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Our Current Best Thinking About… Professional Learning

Cathy Bruce cathybruce@trentu.ca www.tmerc.caShelley Yearly shelley.yearly@tldsb.on.ca

Powerful Professional Learning

• Think about… a professional learning experience that has been particularly important in supporting improved practice for you.

• Make a quick note about what it was and why it was so powerful.

• Keep this in mind through the session

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The Compelling Why

Most reforms stop short at the classroom door; all available evidence suggests that classroom

practice has changed little in the past 100 years.

Lewis, Perry & Hurd, 2004

A Deeper Look at Lesson Study

Educational Leadership

The Compelling Why• Webster-Wright’s 2009 review of over 200 studies on PD

and PL found that “professionals learn from experience and that learning is ongoing through active engagement in practice” (p. 723).

• However, the vast majority of educational PD programs have separated the learning opportunities from natural contexts and from practice.

• Assumptions: 1. teachers need fixing up; 2. learning out of context will be translated to classroom with ease; 3. others know best what teachers need.

Five Characteristics of Effective Professional Learning• The following five characteristics should be considered

by anyone charged with, or seeking to provide professional learning experiences for Ontario’s teachers

i) Coherence

ii) Attention to Adult Learning Styles

iii) Goal-orientation

iv) Sustainable

v) Evidence-informed

Recommendations to the Partnership Table on Teacher Professional Learning (2007)

Characteristics of Effective Professional Learning

Across multiple studies, there is clear evidence that sustained, iterative, teacher-directed and collaborative models of professional learning support significant gains in teacher efficacy.

Dr. Cathy Bruce, Science & Technology Education Group (2012)

Bruce, Esmonde, Ross, Gookey, Beatty , 2010

Explanatory Diagram: The W Effect

GOAL SETTING

GOAL SETTING

EXPLORATORY ACTIVITIES

PRECISION

REFINING

planning

planning

debr

iefin

g

debr

iefin

g

STUDENT LEARNING

TEACHER LEARNING

So Let’s Analyse Math CAMPPP

Consider the key characteristics of professional learning:•Where is Camppp stronger? •Where is Camppp weaker?

- Teacher-directed

- Research/evidence-

supported

- Sustained

- Classroom embedded

- Goal alignment

- Content rich

So Let’s Analyse Math CAMPPP

What has Math CAMPPP done to try to overcome some of the challenges of a week-long PD experience in summer months?

Collaborative

Teacher-directed

Research-supported

Sustained

Classroom embedded

Goal alignment

Content rich

Rate on a scale of 1 to 5

Math Knowledge For Teaching

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Impact of MKT

Developing MKT

Why this is important

Some Professional Learning Models

• Workshops• Webinars/on-line

studies• Lesson Study• Co-planning, co-

teaching, de-briefing• Inquiry• Transition PLCs

• Demonstration classrooms

• Coaching• Collaborative

Assessment/Resource Development

• Collaborative Action Research

• Conferences

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Characteristics of Teacher Inquiry• Relevant• Collaborative• Reflective• Iterative• Reasoned• Adaptive• Reciprocal(Capacity building series, 2010)

Should we consider adding:•Teacher directed (teacher as agent and decision maker)•Activist oriented

(practice implications)•Any other key characteristics? (to think about)

How Do These Fit Together?

The Broad Context of Education

Inquiry(origins as old as humankind)

Educational Research(since University of Chicago Laboratory School, around 1900)

ActionResearch

(origins in social activism 1930’s)

CollaborativeAction

Research(past 20 yrs)

Co-planning & co-teaching

Teacher and classroom

Inquiry

Book study/Video study

Giant bird’s nest on drugs

Collaborative Action Research

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The process of action research allows educators to:•reflect on an issue or a problem relevant to their teaching;•to determine what research question(s) they are trying to answer;•to implement an intervention designed to address the problem;•to collect and analyse data to determine if their intervention is having an effect, and;•to implement changes in their practice based on their findings.

www.tmerc.cawww.tmerc.ca

Models: Looks like / Doesn’t look like • Not sure what you are thinking here

What we learned

Teacher Impact

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Avoiding Pitfalls Of Professional Learning• Myth: no budget for release time = no pd• Myth: no planning needed just show up (carefully plan

content, strategies, dynamics and trajectories)• Myth: drop in-between meeting/session activity• Myth: PLC is separate from CIL-M “doing CIL-M” from

Inquiry• Myth: Growing quickly will work• Who is a knowledgeable other? How do they

facilitate?• A coach is a coach (no special training, and don’t need

support themselves)

Integrating this knowledge (Consolidate)

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What opportunities can you create for…

• slowing it down?• sustaining focus on a precise content

piece?• building purposeful professional learning

networks with researchers?• supporting teachers as co-learners?

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Why High Quality Math PL Is Important?• Agency (empowerment, ownership and

constructive urgency)• Content learning (close attention to student

work, listening and noticing)• Sustainability (will and capacity to continue)• Teacher efficacy