You may be asking: “Is this article another call to introduce something else in our curriculum?” Some new approach to teaching Mathematics or Maltese? Is it about some new pedagogy or textbook?”

No. It is an article that encourages educators at all levels, and not just teachers and school leaders, to review the way we have been looking at adult learning.

I have always subscribed to the idea that for us to have an impact on student learning, we need to focus on more structured and flexible approaches to address the continuing professional development (CPD) of staff. And by CPD I do not mean just the inset courses teachers attend.

This article challenges the way we view learning in education and the current philosophy behind CPD. I am sure readers will find a number of issues that resonate some of their own views about how they learn.

To me, learning is a journey without end. Learning is often scary and is always hard work. As Wilson and Bearne remind us: “You read, you think, you talk. You get something wrong, you don’t understand something, you try it again. Sometimes you hit a wall in your thinking, sometimes it is just too frustrating.

“Yes, learning can be fun and inspiring, but along the way, it usually makes us miserable. And to move forward we often have to acknowledge that which we do not know.”

Important learnings emerge when extant assumptions are challenged – when they experience disequilibrium. “Productive disequilibrium offers useful territory for teachers’ learning.” (Ball and Cohen, cited in Wilson and Berne).

Learning is defined as a change in behaviour due to experience. It is about personal and social transformation.

Learning means an approach both to knowledge and to life, that emphasises human initiative and human engagement. It encompasses the acquisition and practice of new methodologies, new skills, new attitudes, and new values necessary to live in a world of change. Learning is the process of preparing to deal with new situations.

Learning needs space, the room to test and the freedom to get it wrong

Learning needs space, the room to test and the freedom to get it wrong.

Behind such a philosophy is the belief and the need to see the learner as one who takes an active, constructive and directive stance to life rather than being a passive recipient. The learner is fundamentally a person committed to self and collective development. This is the essence of learning to learn.

Learning is a journey without end.Learning is a journey without end.

This is where the learner, learning and change need to come together. This, in my opinion, is an area we need to seriously look into. We have been going through major reforms for over a decade, but introducing and managing change have not been inextricably linked to the way educators learn.

This is so because the interplay between the educator as learner, change and the context where change has to take place have not been clearly understood.

Why do I say so? My belief, as has always been the case, is to adopt a different approach to learning.

Learning cannot be placed in a straightjacket either through collective agreements or centralised dictates. What needs to be a top-down exercise is emulating the central ingredients to make learning successful, and not just prescribing what others have to learn and when to learn it.

This is where the roles of schools and school leaders in particular are not just expected to do so through government dictates, or normative discourse, but through policies that empower and where leadership is distributed.

School leaders should be encouraged to play a more direct role in the quality of education discourse than they currently are.

Leaders need to set the tone and culture of the staff to get to the place where one feels very comfortable with opening up, sharing and taking a risk.

As we all know, collaboration is not an easy undertaking. It requires a lot of hard work, patience and perseverance.

Schools need to find both formal and informal ways to nurture the trust that is needed for educators to come together so as to create an atmosphere of familiarity and comfort that is needed for people to start trusting each other.

Teachers need to be in control of their learning. Involving teachers in setting the plan and pace of changes in their practice and school life in general can have a very positive impact on their attitude toward change.

Let us not forget that the countries that are doing well in international studies have educators at school level highly respected, trusted and valued.

In such countries, there is a heavy emphasis on collaborative work, on teachers spending quality time reviewing their own work, on sharing ideas, on challenging each other to improve practice.

There is heavy emphasis/bias on adult learning practices. This is where we have been getting it wrong.

The key to change is motivation – the drive, the willingness to view things differently, to adopt a critical stance to things. Change requires that people change their behaviour.

According to Kotter (2005), people change their attitude when they experience new things, which in turn touch their emotions. Kotter says that “behaviour change happens mostly by speaking to people’s feelings. In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought”.

Getting our hands dirty by working in the trenches is important if we truly want all our children to succeed

Making a difference in the lives of others – including our students – requires both moral and intellectual commitment. Having the knowledge is one thing. Having, or developing the care, commitment and passion to do something is essential, and both ingredients are necessary to drive success.

Unfortunately, our focus has been on the principle that if you address knowledge and skills, teachers will automatically perform better. This is only part of the equation.

Understanding the complexity and subjective nature of change is critical for those who are meant to support teachers in their endeavours. Let us be clear about this – there are no easy solutions, for it entails both restructuring and reculturing, and the latter is proving far more difficult to address than many want us to believe.

Reform calls us to be more humble in the way we approach things.

We possess neither magic wands nor the silver bullet to bring about change. Ultimate success depends on engaging diverse individuals and groups who hold different opinions about how to get there. It is essential that we enter an era where we work together so that we truly support and engage with the practitioners who have to handle the brunt of most of the reforms.

Getting our hands dirty by working in the trenches is important if we truly want all our children to succeed. Let us stop working from our offices and engage where it truly matters.

The key questions are: Do our education partners realise that this is an important precondition for our reforms to succeed? Do they want to come together to combine strengths and engage?

Do people want to empower others? Do they realise the potential in distributed leadership?

It is only in this way that new forms of learning will flourish. The way forward can be planned out.

The following may help education partners see things from a ‘new’ perspective.

Unfortunately the focus has been on the principle that if you address knowledge and skills, teachers will automatically perform better. This is only part of the equation.Unfortunately the focus has been on the principle that if you address knowledge and skills, teachers will automatically perform better. This is only part of the equation.

Questions

How creative do we want our teachers to be? How can we encourage people to take responsibility and be more assertive in their areas of expertise? How can we encourage people identify with our values, develop a clear vision and achieve set objectives?

What are the conditions in which our teachers work? What support do we provide education officials to offer their best?

Partnership

In a context of networks and networked learning, what are the mechanisms we have introduced to adopt new approaches to CPD? The issue of loose and tight coupling is central in a context that has been grappling for well over a decade with a move towards greater devolution of authority to the college/school site.

Policies and documents propose one thing, but it is the realities we work in that determine what happens. The partnership I believe in sees the Education Directorates working more closely with the Faculty of Education and colleges and schools to address issues pertinent to school development.

Goals

One of our goals in any organisation is that of helping staff fulfill their potential. What steps are being undertaken to make this happen? Do we have a clear career development approach?

How is induction, mentoring and CPD embedded in school life? Do we provide a supportive climate and encourage staff to take responsibility for their own career development?

How can the PMPDP (Project Management Professional Development Programme) be put into practice to leave an impact on personal, collective and school development?

Do we encourage staff to take a leading role in running of workshops and sessions in our schools?

The process

Various steps can be taken.

Step One could involve school management teams undergoing management workshops that address issues like change and the management of change. It is a stage where a theoretical base (enlightened by practice) is established.

Step Two should entail a commitment by school leaders that encourages staff to make full use of their talents and backs their initiatives.

Step Three could entail creating a customised approach to learning (what may be good for one context may not function in another), where teachers and school leaders develop workshops, run seminars and discussion groups that bring people together.

This stage could see the involvement of education officers, university lecturers and others serving either as experts in their particular field, or as facilitators or critical friends, as issues are implemented.

Naturally, another step is that of achieving visible success. How will we know it is working? How will we measure its effectiveness? How will we know that it is worth the time and money invested?

We are entitled to ask such searching questions. This is where school-based self- evaluation is critical. This is another area that, alas, was neglected by the education authorities (in spite of the laudable goals I helped create in 2008 through the Quality Assurance Department that I set up).

Teachers and school leaders (and those supporting them) need to develop the capacity to evaluate their practices. They need to monitor, evaluate, report their successes and take action when things do not go the way we planned. We learn by doing.

To provide such opportunities helps to foster a culture where people are more likely to take responsibility in their workplace. In such a context, people become the shapers of their future and not passive recipients. Rather than griping about missed opportunities, let us see this as a challenge that sees us all involved in planning a positive future for all children to succeed.

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