Browsing by Person "Philpott, Carey"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Instructional rounds: how the Scottish experience can inform the international debate
(2013) Oates, Catriona; Philpott, Carey
Learning Rounds and the development of teacher agency: an empirical study in Scottish schools
(University of Edinburgh, 2014) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
"[T]he problem is not that schools don't have access to knowledge. The problem is that they don't have a process for translating the knowledge systematically into practice" (City et al 2009, p.9). Learning Rounds has become a high profile method of teacher learning in Scotland. Learning Rounds was initially informed by the Instructional Rounds developed in the USA by City et al (2009). However, Learning Rounds practice emphasises classroom observation over other aspects of Instructional Rounds such as the 'theory of action'. A theory of action is a "story line that makes a vision and a strategy concrete" (ibid, 40). This needs to be kept open ended or it "ceases to function as a learning tool and it becomes a symbolic artefact, useful primarily as a tool for legitimising ... authority" (City et al 2009 p. 9). This paper uses transcript data from Scottish teachers' Learning Rounds to explore differences in how teachers' observations reflect on what is promulgated as good practice. That data is drawn from four transcripts of Learning Rounds debriefs from four different schools each in a different local authority. The debriefs involved twenty six teachers in total. In some data ideas of good practice are largely unquestioned. In other data teachers reflect on how their observations might refine ideas of good practice; they feed into a developing theory of action. The implication is that increased focus on developing, rather than accepting, theories of action in Learning Rounds will promote teacher agency and challenge the "rhetoric of conclusions" (Clandinin and Connelly, 1995) emanating as theories of action from other sources that can limit this agency.
Learning Rounds: what the literature tells us (and what it doesn’t)
(Brill, 2015) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
Learning Rounds is a form of professional development that has gained widespread currency in Scotland. It has received official endorsement from Scottish Government funded agencies and has spread as a practice through at least 24 out of 32 local authorities, in part through popular adoption by teachers. However the literature on Instructional Rounds that informs Learning Rounds is not as well known in Scotland as the practice of Learning Rounds itself. An earlier small scale study of Learning Rounds in Scotland suggests that practice varies significantly from school to school and from the original practices of Instructional Rounds. This literature review provides a critical survey of the existing literature on Instructional Rounds and Learning Rounds. This is intended to enable educators to be more informed about whether to adopt the practice and how to develop and evaluate the practice if they do.
Professional learning communities as drivers of educational change: The case of learning rounds
(Springer, 2017) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
Many researchers claim that there is a compelling weight of evidence for the effectiveness of PLCs in promoting teachers’ learning and pupil achievement. However, others raise fundamental questions about their nature and purpose. Some of the uncertainties about the nature and purpose of PLCs relate to the ways in which the macro-context of neo-liberalism has shaped the practices of PLCs in particular ways. The fundamental questions raised about PLCs relate to the type of change they are intended to produce, the model of community they are based on and whether the right conditions and skills are in place for them to contribute to change. Some researchers argue that we need to pay more attention to shortcomings within existing PLCs and their internal dynamics. Others argue that little research focuses on the specific interactions of teachers inside PLCs. The research reported here goes ‘inside the teacher community’ of Learning Rounds to explore what the shortcomings of some examples of this model in practice add to what we know about how to assist PLCs to produce change in education.
Teacher agency and professional learning communities: what can Learning Rounds in Scotland teach us?
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2016) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
Recently there has been growth in researching teacher agency. Some research has considered the relationship between teacher agency and professional learning. Similarly, there has been growing interest in professional learning communities as resources for professional learning. Connections have been made between professional learning communities and teacher agency, with professional learning communities seen as an affordance for the exercise of teacher agency. However, it has also been argued that there is little detailed evidence of what happens inside professional learning communities or of teacher agency in action. The research reported here focuses on a form of professional learning community from Scotland: Learning Rounds. It uses data from transcripts of post-classroom observation conversations to consider the extent to which Learning Rounds provide an affordance for teacher agency and the extent to which that affordance is utilised. This research makes a contribution in three ways: adding to an empirical understanding of what happens in professional learning communities; understanding how teacher agency is (or is not) exercised in practice; and considering what factors might affect the utilisation (or otherwise) of affordances for teacher agency. The article concludes with several recommendations for developing effective professional learning communities as an affordance for teacher agency.
Teacher agency in collaborative professional development; missing in action?
(Corvinus University, 2015) Oates, Catriona; Philpott, Carey
Internationally there has been growing research in teacher agency (e.g. Masuda 2010; Sanino 2010; Ketelaar et al 2012; Riveros, Newton & Burgess 2012; Priestley et al 2012; Robinson 2012; Reeves & I'Anson 2014).Teacher Agency can be defined as "the power of teachers (both individually and collectively) to actively and purposefully direct their own working lives within structurally determined limits” (Hilferty 2008: 167). Priestley et al (2012: 196) remind us that “rather than agency residing in individuals as a property or capacity, it becomes construed in part as an effect of the ecological conditions through which it is enacted”. So the key questions are ““How is agency possible? and “How is it achieved?”” (ibid: 196). Similarly Biesta and Tedder (2007: 137) remind us that “actors always act by means of their environment rather than simply in their environment … the achievement of agency will always result in the interplay of individual efforts, available resources and contextual and structural factors”. Internationally, curriculum reform (rhetorically at least) is making growing use of teacher agency as a mechanism for reform (Priestley et al 2012; Robinson 2012). At the same time as growing international policy/rhetorical emphasis on teacher agency for curriculum reform there has been growing international emphasis on models of collaborative professional development for the same purpose (Riveros, Newton & Burgess 2012). Some have made a connection between the two, seeing teachers collaborative professional development as an important “ecological condition” or “resource” for teacher agency (e.g. Masuda, 2010; Lipponen & Kumpalainen 2011; Riveros, Newton & Burgess 2012; McNicholl 2013). In Scotland, Learning Rounds (based on U.S. Instructional Rounds (City et al 2009)) has been one of the most high profile policy manifestations of collaborative professional development. A key purpose of instructional rounds should be to develop a theory of action. A theory of action is a “statement of a causal relationship between what I do … and what constitutes a good result in the classroom … [i]t must be empirically falsifiable [and] [i]t must be open ended” (City et al 2009: 40, italics in original). Once a theory of action is viewed as finished it “ceases to function as a learning tool and it becomes a symbolic artefact, useful primarily as a tool for legitimising … authority” (ibid; 53). Similar to the “rhetoric of conclusions” (from government policy, ‘district’ policy or educational research) that Clandinnin and Connelly (1995) argue devalues the understanding of practice developed by teachers. The open ended and falsifiable nature of a theory of action is a “condition” for teacher agency. Once it becomes fixed and an example “the rhetoric of conclusions” it constrains teacher agency by serving to legitimise external authority. Despite the international popularity of instructional rounds and official support in Scotland for the learning rounds derived from them, there is little empirical evidence internationally on the effects of this form of collaborative development in practice. The research reported here analysed transcripts of four groups of teachers in Scottish schools engaged in discussions as part of collaborative professional development through learning rounds. The analyis seeks to determine the evidence that this form of collaborative professional development is providing the "ecologial conditions" or a "resource" for teacher agency.
What Do Teachers Do When They Say They Are Doing Learning Rounds? Scotland’s Experience of Instructional Rounds
(Eurasian Society of Educational Research, 2015) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
This paper reports on research into the practice of learning rounds in Scotland. Learning rounds are a form of collaborative professional development for teachers based on the instructional rounds practice developed in the USA. In recent years learning rounds have gained high profile official support within education in Scotland. The research finds that what teachers in Scotland do when they say they are do-ing learning rounds varies widely from school to school and deviates significantly from the practice of instructional rounds. The implications of this for who is learning what in the practice of learning rounds is considered. The wider implications of the Scottish experience for the development of in-structional rounds practice in other countries is also considered as are the implications for promoting collaborative professional development practice more generally.