Professional Learning Flagship Program: Leading Curriculum Change

Features of successful professional learning programsCombining the research studies cited above leads to the following broad conclusions about the features,strategies and conditions of successful PL. In terms of program features, successful PL programs will:• Respond to participants’ aspirations and understandings (including what one study called‘winning hearts and minds’)Connections to participants’ own felt needs are important to generate commitment to the PLgoals and process. This is sometimes achieved through performance management and careerdevelopment as well as self-evaluation and school improvement. Using data to identify problemsin school performance can be useful here. Research also suggests that participants in PL within aschool often take on leadership roles which can increase professional satisfaction. In their study ofteacher-driven, team-based PL, Colbert et al. (2008, p. 139) found that it ‘provides teachers withthe autonomy to define the objectives, establish professional networks, and identify and utilizestrategies that improve pedagogy and student learning’. An important implication here is the needto provide curriculum leaders with choice within PL.• Engage participants in collaborationOne of the strongest recent recommendations from research on PL is that it should involve thecollective participation of teachers from the same classrooms or schools in professional learning.McCormick et al., (2008, p. 6) observe that, ‘Collaboration ... is well supported by the evidence interms of its effectiveness and it can lead to a wide range of impacts. Collaboration is especiallyimportant to innovations in practice, as distinct from improving existing practice’. These ‘reformorientedprofessional development activities ... include being mentored or coached, participating ina committee or study group, or engaging in an internship’ (Penuel et al. 2007, p. 928).• Include investigations into their own settingsResearch recommends that participants analyse data from their own settings, since therevelation of discrepant data can motivate interest and revise understanding. This is an aspect ofdeveloping a learning-centred culture which is an important approach to PL (see the later sectionon professional learning communities). In their review of PL in the UK, McCormick et al. (2008,p. 6) have commented that, ‘Enquiry is seen to be important and there is strong evidence of itsimportance in ensuring changes in practice’. Scheerens (2010, p. 32) notes that ‘researchershave emphasised the notion of ongoing and lifelong professional learning embedded in schoolsas a natural and expected component of teachers’ professional activities and a key component ofschool improvement’. The goal should be that PL will ‘promote continuous enquiry and problemsolvingembedded in the daily life of schools’ (Training and Development Agency 2007, p. 3).• Engage participants in critical reflection and challenge assumptionsCritical reflection is a core aspect of successful PL when it enables participants to becomeaware of their own thinking, actions, and influences, to investigate and challenge assumptionsand to extend their thinking. Continuous assessment of their own practice is an important partof this. Loucks-Horsley (1999, p. 263) identifies the need to ‘Create cognitive dissonance todisturb existing beliefs’ and ‘Ensure that dissonance-creating and dissonance-resolving activitiesare connected to the teachers’ own students and context. It is widely accepted that changingeducational practice also requires changes to practitioners’ beliefs, understanding, and/or attitudes,and critical reflection is an important strategy for achieving this.• Establish clear shared understandings of purposeThe goals of the PL, and the reasons for them, must be clear, as should their ultimate connectionto educational outcomes. The UK Training and Development Agency (2007, p. 2) notes that PL iseffective if ‘it is planned with a clear vision of the effective or improved practice being sought’, and if‘this vision is shared by those undertaking the development and by people leading or supporting it’.Professional Learning Flagship Program: Leading Curriculum Change: Literature Review 10