The
Career-Long Professional Learning standard is an aspirational standard that
challenges practitioners to signpost their professional learning in a way that
is unique to them. The CLPL, alongside the Standard for Registration and the
Standard for Leadership and Management are all underpinned by the themes of
values, sustainability and leadership, and can be used throughout a teachers’
career to support their professional learning.
The
OECD (2105) report describes the CLPL standard as supporting practitioners to
develop “decisional capital”, which is the “deliberate development of judgement
and expertise over time” through a commitment to continual professional
learning, informed by their own practice and research. Teachers make judgements
on a minute by minute basis, these judgements have their basis in ‘new, unique
and concrete situations’ and should be considered through the lens of impact on
student outcomes. The appropriateness of what and how teachers teach and
organise the learning is important, not only for the immediate impact but also the
long term impact on learning. All of these pragmatic judgements brings into
question the ‘what works’ agenda, where evidence based strategies ‘tell’
teachers what they should do but unless critically viewed, they can discount that
situation of the student and their need to learn content with purpose but also this
happens through the relationship between pupil and teacher.. ‘What works’ can
be considered as a process and practice, rather than communication and
encounter and does not take into consideration ‘what works’ for whom, where and
when.
Through the
application of the CLPL standard practitioners are challenged to reframe the
agenda and shape the notion of what a ‘good teacher’ is in Scotland. As there
is no consensus in the literature around what makes a ‘good teacher’, the GTCS Standards provide
teachers with a framework to move towards an agreed definition in Scotland as
to the values, knowledge, skills and abilities that we, as the teaching profession,
think makes a ‘good teacher’. This evolving concept of what it is to be a ‘good
teacher’ requires teachers to be “active agents in their own professional
worlds” Sachs (2003). Being an ‘active agent’ or ‘activist’ a term coined by
Sachs, (2003) requires teachers to work collaboratively and take risks. The professional learning undertaken by teachers as they
evolve into enquiry practitioners must be part of a learning journey, where
opportunities to work together and to ask questions of their own practice and indeed
the practice of others, needs to be promoted and supported. This is high on the
agenda for Scottish education and must remain so if we are to be true to the
aspiration of a learning profession, but where so often as Sachs (2003) states
“student learning is a goal, the continuing learning of teachers is
often overlooked”. Although there is not
consensus, Sachs (2003) argues that undertaking practitioner enquiry can “act
as an important source of teacher and academic professional renewal and
development”. Practitioner enquiry as part of a teacher professional learning
journey can be planned for and undertaken to support professional growth.
Practitioner
enquiry is seen as a vehicle to promote research by supporting teachers to
engage with theory, policy and practice within their own local environment and
is congruent with the act of ‘becoming’. It should lead to deep transformative
learning which significantly informs and influences a professionals’
understanding, practice and impact on pupil experiences. Hargreaves (1999)
argues that schools and teachers should be knowledge creators, thus accepting teachers
as researchers. This point is echoed by Darling-Hammond and Sykes (1999:256)
who state that
“the
classroom and the school occupy a crucial place in teachers’ professional
growth. It matters how the school organises and promotes teacher’ work and
teacher learning”.
The
purpose of any research activity should be related to increasing skills, knowledge
or practice of the teacher but also linked to improved outcomes for learners.
Linking teacher learning to student outcomes is a way to promote and engage
educators in research through practitioner enquiry, Timperley et al (2009)
states “[if] teachers can gain an
understanding of what it is they need to learn to improve outcomes for students
and have a compelling reason to engage” in practitioner enquiry.
Practitioner
enquiry as a form of professional learning, allows teachers the space to engage
with research and create their own knowledge, which is very pertinent to their
students in their situation. Even more powerful yet is being part of an
enquiring community, where all data and evidence is given consideration and the
reliance on test scores and ‘what works’ is included but critically reviewed to
establish the best path for the establishment, at that time, to support student
learning. When a community becomes an enquiring community it opens up the
possibility to challenge assumptions, to articulate values, to ask questions of
their practice and to form partnerships with academics to engage in theory and
research to further enhance the life chances of their students.
So
through practitioner enquiry as a means of professional learning, practitioners
can address the needs of their own learning so than they can better support
student attainment and achievement.
References
Darling-Hammond, L.
Sykes, G. (eds) (1999) Teaching as the Learning Profession; Handbook of Policy
and Practice. Jossey-Bass. San Fransisco
Hargreaves,
D. (1999) The Knowledge-Creating School. British
Journal; of educational Studies, 47(2), 122-144
Improving
Schools in Scotland: An OECD Perspective (2015)
Accessed last : 16 February 2016
Sachs,
J. (2003) The Activist Teaching Profession. Open
University Press
Timperley,
H.S. Parra, J.M. Bertanees, C.
(2009) Promoting professional inquiry for improved outcomes for students in
New Zealand Professional Development in Education Volume 35, Issue 2
pp227-245)
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