Abstract:
THE REALITIESAND PERCEPTION OF INTERCONNECTEDNESS on a global
scale are becoming increasingly evident owing to enhanced
technology and the escalating scale of human impact on the rest
of humanity and on the environment. This paper reports on a
project which investigated the effectiveness of a suite of professional
development sessions, of from one to two hours' duration,
offered to primary and secondary teachers in Victoria, Australia,
aimed at improving classroom practice in global education.
The professional development was provided by a professional
teachers' association, in an effort to increase the knowledge and
skills of teachers with regard to global education, and to assist
their students in doing the same. The study employed a combination
of questionnaires, completed by participants at the
conclusion of each session (n = 1326), telephone interviews with
a random sample of participants in = 40) chosen from among
those who had indicated a willingness to be so interviewed, and
four case studies. The study found that while participants were
forthright and generous in their praise of the professional development
courses in their post-session questionnaire responses,
very few of them translated this into their classroom teaching
in ways which could be identified. This paper aims to highlight
some of the excellent classroom work which derived in part or
whole from the professional development sessions, and, using
some of the literature on educational change, workplace learning
and transference of learning, to investigate reasons why more
teachers may not have taken this up. The paper also proposes a
model designed to 'value-add' to the training work which was
undertaken by providers of the professional development. Many
of these findings may be transferable to other inservice providers.
