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What Does It Take To Teach Teachers? A Mixed-Methods Investigation Of District-Based Teacher Educators' Knowledge And Practices

Date: 
Tuesday, January 31, 2023 - 9:00am to 10:15am
Quarter: 
Winter 2023
Location: 
Lemann Center Conference Room

What Does It Take To Teach Teachers? A Mixed-Methods Investigation Of District-Based Teacher Educators' Knowledge And Practices

The offering of professional learning experiences (PLEs) for teachers to support and strengthen teaching quality is a widely adopted educational policy across different countries (Davis et al., 2011; Garet et al., 2001; Loyalka et al., 2019, Popova et al., 2018). However, even programs that are designed to incorporate features associated with effective teacher learning might no yield to change in teachers practices and student learning. Among several aspects that differentiate effective programs from those with few or no results, one seems to be a constant: the facilitator's profile. More specifically, the experience and knowledge of facilitators seem to matter. To advance the knowledge about preparing and supporting proficient facilitators, the first step is to investigate what they know and what they already do in their workshops with teachers.

In this seminar, Barbara will present the results of her doctoral dissertation, focusing on the investigation of the knowledge and practices facilitators in two large Brazilian departments of education have and how they use this knowledge and enact those practices to teach teachers. She used a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative data from a survey (N=285) and qualitative data from an interview with a simulated task (N=15). The results of this investigation show that facilitators working in these two departments of education, on average, do not demonstrate specialized facilitation knowledge. They draw heavily on their classroom experiences and knowledge developed as teachers.


About Barbara Born

Barbara Born holds a PhD in the International and Comparative Education and Curriculum and Teacher Education programs from Stanford University (2017/2022). She holds a Master's degree in International and Comparative Education from Stanford University (2016/2017) and a Master's degree in Education from University of São Paulo (USP - Brazil) (2012/2015), and a BA degree in History from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP - Brazil). Her research focuses mainly on pre-service and in-service teacher education, with a focus on curriculum and assessment. During almost ten years, Barbara worked as a teacher in private and public schools in São Paulo. She also worked for the Department of Education in São Paulo City as a teacher educator for two years, where she became interested in issues related to teacher education. She has experience with educational assessment, and worked in content development in this area at Empresa Brasileira de Avaliações Educacionais. Barbara worked in content development and the training of faculty for the program PED Brasil. In this program, she developed content in Curriculum Design and Assessment of, for, and as learning. Currently, she is the Director of Graduate Studies, Professional Development and Research at Instituto Singularidades.