Teaching as the Learning Profession


Book Description

"No education topic is more important than how to raise the qualityof teaching in America's schools. This book eloquently makes thecase for reshaping teacher preparation and professional developmentto enhance student learning." --Bob Chase, president, National Education Association Leading educational thinkers and researchers deliver an in-depthoverview of the issues and challenges facing the teachingprofession today. This book is the first in over a decade tosynthesize the most important research in the fields of teachingand teacher education. This research is also the basis forrecommAndations found in What Matters Most, a landmarkreport from the National Commission on Teaching and America'sFuture. The authors explore promising approaches to both policy andpractice in teacher learning. They also provide the substancebehind policy recommAndations, examining the implications of schoolreforms for teaching, current knowledge about teacher preparation,and the kinds of learning opportunities teachers will need. Teaching as the Learning Profession includes case studiesof innovative approaches to school improvement, principles forbetter staff development, proposals for the reform of unions, andpractical as well as conceptual advice on recruitment, licensing,redefining the teaching career, enhancing diversity, developingleadership, and expanding such innovations as networks and othersustained forms of teacher-to-teacher learning.




Professional Learning Redefined


Book Description

You’ve just found your new comprehensive guide to designing powerful professional learning! Full of protocols, vignettes, and case studies, this book dissects elements of professional learning, like coherence, connections, and content, and examines each through an evidence-based lens. Destined to become a go-to resource for anyone in a teacher-support role, this book analyzes research from the past 25 years on what makes professional learning work. In addition to focusing on the often-neglected role of the facilitator itself, other features include: A multi-year implementation framework to improve instructional practice Planning tools to shift instruction at the school and district level Techniques and strategies to embed content-based learning for all educators




Learning by Doing


Book Description

Like the first edition, the second edition of Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work helps educators close the knowing-doing gap as they transform their schools into professional learning communities (PLCs).




Leading Powerful Professional Learning


Book Description

Effective facilitation is complex What is central to leading powerful and effective facilitation in professional learning? You. Gone are the one-size-fits-all answers—instead, you’ll draw from your own knowledge and expertise to lead your PLC in actively solving complex problems that are unique to your context. For professional learning to have an improvement impact for both teachers and students, it needs to be more than a single event. Truly successful professional learning is sustained, collaborative, evidence-informed, and student-focused—generating multifaceted solutions to real-life, real-time issues rather than focusing on one piece of the practice puzzle at a time. This book, based on the results of a five-year research study, provides: • An innovative approach to the design and delivery of professional learning grounded in principles of adaptive expertise • Easy-to-use one-page summaries of "Deliberate Acts of Facilitation" • Guidance that’s fully congruent with Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning The current educational landscape demands a new kind of leadership. This book gives you the tools you need to apply the principles of adaptive expertise to your leadership and facilitation—enabling you to draw on your own deep knowledge to address the complex challenges you and your teachers face every day.







Reclaiming Our Teaching Profession


Book Description

Drawing from a wealth of research and experience, this book shows educators how to use the transformative power of professional learning in community to raise the professional stature of educators. The authors, experts in their field, provide clear steps and real-school examples with a focus on collaborative adult learning for student gains, community respect, professional satisfaction, and collegial support. They examine pitfalls and distractions, and show clear images of what empowered Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) look like for teachers, administrators, and leaders at the school and district level. The authors also provide practical tools for advancing and measuring progress. This resource will help educators move from a climate of sanctions to one of mutual trust and support informed by a commitment to students and a dedication to working and learning together. Book features: A rubric for PLCs to measure their progress on a continuum. Organizational structures, human resources, and protocols required to empower PLCs. Stories from schools of PLC breakthroughs and best PLC practices. An “Innovation Configuration Map,” or master plan, for moving a PLC to progressively higher levels. A framework for developing a teaching profession that is more self-regulating and more highly valued by society.




"Becoming" a Professional


Book Description

This book is founded on the idea that ‘becoming’ is the most useful defining concept for a new ‘professional’ class whose members understand that development in their working lives is an open-ended, lifelong process of refinement and learning. In a world where being a ‘professional’ is an increasingly indistinct notion and where better education and technology are challenging ‘professional’ norms, it is imperative that we no longer think in terms of an exclusive, ‘Anglo-American’, knowledge-rich class of workers. Exploring the implications of this insight for professions including nursing, teaching, social work, engineering and the clergy, this volume aims to encourage informed debate on what it means to be a ‘professional’ in this globalised 21st century. The book argues that ‘becoming’ a professional is a lifelong process in which individual professional identities are constructed through formal education, workplace interactions and popular culture. The book advocates the ‘ongoingness’ of developing a professional self throughout one’s professional life. What emerges is a concept of becoming a professional different from the isolated, rugged, individualistic approach to traditional professional practice as represented in popular culture. It is a book for the reflective professional.




Learning Along the Way


Book Description

You will see concrete examples of how your school can move away from a one-size-fits-all professional development model to create an authentic learning environment that meets the needs of individual teachers. The book features chapters focusing on: implementing an instructional coaching model -- establishing study groups among teachers -- using observation as a means to model effective instruction -- going deeper with discussion through the use of Critical Friends protocols -- examining various ways adults process new information -- encouraging teachers to take leadership roles -- focusing the principal's leadership around the professional development model.




Designing and Implementing Effective Professional Learning


Book Description

For sustained success, educators must commit to their own lifelong improvement. A clear correlation exists between level of focus on teacher professional development (PD) and student success. In this book, John Murray identifies the characteristics of effective professional learning, detailing eight strategies for planning, and executing, and evaluating PD programs. Content includes: The proven “backward” approach to articulating the goals of your PD program Descriptions of innovative and effective designs for professional learning such as Lesson Study and Instructional Rounds Powerful approaches to designing and implementing online PD




Using Quality Feedback to Guide Professional Learning


Book Description

Professional development just got more effective. To help teachers make positive changes for their students, transform your feedback! With this guide to quality feedback, you’ll promote professional growth clearly and successfully, with lasting results. Whether you work with novices, struggling teachers, or good teachers with potential for greatness, this book helps you give feedback that’s both heard and understood. Features include Research-based ideas aligned with the Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning Structures for offering feedback on teacher-created assessments, in observations, and through videos Advice that fits seamlessly into existing initiatives Tools, artifacts, and examples of quality feedback in action