One size does not fit all
Kath Murdoch and Jeni Wilson reflect on collaborative teacher learning programs at three schools.
Question: What kind of job can put you in a small room, interacting with thirty people all day, and leave you feeling isolated?
Answer: Teaching!
Although our students can be great company, teaching is often a very private and solitary experience. Depending on the physical set-up of the school, it can be rare for teachers to observe anyone else working with students or to team up with colleagues in the classroom. Time during breaks is generally so busy with meetings, yard duty or preparation that little is left for any genuine, professional interaction amongst staff.
It is often in the context of professional development activities that our need for sharing and discussion with other teachers is met. Even then, however, opportunities for valuable exchange can be limited by time, group size or relevance of the subject matter to our particular circumstances. Effective professional development happens when teachers actively engage in sustained discussion and reflection with colleagues-on issues and ideas that matter to them. Unfortunately, too many professional development programs still adopt a kind of one-size-fits-all approach, and are framed as something done ‘to’ teachers rather than by and with them.
In a recent address to teachers in Melbourne, Alan Luke reminded his audience that ‘the expertise is in the building’. He and many others argue strongly for approaches to professional learning that draw on teachers’ wisdom and encourage the constructive exchange of ideas among staff within the school context. In recent times, we have been fortunate to work with several schools that have taken up the challenge of rethinking the way they support staff in their professional learning. The following snapshots provide a few examples of how some schools have chosen to organise for teacher learning with a strong focus on collaborative, team-based discussion and reflection directly related to classroom experience. In each case, an approach has emerged that takes into account the needs, interests, previous experiences and preferred ways of working. While they differ in structure, there are some interesting common elements:
- the approach is site-based;
- there is a sustained, ongoing commitment to supporting teachers’ learning over time;
- the classroom and student learning are at the heart of the program and, in some cases, the classroom is the key site;
- the programs are specifically tied to actual curriculum development (in the classroom or across the school) rather than being generic in nature;
- approaches are team-based and collaborative with a high level of reflective discussion about classroom practice;
- the approaches and formats are flexible enough to allow for negotiation according to the needs of the staff involved;
- processes for ongoing reflection are built into the approach;
- outside consultants are used as critical friends, resource people and team members rather than experts ‘delivering’ the program; and
- most of the work is carried out in school time.
Case 1: Ringwood
Heights Primary School
Focus: Improving student thinking through inquiry learning.
Background: Kath met with the entire staff to discuss current approaches to integrated learning through inquiry. Staff expressed dissatisfaction with the level of independence students demonstrated in their work and wanted to develop more innovative, student-led approaches such as self- and peer-assessment, contract work, collaborative projects and thinking strategies.
Approach: One team (level 3 teachers) volunteered to focus on improving their integrated unit over one term. The team met for a half-day of planning and mapped out the direction of the unit. Key understandings were established, as well as strategies for helping students set goals, reflect on their learning and become conscious of their thinking.
Kath demonstrated a number of strategies in classrooms, and these sessions were recorded on video. The team then came together to view the sessions and to discuss the ways the children responded, as well as the modifications that could be made to the strategy for their own use. Other members of the team then trialled the strategies in their own classrooms and invited colleagues (who had time-release) to observe them. The team met each week after school to reflect on classroom strategies, to discuss student progress-often sharing student work samples-and to modify planning.
At the end of the term, the team presented their unit to the rest of the staff and shared the approaches they had trialled. Another team (level 4) has now completed a similar process, with a particular focus on assessing and monitoring student competence in using inquiry strategies. It is envisaged that each team will work through a similar process with teachers choosing their own foci to meet their particular needs at the time.
Effective professional
development feature:
Observing and working with each other in the classroom builds trust, overcomes isolation and provides a rich, authentic basis for reflective discussion.
West and Sunshine North Primary School
Focus: Improving team planning for integrated units: curriculum planning as professional development.
Background: These schools have structured their teaching of content (SOSE, Science, Health and aspects of Technology) around a scope and sequence of integrated unit topics. Both schools have participated in more formal professional activities with Kath to develop their program and to generate a shared understanding of how to plan an effective unit. Despite their ongoing commitment to integrated unit planning, staff at each school work hard to maintain and develop their professional understanding of what constitutes an effective unit. To this end, teachers in each school work with Kath as a ‘critical friend’ to participate in their planning meetings on a regular basis.
Approach: Sessions with Kath give the team the opportunity for an intensive, guided evaluation of the teaching and learning processes being used to support inquiry in the classroom and of their progress towards generic goals (such as improving cooperative learning, meeting the needs of ESL children, etc.). The sessions involve a great deal of thinking aloud so that each member of the team is aware of the issues that are important to their colleagues. Planning ahead is focussed and deliberate, with an emphasis on the purposes behind activities rather than the activities themselves. Online support is provided if required, to help further the goals of individual teachers, and units are published and shared with other staff once they have been implemented.
Effective professional development feature:
Planning with a critical friend helps make the process explicit. By spotlighting unit planning as a professional development activity, the task is made much more than a simple brainstorming of ideas and strategies. It becomes a disciplined, thoughtful reflection on ways to improve student learning.
Focus: Developing a shared approach to planning and teaching to better engage and challenge all learners.
Background: As part of the Independent Schools Quality Teacher program (2001), a team of leadership personnel met with Jeni several times to discuss foci for professional development. It was agreed that developing cooperative and student-centred approaches to teaching in the middle years would be a natural progression from previous professional development.
Approach: Teachers (primary and secondary) were invited to attend a full day professional development session to discuss teaching and learning beliefs and to plan classroom strategies to best meet the needs of students. Twelve volunteers were replaced by casual relieving teachers for a day. During the introductory professional development day, the teachers were asked to reflect on and discuss their beliefs about effective teaching and learning. Jeni demonstrated a number of strategies to cater for a range of learning needs. Teachers then worked in small teams to plan to try some new ideas that would motivate and actively involve learners. The day provided a rare opportunity for primary and secondary teachers to discuss their teaching demands and ideas. All teachers tried at least one new strategy in their classrooms and then discussed this with the group two weeks later. At the end of term, the teachers presented their experiences with the rest of the staff, where they further developed ideas from the full day program and shared some of their exciting classroom results.
Effective professional development feature: Making time for planning in teams, having time to practise strategies in classrooms and reporting back to peers were features of this approach. These features were effective for motivating classroom actions.
Conclusion
The term ‘professional development’ often conjures up images of work delivered by an expert and done outside school hours and outside the school itself. There are times when this kind of activity is appropriate-but the cases presented in this article demonstrate how powerful on-the-job learning can be when it is recognised, valued and made explicit. Embedded professional development approaches value the everyday experience of the teacher and place the students and the classroom at the heart of the process. These snapshots show just a glimpse of the innovative ways schools can redesign professional development and bring teachers together for those important, professional conversations about what we do, why we do it and how we can do it even better!
EQ Winter 2002 © Curriculum Corporation