Rethinking Professional Development

Almost every approach to school reform requires teachers to refocus their roles, responsibilities, and opportunities--and, as a result, to acquire new knowledge and skills. The success of efforts to increase and reach high standards depends largely on the success of teachers and their ability to acquire the content knowledge and instructional practices necessary to teach to high academic standards.
Teaching to high standards, however, requires many educators to teach in ways they have never taught before. There is a dramatic difference between the way teachers learned during their "apprenticeships" as students or novice teachers in traditional classrooms and effective innovations of today. Like students, teachers must be actively involved in learning and must have opportunities to discuss, reflect upon, try out, and hone better instructional approaches. Professional development strategies also must take into account the importance of support and the time required to implement improvement.

If teacher learning takes place within a professional community that is nurtured and developed from both inside and outside the school, significant and lasting school change may follow. Engaging in an array of learning experiences with school colleagues builds community and reduces isolation. Outside learning groups support individual initiative; their members share interests and support innovation.

Teachers need professional development that extends far beyond the one-shot workshop; they need opportunities to learn how to question, analyze, and change instruction to teach challenging content (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995). Professional development opportunities that see professional growth as central to school change exist both inside and outside the school, and include teacher-researcher groups, peer review groups, teacher networks and organizational partnerships, and programs that involve teachers in national, state, and local school and curriculum reform activities.

Courses on Offer
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