Conceptualizing teacher professional learning

Opfer, V. Darleen, & Pedder, David. (2011). Conceptualizing teacher professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 81(3), 376-407.

It’s clear from this review that teacher learning is a complex process. Here, teacher learning as described using words indicative of its complexity, like “cyclic” and “recursive”. There are many things that influence the process of teacher learning, but those things are also influenced themselves during the process. In short, like most learning, teacher learning is a messy process (probably necessarily so) that operates differently with different individuals and within different contexts. Research can point us toward some patterns that seem to lead to professional learning, but variability seems to be the only thing we can really rely on. Whether professional learning occurs depends on interactions across individuals, school contexts, and the kinds of professional learning activities undertaken.

So, now what? As with many articles in this particular journal, the upshot of the discussion is that more research is needed in the area of concern delineated in the review. In this case, more studies, both qualitative and quantitative, in the area of teacher learning are called for. The intended audience for this journal is mostly educational researchers, so that call is appropriate for those readers. As a person who sees herself as a teacher educator rather than primarily as a researcher, I must make some inferences to figure out what I can take from this article, which was a challenging read for me in many ways.

I found the discussion of dissonance, and its importance to the process of teacher learning, to be the most helpful piece of this article for me in my daily practice of trying to promote learning in preservice and practicing teachers. Dissonance between one’s conception of the ideal and one’s own sense of efficacy seems to be the most important kind of dissonance. That is, unless we see that there is a gap between what we already know and can do and what we believe we need to know and be able to do to be successful, we are unlikely to be motivated to learn or to accept input that could potentially provoke changes in our practice. I know that is true for me as a learner, so the concept of dissonance resonates. I don’t like that feeling that things are not working as well as I want them to. When I get that feeling, I’ll go to great lengths to seek ways to make changes that will make things work better and alleviate the dissonance. Ironically, though, the relief of the dissonance, if it lasts too long, will lead to stagnation and keep learning from occurring, and new dissonances seem to be required to keep me growing as a professional. I recently lamented that I can’t seem to keep from tinkering with a preservice course I’ve taught for many years, and wondered why I’m never quite satisfied with it. Probably I should rejoice that I’m not yet done with my own professional learning, even after 30+ years of being a teacher. I’d like to think my own dissonance will promote my students’ learning as well as my own, but of course that will mean I must create dissonance in my students and also provide challenging, situated, but safe ways for them to find ways to resolve that dissonance—and then create more dissonance (and growth)!

Other helpful snippets here referred to the need for balance in professional learning. An illustration here was the idea that collaboration promotes professional learning. Well, yes it does, to a point, for obvious reasons. But too much collaboration can lead to conformity, and communities of practice, while we usually think of them as supportive and enriching, can also solidify norms of practice and cut off independent thought and innovation. Beginning teachers are especially vulnerable to this, and if mentors are viewed as all-knowing and supremely competent, a blind sort of hero-worship and following could occur. In almost anything related to professional learning, it appears that more is not always better; you CAN have too much of a good thing. Thinking carefully about balance is something I must do as a teacher educator, and that concept is probably generalizable to many teaching and learning contexts.

In sum, this was a deep, challenging article, and I had to dig for practical applications and resonance, but it did provide me with some new things to think about.