Education

Learning and teaching are complex because they involve humans and relationships.

We know from research that the teacher/learner connection is the most critical factor in successful learning.

In addition to knowing their content, teachers must know their students, how they grow and develop, their preferred ways of learning, their strengths and needs, and their worldview.

Teachers must know how to motivate, engage, and inspire their students and do this within a fluid and organic environment that requires constant awareness and adjustment across multiple learners and learning modes, and often with limited resources and support.

Teaching expertise can be learned, develops over time, and is not linear

Expertise in teaching is knowable and teachable.

It can be described, supported by research, demonstrated, experienced, and known. While there is a foundational base of practice with developmental benchmarks along a continuum, not all parts of an individual's performance progress along a continuum at exactly the same pace.

Rather, a teacher's particular configuration of performances, knowledge, and dispositions may vary with high performance in some areas and weaker performance in others.

Certain professional experiences and supports may spark growth in particular areas and, conversely, changes in context may cause a temporary set-back in skill level until the new context is mastered. 

Growth can occur through reflection upon experience, feedback, or individual or group professional learning experiences.

In order to develop their expertise, teachers must become knowledgeable about more effective strategies (know), implement them in a real context (do), gather evidence of learner response to the strategy (use data), reflect upon that evidence (reflect), if possible seek feedback from others like a mentor, coach, peer teacher or observer (get feedback), and then make adjustments (adjust), and repeat the cycle.

Teachers must be taught how to work through this cycle and should leave their initial preparation with the skill to reflect on their practice alone and with others, and evaluate their practices against a framework of developmental growth.

Intervention is needed when a teacher is unable to reflect or recognize teaching behaviors that should be addressed.

Development depends on context, particularly levels of support.

The effectiveness of a teacher's knowledge and skill varies depending on context and that knowledge and skill may serve them well in one context but less well in another.

For instance, a teacher who changes grade levels may find that s/he is at a beginning level in certain skills now needed to teach students at a younger age.

A rural teacher who moves to an urban environment may need different strategies to engage students who have different strengths and needs or who come with different life experiences.

The teacher has a reciprocal and iterative relationship with context that needs to be taken into account when supporting their growth and development.

It's about the teaching practice and not about the individual teacher.

The focus of these progressions is on the practice of teaching and how to improve practice.

The key questions are always these: What is the impact of the practice on the learner? Are the learners engaged? Are they learning, growing, and improving?