Supporting para-teachers by regularizing and strengthening planning, enactment and reflection of daily lessons

Raval, H., McKenney, S., & Pieters, J. (2012). Supporting para-teachers by regularizing and strengthening planning, enactment and reflection of daily lessons. Staff and Educational Development International, 16(1), 5-21.This study describes professional development of para- teachers in an Indian educational NGO, aimed at supporting them in adopting learner centered methods. Para-teacher learning was facilitated by introducing a daily routine of lesson planning, lesson enactment and lesson reflection. These were supported through workshops, microteaching, coaching activities. Interviews and lesson plan reviews reflected how para- teachers perceived their first professional development experience, what lesson planning skills they achieved and what enactment changes they perceived. The main conclusion of the study was that without any prior experience in lesson planning, through contextually suitable professional support, para- teachers tremendously gained knowledge and skills for well structured learner- centered oriented lesson planning. As compared to the pre professional development time, when enactment was ill-structured and rote-based, a shift towards better-structured and learner-centered orientation was apparent