23 Apr 2016
A key element of teaching, as described in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, is knowledge. Professional knowledge is a teacher's deep understanding of how to set high and explicit expectations for learning; it is the implementation of a sequential curriculum where substantive concepts, skills and ideas enable students across the full range of abilities to apply thinking and come to their own understandings.
A key aspect of developing professional knowledge is positioning teachers as learners. Professor John Hattie, director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute, cites research showing that the greatest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching. Fundamentally, the most powerful way of thinking about a teacher's role is for teachers to see themselves as evaluators of their effects on students.
A part of developing professional knowledge therefore is a whole school culture that supports and understands the teacher as a learner. There must be a whole school priority for teachers to use evidence-based methods to reflect on and understand their ability to positively impact on student success and achievement. This year at Ashfield Public School, we are using Visible Learning to develop the mindset of the teacher as learner and a teachers' capability to evaluate their effect on learning.
As part of this process we are ensuring that whole school systems are in place to collect data to inform and improve teaching strategies. This data identifies students not making appropriate progress and reasons for success and gaps. The information is used adjust to teaching strategies with a focus on maximising impact.
The process involves developing teachers' ability to see learning through the eyes of their students. Our professional development gives teachers the opportunity to reflect on how learning is made explicit to students through transparent and challenging goals. Teachers investigate how to sustain learning environments where feedback is given and sought and errors are part of the learning process.
Our school is committed to sustaining a whole school culture where dedicated, passionate teachers are supported to develop professional knowledge by sharing their teaching experiences, welcoming and learning from error, and engaging in professional conversations about their teaching practice.
It is important that teachers have the knowledge to achieve the most important purposes of education: to develop citizens with challenging minds and dispositions, who become active, competent, and thoughtfully critical in our complex world.
A teacher's effectiveness has a powerful impact on students with teacher quality the single most important school factor influencing student achievement. Our ongoing professional development at Ashfield Public School is about developing professional knowledge and nurturing the teacher learner mindset where collaboratively, teachers are able to competently evaluate their impact on learning.