Guidepost 3: Professional Training and Continuous Growth

“If a doctor got out of medical school, started practicing medicine and never pursued any type of continuous professional learning, he or she would lose their medical license. So how can we allow teachers to do just that?”- Terri Goggin, Illinois Teacher of the Year Finalist, Middle Grades Teacher, Greenville, Illinois

“Opportunities for ongoing professional growth are critically important, but we also must move past the kind of professional development that is geared solely toward meeting a requirement of filling a time slot.”  Carol Broos, Golden Apple Fellow, Elementary Music Teacher, Northbrook, Illinois

Why Professional Training and Continuous Growth Matter

Creating the kind of dynamic learning environments that 21^st-century students need will require new approaches to teacher training. We want our children to become self-directed, goal-oriented lifelong learners, and we can ask no less of those who teach them.  As part of this shift in focus, new school teachers will be supported and expected to consciously develop their skills, collaborate, contribute to design of curricula and assessments, evaluate peers, and analyze and interpret data.   

These aren’t intuitive skills. To help ensure that teacher candidates are fully aware and competent in these kinds of new school skills, teacher preparation programs will have to embed them into their curricula, along with pedagogical , classroom management, and a host of other skills demonstrated to have impact on student learning Our new teachers must be prepared to work in the creative, collaborative environment of the new school in order for their students – and their careers – to thrive.

While the foundation for these skills can be laid in teacher preparation and early student teaching experiences, ongoing professional development and continuous growth are an absolute necessity in today’s ever-changing world. Continuous, meaningful learning opportunities must be held up as a key value in school cultures and built into district schedules and, in fact, much of this professional learning can be provided by teachers for teachers at a building or district level, like the Japanese practice of “lesson study” or the Shanghai apprenticeship model of teaching.

Effective professional development has a few key characteristics:ⁱ

• Teachers receive expert guidance in learning directly from their practice; ⁱⁱ
• Teachers receive support in connecting the academic theory of how children learn with what works in practice;
• Teachers have opportunities in their classrooms to apply, reflect on, and refine what they’ve learned;
• Teachers work with peers and other experts to analyze the impact of their teaching on students;
• Teachers have opportunities to observe other teachers; and
• Teachers are given the chance to shape their own professional development activities.ⁱⁱⁱ

In our vision of the new school workplace student teachers work alongside a master teacher; novice teachers are supervised and supported by certified teacher leaders; and master teachers, as identified by success in promoting student achievement and innovation,  lead district-wide professional development trainings on proven assessment strategies designed by grade level teams. Administrators and teacher leaders can coordinate to bring in outside expertise as well, but student needs and local goals drive all professional development from the inside out.

Guidepost 4

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