Rethink your approach to teacher professional learning with this short document that offers a vision for transformative teacher learning and suggests recommendations for first steps you can take.
Classrooms that are truly transformative for students require adults to work and learn differently than they typically do. This guidance brief reflects our thinking on how transformative teacher learning can become part of the fabric of educators’ daily lives.
The brief has three purposes:
-
- It makes a case for why teacher professional learning may fall short
- It suggests a vision for transformative teacher learning
- It offers initial recommendations for first steps
Key professional learning challenges facing leaders
While the features of effective professional learning have been known for decades, investments in teacher learning do not consistently yield results for students because:
- Leaders from the classroom to the central office may not yet have the vision for what transformed teaching and learning ultimately looks like and what students may be able to do
- Schools’ professional learning cultures have tended to work against teacher and school leader innovation, meaningful collaboration and improvement
- There is often a misalignment between actual student learning needs, too many initiatives and missing teacher ownership
