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campusreview.com.au
Who teaches the teachers?
What does effective professional
learning for teachers look like?
By Claire Brown
P
arents routinely roll their eyes any
time a school announces a student-
free professional learning day for its
teachers. Many parents consider these
days an inconvenience and struggle to see
their purpose.
High quality, continuous professional
learning (as opposed to one-off, snapshot
professional development) is critical for
keeping teachers’ skills and knowledge
relevant. However, too many teachers
participate in professional development that
is disconnected and too ad hoc to improve
classroom teaching skills. Passive, single-
session professional development activities
with little connection to a school’s context
and long-term vision waste teachers’ time,
government money and have very little or
no impact on students’ learning outcomes.
This was one of the main findings in
the recent Victorian auditor-general’s
report on professional learning in Victorian
public schools.
The report found that professional
development activities are often
“ineffective”, “once-off, generic events”
occurring outside the classroom with
“limited capacity to explore the diverse
needs of every teacher”. It acknowledged
previous research that confirmed high
quality professional learning improves
teaching quality, which, in turn, can have a
significant impact on student outcomes.
The report noted that the benefits of
effective professional learning will only
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be realised if the focus is on the quality of
professional learning undertaken, instead of
the number of hours completed.
Victoria University confirmed similar
findings in an Office of Learning and
Teaching project completed in 2016 that
studied the professional learning needs
of academics teaching in universities.
Arguably, the need for high quality, ongoing
professional learning is even greater in higher
education, where academics are employed
to teach content but have little, if any, formal
training in how to teach their content.
Professional development in education
is a thriving industry, and providers of
various quality bombard schools daily with
their products. How can we help schools
to make the right decisions about their
professional learning needs?
Nearly a decade ago, Victoria University
began to trial AVID – Advancement via
Individual Determination – a system of
evidence-informed, continuous professional
learning programs for primary, secondary
and tertiary teachers. VU now provides
ongoing, professional learning through AVID
and other activities to invest in its teaching
staff as it transforms tertiary teaching and
learning through its block model of teaching.
The underpinning philosophy of
AVID’s student-centred approach is to
continuously support teachers over time
and guide them to be the great teachers
they have the potential to be. AVID validates
good practice that teachers are already
using and guides them to become even
better teachers over time.
Through research and experience, we
have found that effective professional
learning has three major features: it is
ongoing and scalable, immersive and
practical, and customisable.
First, just as students need to progress
along a learning continuum through their
formal years of schooling, teachers, too,
need to learn continuously during their
career to master their craft.
This was one of my key messages as a
witness at the recent federal parliamentary
inquiry into the status of the teaching
profession. Teachers don’t graduate as
highly accomplished practitioners, they
learn and practise those skills to develop
expertise over time.
There are no silver bullets in education.
A school must have learning and teaching
goals grounded in a language shared by
teachers, parents and students. Each school
must develop a strategic professional
learning plan that leadership endorses and
prioritises. A professional learning strategy
invests in its teachers, and recognises that
real and effective change in teaching quality
is incremental and occurs over time.
Second, professional learning programs
should themselves be engaging and
model effective teaching practices. They
must practise what they preach. AVID’s
professional learning activities are facilitated
by highly accomplished and practising lead
teachers who model a repertoire of high
engagement teaching strategies. Practical
workshops give teachers the opportunity to
practice and apply the teaching strategies
to their own context with guidance from
expert teachers. Teachers experience
learning from their students’ perspectives
and have the opportunity to apply these
strategies to their own students’ needs.
Third, since effective professional
learning activities respond to the context
and needs of each school, they must be
customisable. One size does not fit all,
as no two schools are the same. No two
teachers can teach the same way, either.
Follow-up visits by AVID’s professional
learning team to every school during the
year consolidates a respectful partnership
that reinforces ongoing professional
learning. AVID contextualises, customises
and scaffolds each school’s professional
learning to address specific needs.
Teaching is both a complex art and a
practical craft. It takes years of practice to
teach well. When we give our profession
the respect it deserves by investing in
effective and meaningful professional
learning, we enable our teachers to enjoy
the passion, joy and beauty of teaching
effectively, and our students to develop a
shared passion for lifelong learning. ■
Claire Brown is the national director
of AVID Australia at Victoria University.
On 6 March 2019 she gave evidence
about teacher professional learning to
the federal parliament’s inquiry into the
status of the teaching profession.