Reflective Essay On Teacher Learning

This paper is a reflection of our group study on how the change frame of teachers learning impacted the new initiative of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) introduced in a secondary school as part of its “ICT Master-Plan 3” (MP3). This reflection shows that the findings from the interview conducted, in conjunction with literature review, have challenged and changed my assumptions on teachers learning and provided many insights into how teachers learning could be effective in schools. I have learnt that teachers learning as a change frame could not be understood as a simple instrumental and mechanistic tool but as a complex dynamic and organic construct that could not be effective without the necessary conditions and structure, and positive interactions with other change frames.

In retrospect, my ontological assumptions on teachers learning before the group project were mechanistic and instrumentalist. Learning for teachers was a series of occasional group sharing led by departmental heads, senior teachers and level teachers to discuss and operationalize solutions to learning problems so to achieve learning outcome. But it was at best an instrumental effort involving a small group of teachers to attain a visible outcome, a subsidiary function out of necessity and it stopped when objectives were achieved. Hence, my assumptions of teachers learning could be seen as mechanistic; skills and knowledge could be imparted through one-time meetings, changes in practice could be adopted through compliance and almost immediately, and monitoring and intervention could sustain changes. It was a linear process that ignored the time and space necessary for processing, internalizing and reflecting on learning. Nor did it facilitate a deeper deve...

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...icture of departmental heads controlled learning and accessibility of resources, absence of reflective practices, and collaborations sporadic and few.

In sum, my assumptions on teachers learning as a change frame have indeed been revamped quite dramatically after being exposed to the literature review and the interview findings. The theories on educational change and teachers learning acts as lenses that provides insights into how change and teachers learning actually interacted in practice, and how they support each other in a real school setting. Teachers learning could not be effective without paying attention to its construction and the necessary structure and conditions that supports it. And without effective learning for the teachers, it would be difficult for teachers to assume the role of change agents to enact school change, as shown in the interviews.