1.4 - Improving professional learning
"Put the oxygen mask on your own face before putting it on the child's face"
This well known statement, taken from airline advice to passengers, states a first principle of learning and teaching.
The questions is: Where do teachers get their professional oxygen from and from whom do they learn best?
- From other teachers?
- From school principals or other senior leaders?
- From visiting speakers?
- From conferences?
- From their students?
What is your view?
What are the views of your colleagues?
Two of the most powerful ways in which teachers learn and are able to change their practice are through peer observation and collaborative lesson planning.
International views
Definition of professional developmentDefinition of professional development (QuickTime)
Gopi Nathan, University of Singapore
"Well I think professional development in it's best and widest sense involves a way in which individuals, and particularly teachers in the school context, can continue to learn and continue to learn not so much in new knowledge but in terms of new practice..."
Improving learningImproving learning (QuickTime)
Jan Robertson, Associate Professor of Professional Studies in the School of Education at the University of Waikato and Director of the Educational Leadership Centre, New Zealand
"One of things in New Zealand is that all of the professional development is contestable. The Ministry puts it up for tender and then schools make the decision of what they want to op into and what they don't. So, it requires I believe a lot of intellectual independence...