Professional learning and development

Effective professional learning provides much more than just information or shares strategies and approaches to teaching. It supports teachers in gaining new insights and acquiring new skills or techniques that can be embedded within their practice to improve student learning and outcomes.

And time. Time to reflect on information, time to consider its implications for the classroom, time to share thinking and collaborate with colleagues, time to plan for implementing, new skills and techniques, and time to reflect and review.

Professional learning and development is at the heart of an effective and continuously growing teaching profession

– Fullan and Hargreaves (2016)

The Education Endowment Foundation (UK) recently released its Professional Development Guidance Report underpinned by evidence-based research to support schools and teachers in selecting and designing high quality PD. Their 3 recommendations are (you can read about them in detail here):

• When designing and selecting professional development, focus on the mechanisms

• Ensure that professional development effectively builds knowledge, motivates staff, develops teaching techniques, and embeds practice

• Implement professional development programmes with care, taking into consideration the context and needs of the school.

schoolED’s professional learning workshops and curriculum days are designed with these recommendations of high quality PD in mind. They are designed to empower teachers and school support staff by providing the critical skills, knowledge and practical application to develop their teaching and support capabilities to maximise their potential and to reach their professional goals.

Grounded in evidence-based research, consultants build staff knowledge through collegial examples of successful practice, and develops the capabilities in teaching practice and techniques, leading change, promoting trust and building high performing teams.

Time for collaboration and planning is always an important part of the professional learning experience to ensure the learning moves into planning, implementation and embedding into practice.

Taking into consideration the context and needs of a school acknowledges that often professional development is not ‘one-size-fits-all’ and schoolED’s customised approach to PD means the learning can align with mandated professional practices or a school’s strategic intent and current priorities.

Click here for an example of how we work with the context of a school to provide meaningful and purposeful professional learning.