1. Danish School of Education
ASEM RN3 – 5 October 2016
Teacher training programmes: What counts?
Bjarne Wahlgren
Danish School of Education
Aarhus University

2. The context for the study
The overriding purpose of the study was to reduce the dropout among young adults in the vocational system
By implementing new pedagogical strategies
By improving the teachers’ competences
In this part of the study we are focusing on whether the training of the teachers leeds to a new pedagogical strategi

3. The teacher training A teacher training program was accomplshed
The training programme included courses, seminars and coaching sessions
At half of the schools teachers were trained to teach in a more holistic way
At the other half of the schools the teachers were trained to teach in a more ‘progressive’ way
Both were expected to have a positive effect on the students’ outcome
A major part of the teachers training programme was coaching at the schools

4. The research design
An intervention study based training of 320 teachers in16 schools
A quasi-experimental set up
Interviews with teachers and school leaders
Observation in classes

5. Research questions
The overarching question for this part of the project was which impact the training programmes have on the teachers’ daily performances at the school
The following factors were expected to have influence on the impact (measured as ‘amount of implementation’)?
Quality of the training programme
The teachers’ experiences
Training of school leaders
Management support
Type of school
Size of training group

6. Findings Great differences between the schools
The second most important factor was the teachers previous experiences and the perception of the usefulness of the methods
The most important factor was the organisational preconditions and the actual support from the school leaders

7. Conclusion and discussion
The context for the teacher training do have an immense importance for the implementation of the trained competences
The impact could be of more importance than the training program in itself
Teacher training programs must include the context for use to improve applying of the learned