Feb. 5 th
Teachers are not born developed, just like leaders are not born naturally. If someone wants to move into leaderships’ role, he or she should follow the 3 ways: they need to learn leadership skills; they could find answers by kinds of means; they could share their experience, skills, resources with peers. In a school, the leadership of teachers is so important, because it is clearly linked with the school reform and affects the students’ achievements directly. Teachers should notice that professional development of teachers takes vital roles in school reform.
Although there are some organizations for professional development already, there are still a lot of aspects need to be modified: the funding are limited for professional development or some professional development are not effective at all, which is just a waste of time. Can teachers change themselves? Surely they can, as long as the principal sets a good model and creates a good learning culture atmosphere at school, encouraging those who learn in school context and even in their own time. Those “expert” from external worlds could be invited to give some suggestions, but never the defining decisions. That’s why it is said that “advocates for learning communities believe that the expertise to solve problems does not come from “expert” external to school, but from people who work with problems.”
However, if we want to build a learning community, we can not depend on principal alone. The teachers should also exhibit the classroom, influence the colleagues, what’s more, the teachers and principals seek solutions together and share practices, affect and learn from each other.
Teachers are not born developed, just like leaders are not born naturally. If someone wants to move into leaderships’ role, he or she should follow the 3 ways: they need to learn leadership skills; they could find answers by kinds of means; they could share their experience, skills, resources with peers. In a school, the leadership of teachers is so important, because it is clearly linked with the school reform and affects the students’ achievements directly. Teachers should notice that professional development of teachers takes vital roles in school reform.
Although there are some organizations for professional development already, there are still a lot of aspects need to be modified: the funding are limited for professional development or some professional development are not effective at all, which is just a waste of time. Can teachers change themselves? Surely they can, as long as the principal sets a good model and creates a good learning culture atmosphere at school, encouraging those who learn in school context and even in their own time. Those “expert” from external worlds could be invited to give some suggestions, but never the defining decisions. That’s why it is said that “advocates for learning communities believe that the expertise to solve problems does not come from “expert” external to school, but from people who work with problems.”
However, if we want to build a learning community, we can not depend on principal alone. The teachers should also exhibit the classroom, influence the colleagues, what’s more, the teachers and principals seek solutions together and share practices, affect and learn from each other.