Abstracts - Earli

emphasised than post-lesson conferences, core issues proposed by the model are more frequentlyraised and mentors adopt a more active role in the classroom while student teachers are teaching.These findings are corroborated by extensive qualitative data (interviews with mentors and studentteachers and videotapes of conferences).Impact of a generic instructional development programme on teaching approach and behaviourAnn Stes, University of Antwerp, BelgiumCoertjens Liesje, University of Antwerp, BelgiumPeter Van Petegem, University of Antwerp, BelgiumThis study focuses on two research questions: (1) Does a generic instructional developmentprogramme have an impact on teaching approach? (2) Do students perceive an alteration inteaching behaviour due to novice faculty training? Data were retrieved from a quasi-experimentalpre-test/post-test-design. The teachers (n=50) filled out a Dutch version of Trigwell and Prosser’s(1996) Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI). Their students (n=2110) completed a translationof Entwistle’s (2005) Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ). In so far asteaching behaviour is concerned, training seems to enhance a ‘conceptual change/student-focusedapproach’. From pre-test to post-test, the experimental group augments significantly more on thisscale than the control group. Nevertheless, students perceive little change in teaching behaviour.Only teaching behaviour related to assessment, and more specifically to clarity and feedback aboutassessment seems – at short term – apt to improvement due to a novice teacher training.Professional learning at multiple levels in a project designed to raise student achievementJudy Parr, University of Auckland, New ZealandHelen Timperley, University of Auckland, New ZealandQuality teaching has a significant influence on a range of student outcomes (Alton-Lee, 2003;Nye, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges, 2004; Rowan, Correnti and Millar, 2002). If teachers are tomaximize their influence in a context where teaching challenges are not static, then they, like theirstudents, need opportunities to deepen their understandings and refine their skills. This paperdiscusses a national school-based (N = 91), job-embedded model of professional development inliteracy that involves expert facilitators working with schools and aims to reduce the extent andnature of disparity in literacy achievement. The project has had a demonstrable effect. Over twoyears, the average added value (compared to expected normative gain) effect size gain in writingachievement was .81. This is sizeable, given that schooling improvement effect size gainsreportedly average less than .2 for a similar time period (Borman, 2005). Features of the project,seen to account for its success, are examined. Centrally, it was designed to be both evidenceinformedand needs-based at all levels and to use evidence to lever change. There was ongoingmonitoring, feedback and adjustment, based on evidence, with efforts to change practiceimplemented with support. There was significant coherence at, and among, all levels of theproject. All levels learnt from evidence, using it to guide their decisions about practices, from theMinistry of Education, to the project lead team, to facilitators, literacy leaders in schools, teachersand students. Learning or identified need at one level informed what happened at another. Weconceptualise this within a formative assessment framework that operates to create the learningwithin activities at all levels within the system. In the paper we illustrate this learning at eachlevel, identifying how learning or needs at one level had implications for other levels of theproject.– 103 –