Lecture 4 LIO
Professinals learning and development – the school context
Monika Louws
26-09-19
Schools are a particular case for organizational change and learning of professionals
A school as context for organizational change and learning of professionals
• A peculiar case, or not…?
Why schools and teachers?
- Recognizable context/ future context
- Practice contextualizing theories
- Identifying unique characteristics of school organization
Part 1
Setting the scene -> Teaching as profession and school as learning environment.
Desimone -> Teacher professional development.
Part 2: Two reform contexts
Stringfield -> Reform and sustainability of change.
Imants -> School as multi-layered context for change.
Setting the scene
“What a wonderful world”
The foundation of the future of kids and therefore professionals.
Video of the characteristics of professionalism
• Core components of professionalism (according to the video):
• Sound technical base
- Highly specialized knowledge
- Need a lot of training
• Normative guidelines
- Profession is positioned in the society, therefore you need to comply to codes of conduct
and ethics.
• Professional association
- Decides who can be part of that specific group
• Autonomy
- Have to make professional judgements, sometimes make different and deviating choices
than what is regularly done.
• Some vocations more or less professional? No! Professionalism defined by the nature of work,
work contexts, clients and effects
• Learning as a professional? This word is only used by educational scientists. In light of profession
becoming more professional gaining more expertise try to be up to date in the field.
How does a vocation becomes more like a profession is the question of debate.
, Which characteristics of teachers apply to characteristics of a professional?
- Sound technical base
o Knowing the content of what you teach
o Interpersonal skills
- Autonomy
o Handling a-typical situations (e.g. conflict with parents)
- Normative guidelines
o Educational certificate
o Not swearing in classrooms
Teaching as profession
• Characteristics teacher’s work
• Knowledge: technical and practical
Combination of the educational science knowledge and growing through practical
knowledge
• Societal function
Idealistic motivation to become a teacher
• Autonomy
A lot of professional autonomy can be used. A lot of freedom to make choices what `
they think is good for children.
• Risks for professionalism
1. “Everyone is an expert” (Lortie, 1975)
a. Children already have been seen a lot teachers and therefore have already a view of
what a good teacher is.
2. Increased accountability (e.g., Value-added measures)
a. If politics titan a standard/being more controlling make teachers more executors.
Larger socio-political and cultural context that matters: what is expected from teachers? How should
they perform their jobs?
Development and learning
Used interchangeably
- Professional development: organized learning activity, focused, mostly initiated by
others, implementing new knowledge and skills
o Does not mean that learning occurs.
- Professional learning: self-directed, mostly informal, motivated to become ‘expert’, by
participating in work, driven by experiences, values and norms
Who decides what is ought to be learned? to distinguish these two.
Compare with: Acquisition versus Participation metaphor
Learning in schools
LEARNING ON THE JOB
- Isolated environment, door closed and the teacher has all the power.
- Individual as ‘king of the classroom’, the persistence of privacy (Little, 1982)
o Caused by the structure of different classrooms and having to react on a situation
immediately when it happens.
- Most learning occurs during teaching, learning is not explicit/deliberative (cf Eraut)
o A teacher response to the behaviour of the children
o Informal learning on the job: implicit, reactive and deliberative learning (Eraut)
When working in teams: ideas, knowledge and opinions can be exchanged and made explicit.
Making it more implicit.
Professinals learning and development – the school context
Monika Louws
26-09-19
Schools are a particular case for organizational change and learning of professionals
A school as context for organizational change and learning of professionals
• A peculiar case, or not…?
Why schools and teachers?
- Recognizable context/ future context
- Practice contextualizing theories
- Identifying unique characteristics of school organization
Part 1
Setting the scene -> Teaching as profession and school as learning environment.
Desimone -> Teacher professional development.
Part 2: Two reform contexts
Stringfield -> Reform and sustainability of change.
Imants -> School as multi-layered context for change.
Setting the scene
“What a wonderful world”
The foundation of the future of kids and therefore professionals.
Video of the characteristics of professionalism
• Core components of professionalism (according to the video):
• Sound technical base
- Highly specialized knowledge
- Need a lot of training
• Normative guidelines
- Profession is positioned in the society, therefore you need to comply to codes of conduct
and ethics.
• Professional association
- Decides who can be part of that specific group
• Autonomy
- Have to make professional judgements, sometimes make different and deviating choices
than what is regularly done.
• Some vocations more or less professional? No! Professionalism defined by the nature of work,
work contexts, clients and effects
• Learning as a professional? This word is only used by educational scientists. In light of profession
becoming more professional gaining more expertise try to be up to date in the field.
How does a vocation becomes more like a profession is the question of debate.
, Which characteristics of teachers apply to characteristics of a professional?
- Sound technical base
o Knowing the content of what you teach
o Interpersonal skills
- Autonomy
o Handling a-typical situations (e.g. conflict with parents)
- Normative guidelines
o Educational certificate
o Not swearing in classrooms
Teaching as profession
• Characteristics teacher’s work
• Knowledge: technical and practical
Combination of the educational science knowledge and growing through practical
knowledge
• Societal function
Idealistic motivation to become a teacher
• Autonomy
A lot of professional autonomy can be used. A lot of freedom to make choices what `
they think is good for children.
• Risks for professionalism
1. “Everyone is an expert” (Lortie, 1975)
a. Children already have been seen a lot teachers and therefore have already a view of
what a good teacher is.
2. Increased accountability (e.g., Value-added measures)
a. If politics titan a standard/being more controlling make teachers more executors.
Larger socio-political and cultural context that matters: what is expected from teachers? How should
they perform their jobs?
Development and learning
Used interchangeably
- Professional development: organized learning activity, focused, mostly initiated by
others, implementing new knowledge and skills
o Does not mean that learning occurs.
- Professional learning: self-directed, mostly informal, motivated to become ‘expert’, by
participating in work, driven by experiences, values and norms
Who decides what is ought to be learned? to distinguish these two.
Compare with: Acquisition versus Participation metaphor
Learning in schools
LEARNING ON THE JOB
- Isolated environment, door closed and the teacher has all the power.
- Individual as ‘king of the classroom’, the persistence of privacy (Little, 1982)
o Caused by the structure of different classrooms and having to react on a situation
immediately when it happens.
- Most learning occurs during teaching, learning is not explicit/deliberative (cf Eraut)
o A teacher response to the behaviour of the children
o Informal learning on the job: implicit, reactive and deliberative learning (Eraut)
When working in teams: ideas, knowledge and opinions can be exchanged and made explicit.
Making it more implicit.
