Education Rigorous Literature Review Pedagogy, Curriculum, Teaching Practices and Teacher Education in Developing Countries Dr Jo Westbrook Dr Naureen Durrani Rhona Brown Dr David Orr Dr John Pryor Dr Janet Boddy Francesca Salvi December 2013 This material has been funded by the Department for International Development. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department for International Development. The authors are part of the Centre for International Education, University of Sussex. The EPPI-Centre reference number for this report is 2110. Westbrook J, Durrani N, Brown R, Orr D, Pryor J, Boddy J, Salvi F (2013) Pedagogy, Curriculum, Teaching Practices and Teacher Education in Developing Countries. Final Report. Education Rigorous Literature Review. EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. 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Contents Abbreviations ........................................................................................... iii Executive summary...................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 5 1.1 Aims and rationale .............................................................................. 5 1.2 Policy background ............................................................................... 5 1.3 Conceptual framework and terminology ..................................................... 6 1.4 Theories of learning ............................................................................ 9 1.5 Curriculum ...................................................................................... 12 1.6 Teacher education ............................................................................. 14 1.7 Conceptual framework ........................................................................ 15 1.8 Research questions ............................................................................ 16 2. Methodology for the review .......................................................................18 2.1 Overview of methodology ..................................................................... 18 2.2 Searching ........................................................................................ 19 3. Thematic overview: What pedagogical practices are being used by teachers in formal and informal classrooms in developing countries? .................................................20 3.1 Overview and aims ............................................................................. 20 3.2 Pedagogy ........................................................................................ 21 3.3 Curriculum ...................................................................................... 27 3.4 Teacher education ............................................................................. 29 3.5 Summary of the thematic overview ......................................................... 31 4. What is the evidence on the effectiveness of pedagogical practices, in what conditions, and with what population of learners? ..............................................................33 4.1 Methodology for the in depth stage: quality assessment of included studies ......... 33 4.2 What is the evidence on the effectiveness of pedagogical practices, in what conditions, and with what population of learners? ............................................ 37 4.3 How can teacher education (curriculum and practicum) and the school curriculum and guidance materials best support effective pedagogy? ................................... 40 4.4 Theory of change ............................................................................... 41 4.5 Strength and nature of the body of evidence for effective pedagogical practices ... 44 4.6 Positive outcomes identified by studies .................................................... 49 4.7 Pedagogic theory and pedagogical approaches ............................................ 50 4.8 Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs .............................................................. 51 4.9 Pedagogic strategies ........................................................................... 52 4.10 Individual teaching practices in detail .................................................... 53 i 5. How can teacher education (curriculum and practicum) and the school curriculum and guidance materials best support effective pedagogy? ............................................60 5.1 Professional development: alignment with classroom practices and follow-up support ........................................................................................................ 60 5.2 Peer support .................................................................................... 61 5.3 Support from the head teacher and the community ...................................... 62 5.4 Curriculum and assessment ................................................................... 62 5.5 Barriers to learning: limited resources and large class sizes ............................ 63 5.6 Conclusions...................................................................................... 63 6. Research gaps and future directions .............................................................65 6.1 Research design ................................................................................ 65 6.2 Contexts ......................................................................................... 66 6.3 Pedagogy ........................................................................................ 67 6.4 Teacher education ............................................................................. 67 6.5 Curriculum and assessment ................................................................... 68 6.6 Dissemination and research impact ......................................................... 68 7. Reflections on the review process ................................................................69 References ..............................................................................................70 Studies included in the in-depth stage .......................................................... 70 Appendices ..............................................................................................87 Appendix 1: Authorship and acknowledgements ............................................... 87 Appendix 2: Search strategy ...................................................................... 88 Appendix 3: Search sources ....................................................................... 90 Appendix 4: Coding set for mapping ............................................................. 91 Appendix 5: Data extraction and quality assessment tool for in-depth review ............ 95 Appendix 6: Overview of studies included in the in-depth review .......................... 97 Appendix 7: Summary table of interventions, reforms and existing conditions according to effective strategies and practices identified by each study .............................. 99 Appendix 8: Summary table of studies with details of study aims and methods used .. 106 ii Abbreviations ABL Activity-Based Learning BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee CCE Child-Centred Education CCP Child-Centred Pedagogy CPD Continuous Professional Development DEEP Digital Education Enhancement Project EFA Education for All GES Ghana Education Service GMR Global Monitoring Report ICT Information and Communication Technology INSET In-Service Training IQS Integrated Quranic Schools IRS Initiation-Response-Feedback ITE Initial Teacher Education KRT Key Resource Teacher LCE Learner-Centred Education MDG Millennium Development Goal MITEP Malawi Integrated In-service Teacher Education Programme NCERT National Council on Educational Research and Training (India) NEU Guatemalan Nueva Escuela Unitaria NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NQT Newly Qualified Teacher OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PASEC Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes éducatifs des États et gouvernements membres de la CONFEMEN (Programme of Analysis of Education Systems of CONFEMEN (Francophone countries) PCK Pedagogical Content Knowledge PEP-ILE Primary Education Programme – Improvement of Learning Environment PIRLS Progress in International Reading Literacy Study PISA Programme for International Student Assessment QEP Quality Education Programme SbTD School-based Teacher Development and Instructional Materials SES Socio-Economic Status iii SfL Schools for Life SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (India) SSA Sub-Saharan Africa TESSA Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa TIMDC Teacher Training and Material Development Cell TLMs Teaching and Learning Materials UPE Universal Primary Education ZPD Zone of Proximal Development iv E xecutive summary Executive summary Focus of the review This rigorous literature review, commissioned by the Department for International Development (DfID), UK, focused on pedagogy, curriculum, teaching practices and teacher education in developing countries. It aimed to: (i) review existing evidence on the review topic to inform programme design and policy making undertaken by the DfID, other agencies and researchers; and (ii) identify critical evidence gaps to guide the development of future research programmes. The overarching question this review engaged was: Which pedagogic practices, in which contexts and under what conditions, most effectively support all students to learn at primary and secondary levels in developing countries? This was explored through three sub-questions: 1. What pedagogical practices are being used by teachers in formal and informal classrooms in developing countries? 2. What is the evidence on the effectiveness of these pedagogical practices, in what conditions, and with what population of learners? 3. How can teacher education (curriculum and practicum) and the school curriculum and guidance materials best support effective pedagogy? Methods An advisory e-user group comprising ministry personnel, teacher educators, educational researchers, NGOs, foundations and other development partners offered advice and support and commented on the draft initial report and draft final report, and responded to enquiries within their area of expertise. Nine electronic databases for relevant literature and 17 key journals were hand searched; the websites of key governmental and non-governmental organisations were also searched; citations referenced in identified papers were followed up; and team members, the e-user group and the team’s professional contacts were consulted for recommendations of relevant studies and ‘grey’ unpublished reports and papers. The review was conducted in two stages. Stage one consisted of a systematic ‘mapping’ exercise on the 489 studies that met the inclusion criteria through coding, giving a broad characterisation of pedagogical practices used by teachers in formal and informal classrooms in developing countries. Studies that met the inclusion criteria of relevance and clarity of method were selected for stage two, the in-depth review. Fifty-four empirical studies, reported in 62 publications, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, were included and rated for methodological trustworthiness and quality of contextualisation. A random sample of 15% of studies was double coded for quality assurance. Data from the 45 studies ranking high or moderate on both dimensions were used to address this review’s overarching research question. Results The review’s main claim is that teachers’ use of communicative strategies encourages pedagogic practices that are interactive in nature, and is more likely to impact on student learning outcomes and hence be effective. This claim for teachers’ use of communicative 1 Pedagogy, Curriculum, Teaching Practices and Teacher Education in Developing Countries strategies is not something that is reported consistently in those terms in the literature reviewed, but it has emerged from an interpretation of the overall body of evidence. The overall strength of that body of evidence is moderate, with a combination of high- and moderate-quality studies from a range of contexts, relatively numerous in relation to other rigorous and systematic reviews, but mostly of observational-descriptive studies. Studies were not directly comparable, with different aims and research methods and a variety of outcome indicators to assess effective pedagogic practices. Evidence comes from studies of not only interventions but also reforms and existing conditions, so that these practices indicate what is possible under difficult conditions, with large, multilingual classes and scarce resources, and where students come from poor or marginalised backgrounds. The evidence is strongest in the consistency of findings on the extent to which teachers are able to implement the pedagogical strategies and practices envisaged by reforms and training. There is also convergence in how studies report that curriculum and teacher education can best support effective practices. However, there is less robust evidence of the way these strategies and practices impact on student learning outcomes, as few studies used baseline and post-tests or school or national student achievement data, and many used greater student engagement and confidence as general but not rigorously evidenced indicators. The review identified that pedagogic practice is developed through interaction between teachers’ thinking or attitudes, what they do in the classroom and what they see as the outcome of their practice. The review identified two specific teacher attitudes that encouraged the use of three interactive and communicative strategies; these in turn facilitated implementation of six specific teaching practices that were used in effective ways and engaged students. These attitudes were teachers’ positive attitudes towards their training and their students, which positioned them in the best frame of mind to construct the teaching and learning process as an interactive, communicative process in which teaching involved provoking a visible response in their students that indicated that learning was taking place. Three specific strategies that promoted this interactive pedagogy were identified:  feedback, sustained attention and inclusion;  creating a safe environment in which students are supported in their learning;  drawing on students’ backgrounds and experiences. The above strategies formed a basis for developing the six effective teaching practices, although not all of these needed to be simultaneously present:  flexible use of whole-class, group and pair work where students discuss a shared task;  frequent and relevant use of learning materials beyond the textbook;  open and closed questioning, expanding responses, encouraging student questioning;  demonstration and explanation, drawing on sound pedagogical content knowledge;  use of local languages and code switching;  planning and varying lesson sequences. While all teachers may use the above practices, the key difference is that the most effective teachers use them communicatively, paying attention to their students and placing them centrally in their construction of the teaching-learning process. These effective teachers recognise the need to provoke a positive response in students and do so in more interactive, communicative ways, so that students engage, understand, participate and learn. All of the above practices, even when used alone, if carried out in this interactive and communicative way, are then effective in the classroom. Brought together as a package in an intervention or carefully constructed curriculum, supported by 2 Executive summary relevant professional development, they might make a considerable impact on student learning. How can teacher education (curriculum and practicum) and the school curriculum and guidance materials best support effective pedagogy? The review identified four key findings in relation to the third question: (i) teacher peer support; (ii) alignment of professional development with teachers’ needs, the promoted pedagogy and modes of assessment of their practice and follow-up monitoring of teachers; (iii) support from head teachers; and (iv) alignment of forms of assessment with the curriculum. Research gaps Research design None of the studies evaluated the impact of interventions/reforms using control and treatment schools. A small number of studies used inferential statistics to correlate specific practices with student cognitive attainment; however they missed details of pedagogic practices. Observation-descriptive studies that drew on mixed methods and used standardised tests or national tests to measure the impact of interventions did not always use baseline tests. Qualitative studies that looked at reforms or existing conditions gave significant details of students, teachers, contexts and practices, but did not systematically assess students’ learning. Future research designs should be of a larger scale combining qualitative and quantitative methods, with both baseline and post-tests measuring student attainment as a result of an intervention or reform and systematic, structured classroom observation. The Indicators and measures used should include students’ perspectives and experiences of school and classroom life, teachers’ understanding, student discourse and immediate understanding of a concept taught, student participation in class, use and frequency of teaching and learning materials (TLMs) and attendance patterns over time. Longitudinal studies looking at long-term impact over more than three years would show how reform or interventions work (or not) in altering practice in situ. Randomised controlled trials are more difficult and costly but will give more precise findings of ‘what works’. Assessing teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge via questionnaires using classroom-based scenarios and tests, and comparing this to the assumed knowledge in the curriculum and as indicated in teachers’ actual practice would also be useful. Contexts Further research is needed in remote rural schools, with large classes and the uncertainties of teacher and student presence. Future studies should also report on the social, economic and cultural backgrounds of students’ homes in relation to pedagogy in detail. Likewise, more research targeted on schools for students with disabilities or how such students are integrated into mainstream schools, would fill a major gap. Another gap was studies focusing on teachers’ practices at lower and upper secondary levels, looking at continuities with the primary curriculum and pedagogies. Additionally, difficulties of having overage students in classes did not emerge. Further studies could focus on how teachers positively handle classes where there are overage students in the same grade and class. Few studies reported on the characteristics of teachers. This made it harder to make comparisons between different categories of teachers. Studies comparing experienced and novice teachers or looking at the transition that novice teachers make in becoming more effective would fill a gap. 3 Pedagogy, Curriculum, Teaching Practices and Teacher Education in Developing Countries Pedagogy The communicative strategies found in this review could be tested out through an intervention but getting further details of teachers’ feedback and attention, group work and use of TLMs, demonstration and explanation in large classrooms. Teacher education Investigations of the effectiveness of training should explore pedagogy holistically as constituting teachers’ thinking, including their knowledge, both content and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), their practices and the impact of these on students’ outcomes and with a narrower focus on a particular subject. Studies looking specifically at how teacher educators are trained, how they develop their own practice and PCK over time or how they develop a community of practice through collaboration in networks and individual and collective reflection, would fill a visible research gap. Further research is needed to take a longer view of how peer support works, its cost-effectiveness and the factors that supported successful peer support in order to strengthen the evidence. Curriculum and assessment Few studies analysed the forms of assessment, both formative and summative, that teachers used in relation to the curriculum. Studies using a mixed methods approach to understand assessment practices and their relationships to pedagogy and student learning over time would fill this gap. Dissemination and impact of research Examples of how a particular piece of research directly impacted on teachers’ practices or on policy would be of considerable interest. 4