Targeted Professional Learning Development By Naomii Seah, Industry Reporter
Ongoing professional learning and development (PLD) is crucial for ensuring excellence for ākonga in our education system. Learning new things, adding onto knowledge bases or refreshing prior knowledge through PLD is necessary for all educators to ensure they are providing students with the most effective teaching. Upskilling and undergoing training is essential to kaiako and senior leadership’s ability to continue to provide excellent education for the modern-day child. Kaiako, principals and school staff are simultaneously navigating new issues and old, learning how to respond to children’s needs and often requiring support for their own. Through professional learning and development, the education system remains flexible and responsive to social needs, ensuring we continue to develop the next generation of workers, thinkers, and decision makers. Professional learning and development is therefore an expectation, if not a requirement in many schools. There are various courses available, and they target the various priorities that the Ministry of Education has set out for our education sector in Aotearoa. This may be cultural capabilities, structured literacy and numeracy approaches, increasing the influence and use of te reo Māori in schools, or curriculum design. There are also courses in wellbeing and leadership, skills that are increasingly crucial for schools today as our collective resilience is tested by the myriad of challenges facing schools. Given the many opportunities available for PLD, the first step is to identify local priorities for your school, kura or Kāhui Ako. What are whānau, staff and
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Image courtesy of Learning Matters
Upskilling and undergoing training is essential
students struggling with at the moment? What capabilities and qualities would your school like to develop in its culture? What skill shortages exist in the community, and how can the school address this need? It’s then important to think deeply about the delivery of professional development and choose the appropriate course. What type of PLD experience will have the most impact in your school or Kāhui Ako? Is it a series of short workshops spread over a term, or a few intensive days of training? Is it online modules guided by a PLD provider? What sort of support do your staff and students need to integrate new principles and concepts delivered through PLD into their
everyday teaching practice? How will school leaders provide their staff with support and guidance, especially when implementing a whole-of-school approach? Schools or learning communities might then go through the regionally allocated PLD application process. Alternately, teacher aides can now apply for professional learning online to upskill in ways that align with the goals of their school or kura and its students. All types of professional development are covered by the fund, including both faceto-face and online delivery. Teacher aides are valuable and often under looked resources for schools and classrooms. The roles they perform are
TEACHER’S DESK
varied and flexible and present a sometimes-unfulfilled opportunity to meet learning support needs in any given classroom. School leaders looking to develop an area of learning priority within their school should consider the available opportunities for not just whole-of-school PLD, but individuals like teacher aides. Although a whole-of-school approach is often the most effective and preferred approach, it also comes with administrative burdens like organising appropriate times for kaimahi participation. Individual PLD may help to target unmet need in the short-term and provide a bridging or a step-stone toward a whole-of-school response to certain learning targets. PLD that is taken individually could also contribute to a whole-school cultural shift in some cases, for example, upskilling a teacher aide in te reo Māori skills may have flow on effects for the use of reo Māori in the school community and whānau engagement. P26 Term 2, 2024 | schoolnews.co.nz