Blended professional development for literacy and numeracy teachers: An initial evaluation of the Learning Connections project

The paper presents the major findings and recommendations from a formative evaluation of the first phases of a pilot professional development program, Learning Connections, designed to enhance literacy and numeracy teaching in Ontario elementary schools. The program incorporates design elements that have been found in previous research to be essential to successful professional development. The teachers’ literacy and numeracy professional development needs and the project’s effectiveness in meeting these needs over its first year of operation are analyzed, and a number of recommendations for improving the program’s impact are discussed. In the past decade, literacy and numeracy have been the focus of many reform initiatives in K-12 education—for example, the National Numeracy and Literacy Strategies in England (Earl, Watson, & Torrance, 2002), standards-based reform in the US (Dutro, Fisk, Koch, Roop, & Wixon, 2002), and literacy and numeracy strategies in Ontario (Campbell & Fullan, 2006). Effective professional development programs focusing on implementing the reformed curriculum have been shown to have a critical role in promoting change (Earl et al., 2002). But what makes professional development to support literacy and numeracy reform effective? It should be consistent with state standards and assessments (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001); involve active learning for teachers, bringing a strong theoretical knowledge base alive in teacher practice (Hiebert, Gallimore, & Stigler, 2002); and be embedded in the context of work in schools and classrooms (Campbell & Fullan, 2006; Kinnucan-Welsch, Rosemary, & Grogan, 2006). The continuous and ongoing nature of professional development is another key to its success (Garet et al., 2001). Teacher training programs should promote inquiry, allowing teachers to become reflective practitioners (Kinnucan-Welsch, 2005). Finally, professional development should emphasize collaboration among teachers in order to foster a learning community (Levin & Rock, 2003). Many have emphasized the importance of content in professional development, especially with regards to literacy and numeracy – not only should professional development focus on teaching practices, but it should also give deep content knowledge, and develop teachers as literacy models (Dutro et al., 2002; Hill, 2004). This paper presents the findings and recommendations from a formative evaluation of the first phases of a pilot professional development program, Learning Connections, designed to enhance literacy and numeracy teaching in Ontario schools. The program has been designed to incorporate the attributes outlined above that have been found to be essential to successful professional development—it is standards-based, job-embedded, focused on building a reflective and collaborative learning community, and delivers content knowledge critical for changing practice. Learning Connections Learning Connections (LC) is an ongoing teacher professional development project that blends face-to-face and online components. Its focus is on the improvement of student achievement in literacy and numeracy in grades four to six through job-embedded professional learning. The community participants include lead numeracy and literacy teachers, other teachers, supervisory officers, principals, district literacy and numeracy trainers, and information technology managers from nine schools, one in each of nine school districts (six Anglophone, three Francophone) across the province of Ontario. The intent of Learning Connections is to build capacity within the participating districts and schools to further student literacy/numeracy learning and achievement and to support the participants as they implement the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Foundations program to advance literacy and numeracy (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2004a, 2004b). Learning Connection’s online presence makes use of a Web community portal, broadband networks, and ICT applications to provide activities and resources for professional development and community building. Live videoconferencing and streamed media are used to provide access to literacy and numeracy experts who make presentations and lead discussions on teaching and assessment strategies. The portal is used to deliver professional development activities and assignments in literacy and numeracy that are grounded in classroom practice as well as mentored discussion groups on critical topics and questions in numeracy and literacy education. The web-based portal also provides access to a calendar of upcoming events, ICT tools, and multimedia-based professional development resources such as videos of expert classroom teaching, teaching guides, and LC research summaries. For participants the program began with a three day Summer Institute to familiarize new members with the goals, activities, and technologies of Learning Connections, and to make it possible for participants to establish the personal contacts that are vital to sustaining the online life of a learning community. Over the summer each school was provided with two laptop computers, a powerful desktop computer, webcams and a projector. Some teaching release time was provided for participants working on literacy and numeracy activities. In the fall staff visited each district to meet with participants and resolve technical problems. Three structured activities were posted in the portal in the 2005-06 school year. They were: Reflections on the Literate and Numerate Citizen (in the fall), Focusing on the Student (over the winter) and Continuing the Conversation (in the spring). A book study also ran in the winter term of 05/06. All activities had supporting resource materials and discussion forums for facilitating collaboration. In the second year the community was opened up to all of the Junior Division (grades 4 to 6) teachers in the nine districts. The facilitators developed and posted several new literacy and numeracy activities in the portal. Two participants posted videos they had created. One was on use of the “Learning Carpet” and the other on a fractions unit. A “Library” in the portal provides a repository for reference materials, videos, meeting notes, and other related resources. Live webcasts featuring experts and keynote speakers were presented during the year and captured and placed as streamed video in the portal. Online training sessions are offered on the use of various portal components and software tools the project supports, such as videoconferencing and blogging tools.