Professional Learning & Development Framework for SLO
I. Introduction
Teacher is argued to directly impact on student's learning outcomes. From teacher's motivation and job satisfaction to academic competency, teachers are conducive to learning engagement and positive outcomes. Many researches have proven the relationship between teacher’s capacity and student’s high achievement. School today must prepare students for tomorrow. Teachers and school leaders need to equip the capacity to learn and to adapt in the uncertain and complex environment. Traditional classrooms will become less effective to prepare the students for the uncertain and complex future. Therefore, the most contemporary paradigm of effective school is transforming it into a learning organization. The key tenet conducive to a learning school is professional learning from individual to team and to whole school learning. The concept of school as learning organization has aggrandized and the integrative model of school as learning organization by Kools & Stoll (2016) is worth referencing to transform traditional school into a learning organization. Professional learning paves a way for school to learn and adapt to its environment. We deliberately upholds the concept of school as learning organization and its model where professional learning is central to school practice.
School needs a roadmap to guide their professional learning journey as a strategic direction to improve teacher's and school's learning capacity and the outcomes of learning. Based on the Integrated Model of SLO ( Kools & Stoll, 2016), the Fifth Discipline (Senge, 1990) and the DLOQ model (Watkins & Marsick, 1997, 2003), we conceptualized the Learning and Development Framework for Action (L&DFA). The L&DFA is a structured tool being mapped for actions to foster learning among individuals, teams and school as the whole. The L&DFA has three core components which lays out the key learning actions that teachers and school leaders are to abide by. L&DFA also serves as an assistance on performance management and indicative performance results of teachers and school leaders who engage in teaching and leading at APIS.
Figure 1. Learning & Development Framework for Action (L&DFA)
Framework 1: Individual Learning
Individual learning or self-directed learning of a teacher is an essential nutrient for continuous professional learning. Self-directed learning is resulted from intrinsic motivation that arouses their internal interest in learning. To pave a way for effective individual learning, APIS school limits the teaching hours to 20-25 hours per week.
Action. 1.1. Self-paced online learning
Teachers are strongly encouraged to conduct self-paced learning at school while not engaged in teaching sessions. School arranges two rooms for individual learning, a staff room and a learning space for teachers to quietly work out their self learnings. Teachers are encouraged to enroll in online learning through Moodle platforms like Coursera, EdX, Academia… to enhance their teaching and learning capabilities.
Action. 1.2. Self-directed learning
Self-directed learning is a broad self-learning approach which encompasses self-paced learning, personalized learning... It is intended to be different from the Action 1.1. Self-paced online learning in the way that this action offers more freedom and unstructured learning approach. Seeing the endless power of YouTube, LinkedIn, AI Chatbot, other websites for learning, teachers are also strongly encouraged to explore any learning on these platform to acquire new knowledge to upskill their current competencies.
Action. 1.3. Voluntary program
Voluntary work in teaching is also an act of learning and experiencing new things in teaching. Therefore, APIS school will enable early leave of teachers who are engaged in external voluntary teaching services. However, the early leave condition is limited to only 30 minutes before the normal teaching duration.
Framework 2: Team Learning
Team learning has proven effective in improving knowledge through peer learning, reflecting, debating and sharing. Team learning also converges multiple and different perspectives into one single vision and mission of school through collaboration and support. Learning as a team goes beyond action but needs to be deeper in mind, mental model of every member of the team. From challenging ideas to learning to work as an effective team, team learning will be as good as implementing in several actions below:
Action. 2.1. Weekly reflection and sharing
Teachers and school leaders are to engage in weekly reflection of teaching and learning. The reflection should objectively focus on what goes well and what needs to improve further for next week. The weekly meeting will also pave a way for teachers to share their best practices (classroom management, assessment techniques, learning motivation…). Both the weekly reflection and sharing should not exceed 1 hour. All teachers and school leaders engage in the weekly reflection and sharing must uphold mutual respect, creative tension and solution-based approach.
Action. 2.2. Coaching series by leaders
School leaders must set up coaching series aiming to improve teacher’s performance. Having been identified as low performance, teachers must be placed in a coaching session. The coaching series can last no more than 6 months. School leaders can arrange their coaching sessions every week or month to suit their circumstances at work. Coaching sessions can be done in one-to-one or one-to-many where school leaders consider appropriately effective coaching mode.
Action. 2.3. Exploration and experimentation project
School leaders need to arrange teachers to undertake at least one annual project either exploring new teaching and learning approaches or experimenting with new teaching methods. Teachers need to conduct their own research and give reflection through result finding to present in a team. The target teachers should be the ones who have less teaching hours than other teachers. Teachers can spend their non-teaching hours working on the research project and experiment it in the classroom. Action research is a recommended method for teachers to explore new teaching approaches and experiment in the classroom. School leaders should facilitate the publication of research findings and a $50 cash allowance will be made for quality action research of the teachers. Publication cost is covered by APIS school and several copies must be stored in the staff room for other teachers to learn. A digital copy(PDF version) of the research finding will be shared in the school Google Drive that is accessed by all teachers.
Action. 2.4. Quarterly PD on teaching and learning
Teacher professional development on teaching and learning is to happen every quarter or 4 times per academic year. The aim of teacher’s PD is to strengthen the capability of teachers in teaching and learning through introducing new effective teaching and learning approaches, guiding on further effective teaching and learning and reflecting on what teachers have performed in the past three months. Quarterly PD on teaching and learning must be arranged in a proper seminar style or workshop format for teachers to comfortably learn and engage with the team. APIS school auditorium is recommended for hosting the quarterly PD. Teachers are encouraged to attend and absences are allowed only on urgent occasions or special circumstances where deemed necessary and exclusively decided by their school leaders.
Action. 2.5. Peer Observation
Peer observation is another collaborative learning opportunity for teachers to reflect, recap and revise their teaching performance. Teachers are productive when they get observed and conduct observations of others. Teachers engage in mutual trust and friendly relationships, which enhances the learning about teaching. Teachers must engage in peer observation once every month. While teachers are encouraged to observe others in the same level of teaching, for example, early year classroom to early year classroom, they are not barred from observing other teachers in different levels of teaching, for example, primary year classroom to secondary year classroom. However, teachers are not supposed to conduct observations in different subjects from their current subject they are teaching. English subject teachers should observe their peers who teach English subjects rather than the teachers who teach in science class. Teachers, who are involved with peer observation, should be well- prepared with observation notes for reflection and feedback. School leaders shall review the observation note and guide how to use it in the observation process. Reflection and feedback to the observant should be done in a self-reflection way to avoid unexpected confrontation and tension arising from the discussion. Teachers should bear in mind that peer observation is for collaborative learning opportunities and teacher’s collegiality.
Framework 3: Organizational learning
Organizational learning is a schoolwide learning system at APIS aiming to equip teachers and school leaders with the professional capabilities to perform for excellence in teaching and learning. The organizational learning sets the system for continuous learning and improvement to be involved by all teachers and school leaders for APIS school transformation to a learning school.
Action 3.1. Induction program
The induction program applies to all new onboarding teachers to guide and coach along the process from onboarding to deployment. The induction process lays out in three milestones, onboarding, transition and deployment.
- onboarding: all newly accepted teachers will get a school tour to introduce themselves to other staff and to familiarize themselves with the school premise. New teachers will meet with key relevant stakeholders to learn about his / her roles and responsibilities which relate to teacher’s support in non-academic areas. Most relevant staff members are operation managers and operation officers. School leaders must arrange the individual meeting with the onboarding teachers.
- transition: all new teachers are allowed one day to review all school curriculum( subject content, approaches and assessment), policies, regulation and to sign off on several school policies relevant to teachers. On the same single day, the onboarding teacher will join a classroom observation to learn how to effectively deliver the curriculum.
- deployment: the onboarding teachers will be placed in classrooms with the presence of school leaders in the classroom. School leaders will introduce teachers to the students and stay in the classroom for at least 30 minutes to observe teachers’ engagement with students and the curriculum implementation.
Action 3.2. Professional development program
- Professional development program for teachers:
Teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills are crucial for quality teaching and learning. To maintain teacher’s professional capabilities with modern pedagogical knowledge and skills, APIS school commits to host an annual teacher’s professional development workshop through hiring an expert trainer from Cambridge or other international education institutions to provide a three-day training to teachers. The three-day workshop aims to equip teachers with most contemporary knowledge and skills in pedagogy. In the post workshop, teachers shall prepare a plan to apply the new knowledge to improve student’s learning. School leaders and teachers need to engage in learning and applying cycles as a significant feedback to the professional development program for teachers.
- Professional development program for school leaders:
Leadership leverages the effectiveness of teaching and learning. School leaders are change makers at school. Although school leadership is not directly related to student learning achievement, it ensures that quality teaching and learning happens at school. Seeing the significant impacts of school leadership on teaching and learning, APIS school commits to enable its school leaders to attend at least one international conference on educational leadership and one oversea school visit per year. School leaders are strongly encouraged to enlarge professional networking with other school leaders in Cambodia to exchange professional experiences.
Action. 3.3. Thematic school visit
School visit is an exposure opportunity for teachers to learn about and from other teachers or school leaders out of their school. The school visit is argued to be effective when it is theme-based or thematic where teachers are prepared for what to learn and improve. APIS school leaders shall set up at least one thematic school visit per year for a different group of teachers to be categorized by levels of teaching, for example, early year group, primary year group and secondary year group. The priority is for teachers in the level that is needed for further improvement in the available theme to offer by the host school.
Action. 3.4. Inter-school exchange program
Inter-school exchange program is a mutual sharing and learning experience where teachers from both schools research and share their best practices on teaching and learning. The exchange program for teachers equips them with researching, communication and presentation skills in addition to their growing teaching and learning knowledge. The school leaders must arrange the professional exchange program for at least every three months. The topics or themes are subjected to be determined by the school leaders and teachers. However, the priorities are given to the areas where teachers are currently challenging with or where they will encounter in the shortcoming time.
Action 3.5. Annual Staff Forum
Annual staff forum aims to equip teachers with leadership skills through leadership talk events, personal aspirations and other team engagement activities. The event is hosted once every year where all teachers and school leaders participate to engage in leadership talks, personal aspiration and team engagement. Annual staff forum is also a platform for staff appreciation and rewards for their outstanding performance and motivation in the whole academic year. School leaders are to hand in the appreciation letters for outstanding teachers to acknowledge their commitment and positive changes at schools.
Action 3.6. Unconferenced Workshop
Unconferenced workshop will enable teachers to mentor and to learn as a presenter of their own topic and a participant of other teacher’s topics. Teachers will be selected on a voluntary basis to present their researched article/ topics related to teaching and learning. The numbers of teachers and topics to present will be under the decision of school leaders after consultation with their teachers. The venue must have several rooms for each presentation to simultaneously happen and to swap respectively. The unconferenced workshop will benefit teachers of knowledge enrichment and teamwork collaboration. The unconferenced workshop will be hosted once every year. Date and time will be determined by school leaders. The workshop will also open for public to join and exchange ideas to make the topics more breadth and in-depth. Teachers should be encouraged to well-research in the topics they will present to offer a practical guide to participants. Theory-based topics are also encouraged.
II. How to Apply the L&DFA
The L&DFA is developed to build the professional capacity of teachers and school leaders through three levels of professional learning. The L&DFA is a compulsory framework demanding commitment by the top management and teachers to improve their professional competencies through multiple frameworks of learning actions. The first and most important step of applying is through integrating this framework in the policy where actions in this framework will be broken down into actionable timeline to achieve the learning. In the policy, funds, time and resources must be properly analyzed to allocate supportive measures for implementation. Next school leaders must constantly monitor the action progression and to evaluate the results to be satisfactory. In this step, school leaders must develop a monitoring tool to capture all the data of all learning in the L&DFA for evaluation of the impact. Finally, the policy L&DFA must be able to impact on the student's learning through improving the teacher's and school leader's professional competencies. Therefore, evaluation tool must be developed to conduct analysis on the data collected in the monitoring step. It is necessary for the school leaders and teachers to sit and discuss the performance of L&DFA through reflection and plan further actions to improve.
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