In 2022, we led another experience in implementing the educator training methodology Learning to Study Texts (AET), which invites teachers of 4th and 5th grades of Elementary School to incorporate a look at the language of texts as a tool for teaching and learning. The objective of AET is to help all students develop the knowledge, skills and processes necessary for reading and understanding texts, acquiring tools to learn to think, analyze, interpret, form opinions, dialogue and move freely through the world of knowledge.

Aware that after the literacy cycle, the texts that circulate in schools become increasingly difficult for children who are beginning to “read to learn” about different disciplinary content, the Education Laboratory supports teachers in the study, planning and implementation of activities focused on reading of educational texts in the classroom, with a view to promoting the learning of specific content, starting with the area of History. Based on the strategies and training content that make up the methodology Learning to Study Texts, we help to incorporate, in practice, didactic proposals that contribute to revealing, together with students, the various layers of the texts: not only “what they say” but also “how they say it”. We do this because we know that delving into the characteristics of the language of texts can be a great ally in deepening the different curricular contents.Like all Labedu methodologies, the Learning to Study Texts he has one objective and two focuses: children's learning and the professional learning of educators. Therefore, during the project implementation process, formative situations are proposed for analysis, modeling, planning and reflection on practices and interactions that enable the appropriation of historical knowledge and literate knowledge by students, providing a new field of experience where teachers can see their students thinking, speaking and understanding better what they read.

AET implementation context in 2022

The training developed in Várzea Paulista throughout 2022 was based on face-to-face meetings, the implementation of activities with children in the classroom by educators, and the recording and sharing of teaching practices. In the face-to-face meetings, we sought to link together a set of training strategies that were divided into two blocks of content: one related to the study of the characteristics of academic texts in History textbooks, and the other associated with didactic analysis and planning of activities to be carried out in the classroom in order to develop students' reading skills. 

Between April and December, 14 meetings were held, totaling more than 40 hours of training with teachers. In total, six sequences of model activities were planned and carried out with the children, with the support of the trainers from the Education Laboratory. Within a perspective in which we understand the teacher as the subject of the training process, we organized a “spiral” path, based on action-reflection-action, instead of a linear proposal of issuing information, as usually occurs in individual courses. Therefore, before implementing each of the model activity proposals, we organized a study, analysis and planning section, allowing for a deeper understanding of as and because:

Furthermore, with each sequence of activities, the participating teachers created records of the practice to consolidate the pedagogical knowledge developed during the training. 

The texts selected by the team of experts from the Education Laboratory are in line with the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC). In the case of Várzea Paulista, the six texts presented events that recount the history of Brazil from the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500 to the discovery of the first gold mines in the interior of Brazil around 1730. They are all short texts, one page long, with no more than six paragraphs each, but with great complexity and linguistic diversity. It is worth noting that the texts proposed within the scope of the project are by no means exhaustive or sufficient to meet all learning expectations for the study of History in the 4th grade. Furthermore, the texts are important, but not the only source of information or experiences with this object of knowledge. Below, we can see how some BNCC skills for teaching History appear to be included in the work with the texts chosen for the work with the students: 

The challenge

Knowing that teachers are key to facing the challenges of reading and understanding, the training sought to contribute to a change in the way teachers see things, in the way they bring children closer to texts, so that the same academic language that initially distances students can become a lever in the search for knowledge.

The training began with a certain amount of insecurity and even some distrust. Insecurity stemming from the novelty of the content and distrust motivated by the impression that it would be too complex to be addressed with 4th grade students. At the first meeting we held to present the project, the speeches of several teachers echoed this impression. This was further contributed to by the fact that the start of the project coincided with the return to in-person classes after two years of distance learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The situation that the educators saw at that time was that many students had not yet consolidated the literacy process, and the proposal of an approach based on reading academic texts did not seem to be the most appropriate. 

However, as the teachers gained mastery over the content of the training and began to experience classroom practice, the debate became more qualified, and they began to feel like agents of the ongoing reflection and to contribute to thinking about the proposed work. On the other hand, the discoveries, productions and engagement of the children also influenced the change in the teachers' perspective.

The AET project trainers identified and recorded comments and statements from teachers that highlighted the children's achievements during the implementation of the teaching sequence activities. The following achievements stand out among them: 

• the learning perceived by teachers in children's conversations outside of class (break time, transportation, among others); 
• the impact of the project on other school subjects, whether on the topics of history or language; 
• citing children's speeches and situations that demonstrate understanding of the story and expansion of language.

In this sense, in the end, the teachers recognized the training as an opportunity to transform and qualify the work of reading and studying academic texts in the cycle in which they work. At the same time, several teachers began to realize that their achievements also contributed significantly to students being able to learn from reading texts in other disciplines as well. 

Results

Analysis of teacher learning

Individual and collective reflection on professional practice was the link proposed by AET to make the virtuous cycle of the relationship between knowledge learned in training and action in the classroom happen. To this end, participants in the training process recorded their practices and shared them along with comments and reflections on a collaborative virtual wall. Based on these records, we analyzed the reflections on shared practice.

Analysis of these results provided evidence of the gains from the training process, revealed not so much by the explicit positive assessment made by the participants, but by the reflections that place in first place aspects specific to the quality teaching practices. Among the most cited topics, the following stood out:

• a active participation of students (teaching centered on the active work of learners);
• the role of questions and inquiry processes (teaching based on the development of inquiry processes);
• the relationship between the thematic discussions and the processes of meaning construction by learners (dialogic teaching); 
• the challenging nature of the activities implemented (cognitively challenging teaching activities).

The analysis of the teachers' records also highlighted the importance of continuing education in terms of establishing learning communities and practice, processes that facilitated the socialization of experiences, knowledge and ideas in collaborative and secure environments, with a focus on helping teachers help their students learn. It became clear how important it is for us to continue creating and caring for this type of strategies in continuing education of educators.

Impact assessment

To verify the results of the training action on the children's learning process, our partners at Lepes (Laboratory of Studies and Research in Social Economy) conducted a quasi-experimental impact assessment study. To this end, data were collected both in Várzea Paulista and in a neighboring school system located in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, with sociodemographic characteristics and educational indices similar to those of the participating municipality. The data collection and analysis aimed to determine to what extent the work that the Education Laboratory does around academic language contributes not only to expanding the children's linguistic repertoire, but also – or not – to the development of other knowledge and skills related to reading comprehension.

The research included more than 2,000 4th grade elementary school students from these two municipalities, with the aim of mapping the children's learning and corroborating the advances promoted by the training. Two internationally validated reading tests were administered at the beginning and end of the year. Compared to the other municipality, the children from Várzea Paulista had a greater increase in their performance than those who did not participate in the project: 6.6% in one of the tests and 15.3% in the other.. This result suggests that when we value teachers and contribute to training that truly addresses the challenges of the classroom, we see results in children's learning. 

Furthermore, the results show that the impact was even greater on children who had the lowest scores at the beginning of the year. In other words, children who had lower scores at the beginning of the year had an even greater increase in performance with the project, which means that it was possible to include children who needed more support in the learning process. We cannot fail to consider that this topic converges with the moment of the return of the pandemic. The children who were part of the context of the project implementation were the same ones who spent the 2nd and 3rd grades in remote learning.

The implementation of the project benefited all 4th grade students and teachers in the Várzea Paulista municipal school system, as well as ensuring the strengthening of the network's continuing education structure. In the context of the 2022 implementation, for the first time in the project's trajectory, Pedagogical Coordinators (CPs) were intentionally included in the process. The objective was to provide conditions for these professionals to assist teachers in implementing classroom activities, incorporating strategies such as observing classroom practices and preparing records. This inclusion allowed for reflections on the culture of continuing education that exists in the municipal school system, as well as on the organization of the time of professionals in the education chain. In this sense, we sought to strengthen the role that the CP plays and may play as a trainer of educators within the system.