Week 3: Creating a learning organisation

2.5. What kind of professional development?

_{Teachers working in pairs during a school-based teacher development session}

There are several reasons why attending a course, away from school is not particularly effective in the context of developing as an inclusive practitioner.

1. The sorts of changes being asked for are demanding and take time. Without the sort of follow-up and support that Daniel suggests, it is easy to become discouraged, especially if you are busy with other pressures on your time.
2. The pedagogy of the training often does not model the pedagogy being asked for. For example, the most effective way to learn how to organise group work is to take part in group work and then reflect on the experience, picking out what helped you to learn, so that you can re-produce this in your classroom. Listening to a lecture on group work is not very helpful, especially as there are no rules to follow – just a range of possibilities that you as a teacher need to adapt for your context. The teachers in the picture above are working in pairs. This will help their learning but will also help them understand what it is like to work in pairs and they will be better able to implement this strategy in their classrooms.
3. Teachers are very busy, so without the follow-up it is difficult for them to prioritise professional development activities.

In the next activity, the case study describes some research that was carried out in Tanzania, which contributes to the debate about what form effective teacher professional development for inclusive teaching might take. The study used ‘learning study’ which contains some of the elements that Daniel mentioned in the audio clip in Week 1.