From the Assistant Principal's Desk
Staff Professional Learning
Teacher professional learning (TPL) helps teachers gain insight into and knowledge of their craft. It encourages the development of new ways of thinking about content and new approaches to teaching. This will substantially affect student achievement over a sustained period of time. Changes in teaching practice and improved student achievement need to be observed and/or measured.
In implementing changed practice, teachers acquire new knowledge, modify their existing beliefs and attitudes in relation to their teaching and sustain that change over time. This change in teaching practice needs to correlate strongly with the improvement of specified student outcomes.
There are five key areas that are important in the design and delivery of effective teacher professional learning that can lead to improved student outcomes (Desimone (2009).
- Content Focus
- Active Learning
- Coherence
- Duration
- Collective Participation
The past Term has seen every classroom teacher take part in extensive Professional Learning aligned with Curriculum Reform and the new English and Mathematics Syllabus.
The Curriculum Reform identifies 4 essential features of the new Curriculum:
- Strong foundations for learning, life and work
- Learning with understanding
- Skills in applying knowledge
- Excellent ongoing progress
During this term’s professional learning opportunities teachers worked Collaboratively in grades with myself and Middle Leader Angela Mourinho in analysing the NSW Curriculum Review document from NESA to gain a deeper understanding of the pedagogy behind the new English and Mathematics Syllabus. Teachers then deeply analysed and critiqued a sample unit of work and aligned this mentor text with the syllabus outcomes. This process clearly showed the connections between focus areas of the syllabus and highlighted how an exceptional unit of work allows students the opportunity to learn with understanding and develop skills in applying knowledge, making them active learners.
Sheereen Brunetta
Assistant Principal
