Microsoft Educator Network - Hot Topics : Professional Learning Communities : Professional Learning

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Professional development should be used to describe activities that provide the individual with new skills and knowledge, adding to their potential capacity to improve the quality of their teaching. Such activities would include attendance at workshops, seminars, expositions, conferences or courses for academic credit, as examples. These activities are usually undertaken as individuals and give the individual access to new skills and understanding that they may or may not apply in their classroom practice. Professional learning to about the HOW to do things. Professional learning on the other hand is always done in associated with other people it changes the way people think and act and is almost universally driven and responsive to the environment in which the person works. Professional learning is about the application or new skills and knowledge in the development of better ways to work. It is responsive to specific problems solution orientated and capable of evaluation.

There is no better example that in the field of technology. Professional development provides teachers with skills and knowledge and raise awareness about tools that are available, ie word processing, apps, skills development software etc. Professional learning is about how the technology can be used as an enabler to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Professional learning should lead to improved student learning. It should be about learning not just teaching. When teachers focus their learning on the learning of their students then real gains can be made. Teachers participating in professional learning communities know that their inquiry cycle begins and ends with students. Teaching is a highly interventionist and contextualised activity where the best teachers constantly use respond to their students learning needs by modifying their practiced. Highly competent teachers know that in order to meet the learning needs of their students they themselves need to be constantly learning. They continually question themselves with questions such as:

What knowledge and skills do our students needs to meet their curricula, personal and social goal?
What do students already know?
What sources of evidence have we used and how adequate are they?
What do they need to learn and do?
How to we build on what they know? So within a professional learning cycle the 'team' is motivated by a desire to know rather than in a traditional professional development model where somebody "the expert" has the desire to tell. There is a shift within professional learning communities from professional development to professional learning. The other shift that occurs in the building of social capital and well as intellectual capital. The pedagogical practices of the group collectively improves rather than just the capacity of individual teachers. I have always found it difficult to identify my own professional learning needs because it is difficult to step outside my own frame of reference. We all see the world through the lens of our own experiences. A key feature of professional learning communities is the perspective these communities bring to the need to improve ones own skills and knowledge as identified through a focus on what the group is trying to achieve or understand. The power of a well facilitated PLC lies in the scaffold of the inquiry cycle when they ask questions such as:" What skills and know do I need in order to meet the learning needs of my students?". In seeking the answer to this question teachers link their own learning to the successful learning of their students. This is a powerful tool for improving the quality of teaching individually and collectively. XXXXXXX

I have often been intrigued by the use of the terms professional learning and professional development and what they actually imply and deliver for the teaching profession. Is there a difference between the two and if so what is it? I believe there is a fundamental difference and once we understand the difference we will be in a much better position to structure the professional growth of teachers and improve the quality of teaching in our schools. It has only been in recent times that the terms professional learning has come to the forefront. But is there any difference in the activities undertaken by teachers under these 2 broad titles? If there isn't there should be!

I have come to believe that most of the activities undertaken by teachers fall under the development label. Professional development should be used to describe activities that provide the individual with new skills and knowledge, adding to their potential capacity to improve the quality of their teaching. They tend to be the one day workshop, seminar or conference. Often addressing topics of interest but with little long term impact or leading to sustainable improvement. These activities are usually undertaken as individuals and give the individual access to new skills and understanding that they may or may not apply in their classroom practice. People participate as individuals and there is frequently no avenue whereby new skills and knowledge acquired can be shared with others.

Professional development to about the HOW to do things. Professional learning on the other hand is always undertaken with other people and it should change the way people think and act. It is almost universally driven and responsive to the environment in which the person works. Professional learning is about the application or new skills and knowledge in the development of better ways to work. It is responsive to specific problems solution orientated and capable of evaluation.

What knowledge and skills do our students needs to meet their curricula, personal and social goal?
What do students already know?
What sources of evidence have we used and how adequate are they?
What do they need to learn and do?
How to we build on what they know? So within a professional learning cycle the 'team' is motivated by a desire to know rather than in a traditional professional development model where somebody "the expert" has the desire to tell. There is a shift within professional learning communities from professional development to professional learning. The other shift that occurs in the building of social capital and well as intellectual capital. The pedagogical practices of the group collectively improves rather than just the capacity of individual teachers. I have always found it difficult to identify my own professional learning needs because it is difficult to step outside my own frame of reference. We all see the world through the lens of our own experiences. A key feature of professional learning communities is the perspective these communities bring to the need to improve ones own skills and knowledge as identified through a focus on what the group is trying to achieve or understand. The power of a well facilitated PLC lies in the scaffold of the inquiry cycle when they ask questions such as:" What skills and know do I need in order to meet the learning needs of my students?".

In seeking the answer to this question teachers link their own learning to the successful learning of their students. This is a powerful tool for improving the quality of teaching individually and collectively. quality of teaching individually and collectively.

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