Deep Changes in Classroom Practice: Teachers' Perspectives on the Effects of Participation in the C3WP

Autor/inn/en	Heenan, Barbara; Houghton, Nina; Ramage, Katherine; St. John, Mark; Stokes, Laura
Institution	Inverness Research
Titel	Deep Changes in Classroom Practice: Teachers' Perspectives on the Effects of Participation in the C3WP
Quelle	(2017), (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Poverty; School Districts; Disadvantaged Schools; Program Descriptions; Grants; State Standards; Persuasive Discourse; Classroom Techniques; Teacher Attitudes; Active Learning; Faculty Development; Secondary School Teachers; Writing Skills; Writing Instruction; Rural Schools; Educational Change; Career Readiness; College Readiness; Collegiality; Teaching Methods + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Armut; School district; Schulbezirk; Grant; Finanzielle Beihilfe; Persuasion; Persuasive Kommunikation; Klassenführung; Lehrerverhalten; Aktives Lernen; Writing skill; Schreibfertigkeit; Schreibunterricht; Rural area; Rural areas; School; Schools; Ländlicher Raum; Schule; Schulen; Bildungsreform; Kollegialität; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode
Abstract	The National Writing Project (NWP) received an Investing in Innovation grant in 2012 designed to provide 7-10th grade teachers in high-poverty, low-achieving rural school districts with professional development. The goal of the NWP effort, the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP), was to enhance teachers' capacity to teach students argument writing aligned with new state standards aimed toward college and career success. An independent intent-to-treat randomized controlled study conducted by SRI found that the C3WP achieved statistically significant positive results in supporting ELA teachers in changing their classroom practices and improving students' skills in all four attributes of argument writing that were measured: content, structure, stance, and conventions. In particular, C3WP students demonstrated greater proficiency in the quality of reasoning and use of evidence in their writing (Gallagher, at al., 2017). The evidence of positive impact on student performance in argument writing is a high achievement that merits not only the important recognition it has received, but also a fuller understanding of how the positive impact was realized. The purpose of this paper is to examine through the perspectives and voices of those most integrally and intimately involved, the C3WP participating classroom teachers, how it was actually accomplished. "What" were the changes that teachers made in their classrooms as a result of the C3WP? "How" did the C3WP effect those changes with teachers even in especially challenging rural environments? Teachers recalling their C3WP experiences described supports that closely mirror the features research identifies as promoting effective professional development: collegial and collective participation, content focus, well-designed instructional components, active learning, and sufficient duration. Moreover, many teachers described the development of their own thinking and classroom instruction, as a result of the C3WP, as lasting change. They talked about changes not only in their classroom practices, but changes in their beliefs about the nature of teaching and the potential of their students. The aim of this paper then is to look "below the water line" of the positive findings about student impacts, and to understand better the unseen but critical factors that contributed to the successes teachers and students enjoyed through the C3WP, as well as the deep changes in teachers' thinking and practice. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Inverness Research. P.O. Box 313, Inverness, CA 94937. Tel: 415-669-7156; Fax: 415-669-7186; e-mail: webdev@inverness-research.org; Web site: http://www.inverness-research.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01