Teachers’ Learning in a Research and Development Work Project

Source: Educational Action Research, Volume 19, Issue 2, 2011, pages 231-244.

This paper focuses on teachers’ learning in a research and development (R&D) work project.

The purpose of this article is to show what teachers can learn and how they can learn during such a project.

Data were mainly collected through observations, reflection dialogues and log‐book entries.
The findings reveal that teachers want to reflect together to learn, but both the form and content of these collective reflections have a major impact on their learning.
Before the teachers are ready to challenge each other, they have to have confidence in each other.
Once they have this confidence, the form of the reflection dialogues can change.

During the R&D work the teachers learn how reflections become part of the planning process for their next teaching sessions.
Furthermore, after a while theories become a tool that can help them with their reflections.