This paper presents a multi-faceted professional development program in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aimed at supporting early year in-service teachers in their implementation of a brain-targeted teaching (BTT) pedagogy. We drew from the socio-cultural theory to investigate how four early year teacher educators working within a collegial peer coaching environment grounded in reflection were able to adopt and apply a contemporary professional development model. The context of the 13-week convergent mixed methods study was at a public kindergarten school in Abu Dhabi that served approximately 300 students. Data was collected through teachers’ sense of efficacy scale (TSES), semi-structured interviews, weekly reports, and reflection sheets. Findings revealed (a) an increased teacher score change in teacher self-efficacy for instructional strategies after the professional development, (b) the BTT pedagogy provided participants with perceptions of change in child-centered instruction as needed for problem-solving skills development, (c) positive perceptions of collaboration, which led to, clarification in understanding, development of new ideas, and influenced teacher self-efficacy, and (d) through reflection, a shift in understanding towards child-centered instruction, salient decision making, and positive feelings towards teacher self-efficacy. The way in which each component of the model was integrated has implications for both theory and practice. Specifically, our findings highlight the need for policy-wide coherence in teacher professional development programs and for further analysis examining how collegial peer coaching contributes to knowledge acceptance and application of learning.

Authors:
Hiea Mizyed, Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates
Christine Eccles, Johns Hopkins University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Hiea Mizyed is an assistant professorial lecturer working at the largest federal applied higher education institution in the UAE. Hiea focuses on shaping pre-service teachers' pedagogical practices informed by cognitive science.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiea-a-mizyed-edd-22854156/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hiea-Mizyed

Additional website of interest
https://www.drhieamizyed.com/

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