Marie A. B. Bakah, Ph.D. Institute for Educational Planning and Administration,

1. Does team-based professional development make a difference? A longitudinal investigation of teacher learning through curriculum design Marie A. B. Bakah, Ph.D. Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, University of Cape Coastmbakah@ucc.edu.gh marieafua@yahoo.com EMASA Conference 2012, Pinetown, Durban, South Africa

2. Overview • Research Context • Background to the study • Professional learning communities • Collaborative Curriculum Design in Design Teams • Research question • Research Approach • Results • Conclusions

3. Research Context • 10 regionally-based polytechnics • Vocational higher education • Applied science, arts and technology programmes • HND and B. Tech. Programmes • Semi-autonomous institutions (NCTE)

4. Background to the Study • Polytechnic reforms • Polytechnic upgrade to tertiary institutions (November, 2007) • Infrastructure • Human Resource Development • Leadership/Managerial capacity • Professional development of lecturers needed • Curriculum design • Industrial attachment was a professional development need for lecturers

5. Professional Learning Communities/ Communities of Practice An extended learning opportunity to foster collaborative learning among colleagues within a particular work environment or field. It is often used in schools as a way to organize teachers into working groups (professional development and collaboration). • sustainable school reform (Hord, 2004; Lieberman & Miller, 2004) • impact on practice (Louis & Marks, 1998; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006) • student achievement (Sackney, et al., 2005; Vescio, et al., 2008)

6. Teacher Design Teams (TDT) Collaborative curriculum design (Cohen, 1996; Deketelaere & Kelchtermans, 1996; Mishra et al., 2007; Parchmann et al., 2006; Penuel et al, 2007; Nieveen et al., 2005; Simmie, 2007; Millar et al., 2006) ‘a group of at least two teachers, from the same or related subjects, working together on a regular basis, with the goal to re-design and enact (a part of) their common curriculum.’ (Handelzalts, 2009, p. 7) • design tasks • teacher learning • curriculum innovation(Mishra et al., 2007)

7. Collaborative Curriculum Design in Design Teams • Professional development of the teachers • Active engagement • Collaboration • Teacher ownership during curriculum innovation • Design team support • Collective participation

8. Research Question What is the impact of collaborative curriculum design on teacher professional development and curriculum reform practices?

9. Research Approach Design-based Research Context and Needs Analysis First Study: Design & Evaluation 1 First Study: Design & Evaluation 2 Sustainability Study

10. Participants • Two Polytechnics • Faculty of engineering • Full-time lecturers (32) • All males (average age 41 years) • Six TDTs • Automobile (2) • Production (2) • Electrical (2) • Students 478 (Polytechnic 1)and 663 (Polytechnic 2). Average age - 24 years

11. Professional Development Arrangement • Formation of TDTs • Introductory workshop • Collaborative curriculum design • Industrial visits • Teaching tryouts of updated courses • Students’ appraisal of teaching tryout • Dissemination workshop 12 weeks and 14 weeks

12. Overview of courses and areas updated

13. Data Collection and Analysis Research Instruments: • Questionnaire (lecturers and students) • Interview guides (lecturers) • Industry reports • Logbook (researcher) Data Analysis: • Questionnaire - descriptive statistics, factor analysis, independent t-test & one-way ANOVA test (Students) and paired t-tests (teachers) • Interviews and logbook – Alas ti. 6.2 Intercoder reliability (2 coders) Cohen’s kappa (k) 0.93

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20. Results (1) Knowledge and Skills Acquisition At industries: Limitation: time spent at industry not enough • William (P) ‘...we were exposed to the new processes of casting and varieties of sand ... it was a very good exercise we went through’. • Roland (E)‘I acquired new skills in the way of rewinding single phase induction motors... new techniques for detecting faults’.

21. Results (2) Knowledge and Skills Acquisition During collaborative design: Justice (A) ‘...in fact this is a decentralised way of handling curriculum design especially as long as the skill development and practical side is concerned. This is what we need; this is what we want to do, so this is in a way encouraging a grass root design of curriculum so it is very supportive’. Teacher collaboration: Lecturer interdependency, confidence, interaction, tolerance Varied experiences and ages to a level of thinking and cohesion Subject matter dialogue, discussions, brainstorming, increase output Oliver (E), ‘... working as a team, gave me the opportunity to share ideas, come out boldly to work things out together with colleagues .... and I was motivated to learn’

22. Results (3) Perception of TDT: • Perceptions before (M=2.50, SD=0.37) and after (M=4.22, SD=0.37) • Significant difference (p<0.05) • Effect size (4.70) Students’ experiences: • Means Presentation (M=3.88, SD=0.66) Clarity (M=3.37, SD=0.63) • One-way ANOVA Presentation (F=2.41, p=0.092) Clarity (F=6.91, p=0.001)

23. Results (4)

24. Conclusions (1) Design Teams....... • fostered teacher learning • made available significant space for teacher support • encouraged collaborative curriculum design • enhanced exchange of information • Was useful for classroom practice and students’ learning In professional development, it is worthwhile to engage teachers in teamwork to rigorously plan and implement their own learning

25. Conclusions (2) • Collaborative curriculum design enhanced professional development and instructional practices of teachers • Teachers explored developments in industry • Teachers acquired subject matter knowledge and skills • Teachers acquired curriculum design skills • Teachers explored concrete scenario for practice • Teachers collaboration enhanced subject matter dialogue and interaction .

26. Author & Contact Marie A. B. Bakah (Ph.D.) Lecturer, Institute for Educational Planning and Administration; Faculty of Education; University of Cape Coast; Cape Coast, Ghana. Email: mbakah@ucc.edu.gh marieafua@yahoo.com