From planning for change to seeing intended change in practice: some key issues for change implement

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From planning for change to seeing intended
change in practice some key issues for change
implementers

• Martin Wedell
• School of Education
• University of Leeds

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David Graddol

• Four macro level models for conceiving change
  planning and implementation, and some advantages
  disadvantages of each.
• Today focus on a central aspect of any change
  process
• relationship between curriculum change and
  teacher change.. latter will ultimately
  determine degree of classroom change.

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20th/21st century ELT changes

• Very widespread across the globe
• Very similar in new English curricula being the
  vanguard of / part of a wider educational change
  process linked to
• Teachers moving from transmitter to facilitator
  of childrens learning (NCF 2005) in order to
• enable learners to develop language skills needed
  to cope with the dynamic process of globalisation
  in which English plays a crucial role (De
  Segovia and Hardison 2009 155)

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• The central lesson of large-scale educational
  change that is now evident is the following
  Large-scale, sustained improvement in student
  outcomes requires a (i) sustained effort to
  change school and classroom practices, not just
  structures such as governance and accountability.
  The heart of improvement lies in , (ii) changing
  teaching and learning practices in thousands and
  thousands of classrooms, and this requires (iii)
  focused and sustained effort by all parts of the
  education system and its partners.
• (Levin and Fullan, 2008 291) My italics and
  numbering

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3 key points

• Goal of educational change is to change what
  actually happens in classrooms
• Many different classrooms so change unlikely to
  be identically implemented
• Wont happen without focused and sustained
  effort over time by all parts of the educational
  system and its partners.

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• So who and what are the parts and the partners
  of the education system that need to be operating
  in a focused and sustained way over time, to
  enable implementation of a new curriculum?

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• Many different parts of the education system are
  necessarily involved.
• Significant minority of the entire population are
  likely to be more or less directly affected by
  a major curriculum change .
• Many people will have different roles to play in
  the focused and sustained effort over time

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• How teachers are supported in a change process is
  key in determining whether change is actually
  seen in classrooms.
• Focus on
• what does such support entail?
• what helps/hinders its provision?

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Teachers changing from transmitters to
facilitators (NCFTE Delhi 2009)

• What does the change from transmitter to
  facilitator entail ?
• Who / what needs to be involved in supporting
  such a change ?

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The need to consider how teachers / others
affected experience change

• 'Neglect of the phenomenology of change- that
  is how people actually experience change as
  distinct from how it might have been intended- is
  at the heart of the spectacular lack of success
  of most social reforms.'
• (Fullan 1981/1992/2003/20078)

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To become facilitators teachers need

• Cycles of training support over time to develop
• necessary additional language proficiency
• confidence in new teaching/ management practices
  
• ability to adapt and adjust procedures /materials
  /assessment to meet structural realities of
  context, while retaining spirit of change
• All quite challenging enough- a professional (
  and personal?) culture change ( Wedell 2009)

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But training alone insufficient. Teacher change
also needs

• support from the education system and its
  partners over time in terms of eg
• Materials and Assessment practices
• Supportive Attitudes of Local administrative and
  School leaders, Learners and their parents

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Case study 1. Successful teacher support

• New English curriculum as part of wider national
  education reform which aimed to shift from
  teacher-centred to learner-centred curricula and
  from transmission-oriented teaching to
  learner-centred teaching
• Process starting from primary school upwards
• New textbooks and new assessment practices to
  support change across curriculum.

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10 year teacher support project

• All primary English teachers
• Upgrade from Diploma to BA over 3 years part time
• Language support where needed to reach entry
  level, Cambridge PET.
• 9 weeks per year summer/winter schools
• Day release throughout year with expert
  regional tutor

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Training support over time

• Cycles of study in-class, implementation attempts
  in schools, and feedback/ discussion sessions at
  the regional training centres.
• Opportunities to try out procedures/work with new
  materials, discuss issues/ problems /solutions..
  adapt and adjust.. retry.. re-discuss etc over
  time.
• Majority more confident in the ideas underlying
  the reform, carrying out the resulting practices,
  and able to adjust these to the particular needs
  of their own classrooms.

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Support from education system and partners over
time

• Consistent government policy and funding for the
  reform process
• English reform was mirrored, albeit in different
  ways, by parallel reforms in other subject areas.
  
• National awareness raising regarding reform so
  regional education leaders, head teachers,
  colleagues , learners, parents all more or less
  on the same wavelength
• Assessment practices more or less consistent with
  reform ideas and classroom procedures

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Successful (but not perfect)

• The continuous assessment procedures introduced
  too complicated to be useable and had to be
  serially rethought
• BA input less than perfect in terms of
  contextual sensitivity to begin with, thanks to
  project duration it grew considerably more so
  over time
• Curriculum reforms in other subjects less
  lavishly funded and took different implementation
  routes, leading to some lack of harmony

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Case study 2

• New communicative English curriculum
• Other subjects and exams unchanged.
• Training focus on serving teachers from poorer
  regions
• Good traditional teachers (exams results)chosen
  by local leaders
• Sent to best city universities for two years
  training

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Teachers go to universities. Training support
over time

• Capable trainers knew what teachers would need to
  understand and be able to do to implement new
  curriculum.
• Rural teachers identity as good teachers
  severely challenged by transition to novice
  teachers of new approach.
• Change is Hard work .

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Teachers return home. No support from education
system and partners

• Try to implement new curriculum adapt materials,
  develop learners communication skills- share
  with colleagues
• Head teachers, colleagues, learners, parents had
  not changed
• Exams not changed- teachers new teaching leading
  to poor exam results

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Teacher support unsuccessful

• Teachers had changed, nobody else had
• Everybody unhappy. Head teachers, learners,
  parents because good teacher's no longer good.
• Teachers disillusioned, stressed, frustrated.
  Leave schools to private teaching or back to the
  cities

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Teachers are people

• How they feel affects what they do.
• Becoming a facilitator is hard work
• It involves significant professional change
• It is potentially threatening to teachers
  existing professional identities.
• It takes time, and needs appropriate training
  support over time.

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Training alone is not enough

• If we want to see changes actually happening in
  thousands of classrooms
• The materials teachers use
• The exams their learners take
• Their colleagues and learners attitudes
• Their inspectors and their learners parents
  expectations
• ALL Need to be supporting them too!

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