African Educational Research Journal - Review - Research provocation: Creating opportunities for deeper authentic learning for teachers to improve teaching and learning in schools

Oct 15, 2026

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Teacher professional development should extend beyond subject knowledge by creating structured opportunities for educators to reflect on classroom practices and strengthen support for learners. Effective development targets the implementation phase, enabling teachers to apply what they learn directly to what they do. This paper analyzes a social constructivist Vygotskian model for teacher development, aiming to deepen authentic reflection, promote teacher collaboration, and build teacher autonomy through nurturing environments.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages5

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Abstract

Introduction

What is Constructivist Pedagogy

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 5(2), pp. 109-113, April 2017 ISSN: 2354-2160 Review Research provocation: Creating opportunities for deeper authentic learning for teachers to improve teaching and learning in schools Quincy Kameda K-16 Education Research Center, Research Institute, Tamagawa University, Japan. Accepted 3 March, 2017 | ABSTRACT
The goal of teacher professional development should not only be to improve knowledge of the subject matter, but also to provide opportunities for teachers to reflect on their own teaching practices and consider how they can better support learners in their classrooms. For professional development to be effective and purposeful, it must support teachers during the crucial implementation phase where they directly apply what they ʺlearnʺ to what they ʺdoʺ in their classrooms. This paper attempts to explore the implications of a social constructivist Vygotskian model as it applies to teacher development, and how it can increase opportunities for deeper authentic reflection on teaching practices in the classroom, and support the creation of environments that nurture authentic teacher collaboration and teacher autonomy.
Keywords: Teacher development, teacher education, social constructivism, zone of proximal development, professional learning communities. | | --- | | *Corresponding author. E-mail: [qkameda@tamagawa.ed.jp](qkameda@tamagawa.ed.jp). | INTRODUCTION Teachers, in many ways, play an important role as agents of the future. More than any other profession, teaching has the power to influence and foster ethical leadership ; the capacity to inspire lifelong learning; and to provide our society with informed, caring and engaged citizens within local, national and global communities. However, like all professions, a system needs to be in place to ensure that the body of knowledge, skills, and practices that are necessary to do the work effectively are continually monitored and evaluated in a supportive nonthreatening environment. For many schools, solutions to improve teaching still tend to be to send teachers to workshop-style training sessions during the academic year. Despite its prevalence, however, “the workshop model’s track record for changing teachers’ practice and learner achievement appears to be abysmal in many countries around the world” (Gulamhussein, 2013:2) . If traditional professional development initiatives such as workshops are considered as ineffective by teachers, this paper suggests that it is because there is little or no follow up provided in many schools to support these teachers during the crucial ‘implementation’ stage of learning in their own classrooms after attending these workshops. For professional development initiatives such as workshops to be effective, teachers require a system in their schools that provides them with the necessary opportunities to genuinely reflect on and explore how the newly acquired knowledge can be transferred into their own classroom teaching practice. In the same way that physically riding a bike is more difficult than listening to someone talk about how to ride a bike, employing a new teaching strategy in the classroom is in the same way, more difficult than simply being informed about the teaching strategy itself. Schools should not assume that teachers’ learning is straightforward, with teachers merely needing to be presented with information about effective teaching strategies. More care and support using a teacher-as-learner approach is needed, in order to support the journey alongside the students in becoming autonomous lifelong learners. The goal of professional development should not only be to improve teachers’ knowledge of the subject matter that they are teaching, but it should also be to provide opportunities to reflect on their own teaching practicesand consider how they can better support learners in the classroom . For professional development to be effective and purposeful, it must

FAQs

Why should teacher professional development focus on implementation rather than only knowledge gains?

Effective professional development supports teachers during the crucial implementation phase, helping them apply what they learn to what they do in their classrooms.

What problem does the paper identify with workshop-style professional development?

It argues that workshops often lack follow-up support, leaving teachers unsupported during the implementation stage in their own classrooms.

How does the paper use social constructivist and Vygotskian ideas in teacher development?

It explores implications of a social constructivist Vygotskian model to increase opportunities for deeper authentic reflection, foster authentic teacher collaboration, and support teacher autonomy.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanford