Sharing Professional Teaching Experience – the Current View in Czech Schools
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14712/23362189.2020.1858Keywords:
professional sharing, supervision, teachers, collegiality, teacher developmentAbstract
The aim of the paper is to present experience with professional sharing among teachers and to show its role in professional development. Research shows that professional sharing increases the reflection of teachers and deepens positive collegial relationships and cooperation in teaching staff. At the same time, however, there are certain barriers and negative attitudes towards it. The article presents the results of research that took place in the Czech educational environment. Its purpose was to find out what kinds of experiences Czech teachers have with sharing professional experience in groups and what advantages and disadvantages they perceive.
Methods: The research was designed as an online survey among teachers. The questionnaire includes 20 items. The request for completion was sent to all schools included in the Czech register of schools. The questionnaire was completed by 2,377 respondents. Subsequent analysis included descriptive statistics, testing for differences between subgroups based on personal experience with professional sharing, and qualitative methods such as open coding.
Results: 43% of the teachers had experience with some type of regular group sharing; only 4.5% had experience with supervision and 1% with intervision. 33% of these meetings were led by external experts and 56% were mandatory. The biggest benefits of the meetings were mutual motivation, inspiration, and building a united vision. The main obstacles to sharing were a lack of funds, being overwhelmed with other tasks, and the fear of sharing problems.
Conclusion: The majority of the teachers involved (57%) did not have access to professional sharing, but 61% would be interested in implementing professional sharing. In addition, personal experience with it has proved to be an important factor in assessing barriers and benefits. Teachers who had personal experience with sharing rated all the benefits as more important and the barriers as less significant.
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