Educators as professional learners
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The document discusses the importance of continuous professional learning for educators. It notes that traditional "training" models are insufficient for ambitious reforms in education. Effective professional learning is centered around critical teaching activities, grows from investigations of practice, and is built on substantial professional discourse among colleagues. When structured as ongoing learning communities, it allows educators to collaboratively solve problems, develop skills, and improve standards of practice over time. Technology can help facilitate participation in these important professional learning opportunities.
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Educators as professional learners
- 1. Educators as Professional Learners Derek Wenmoth Director, eLearning CORE Education Ltd. http://www.core-ed.net http://blog.core-ed.net/derek
- 2. How we remember it… Teacher -centric Group instruction Focus on exam scores Punishments for failure Subject silos Timetabled etc.
- 3. All trained and ready… “ Unless we continue to grow and learn as teachers after we graduate, within 3-5 years we will revert to teaching in ways we remember being taught” Comment from Dennis Rose, 1993, summarising the findings of his PhD literature review.
- 4. Continuous Professional Learning… “ The concept of continuous professional development in which teachers are given time to collaborate with colleagues and update knowledge and skills and are expected to assume much of the responsibility for their own professional growth and development has been identified by teachers as a critical element in school reform” Professional Development Through Learning Communities: http://www. edutopia .org/professional-development-through-learning-communities
- 5. Training vs. learning “ The dominant ‘training’ model of teacher development – a model focused primarily on expanding an individual’s repertoire of well-defined and skillful classroom practice – is not adequate to the ambitious visions of teaching and schooling embedded in present reform initiatives. . . . The test of teachers’ professional development opportunities resides in their capacity to engage teachers in . . . study, investigation, and experimentation. . . . Reform calls not for training, but for adequate ‘opportunity to learn’ (and investigate, experiment, consult, or evaluate) embedded in the routine organization of teachers’ work day and work year.” Resnick, 1991; Soltis, 1981; Little, 1993
- 6. Key Features of Professional Learning… It is centred around the critical activities of teaching and learning—planning lessons, evaluating student work, developing curriculum—rather than in abstractions and generalities; It grows from investigations of practice through cases, questions, analysis, and criticism; and It is built on substantial professional discourse that fosters analysis and communication about practices and values in ways that build colleagueship and standards of practice. Ball and Cohen, 1999
- 7. Key Features of Professional Learning… It is centred around the critical activities of teaching and learning—planning lessons, evaluating student work, developing curriculum—rather than in abstractions and generalities; It grows from investigations of practice through cases, questions, analysis, and criticism; and It is built on substantial professional discourse that fosters analysis and communication about practices and values in ways that build colleagueship and standards of practice. Ball and Cohen, 1999
- 8. Centred around the critical activities of teaching and learning… Planning Assessing Teaching Resource preparation Monitoring Feed back etc
- 9. Key Features of Professional Learning… It is centred around the critical activities of teaching and learning—planning lessons, evaluating student work, developing curriculum—rather than in abstractions and generalities; It grows from investigations of practice through cases, questions, analysis, and criticism; and It is built on substantial professional discourse that fosters analysis and communication about practices and values in ways that build colleagueship and standards of practice. Ball and Cohen, 1999
- 10. It grows from investigations of practice Would grouping help? What are the best resources to use? Is each child getting enough of my attention? What’s the best way to introduce the topic? What if I integrate my curriculum? Who is helping who? Are my instructions clear enough? Should I teach maths in the morning?
- 11. Key Features of Professional Learning… It is centred around the critical activities of teaching and learning—planning lessons, evaluating student work, developing curriculum—rather than in abstractions and generalities; It grows from investigations of practice through cases, questions, analysis, and criticism; and It is built on substantial professional discourse that fosters analysis and communication about practices and values in ways that build colleagueship and standards of practice. Ball and Cohen, 1999
- 12. Built on substantial professional discourse Closely related to the notion of reflective practice is the notion of a professional community that provides an effective context for teachers to raise questions, share problems, explore, plan, try out and reflect on the effectiveness of learning; to learn and change as professionals.
- 13. Learning Communities Knowledge construction in our society is rarely done in isolation. People in a field work together building on the ideas and practices of the group. Learning increasingly takes place in communities of practice or learning communities A learning community is a group of people who share a common interest in a topic or area, a particular form of discourse about their phenomena, tools and sense-making approaches for building collaborative knowledge, and valued activities. Professional Development Through Learning Communities: http://www. edutopia .org/professional-development-through-learning-communities
- 14. How can technology help? Facilitating participation in learning communities, irrespective of time/place Creating opportunities to learn at time/pace/place appropriate to each person Providing ability to engage in areas that are relevant Creating opportunity to participate at individual’s own level of concern Providing tools for participation Allowing individuals to create a personal learning environment to manage their online “life”
- 15. Online Communities Some examples of online professional learning communities: Centre4 (ICTPD clusters, NZ) http://centre4.interact.ac.nz EdNA (Australia) http://www.edna.edu.au TKI (curriculum, NZ) http://www.tki.org.nz
- 16. Tools for participation Collaborative document writing, eg: http://docs.google.com Blogs, eg: http://www.blogger.com Synchronous audio, video, chat eg: http://www.skype.com Wikis, eg: http://www.seedwiki.com
- 17. Social Networking tools Some examples of social networking sites: Sharing photos, eg: http://www.flickr.com Finding school mates, eg: http://www.oldfriends.co.nz Professional linking, eg: http://www.linkedin.com Sharing bookmarks, eg: http://del.icio.us Tagging The tags people give to the items they save provide a way of linking with others of similar interests.
- 18. Bringing information to me RSS (Really simple syndication) Brings information to me, rather than having to visit booklisted sites to find it. A powerful tool for “feeding” current and relevant information to community members
- 19. Managing my life online I use online tools and environments to manage… My time and appointments News and current events Professional reading Communications Communities and memberships Personal study and interests My work and workplace
- 20. Tools I Use… My blog - http://blog.core-ed.net/derek My company website - http://www.core-ed.net My calendar - iCal My email - “POP” accounts - “Mail” or “Entourage” My RSS aggregator - http://www.netnewswire.com My PLE aggregation - http://www.netvibes.com My communities (eg) - http://derekw.ning.com My ‘favourites’ - http://del.icio.us/dwenmoth My browser - http://www.mozilla.com (Firefox) My photos - http://www. flickr . com/dwenmoth My booklist - http://www.shelfari.com/dwenmoth/shelf My Slideshows - http://www.slideshare.net/dwenmoth
- 21. Questions Who do I share ideas with? Where does my inspiration come from? What professional reading do I do? What professional groups do I belong to? Who provides feedback on my teaching? How substantial is my involvement? What technologies am I using - and how are they contributing in ways that I couldn’t otherwise achieve?