Journal of In-Service Education

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A Note on School‐Based Inset

Lloyd Logan

To cite this article: Lloyd Logan (1988) A Note on School‐Based Inset, Journal of In-Service
Education, 14:3, 160-161, DOI: 10.1080/0305763880140306

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 A Note on School-Based Inset
Lloyd Logan
University of Queensland
These comments are prompted by a study of 14
school-based INSET programmes conducted in
government and non-government primary and
secondary schools in Queensland, Australia. A case
account of each programme was compiled by an in-
dependent writer. The 14 accounts were then
treated as data by the researcher and analysed for
design characteristics, ideology and learning prin-
ciples (Logan 1987). The analysis raised questions
about the further value of 'school based' as an
organizing concept for the practice and study of in-
service education.
School based movement
The term 'school-based' came into the language
of professional development from the school-based
curriculum movement. Since the 1960's 'school-
based' applied to INSET, curriculum and evaluation
has been a slogan attractive equally to ad-
ministrators, teachers and academics. For inservice
education it promised to administrators economies
of accommodation, travel and release costs; to
teachers the means to control the goals, content
and processes of their own professional develop-
ment; and to academics opportunities to research
new practices.
Some of this promise has been met and the case
accounts echo other records of the changed prac-
tice and governance of INSET over the past 15
years in Australia (e.g. Skilbeck, Evans and Harvey
1977; Batten 1979; Coulter and Ingvarson 1985;
Sachs and Logan 1987). These changes include an
emphasis on meeting the 'practicality ethic' (Doyle
and Ponder 1977), confidence in the worth of col-
leagues as a source of professional advice, use of
problem solving collaborative learning processes,
longer term access to on-demand and structured
support, self-directed and self-provided programs,
negotiated employment of consultants, use of
classroom observation and feedback, evaluation
focused on performance rather than performer, and
the recognition by teachers of the need for profes-
sional development. Certainly not all of the changes
in the management, planning and evaluation of in-
service education are attributable to the school-
based thrust, but it has been a major concept in-
160
forming the thinking and practice of INSET in
Australia since 1973.
During the analysis of the 14 case accounts for
common and distinguishing design characteristics,
it became evident that the description school-based
glossed over or concealed two significant aspects
of inservice education at the school level. One was
the ideological imperatives informing each programme,
the other, the centrality of experience as the bon-
ding factor.
Ideological orientation
School-based teacher development activities in
this study did not label, as the term might suggest,
a single ideological position on the desired ends and
means of INSET. Ideologically, two distinct consti-
tuencies are evident in the case accounts. For one
INSET offers the opportunities and the vehicle to
revise radically the purposes, processes and ends
of schooling within the compass of wider social
revision. For the other, by far the dominant, it is
the means to improve the effectiveness of present
schooling practices in order to achieve current
social economic and cultural ends. Within these
broad orientations three specific ideological
stances, in the terms of Burrell and Morgan (1979),
were identified as functionalist, interpretivist and
radical humanist (Logan 1987, 195ff).
Identifying the ideological dimension of INSET
draws attention to the social and political aspects
of teacher development, and provides a means to
link teacher development theory and practice with
social theory. In terms of practice, a requirement
to explicate and justify ideological assumptions
motivating participation in a programme both
strengthens planning and execution, and decreases
the likelihood of disillusionment and disaffiliation
during the course of the programme Taken together,
these two aspects, one theoretical the other prac-
tical, are both means to gain insights into the
teachers' role in the generation and validation of
personal and collective professional knowledge
constructs, as well as insights into the school's role
in the generation and validation of social
knowledge.
Experience
The place of experience in the programs was the
second issue raised by the analyses of the design
features. The accounts suggest that it might be
counterproductive to associate professional learn-
ing so closely with a specific site, in this instance
the school, since it suggests distinctive practices
and theory peculiar to that setting. Neither the case
accounts nor the teacher development literature
support the existence of distinctive school-based
practices and theories. On the contrary, learning
procedures described in the case accounts reflect
the principles of adult learning theorists such as
Knowles (1978) and Sprinthall and Thies-Sprinthall
(1983) and the procedures identified by Joyce and
Showers (1980) review of effective staff training
in industry, commerce, agriculture and the military.
To place overtly teacher professional development
study and practice within a broad theoretical
framework and set of processes rather than to pro-
secute it as a distinct entity promises a firmer foun-
dation for both practice and theory development.
The significant element common to teacher
development activities identified in this study is in-
dividual and collective experience. Taking ex-
perience rather than location as the organising
focus promises benefits such as people transfor-
ming their environment is made the central focus,
teacher development is located within the broader
theories of adult development and professional lear-
ning, partitioning professional development by loca-
tion, process and end (e.g. school-instruction,
formal-informal award non-award) is avoided, and
integrating technical and affective aspects of in-
dividual and collective professional development is
promoted.
Kolb (1985) describes experiential learning
as 'a program for profoundly re-creating our per-
sonal lives and social system'. Kolb's schema of
experiential learning was used to interpret the ex-
periences described in the accounts as learning pro-
cesses. This analysis illustrated that concrete ex-
prience and active experimentation were the domi-
nant modes leading to accommodative knowledge
and imitation. Reflection was mainly of the
technical and practical forms in Smyth's (1986)
terms, and a limited range of learning styles was
catered for. Finally the tasks appeared to offer a
relatively low level of cognitive challenge.
The diversity of learning processes and the in-
tensity of professional challenge which appeared
to characterise the school-based INSET described
in these 14 programs disappeared when the ac-
tivities were analysed in terms of Kolb's construct
to experiential learning.
Conclusion
'School-based' has been a major concept shap-
ing the thinking and practice of inservice education.
The term describes a pot-pourrie of principles and
practices clustered loosely by their location in
school and a practical orientation. This study sug-
gests that the meaning and value of 'school-based'
as an organizing concept has been blurred. Conti-
nuing to use the term to describe the pot-pourri of
INSET activities that occur in schools has at least
two limiting effects. One is that it tends to inhibit
relating school-based INSET to wider theories of
professional development and to theories of social
development. The other is that it inhibits the ex-
amination of aspects of INSET which could benefit
both theory and practice. The ideological orienta-
tion, and the character of learning processes with
their related forms of knowledge are two such
aspects pf INSET identified in this study through
using experience rather than location as the
organizing concept for inquiry. With this in mind,
professional experiential learning, independent of
locative limitations, is a promising organising con-
cept on which to base further practice and study.
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