Collective development of teaching practices in Swedish compulsory schools – does professional learning occur?

Figures & data

Table 1. Background information about the participating schools.

Case 1	A school in a small municipality in the middle part of Sweden, about 230 pupils, grades 7–9 (13- to 15-year-olds). The principal and eight teachers participated.
Case 2	Three schools in a suburb of a big city in the middle part of Sweden. Two schools, preschool up to grade 3 (6- to 9-year-olds) with about 180 and 150 pupils in the respective schools, and one school, grades 4–9 (10- to 15-year-olds), with about 300 pupils. Almost all pupils in these three schools have Swedish as second language. The schools collaborate closely. The school region has one head principal and four assistant principals. One of the assistant principals and three teachers participated, the first teacher representing preschool up to grade 3, the second representing grades 4–6, and the third grades 7–9.
Case 3	A school in a small municipality in the middle part of Sweden. One principal and about 200 pupils, preschool, and grades 1–6 (6- to 12-year-olds). The principal and four teachers participated.
Case 4	A school in a small municipality in the southern part of Sweden. One principal and about 350 pupils, grades 7–9 (13- to 15-year-olds). The principal and six teachers participated.

Table 2. Expressed benefits of collective work in the different cases. T (Teacher), P (Principal). Bold text illustrates that both teachers and principal expressed this benefit.

	Subcategories of benefits
Main categories of benefits	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3	Case 4
Pupil learning	Focus on pupil learning (T)	Focus on pupil learning (T, P)	Focus on pupil learning (T, P)
	Make learning visible (T)	Make learning visible (T, P)	Make learning visible (T)
Teacher peer learning	Increased sense of collegiality (T)	Increased sense of collegiality (T, P)	Increased sense of collegiality (T, P)	Increased sense of collegiality (T)
	Different perspectives (T, P)	Different perspectives (T)	Different perspectives (T)	Differentperspectives (T)
	Shared knowledge base (P)	Shared knowledge base (T)		Sharedknowledge base (P)
		Continuing education (T)	Continuing education (T)
Self-efficacy		Improved teacher self-efficacy (T)	Improved teacher self-efficacy (T)
		Improved communication between teachers and pupils (T)
		Improved pupil self-efficacy (T)
		Teaching more fun for both teachers and pupils (T, P)
Systematic development work	Structured and problem-solving orientated meetings (T, P)	Structured and problem-solving orientated meetings (T, P)	Structured and problem-solving orientated meetings (T, P)
	Continuity in the subject-specific development work (T)	Continuity in the subject-specific development work (T, P)
	Principal receives information about development needs (P)
	Development based on teachers’ perceived needs (P)
Theoretical grounding		Theoretical grounded collective work (T)
Change in school culture		New ways of thinking (T)	New ways of thinking (P)

Figure 1. Phases of PD to PL, founded on the CAR model components, in the cases 1 to 4.