Empowering teachers for transformative practice - An examination of the impact of Design-Based Professional Development on high school teachers' instruction of Critical Thinking

Abstract

Research has identified critical thinking to be important for student learning and achievement but there appears to be inconsistent theoretical understanding and pedagogical approaches to its development within teacher practice. Even with a perceived value of critical thinking embedded in the minds of educators and its prominence among the objectives of school curriculums across sectors and countries, there is a gap in the research that specifically focuses on its relationship to teachers’ secondary curriculum instruction. This is due, in part, that while secondary teachers are often familiar with the broad terminology and generalist taxonomies surrounding the theory of critical thinking, they often lack clear pedagogical models that would enable them to contextualise critical thinking within their curriculum practice. Additionally, support for teachers in developing their understanding of best-practice when it comes to critical thinking is limited due to common teacher professional development models having been removed from teachers’ professional practice. To address these limitations, the purpose of this research project was to further the understanding of the relationship between secondary teachers’ beliefs and practices relating to critical thinking, and how this might be impacted through sustained and contextualised design-based professional development. To achieve this, a year-long investigation into the ways in which 28 teachers across the subject areas of English, science and social science perceived and developed critical thinking as part of their instructional practice, across five secondary schools, was conducted. To support this, a critical thinking thematic framework was developed and employed for recognising and eliciting critical thinking. Furthermore, through the implementation of a design-based professional development model, an attempt to support or shift teachers’ views and practices of critical thinking was undertaken. Through this investigation, the research intervention offers significant insight to the following questions: RQ1. In what ways do teachers deliver critical thinking instruction in their secondary school subject? RQ2. To what degree are teacher perceptions about their teaching of critical thinking in secondary schools congruent with their observed practice? RQ3. To what extent do teacher perceptions and practices related to their teaching of critical thinking in secondary schools shift following an intervention through professional development? Outcomes of the year-long design-based professional development cycle with English, science and Social Studies secondary teachers revealed that teachers’ perceptions of critical thinking do not always match their practices, and that critical thinking occurs across an imbalanced range of thematic lenses and instructional approaches, representing a sum distributional total of 41% of coded practice. Furthermore, through exposure to a design-based model, through a community of inquiry and evidence of practice, teachers can be supported to make shifts in both their beliefs and practices. Specifically, findings revealed that the intervention was able to support teachers make shifts in their practices, based on critical themes and instructional approaches, in a manner that positively influenced the frequency and range of critical themes elicited as part of their secondary curriculum practice, with critical thematic instruction increasing by +21% to 62% of all coded instruction. Secondly, the design-based professional development, supported through a community of learning and teaching inquiry, was successful in building teachers’ confidence in both broadening understanding, and articulating their beliefs and values associated with critical thinking, leading them to be more likely to enact beliefs in practice.