processes connected to the renewing of teacher training from the aspect of teacher cooperation
2. TEACHER COOPERATION DURING THE ACTION RESEARCH
ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BA TRAINING PROGRAMME IN EDUCATION
The previous chapter demonstrated that in many cases, although for different reasons and at varying intensity, professional discourse has started among colleagues of the organisation, primarily about the content of the training, the effective methods applied in the course of teaching and about the requirements that should be applied in a more standardised way. The accreditation material of the major in teaching that was completed at a hasty pace during the spring semester was still much alive in everyone during
the following autumn semester in 2006, so there was a certain momentum in the colleagues, and thus we reckoned that the action research on the implementation of the BA training programme in Education would keep the curiosity of teachers alive, and would establish a good foundation for the continuation of the commenced cooperation. What inspired some of the colleagues who took part in the research team was the fact that the process of the action research constantly forced them to renew and along with this the whole Institute of Education as an organisation was directed towards becoming a learning organisation. The following table (Table 1) presents those important events that served the strengthening and facilitation of teacher cooperation in the framework of the BaBe research. Some of these directly, others indirectly led to more conscious teacher cooperation.
Table 1: Chronological order of activities motivating teacher cooperation Phase 1: commencement (September 2006 – July 2007)
Date Activity Product
7th November 2006 Workshop No. 1 in connection with the implementation of the BA training programme in Education for all colleagues of the Institute who were interested (teamwork)
Posters were created about the possible ways of teacher cooperation and about teacher needs Nov 2006 Creation of the electronic interface for enabling constant teacher communication Moodle interface
15th December 2006 The individual declarations of the teachers of the Institute about the extent to which
they wish to get involved in the research Declarations of intent
28th February 2007 BaBe questionnaire to the colleagues teaching in the fi rst year about the
experience acquired from the courses started in the BA training programme Presentation to the teachers of the Institute 13th March 2007 Inaugural meeting of the tutor group, discussion of tasks, schedule and the surveys
to be conducted during the research
14th March 2007 Handing out the portfolio, matching tutors with students by drawing lots Forming student-tutor pairs 5th June 2007 1st HolNap (meaning: Tomorrow) conference: presenting the works of Education
majors and teacher trainees Exhibition – conference
3rd July 2007 Workshop No.2 in connection with the implementation of the BA training programme in Education for all colleagues of the Institute who were interested (teamwork)
Summarizing experience, surveying teacher awareness, teachers volunteering for next year’s tasks 20th July 2007 BaBe questionnaire to the colleagues teaching in the second year about the
experience acquired from the courses started in the BA training programme Presentation to the teachers of the Institute Phase 2: institutionalisation (September 2007 – May 2008)
Date Activity Product
18th Sept 2007 Report of the BaBe group on the Institute meeting Schedule for the autumn semester of year 2007-2008, 12 points of BaBe (development ideas for the semester)
28th and 29th Sept 2007 Árpád Kiss Conference Presentation on the BaBe research
25th to 27th Oct 2007 National Conference on Education Presentation on the BaBe research
20th Nov 2007 Report of the BaBe group on the Institute meeting Presentation on the BaBe research 18th Dec 2007 2nd HolNap (meaning: Tomorrow) conference: presenting the works of Education
majors and teacher trainees Presenting the work of students
February 2008 Department level discussions of the competency-grid of the teaching assistant and fi nal touches based on that
The competency-grid of the teaching assistant and principles for usage
3rd March 2008 BaBe questionnaire to the colleagues teaching in the second year about the experience acquired from the courses started in the BA training programme 20th May 2008 3rd HolNap (meaning: Tomorrow) conference: presenting the work of Education
majors and teacher trainees
Presenting the work of students, handing out informative materials about the major in Education, formulating student questions
Phase 3: integration ( September 2008 – June 2009)
Date Activity Product
September 2008 Attempt to create and present a portfolio based on the professional competencies
in the framework of the Education theory subjects Development portfolios September 2008 Rethinking the development of competencies in connection with the course
descriptions of Education theory subjects Common approach in terms of course descriptions 15th Dec 2008 ‘Útravaló’ (meaning: Guide): creating and trialling a student guide booklet Guide booklet
Spring 2009 Overview and review of the curriculum of the BA training programme in Education Proposal for the modifi cation of the curriculum The working group has had a lot of debates since the very beginning about
how they could make other colleagues more interested in the fi ndings of the research undertaken by the BaBe group, and convince them to back the formulated development proposals, which concern even the different levels of the organisation. One of the fi rst prerequisites of change is that more and more members of the organisation realise the necessity of change (KOTTER 2007).
It can be assumed that the above described teacher activity in connection with reforming teacher training shows that many members of the organisation feel the urge for change. We also anticipated that the introduction of a new major (different composition of students, new subjects, new requirements) would highly increase the uncertainty factor accompanying processes of change and in the case of some of the colleagues it would amplify anxiety and diffi culties and the fear of the unknown (FULLAN 1993).
We consciously paid attention to the principle of gradualism, to the individual differences existing between involvement and the attitude to change, and in line with this we created different levels of getting involved in the BaBe research, and this way teachers themselves decided about the extent of their involvement. We intended to apply the CBAM model (GASKÓ, KÁLMÁN, MÉSZÁROS & RAPOS 2010), which model predominantly focuses on the individual and isolates seven levels of the involvement and commitment of the members (awareness, information, personal,
management, consequence, collaboration, refocusing). These seven levels can be divided into three major phases:
• In the fi rst phase the individual concentrates on his/her relationship to change. An important component of this is that the individual compares the new concept with his/her existing ideas, beliefs and convictions (mental models). During this phase it is important to provide suffi cient in-depth orientation opportunities to the participants about the essence, progress and tools of the change. If this is neglected, substantial resistance, primarily the juxtaposition of counter-arguments can be expected (BOGNÁR 2005).
• In the next phase, attention is drawn to the tasks to be accomplished, and the trial of the activities that should be changed, following the guidelines mechanically, step by step in the beginning. This is the point from which it is worthwhile to use the opportunities of learning from one another (horizontal learning), as before this the participant usually concentrates on why he/she cannot do the same thing in his/her situation, why his/her conditions, capabilities and opportunities are different, instead of paying attention to others’ good practices.
• The attention of the participants is directed towards the impact of their activity in the last phase: how can we achieve that the change brings about more results and functions even better. At this point participants are able to perform in real professional workshops and can work out
a more perfect and more effi cient solution by thinking together and sharing experience. If we consciously utilize this intrinsic motivation, the change will be sustainable and will institutionalise (BOGNÁR 2005).
We made a mistake at the moment of commencing the research by not paying enough attention to outward communication, and to having BaBe accepted within the organisation. The most important reason for this is probably that the BaBe team was preoccupied with itself, with defi ning itself as a research team and elaborating on its research concept. We should have been able to communicate our research and development ideas towards our colleagues in a more thoughtful and systematic way, as communicating the vision as clearly as possible so that more people can understand it, is an important step towards successful change (KOTTER 2007). The failure to do so implies real risks as, despite its intentions, the development team within the organisation is surrounded by mystic fog, gradually increasing the distance between team members and those outside the team. Cooperation, knowledge transfer and horizontal learning are enhanced gradually within the team, but simultaneously, they are increasingly distanced from the rest of the people outside the project.
2.1. Phase 1: commencement (September 2006 – July 2007)
Every member of the research team thought that the action research could have a positive effect on the cooperation of teachers; it could enhance sharing professional knowledge, could make learning from and with each other more conscious, could turn such knowledge into more explicit knowledge that had been accumulated in the Institute but could not widely spread. Our team also presumed that this ‘self-examination’ would result in the improvement of the organisation and would facilitate more effi cient functioning.
Planned points of intervention:
• The active involvement of the widest possible range of teachers in re-search and development;
• Motivating colleagues who teach similar or identical subjects to discuss their teaching tasks;
• Building a closer relationship between students and teachers.
2.1.1. The active involvement of the widest possible range of teachers in research and development
At the beginning of our research we intended to avoid this survey remaining within the active but small circle of the BaBe team, so in autumn 2006 we invited all colleagues via a letter to take part in the research. We knew the fact
very well from the literature that a major structural change can only happen if the number of the persons concerned reaches a critical mass from which point the change is irreversible (FULLAN 1999). In the beginning it looked as though it was required that all three departments that existed at the time delegate colleagues to the team, and as a consequence relatively more teachers turned up for the fi rst meetings. The regular weekly meetings of the research team, the numerous tasks that started to take shape and the voluntary nature of the work soon decreased the number of people who were interested in getting involved. It also became clear that it was those colleagues who were moved by the initiative, who started teaching at the new major right in its fi rst semester in autumn, and total disinterest was demonstrated by those colleagues who did not teach at the BA training programme in Education. Very little involvement could be achieved on their behalf until the end of the process, although these colleagues became more interested every now and then due to the similarities with the modifi cations in the major in teaching. Finally, we decided that everyone should defi ne the level of involvement in the research for themselves;
therefore we asked them to make a declaration. We determined four levels of involvement in a way that the higher level included the preceding one. The four levels were the following:
1. helping the research: fi lling in questionnaires, participating in interviews;
2. teacher cooperation: regular participation in harmonising course descriptions, joining teacher workshops;
3. refl ect on the training: creating refl ections at defi ned intervals;
4. research and development: having an active role in the research.
The following graph (Figure 1) illustrates how those colleagues who answered the questions saw their level of involvement at the beginning of the research in autumn 2006.
Figure 1: The extent of teacher involvement (number of people involved)
We were pleased to see that so many colleagues believed the starting research to be important, and this encouraged us to burden them with numerous questionnaires and workshops. We aimed at facilitating active participation and regular expression of opinions by creating the electronic interface (Moodle), where everyone could comment on the given topics and newer problems could be initiated as a topic up for debate. Relatively few people used this opportunity outside the BaBe research team, and teacher activity on the interface reached a low point by the end of year. We have data on the number of comments only from the fi rst semester, which is shown in the following table (Table 2).
Table 2: Number of comments on the electronic interface Autumn 2006 Apring 2007
BaBe researcher comments 82 pcs 38 pcs
Other teacher comments 13 pcs 1 pc
The research team attempted to halt the decline in teacher activity on two occasions:
• Tutoring and mentoring was introduced in spring 2007 (see Chapter 7) when teachers took on the personal support of one or two fi rst-year students. 25 teachers undertook this task out of the 38. We believed that those teachers who undertook this rather demanding work (without any compensation) would be more committed to the success of the new training programme in Education, and the reconsideration of mentor tasks and the regular sharing of mentoring experience would result in newer discussions and occasions of thinking together.
• It is a common feeling at workplaces, and our organisation is no exception, that it seems as if it is always the same colleagues who are given tasks. We think the underlying cause may be that some colleagues may not foresee well the tasks to be undertaken, and thus unwillingly they are unable to join these effi ciently. It may not be a rare case that these colleagues have the feeling that they have been intentionally neglected again. To prevent this we had created by the end of the academic year 2006-2007 a list of tasks for the next year (see details in the next chapter), and we asked the colleagues to indicate which tasks out of the listed 12 they would like to be involved in and which they would like to be organisers of. The following table illustrates that the questioned 26 colleagues were indeed volunteering (Table 3).
Table 3: Tasks volunteered for by the teachers of the Institute for the academic year 2007-2008
Development idea Would participate Would organise 1. HolNap (meaning: Tomorrow)
conference 14 4
2. Project Day (autumn
semester) 11 6
3. Round table talk 14 4
4. Necessity – Requirements –
Effi ciency 8 4
5. Competency list 11 3
6. Subject requirements, course
descriptions 15 2
7. Informing teacher trainees 8 5
8. Cooperation in MA level
teacher training 11 3
9. Advanced training for the
teachers of the Institute 9 3
10. Training the participants of
higher education 10 4
11. Charity – lifestyle of the
intellectuals 6 2
12. Reception of fi rst year students 9 3
Sum: 130 43
2.1.2. Motivating colleagues who teach similar or identical subjects to discuss their teaching tasks
It was the experience of previous years that teachers often did not discuss the content and methods of courses and the forms of assessment with one another. Each course traditionally had its experienced teachers with their elaborate set of course descriptions in a curriculum that seemingly had not changed for decades. The implementation of the new training programme and the appearance of new courses was an especially good opportunity for the organisation’s increased number of staff to discontinue their former practice and have closer cooperation and discourse over their work. The BaBe team endeavoured to facilitate this process in several steps and through different means.