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THE PURPOSE OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
THE PURPOSE OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Professional Learning is more than the acquisition of skills and knowledge to improve organisational outcomes. Professional learning is also about energising people, connecting them to a nurturing learning community, and motivating them to recognise their strengths and their ability to confidently tackle the tough stuff.
Far too often, deficit thinking, competitive performative work, and our negative internal voices undermine the creation of energising and inviting climates for professional learning.
Professional learning can be a powerful cultural practice that generates the motivational energy needed to create resilient and responsive learning communities that are able to tackle problems and sustain a commitment to growth and improvement. A healthy learning community nurtures its members as valued contributors to the shared skills and knowledge of an organisation. It also ensures that professional learning is differentiated to draw from, build on and maximise a diverse range of expertise.
Understanding that people are more likely to feel committed to what they believe in and are more influenced by their feelings than their thoughts, it is important to recognise that sustained commitment to personal development requires significant social and emotional work. Therefore, it is important to build trust, generate small wins, and build confidence and connection among staff. A focus on collaborative and dialogic practices can help contribute to building confidence and connection by providing peer support and modelling through the social presence and encouragement of peers.
Professional learning can also help to combat boredom and alienation while increasing competence and professional satisfaction. Additionally, because teachers' beliefs and attitudes about teaching and instructional practices come largely from their classroom experiences, professional learning activities must also make direct and practical links to the teacher's classroom responsibilities and experiences to avoid teacher disengagement.
Taking a strengths based approach to identifying and building on staff capacity alongside an appreciative inquiry approach also helps to value and build upon the strengths and expertise people bring to an organisation rather than highlighting and working within demotivating and demoralising deficit spaces. We still need to take these spaces on, but are more likely to do so successfully if our staff are experiencing success in other areas and feel that what they bring to the problem solving table is valued.
There can also be a variety of factors that can cause teachers to feel anxious about sharing their vulnerabilities or perceived weaknesses. This can make professional learning spaces highly uncomfortable and threatening. It is important that we model our own vulnerabilities, share our challenges as well as our successes and encourage a willingness to take risks and trial strategies that might not work, because at least in trying them, we learn.
MOTIVATING AND ENGAGING ADULT LEARNERS
MOTIVATING AND ENGAGING ADULT LEARNERS
Unfortunately, professional learning can be viewed as a disengaging and demotivatingly time consuming add-on or check-box on an administrative list of 'must dos'. However, in schools where professional learning is contextually relevant, driven by staff input, and differentiated it can be a valued, engaging and energising space.
Sustaining engagement is of critical importance as staff disengagement can lead to withdrawal and defensive behaviours, as well as emotional absence, and passive, or partially enacted performative work. Disengagement, stifled professional creativity and passive compliance are further exacerbated when professional learning initiatives are determined from the top-down with little consultation or connection with 'on the ground' needs.
TYPES OF ENAGEMENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE
THE 6 PRINCIPLES OF ADULT LEARNING
Adapted from: The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Resource Development - Knowles, Holton & Swanson (2015)
What Works in Professional Development - Thomas Guskey & Kwang Suk Yoon.
Beyond these 6 principles, there are a variety of other factors that influence adult learning, these include the individual learner's stage of development, situational differences, and the goals and purposes for learning.
Andragogy (or adult learning) recognises and works best in practice when it is adapted to fit the uniqueness of the learners and the learning situation.
Linking effective professional learning with effective teaching practice - Peter Cole
The Five Learning Disciplines: From Individual to Organizational Learning - Peter Senge
Change in practice or mindset can be a gradual and difficult process for teachers who are often navigating multiple cognitive and emotional demands on their energy.
Professional learning programs need to align with or connect to teachers’ current practices in some way as drastically different approaches will suffer 'switching costs' as the cognitive effort of staff is depleted and therefore likely to create resistance or poor implementation.
Start with practical simulations or demonstrations and highlight how they respond to a specific need evidenced in teachers' classrooms. Then make connection to theory and concepts to encourage valuing of the practice rather than parroting of buzz words.
Provide continued and sustained opportunities for staff to interact and share ideas and experiences in response to the professional learning they have experienced.
DIFFERENTIATING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
DIFFERENTIATING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
What it is and why we need to do it
MODEL OF SKILL ACQUISITION
Adapted from Dreyfus, S.E., & Dreyfus, H.L. (1980). a Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition
When we resist a deficit view of teachers' capacity, meet them at their point of need, and appreciate their strengths and hopes we can promote sustained learning and growth, as well as improving long term wellbeing outcomes. This is important, because we want our educators to walk into learning spaces with the energy and enthusiasm that comes from feeling valued, competent and confident. The self-efficacy of educators can be adversely effected if they are frequently dragged outside of their zone of proximal development, rather than building on and sustaining engagement through their strengths and areas of existing competence.
Differentiation is knowing what your learners already know and can do, then using this information to provide diversified opportunities for them to engage with their learning and take the next steps to build on this existing knowledge and skills. Differentiation is also about finding different ways for learners to engage with their learning, and to motivate their interest, commitment and effort. It is also about providing the right supports for students thinking and development of skills, and then developing scaffolded and open-ended spaces for learners to explore their thinking and rehearse or apply their skills.
In education, our focus is on developing the ability of educators and school staff to enact skills and apply knowledge in ways that improve student learning outcomes. To effectively differentiate our provision of professional learning, we need to recognise that participants will be at different stages in their acquisition of skills and bring with them diverse understanding of conceptual and content based knowledge.
EVALUATING LEARNERS' VALUING OF LEARNING
HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE PL
HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE PL
Strategies to meet people at their point of need
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SESSIONS
Diversify Content: How do learners engage with and access the information they need to learn in different ways?
Provide written materials, videos and real time demonstrations to illustrate the learning and make these available to access after the session. Provide written and/or visual instructions so that participants aren't relying on remembering verbal instructions.
Diversify Process: How are learners given different opportunities to take in, and make sense of the content they engage with and access?
Provide time for individual contemplation, group discussions and collaborative learning activities. Emphasise time to apply learning through analysis of case studies or participation in simulations and rehearsal strategies rather than simply consuming content.
Diversify Products: What opportunities do learners have to show what they know, understand, can do, say, make or write in different ways?
Don't rely on a final written response to evaluate learning. Create space in the session to circulate and 'catch' the learning as it occurs by engaging in conversation with and observing participants as well as end of session reflections. Seeking out time to 'catch' learning mid session can also help you respond to possible misconceptions or misunderstandings.
Explore Exit Strategies as a way to 'catch' learning during or at the end of a learning session.
Consider Environment: How does the learning environment create a positive climate for learning and motivate engagement with the activity of learning?
Set up the learning space ahead of time to suit your purpose. For example, if you are promoting peer-to-peer connection you may want to organise tables for a specific group sizes. Or you may need to create an open central space to facilitate a simulation, role play or rehearsal.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Professional Learning Communities are a valuable way of differentiating professional learning. In a PLC, space is created for participants to develop a shared understanding of a theory or practice that is being prioritised and to then determine a learning goal that is relevant and responsive to their own needs and classroom context.
For example, the school may have a goal that focuses on increasing differentiated instruction. A highly experienced teacher may then set a goal to trial dialogic practices to differentiate engagement with curriculum content, while a graduate teacher may set a goal to diversify their provision of instructions in written, visual and verbal ways.
All participants are involved in developing a shared understanding of what differentiation is, they trial a strategy, and share their learning with each other to give and receive feedback and support within their immediate work context.
You can find great resources to support Action Inquiry Learning in your PLCs at Teaching Sprints
Contemporary Professional Development - Action Learning
Creating Learning Communities - Roy and Hord
Connecting Learning Communities - Capacity Building for Systemic Change
COACHING AND CONVERSING
COACHING AND CONVERSING
How we position ourselves in the activity of learning
Educators undertake significant emotional and social work in their roles. Positive relationships, emotional intelligence and collegiality alone do not create more effective teaching. However, they do contribute to the creation of a positive climate for learning which, when combined with a focus on instructional practice conversations can lead to powerful improvements in learning practices.
Sense making is undertaken through social exchanges, storytelling and the creation of narratives as a rhetorical redescription of social realities and self-perceptions. By walking with teachers, modelling our own professional learning and creativity, and creating informal, social learning environments we are able to facilitate generative and transformative coaching conversations and professional learning experiences and cultures of learning.
STRUCTURING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SESSIONS
STRUCTURING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SESSIONS
Suggestions for Creating Effective and Engaging Learning Sessions
SESSION HOOK
Connect with each other and the learning space
How you set up your 'hook' or engagement strategy will depend on the purpose of the session.
If you will be using a collaborative strategy or rehearsing skills later in the session, it can be useful to start with an icebreaker or teambuilding activity.
If your session is being held at the end of a busy and demanding day you may want to start with a mindfulness activity to help attendees settle into the learning space.
It important to think about the climate you want to create before diving into the learning, the strategy you use for this may or may not connect with the focus or content of your session.
Adult learners also appreciate simple explanations about why a particular activity is being used.
For example you might say to attendees as they arrive: "We understand it has been a long day, thanks for being here. We are doing a warm up activity to help you switch off from the stress of the day." Or you could say: "In today's session you will be working together to explore ___________ strategies, this warm up activity is giving you an opportunity to connect with each other a bit first.
INTRODUCTION TO THE LEARNING
Establish the focus, desired outcomes and guide thinking
Once attendees are settled into the learning space, establish the key focus or intention of the learning session and highlight one to three key 'take-aways' or desired outcomes that should be achieved by the end.
Pitch the value of the learning session using your awareness of your audience’s needs, capabilities and identities. It is great if you can make a link to something that staff have identified as a need themselves, you might also appeal to their values or motivations by highlighting how the session responds to a concern that is important to them.
You may also have evidence or data that highlights the need for the learning session's focus. It is powerful to use this, but be mindful of how you present this information - you want to energise your team, not make them feel defeated. You also don't want to labour through data details - make this detail available for those keen to engage with it, but aim to provide a short summary or story using the data to help highlight the key findings.
This can also be a useful point in the session to show that you understand that people will be at differing points
MINI-LESSON
Introduce content, model skills or talk through ways of thinking
Briefly model the skills or ways of thinking required for the learning activity – keep time on this short to maximise the amount of time provided for participants to explore, apply or rehearse the knowledge and skills provided in the session.
Also use this time to provide concise and clear instructions about how to complete the learning activity and why it is being done.
This is also your opportunity to pitch the value of the learning to attendees. Share your own experiences or reasons for why you value the knowledge or skills you are modelling. Explicitly demonstrate their effectiveness or impact on positive outcomes.
LEARNING ACTIVITY
Give participants space to explore, apply or rehearse
This may be an activity to engage participants with content and model a way of thinking (problem solving, diagnosis, categorisation, evaluation etc.)
It may also be a simulation of a scenario, or a rehearsal of a skill or analysis of a case study.
The person doing the talking is doing the learning - aim to include peer-to-peer discussion strategies
Explore these classroom Discussion Strategies as inspiration for a professional learning session.
Get participants involved in a simulation of a practice that you are promoting in their classrooms. By doing so, they are more likely to feel confident about using it, and by being positioned as a learner, also get to experience the value of it.
WRAP UP
Create space to reflect, highlight success and identify next steps
Provide feedback and get participants to reflect on what they learned. Feedback is best when it is specific, timely and relevant. Therefore, it is invaluable to us the end of the session to share your observations about the specific successes of the sessions and areas that need revision or revisiting.
It is also important that you encourage feedback from participants to evaluate the impact of the learning. A great strategy for the reflection is the ‘gots and needs’ approach. Ask:
· What did you get out of the session?
· What do you still need?
You can use this feedback from participants to help shape your next session if there is a follow up, or to provide additional resources post session.
You might want to explore these feedback strategies as well.
Consider the goal of your session/s and how you will scaffold learning for participants.
Explore backward design Wiggins & McTighe to help you do this. You may also want to take a look at the Gradual Release of Responsibility Instructional Framework by Fisher and Frey.
You might also want to explore Lesson Structures from a classroom perspective.
Readings and Further Resources
Readings and Further Resources
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