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Looking at Professional Development Opportunities

as anInstitutional Barrier

to Effective e-Learning in Schools

“THE TEACHER IS THE CHIEF LEARNER IN THE CLASSROOM” –

DONALD GRAVES (2010)

It is clear that teachers have the greatest impact on daily student learning in the vast majority of secondary schools in mainstream Australia.

Teaching capacity needs to be valued and nurtured in order to create the very best learning opportunities for our students.

Professional development is an integral part of every teacher’s growth as a professional and provides opportunities to enhance teaching expertise, intellectual development, professional judgement and effective networking.

Such professional development by definition will benefit the individual teacher, and then by definition the organisation as a whole also.

Killion and Harrison, (1990), identified this important aspect of whole school success:

“organisational development requires a planned approach to change based on meeting the

needs of both the people and the organisation”.

THE REALITY OF MANY SCHOOL SITUATIONS IN MAINSTREAM AUSTRALIAN

SCHOOLS IS ONE WHERE

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IS

NOT CATERED FOR OR PRIORITISED

HIGHLY ENOUGH TO SUPPORT THE LEVEL

OF TEACHING AND LEARNING WHICH IS

REQUIRED TODAYhttp://blogs.scholastic.com

MANY OF THE RATE DETERMINING STEPS ARE

BY DEFINITION INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS AS

SECONDARY SCHOOLS AS ORGANISATIONS ARE

NOT DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE RELEASE TIME FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: AS IT IS

ALMOST WITHOUT EXCEPTION AN “ADD-ON”

OR APPLICATION FOR LEAVE.

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Conscious of the requirements of changing

current approaches or material currently used in classes, in the pursuit of a

better outcome for students, is often limited in reality to the motivated minority, or

staff in leadership positions.

Unfortunately this culture of lack of engagement with

pro-active future focussed professional development is

often left unchecked by school administrations who

are feeling burdened by greater reporting and

bureaucratic requirements.

http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/images/Carolyn_-Eyles_teaching_09.jpg

A fundamental re-think and fresh approach is

required both by schools and school systems to

ensure sufficient, appropriate, professional development becomes a

component of teacher allocations and school

budgets.

School systems have a role to play in providing or facilitating worthwhile

professional development

opportunities which are appropriate and useful.

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Small allocations of system funds to replace released teachers to do this

would be a good investment, as returns in student performance for money

outlaid, is high. Fiszer, (2004) Strongly suggests that

teachers need regular :“opportunities to explore, question, and debate in order to integrate new ideas into their repertoires and classroom

practices”. and

“a lack of time for reflection and dialogue could negatively impact on-

going teacher professional development”.

Inherent in this concept is the direct relationship often between in-service

occurring and adoption in the classroom, as ideas are communicated to and from similar contexts by current

like practitioners.

‘PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SHOULD REFLECT THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:

1. The professional development should provide teachers with opportunities for collaboration and coaching.

2. The participants should be actively engaged in reflection, inquiry, research, and collective problem solving.

3. The professional development should be grounded in instructional practices, assessments, and results specific to the participants’ content area or school improvement process.

4. The professional development should be ongoing, sustained, rigorous, and job-embedded.

5. The participants should have the necessary resources and opportunities to grow and learn effectively.

Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin 1995, Little 1993, Harrison and Killian 2007, Sparks and Hirsh,2000

THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES

AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL:

Provision of opportunities for teachers to dialogue and

network can be an efficient and relatively low cost for school systems to implement and lift student performance. Small

allocations of system funds to replace released teachers to do

this would be a good investment, as returns in

student performance for money outlaid, is high.

http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal

THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES

AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL:

Professional development needs to be

identified by policy makers as an essential on-going component of

teaching and be reflected in funding and allocations to staff, as

part of the award and job specification.

http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal

THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES

AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL:

Professional development organised at the school level needs to be focused on any objectives of the school’s

Annual Plan, which usually draws from a more long term

Strategic Plan. In this way, each Department needs to

plan opportunities for individual staff members to enhance the whole school

stated objectives. http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal

THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES

AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL:

The construction of a Departmental Strategic

Professional Development Plan will create

opportunities for thoughtful dialogue in ways in which

each staff member and department (KLA) can

contribute to the school’s overall success.

http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal

DEPARTMENTAL STRATEGIC PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES

AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL:

The NSW Institute of Teachers initiatives

mandates specified hours of professional development to reach and maintain teaching status, however workplace

time allocations do not reflect the fulfillment of

these requirements seamlessly.

http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal

THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES

AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL:

Interestingly most school leadership contracts

mandate reflective practices and on-going professional

development and mentoring, however this

does not always flow down to all members of staff including classroom

teachers.

http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal

THERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES

AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL:

Increasingly competent and relevant e-learning

professional development is being developed for

teachers, but changes are needed to allow teachers to more readily access it, if the establishment of sustainable learning communities is to be routinely nurtured and promoted in mainstream

secondary schools.http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal

THE REALITY OF LIFE-LONG LEARNING, INCLUDES STAFF AS WELL AS STUDENTS, AND BEHOOVES

WORK PLACE AND ROLE DESCRIPTIONS TO REFLECT THESE FACTS.

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