meant to cover all the aspects of these complex and often lengthy projects, but rather to highlight certain teacher education components that we and other external researchers have found to be particularly compelling. Nor do we mean to say that these projects are necessarily better than the many others. We do believe, however, that there are important aspects of each of them that can inform national policymakers and international donors and lenders in the coming years.

It is presumptuous to attempt to cover all aspects of teaching and teacher education worldwide in one review, and we continuously found ourselves having to limit our work, due to time, travel constraints, and the multiple scenarios of teacher development at different stages of the learning process in countries at different stages of economic development. We do, however, attempt to provide evidence

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