KU Annual Report 2013 | Page 14

A NEW WAY The changing face of professional learning STAFF TENURE < 10 years: 64% 10 to 19 years: 27% 20 to 29 years: 8% 30+ years: 1% 118th Annual Report 2013 KU’s commitment to staff development and professional learning has long been the envy of many early childhood education providers. It fuels the quality of our programs, and the long tenure of our staff. Like all areas of quality education, innovation is constant within professional learning. 2013 saw the KU Professional Learning Program shift away from traditional short-session workshop based training, towards more sustained and collaborative delivery styles to support the development of strong professional identities. KU staff are now encouraged and supported to engage in Professional Learning Communities; cohorts of educators with similar interests or goals, who meet, share ideas, reflect on successes and challenges within practice, question and research. The Learning Communities view teachers as researchers, and are supported by the expertise of ‘critical friends’. This approach of reflection, exploration and development is reflective of strategies we encourage amongst children, and the results are proving to be just as inspiring. One such Professional Learning Community has focused on the use of technology within the children’s educational environment. Some centres within that community have incorporated and encouraged the use of iPads and tablets, explored the policies and practices surrounding children’s engagement with technology, and found innovative new ways to document children’s learning, including documentation carried out by the children themselves. The experiences and findings of the Technology Learning Community will soon be published and shared more broadly.