Engaging with change: investigating strategies of professional learning in a Victorian school

Abstract

In the current climate of educational change and with the implementation of new initiatives within the Victorian Education Department, such as the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) and the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT), educational leaders have begun to reassess the forms of professional learning that teachers and staff members are involved in. This is not isolated to schools as the education industry world wide is developing new outlooks for staff training and development. With researchers such as Cuban, Hargraves and Fullan investigating different forms of professional learning, workplace change and strategy, changes in global professional learning opportunities are evident across a variety of industries. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of which styles and formats of professional learning are the most effective in a local context. Different scenarios of professional learning are described and interrogated and the impact of each practice is considered. The study provides an insight into the different types of professional learning that are available to the teaching staff, allowing for a more diverse range of professional learning practices in one school. The researcher worked with the teaching staff in a school to ascertain which professional learning styles had a greater and more positive impact on curriculum and teaching practices within the learning environment.