Looking at Professional Development Opportunities as an Institutional Barrier to Effective e-Learning in Schools

“T HE TEACHER IS THE CHIEF LEARNER IN THE CLASSROOM ” – D ONALD G RAVES (2010) It is clear that teachers have the greatest impact on daily student learning in the vast majority of secondary schools in mainstream Australia. Teaching capacity needs to be valued and nurtured in order to create the very best learning opportunities for our students. Professional development is an integral part of every teacher’s growth as a professional and provides opportunities to enhance teaching expertise, intellectual development, professional judgement and effective networking.

Such professional development by definition will benefit the individual teacher, and then by definition the organisation as a whole also. Killion and Harrison, (1990), identified this important aspect of whole school success: “organisational development requires a planned approach to change based on meeting the needs of both the people and the organisation”.

T HE REALITY OF MANY SCHOOL SITUATIONS IN MAINSTREAM A USTRALIAN SCHOOLS IS ONE WHERE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IS NOT CATERED FOR OR PRIORITISED HIGHLY ENOUGH TO SUPPORT THE LEVEL OF TEACHING AND LEARNING WHICH IS REQUIRED TODAY

M ANY OF THE RATE DETERMINING STEPS ARE BY DEFINITION INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS AS SECONDARY SCHOOLS AS ORGANISATIONS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE RELEASE TIME FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT : AS IT IS ALMOST WITHOUT EXCEPTION AN “ ADD - ON ” OR APPLICATION FOR LEAVE.

Conscious of the requirements of changing current approaches or material currently used in classes, in the pursuit of a better outcome for students, is often limited in reality to the motivated minority, or staff in leadership positions. Unfortunately this culture of lack of engagement with pro-active future focussed professional development is often left unchecked by school administrations who are feeling burdened by greater reporting and bureaucratic requirements. Eyles_teaching_09.jpg

A fundamental re-think and fresh approach is required both by schools and school systems to ensure sufficient, appropriate, professional development becomes a component of teacher allocations and school budgets. School systems have a role to play in providing or facilitating worthwhile professional development opportunities which are appropriate and useful.

egistered/art_730_4f58d80100.jpg Small allocations of system funds to replace released teachers to do this would be a good investment, as returns in student performance for money outlaid, is high. Fiszer, (2004) Strongly suggests that teachers need regular : “opportunities to explore, question, and debate in order to integrate new ideas into their repertoires and classroom practices”. and “a lack of time for reflection and dialogue could negatively impact on- going teacher professional development”. Inherent in this concept is the direct relationship often between in-service occurring and adoption in the classroom, as ideas are communicated to and from similar contexts by current like practitioners.

‘P ROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SHOULD REFLECT THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES : 1. The professional development should provide teachers with opportunities for collaboration and coaching. 2. The participants should be actively engaged in reflection, inquiry, research, and collective problem solving. 3. The professional development should be grounded in instructional practices, assessments, and results specific to the participants’ content area or school improvement process. 4. The professional development should be ongoing, sustained, rigorous, and job-embedded. 5. The participants should have the necessary resources and opportunities to grow and learn effectively. Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin 1995, Little 1993, Harrison and Killian 2007, Sparks and Hirsh,2000

T HERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL : Provision of opportunities for teachers to dialogue and network can be an efficient and relatively low cost for school systems to implement and lift student performance. Small allocations of system funds to replace released teachers to do this would be a good investment, as returns in student performance for money outlaid, is high.

T HERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL : Professional development needs to be identified by policy makers as an essential on-going component of teaching and be reflected in funding and allocations to staff, as part of the award and job specification.

T HERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL : Professional development organised at the school level needs to be focused on any objectives of the school’s Annual Plan, which usually draws from a more long term Strategic Plan. In this way, each Department needs to plan opportunities for individual staff members to enhance the whole school stated objectives.

T HERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL : The construction of a Departmental Strategic Professional Development Plan will create opportunities for thoughtful dialogue in ways in which each staff member and department (KLA) can contribute to the school’s overall success.

D EPARTMENTAL S TRATEGIC P ROFESSIONAL D EVELOPMENT P LAN

T HERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL : The NSW Institute of Teachers initiatives mandates specified hours of professional development to reach and maintain teaching status, however workplace time allocations do not reflect the fulfillment of these requirements seamlessly.

T HERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL : Interestingly most school leadership contracts mandate reflective practices and on-going professional development and mentoring, however this does not always flow down to all members of staff including classroom teachers.

T HERE ARE SEVERAL STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT A STRUCTURAL LEVEL : Increasingly competent and relevant e-learning professional development is being developed for teachers, but changes are needed to allow teachers to more readily access it, if the establishment of sustainable learning communities is to be routinely nurtured and promoted in mainstream secondary schools.

T HE REALITY OF LIFE - LONG LEARNING, INCLUDES STAFF AS WELL AS STUDENTS, AND BEHOOVES WORK PLACE AND ROLE DESCRIPTIONS TO REFLECT THESE FACTS.