Task 2: How does research contribute to

teacher´s development?
By:
Dayana Buitrago
Néstor Almanza
Leyla Hernàndez O.

Tutor: Oscar Javier Bohórquez

Course: Teacher Development

 Introduction referring to the main points covered
by the partners
Contribution’s Nestor Almanza by Dayana Buitrago

•Teacher professional development is framed in different aspects, one of them is teacher

research, through which teachers engage in self-discovery and make their educational
practices improve over time as they become aware of the needs of their teachers. students.

Educational research should be a daily practice and should be aimed at improving the
educational system and is also a collaborative activity that uses different methods, both
quantitative and qualitative; It is also expected that this practice will achieve an innovative
and quality education.
To achieve the above, it is also important to take into account the research on educational
effectiveness that is going to mark the referent on whether what is being done is achieving
the expected objectives, which will allow us to make the necessary decisions for the
implementation of programs that help improve educational practice.

Teacher professional development also requires that teachers reach a certain degree of
"quality", with the purpose of covering the expectations of current education and the
different needs of students, which the teacher associates with constant training not only in
the contents of his course, but also in the needs of his students taking into account the
environment in which he is doing his teaching work.
 Contribution by Néstor Almanza to Dayana Buitrago

All your summaries note the main idea in each of them, and I try to summarize them in the
following way.
The professional development of teachers has to do with ongoing training and must be a
commitment to improve their methods of instruction, their ability to adapt education to the
needs of their students, in order to generate a shared culture about the importance of
education. education. teaching and learning.
Teachers must be thoughtful professionals who understand and evaluate the practices
through research, redefining all given assumptions and, finally, acquiring power;
Regarding the new practices.
It must be taken into account that the research must make use of the
specialized experience, give and receive the support of their peers,
the learning must be sustained and oriented to research and the
exploration of evidence backed by leadership and responsibility.

You can also notice the importance of focusing on the needs of

students during the learning process and in this way this learning
can have a positive impact.
 FEEDBACK BY LEYLA TO DAYANA
Partner Dayana, I agree with all your summaries. They have the main idea about each topic.
This is my feedback about the reading "Improving Teaching Development and Training".
Education is constantly changing, so teachers have to keep up with changes to ensure optimal student learning.
Guskey and Sparks describe staff development in terms of: content, process and context.
Their model provides as useful guide for principals to develop an ambitious plan for professional success.
- Content: Professional development activities provide teachers with useful tools to understand academic
disciplines and pedagogical principles.
-Process: Process refers to how the professional teacher develops. In other words how activities are planned,
organized, carried out and followed up.
-Context: Context refers to the organization system and culture in which the activities occur.
 The review of the literature… Reading 1:
Cordingley, P. (2015). The contribution of research to teachers’ professional learning
and development. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), 234–252.

The conceptualization of teachers’ relationship with research has a long and distinguished
pedigree, for example in the work of Dewey (1938) and Stenhouse (1979).
Stenhouse was hugely influential internationally and in England, asserting in 1979 that to
engage with research, teachers need to engage in it.
Specialist expertise is ever present and serves a range of functions. Teachers involved in
effective CPDL use specialist advice or information to identify strategies that address their
concerns and aspirations for pupils: research is clearly an authoritative source of such
expertise.
Teachers in the studies explored (and more usually schools acting on their behalf) sought
specialist expertise for illustration of new approaches and phenomena in action and help in
unpacking what did and didn’t work well in their early experiments. They also use
specialist expertise to provide the scaffolding that helps them take control over their
learning about new approaches.

Timperley et al. (2007) suggest that for professional learning to be effective it needs to
occur at three inter-related and parallel levels: student, teacher and organization. They
argue that effective leadership of CPD of this kind involves goal setting, enacting,
monitoring, and adjusting at each of the three levels.
Bell et al. (2010) also began teasing out the role of school leaders in both enabling and
inhibiting teacher engagement in and with research, pointing in particular to the
importance of explicit leadership interest in and support for engagement in and/or with
research.

Robinson et al.’s Best Evidence Synthesis (2009) is not yet widely known or understood.
It represents an important bridge between different bodies of evidence and theory about
CPDL and the contributions of research, school leadership and school improvement.
Researchers, and research-based CPDL facilitators, are learning to work with and through
research-interested school leaders and to awaken such interest amongst those who have
taken other routes to leadership.
Reading 2: Moutafidou, A., Melliou, K., & Georgopoulou, A. A. (2012). Educational
research and teacher development. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 156–161.
The purpose of this study is to explore primary school teachers’ and pre-school teachers’ beliefs
concerning the importance of research on daily classroom practice as a tool for their professional
development. A questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument since it easily arouses
the interest of social subjects and increases participation in the research (Javeau, 1998).The
questionnaire was piloted with 20 teachers and minor adjustments were made. Its final form,
which consisted of 9 close and 1 open questions, was divided in the three following axes:

a) Teachers’ beliefs about professional development.

b) Teachers’ beliefs about educational research.
c) Relationship between educational research and professional development.
 A. Teachers’ beliefs about their professional development.
The first axis consisted of 4 questions concerning teachers’ beliefs about their professional
development. More specifically, the respondents were asked to a) provide a definition of the
term “professional development”, b) define its importance, c) evaluate factors that influence their
development, d) express their beliefs regarding the autonomy and opportunities offered to them
to develop in the current educational system.
Based on the results most teachers relate professional development to professional skills (33.3%
of the reports), lifelong learning (30 %), further training (12.9%) and professional status
(12.4%). Fewerreports appear to the categories related to cooperation among all stakeholders in
the educational process (4.6%), whereas a minority of the teachers perceives the term
“professional development” as related to the words initiative (2.6%), experience (2.4%) and duty
(1.9%).
 B. Teachers’ beliefs about educational research
The second axis consisted of 3 questions related to teachers’ beliefs about educational
research. In the first question the participants were asked to decide on the ways through
which they could obtain a more active role. More specifically, they were presented with
a list of factors deriving from the relevant literature that could enhance participation and
were asked to express their agreement or disagreement.
Based on the results, the participants believe that they can enhance their role by
participating in curriculum designing (84.2%) and applying new teaching approaches
(76.7%), by the dissemination of the knowledge generated by the research (75%) and by
participating in the evaluation of educational programs (74.2%).
Other ways to enhance their role are considered to be the
cooperation with the political and academic body (60%), and
the investigation (57.5%) and evaluation of their practices
(50.8%).
 C- Relationship between educational research and
professional development
The third group consisted of 3 questions. In the first question, the
participants were asked to evaluate the importance of the
educational research conducted by the teachers themselves as a
means to increase their power and professional status. Based on
the results, all teachers considered educational research as a
highly empowering tool (56.7% very important- 43.3%
important).
These findings agree with several studies demonstrating teachers’ willingness to participate in
procedures relating to the curriculum (Moutafidou, Georgopoulou, & Sivropoulou, 2008) and
to investigate and reinforce their practices (Hui & Grossman, 2008). Teachers’ views seem to
result from their experiences since they appear to have used varying research strategies, such as
case study, action research and focus groups.

The importance of research is highlighted by Kosmidis, Bagakis, Kritikou and Kaloudioti

(2005), since it is considered to provide teachers the opportunity to reflect on their practices
and evaluate their effectiveness, to create theories based on their own practices and finally to
use their experiences so as to express and develop themselves.
Reading 3: Azkiyah, S. N. azkiyah@uinjkt. ac. idnurulpass: [_] azky@yahoo. co.
(2017). Educational Effectiveness Research as the Knowledge Base of Improving
Education. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25(3), 1019–1038

● The National Council for Research (NCR) in 2001 firmly believes that for teachers to
know the standards and content helps to adjust the instructions and provide better
learning activities.
● The National Council for Research (NCR) in 2001 firmly believes that for teachers to
know the standards andHowever, studies conducted in the United States (Hanushek,
Peterson, and Woessmann, 2012) show that the performance of students in secondary
school remains the same or worse compared to the studies of A Nation at Risk
(1983).content helps to adjust the instructions and provide better learning activities.
● In education, student cognitive performance was largely used as the criterion to
measure the effectiveness of different factors, although it has been criticized for
narrowing the meaning and the scope of education. This could be due to the fact that
non-cognitive outcomes were influenced more by other social institutions than
schools (Van Der Werf, 1995).
● With respect to the improvement effort, which is the focus of this study, Creemers
and Reezigt (2007) emphasize the importance of characteristics that could be changed
through intervention programs such as teacher instruction.
● The context or policies at the national level, as Creemers and Kyriakides (2008) have
pointed out, are expected to provide necessary conditions for the effectiveness of
school and classroom levels. Thus, it is very important to understand effectiveness
enhancing factors at both levels.
Reading 4: Barba, C. O., Gutiérrez, I. P., & García, M. V. (2002). Improving Teacher
Development and Training. Revista Panamericana de Pedagogía: Saberes y
Quehaceres Del Pedagogo, (3), 197.

● Quality professional development for teachers has never been as important as it is

today, as the challenges and expectations they face for high quality education are
constantly increasing (Barba, C.O., Gutiérrez, I.P., & Garcia, M. V. 2002).
● Guskey and Sparks (1996) describe staff development in terms of: content, process
and context.
● Optimal professional development is based on the continuous improvement of three
stages: individual, academic and organizational. Effective professional development
also seeks a balance between meeting individual and organizational needs (Barba,
C.O., Gutiérrez, I.P., & Garcia, M. V. 2002).
● The development, can be considered in a variety of levels: macro, meso and micro.
"At the macro level, it has to do with nations and international relations, while the
micro levels are individual and personal.In the middle, the meso level has relevance
for organizations and communities, all of these levels are relevant to education and
adult training, and they have some connections between them (TIGHT, Malcom,
p.26).
● A vocational qualification is a statement of competence clearly relevant to work in,
and intended to facilitate new employment opportunities, further education and
training, issued by a recognized body to an individual (Tight, M, p. 120).
● The quality of teaching does not depend only on the qualities of those who enter and
stay, but also on how the factor of the workplace also that teaching (Barba, C.O.,
Gutiérrez, I.P., & Garcia, M. V. 2002).
Reading 5: Vergara Luján, O. (2009). Classroom Research and Professional
Development. Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, (. 1),
169.

In order to respond to the challenges of our present-day society, the Constitución Política
Colombiana (1991), the General Education Law (1994) and the recommendations made by
the “Misión de Ciencia, Educación y Desarrollo” or “Misión de sabios” (1994), have
included and made provisions for making changes in the educational system. These
changes foresee the need to offer teacher education and development programs that
prepare present-day educators for a professional and knowledgeable response to the new
social and educational challenges. Teachers need to have sound preparation in the
following areas:

• Development of a good level of knowledge and competence in their field, concerning

not only content but also pedagogic knowledge.
 • Development of the tools to build a strong cultural and professional identity, evident in
the knowledge of their social and cultural environment and in their roles as agents of social
change.

• A positive and decisive attitude to face the need to make research processes a part of
their daily work and professional development.

• Capacity to integrate and participate in constructive processes in their area of work.

• Capacity to analyze, reflect and self-evaluate their own academic processes and those of
their colleagues and students, with a constructive intention.

• Capacity to participate in educational management.

• Skills to integrate and make use of the resources and possibilities offered in their
immediate environment.
References
Cordingley, P. (2015). The contribution of research to teachers’ professional learning and development. Oxford
Review of Education, 41(2), 234–252. https://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2444/10.1080/03054985.2015.1020105

Moutafidou, A., Melliou, K., & Georgopoulou, A. A. (2012). Educational research and teacher development.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 156–161.
https://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2444/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.034
● Azkiyah, S. N. azkiyah@uinjkt. ac. idnurulpass: [_] azky@yahoo. co. (2017). Educational Effectiveness
Research as the Knowledge Base of Improving Education. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences &
Humanities, 25(3), 1019–1038. Retrieved from
http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hus&A
N=129105859&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=siteLink
to the final task:
● https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Lc7VBQNavpDnz6d7RhtBZhvfkq
mWrr_tIiEGECqq5Dc/edit?usp=sharing
 Barba, C. O., Gutiérrez, I. P., & García, M. V. (2002). Improving Teacher Development and Training. Revista
Panamericana de Pedagogía: Saberes y Quehaceres Del Pedagogo, (3), 197. Retrieved from
http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=zbh&AN=10
099237&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site

Vergara Luján, O. (2009). Classroom Research and Professional Development. Profile: Issues in Teachers’
Professional Development, (. 1), 169. Retrieved from
http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsdnp&AN=
edsdnp.4858619ART&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site