Demonstrate an understanding of the rationale for continued professional learning and the implications for improved student learning.

Standard 6.4

Research consistently highlights that the quality of teachers plays a key role in student acheivement (Ferguson & Ladd, 1996; Darling-Hammond, 2000). The research states that, in order to be effective, teachers need a deep understanding of their subject area, knowledge of how students learn specific subject matter and a range of strategies and practices that support student learning. Engaging teachers in high quality professional learning is the most successful way to improve teacher effectiveness (Elmore & Burney, 1997; Hawley & Valli, 1999; Elmore, 2002).

Effective professional learning focuses on developing the core attributes of an effective teacher. It enhances teachers' understanding of the content they teach and equips them with a range of strategies that enable their students to learn that content. It is directed towards providing teachers with the skills to teach and assess for deep understanding and to develop students' metacognitive skills.


I will be guided by seven principles of highly effective professional learning

Principle 1: Professional learning is focused on student outcomes, not just individual teacher needs
Principle 2: Professional learning is focused on and embedded in teacher practice, not disconnected from the school
Principle 3: Professional learning is informed by the best available research on effective learning and teaching
Principle 4: Professional learning is collaborative, involving reflection and feedback
Principle 5: Professional learning is evidence based and data driven to guide improvement and to measure impact
Principle 6: Professional learning is ongoing, supported and fully integrated into the culture and operations of the system - schools, networks, regions and the centre (not episodic and fragmented)
Principle 7: Professional learning is an individual and collective responsibility at all levels of the system and it is not optional

Department of Education & Training 2005, Professional Learning in Effective Schools, Melbourne. http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/blueprint/fs5/default.asp


I would like to participate in the following professional learning courses offered by the Association of Independent Schools of SA

  • IB, PYP and MYP and the Australian Curriculum
  • Developing Australian Curriculum capabilities through ICT competence
  • Your classroom, safe, orderly and productive
  • Learning, learners and their life worlds
  • Teacher talk and classroom interaction
  • Understanding and using NAPLAN to improve student literacy
  • Developing students as writers: texts that argue and persuade
  • Making meaning with multimodal texts
  • My learning, my teaching and the Australian Curriculum
  • Getting to the heart of the Australian Curriculum: English Years 3-6
  • Weaving ICT into the literacy classroom
  • First Steps Literacy - Viewing
  • Building numeracy - moving from diagnosis to interventions
  • Developing fractional and decimal understanding: years 3-5
  • Developing mental routines and strategies in mathematics: years 3-5
  • Effective techniques to differentiate the mathematics curriculum
  • First Steps in mathematics number, measurement, space
  • Focusing on the language of mathematics to enhance understanding
  • Planning a successful curriculum: models, methods and mathematics
  • Using open ended and rich learning tasks to engage students in mathematics