Teacher Professional Learning and Development - Assignment Example

? Teacher Professional Learning and Development Number: Lecturer: Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 Focus on valued student outcomes 3 Research findings 3 Outcomes and expectations 4 Taking responsibility 4 2.Worthwhile content 5 Research findings 5 Fixed programmes versus context-specific approaches 5 3.Integration of knowledge 6 Research findings 6 Integrating theory and practice 6 Tailoring the emphasis 7 4.Assessment for professional inquiry 7 Research findings 7 Developing self-regulatory learning skills 8 5.Multiple opportunities to learn and apply information 8 Research findings 9 Trust and challenge 9 Engagement rather than volunteering 10 Conclusion 11 References 14 INTRODUCTION This is the synthesis of the research on teacher professional learning and development that has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on valued student outcomes. Its findings relate to teachers who have received at least some initial teacher education and who are in the process of expanding their knowledge and refining their skills. This should be useful particularly to those who are involved in helping teachers develop the professional skills they need to teach challenging curricula to diverse students, including students who typically have not achieved well in some of our educational systems. There are four out ten important understandings that arise from the evidence base. These include notwithstanding the influence of factors such as socio-economic status, home, and community, student learning is strongly influenced by what and how teachers teach. Teaching is complex and teachers’ moment-by-moment decisions about lesson content and process are shaped by multiple factors, not just the agendas of those looking for changes in practice. Such factors include teachers’ knowledge and their beliefs about what is important to teach, how students learn, and how to manage student behavior and meet external demands. It is important to create conditions that are responsive to the ways in which teachers learn. A recent overview of the research identified the following as important for encouraging learning: engaging learners’ prior conceptions about how the world works; developing deep factual and conceptual knowledge, organized into frameworks that facilitate retrieval and application; and promoting met cognitive and self-regulatory processes that help learners define goals and then monitor their progress towards them. Professional learning is strongly determined by the context in which the teacher practices. This is usually the classroom, which, in turn, is strongly influenced by the wider school culture and the community, and society in which the school is located. Teachers’ daily experiences in their practice context determine their understandings, and their understandings determine their experiences. The focus of this particular research is on the conditions for professional learning and development that impact positively on valued student outcomes (Sleezer, 2002). 1. Focus on valued student outcomes Professional learning experiences that focus on the relationship between particular teaching activities and valued student outcomes are associated with positive impacts on those outcomes. Research findings The major factor influencing whether professional learning activities have a positive impact on outcomes for students is the extent to which those outcomes form the rationale for, and ongoing focus of, teacher engagement. Such focus requires teachers to understand the links between particular teaching activities, the ways different groups of students respond, and what their students actually learn. In addition, success needs to be defined not in terms of teacher mastery of new strategies but in terms of the impact that changed practice has on valued outcomes. Because teachers work in such varied contexts, there is no guarantee that any specific approach to teaching will have the desired outcomes for students. Therefore, it is important to keep progress towards the valued outcomes constantly in view. Professional learning opportunities that have small impact on student outcomes typically focus on mastery of specific teaching skills without checking whether the use of those skills has the desired effect on students. Outcomes and expectations Targeted outcomes for students may be relatively shallow, typically involving the learning of specific knowledge and skills. They also maybe wide: comprehending text, learning how to learn, developing collaborative skills, or improving well-being. Whether it is narrow or broad, they must be clear to the teachers engaging in professional learning experiences. Otherwise, the teachers’ engagement will not make a difference for their students. Where achievement problems are entrenched, possibilities for improved outcomes may become apparent only over time, as teachers see evidence that students can gain new knowledge and skills when taught differently. Higher expectations of students by teachers come from professional learning experiences that focus on the links between particular teaching activities and valued student outcomes are associated with positive impacts on those outcomes. From the improved outcome, there is little evidence to suggest that they can be developed independently of such improvement. Taking responsibility Teachers who are engaged in cycles of effective professional learning take greater responsibility for the learning of all the students. They don't dismiss learning difficulties as an inevitable consequence of the home or community environment. As they take more responsibility, and as they discover that their new professional knowledge and practice are having a positive impact on their students, they start feeling more effective as teachers. Heightened responsibility is developed most effectively when teachers observe that their new teaching practices are having positive impacts on their students. Relating student learning issues to an expectation that teachers will address them is likely, however, to lead to blaming and a lack of learning unless teachers are confident that they will be given the support they need to develop more effective practices. 2. Worthwhile content The knowledge and skills developed are those that have been identified as effective in achieving valued student outcomes. Research findings Unproven ideas can be found in different educational jurisdictions. The popularity of particular professional development programmes is not always matched by their impact on students. Professional knowledge and skills that do have a positive impact on student outcome follows evidence based principles of teaching effectiveness. The approaches in which they are embedded have withstood the rigors of policy debates, have been recommended by national school subject associations, or are based on accepted research findings in general. Some ineffective professional learning approaches also have been justified on the basis of fake research or policy, but not the actual research or policy that has been adopted by a professional body or that forms part of a wider programme of research and development. Fixed programmes versus context-specific approaches In some educational jurisdictions, professional development takes the form of fixed programmes meant to develop particular knowledge and skills that have been identified as effective. Although they may be based on sound research about student learning, such programmes are developed independently of the participating teachers’ practice contexts and tend to have less impact on student outcomes than approaches that are context-specific. Context-specific approaches promote teaching practices that are in agreement with the principles of effective teaching but also systematically assist teachers to translate those principles into locally adapted applications. By developing this kind of knowledge teachers can solve identified issues about student outcomes in their particular teaching situations well. 3. Integration of knowledge The integration of essential teacher knowledge and skills promotes broad teacher learning and effective changes in practice. Research findings This principle revolves around meaningful change. To achieve a firm foundation for improved student outcomes, teachers must integrate their knowledge about the curriculum, and about how to teach it effectively and how to assess whether students have learned it. Teachers require knowledge and skills in assessment to maintain a student focus: the ability to identify exactly what students know and can do is a prerequisite for teaching that is responsive to each student’s needs. But teachers cannot develop their assessment knowledge in isolation from their knowledge of pedagogical content, which is also important as they focus their teaching on meeting the student needs they identify. Integrating theory and practice Theory and practice need to be integrated. For effective professional development, theories of curriculum, effective teaching, and assessment are developed alongside their applications to practice. This integration enables teachers to use their theoretical understandings as the basis for making ongoing, principled decisions about practice. Focusing on skills only does not develop the deep understandings teachers need if they are to change practice in ways that flexibly meet the complex demands of everyday teaching. In fact, without a thorough understanding of the theory, teachers are apt to believe they are teaching in ways consistent with the promoted practice when in fact the relationship between theory and practice is actually very superficial and any changes they make have small impact on student outcomes. Also, using approaches that integrate theory and practice is more effective than merely teaching theoretical constructs to teachers without helping them translate those constructs into practice. Tailoring the emphasis When designing professional learning opportunities, it is very important to consider teachers’ prior knowledge of curriculum and assessment and how they view existing practice. This takes teacher diversity into account just like we expect teachers to take student diversity into account. For example, if teachers have strong curriculum knowledge but weak assessment knowledge, effective approaches to professional development will recognize this. Teachers also have very diverse professional learning needs that arise from the specific demands that their particular students place on their teaching skills (Budd, 2005). 4. Assessment for professional inquiry Information about what students need to know and do is being used to identify what teachers need to know and do. Research findings To engage in professional inquiry that makes a difference for students, teachers need to learn how to identify the pedagogical content knowledge and skills they require to assist their students to achieve the valued outcomes. Most models of professional inquiry focus on structures and processes but not the nature of the content or understandings to be developed and the skills to be refined and the relationship between teacher inquiry and student outcomes. For professional inquiry to have an impact on outcomes, these elements are necessary. Teachers need sophisticated assessment skills if they are to identify what their students know and can do in relation to valued outcomes and what further learning they themselves need if they are to assist their students in learning. Assessment of this kind cannot take place outside of the teaching and learning process because it is integral to it. Teachers, therefore, require a variety of ways of assessing their students’ progress, ways that include, but go beyond, standardized testing. These include interviews with students about their learning, systematic analysis of students work, and classroom observations. Developing self-regulatory learning skills It is essential that teachers learn how to identify the needs of their students and their own professional learning needs, but this is not all. Teachers also should develop the self-regulatory skills that will enable them to monitor and reflect on the effectiveness of changes they make to their practice. This latter inquiry will reveal to them what ongoing adjustments they must make to maximize student outcomes. Without such self-regulation, changing practice becomes an end in itself instead of a means to benefit students. Self-regulation is important for all learners, whether students or teachers; it is the process by which they get feedback on their efforts to learn. Critical to such self-regulation is the identification of intended outcomes and of clues that will make it possible to monitor progress towards those outcomes. Prescribing sets of desirable behaviors’ or letting teachers to develop better practice in the absence of clearly defined goals do not support the development of self-regulation. This method of assessment information is very different from traditional uses, such as sorting and labeling students or making summative judgments about teaching quality. Indeed, traditional conceptions of assessment are not useful to self-regulated inquiry: teachers are unlikely to participate in an inquiry process in an open and meaningful way if a less-than-desirable outcome puts their job, pay, or reputation at risk. 5. Multiple opportunities to learn and apply information To make significant changes to their practice, teachers require multiple opportunities to learn new information and understand its implications for practice. Furthermore, they should encounter these opportunities in environments that offer both trust and challenge. Research findings Changing practice and developing the skills of professional inquiry requires a deeper understanding. For this reason, teachers should have multiple opportunities to absorb new information and translate it into practice. Learning is cyclical rather than linear, so teachers should be able to revisit partially understood ideas as they try them out in their everyday contexts. Such opportunities should involve a variety of activities that are meant to promote acquisition of the target knowledge and skills. Much of the research literature privileges particular types of activity, such as modeling and coaching, but a synthesis of the research does not show any particular activity is of itself more effective than another. The most important thing is that activities are designed and aligned to meet the particular learning purpose. For substantive learning, such as that involved in improving their students’ reading comprehension, mathematical problem solving, or scientific reasoning, teachers require extended time in which to learn and change. In such cases, it typically takes one to two years for teachers to understand how existing beliefs and practices are different from those being promoted, to produce the required pedagogical content knowledge, and to change practice. Given that teachers engaged in professional learning are simultaneously maintaining a teaching workload, and that many of their existing assumptions about effective practice are being challenged, it is not a surprise that so much time is required. Time, however, is not a sufficient condition for change: teachers should also have their current practice challenged and to be supported as they make changes. Trust and challenge Opportunities to learn must occur in environments characterized by both trust and challenge because change is as much about the emotions. To make significant changes to their practice, teachers should have multiple opportunities to learn new information and understand its implications for practice. Furthermore, they should encounter these opportunities in environments that offer both trust and challenge as it is about knowledge and skills. Expectations for change cannot flourish if teachers take them as reflections on their competence or challenges to their professional identity. If emotional issues are not embraced, teachers may close themselves off to learning and adopt defensive postures to avoid exposing their inadequacies. At the opposite extreme, if professional vulnerabilities are allowed to rule the learning agenda, then outcomes for students are unlikely to improve. All learning activities must have the twin elements of trust and challenge. Limited professional learning takes place without challenge. Change, however, involves risk; before teachers take on that risk, they should trust that their honest efforts will be supported, not belittled. Engagement rather than volunteering In a learning situation, learners may be present physically but lack commitment to the learning process. In the case of teachers’ professional learning, participation is sometimes made voluntary as a way to avoid this problem. However, the research evidence does not support this approach. Prior commitment does not guarantee greater engagement, and both voluntary and mandatory teacher participation have occurred with positive and negative outcomes for students. The circumstances that lead to participation earlier bear a complex relationship to further engagement. Administrative and peer pressures can affect volunteering. Furthermore, participating teachers, whether or not they are volunteers, rarely believe that they will need to engage in in-depth learning or make substantive changes to their practice. Those who provide the professional development typically do believe this but don’t mention it. Therefore, learning is likely to prove uncomfortable even if the participants have volunteered. The research evidence shows that learning important content through engagement in meaningful activities, supported by a rationale for participation that is based on identified student needs, has a great impact on student outcomes more than the circumstances that lead teachers to sign up. These two dimensions determine whether the teachers engage in the learning process sufficiently to expand their knowledge and extend their skills in ways that lead to improved student outcomes. Initial engagement can be promoted by identifying specific issues that teachers view as real and then offering a vision of how they might be solved. Currently, subsequent engagement is promoted by worthwhile learning activities and by opportunities to negotiate the meaning of existing and new theories and explore their differing impacts on students (Scoville, 2005). Conclusion The five principles discussed above do not operate independently; rather, they are integrated to inform cycles of learning and action. The principles can be brought together in a cycle of inquiry and knowledge-building and framed from the perspective of teachers and their leaders because it is they who must answer them. But it is assumed that they will get support to do so: the research evidence indicates that involving external expertise can be crucial for promoting this kind of teacher inquiry and knowledge building. The first principle focuses on valued student outcomes. This means that the cycle of professional inquiry and knowledge-building begins with a question about students’ learning needs. These needs are obtained by first identifying the outcomes that the community values and then assessing how all students are doing in relation to these outcomes. Teachers’ understanding of what outcomes are important and achievable often emerge in the course of professional learning cycles as new possibilities suggest themselves. What is most important is that the teacher always maintains a focus on the students. The second principle is about teachers learning worthwhile knowledge and skills. Those teaching approaches that have been a subject to research and wide debate are most likely to have positive impacts on student outcomes. Teachers need to be able to answer the question, “What knowledge and skills do us as teachers need to help students bridge the gap between current understandings and valued student outcomes?” the third principle concerns the importance of integrating theory and practice as they relate to curriculum, teaching practice, and assessment knowledge in the areas that are the focus for professional learning. Teaching is a complex activity in which moment-by-moment decisions are affected by teachers’ beliefs and theories about what it means to be effective. Theoretical understandings reveal coherence to these decisions. The fourth principle identifies the need to use assessment as the basis for professional inquiry. If student learning needs, professional learning needs, and worthwhile content are to be aligned, teachers must be able to discover what students already know and can do and how to build on that knowledge in depth, rather than superficial, ways. In the most effective professional learning, judged by student outcomes, leaders are active participants. Leaders are responsible for setting up ongoing, useful opportunities that promote teacher learning. Even when external experts are involved, leaders still play an important role in developing a realistic vision of alternative possibilities, modeling what it means to be a learner and managing teacher engagement in the learning process. The circumstances in which teachers join professional learning are not as important as the conditions that promote fruitful engagement. The fifth principle concerns the conditions that promote engagement in professional learning once teachers have identified what they need to learn. It is about providing multiple opportunities for teachers to learn and practise new knowledge and skills in environments characterized by trust and challenge. From the given varied contexts in which they work, there can be no guarantee that any specific activity will have the anticipated result. Once the experts withdraw their support, teachers should be able to determine for themselves the effectiveness of their actions. Thus, the extent to which they develop self-regulatory skills is one of the most powerful determinants of ongoing improvement. References Bogardus, A. (2009). Professional in human resource certification study guide. Wiley. Budd, J. W., & Scoville, J. G. (2005). The Ethics of human resource and Industrial Relations. Cornell University Press. Cecil, R. D., & Rothwell, W. J. (2006). Next generation management development. Wiley. Coleman, C. (2001). Interior Design Handbook of Professional Practise. McGraw Hill Med/Tech. Scott, J. C., & Reynolds, D. H. (2010). Handbook of workplace assessment. Wiley. Sleezer, C., Wentling, T. L., & Roger, C. L. (2002). Human Resource Development and Information Technology. Springer. 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