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Presentation to the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Training

Parliamentary inquiry into effective strategies for teacher professional learning

from School of Education: Victoria University

a) The relationship between ongoing professional learning for teachers and teaching expertise A clear definition and understanding of professional development, professional learning and teacher quality assists purposeful discussion on effective practice in teacher professional learning. In a paper ‘Effective Teacher Professional Learning: A study of the professional learning practices of teachers in Victoria, Australia’ presented at AERA 2006, a Victoria University research team (see p.11 for more details) defined their terms as follows:

Professional development is defined as referring to the range of formal and informal activities undertaken by teachers to develop their professional knowledge, professional practice, and professional engagement. Professional learning is defined as the learning that results from a wide range of professional development activities.

Whatever the significance of the teacher’s capability to work in school or school system, the dominant finding of this VU research is that teacher agency is the core of professional learning. Reflected most clearly in the definition of the Learning Oriented Professional, this agency is a quality of the teacher who participates in democratic, inquiring, self-directed, school student focused and discursive learning experiences for knowledge building so that the learning of school students is enhanced. Teachers therefore need to be able to engage with systematic inquiry about practice at several levels, but engagement in a critically discursive environment is essential for effective and sustainable professional learning. In its simplest form professional learning for teachers is best achieved through talking about their work with others in an extended, scaffolded, negotiated and respectful discursive environment. Professional Conversations about practice initiate with description, inquiry and reflection as responses to recent instances of practice. Practitioner Mentoring supports such conversations. As the partners begin to collaborate, negotiate and understand each other needs and strength a Reflective Dialogue develops which involves active listening and to the statements and concerns of others. The development of a Discursive Environment is evident when the conversation is focused not only on immediate problem solving, but identifies substantive teaching and learning issues resulting from inquiry about student learning needs through continuous practice. It is an active engagement with practice. Responsibility for learning of students is the focus of the inquiry and is shared by and inclusive of all partners. In such an environment the inquiry is generated from critical reflection on the documented descriptions, achievements and dilemmas of practice. The Victorian Department of Education defines professional learning as an ongoing process of inquiry into and reflection on practice. The process of growth and development should provide opportunities for teachers to change and improve practice based on their willingness to examine and challenge their assumptions about their role; experiment with teaching and strategies and develop a deeper understanding of their subject content, the students they teach and how their students learn.

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b) Which factors support high quality professional learning for teachers, including learning

methods and environments for the development of professional knowledge, and the pedagogy relevant to professional development of teachers

The School of Education at Victoria University in conjunction with the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) conducted research in teacher professional learning. In the report “Investigating the provision for practices and effects of the professional learning of teachers in Victorian schools”, the following enablers of effective professional learning were identified as a result of the literature scan and analysis of professional learning leaders: • The degree to which it is personalized and emerging from and connecting with the specific

demands of each teacher’s practice and each teacher’s commitment to students • The degree to which it is localized, with teachers interpreting their own shared interests and those

of their students • The degree to which professional learning is both a personal and collective achievement • The degree to which innovation and development are enabled by schools providing environments

supportive of professional conversations and professional collaboration • The level of professional relationships and trust in groups or teams of teachers • The degree to which participants are open about their own practices and understanding and ready

and willing to receive feedback from colleagues • The links between the decisions taken by schools on the curriculum and pedagogy which are

regarded as appropriate for those students. • The level of supportiveness of the institutional structures, system power and resultant time and

space structures which provide enabling conditions and resources for teachers’ learning, and system guidance and support including access to practicable research findings.

• The level of excessive compliance demanded through the application of coercive accountability processes, employment conditions and managerial action

A number of related and complimentary effectiveness indicators were also identified by VU research: Professional Development is effective when it is • a high priority for the school, either through the school charter or other identified need • formally coordinated at the school • based on the collective and individual needs of teachers • resourced appropriately, eg. time release, timing of the PD activity, etc As a consequence of this effective professional development, teacher professional learning was characterized as effective when it resulted in the following outcomes: • increased range of meaningful learning experiences for students, eg. group work • the development of engaging curriculum to account for student backgrounds, learning styles and

needs • improved connections between student needs, pedagogy and subject content • enhanced relationships with students • extended ability to reflect critically on teaching practice, including personal strengths and needs,

working collaboratively and collegially with other teachers.

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Enablers of teacher professional learning The VU research also identified enablers and inhibitors of Teacher Professional Learning. These were deduced with teachers through collaborative analysis and based on the experiences of teachers. The enablers/inhibitors related to the key themes that emerged in relation to teachers’ professional development experiences which were the degrees to which professional learning was personalised, local, collective and enabling of supportive professional relationships. Enablers and inhibitors related to school structures and decision-making and institutional or system power were also identified. Personalised Teachers who were satisfied with their professional learning: • articulated explicit educational beliefs and commitment to students and colleagues about the

importance of ongoing personal learning for improvement and change; • were active in seeking professional development congruent with those beliefs and commitment; • reported that they used a range of strategies to reflectively inquire into student learning, their

practices, curriculum and school organisation; and • adopted an action-research orientation to improvement in practice.

Local and collective Teachers who were satisfied with their professional learning: • reported the relevance of professional development programs to their own classes and schools;

and • were able to adapt new curriculum and pedagogy, learned in professional development, to what

they perceived to be specific demands of their schools and interests of their students. Professional conversations lead to personal and collaborative achievement Teachers report successful professional learning when they: • develop supportive professional relationships with colleagues; these relationships may include

formal or informal mentoring; • engage in rich professional discussion which supports collegial reflection on practice; and • work with colleagues on challenging change and improvement projects Groups or teams of teachers with supportive professional relationships Successful professional learning appears when: • teachers work in teams which are formally organised and supported by school leadership (eg a

coordinator takes responsibility for the team); • teacher teams, though formally established, are able to establish democratic processes which

sustain collegial inquiry, problem solving and reflection and the development of a common team language about teaching and learning; and

• the teams of teachers encourage the sharing of expertise, often by experienced teachers, but also by less experienced colleagues who have participated in current professional development activities.

School structure and decision-making Teachers are satisfied with their professional learning when they work in a school environment where: • school leadership supports open teacher inquiry and professional learning through the formation of

teacher teams; • responsive decision making about professional development has asserted school-wide priorities

(eg in a school charter) but also has encouraged teacher teams to establish personal and collective concerns and interests; and

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• the school leadership has framed the school budget to provide sufficient resources (i.e. time and money) for teachers to participate in professional development activities and, importantly, to put new professional learning into practice.

Institutional and system power Teachers acknowledged the action of educational systems in supporting their professional learning through: • forms of school self-management which requires each school to establish charter priorities for

teaching and learning; • professional development provision by system authorities and professional associations which

meet teachers’ needs; and • the provision of professional development programs with relevance for teachers at different career

stages.

Inhibitors of teacher professional learning It should be noted that despite the VU study having a positive focus (not unlike this Parliamentary Inquiry) in that it explicitly sought data about ‘effective’ professional learning, teachers in the collaborative analysis phase of the VU study also identified a number of barriers to teacher professional learning that were evident in the data. Clearly few teachers were satisfied with professional learning experiences all of the time. Teachers who expressed difficulties in their professional learning experience were not disaffected with their careers. They appeared to be very active in their contributions to the professional life of their schools as well. The following inhibitors to teacher professional learning were noted: Personalised Teachers identified that professional development did not support professional learning when it: • was professionally unwelcoming and lacked personal relevance, including the lack of relevance for

a teacher’s career stage; • did not take account of the personal demands of teaching – e.g., are located at the end of the

school day when teachers are tired and often pre-occupied with class matters; and • involved working with colleagues who were ‘blockers’ or not interested in professional

development.

Local and collective • The complexity of the classroom and the way in which classroom demands impeded ongoing

professional learning. • The nature of a school’s staff and staff relationships with school leadership. Groups or teams of teachers with supportive professional relationships • School leadership has not formally supported teacher teams. • Teachers who regard teaching as an isolated practice. School structure and decision-making Teachers who were broadly satisfied with their professional learning provided detailed criticism of the school provision for professional development. They included: • the school’s leadership or administrative team neither regarded teacher professional development

as a high priority nor funded teachers adequately to support their professional learning; • inflexible decision making processes in schools so that teachers have little or no opportunity to

negotiate their professional development and little say in the establishment of the school’s professional development priorities;

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• poor information processes in schools leaving teachers unaware of professional development opportunities relevant to their interests; and

• whole-school professional development activities which are poorly organized and imposed on teachers by the school’s administration team.

Institutional and system power • The competition between changing system priorities and school priorities which dilutes professional

development program focus and resources. • The structure of the school year and school day which do not encourage active teacher

participation in professional development activities. • The low level of funding notionally provided by school systems for teacher professional

development. • The lack of focus on professional development which supports teachers at particular career stages

– e.g., in leading the implementation of programs. • The difficulties accessing professional development opportunities faced by teachers in country

schools. The VU research team further refined their definition of professional learning as a result of their research to:

Professional learning is best defined… as a personal and collective experience over time in which the achievement of learning is the socially practical outcome of teacher agency within school and system structures. It is a trajectory of practice informed by a spirit of action research, and in some cases by a formal action research methodology.

They summarized their research findings as a set of qualities that teachers bring to their professional lives: • Personal commitment, professional standpoint and interests • Informed awareness of students and their learning • Understanding of local school and school educational priorities • Planning which integrates as much as possible personal understanding and school priorities • Participation in formal and informal professional development activities • Contributing to the development of a collaborative professional learning culture engaging

colleagues in the initiation, planning, carrying out and evaluation of changed practice • Trialling change – from a tentative ‘having a go’ to embedded renewal of practice – over an

extended period of time • Emerging confidence in the new practice encouraging teachers to

Invite colleagues to examine and reflect on the change in practice Lead colleagues in a collective expansion of the trial Mentor colleagues as they take on the new practice.

In addition to this, they outlined the following prompts as starting points for teachers, schools and professional development advisors as they renew professional learning policies, enter school-level review and negotiation and plan for professional development programs. They also suggest that the prompts support an evaluation of the broad conditions which school systems construct for schools and their teachers.

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1. The Learning Oriented Professional The following indicators and exemplars of practice emerged from the VU research to describe and reflect teachers as learning professionals:

Teachers who are professional learners:

Are aware professionals. They: • recognise themselves as learners; • are aware of personal professional learning/professional

development needs as a result of their knowledge of students and their learning;

• come to understand professional learning needs through personal reflection and in conversations with colleagues about teaching and about career experiences;

• seek intellectually challenging professional development which either (a) has direct classroom application; or (b) encourages thinking about a general educational orientation;

• have time to plan, trial and reflect on changed practices; and • confidently prepare and put into practice a plan for professional

development; ideally, one which integrates or balances personal interests with school priorities.

Are active in working for the improvement of their own teaching and that of their teaching team with a focus on student learning.

They: • acknowledge the importance of the school teaching and learning plan

(eg the School Charter) but also • learn with and from teachers or with people whom they recognise as

in touch with the kind of classroom practice they are experiencing; • seek, where possible, to work with colleagues in other local schools

with similar learning and community interests – eg in local school clusters;

• are open to new approaches being shared and collaboratively trialled; and

• are stimulated by supportive approaches to teacher assessment based on reflection on practice.

Work in teacher teams or attempt to build informal practices of collaboration with colleagues

They: • acknowledge that professional learning is reciprocal – teachers learn

from each other; • work collectively – in discussion teachers can share problems,

discuss solutions, work together, bounce ideas off each other; • meet to support collaborative reflection; and • support the teacher team in building a collaborative environment for

professional reflection, the discussion of new ideas and the trialling of new practices.

Are active organizationally They: • acknowledge the leadership role of senior staff but communicate

achievements, ideas and criticisms with the purpose of improving teaching and learning;

• include School Charter priorities in their plans for professional development but also assert the significance of their own professional experiences and judgements;

• respond constructively to the formal and systematic professional development approach in the school; and

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• report the impact of their professional development on professional knowledge, practice and engagement and on students and their learning.

Are able to work so that professional lives and personal lives are in balance.

They • are able to negotiate workloads and school and professional goals

with senior staff so as to avoid stress in personal lives and relationships;

• feel comfortable in spending time away from their classrooms in professional development activities; and

• participate in professional development activities at times when they are most ready to learn.

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2. The Learning Oriented School/System

The VU research team noted the significant extent to which organisation leaders, the school and the school system have in developing individuals. This includes their capacity to make the most of their learning, create their own learning opportunities and maximize professional learning’s impact on the enhancement of student learning. To assist this, the research also identified how system and school leaders can support effective professional learning: System and school leaders who support teacher professional learning: Ensure that a clear and ongoing entitlement exists for teachers to pursue their professional learning.

They: • ensure that teacher professional learning is a high priority in the School

Charter and in the annual school budget (release time for school-time activities is a particular issue);

• build an environment which nurtures professional reflection, judgement and learning;

• recognise that collaborative cultures enhance teacher professional learning by supporting formal and informal teacher teams in the school; and

• encourage teachers to make public their achievements, reflections and practical understandings and to include them when negotiating new school planning and Charter development.

Provide resources for teachers to undertake professional development and to translate professional development into professional learning.

They: • recognise that successful professional learning is a time-demanding

experience in which long-term trials are invariably essential; • provide a formal and systematic professional development approach

in the school which invites the participation of teachers; • have clearly understood processes by which teachers can apply for

funding to participate in professional development; and • encourage teachers to support each other as critical friends or

mentors.

Negotiate with teachers the focus of and participation in professional development.

They: • welcome and provide opportunities for teacher initiative in planning

professional development; • encourage teachers to match their personal professional interests with

School Charter and other school priorities; • recognise that professional development plans contribute to teacher

professional learning but can also be inflexible in the face of changed school or classroom conditions; and

• ensure that external consultants are aware of the teachers’ understandings and practices and local school needs and interests prior to any professional development activity.

Take advantage of system resources to enhance teacher professional learning.

They • initiate and actively construct networks with schools with similar

interests; • encourage teachers in network schools to share experiences and

professional knowledge and understanding; and • encourage and provide funding for teachers to attend the system-

delivered professional development relevant to school priorities and personal interests.

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Mediate and manage the impact of educational systems on teachers’ work and professional development.

They • translate system accountability demands into an encouraging

professional framework; • attenuate the effects of the potential in self-managing schools for

teachers to compete with each other for scarce resources and career advancement opportunities;

• recognise that workload is a substantial factor in teachers’ successful participation in professional development;

• organise professional development programs so that teachers are ready and capable of active learning; and

• encourage and provide resources for teachers to advance their careers eg. through opportunities for less experienced teachers to express informal educational leadership.

The VU research team proposed an additional dimension / component of the development of effective professional learning: that of organization tact and collective competence. This domain is explored below:

Professional Organisational Tact and Collective Competence

Working with colleagues for collective improvement of teaching and learning

• Teachers communicate their reflective understanding in coherent justifications to colleagues, school leaders, parents and consultants.

• Teachers learn from colleagues who have acquired new professional learning or demonstrated advanced practice.

• Teachers take on informal professional (development) leadership as a result of successful professional development and the consequent professional learning.

• Teachers participate in debates on teaching and learning priorities. • Teachers are able to work with external professional development

consultants to adapt proposals for change and improvement to students’ needs, local interests and school priorities

Negotiating the conditions of teaching and professional learning with school leaders

• Teachers find ways to relate personal insights constructively and assertively with school and broader system priorities.

• Teachers can identify and work with colleagues to actively enhance the opportunities the school provides for professional learning and the improvement of professional practice and engagement.

• Teachers can reflect and act on the personal and organizational power relations in schools and systems.

• Teachers prepare themselves for the broadening of their professional lives, including their career advancement, by contributing to the school and system-level debates about how schools should best be organized.

The dominant findings of the VU research were that teacher agency is the core of professional learning and professional conversation is at the basis of any effective strategy.

Reflected most clearly in the definition of the Learning Oriented Professional, this agency is a quality of the teacher who participates in democratic, inquiring, self-directed, school student focused and discursive learning experiences for knowledge building so that the learning of school students is enhanced. Teachers therefore need to be able to engage with systematic inquiry

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about practice at several levels. Engagement in a critically discursive environment is essential for effective and sustainable professional learning. In its simplest form professional learning for teachers is best achieved through talking about their work with others in an extended, scaffolded, negotiated and respectful discursive environment. Professional conversations about practice initiate with description, inquiry and reflection as responses to recent instances of practice…As the partners begin to collaborate, negotiate and understand each others needs and strengths, a reflective dialogue develops which involves active listening to the statements and concerns of others. The development of a discursive environment is evident when the conversation is focused not only on immediate problem solving, but identifies substantive teaching and learning issues resulting from inquiry about student learning needs through continuous practice. It is an active engagement with practice. Responsibility for learning of students is the focus of the inquiry and is shared by and inclusive of all partners. In such an environment the inquiry is generated from critical reflection on the documented descriptions, achievements and dilemmas of practice. (Cacciattolo et al. 2006, p. 12).

The School of Education (SoE)at VU has over the past 3 years, worked with the Victorian Department of Education (DoE) in the implementation of the Principles of Learning and Teaching program (PoLT) to schools in the Western, Northern and Loddon/Campaspe regions of the DoE. The SoE has made a commitment to PoLT based on a common understanding and appreciation of the following 7 fundamental principles that underpin the delivery of high quality professional learning. Professional learning is: 1) focused on student outcomes (not just individual teacher needs) 2) focused on and embedded in teacher practice (not disconnected from the school) 3) informed by the best available research on effective learning and teaching (not just limited to what

they currently know) 4) collaborative, involving reflection and feedback (not just individual inquiry) 5) evidence based and data driven (not anecdotal) to guide improvement and to measure impact 6) ongoing, supported and fully integrated into the culture and operations of the system-schools,

networks, regions and the centre (not episodic and fragmented) 7) an individual and collective responsibility at all levels of the system (not just the school level) and it is

not optional (Refer to the DoE publication: Professional learning in effective schools: The seven principles of highly effective professional development).

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c) National and international trends regarding ongoing professional learning for teachers and report on innovative initiatives

Current local and international research on teacher professional development and learning emphasizes that teacher quality is one of the most critical and significant influences in students’ achievement, educational improvement and life chances. Marilyn Cochran-Smith (2004) however cautions an interpretation that infers teachers alone are responsible for the successes and failures of the educational system. She discusses the lack of consensus in defining teacher quality. Such definitions are problematic due to the extent of the complexity of teaching and learning, the difficulty in identifying which characteristics of teacher quality are linked with desirable educational outcomes, and who makes decisions as to what are desirable educational outcomes. Education and consequently teacher professional learning are therefore shaped by current values. It can be concluded from the current literature and research on effective professional learning that there has been a shift towards school-based professional learning both in Australia and overseas. There is evidence of the increase of professional development embedded in teaching and learning through inquiry and teacher research. Teachers are participating in professional development where they are developing more thoughtful, socially critical practice in context that reinforces a view of the teacher as practical-professional (Down & Hogan, 2000) and researcher or knowledge agent (Clarke & Erickson, 2004). Professional learning programs that aim to link with educational reform must include a critical, political and moral dimension if we are to avoid what Kincheloe (1991, p. 2) calls “an erosion of competence” and establish instead “communities of competence” in our schools. The development of collegial relationships based on ‘productive collaboration’ (Newmann & Wehlage, 1995), an increase in opportunities for teachers to research and contribute to knowledge about their practice, and changes in school structures and cultures to support these processes are also indicated.

Such programs must also turn this critical view towards rethinking pedagogy; the nature of knowledge, curriculum and assessment; the structures and organization or schooling; and the nature of the teacher-student and student-student relationships in light of technological and societal change (Australian Council of Deans of Education, 2001; Cuban, 1993; Luke et al., 2000; Meredyth et al., 1999). Pedagogy, relationships and structures within the classroom are within the province of teachers’ individual capacities to leverage change and reform. The Victorian Blueprint for government schools provides important scaffolding for such rethinking to take place in a strategic and focused manner where system, school, collegial and individual learning priorities can align. This initial literature scan draws significantly on a recent research report by Victoria University The report summarized international research on teacher professional learning and made recommendations in relation to effective approaches for Victoria. The findings offer a helpful framework for structuring this research and for the development of future professional learning programs. The VU team (Marcelle Cacciattolo, Brenda Cherednichenko, Bill Eckersley, David Jones, Tony Kruger, Rod Moore, Rose Mulraney and Anthony Watt with Fran Cosgrove, Victorian Institute of Teaching) identified three broad headings that encompass the literature on teacher professional learning, professional knowledge and professional practice: • Teacher as a technologist • Teacher as a knowledge or research agent • Teacher as a socially critical/political agent The VU report summarized these views as follows:

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Teacher as a technologist Effectiveness research is currently dominant in the literature and portrays the teacher… as a technologist… It is the favored basis for policy-making in education, best exemplified by the wave of research and research reviews in the US literature in the last few years, as the No Child Left Behind policy has been implemented. The dominant issues in this literature field include measurable outcomes, learning standards, test scores (Liebermann 2004), generic teaching skills (Reynolds and Muijs 2001) and accountability. Professional development provision appears as a highly technical activity which is framed by standards, rubrics, narrow definitions of data or evidence and a strict relationship between teaching behaviours and learning outcomes. This type of teacher works from a standards based curriculum informed by quantitative, summative data from which to develop programs … The focus on accountability and system controls is high. Teachers learn through structured centralised professional development programs and their knowledge develops by reading and absorbing the results and practices of research done to schools and learners (see for example Muijs and Reynolds, 2001; Reynolds, 2000; Martin-Kniep, 2004; Darling Hammond 2004). Teacher as a knowledge or research agent Variously known as reflective practice, teacher-as-researcher or teacher self-study, the second field of professional learning literature is oriented to the teacher as a knowledge or research agent. It is a substantial literature and has one of the longest histories in education research (Clarke and Erickson, 2004). The dominant issues in the teacher researcher / teacher self-study discourse are inquiry, democracy and reflection. Data is equally important in this field as in the effectiveness area, but the acceptance of, and indeed the preference for qualitative data such as narrative, sets teacher self-study in opposition to the effectiveness emphasis on statistical treatment of numerical measures of teacher effectiveness and student learning. Knowledge or research informed teachers develop their understanding and practice through systematic inquiry about learning in their classroom. They draw on a range of data to understand learners and to democratically develop learner centred curriculum. Teachers are active and informed agents in the development of teacher knowledge and generate, participate and theorise practice from their own experiential base and the school is the site of collegial and collaborative inquiry (see for example Teacher Self-Study movement; Loughran, 2004; PEEL Project, Loughran and Russell, 2002; Coalition of Essential Schools; Australian National Schools Network; Liebermann, Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 1998; Clandinin and Connelly, 2000; Fullan 1999). Professional learning serves the empowerment of teachers as agents for the development of individualized and student centred curriculum. Teacher as socially critical/political agent The third component of the research literature, teacher as socially critical/political agent, has a relatively marginalised status in all but academic circles…Teachers’ work is informed by critical theory and takes on practical and emancipatory intent, noticeably around addressing issues of social justice (see for example Smyth, Dow, Hattam, Reid and Shacklock 2000, Reid 2003, Sachs 2003, Hargreaves 1994.) Professional learning is stimulated by the need for social improvement through reform of school curriculum and structures.

Michael Fullan has long raised concerns about the teacher as technologist style of professional development stating that the majority of organized professional development options for teachers are “specific, focused on particular innovations and isolated from each other” (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996, p. 16).

Meredyth et al (1999) found that in-service training and professional development often fail to be integrated into plans for ongoing development and use by classroom teachers. McLaughlin and Marsh (1978) stress that skill-specific training by itself has only a transient effect because the use of new materials and methods is often mechanical without the underlying ideas becoming assimilated. Similarly, the learning of new skills through demonstration and practice does not necessarily include the learning of

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the conceptual underpinnings necessary for lasting use (Bussis, Chittenden, & Amarel, 1976; Hall & Loucks, 1978; Joyce & Showers, 1988; McLaughlin & Marsh, 1978 cited in Fullan, 1991 #13, p. 85).

Aims and elements of effective professional learning programs Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) state:

Educational reform will never amount to anything until teachers become simultaneously and seamlessly inquiry oriented, skilled, reflective, and collaborative professionals (p. 326).

Consequently they recommend that professional development programs aim to bring about change on a multidimensional level if they are to be effective. To be multidimensional, they must promote changes in: • teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, theories or pedagogical assumptions; • changes in content knowledge; • changes in teachers' practices, strategies or approaches; and • the possible use of new or revised materials, resources or technologies

(Conners, 1991; Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991)

Carlson (1994) identifies teachers’ beliefs as the most important influence on what they do in the classroom. He suggests that linking beliefs about students, teaching, and the knowledge they create together is one of the most critical aspects of professional development. He recommends that professional learning programs: • assist teachers to uncover their personal beliefs about teaching; • encourage teachers to describe their experiences and the assumptions they have; • allow time for reflections; • probe for deeper understanding; • encourage teachers to go beyond ‘fitting in to the curriculum’ when they design activities; • help teachers to identify persistent difficulties within the curriculum, topics with which students

consistently have problems (cited in Meredyth et al., 1999, p. 284)

Peters, Dobbins and Johnson (1996) provide a practical summary of what they see as effective professional development, which leads to a “culture of collective inquiry” (p. 59). They state it is necessary to address: • the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to effectively implement the change in ways that

improve learning programs • strategies for coping with the change process • strategies for democratic decision making • the interpersonal skills needed to work collaboratively • skills of critical reflection and collective inquiry (p. 64).

Collins (1991) states that teachers learn best when they can ”diagnose their own learning, have the opportunity to try out, discuss, observe others, reflect, evaluate, and rediagnose” (p. 17). Hawley and Valli (1999), Brookfield (1995), Freire (1994) and Horton (1990) however, all caution that teachers' experience should only be a starting point and that it is important that someone asks provocative questions and supplies alternative interpretations or information while maintaining the link to the experiences being analysed. This suggests the importance of such strategies as coaching, mentoring, protocols and the use of critical friends.

Kincheloe (1991) argues for a notion of teachers as ‘critical researchers’ as the world becomes increasingly marked by “technicalization...(and) a powerful mass communications industry which helps

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shape human interests and ideological orientations, and an increasing domination of individuals by groups with excessive power” (p. 1). In his view, teachers must subject their own and their schools’ practices to “questions of educational purpose or social vision” (p. 15), examine the ways ideology shapes social relations and debate issues of ethics and morality. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) review the teacher research movement and distinguish three interconnected conceptual frameworks: teacher research as social inquiry, teacher research as ways of knowing within communities and teacher research as practical inquiry.

Other writers similarly advocate action research, action learning and critical reflective practice on the basis that they develop teachers' abilities to theorize about practice and to think systematically about what they are doing (Brookfield, 1995; Grundy, 1995; McNiff, 1998). Brookfield (1995) recommends that four different lenses be used in order to become a more critically reflective practitioner. These are (1) our autobiographies as teachers and learners; (2) our students' eyes; (3) our colleagues' experiences and (4) theoretical literature. Use of teachers' writing in the form of journalling (Hogan, 1998), case writing (Cherednichenko, Gay, Hooley, Kruger, & Mulraney, 1998) and analysis of critical incidents (Tripp, 1998) are particular examples of processes that enable teachers to reclaim their professional knowledge (Down, Hogan, & Swan, 1998).

The VU research team found the oppositions between the contesting literatures unhelpful in guiding research on teacher learning. Instead they identified a number of key themes in teachers’ professional development experiences. They linked teacher professional learning to teaching practice noting that both are: • personalised, emerging from and connecting with the specific demands of each teacher’s practice

and each teacher’s commitment to students • localised, in the ways teachers interpret their own shared interests and those of their students • a personal and collective achievement in which innovation and development depend on how well

schools provide environments supportive of professional conversations and professional collaboration

• an accomplishment dependent on groups or teams of teachers with professional relationships whose characteristic is one of professional trust: that participating teachers can be open about their own practices and understanding and be ready to receive feedback from colleagues

• structured by the decisions taken by schools on the curriculum and pedagogy which is regarded as appropriate for those students. Teachers are active constructing both the decisions and also the ways in which they are enacted in schools.

• implicated in institutional structures and system power and resultant time and space structures which on the one hand provide enabling conditions and resources for teachers’ learning, and system guidance and support including access to practicable research findings, but on the other may demand excessive compliance through the application of coercive accountability processes, employment conditions and managerial action [in the words of Troman & Woods (2003) a form of ‘bullying in the workplace’!].

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d) Determining how best practice in ongoing professional learning for teachers can be delivered

into schools and learning communities

Victoria University, with leadership provided by the School of Education, has developed an Education and Learning Partnership Agreement with the Western Metropolitan Region Office of the Department of Education (DoE). This agreement is subtitled: Improving education and learning outcomes in the western region of Melbourne. The School of Education as a result has developed a series of professional learning models to support teacher learning via its Master of Education program. It has been the forerunner to the Access and Success initiative which places student and teacher learning in the university and schools across the region at the centre of its practice and research of collaborative support and enhanced educational outcomes. The Leading Pedagogy Program for example is a joint initiative between the SoE and the Western Metropolitan Region of DoE. The program comprises of a number of key components:

• The development of an Action Learning / Action Research framework to support pedagogical and curriculum improvement in participants’ schools.

• analysis of data (soft and hard) to establish ‘evidence based’ workshops which investigate pedagogy as a teaching and learning framework, and explore areas including Multiliteracies, Learning Styles and Thinking Oriented Curriculum;

• implementation of ‘learnings’ back in the classroom (between session activities), experimenting with new approaches;

• support for school level activities from the Teaching and Learning consultants; • professional reading (between session readings); • case writing – individual reflection; • group discussion; and • presentations/exhibition of learnings & successful practice. A key outcome for participating primary and secondary teachers is the opportunity to engage in a professional, discursive environment with a commitment to trialling and reflecting on innovative approaches to teaching and learning within a sound learning theory framework. The School of Education offers participants formal recognition of their professional learning. This certification provides a pathway to higher education studies – 36 hours is equivalent to 2 subjects in the Graduate Certificate in Education for Professional Development, which can, with further study, articulate into a Master of Education higher degree.

Collaborative practitioner research In the more than ten years of Project Partnerships, research has been of critical importance in the development of partnership-based teacher education at Victoria University. VU strongly supports the active participation of practitioners in researching their own practices. This is essential in understanding how teaching affects learning in teacher education. Such collaborative practitioner inquiry has been successful in researching the teaching and learning practices of classrooms (Kemmis 2000, Stein et Al 1999, Sachs 1999). For example, the Western Melbourne Roundtable was one of 16 roundtables established in 1994 under the umbrella of the federal Innovative Links Project. Cherednichenko, B., Davies, A., Kruger, T., & O’Rourke, M.(2001) described how teams of teachers in five schools were funded to participate in the project which was founded on a commitment to school-university

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partnerships, professional development and innovation based on reflective practice and school identified issues. Each team worked in partnership with academic colleagues from Victoria University. As a result of those initial Innovative Links project experiences, Collaborative Practitioner Research (CPR) methodology has proved to be an enabling strategy for teacher researchers and university researchers to work respectfully together in the analysis of data and in the proposition of research findings. Research by Kemmis 2000, Stein et al 1999, Sachs 1999 has demonstrated that Collaborative Practitioner Inquiry has been successful in researching the teaching and learning practices of classrooms. Researching Innovative Partnerships in Education (RIPE) is a School of Education 2 year project initiative (commencing in 2006) with over 45 schools and other educational sites. The project aims to identify the features of Project Partnerships (a SoE program that involves preservice teachers working with teachers on curriculum initiatives which contribute to the learning of school students, preservice teachers, teachers and teacher educators. The project, funded by the School of Education is focused on collaborative research investigations in which teams of teachers, preservice teachers and teacher educators plan, implement and evaluate innovative extensions of Project Partnerships. The intended outcome of the research is to establish the conditions for strengthened partnership-based teacher education. The RIPE project at Exford Primary School (near Melton) for example provided an example of the collaborative efforts of preservice teachers, teachers and university staff in supporting student numeracy development. In addition to enhancing student learning, the project focused on improving the pedagogical practices of teacher mentors and preservice teachers through a process of shared professional discourse and experience. Preservice teachers participated in a one-hour teaching commitment (using the Victorian Department of Education and Training’s Early Years model) with mentor teachers and students each week. The Teacher Learning Coaches in the One Voice, One Vision: Learning Project proposal supports the development of participants as both teacher leaders and leading learners in the Knox Secondary Learning Community. Up to 16 Teacher Learning Coaches were identified for the project. This professional learning program has enrolled the teachers as graduate students in the Master of Education and they will be eligible to apply for the Graduate Certificate in Education (educational leadership). The selection of Teacher Learning Coaches (TLC) commenced with 4 in the first instance and built to 12 across Year 1.The Professional Learning Plan is constructed to enable an Action Research Circle or Professional Learning Community to develop as the scaffold for post-graduate study based on action research in the role of Teacher Learning Coach. The pedagogical approach for this program focuses on the key question: What is learning like for my students? Participants using school student learning as the focus and commencing with examination of each TLC’s own experience and practice build a practice driven research informed by sustained inquiry about classroom and professional learning..

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e) Examining the potential for greater cross-sectoral links between industry, training

institutions and schools in the delivery of ongoing professional learning for teachers Victoria University has made a commitment to Teacher Professional Learning at all levels of schooling through a number of significant initiatives which build on the work of preservice teacher education. Recognizing that a dual section university such as Victoria University includes vocational education, school education through VCE and VCAL and also higher education, Victoria University has a compulsory teacher preparation program for all teachers. All teachers gaining contracts of 0.5 or more, for more than 2 years must complete the School of Education’s Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education taught in partnership with the VU Staff College. This program complements the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and the Graduate Certificate in Vocational Education and Training and provides action research based, negotiated and accredited professional learning for teachers. The Career Change Program is another exemplar of high quality teacher education provided in the School of Education. Working in partnership with the Department of Education and the Victorian Institute of Teaching, the School of Education offers a specialized, negotiated Bachelor of Education (VET/Secondary) to career change trades professionals and a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education for career change professionals with degrees. This program enables professionals to transfer to paid teaching positions but with careful, rigorous and negotiated teacher professional learning education and practice over 2 years. These Career Change Teachers have been so successful in meeting hard to staff areas of schooling in many remote parts of Victoria that most have completed their full VIT registration while also undertaking their studies and teaching part-time. The research which reports the outcomes of this work indicates high quality teacher learning, performance and high levels of satisfaction by peers and principals (Moore, Cherednichenko and Martino, 2005). In 2006, Victoria University announced the Access and Success Project as a direct response to the knowledge that educational outcomes in western Melbourne are lower than in other parts of the city. The Access and Success project’s key goal is to improve the access and successful participation of young people in post compulsory education and training through collaborative research and deliberate informed strategic action through partnerships with schools in the western region of Melbourne. Access and Success draws from the work of Professor Richard Teese (2005) and others who have documented the powerful relationship between class and educational outcomes. The emphasis of Access and Success is on the research and development of effective partnerships between schools and Victoria University that focus on the enhancement of student and teacher experience and learning in schools. Within the University, Access and Success focuses on improved policy and practice to support these outcomes in schools and, through the identification of the tangible results of these relationships, develop transferable models for engaging a range of communities in effective learning relationships (Williams and Cherednichenko, 2007). One powerful initiative in the development of teacher professional learning for Indigenous education is the Victoria University SWIRL (Story Writing in Remote Locations) Project which has recently received substantial funding from DEST for development and research. SWIRL is a community education program developed over the past 12 years in a partnership between IBM Australia and the School of Education at Victoria University It involves up to 40 preservice teachers and youth workers, with their academic colleagues working in remote Indigenous communities to develop and conduct a month long holiday program, focused on first language and English literacy with young people and their families. The project has encouraged many graduate teachers to return to teach in the Northern Territory communities. While SWIRL initially began as a small informal relationship between Victoria University staff and students and remote communities with a focus on educational support, it has quickly developed with IBM

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support, to become a standard component of teacher education at Victoria University that complements and extends the University’s commitment to inclusion of Indigenous education in teacher education. It became evident that Aboriginal students participating in SWIRL became highly engaged in the literacy and physical activity programs offered and the learning for everyone was significant. The School of Education at Victoria University has responded to the increased demand and need for appropriate early childhood education. For approximately 8 years the Bachelor of Arts (Early Childhood Education) has been an important teacher professional learning program. The particular strength of this program was that it worked with professional child care workers who have at least 3 years of work experience and provides a continuous learning program over 3 years part-time and in so doing enables them to complete their Bachelor's degree. Demand for this program has been strong, but child care workers and kindergarten teachers have been seeking further accredited professional learning and a deeper understanding of the transition years to primary school. In 2008, the first intake of the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood/Primary) will commence at Victoria University. One innovation in this program is its close relationship with the Diploma of Children's Services and the Bachelor of Arts (ECE). The program will enable preservice teachers to commence and complete a 4 year Bachelor of Education or develop a workplace learning pathway from the Diploma to the B Ed. This program draws on the principles of praxis inquiry and learning with and from other professionals in early childhood education settings and as such responds to the professional learning needs of existing kindergarten teachers as well as commencing undergraduates. f) Examining gender issues in the delivery of ongoing professional learning for teachers The experience of the VU School of Education is that young men are as enthusiastic as women in their participation when the learning program acknowledges their interests. One example of this insight is the success with which the School of Education has been able to interest male applicants in the Outdoor Education and Physical Education (Primary) strands of the Bachelor of Education at the Melton Campus of the University. The gender ratio in those B Ed strands is approximately balanced: about 50% male. Few of the graduates in those strands are employed directly into Outdoor Education and Physical Education positions. Our experience is that a substantial number of graduates from these B Ed strands take up generalist primary teaching positions. We conclude from the practices in our own program that schools will engage girls and boys effectively when curriculum content and pedagogical practices authentically meet the interests that learners bring to the education setting. In keeping with the findings of our research into teacher professional learning, the starting point for the selection of curriculum and pedagogy for teachers needs to be the personalised and localised understandings they have about the students for whom they are responsible. Professional development programs for teachers that support discussion and learning about curriculum and pedagogy that is gender inclusive will present the technical possibilities emerging from research. The practical achievement of engaged learning by boys and girls will result in classrooms where teachers have expressed commitment to their students through an understanding of the ways in which technical improvements relate to the specific interests of students. The kinds of community of practice outlined earlier in this submission are critically important in sustaining teachers as they take on new practices based on student engagement.

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