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Teachers as Self-directed Learners

Active Positioning through Professional Learning

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Kathleen Smith

    1. Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

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  • Helps find new ways to build teacher capacity and promote school-based educational change
  • Focuses on strategizing the design features of in-service teacher learning programs
  • Provides examples of effective methods to promote interactive feedback and professional dialogue with teachers

Part of the book series: Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices (STEP, volume 18)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
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  2. Teacher Professional Development: Who Owns the Learning?

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Teachers as Learners: Building an Alternative Landscape

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 3-7

    3. Sowing the Seeds for Potential Growth

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 9-24

    4. PD and PL: Navigating the Divide

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 25-32

    5. Shifting Accepted Routines of Practice

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 33-45

  3. Teachers as Self-Directed Learners: Active Positioning Through Professional Learning

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 47-47
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    2. Programme Operational Features Enabling Teachers to Be Active Decision Makers

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 49-79

    3. The Role of a Learning Facilitator

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 81-89

    4. A New Way of Operating: Emerging Challenges for Traditional Practice

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 91-96

  5. Explicating Teacher Learning: Going Beyond Tasks

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 135-135
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    2. Teacher Decision Making: Teacher Learning

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 137-149

    3. Implications for Approaches to Teacher Learning

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 151-156

    4. Teacher Self-Directed Learning: Further Insights

      • Kathleen Smith
      Pages 157-159

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 161-183
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Keywords

About this book

This book redefines teacher in-service education as being less about participation in a program and more about the opportunity for teachers to experience a process of learning that is personally meaningful and contextually relevant to their own teaching practice. The research presented here reveals that teachers have the capacity to think and work differently, yet are rarely provided with opportunities to exercise active decision-making about their personal learning needs. Creating and implementing such an approach involves reimagining all aspects of the learning experience so that teachers are free to articulate their own learning needs and actively work to determine what matters most for their professional practice.

The book breaks new ground by drawing from research related to an in-service program where teachers, their experience and professional thinking were deliberately positioned at the centre of the learning experience. Using this evidenced-based approach, it focuses not only on the learning achieved, but also the conditions that enabled teachers to undertake such learning.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Kathleen Smith

About the author

Kathy Smith is Senior Lecturer at Monash University with specialisations in primary science education and teacher professional learning. Kathy has worked with the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) on a number of science projects including Primary Connections and Coaching workshops. Her work has also included an ongoing 8-year relationship with Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM), where she has developed and facilitated a number of teacher professional learning initiatives aimed at enhancing teacher confidence and supporting the learning and teaching of science at all levels of schooling. Undertaking work as an Education Consultant has also enabled Kathy to gain extensive experience working with schools in the Government and Independent sectors, supporting teachers with planning and pedagogy. This work built upon previous experiences with Manager of Education programs for the Monash Science Centre, located at Monash University. In this position shewas able to oversee the provision of quality school-based support for science education, particularly in primary schools, across all sectors. Prior to these roles Kathy worked as a Sessional Lecturer in Science and Mathematics Education at RMIT and began her career working as a primary classroom teacher for nine years with the Victorian Department of Education. Critically, Kathy continues her involvement in teacher professional learning and has particular expertise in primary science education, with a particular interest in the conditions that build teachers’ capacity for self-directed learning.

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