Articulating teacher thinking to build collectively efficacious practice: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Individual pedagogical knowledge is tacitly understood by teachers with minimal opportunities to discuss, demonstrate and expand upon teaching and learning practices together. Articulating implicit understanding requires an approach that enables teachers to continually dissect, develop and redesign their pedagogy schoolwide. Developing this collectively efficacious culture is the nub of creating and sharing practice together in context. The longitudinal study of one Australian secondary school questioned: How does articulating teacher thinking build collectively efficacious practice across one school context over time? The study explored how to continually develop the confidence and capability of teachers to adopt and adapt practices to enhance student learning. The teacher professional learning captured data from analysis on observations of learning and two online surveys. The data showed increased adoption over time in the shared use of the pedagogical language, thinking routines and resources. A notable outcome was harnessing individual thinking on learning to improve teacher collective efficacious practice across the school. This paper supports the ongoing articulation of teacher thinking–individually and collectively–in changing practice and offers a pedagogical approach that could be utilised across similar schoolwide contexts.