Teacher Learning: the Key to Educational Reform

Abstract

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.

Teacher learning in the context of a continuing professional development programme: A case study

“…Although knowledge of such features is very helpful for developing CPD programmes, and even though some positive results of well-structured CPD programmes have been found (Van den Bergh et al, 2014;Lydon & King, 2009), research on teachers' professional development generally yields disappointing results. Professional development activities have often been found to be ineffective or to be perceived as irrelevant by teachers (Lieberman & Pointer Mace, 2008;Opfer & Pedder, 2011). Especially changing teachers classroom behaviour sustainably remains a challenging endeavour, while this is the intended learning outcome of most CPD programmes.…”

Mastery of Active and Shared Learning Processes for Techno-Pedagogy (MASLEPT): A Model for Teacher Professional Development on Technology Integration

“…Similarly, Ingvarson (2005); Lieberman and Pointer Mace (2008) and Plummer (2005) also reviewed litera-ture focusing on the principles of effective professional development. The rationale for the review was to identify factors that were most prominent in teacher professional development programmes.…”

“…Classroom follow-up is one of the characteristics of an effective professional development programme identified by many practitioners (Ingvarson, 2005;Lieberman & Pointer Mace, 2008;Plummer, 2005). Classroom follow-up contributes significantly in enhancing teacher professional growth because they receive instant feedback on their challenges.…”

“…As a facilitator in a professional development programme, he/she continues with a classroom follow-up to support teachers in the implementation of the new knowledge. Many studies have shown that professional development programmes fail to yield the expected results because there is usually no follow-up after teachers attend such trainings (Ingvarson, 2005;Lieberman & Pointer Mace, 2008;Plummer, 2005;Tante, 2010). When there is a classroom follow-up the difficulties teachers face in implementing a lesson can be addressed on the spot.…”

“…Several studies have proven that effective teacher professional development leads to the enhancement of teachers' knowledge and skills (Hanley, Maringe, & Ratcliffe, 2008;Lieberman & Pointer-Mace, 2008). Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss and Shapley (2007) affirmed that effective teacher professional development contributes to pupils' improved learning outcomes.…”