Teachers’ roles and identities in student-centered classrooms

PERC class

In the PERC Program, teachers and students collaborate to implement a novel instructional model that leads to improved STEM learning and performance (Thomas et al. 2015) as well as increased college readiness (Bonner and Keiler 2015) for students in high needs urban schools. A typical PERC lesson begins with whole class instruction and ends with individual formative assessment, but the majority of class time every day is spent with students working in small groups of approximately four students led by a peer instructor and supervised by the teacher. The PERC class structure is consistent with examples of student-centered instruction in the literature reviewed above. The peer instructors, called Teaching Assistant Scholars (TAS), are students who passed the STEM course and perhaps the associated high stakes exam the year before at a level that qualified them for high school graduation but not for college success. Teachers select TAS for the following year from their current students who have patterns of attendance and positive peer interactions that PERC has discovered leads to being an effective TAS. During the PERC lesson, the teacher, seven to eight TAS, and approximately 30 students engage in PERC class target behaviors (Appendix 1) that support the learning and success of everyone in the classroom. TAS are responsible for ensuring that students are on task and learning throughout the lesson. TAS monitor their students’ developing mastery of the material, ask scaffolding questions, provide feedback, and serve as role models for appropriate academic engagement. In PERC class, teacher target behaviors largely involve guiding the work of the TAS and assessing TAS performance and student learning. Whole class, teacher-centered instruction is limited to 20% of class time. This classroom structure varies dramatically from traditional STEM classes, and teachers’ responsibilities within a PERC classroom diverge considerably from what they do in non-PERC classes.

TAS class

In addition to their PERC classes, PERC teachers teach a course specifically designed for their TAS, which is part of the teachers’ regular instructional load and the TASs’ normal course schedule. The TAS class curriculum is divided into four components: learning to teach, learning to learn, learning content, and college knowledge. All components of the course are research-based. In learning to teach lessons, PERC teachers help their TAS learn how to support their students’ learning in PERC class through activities such as asking scaffolding questions, conducting formative assessment, and providing targeted feedback. Such tutoring-type experiences have been shown to have positive impacts on the peer leaders’ academic performance and self-concept (Ginsburg-Block et al. 2006; Komives et al. 2006; McMaster et al. 2006; Morrison 2004; Robinson et al. 2005; Roscoe and Chi 2008; Topping 2005). In learning to learn lessons, the PERC teachers work to develop the TASs’ own academic skills and self-regulation, focusing on goal setting, time management, and metacognition, which have been linked to college-ready skills and attitudes (Dignath and Büttner 2008; Greene and Azevedo 2007; Kistner et al. 2010; Perels et al. 2005; Schunk and Ertmer, 2000; Zimmerman 2008). Learning content lessons supplement the TASs’ incomplete mastery of the content developed the prior year and include advanced subject area exploration. Finally, in college knowledge lessons, the teachers guide the TASs’ investigation of what it takes to be admitted to and succeed in college and careers. Such college and career awareness has been linked to college success, especially for students in under-resourced urban schools (Cates and Schaefle 2011; McDonough 1997; Stanton-Salazar 2001; Tai et al. 2006). Of the four components, only learning content lessons in any way replicates the teachers’ prior experience and responsibilities. Across the course, teachers work with TAS to develop Conley’s (2008) academic knowledge and skills essential for college readiness. Thus, the TAS class requires the PERC teachers to engage in a completely novel instructional experience as they support their TASs’ development.

PERC student impacts

The PERC Program has demonstrated a range of impacts on participating students (Bonner et al. 2017; Bonner and Thomas 2017; Gerena and Keiler 2012; Keiler 2011b; Thomas et al. 2015). TAS are much more likely to exceed passing scores and meet proficiency standards for college readiness after participating as peer leaders. For example, in 2013–2014, 47% of students reached the state college readiness benchmark after being a TAS as compared to 15% before this experience, with 14% achieving the state defined Mastery level post-participation compared to 1% pre-participation (CASE 2015). Further, preliminary analysis of TAS high school graduates suggests that about 73% of them enrolled in post-secondary education, far above the New York City average (CASE 2015). PERC students have also demonstrated positive outcomes on state examinations. For example, in the 2014–2015 cohort, Algebra I students were 1.6 times more likely to pass the Regents exam as matched peers in peer high schools (CASE 2015).

PERC Program professional development

In order to support teachers as they learn to implement the PERC and TAS classes, the PERC Program created a PD model using research-based best practices (Keiler 2011a; Keiler and Robbins In Press; Darling-Hammond and Richardson 2009; Ermeling and Gallimore 2014/2015; Gusky 2000; Gusky and Yoon 2009; Showers and Joyce 1996; Topping 2001; Tschannen-Moran and Tschannen-Moran 2011). The purpose of the PERC Professional Development program was to create a PERC community of practice within schools and across schools that, through teacher collaboration and inquiry, becomes well-versed in PERC. It was teacher-need driven and embedded in the daily work of participating teachers, fulfilling Gusky and Yoon’s (2009) concept of “just-in-time” PD. Since different forms of PD offer different strengths and are subject to different shortcomings (Gusky 2000), the PD model include a variety of experiences described below. Teachers who entered the PERC Program, regardless of how long they had taught previously, were referred to as Novice PERC Teachers. Novices participated in a 2-year PD program (see Appendix 2) once they joined PERC. The PERC Program has scaled in two ways, expanding to new schools and expanding within schools. Some schools, like the mature school in this study, started with a single subject area, adding teachers and subject areas each year until they reach capacity for teachers who want to participate. Other schools, like the study school in its first year in PERC, started with multiple teachers and subjects. In either instance, schools replace teachers who leave the school or the program to pursue other opportunities. Thus, PERC schools may have had teachers at different phases of the program, depending upon when each teacher began the program.

Teachers moved through the PD model in distinct phases: (1) introduction to the PERC Program, (2) PERC Program induction during the Summer Institute, and (3) academic year PD including school-based coaching and PD workshops. Teachers’ introduction to the PERC Program involved visits to PERC schools, where they observed classes and interacted with experienced PERC teachers and TAS. They were able to ask questions of PERC teachers and students, administrators, and PERC staff. These visits formed the basis of teachers’ decisions about whether to enter the PERC Program. These visits are essential as teachers are more willing to implement pedagogies they have observed in actual classrooms (Topping 2001). During the summer before their first academic year in the program, novice PERC teachers were immersed in the model during the 6-week, 4-days-per-week PERC Summer Institute. The PERC Summer Institute served as a PD lab for the program while providing remedial coursework for students who failed state exams in June and needed to retake the exams in August. Each day began with 1 h of TAS class, followed by 4 h of PERC class. Novice PERC Teachers’ summer experiences included (1) being mentored by a lead PERC teacher in a PERC class, (2) working with TAS summer interns to implement the class, and (3) being coached by the PERC PD team during and outside the PERC class. Additionally, during afternoon 2-h PD workshops, the novice PERC teachers learned TAS class routines and were introduced to the TAS class curriculum.

During their first year in the program, teachers received weekly school-based coaching that included observations of their PERC and TAS classes and hour-long coaching sessions that focused on teacher reflection and goal setting. During their second year, school-based coaching was either weekly or every other week, depending upon the PD team’s assessment of the teacher’s needs. During their third year and thereafter, PERC coaches visited each teacher once per month to continue to provide support and monitor fidelity of implementation of the model. PERC teachers formed a community of practice at their schools and joined a PERC teacher community across PERC schools. PERC teachers came together for monthly all-day workshops that enabled them to share successes and collaborate on meeting challenges. Additionally, teaching the TAS class and mentoring the TAS were PD experiences in and of themselves, as teachers developed as reflective practitioners when they taught pedagogy to and assessed the performance of their TAS. The PD team referred to teaching the TAS class as stealth PD because the coaches were able to shift teachers’ practice by having them teach desired pedagogies to their TAS, which led to the teachers implementing and reflecting upon the practices themselves. Once they developed mastery of the PERC and TAS classes, teachers could become mentors to new PERC teachers, further developing their skills in implementing the model as they grew as reflective practitioners.

Participants

Being student-centered

For many PERC Program participants, the experience was, as Matthew described, “a dream come true for a teacher.” Some of the teachers in the study had been waiting their whole careers to fulfill the roles they found in PERC, arguing that the PERC classroom enabled them to be the teachers they wanted to be. For example, Bill’s PERC coach described him as “a natural” because the PERC instructional model seemed to fit so seamlessly into his teacher identity, even as a second year Algebra teacher. Similarly, Bill’s school-based mentor described him as eager to learn and grow in the PERC Program because he valued the roles that it allowed him to play in the classroom. These easy adopters tended to be teachers who had wanted to implement groupwork in their classrooms, but they had previously been unsuccessful in getting students to remain productive while working in groups and usually reverted to teacher-centered instruction. Paula, a veteran Chemistry teacher, argued that she had always favored cooperative learning but that the typical classrooms behaviors of students she taught made implementation unrealistic. As a PERC teacher, supported by a team of TAS, Paula claimed that she was able to implement the kinds of lessons she had always desired.

Knowing what students are doing

Some teachers discovered additional, unanticipated benefits to implementing PERC. As Matthew explained, “I have a natural tendency to have students working in groups and have responsibility put on the students to focus and stay on task. So I feel like implementing this program is simple for me.” In non-PERC classes, he continued to ask students to work in groups but was never sure whether they were on task and learning when he stepped from one group to another, reducing his feelings of efficacy as a teacher. In particular, he worried about groups composed of English Language Learners who spoke their native language during class. When he did not speak the students’ language, he did not know if they were discussing math or their weekend plans. PERC made Matthew successful in his preferred instructional modality, increasing his feelings of self-efficacy as a teacher. He described the satisfaction he felt knowing that groups were discussing math with their TAS, regardless of the language they were speaking. Teachers such as these readily adopted the roles necessary to share responsibility for student learning with their TAS and felt fulfilled by their success within these roles. Such teachers experienced satisfaction rather than stress during these role shifts. They had wanted and waited to live the identity of facilitator of learning rather than fount of content.

Supporting individual students

In connection with the student-centered nature of the PERC model, PERC teachers described the ways in which the PERC Program enhanced their role of meeting the needs of individual students. While praising the program to potential PERC teachers, Matthew described the insider information that his TAS provided as part of their class discussions about grouping students to maximize success and minimize conflicts. Supporting this perspective, TAS claimed that it was easier for students to be vulnerable and share sensitive information with a peer who could then advocate for them with their teacher. As a second year Biology teacher, Lily argued that because the TAS were keeping all students engaged in PERC class, she was able to sit with groups, have in depth conversations, and support struggling students for extended periods of time. She believed that her role in the PERC class was to deepen the learning experience for individual students rather than ensure that all students were in some way on task. Through their work in PERC classes, participating teachers transitioned from an identity of a teacher of a class to an identity of a teacher of unique students.

Alice, like her colleagues, recognized the vital role she played as an assessor in a student-centered classroom. Eliminating subject expert as the primary role of teachers in a classroom also relieved pressure from teachers who preferred to focus on student learning instead of content. These special education teachers regularly changed subject partners from year to year, needing to master new content annually. The classroom culture of a community of learners matched the special education teachers’ identities of content learner as well, enabling them to feel more successful and useful in their PERC classes than in traditional classrooms. For some special education teachers, the structure of the PERC classroom and the emphasis on their expertise concerning student learning dramatically improved their relationships with their general education teacher partners. Henry, a veteran Special Education teacher, expressed frustration with content specialist partners who lectured the whole class, leaving no room for him as a learning specialist or pedagogies that he knew would be more effective with his population. Administrators and school-based coaches shared the improvements they observed in classroom dynamics and resulting learning opportunities for students of previously contentious teacher pairs. All PERC special education teachers described a true partnership role for them in the PERC classroom, which many of them had not experienced in many traditional classrooms where lecture dominated instruction. They believed that the changing pedagogies and values of the PERC classroom created positive identity shifts for all involved, students and teachers alike.

Teacher evaluations

PERC teachers talked about having been pushed by their administrators to implement student-centered classrooms, particularly because of the new evaluation system based upon the Danielson Framework (Danielson 2014). Although Alice claimed she had always had a student-centered approach to teaching as a special education teacher, she articulated the ways that implementing the model would make all teachers successful, “In terms of PERC it’s totally set up for a successful observation. It’s set up, it just looks right in terms of student-centered learning and interactions and all of that it’s totally where education needs to be.” Administrators shared how impressed they were with the dramatic improvement in observation ratings that their PERC teachers received. They claimed that they had urged their teachers to be more student-centered before with minimal results. Andrew, describing prior frustration, explained that he had never known how to make this work and that the PERC Program enabled him to embrace the identity of a highly effective teacher using current educational definitions. Similar teachers recognized the role shifts required by their changing profession and appreciated that the PERC model facilitated growth into a new identity.

Relinquishing undesirable roles

Another benefit PERC teachers described was that they got to relinquish roles they did not enjoy, as the TAS either adopted those roles or the presence of the TAS in the groups eliminated the role within the classroom. PERC teachers like Jerry, a third year Physics teacher, claimed that they were relieved to abandon their disciplinarian roles, as “classroom management problems disappeared.” He believed that the TASs’ ability to answer questions immediately and quickly refocus students’ attention on the learning task eliminated the need for a disciplinarian in his PERC classes. Lily, while acting as a mentor, explained to a novice PERC teacher that students in PERC classes were not bored because they got their questions answered immediately by their TAS. Bob, a veteran Geometry teacher, was only involved in PERC through his partnership with Henry, a special education PERC teacher. Bob contrasted his PERC and non-PERC classes, raving about what he was able to accomplish in his PERC classes and how much he struggled on his own in his traditional class, largely because of time on task facilitated by TAS. Alice described the reduction in dealing with behavioral issues that was usually a common role for her as a special education teacher, explaining, “I feel like I put out fires in lot of classrooms that I don’t have to in PERC.” The teachers described here seemed relieved that they were not having to focus time and attention on student behavior in their PERC classes at the expense of supporting student learning, which was common in their non-PERC classrooms.

PERC teachers also argued that the TAS removed roles related to simple explanations of content and procedures. For example, Paula articulated the value of the TAS in the classroom and the shift that it enabled in her role, claiming it was “good to have people take on additional responsibility for the small questions so I can focus on bigger misunderstanding.” She appreciated being able to use her content expertise in complex ways rather than spend time assisting students with basic content facts. Mark, a potential novice PERC teacher in the mature PERC school, predicted that the PERC model would reduce the time he spent repeating instructions to each student and enable him to have genuine conversations about the content he loved. As a veteran Earth Science teacher, he looked forward to shifting classroom roles by joining PERC. The elimination of undesirable, largely management roles enabled the teachers to take on more instructional roles in the PERC classroom, supporting their identity as a professional educator rather than a source of instructions and low-level content, and/or a disciplinarian. In fact, Lily claimed that she had progressed much farther in the curriculum during her first year in PERC than in the previous year because of being able to focus on content. Teachers spoke with enthusiasm about their work in PERC classes in contrast to frustrations they expressed about teacher-centered classes in which they constantly repeated themselves, never getting beyond rudimentary instructions or basic content.

A range of factors contributed to certain teachers making an easy transition to teachers’ roles and identities of the PERC classroom. Easy-transition teachers had pre-PERC identities that were consistent with a collaborative classroom culture in which TAS were trusted to share roles common to teachers in traditional classrooms. They did not value being disciplinarians and focusing on the minutia of content and task instructions. They wanted different relationships with their students and to spend time engaging with meaningful content understanding. Thus, easy-transition teachers felt fulfilled by their roles in the PERC classroom and had identities that led readily to success in the implementation of PERC.

Becoming believers

While some teachers already possessed or readily adopted identities in line with being a PERC teacher and one did not change, a third group of teachers experienced dramatic identity transformations when implementing the model and achieved success in the PERC Program, executing the model in a way that demonstrated the PERC target behaviors and developing strong mentoring relationships with their TAS. The biggest transformations happened for teachers who entered the PERC Program with lecturing as their preferred mode of instruction. As students, they had been successful learners in that class format and felt competent as lecturers themselves. They loved their content and truly enjoyed explaining it to others. This is why they entered teaching, and it is where they got their greatest professional satisfaction. Teachers with content expert identities genuinely did want students to learn, frequently explaining concepts over and over in an effort to impart the content. Lily, mentoring a reluctant novice PERC teacher during the Summer Institute, shared that one of her own PERC mentors initially had a hard time believing that students could learn anything that did not first come out of her own mouth. This experienced PERC teacher’s transformation gave Lily insight into typical teacher struggles, making her an empathetic and effective mentor herself. For teachers such as Lily’s mentor, their primary identity in the classroom was content expert, and their role was of explainer. Yet, when these content-expert teachers seriously examined the outcomes of this traditional classroom structure for their students—from daily engagement levels to high stakes test performance—they acknowledged that something was not working. Content-expert teachers usually attributed the lack of success in their traditional classrooms to the students, claiming that they were different from the students in suburban schools with whom they themselves had been educated. A principal almost bragged, “Our students have very low tolerance for mediocre teaching.” Thus, these educators realized that it was not that the teachers needed to become more effective lecturers. Instead, the students required a completely different, student-centered pedagogy, one embodied by the PERC Program that involved different roles for teachers as well as their students.

For some content-expert teachers, epiphanies happened quickly. In cases such as Andrew, the first visit to a PERC class yielded a dramatic response, “Within the first 15 minutes I knew that this is what our school needed.” For others, their first summer immersion in the student-centered PERC classroom, surrounded by student success and dominated by TAS leadership, made skeptical teachers into believers. Such teachers commented on the fact that all the students in the PERC classroom were engaged and claimed that they believed that more learning was happening than in other classrooms they had observed. These initially uncertain teachers were committed to student success and ultimately believed that the PERC Program would facilitate that within their schools. They had needed to see it in action in order to believe that peer-led learning could be effective with students in urban classes, but seeing was indeed believing for them.

Learning to implement

Andrew describes this group’s common struggle with transitioning from an identity as content expert to an identity as learning manager.

Some participating teachers initially seemed to believe that the TAS had taken over their role in the classroom, making them feel superfluous or redundant. During PERC class observations, such teachers appeared lost in the classroom during groupwork components of the lesson. Observation records for their lessons include a great deal of evidence of TAS success during groupwork but almost no comments about teacher actions during this major lesson component. Teachers who struggled in this area had relinquished their previous role of content specialist but had not yet adopted a teaching team manager identity. In response to such observations and expressed concerns, coaches worked with these struggling PERC teachers to be more active in the classroom. The coaches modeled the PERC teacher roles and provided explicit guidance and encouragement, both during class and in coaching sessions. Teachers who embraced this coaching made dramatic progress in their transformations, taking on new roles in the classroom that developed their identities in relation to teaching the TAS. For example, just over halfway through his first year in the program, Andrew positively glowed as he explained, “I’ve just had one of those days that makes life worthwhile.” That day he had allowed his TAS to take over the PERC class completely, from starter problem to exit slip. During the PERC lesson, Andrew assessed the TAS using the district’s teacher evaluation framework (Danielson 2014), giving them feedback during TAS class and asking them to write reflections about their own performance. Having abandoned his identity as repository of content knowledge, he reveled in his new identity as mentor of his TAS. Further, Andrew shared that his TAS whom he had taught previously were surprised about his different demeanor in the PERC classroom, indicating that he was not as hard on his students this year. He clarified that, “It’s more of a pastoral learning environment than bark-bark-bark,” explaining to his TAS that he relied upon them to play the role of taskmaster in their groups. Similarly, Alan had to learn that he had an important role to play in the PERC classroom as the TAS were leading content exploration—that of assessing student understanding. Once Alan shifted his identity, he claimed that he was doing a lot more listening and assessing. He believed that this new role ultimately had more impact on student learning because in his former role, he was largely ignorant of what the students had actually learned. Teachers like Alan found a new way to utilize their content expertise through their relationships with their TAS. They shifted from believing that the content is the most important thing in the room to believing that the students were the priority. While such participants reported struggling with learning to implement the model, they tended to seek ways to improve their own effectiveness with being a PERC teacher. They adopted an identity as a learner within the PERC Program.

Mentoring TAS

However, Matthew embraced this mentoring role and wanted to continue working with his TAS during the summer to ensure their successful progress through the curriculum. These participating teachers appreciated the challenge of developing this new identity of supporting the development of the TAS, acting as their mentor and not just their content instructor.