Session Information
01 SES 09 A, Teacher Professional Learning and Development in Europe (Part 1)
Symposium to be continued in 01 SES 11 A
Contribution
The current debate on how a national or local institution can implement teacher professional learning (PL) and development has resulted in significant shifts in the conceptualization, design, and delivery of continuing professional development (CPD) programs. Despite the specific policies and models adopted at the national or school level, CPD is one of the critical issues of the European Education Area (EEA) strategic framework (Council Resolution 2021/C 66/01). The EEA framework gives a platform of shared European initiatives, which underlie the need to promote CPD opportunities for a good quality of teaching and learning. Teachers’ professional quality directly impacts the educational outcomes of all students; consequently, there is a relevant demand for continuous development. Given the complexity of this policy and research scenario, we can assume that a CPD plan, at the school or system level, can help in understanding how students’ educational outcomes relate with teachers’ PL (Earle & Bianchi, 2021). CPD is not the current label for teacher PL in Italy, where it is called “continuing teacher education” (CTE). The CTE is implemented through a three-year national plan that combines school and teachers’ needs with national priorities (MIUR, 2016; 2017). It represents a) an educational policy challenge - one of the weakest points of the educational system - (Foschi, 2021); b) a teachers’ need, and a spending priority of significant weight (OECD, 2019). The proposal’s primary focus is to figure out which indicators, literature-based categories, and criteria of professional learning were considered during the design, implementation, and evaluation of teacher PL in Italy. If country adopts the concept of PL, it is necessary to examine those policies, organizational models, and practices which have put teachers’ learning needs at the core of school improvement (Korthagen, 2017; Cirkony et al., 2021). The national CTE model could fail if poorly informed by current literature on teacher education and professional development (Kennedy, 2019). For that reason, the paper suggests a set of literature-based indicators that could help in understanding the Italian CTE policy at a large-scale policy level and at local professional development initiatives: how much time is needed to foster teachers’ professional changes? How to learn about teachers’ learning? How to design studies and CPD policies to promote teachers’ PL? How can we provide guidance to improve teachers’ practice and enrich their thinking about teaching? How to understand the changes in student learning due to teachers’ participation in CPD activities?
References
Cirkony, C., Rickinson, M., Walsh, L., Gleeson, J., Salisbury, M., Cutler, B., Berry, M. & Smith, K. (2021). Beyond effective approaches: A rapid review response to designing professional learning. Professional Development in Education, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2021.1973075. Council Resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021-2030) 2021/C 66/01. (2021). Official Journal, C 66, 1-21. Earle, S. & Bianchi, L. (2021). What role can professional learning frameworks play in developing teacher agency in subject leadership in primary science? Professional Development in Education, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2021.1942142. Foschi, L. C., (2021). Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development in Italy: An analysis of the results of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Italian Journal of Educational Research, 27, 52-64. Korthagen, F. (2017). Inconvenient truths about teacher learning: Towards professional development 3.0. Teachers and Teaching, 23 (4), 387–405. Kennedy, M.M. (2019). How we learn about teacher learning. Review of Research in Education, 43(1), 138–162. MIUR (2016). Piano per la formazione dei docenti, 2016-19. Roma: MIUR. MIUR (2017). Orientamenti concernenti il Piano Triennale dell’Offerta Formativa. Roma: MIUR. OECD (2019). TALIS 2018 Results (Volume I): Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners. TALIS. Paris: OECD Publishing.
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