We propose that the advent and ubiquity of new media tools and social networking resources provide a means for professional, networked learning to “scale up.” We preface our discussion with a review of research that has led us to argue for professional learning communities, document the policies and practices of professional development in high-achieving countries internationally that have transformed the way teachers learn, and discuss online social networking as it is being used for teacher learning. Our 10-year experience at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching gave us an opportunity to learn to make multimedia representations of practice for use in both preservice and professional development. We believe that making practice public in this way can be transformative.
This letter to the next president of the United States recommends the transformation of teacher in-service learning as a powerful means of education reform. Too often, professional development is perceived by teachers as being idiosyncratic and irrelevant. The authors recommend a reconceptualization of professional learning for practicing teachers, in which educators are involved in learning communities, these communities evolve over time, and they revolve around norms of openness, scholarly rigor, and collaborative construction of professional knowledge. The authors describe three such environments of professional learning—the National Writing Project, the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and the Quest Project for Signature Pedagogies in Teacher Education—and recommend that the incoming chief executive should capitalize on the strengths of such programs and extend them to many more teachers nationwide.
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