The temporal dimension of teacher learning in a video-based professional development program: An ecological perspective

BackgroundAttending and responding to when and where teachers are with respect to change-the temporal aspects of teacher learning-can yield more effective professional development (PD) efforts. Toward this end, we conceptualize phases of learning in a PD program, and how these phases are shaped by teacher learning ecologies.MethodsConceptually, we build on the Adaptive Cycles framework (Gunderson & Holling, 2002) to represent this complexity, and empirically, we build on video-based PD conversations. Using interaction analysis methods, we ground our model by investigating learning in the PD through the phases of the Adaptive Cycles.FindingsWe offer a way of capturing complexity while still enabling analysis. Empirical investigation shows how the teams differed in their starting point, learning experiences, and available resources. We distinguish phases in which video-based reflection was more salient in honing teachers' pedagogical judgments, and phases through which invoking the variety of resources was more significant.ContributionThese findings provide tools for centering temporality and bringing it, in a more substantive way, into consideration in design, facilitation, and analysis of teacher PD, toward enhanced responsiveness of PD providers to the rhythms of teacher learning and the teachers' experiences of this learning.