National Mapping of Teacher Professional Learning Report Released

From a Press Release from the Australian Government:

The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, today released the National Mapping of Teacher Professional Learning Project Report 2008 which provides a comprehensive picture of teacher learning practices across Australia.

Click here to download the Executive Summary of the report. Click here to go to the website where you can download a copy of the full report.

In the Report, educational leaders and school principals acknowledge that professional learning is a vital component in any agenda to bring about educational change. Teachers also attribute change in their professional practice to professional development.

The key findings of the report show that teacher professional learning is:

• a key way to implement reform at both a system wide and school level
• integral to the professional lives of teachers and not an ‘add on’
• being shaped by standards-based reforms
• dynamic, collaborative and generative
• grounded in local school communities
• inclusive of an enhanced role for universities
• comprised of practitioner inquiry which is strongly collegial and collaborative in nature.

The Report supports the Rudd Government’s investment of $550 million in teacher quality as it establishes a clear link between investing in teacher skills and knowledge and improving student achievement.

Quality teaching is the single most important school-based contributor to student achievement.

A quality teaching workforce requires investment in teachers throughout their career including access to high quality and relevant professional learning at every stage of their teaching life.

Based on survey and interview data, the National Mapping of Teacher Professional Learning Project will provide a guide for quality professional development into the future.

This report will inform the work already underway on national professional teaching standards, a national professional learning framework and the professional learning needs of teachers in the lead up to the implementation of the new National Curriculum.

The combination of greater school transparency, a new National Curriculum, a renewed focus on literacy and numeracy, investing in vital school infrastructure and quality teaching is delivering an Education Revolution to all our schools.