Projekt kollegasparring på Ribe Katedralskole

IND's studenterserie nr. 65. Masterafhandling - Master i scienceundervisning.

Annemette Vestergaard Witt & Tanja Skrydstrup Kjær, 2018 (Ribe Katedralskole).

Projekt kollegasparring på Ribe Katedralskole[pdf, 2,9 MB]

Vejleder: Jan Sølberg

Engelsk abstract

With the project "Academic sparring at Ribe Katedralskole" we have tried to answer the question:

"What barriers and opportunities exist for the involvement of science teachers in interdisciplinary academic sparring in capacity building at Ribe Katedralskole?" 

The purpose of launching project academic sparring at Ribe Katedralskole was to promote the sharing of knowledge and discussion of teaching practices among teachers across groups. We expected the sharing of knowledge at school to be improved and expanded so that it not only takes place within the groups but also between the groups. Our main hypothesis was that project academic sparring would help build school capacity, at the personal, interpersonal and organisational levels. We initiated project academic sparring for 21 teachers who volunteered for the project (a total of 55 teachers at the school). The project management created the groups and initiated the project in August 2017 and it was followed by the project management through the 2017/18 school year. During the project, the project management collected empirical evidence by performing quantitative and qualitative research. The participants wrote down their expectations and we performed an interim evaluation, where all project participants responded anonymously. Subsequently, we held individual interviews with the seven science teachers and two non-science teachers. In addition, we interviewed the principal of the school. The empirical research showed that the science teachers had the same opportunities and barriers in connection with capacity building as non-science teachers. There was no reason to assume that the experiences of the science teachers with project academic sparring were different from the other teachers in the project. To analyze the results we used a model that connects three capacity levels with project phases. Capacity building was found at all three levels. In particular, we saw capacity building for personal capacity, as teachers now had the time and space to reflect more on their own and colleagues' teaching. At the same time, the project gave colleagues a greater sense of community and greater confidence in each other, which indicated higher organisational capacity. At the organisational level we saw some barriers, which the project management should help to remove to ensure progress towards institutionalisation. Overall the project was a success, and since we saw capacity building at all levels we recommend that the project period should run for at least one more year, in which the project should include a larger proportion of teachers at Ribe Katedralskole.