Page 128 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 6
and (2) experiences changes in their knowledge, skills, and attitude; (3) these changes lead to changes in instruction, which ultimately (4) lead to increased student learning (Desimone, 2009). Furthermore, a professional development programme is sustainable when both the Theory of Change (does the new pedagogical content knowledge improve teacher knowledge and instruction?) and the Theory of Instruction (does the new pedagogical content knowledge improve student learning?) work (Desimone & Stukey, 2014). This means that, when studying a curriculum reform, the first step is to find out whether the new pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) improves a teacher’s knowledge and instruction (Theory of Change). In order to ensure a successful Theory of Change, it is essential to focus on the new PCK that teachers should learn as well as the way teachers are supported in enacting that main idea in their own teaching contexts (Kennedy, 2016). To summarise, the core of curriculum reform lies with the changes in teachers’ PCK, the strategy to help teachers gain this knowledge and, eventually, how teachers translate this knowledge into their existing teaching context. This also means that the success of a curriculum reform depends largely on how teachers make meaning of the reform.
6.2.2 Sensemaking
How teachers construct meaning and adapt their teaching in the context of curriculum reform is strongly determined by their views on teaching and learning in general (Clarke & Peterson, 1986), and by their views on PCK in particular (Magnusson, Krajcik, & Borko, 1999). In other words, how EFL teachers make sense of a teaching model such as the Comprehensive Approach in terms of their PCK beliefs and whether they experience this as useful and relevant has an impact on how they implement this in their existing curriculum. One of the reasons why curriculum reform is generally considered full of complexities and immensely multidimensional (Fullan, 2006) is because of the meaning of such reform as contextually determined (Coburn, 2001; Luttenberg, van Veen, & Imants, 2013; Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002).
Sensemaking theory describes the process of how teachers create meaning (Weick, Sutcliffe & Obstfeld, 2005). According to this theory, meaning making is not about right or wrong, but focuses instead on action verbs such as: construct, create, react, imagine, and devise (Weick, Sutclifffe, & Obstfeld, 2005). This makes sensemaking a central issue in educational reform, because “it is the primary site where meanings materialize that inform and constrain identity and action”
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