Abstract:

Each year a lot of time and resources are invested in various in-service teacher professional development interventions, still gaps between teachers’ performance in teaching/learning process and teachers’ knowledge have been observed. In-service teacher professional development can be viewed as a process, that starts from the acquisition of new knowledge and must result in positive changes in student outcomes. Still the trajectory between these start and finish points is not always straight. There are multiple reports that highlight the complexity of this trajectory and the variety of factors that can either catalyse or inhibit teachers’ professional development. The scholars agree that school leadership team can play significant role in teacher professional development, still specific school leadership team actions are less studied.

Schools are often viewed as constantly changing systems and teacher professional development can serve either as an initiator or pathway for changes. In most cases, the changes in teacher classroom instruction are vital to implement school, district, or nation – wide educational reforms and teacher professional development is viewed as a pathway to achieve reform goals. Latvia like other nations is experiencing a curriculum change that features a focus on 21st century skills. Effective teacher professional development interventions are seen as pathways to decrease the time and effort spent to implement the curriculum change.

According to Fullan the importance of school leadership team in the process of teacher professional development can be justified by two reasons. First, a shared understanding of effective practices is vital and school leadership team must serve as supporter and reinforcer of these practices. Teacher support, positive feedback and reinforcement are practices of social persuasion that are valuable to build collective teacher efficacy – one of the most powerful practices that can influence student results. Second, members of school leadership team have unique opportunities to provide practical support (i.e., time and possibilities to practice) that can ease teacher professional development.

The present research compares three cases of the implementation of school-based teacher professional development model. The school-based teacher professional development model combined the principles of inquiry to gain new experience, collaboration, and reflection with the lesson study approach. The researched cases varied by school leadership team - teacher and school leadership team - expert coach interactions. Teacher and school leadership team member surveys, school leadership team member and expert coaches focus groups, teacher classroom observations and teacher lesson plans were obtained and analysed to gain insights about school leadership teams’ role in lesson-based teacher professional development.

The results show that impact can be gained when members of school leadership team learn parallel to teachers and the teachers see this learning. The results also indicate that school leadership team can work effectively in tandem with expert coaches to support teacher professional development. Still independent actions and decisions that support teacher professional development are challenges for school leadership teams.

Keywords:

School leadership team, teacher professional development, implementation.