PhD Anna Kristin Sigurdardottir - Bad Request

278 Pages·2006·2.25 MB·English

by  Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir

Studying and Enhancing the Professional
Learning Community
for School Effectiveness in Iceland

Submitted
by
Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir

To the University of Exeter
as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education,
March 2006

This dissertation is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright
material and that no quotation from the dissertation may be published without proper
acknowledgement.

I certify that all material in this dissertation which is not my own work has been
identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the
award of degree by this or any other University.

___________________________________
Acknowledgements

Even a journey of thousand miles starts with one step.
The above proverb was written on a small wooden shield given to be by my mother in
the autumn of 2001 at the beginning of my journey towards the Ph.D degree. This
shield has travelled with me between Exeter and Reykjavik ever since, hanging above
my desk, encouraging me, especially when the target seemed so very distant. Thanks
to my mother, I persevered, taking one small step at a time.
I thank the University of Exeter, in particular my supervisor Professor David
Reynolds for support and good advice, and my second supervisor Professor Bob
Burden for his work towards the end of my study. I also want to thank other staff at
the University, especially Jamie Aylward for his patience and kindness in the RSU,
and Jill Cadorath for her editing and helpful comments.
I am grateful for the support I have received in my country. My superior, the
director of Education in Reykjavik School district, always encouraged and supported
me. I am grateful for financial support from the Local Authorities and the Icelandic
Research Fund. Hopefully, I will be able to repay this support by contributing
knowledge to the practice of school improvement in Iceland. The staff of the three
schools participating in this study made valuable contributions and I am grateful for
their warm welcome with which they received me into their schools and classrooms,
giving me an insight into their daily life. This study could not have been done without
them and I wish them the best in their important work.
Last but not least I thank all my supportive friends and family in Iceland, without
whom I would never have finished. I thank my husband who has read this dissertation
more often than anybody else, correcting the English, giving advice and challenging
me with difficult questions. I also thank my three children for their support and
encouragement. My message to them will similarly be: "Even a journey of thousand
miles starts with one step".
Abstract

This is a study of the professional learning community existing within three schools in
the Reykjavik School District in Iceland. It is assumed that there is a professional
learning community within a school, when all the people holding professional status
are engaged in a continuous cycle of learning based on inquiry and reflection. The
aims of the study are to see if there is a relationship between the professional learning
community and the schools’ level of effectiveness, and to test if the implementation of
a professional learning community will improve the school’s level of effectiveness. In
this study the level of effectiveness is understood as the difference between real
outcomes on national tests in grade 10 and predicted outcomes in relation to parents’
level of education and outcomes in grade 4. It is a mixed model study, conducted in
two phases. The first phase is a correlation study into the professional learning
community in two outlier schools of different levels of effectiveness. The second
phase is an experimental study in the third school, where effort was made to
strengthen the professional learning community and see its effects on pupils’
outcomes. In both phases relatively strong evidence appeared for the relationship
between the school’s level of effectiveness and its characteristics in terms of the
professional learning community. Little collaborative learning appeared in daily
practice: teachers rarely shared new ideas or challenged each other on professional or
ethical issues. Schools can be changed for better pupil outcome by improving the
professional learning community.
Table of content
Chapter 1: Introduction..............................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Background information.......................................................................14
2.1 Social and economical status.............................................................................14
2.2 Public education in Iceland................................................................................15
The national school system..................................................................................16
The national evaluation system............................................................................19
Teacher Education...............................................................................................19
Teachers’ salaries and working conditions..........................................................20
2.3 Reykjavik school district....................................................................................22
Administration.....................................................................................................22
School development.............................................................................................24
2.4 Professional background....................................................................................27
2.5 Summary............................................................................................................30
Chapter 3: Review of the literature..........................................................................31
3.1 Professional learning communities....................................................................31
What is a professional learning community?.......................................................32
Learning organisations.........................................................................................36
Collaborative learning - team learning...............................................................41
Characteristics of a professional learning community.........................................46
Summary..............................................................................................................60
3.2 School effectiveness and school development...................................................61
School effectiveness.............................................................................................62
School improvement............................................................................................67
Implementation of change / process of change....................................................73
Leading change and leadership style...................................................................78
3.3 Summary............................................................................................................82
Chapter 4: Methodology..........................................................................................84
4.1 The design and theoretical perspective..............................................................84
Mixed model design.............................................................................................85
Correlational and experimental design................................................................88
Theoretical and psychological perspectives.........................................................91
4.2 Sample................................................................................................................93
Sampling strategy.................................................................................................94
The schools..........................................................................................................98
4.3 Methods of data collection in Phase I..............................................................101
Observation........................................................................................................102
Interviews...........................................................................................................104
Questionnaire survey.........................................................................................106
4.4 The intervention and data collection in Phase II..............................................111
The intervention.................................................................................................112
Data collection in Phase II.................................................................................116
Process data........................................................................................................117
Questionnaire survey.........................................................................................120
Summary............................................................................................................122
4.5 Some limitations and threats............................................................................122
4.6 Analysis............................................................................................................125
Quantitative analysis..........................................................................................126
Qualitative analysis............................................................................................130
4.7 Ethical issues involved in the research............................................................133
4.8 Summary..........................................................................................................135
Chapter 5: The relationship between schools’ levels of effectiveness and their
characteristics in terms of the professional learning community................136
5.1 Shared values and vision that focus on students’ learning, and expectation of
academic achievement....................................................................................140
Expectation of pupils’ academic achievement...................................................147
Comparison and summary.................................................................................148
5.2 Shared leadership.............................................................................................149
Comparison and summary.................................................................................153
5.3 Teachers’ perception of mutual support among staff and support from the
administrators.................................................................................................154
Support from administrators..............................................................................154
Support from colleagues....................................................................................155
Support for novice teachers...............................................................................159
Comparison and summary.................................................................................161
5.4 Collaborative learning among the professional staff.......................................162
Comparison and summary.................................................................................169
5.5 Organisational arrangements for collaboration and habits of work.................170
Comparison and summary.................................................................................174
5.6 Social climate and job satisfaction...................................................................174
Satisfaction and commitment to the job.............................................................176
Comparison and summary.................................................................................177
5.7 Teachers’ discussion of their practice in collaborative preparation time.........178
Comparison and summary.................................................................................182
5.8 Main results from Phase I................................................................................184
Chapter 6: Implementation of a professional learning community and effects on
pupils’ academic outcome................................................................................187
6.1 Changes in the professional learning community............................................188
Shared values and vision....................................................................................191
Shared leadership...............................................................................................193
Mutual support...................................................................................................194
Collaborative learning........................................................................................195
Organisational arrangement and habits of work................................................196
Social climate and satisfaction with the work....................................................198
Summary............................................................................................................199
6.2 Administrators’ learning (the process of leading implementation).................200
Summary............................................................................................................203
6.3 Discussions in teams........................................................................................203
Summary............................................................................................................205
6.4 Teachers’ attitudes towards their pupils as learners........................................205
Summary............................................................................................................209
6.5 Changes in classroom practice.........................................................................209
Summary............................................................................................................210
6.6 Level of effectiveness......................................................................................211
Summary............................................................................................................213
6.7 Main results from Phase II...............................................................................214
Chapter 7: Discussion..............................................................................................216
Chapter 8: Conclusions and Implications.............................................................237
List of references......................................................................................................243
Appendix I: Checklist for pilot observation..........................................................253
Checklist for one day school visits in December 2001 and in January 2002....253
Appendix II: The questionnaire (An Icelandic version and translated into
English)..............................................................................................................254
Professional Learning Community....................................................................262
Appendix III: Worksheets 1 and 2, used in team work in the intervention school
............................................................................................................................267
Appendix IV: Data from the interviews and the observations, categorised and
coded..................................................................................................................270
Appendix V: Overview of the outcome in all 19 schools over five years period of
time.....................................................................................................................272
Appendix VI: Scoring key for the questionnaire..................................................274

Figures
Figure 1 The educational system in Iceland................................................................17
Figure 2 Organisation chart for the school system in Reykjavik.................................23
Figure 3 Steps taken to develop the schools in Reykjavik 1996 – 2004......................26
Figure 4 The continuous cycle of learning within a professional community around
inquiry and reflection on students’ learning.........................................................49
Figure 5 Results of structural equation modelling for effects of teacher involvement
on pupil achievement............................................................................................66
Figure 6 CBAM model................................................................................................74
Figure 7 The design of the study..................................................................................85
Figure 8 Mixed methods design...................................................................................86
Figure 9 Combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches on different levels of
the study................................................................................................................87
Figure 10 A description of the quasi- experimental design of Phase II.......................89
Figure 11 Procedure for choosing sample...................................................................95
Figure 12 Distribution of the mean scores for all variables.......................................128
Figure 13 Mean scores and confidence interval for all variables in school A and
school B..............................................................................................................139
Figure 14 Mean scores for all variables in school A, B and in school C, before the
intervention and after..........................................................................................190
Figure 15 Std. Residual for Mathematics in the researched schools over five periods
of time.................................................................................................................212
Figure 16 Std. Residual for Icelandic in the researched schools for five periods of time
............................................................................................................................213
Figure 17 Professional learning community and its effects on student outcomes.....238
Tables
Table 1 Residual, predicted and real score on national tests in Icelandic and
Mathematics in grade 10. 1999 – 2001.................................................................96
Table 2 Some background information about the three schools and Reykjavik..........99
Table 3 Methods for data collection in each phase and applicable time....................102
Table 4 An overview of observation in school A: settings, time span and number of
people..................................................................................................................102
Table 5 An overview of observation in school B: settings, time span and number of
people..................................................................................................................103
Table 6 Interviews in schools A and B: interviewee, length of time and number of
people interviewed..............................................................................................105
Table 7 Categories of a professional learning community and items in the
questionnaire.......................................................................................................108
Table 8 Number of respondents in school A and school B and ratio of the population
............................................................................................................................110
Table 9 Position within the school.............................................................................110
Table 10 Respondents’ teaching experience in school A and school B....................110
Table 11 Age group of the children...........................................................................111
Table 12 Meetings during and after the intervention period......................................116
Table 13 Teams 2002/2003 in school C: topic, number of people and available data
............................................................................................................................118
Table 14 Teams 2003/2004: topics, number of participants and available data........118
Table 15 Number of respondents in school C, before and after the intervention, and
ratio of the population.........................................................................................120
Table 16 Respondents’ position within the school....................................................121
Table 17 Respondent’s teaching experience in school C, before and after the
intervention.........................................................................................................121
Table 18 Age group of the children...........................................................................122
Table 19 Advantages and limitations of each method used for data collection.........124
Table 20 Variables in Phase I and relevant sources of data.......................................126
Table 21 Variables in Phase II and relevant sources of data.....................................126
Table 22 Distribution of the responses in all three schools.......................................127
Table 23 Reliability of the total score........................................................................128
Table 24 Descriptive statistics and Cronbach alpha coefficient................................129
Table 25 Correlation matrix of professional learning community variables.............129
Table 26 Topics in the discussion in six collaborative groups and time spent on each
of them................................................................................................................130
Table 27 Comparison of the mean scores in school A and school B.........................138
Table 28 Beta coefficient for all variables.................................................................139
Table 29 Shared values and vision: mean scores and standard deviation for each item
by school.............................................................................................................140
Table 30 Expectation of pupils’ academic achievement: mean scores and standard
deviation for all items by school.........................................................................147
Table 31 Shared values and vision: comparison of mean scores in school A and school
B..........................................................................................................................148
Table 32 Shared leadership: mean scores and standard deviation for each item by
school..................................................................................................................149
Table 33 Shared leadership: comparison of mean scores in school A and school B.153
Table 34 Teachers’ perception of support from administrators: mean scores and
standard deviation for all items by school..........................................................155
Table 35 Teachers’ perception of support from colleagues: mean scores and standard
deviation for all items by school.........................................................................156
Table 36 Mutual support: comparison of mean scores in school A and school B.....161
Table 37 Teachers’ perceptions of collaborative learning: mean scores and standard
deviation for all items by school.........................................................................162
Table 38 Collaborative learning: comparison of mean scores in school A and school B
............................................................................................................................169
Table 39 Organisational arrangement: mean scores and standard deviation for all
items by school...................................................................................................170
Table 40 Habits of work support collaboration: mean scores and standard deviation
for all items by school.........................................................................................173
Table 41 Organisational arrangement and habits of work that support collaboration:
comparison of mean scores in school A and school B.......................................174
Table 42 Social climate in schools A and B: mean scores and standard deviation for
all items, by school.............................................................................................175
Table 43 Satisfaction and commitment to the job in school A and B: mean scores and
standard deviation for all items by school..........................................................177
Table 44 Social climate for collaboration and satisfaction in the job: comparison of
mean scores in school A and school B...............................................................178
Table 45 Mean scores and standard deviation for each variable before and after the
intervention period..............................................................................................189
Table 46 Mean scores for shared values and vision in school C, before and after the
intervention.........................................................................................................191
Table 47 Mean scores for shared leadership in school C, before and after the
intervention period..............................................................................................193
Table 48 scores for mutual support in school C, before and after the intervention
period..................................................................................................................194
Table 49 Mean scores for collaborative learning in school C, before and after the
intervention period..............................................................................................195
Table 50 Mean scores on all items of organisational arrangement in school C, before
and after the intervention period.........................................................................197
Table 51 Mean scores on all items that measured habits of work in school C, before
and after the intervention....................................................................................197
Table 52 Mean scores and standard deviation for social climate in school C, before
and after the intervention....................................................................................198
Table 53 Mean scores and standard deviation for satisfaction with the job in school C,
before and after the intervention period..............................................................199
Table 54 Number of items by category, mentioned in teachers’ profiles of a ‘good’
and ‘bad’ pupil, before and after the intervention period...................................206
Table 55 Teachers’ responses on changes in classroom practice during the
intervention period..............................................................................................209
Table 56 Std. Residual in school C in Icelandic and Mathematics in grade 10 for five
periods of time....................................................................................................211
Chapter 1: Introduction
Improving schools towards greater effectiveness in terms of pupils’ learning is a
complex task, influenced by different contextual and cultural factors, many of which
are extremely difficult to control and even to understand. Many questions remain
unanswered about effective ways of improving schools, and educationalists all over
the world are dealing with this task with varying degrees of success. Together with
my colleagues I have been searching for a long time for more effective ways of
improving the district’s schools. I realised that focusing on the methods of teaching or
the structure of the school is not enough; many cultural factors including ways of
communication and values are equally important. Therefore, having decided to
undertake this study, I started my search in the literature on school culture and the
concept of a professional learning community. This opened the doors for a deeper
understanding of school improvement.
The professional learning community is now a crucial concept in many current
studies of school improvement as a way of building up a school’s capacity for
development. It is assumed that there is a professional learning community within a
school, when all the people holding professional status are engaged in a continuous
cycle of learning based on inquiry and reflection into daily practice. There are several
factors, in my opinion, that make this theory fascinating and promising for school
improvement. Firstly, it is not necessarily something new; rather it represents different
contexts of known factors that are grounded on solid evidence and knowledge from
different academic fields. Secondly, it manages to capture the complexity of school
life by involving both cultural and structural aspects. Thirdly, the inevitable focus on
pupils’ learning will ensure a distinction between changes in teaching methods and
real improvements that also involve improvements in pupils’ outcomes.
It is the third point mentioned above that makes it essential to measure the effects
on pupils’ outcomes: school development is of no use if it does not benefit the pupils
in some way. Far too often no attempt is made to measure the effects of different
school improvement projects. There are several reasons for this, many of which can
easily be justified. What counts as a desirable outcome is controversial and it is
therefore difficult to come up with measurable definitions on which people agree.
Furthermore, in a complex school life it is difficult to decide exactly what makes the
difference, if any. School improvement is conducted in a real world where it is not
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possible or ethically desirable to control all variables other than the intervention itself,
which might influence the outcome for better or worse. In spite of these limitations, it
is the relationship between the professional learning community and the schools’ level
of effectiveness, which is investigated in this study. The level of effectiveness is
defined as the difference between real outcomes on national tests in grade 10 and
predicted outcomes in relation to parents’ level of education and outcomes in grade 4.
The main purpose of the study is to gain understanding of successful school
development and as such investigate the relationship of the professional learning
community and the school’s level of effectiveness. It is a mixed model design,
meaning that qualitative and quantitative approaches are mixed at all levels: in the
theoretical approach, the data collection and data analysis. It is based on my belief
that the reality is constructed in interaction between the living world and the
environment. The school is a small community, influenced and created by people’s
values and actions, outside and inside this community. Approaching this community
by only using a scientific or interpretative perspective is too narrow in order to get a
valid picture useful for practice. The researchers’ role is to find the balance between
complexity and simplicity: to find understandable patterns in complex relations.
The study is conducted in two phases. The first phase is a correlation study into
the professional community in two outlier schools of different levels of effectiveness.
To collect the data, all professional staff respond to an attitude scale questionnaire
survey, collaborative preparation is observed, and the administrators and a group of
teachers are interviewed. The second phase is an experimental study in the third
school to test if the implementation of a professional learning community will
improve the school’s level of effectiveness. On the basis of what is learned in the first
phase, an effort is made to improve learning among the professional staff over two
academic years. Data are collected before and after the intervention by questionnaire
survey, and collaboration between teachers is observed.
The relationship between the professional learning community and the level of the
school’s effectiveness is investigated in both phases from different perspectives. In
addition, the findings from the second phase should provide practical information on
how to improve the professional learning community.
The study is conducted in three schools in Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland,
with a population of 114.000. It concerns the “basic” school level for 6 – 16 year old
children. Most schools include all ten grades. In Reykjavik there are about 15,500
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