A Collective Commitment to Learning: Supporting Professional Growth Through Portfolios

Dear WIS Community,

At WIS, our commitment to professional growth is deeply rooted in our ethos. Much like medical professionals stay abreast of the latest research and practices, teachers continuously learn about best practice, approaches and pedagogy to ensure our students receive the best possible learning experiences. You might have come across the term 'community of learners' at WIS. This concept reflects our collective dedication to learning and the betterment of society, a core element of IB philosophy. In an IB school, everyone is a learner and uses the community for learning- teachers, students, parents, and leadership. Together we model life-long learning.

In my role as a school leader, I know that the key to educators' growth lies in fostering a culture of teacher inquiry, where dialogues revolve around student learning and the pursuit of meaningful change. This is a significant, albeit challenging, endeavour in a school, and one which I need to be continuously learning about, too!

In July, I listened to a podcast featuring Jim Thompson, co-author of A Quick Guide to Video Coaching. From this podcast, three key takeaways emerged:

1. Shifting the focus to student learning naturally leads to transformative outcomes.

2. Similar to how we empower students to take charge of their learning, teachers should have autonomy in steering their own development.

3. Video and reflection are powerful tools for learning.

This inspired me to make a few tweaks to our existing professional growth process. What are these changes and how do we continue to support our teachers’ professional growth at WIS?

Shared Understanding Through Success Criteria

Our teaching and learning standards at WIS provide a continuum for self-reflection and goal-setting. We've adopted these standards from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, providing a framework for educators to reflect on their practice.

Last year, we introduced the WIS Principles to Practice checklist, defining good teaching and learning. This common language helps align our expectations and connects our principles to research-based strategies for effective instruction.

A focus on student engagement

Upon reflection, we felt that the Principles to Practice checklist describes the actions of the teacher. Although these are of course important, and provide a roadmap for what we would like to see happen in a classroom, we decided to shift our focal point to student engagement during observations. Our professional growth process, with the objective of promoting teaching practices that positively influence student learning, now includes more opportunities to observe a student engagement, recognising that student outcomes cannot be adequately measured by solely focusing on the teacher.

Teacher Autonomy in Growth

In the Podcast I mentioned earlier, Jim Thompson's words resonated with me: "How honoured do you think teachers feel with a 20-minute unannounced visit? Do you think a brain surgeon would advance their profession with a 20-minute unannounced visit from their colleagues. This is perplexing, isn't it? Yet, we persist year after year."

Lesson observations should be about teacher ownership. Teachers know where they need to improve, and our role is to provide them with opportunities that will help them reflect and grow. This year, our professional growth process consists of:

• Multiple observations by a diverse group of trusted peers, using our shared success criteria.

• Utilisation of video. Teachers and trusted peers review teaching session recordings, engaging in reflective feedback.

• A portfolio of videos, observations and reflections will be developed and discussed with supervisors as evidence of professional growth and goal-setting. The end-of-year conversation with me will be about what teachers learned from their reflections about growth and development, and how I can support them with that.

• Throughout all observations and reflections, the primary focus remains on the students, their learning, and their engagement.

I hope that this approach to professional growth will empower my colleagues to continually refine their teaching methods and enhance our students' learning experiences. I look forward to receiving feedback from teachers on how these initiatives have supported their growth and positively impacted student learning.

Warm regards,

Marcelle van Leenen

Primary School Principal