Natural sciences teachers’ continuous professional development through a Community of Practice

Abstract

Years of research on teacher quality indicate that the quality and effectiveness of teachers have a significant influence on learner achievements. The quality of teachers and their teaching practice is widely debated where quality may depend on the teacher having acquired sound and relevant knowledge and skills to ensure effective teaching. The continuous professional development of teachers is a key element in ensuring the required quality in teaching to enhance learners’ achievements. Utilising Wenger’s construct of a Community of Practice (CoP) as theoretical framework, with the investigation reported on here, we aimed to understand how natural sciences teachers, from a specific rural school district in the Western Cape province, South Africa, experienced a CoP as a continuing professional teacher development (CPTD) strategy. This investigation was informed by a naturalistic case study method where open-ended questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations were utilised for data generation during CoP sessions. Thematic data-analysis revealed themes (words/phrases) for interpretation and discussion. Preliminary findings highlighted some emerging characteristics that influenced the effective operation of a CoP and suggested that participants acknowledged the importance of a CoP, indicating that their natural sciences knowledge and skills had notably increased. We argue that emerging CoP characteristics can assist in the advancement of motivation, effectiveness and professional development of natural sciences teachers in rural areas, affording quality teachers and teaching practices.