Ethical Literacy® Learning Community

Finding 8

By admin,

Professional Development from the Ranks

At the schools we visited, teachers and administrators engage in both a lively examination of colleagues’ choices and practices, and steady personal and professional reflection. Teachers themselves are the primary resource for professional learning growth.

Connection: “Our system definitely fosters the belief that all individuals—students and faculty—are important,” one faculty member explains. “You’re rewarded for creative thought, just like you reward students.” Faculty report that being trusted to contribute to colleagues’ growth increases commitment and enthusiasm, and sets up a positive learning dynamic. Teachers are fired up by constant opportunities to learn from each other, to experiment and learn more, and to share this learning with others.

Description: In the schools we visited, a great deal of professional development takes place through structures that draw from individual teachers and contribute back to the whole. As one faculty member at a suburban boarding school explains, “It’s a 24-hour day, but I don’t resent that. I think [faculty] all feel protected, we all feel valued and that makes you want to give back. Everyone gets to feel what it’s like to be a teacher-leader at one time or another. We feel thrilled about being able to bring [a colleague] along, just as you would a student. We have friendships that cross lines—cross academic departments, cross age groups.”

In our observation, environments encouraging collaboration rather than competition are better at fostering this inspiring, positive feedback loop. The result is deeper expertise, deeper commitment to learning, and deeper trust in personal abilities and in the culture itself. Faculty report that this approach relies on commitment to truth-seeking; it’s a process of constant self-examination and progress. “A lot of schools think they’ve got it right—and they call that ‘tradition,’” one teacher muses. Another remarks that “continual evolution is a crucial part of who we are.”

Replication: The following structures or practices contribute to the ongoing professional growth of educators in many of these exemplary schools.

Educators take responsibility. “When something isn’t working for kids, the question asked is, ‘What can you [the adult] do that might help this situation?’”

Growth is an ongoing and shared responsibility. “At curriculum area meetings every month, professional development is always at least half the meeting. ‘What’s going on with electronic forums’ or ‘who knows about mind-mapping?’”

Growth and learning takes time. “As with student learning, the key ingredient for effective professional development is time: “Time to get together [as faculty].” Explains one teacher, in describing successful efforts of his school leadership, “The administration protects that time.”

Faculty meetings are a source for learning and growth. “Faculty meetings are permeated with provocative questions, not nuts and bolts.”

Cohorts provide support. Faculty form into small groups that stick together for years, to plan and carry out their professional growth together. “I want them to be reflective, to learn from each other, just the way we expect this of our students through collaborative or project-driven learning.”

Mentorship is professional development. “We meet twice a month and just talk about what to do.”

New faculty members are mentored as deliberately and with as much care as are students. “We have division heads who really believe in the educational process of stumbling. They nurture new faculty right from the start. [And they’re] very unambiguous in articulating what they believe.”

Students remain the focus. “There are set things you learn to do with kids. Every week, we meet together only to talk about kids and issues. The format is loose: ‘Ok, who’s got kid issues?’”