Approaches to Professional Learning: Common Themes and Elements
As I reflect on the five approaches to professional development that I have outlined in this series of posts, I notice some common elements or themes: A Focus on Student Learning. In each of these approaches student learning is...
Approaches to Professional Learning #5: Action Research
To some extent, “action research” is formalizing something that good educators do informally all the time. Every time a teacher ponders a challenge they are facing in the classroom, considers possible interventions to...
Approaches to Professional Learning #4: Adaptive Expertise and Professional Conversations
Teachers need all kinds of expertise to carry out their work. Some of it is “routine” – developing effective responses to known challenges in a stable context. Teachers do indeed need this kind of expertise, being...
Approaches to Professional Learning #3: Instructional Coaching
Like Reflective Practice, the idea of “coaching” is not unique to education professionals. The specific approach of “Instructional Coaching” has been championed by Jim Knight (see links below for references) to support the...