Il titolo è certamente provocatorio e ad effetto ma, detta brutalmente, pare sia proprio così a leggere la pregevole sintesi che ne fa il più che autorevole (per me) Norberto Bottani.
In buona sostanza, Bottani, racconta che dal rapporto TAILS 2013 emerge uno scenario fatto di dilettantismo didattico (conclusione tratta esaminando uno dei temi del rapporto);
E’pressoché impossibile criticare gli insegnanti. Orbene, tutti sanno che le pratiche pedagogiche della stragrande maggioranza degli insegnanti sono infarcite di illusioni, di dilettantismo, di speranze, di entusiasmi ma di poco professionalismo. Questo è appunto il problema maggiore. Molti bravi insegnanti credono e sono fermamente convinti che essere bravi, di svolgere lezioni fantastiche, di essere alla « page » ed invece non lo sono affatto.
In un bollettino recente della serie »L’enseignement à la loupe» l’OCSE smentisce i discorsi ufficiali che proteggono il corpo insegnante e fornisce una convincente documentazione sul baratro esistente tra convinzioni e pratiche pedagogiche. Si crede e si pensa in un modo ma si agisce in un altro.
Dalla ricerca TALIS (non è questo l’unico tema affrontato; in coda ho ricopiato gli Highlits delle sezioni dove non è evidenziato, credo per ragioni “politiche”, questo tema) emerge la discrepanza tra ciò che di dichara di fare e ciò che si fa realmente, e la situazione, purtroppo, è quella evidenziata da Bottani
Si crede nel costruttivismo ma non lo si pratica
Come vedo io la questione?
Colpe (se così si possono chiamare) ci sono ma non è giusto buttare la croce sulle spalle degli insegnanti come se fossero i soli responsabili della didattica che si fa a scuola.
- Di certo prevale un desiderio di didattica che, semplificando, potremo chiamate “costruttivista” (in TALIS è evidenziato che didattiche di questo tipo danno all’insegnante un senso particolare di efficacia didattica, di benessere per lo studente e una sensazione di un apprendimento migliore);
- Di certo è evidente, come dato medio che non dà ragione dell’intera gamma di situazioni differenti, che questo tipo di didattica è più desiderato che agito;
- E’ ancor più evidente che a scuola non esistono le condizioni organizzative, logistiche e di risorse per fare una didattica “costruttivista” (per chi la vuol fare, mica è un obbligo!)
La realtà didattica è, dal mio punto di osservazione di formatore, ambivalente:
- Le basi pedagogiche e didattiche formalizzate degli insegnanti sono, nella media, limitate e, fatto grave, è presente una debole comprensione del processo chiave della didattica: l’apprendimento;
- Spesso i riferimenti concettuali della professione sono impliciti e a volte anche ingenui ( non di rado vedo fare da insegnanti che si considerano “evoluti” dei pistolotti didattici zeppi di errori concettuali o di estrema approssimazione);
- Non è diffusa una buona consapevolezza didattica: si fa senza sapere perché si fa (anche quando si fa bene);
- Non si insegna seguendo o applicando le teorie (le teorie si usano: nulla è più pratico di una buona teoria, Kurt Lewin): tanti insegnati sono efficaci anche senza aver mai studiato pedagogia e didattica, senza sapere i nomi dei numi tutelari della professione e senza saper denominare le strategie didattiche che usano. Questi insegnanti hanno un considerevole bagaglio di sapere pratico funzionano più per “teorie estratte” (dalle pratiche) che per “teorie astratte” (quelle dei libri);
- Gli insegnanti migliori sono quelli che sanno riflettere sulla propria azione e la migliorano alla luce di quanto si rendono conto; i peggiori sono quelli che danno per scontata l’efficacia della propria didattica, non la mettono in discussione oppure fanno come si è sempre fatto
Una conclusione: perché è tanto difficile cambiare le proprie didattiche? Le ragioni sono anche di tipo psicologico (la resistenza al cambiamento, la difficoltà ad abbandonare un ruolo che vede un sostanziale potere dell’insegnante) e di percezione di ruolo (quale è lo scopo della scuola e il ruolo dell’insegnante), ma quelle che hanno un’incidenza significativa sono queste e ci rimandano un setting didattico complesso:
- il nuovo ruolo che deve essere assunto dall’insegnante e il superamento della sua centralità,
- i superiori carichi di lavoro per l’insegnante per preparare i contesti dove gli studenti possono fare esperienze autentiche di apprendimento;
- le modalità di lavoro degli studenti che necessitano anche un consistente supporto da parte dell’insegnante;
- l’organizzazione degli orari della didattica per unità di medio – lunga durata;
- la disponibilità di risorse didattiche all’interno e all’esterno della scuola;
- la rilevanza dei libri di testo che ancora guidano la programmazione e la realizzazione della didattica;
- le modalità di valutazione che si devono posizionare sulle prestazioni degli studenti più che sul richiamo di informazioni.
Scusate se è poco!
IL CONTRIBUTO DI BOTTANI
http://www.oxydiane.net/politiche-scolastiche-politiques/insegnanti-enseignants/article/le-convinzioni-pedagogiche-degi
LINK A TALIS
http://www.istruzione.it/allegati/2014/OCSE_TALIS_Rapporto_Internazionale_EN.pdf
http://www.istruzione.it/allegati/2014/TALIS_Rapporto_Commissione_Europea_EN.pdf
http://www.istruzione.it/allegati/2014/TALIS_Guida_lettura_con_Focus_ITALIA.pdf
http://www.istruzione.it/allegati/2014/TALIS_Nota_Paese_def_ITALIA.pdf
http://www.istruzione.it/allegati/2014/TALIS_Rapporto_Commissione_Europea_EN.pdf
http://hubmiur.pubblica.istruzione.it/web/istruzione/talis
http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/talis.htm
Executive Summary
Our view of teachers is coloured by our own experience as students.
This firsthand – and often dated – knowledge is augmented by the portrayal of teachers and their working conditions in the media. Thus, in many countries, the traditional view of teaching is one in which teachers work alone in classrooms, behind closed doors, often with larger numbers of students than they can realistically handle. In some countries, teaching is seen as a job without real career prospects that young people enter if they cannot get into a better one.
The fact that pay tends to be lower than that of other college graduates is compensated for by the fact that teachers often enjoy more holiday time and are seen as working fewer hours than their colleagues in other fields.
The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) asks teachers and school leaders about the conditions that contribute to the learning environments in their schools. In so doing, it also verifies – and dispels – many of the myths that exist about teachers today. For example, when teachers are asked about class size and whether it has any detrimental effects on their job satisfaction or feelings of effectiveness as a teacher, their responses reveal that it is not the number of students in a class but the type of students (such as students with behavioural issues) that has the strongest association with the teacher’s job satisfaction and feelings of self-efficacy.
TALIS data also indicate that most teachers are still teaching largely in isolation, as over half of teachers report very rarely or never team-teaching with colleagues, and two-thirds report the same rates for observing their colleagues teach. Some 46% of teachers report never receiving feedback on their teaching from their school leader, and 51% have never received feedback from other members of the school management. Only slightly more than a third of teachers in TALIS countries report that the feedback they receive on their teaching leads to a moderate or large positive change in the likelihood of career advancement. Similarly, less than a third of teachers believe that if a teacher is consistently underperforming, he or she would be dismissed. Teachers also report that they work an average of 38 hours per week across countries, which could be considered an average work week for many fields. On average, half of teachers’ time is spent teaching and half is spent on all of the other daily tasks that are required of teachers.
Teachers and their Schools
Highlights
• Teachers who benefited from formal education that included content, pedagogy and practical components for the subjects they teach feel better prepared for their work than their colleagues whose formal education did not contain these elements.
• More than half of lower secondary teachers in all TALIS countries and economies except Japan are women, and in 22 countries two-thirds or more of teachers are women. Furthermore, several countries may face the prospect of significant teacher shortages as a result of large numbers of teachers reaching retirement age.
• More than a third of teachers work in schools where the school principal reported a significant shortage of qualified teachers. Additionally, almost half of teachers work in schools where there is a reported need for teachers of students with special needs and a need for support personnel.
• Across most TALIS countries and economies, the majority of teachers work in environments with a positive professional climate among the teaching staff. This positive climate is characterised by a common set of beliefs, mutual respect for colleagues’ ideas, a culture of sharing success, high levels of co-operation between the school and the local community and the ability to have open discussions about difficulties.
• Most teachers work in schools in which there is little to no authority at the school level for making decisions related to teacher pay. In almost all countries, however, a large proportion of teachers work in schools that enjoy a high level of autonomy for establishing student disciplinary procedures or selecting the learning materials used.
The Importance of School Leadership
Highlights
• Principals in countries and economies taking part in the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) have a demanding and far-ranging set of responsibilities. On average, principals spend the most time (41%) managing human and material resources, planning, reporting and adhering to regulations.
• In some countries, principals who show high levels of instructional leadership are more likely to report using student performance and student evaluation results to develop the school’s educational goals and programmes and to report working on a professional development plan for their school.
• Principals with higher levels of instructional leadership tend to spend more time on curriculum and teachingrelated tasks, and in most countries they are more likely to directly observe classroom teaching as part of the formal appraisal of teachers’ work in their school.
• The gender distribution of principals differs from the distribution of teachers. Although the majority of teachers in all but one country are women, the proportion of female principals is generally lower. • Across TALIS countries and economies, principals are well educated. The majority of principals have completed formal education at the tertiary level, which, on average, included participation in school administration or principal training programmes, teacher preparation programmes or instructional leadership training.
• On average across TALIS countries and economies, school principals have 21 years of teaching experience.
• While principals who report high levels of distributed leadership and instructional leadership also report higher job satisfaction, heavier workloads and lack of shared work and decision making have a negative relationship with principals’ job satisfaction.
Developing and Supporting Teachers
Highlights
• In the participating countries and economies, an average of 88% of teachers in lower secondary education report engaging in professional development in the past year. Slightly lower participation rates are found among males and especially among non-permanent teachers. Having taken part in formal induction programmes in the past appears to be an important predictor of teachers’ participation in professional development in later years.
• Although school principals report that induction programmes are currently available at their schools, on average, not even half of teachers report taking part in some induction practice in their first regular employment.
• The level and intensity of participation in professional development activities are influenced by the types of support that teachers receive to undertake them. In general, teachers report higher participation rates in professional development activities in countries where they also report higher levels of financial support. However, in some cases participation rates in professional development activities is high even though monetary support is not offered. In these cases, non-monetary support for teacher development is provided through scheduled time for activities that take place during regular working hours at the school.
• Teachers report that the areas of most critical need for professional development are in teaching students with special needs and developing information and communication technology (ICT) skills for teaching. One in five lower secondary teachers identified the former to be especially important for them, which implies that teachers do not feel fully prepared to cope with this challenge.
• Across the participating countries and economies, teachers’ most commonly reported reasons for not participating in professional development activities are conflicts with work schedules and the absence of incentives for participation.
Improving Teaching Using Appraisal and Feedback
Highlights
• Teachers receive feedback from multiple sources. On average across countries and economies participating in the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), nearly 80% of teachers report getting feedback following classroom observation, and nearly two-thirds report receiving feedback following analysis of student test scores. These are encouraging reports given that classroom observation and data-based feedback and decision making have been shown to be important levers for improving teaching.
• Teachers report that the feedback they receive in their schools focuses on several aspects of their teaching. Nearly nine in ten teachers on average report that student performance, teachers’ pedagogical competency in their subject field and classroom management are strongly emphasised in the feedback they receive. Feedback from students and parents is somewhat less frequently reported to be considered with moderate or high importance.
• Teachers feel that the appraisals they receive lead to positive changes in their work. More than six in ten teachers report that appraisals lead to positive changes in their teaching practices, and more than half report that appraisals lead to positive changes in both their use of student assessments and their classroom-management practices.
• The formal appraisal of teachers has little to do with giving financial recognition to high-performing teachers or advancing the careers of high performers over low performers. Annual increments in teacher pay are awarded regardless of the outcome of the formal teacher appraisal in all but about one-fifth of teachers’ schools. Moreover, 44% of teachers work in schools where the school principal reports that formal teacher appraisal never results in a change in a teacher’s likelihood of career advancement.
• Formal teacher appraisal does appear to have a developmental focus in most schools where teachers work. More than eight in ten teachers work in schools where formal appraisals at least sometimes lead to teacher development or training plans.
• While most teachers receive various forms of feedback (many of which are connected to classroom teaching), comprehensive systems of teacher appraisal and feedback that are effectively connected to improving teaching practices and student learning in schools are much less common. Indeed, on average across TALIS countries, nearly half of teachers report that teacher appraisal and feedback systems in their school are largely undertaken simply to fulfil administrative requirements.
Examining Teacher Practices and Classroom Environment (p. 152)
Highlights
• Teachers who report participation in professional development activities involving individual and collaborative research, observation visits to other schools or a network of teachers are more likely to report using teaching practices that involve small groups, projects requiring more than a week for students to complete and information and computer technology (ICT).
• Roughly two-thirds of teachers report a positive classroom climate, which corresponds to a greater likelihood of using teaching practices involving small groups, projects requiring more than a week and ICT. Thus, the majority of teachers perceive that they experience a good learning environment in which to engage students in learning.
• Regarding student assessment practices, teachers generally report frequent observation of student work accompanied by immediate feedback and development and administration of their own assessments. However, wide variations across countries were reported on these and other assessment practices.
• Teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning are mostly a function of differences in the teachers themselves. School environment variables are not a major factor in explaining teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning.
• Overall, teachers spend about 80% of their time on actual teaching and learning. However, approximately one in four teachers in more than half of the participating countries report losing at least 30% of their time to classroom disruptions and administrative tasks. These findings indicate that teachers in several countries could benefit from help with respect to managing classroom disruptions.
Teacher Self-Efficacy and Job Satisfaction: Why They Matter
Highlights
• Less than a third of all teachers across TALIS countries believe that teaching is a valued profession in society. In all but one TALIS country, the extent to which teachers can participate in decision making has a strong positive association with the likelihood of reporting teaching is valued profession in society.
• Furthermore, teachers who report that they are provided with opportunities to participate in decision making at a school level have higher reported levels of job satisfaction in all TALIS countries and higher feelings of self-efficacy in most countries. The relationship between job satisfaction and teacher participation in school decision making is particularly strong for all countries.
• With more teaching experience comes higher levels of self-efficacy, but in some cases lower levels of job satisfaction. Teachers with more than five years of work experience report higher levels of self-efficacy than their less-experienced colleagues in 26 countries but lower levels of job satisfaction in 12 TALIS countries.
• Challenging classroom circumstances can affect teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction. In particular, an increase in the percentage of students with behavioural problems is associated with a strong decrease in teachers’ reported levels of job satisfaction in almost all countries.
• Teachers’ perception that appraisal and feedback lead to changes in their teaching practice is related to higher job satisfaction in nearly all countries, whereas the perception that appraisal and feedback is performed merely for administrative purposes relates to lower levels of job satisfaction in all TALIS countries.
• The relationships that teachers develop with their school leader, other teachers or with students in their schools are valuable. Positive interpersonal relationships can negate the otherwise detrimental effects that challenging classrooms of students might have on a teacher’s job satisfaction or feelings of self-efficacy. Relationships between teachers and students have an exceptionally powerful relation with teachers’ job satisfaction.
• Collaboration among teachers, whether through professional learning or collaborative practices, is also influential. Collaborative practices are related to both higher levels of self-efficacy and job satisfaction. In particular, teachers who report participating in collaborative professional learning five times a year or more also report significantly enhanced levels of self-efficacy in almost all countries and higher job satisfaction in two-thirds of the countries
