A case for the impact of practice: The Teacher as Practitioner (TAP) report 2018
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Julia Morris: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4481-8050
Abstract
The Teacher as Practitioner (TAP) project is unique in combining a longitudinal approach (now into its eighth year) and a quasi-experimental design (its intervention being participation in a themed annually curated group exhibition/exposition) in providing empirical grounds for claims about the role and place of ‘practice’ in becoming practitioner in early career teaching, supporting quality of teaching as practitioner and improved teacher retention. Notwithstanding that few studies to date have gathered evidence over a comparable time scale, and teacher retention research has a dearth of intervention studies, the research presented here is also a much needed contribution to studies that attend to practice as a central concern for education across all disciplines. TAP is building evidence that small but well-designed practice-based interventions can have a positive impact on perceptions of quality of teaching, and that developing a practitioner ‘identity’ has an impact on expectations of retention. One implication of this is the realisation that learning communities and schools can retain effective and engaged teachers for longer through continued professional learning strategies. A more important implication concerns quality of teaching as evidence is emerging to support the claim that even small amounts of ‘practitioner activity’ can increase the quality of teaching in our classrooms. This article reports a number of key findings concerning practice. Firstly, a ‘practitioner’ identity seems to affect the amount of practice they do and to a larger extent their quality of teaching. Identity also has an impact on teachers’ perceptions of retention in the profession: with a particularly significant relationship between identity and retention for those who identified as practitioners who teach. We define a practitioner who teaches as one who is engaged in activities related to professional practice, or a teacher who practices in their field or across disciplinary domains as a teacher practitioner. Whilst identity was the key driver in perceptions of retention, neither early career teacher status nor length of career (in years) had a statistical impact on retention. Moreover, the TAP intervention itself appears to be having a positive impact on participants’ practice. For the whole sample, TAP participants generally practice more than the control group. This practice, in turn, seems to have a small, but significant effect on these individuals’ perceptions of teaching quality. While there is no direct relationship between participation in TAP and increased retention, observable trends shows that TAP participants are generally more inclined to stay in teaching once they have moved beyond the early career stage of their teaching.
Non-Traditional Research Output
Report for External Body
Document Type
Report
Date of Publication
2018
Publication Title
Community: Becoming with: Research catalogue of the seventh annual Teacher As Practitioner
Publisher
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne
School
School of Education
RAS ID
28918
Additional Information
metadata only record
Comments
Morris, J., Coleman, K., Toscano, M., & Imms, W. (2018). A case for the impact of practice: The Teacher as Practitioner (TAP) report 2018. In Community: Becoming with: Research catalogue of the seventh annual Teacher As Practitioner. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.