Page 13 - Leadership Basics 3

Professional Learning

This refers to the ability of the group to learn, develop, take responsibility for its own actions and
provide opportunities for the growth of members individually and as a learning community.
In the industrial‐age model of schools, teachers have traditionally been able to go into their classroom
and literally shut the door on the rest of the world. In the ‘egg‐crate’ model of schools, teachers only
paid lip service to teams; secretly they believed that the only thing of importance was their time in
front of students in their own closed classroom, where they were queen/king. Teachers have to learn
that in the 21st century their role is measured not only by time in front of students but by their time in
teams, organising and planning student‐centred learning activities, collaborating on the development
of learning objects, etc. and in their own professional learning.

For many teachers, professional learning was only considered when an ‘in‐service’ was offered and a
relief teacher would come to release them for a day. It is a most baffling paradox that many teachers
whose living it is to promote formal learning have not themselves undertaken any formal learning
since they left college, which might have been many years previously. It is as baffling as a doctor who
smokes or a lawyer who has served time in jail.
MacBeath (2000) provides seven steps to learning schools, which might apply also to learning in
teams:

1. Promote a learning climate

2. Identify the green shoots of growth

3. Identify barriers to change
4. Share leadership

5. Create intelligence from within
6. Use critical friends

7. Build resilient networks

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