“I believe that all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race. This process begins unconsciously almost at birth, and is continually shaping the individual's powers, saturating his consciousness, forming his habits, training his ideas, and arousing his feelings and emotions. Through this unconscious education the individual gradually comes to share in the intellectual and moral resources which humanity has succeeded in getting together. He becomes an inheritor of the funded capital of civilization. The most formal and technical education in the world cannot safely depart from this general process. It can only organize it or differentiate it in some particular direction” (Dewey, 1897).

John Dewey's famous declaration concerning education. First published in The School Journal, Volume LIV, Number 3 (January 16, 1897), pages 77-80. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/e-dew-pc.htm.

SECTION B

PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO

CAREER MAP

MACRO REFLECTION

SECTION B

PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO

Definition

A professional portfolio is a collection of various information about a teacher’s and students’ work like reflective writing, lesson plans, student assignments, teachers’ written descriptions, and formal evaluations by supervisors. Essentially, a professional portfolio is a collection of information about a teacher’s practices. [It] should be more than a miscellaneous collection of artifacts or extended accomplishments attained over an extended period (Wolf as cited in Retallick, 1996)

A professional portfolio serves as a collection or record of our professional background and experience. Items often found in a portfolio include a statement about the philosophy of education, curriculum vitae, examples of materials, activities, or lesson plans we developed, video clips of our classroom teaching, samples of student, peer, or administrative evaluations of our teaching, and so on. According to Dietz (1993), the professional development portfolio is an envelope of the mind, a collection of essential questions, artifacts, and evidences that represent growth, continuous learning, and the current level of performance and interests of the learner. It is meant to be dynamic and changing as the learner experiences discoveries that lead to new directions and activities. A portfolio is a compilation of evidence, which demonstrate the acquisition, development, and exercise of knowledge and skills in relation to any work place (Retallick & Groundwater-Smith, 1996).

Proposed Components of Portfolio	Expected Outcomes.
1. Reflective journal.	Reflective Professional Teachers. Identification of teacher’s weaknesses and strengths.
2. Students progress record 3. Formative assessment record.	Students progress (weaknesses and strengths) Pedagogical change/modification. Child centered teaching.
4. Lesson plans record.	Learning to Teach.
5. Parents’ interaction record.	Healthy relationship with parents. Solutions of Behavioral problems/emotional/academics/modification.
6. Co-curricular reports.	Future planning. Involvement of students
7. Trainings and Workshops record. 8. Practical application and challenges faces.	Reference Self Evaluation.

Purpose of Portfolio

The purpose of a professional portfolio is to encourage teachers to conduct on-going self-evaluation and reflection, and to provide them information about self-improvement and professional development in future. Portfolios also help teachers to conduct meaningful peer evaluation, and can help a school’s principal function as an education partner with teachers, not just as a judge or critic of their practice (Wolf, 1996). Furthermore the purpose of maintaining a professional portfolio is;

1. To allow participants to document actions as strategic planners.

2. To allow participants to take a reflective stance and reset goals for their future professional development.

3. To enable participants to examine the impact of their professional growth on the overall institutional development and growth.

4. To generate collegial support and sharing attitude among teachers.

5. To help participants to see continuous professional growth and development.

6. To provide a sense of affiliation and a vehicle for collaborative work. (Xu, 2003)

7. To provide a sense of purpose and will energize teachers at different levels of their practices.

Career Map

Figure 1: Career Map - DK (1994 - 2008)

Macro Reflection

Teacher Learning course was based on three different themes i.e. Introduction to teacher learning, models and approaches to teacher learning and development; evaluating teacher learning programs. According to my learning I will try to elaborate my reflection according to these three themes separately.

Theme I

The first theme – Introduction to teacher learning – I was practically involved in the classroom presentations and understanding the basic concepts related to some of the adult learning theories such as Andragogy, self-directed learning and transformational learning and a number of models of knowledge base teaching such as ‘practical knowledge’ (Elbaz, 1983), Seven categories of knowledge (Shulman, 1986) and personal practical knowledge. The impressive approach in this theme by our facilitators was the pondering CPs perceptions of how teachers learn and also encouragement to critically think and analyze these concepts. I was also given chance to reflect on the importance of teacher learning. The five domains of knowledge: self, the milieu of teaching, subject matter, curriculum development and instruction were the most interesting elements for me to learn about knowledge. Then the seven categories[1] of knowledge described by Shulman (1986, 1987), which I think are essential to understand for a teacher for his/her effectiveness in the profession. All these perspectives helped me to understand the base of knowledge as a teacher.

Theme II

In the second theme, I got an opportunity to be introduced to models and approaches to teacher learning and development in three major levels i.e. Individual level, Colleagues and Contextual level, Systems and Communities level. In first level I was introduced to professional life cycle of a teacher to understand the stages in learning to teach; self study research and its importance in teacher learning. I analyzed critical incidents of a teacher in his teaching career which gave an insight to develop myself professionally. I was introduced to portfolio as a tool for professional development and Professional Learning Online Tool (PLOT). They remained extremely beneficial to my learning, on which I have tried to reflect in micro level reflections. In second level, I learnt about action research and reflective practice circle; Mentoring and peer coaching and teacher workshops as sources for teacher learning. In the final level I learnt that teachers develop as part of the school systems and within a community of learners. I got opportunity to be introduced to Classroom-based Teacher Development model through four essential readings, but specifically ‘Transforming schools into learning communities’ by Retallick, & Datoo (2005) which gave me an insight as it was focused to my context.

Overall, I found this theme very fruitful as I am confident now to say that I will be able to use some of these models for my own professional development, as well as to introduce these models in my context.

Theme III

In theme three, I learnt through the readings; about program evaluation through various approaches particularly focus on impact evaluation. Through readings, I become familiarize to the various models of teacher learning programs and a way of evaluating these programs.

Course Methodology and my overall learning

All the themes were absolutely new for me to learn about teacher learning, because I never had been exposed to such type of teacher learning strategies, ways, approaches and models. This course gave me an insight to critically analyze and reflect the various ways of my learning as teacher. Before attending this course, I was thinking that short term and long term in-service trainings offered by professional development centers are the only ways for the professional growth of a teacher. Now I felt that informally a teacher learns more from his/her own practices in the classroom and he/she gets new knowledge and understanding of students, school, curriculum and instructional methods by doing the practical experiments that occurs as part of professional practice (Dewey cited in Bransford, n.d). Furthermore, I learnt that to become a professional teacher, I should have various types of knowledge such as knowledge of content; Knowledge of learners and learning; knowledge of context of the schooling; knowledge of pedagogy; knowledge of curriculum; pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of educational philosophy. But the problem with our educational setups which perceive mostly, that in-service trainings should be focused on teachers’ pedagogical knowledge. I came to know that there are various ways and opportunities for a teacher to learn in his/her workplace such as reflective practices, classroom based action research, mentoring, peer coaching and portfolio writing. This learning is really fruitful for me as to run in-house professional development programs in my context. I feel, I may be easily convince the concerned staff to initiate mentoring, peer coaching and reflective practices because these are low budget approaches. There might be challenges like resistance from senior teachers but the initiative will be taken from novice teachers and gradually it will progress.

Challenges and Issues

The challenges and issues that I faced during the course was the lack of practical application of these learning models and approaches, as we were not able to observe the practical application in a real setting, so I could not figure out the problems I might face in future and how can I address these problems. Secondly I found PLOT a very useful and informative tool for teacher learning but there are some difficulties in understanding its various components systematically. In my opinion a thorough introduction of the site was necessary in shape of faculty input and support.

Practical Application In My Context

When I reflect back to my own context, I see many things happening without a systematic control and process. Hence I assume, I should start a systematic implementation of different models, approaches and strategies to improve teaching learning process so that we could be able to achieve the major goal of Knowledge Society. According to my understanding a step by step approach to different themes shown in this image is essential to reach to the targeted goal. Therefore initially I would be concentrating on the first step that is ‘Coaching/Mentoring/Reflection’. I understand that to flourish this step a close partnership between colleagues is an important factor. I am confident to say that in my context collaboration and trust between individuals is strong, so I don’t see any implication to introduce these approaches systematically. However I have to device strategies to facilitate closer working relationships between colleagues so that trust and mutual support can be further enhanced. Other important management issues related to the acquisition of this step I have to manage the use of information and training, the careful selection of individuals as coaches and mentors, engaging staff commitment to a management style that incorporates coaching, mentoring and peer-networking, the use of accurate needs analysis as a pre-requisite to deploying support and staff time constraints.

Gradually, I am confident that this step will increase the willingness in teachers to accept and participate in the new roles, which will ultimately lead all of us towards Co-operative or collegial development, then to professional developmental schools, school networks, so that finally we will be able to achieve the greater goal of knowledge society.

Finally, for all this, commitment and availability of resources will be some of concerns in implementing my learning into real context. However, there is hope that I will make a difference for the development of teacher as I have a strong will do so.

References

Elbaz, F. (1983). Teacher thinking: Study of practical knowledge. London: Croom Helm.

Shulman, L. S. those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14

Wolf, K. (1996). Developing an effective teaching portfolio, Educational Leadership, 53(6), 34-37.

SECTION C

APPENDIXES

1. APPENDIX A - MICRO REFLECTIONS.

o Appendix A1 - Particular reading from theme I.

o Appendix A2 - Biography as a way of Professional Development.

o Appendix A3 - Learning from the PLOT website.

o Appendix A4 - Reflection on Mini Research Presentation.

o Appendix A5 - Reflection on workshop planning and presentation.

2. APPENDIX B - ASSIGNMENTS AND PRESENTATIONS

o Appendix B1 - PLOT Assignment.

o Appendix B2 - Adult Learning – Group Presentation.

o Appendix B3 - Portfolio – Group Presentation.

o Appendix B4 - Proposal for initiating Portfolio – Group work.

o Appendix B5 - Advertisement for the Post of Reflective Practitioner

o Appendix B6 - The Lives of Teachers – Group Presentation.

o Appendix B7 - Action Research – Group work.

o Appendix B8 - Reflective Dialogue – Group Presentation.

o Appendix B9 - Mini Research Presentation – Group Presentation.

o Appendix B10 – Workshop Planning and Presentation.

SECTION C

APPENDIX A1

TALE OF TWO HAMLETS – GROSSMAN, P. (1990)

While going through the first chapter of ‘The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education – A Tale of two Hamlets’ (Grossman, 1990), I went back to my initial days of teaching - almost 10 years back. It was an English class of grade 8^th which was assigned to me. I didn’t had any professional degree or never been formally/informally introduced to teaching techniques, but just had completed my masters and had joined the school as a teacher. While teaching English to this class I was only trying to replicate exactly the same way as my English teachers had taught me in my school years. A very traditional way of teaching, very well known as ‘Talk, Chalk and Walk’ which I learnt in my current course. I was completely un-aware of new teaching methodologies; ultimately I was quite happy with my teaching practices assuming that I am doing well. During those days, I happened to attend only a week’s English workshop organized by HERP[2], where new techniques of teaching and learning and specifically involving students in the process, were introduced. Then, I realized that how much traditional I was in terms of my teaching, as I was also following the same teaching methodology like my school age teachers. Right after this workshop I tried to change and mould myself to practically implement some of the modern teaching strategies, like group work, role playing and using flashcards. It was of-course a challenging task for me to mould myself but observing the students’ motivation and interest in my classes, I was also enjoying, because a change was visible, as students were now getting much closer to me than earlier. They were taking much interest and actively participate in teaching and learning process as I have now created a two way interaction. I felt students’ learning and understanding level was now increased as to finish a chapter; I was having much less time comfortably with a clear understanding than before.

My belief was changed and now I was eager to have some more professional knowledge as I had identified that I have the content knowledge but the knowledge about teaching methodologies was still missing which was much necessary for an effective teaching learning process. Fully agreeing with Grossman (1990) who has identified four major areas of knowledge to become effective teacher;

1. General pedagogical knowledge – (knowledge and skills related to classroom management, purpose of education and beliefs).

2. Subject matter knowledge – (Elements of subject matter knowledge)

3. Pedagogical content knowledge – (Discussed below)

4. Knowledge of context – (Understanding of the particular contexts, like school settings, school culture, knowledge about students, communities, strengths and weaknesses etc.)

The training of teachers has increasingly been the focus of critical inquiry in the field of education. The writer examines the issue with a comparison of the classroom approaches and effectiveness of two English teachers. So, among all above major areas of knowledge, during teacher professional trainings the focus should be on enhancement of ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ which exactly concentrates on how to teach a specific subject matter. In my opinion the whole chapter of Grossman’s book is based on advocacy of the concept of pedagogical content knowledge for unavoidable inclusion in the teacher training programs. The writer has elaborated pedagogical content knowledge further, through four understandable components; knowledge and beliefs about the purpose for teaching a subject, knowledge of students’ understanding, conceptions and misconceptions of particular topic, curricular knowledge and finally knowledge of instructional strategies and represent actions for teaching particular topics.

So, to develop the pedagogical content knowledge four possible sources have been identified as apprenticeship of observation, subject matter knowledge, teacher education, and classroom experience, because through integration of theory and practice methods courses can encourage students to engage thinking strategically and a teacher becomes effective facilitator of the subject.

APPENDIX A2

REFLECTION ON BIOGRAPHY, A WAY OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The assignment in which I was supposed to write a biography of one of my colleagues; to be honest, initially I was only aware about the meaning of biography but I did not have sufficient knowledge. During class interactions, facilitators’ effective and thought provoking explanations, reading some relevant material and Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary guided me to unpack this notion. According to my understanding biography is a description of a person’s life written by another person. The person who writes a biography is called the "biographer" while the person written about is known as the "biographee". Biography is derived from the Greek words ‘bios’ meaning "life", and ‘graphy’ meaning "write". Biography is an effective and interesting type of literature, based on the written stories of individual lives. It reflects the narration of a person's life including the elements that make up a person’s past for the purpose of defining and understanding him/her and to reflect upon when necessary by ourselves as teachers.

Initially the concept of biography was based on seeing and investigating the past through the eyes of historic or notable persons to use that expertise as guiding rules, but now, not only the lives of dignified individuals but every individual (teacher) is being recorded and used as a tool for the professional development in education. According to my learning through the current course, every individual has a unique experience and distinctive story in-terms of his/her educational journey, either getting his/her own education or as a teacher. While collecting the required information from the ‘biographee’, I came to know the cultural and social settings, background, experiences, challenges and the strategies for these challenges, cultural attachments, failures and their implications, successes, critical incidents which cause major behavioral/emotional changes, and other personal information in the form of a narrative study of my colleague. All this information is valuable for the professional development of a teacher as it focuses on the recording and relating of another person's life for our own development. To articulate a biography, data collection can be done through interviews, formal/informal discussions, document analysis, and photograph analysis. I used formal/informal discussion and interviews for the data collection.

The major learning from biographies in education is the development of learning to teach and handle day-to-day affairs of school, keeping those practical experiences in mind as now teaching is known as a skill which needs to be sharpened according to the demand and needs of the time. Through biography, I learnt the approaches to professional development which provided the learning needs of teachers at differing ages/stages, the principles which serve as a guide for planning which is based upon the thoughts exercised by teachers.

A well-written biography provides the logical, coherent and practical foundation for developing a wide-ranging vision about teaching and leading. It can also provide an overview for a school leader to consider how novice teachers walk through their induction years, experienced teachers through the next two to three years in order to achieve the stages of professional expertise.

Finally, I am fully convinced that writing and reading biographies are the sources to enhance the professional development as a teacher, because I can perform better keeping all those experimented and validated experiences of different teachers in mind.

APPENDIX A3

REFLECTION ON PLOT WEBSITE

When it comes to work with computers, I always feel easy and relaxed, as habitually I love working on computers for assignments, projects or tasks, whether they are related to composing, presentations, calculations, drawings or to have fun. When we were introduced to PLOT – Professional Learning On-line Tool - in Teacher Learning course, I readily accessed the website www.plotpd.com with the given ID, and it was of-course initially seemed a normal routine work like working in Google, Yahoo, Hotmail or searching on OCLC and I assumed (jumped to conclusion – ‘post-hoc conclusion’ without exploring the site practically), that it would be much easier for me to work and understand the task. Then I just signed out from it after changing the password. When I returned to the site again next day, it was an embracing surprise for me that when I started clicking topics or areas, a whole bunch of sub headings, then their sub headings and sub headings…. my God! It was an endless journey, the task which I assumed easy, now became a puzzle game for me. I was lost in between these endless links of different headings and sub headings and lots of reading material; on the other hand our facilitator has restricted us to limit ourselves to reading only and not to print, keeping all the lots of material in mind and to reduce the wastage of paper.

PLOT is specifically covering not only teacher learning but it covers all the aspects of teaching learning process. I found that PLOT is designed for teachers, headteachers, administrators and for those who are affiliated with educational institutions. I understand that it is a highway of modern teaching and guiding techniques with practical examples and field experiences. It talks about every corner of professional development whether it is peer coaching, mentoring, portfolios, reflections, teachers’ empowerment, students’ empowerment or effective communications among the stakeholders. PLOT assists schools to increase their leadership capacity, as it provides an extensive resource bank for the development of professional teams and individuals and enhancement of pedagogy in classrooms. It seems to me that it is not a single assignment of four questions, but our facilitators have very timely opened a window of learning for us as it is a complete course, which covers and guides with the practical examples relating them with famous quotes. The proper and effective usage of encouraging and meaningful quotes in PLOT is marvelous.

I am still in exploration phase of that puzzle of different headings and sub headings, but also enjoying the surfing through the valuable material. While learning about self-reflection in the classroom and the effective reinforcement of the same in the form of a quote in PLOT, which I really felt heart touching that; ‘What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us…. - Ralph Waldo Emerson). To reflect on ‘what lies with in us’, is no body else but ourselves – yes, the most appropriate interpreters. This quote very much attracted and re-enforced me towards its usage and implementation. I look forward to collect some more valuable material and techniques of teaching learning process from this window of opportunity, which is opened to me for a limited time. Let us see, how much I gain.

APPENDIX A4

REFLECTION ON MINI RESEARCH PRESENTATION

When I am eager to know more about any specific knowledge, then it is essential for me to go a thorough scrutiny, not a single sided dimension but the maximum possible dimensions to have a reliable grasp of validated information. In this connection I was more than lucky to observe the multi dimensional practical approaches about Teachers Professional Development, as cohort of M.Ed. 2009 had actually explored the phenomenon in three different educational set-ups. For me, it was multi dimensional information to understand the practices of professional development of teachers. While taking all this information and working in a Group, gave me a practical approach of collegiality and mutual cooperation to learn as a teacher. I was privileged to work with two dynamic, adaptive and creative colleagues who represent the essential qualities of effective teacher-leadership in them. I really appreciate their kindness, generosity and knowledge sharing attitude. It was an excellent experience to work closely with them who have different capabilities like intensive reading and fine articulation skills. Amalgamation of these capabilities, in my opinion was the driving factor for me to understand the topic more clearly and present it in front of our colleagues and facilitators effectively.

I understand that there is reforms and change occurring in education sector all around the world. One of the key elements in most of these reforms is the professional development of teachers. Societies are acknowledging that teachers are the most significant change agents. This role of teacher in educational reforms makes the field of teacher professional development a growing and challenging area. Definitely to bring change in teaching strategies, teachers need to be aware of the new ways of teaching. Even the best and brilliant teachers need professional knowledge to learn about teaching and learning strategies (Rizvi & Elliott, 2007). I was inspired by the follow up program which is part of some of the institutions. I understand that follow-up is necessary to retain the learning and find out the areas for need improvement and it also makes the teacher conscious and responsible to effectively apply skills and knowledge learnt from the courses and workshops.

APPENDIX A5

REFLECTION ON WORKSHOP

Teacher learning takes place in every moment, while discussions, observations, attending conferences, workshops, debates and day to day classroom sessions. Therefore the workshop sessions managed by the CPs were extremely beneficial for my learning as I came to know about many new aspects of teaching learning process. The workshops on inquiry based learning, assessment, interpretation of history, high scope approach and today’s child tomorrow’s adult were very much fruitful. All these workshops practically involved me to learn more about these notions. Many practical experiences and processes of ‘workshop’ itself came to my knowledge, which can be beneficial for my future career.

Likewise, our own presentation of workshop in group was a learning opportunity for me. The topic, we all group members unanimously choose was “Content Validity while paper formation”. According to my understanding the workshop topic was very much vital for the learning as a teacher, because every teacher usually has to prepare exam papers and I have observed (in fact my practices as well) that teachers usually prepare exam papers randomly without considering to give a balanced wattage to every chapter. The workshop was a bit tricky with some calculations but I am encouraged to say that all the CPs took much interest in group work, which shown its authenticity and validity. Of-course this is a new learning for me, a totally new learning because I was exposed to plan and conduct a workshop for teachers (for CPs, who were very much capable in their fields). This learning would remain with me for initiating this validity sheet to teachers in my context. Moreover, importantly, I learnt from this process is the sprit of teamwork which helped us to successfully complete the planning process, because initially we all had different topics in our minds, but after a mutual consensus and refining the topic we came to conclusion. It was of-course an excellent teamwork.

Purposefully, we had set one objective for this workshop i.e. CPs will be able to use the content validity sheet for exam paper formation, and I am confident to say that keeping the interest of CPs, they will be adopting this validity sheet we introduced (The validity sheet which is currently being used by AKES,P) has been circulated to every individual.

Finally, the discussion and facilitator’s input in the classroom regarding key features of a good workshop gave me an insight about the effective workshop planning and conduct.

APPENDIX B1

PLOT ASSIGNMENT

Task I - Explore the first three sections of Pedagogy in Action and choose an idea that appeals to you. Respond to this question: HOW COULD YOU USE THE IDEA TO IMPROVE YOUR TEACHING?

COMMUNICATION

Generally I gone through all three sections of ‘Pedagogy in Action’ area in PLOT website and I found all these sections very useful for the professional development of a teacher. But the most appealing idea of ‘communication’ which attracted me much, because of its vital role in learning, and an essential key to life success as effective communication is fundamental to making sense of, and for successful participation in global societies. Communication has very explicitly presented on the site by advocating its different dimensions for students learning like integrating communication, engaging learners, written conversations, model the language, empowering students, integrating new technologies, questioning skills, multiple ways and home-school communication etc. Among all of them the most appealing dimension which I perceived can be an ultimate strategy for my own learning as well as to improve my teaching is, Integrating New Technologies. I understand that through this strategy of modern communication, I can improve my teaching and eventually the motivation of students towards learning will improve.

Integrating New Technologies

I prefer to start remarking on this dimension with an appealing quote taken from the site that, “All learning today should include technology … as one of the key areas of learning. Technology is not just a tool for learning … It should be one of the main things that learning is about. It should be a message as well as a medium. This is equally true of learners and teachers, given the rapidity with which technology changes (Australian Council of Deans of Education, 2001, p 100). Traditionally the primary tools and technologies used for students were textbooks, pens, pencils, and exercise books, while the teachers were about to chalk, talk and walk. In contrary to this approach now our world is flooded with multimedia and global communications. Students increasingly need to be able to use and intermingle all together various kinds of literacy - audio, visual, multimedia - information networks and other technologies as these technologies are taking the place of those traditionally mandated tools of students. These new tools are making revolutionary changes by high quality learning and are used in the service of purposeful outcomes. I have perceived many classroom based strategies for the enhancement of my teaching through meaningfully integration of these new technologies like integrating traditional literacies with new technologies into rich learning tasks and projects, so that students learn to use, switch and combine these according to purpose, product and desired outcomes. Through these tasks and projects skills of usage, understanding can be developed in students with technology and communications media and ultimately the level of teaching develops further.

Further more, I will try to apply this approach in my class by involving my students in projects which will only be completed with the usage of technological tools, so that they could be able to access the new technologies to complete that project, while these projects will ultimately lead them to understanding of integration of new technologies.

TASK 2: Explore the next three section of Pedagogy in Action: Collaboration, Self responsibility and Human development. Choose an idea and explain how you would introduce it to teachers in your context so that they would try the idea in their teaching. This could also be an ideal for your workshop during the course.

SELF RESPONSIBILITY

Among the different themes under the Pedagogy in Action, I have chosen Self Responsibility which attracted me very much. However the rest of material and information is quite relevant and implemental in different contexts. But I would prefer to discuss Self responsibility to introduce this notion among the teacher of my context.

The development of young people toward becoming self-responsible, self-directed learners and autonomous human beings is a major goal of education. Lifelong and life-wide learning will be essential in a world characterized by change and diversity. The role we play in helping children learn to take increasing control of their thinking, learning and behavior is critical. Self responsibility has been very much clearly discussed on the site by categorizing it into different approaches like Negotiated approach, Intrinsic motivation, Self management skills, Empower students, Macro thinking, build self-understanding and Focus on reflection.

Focus on Reflection

Focus on reflection as an essential aspect of learning. Reflection is a way of processing to help us make sense of what we are learning, to make important connections, to depth our understanding, and to monitor our learning and thinking towards positive growth.

Reflection helps us learn-how-to-learn, and to deal wisely with the information-complex world of today and tomorrow. It is essential for effective learning and to for lifelong learning. Reflection requires of a real understanding of its importance and a commitment to it. So, to initiate its implementation, I may try to motivate the teachers to maintain a reflective journal or simply will introduce a format starting with any of these points for reflections like, My strengths, Area/s I need to improve in or want to explore further, Steps I will take to achieve my goal…, Three things I learned ... , My favorite part ... , it would have been good if .... One thing I learned today ..., A question I have is ..., I did really well on ..., Next time, I would change ..., A strategy I used ... , I solved a challenge by ... etc. If a simplified format is prepared and given to teachers through a practical demonstration in a workshop they can be motivated to do so. Initially its implementation can be challenging as teachers may fell extra burden, but a smooth and friendly follow-up with encouragement can enhance its efficiency and learning. As a PDT, I may try to arrange short courses for the concerned staff members to introduce reflections and its importance. Furthermore, to reinforce these absolutely new ideas and strategies of professional development according to my context, I have to remain closely in contact with teachers. This will help me to compare the theoretical knowledge with the actual practices on the real scene.

TASK 3: Explore the first two sections of the Professional Communities areas of PLOT i.e. Professional Learning Processes (PLP) & Reflection and Assessment (R and A). In PLP you will find the Lamp of Learning and ideas for workshops. In R and A, you will find 3 interesting self-assessment rubrics. Fill one of those rubrics and reflect on the results. How could you use the Lamp of Learning metaphor in facilitating teacher learning?

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING PROCESSES

Lamp of Learning

This metaphor appears to be connected with active, constructivist theories of learning, that there are three interrelated important stages from the base of the lamp upwards to its top. Each stage depends on the knowledge of previous stage for effective learning to take place. As the structure of the lamp shows that there are three interconnected stages and professional learning must also be interconnected to a strong base which means the learners’ existing knowledge, beliefs, experience and practices should be strong to absorb or to accommodate new knowledge to construct the understanding. Because to teach deep understanding, teacher need to clearly understand how understanding is constructed. Like the lamp, learning has to be carefully constructed parts which interacts new learning.

Moreover lamp of learning guides us in understanding on construction of understanding from bottom to top. Teaching for deep understanding of significant concepts questions, issues and processes requires a lot of conceptuality. The construction of lamp of learning enables us to grapple with, process, organize and internalize new concepts, skills and processes to build on from our knowledge base. In addition effective learning is constructed to make connection between new concepts and processes. Students and their learning needs are the center of effective learning. There are many a number of teaching strategies that can be employed to actively engage students in the learning process, including group discussions, problem solving, case studies, role play, reflection and journal writing. The benefits of using such activities are many including critical thinking skills, increased retention and transfer of new information, increased motivation and improved intrapersonal skills. The overall quality of teaching and learning is improved when students have ample opportunities to clarify questions, apply and consolidate new knowledge. In this case teachers can create opportunities for students to engage new material, serving as guide to help them understand deeply and apply in their daily life. They help to “light the lamp” of student learning.

Community Rubric Result

I had chosen the Community Rubric to know about my understanding about the learning community. The result has very explicitly showed my over all understanding about this area. I found the rubric very helpful to understand my perception about community. In the rubric six major themes or sections have been identified and every theme contains a set of questions. According to this result, I me doing well in Pedagogy, Substantive dialogue and Effective collaboration but a bit lacking in some areas. I understand that it is a universal truth that development never ends, so I need to improve these dimensions further along-with other sectors of community like Professional learning and implementation, future premise and relationships.

TASK 4: In the Professional Communities section explores Substantive Dialogue. Find an idea from this area which may be a question or a quote which you particularly like. Comment on what that idea, question or quote means to you and why it appeals to you.

SUBSTANTIVE DIALOGUE

I really impressed from the designed stages of substantive dialogue, which has been categorized in different stages. I would like to advocate the first most important stage according to my understanding that the base of the lamp - existing understandings is very much essential for an organization. Because people cannot work together effectively and engage in substantive dialogue about pedagogy unless time has been taken to build trusting, supportive relationships, to co-create shared norms and values, and a need-satisfying environment is not created. Building community is the foundation on which effective collaboration and substantive dialogue rely. Similarly, we can't work on increasing teamwork effectiveness if people see little or no benefit in working together. Building commitment to teamwork is foundational to collaborative success. For such successful collaboration, we have to attract people by keeping their benefits in mind so that they could be ready to willingly participate in the process of building teamwork and learning communities.

Furthermore, in positive improvement which is a component of substantive dialogue, it has been emphasized on an idea that “our goal with students is to empower them to become more self-responsible and to work collaboratively”. This idea enlightens the message that we have to change the traditional practice of teaching in the schools. Such practices serve as de-motivating factors to students as the teacher plays an authoritative role.

In substantive dialogue various quotes and questions about teacher learning have been furnished. All the quotes I found very relevant and related to teacher learning and knowledge but one quote, “If values are the heart of the community, communications are the pulse, bones and physiology. Most teaching groups, isolated from peers for so many years, and to learn ways of talking together” (Garston and Wellman, 1999), really inspired me, as when I relate this quote to my own context and teaching learning experiences, it reflects the whole story.

This quote appealed me because it applies to my context. Teachers used to work in isolation due to various reasons. One very important reason is that teachers are not provided such environment to communicate each others ideas, reflections, feelings and thoughts. Most teachers are proud of their seniority and teaching experience. They do not want to discuss teaching learning issues and matters with the junior and novice teachers. Therefore such kinds of teachers neither take any initiative themselves nor led others to do something innovative. Consequently teachers’ professional development stops and definitely it affects students learning outcome. There are some values we have to take care in the way when we ask questions, talk to each others and respond to each others. To ensure productive talk, we need to understand the different purposes and outcomes of dialogue and discussion, and the pathway we take to achieve them.

APPENDIX B2

ADULTS LEARNING - GROUPWORK

APPENDIX B3

PORTFOLIO PRESENTATION – GROUPWORK

APPENDIX B4

PROPOSAL FOR INITIATING PORTFOLIOS FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

WHAT IS A PORTFOLIO?

Essentially, a teaching portfolio is a collection of information about a teacher’s practice. It can include a variety of information, such as lesson plans, student assignments, teacher’s written descriptions and videotapes of their instruction, and formal evaluations by supervisors… (it) should be more than a miscellaneous collection of artifacts or an extended accomplishments attained over an extended period (Wolf as cited in Retallick, 1996: 34)

Proposed Components of Portfolio	Expected Outcomes.
Reflective journal.	Reflective Professional Teachers. Identification of teacher’s weaknesses and strengths.
Students progress record Formative assessment record.	Students progress (weaknesses and strengths) Pedagogical change/modification. Child centered teaching.
Lesson plans record.	Learning to Teach.
Parents’ interaction record.	Healthy relationship with parents. Solutions of Behavioral problems/emotional/academics/modification.
Co-curricular reports.	Future planning. Involvement of students
Trainings and Workshops record. Practical application and challenges faces.	Reference Self Evaluation.

CONCLUSION:

It will generate collegial support and sharing attitude among teachers.
It will provide a sense of purpose and will energize teachers at different levels of their practices.
It will provide a sense of affiliation and a vehicle for collaborative work. (Xu, 2003)

APPENDIX B5

ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE POST OF REFLECTIVE PRECTICTIONER

CAREER OPPERTUNITY

Title	Reflective Coach for Community Based English Medium Schools.
Location	Hunza, Northern Areas Pakistan.
Institution	Hunza Educational Resource Project (HERP)
Deadline	31 July 2008

Hunza Educational Resource Project (HERP) currently facilitating more than 20 community-based English medium schools in Hunza providing various professional development trainings/workshops. HERP provides school-based professional support to improve the quality of education and teacher professional development.

THE POSITION

· In collaboration with the headteachers, principals and teacher educators conduct classroom observations and provide school based professional support by initiating reflective practices.

· Develop and implement a structured professional development plan to form a reflective practitioners’ team in all affiliated schools.

· Provide guidance to maximize learning through critical reflection on oneself and reflect on critical incidents.

· Working with the headteachers/principals and teachers to identify, obtain and develop appropriate learning resources including low-cost/no-cost material.

· Conduct professional sessions focusing on reflective dialogue journals, one-to-one reflective sessions and group reflective sessions (Rarieya, 2005), while providing model lessons in classes where and when required.

· Coach teachers to improve instructions and motivate them to exhibit positive behaviors (Pellicer, & Anderson, 1995)

THE REQUIREMENTS

· Have Masters of Education degree from foreign or a HEC recognized University.

· Have at least five years relevant experience.

· Ability to work in multi-cultural and lingual mountainous environment and teachers with varied backgrounds.

· Comfortable with frequent travel across the rough & mountainous region.

· Fluent in spoken and written English.

· Know a range of strategies to promote good behavior and establish a purposeful learning environment.

SALARY

Salary and package will be offered to attract the best candidate – negotiate-able.

Applications along-with a detailed CV should reach latest by 31^st July, 2008.

In-charge

Hunza Educational Resource Project (HERP)

P.O. Aliabad, Hunza, District Gilgit, Northern Areas Pakistan

Tel: 092-5821 – 57097 Fax: 092-5821 – 57197

Email: herp@kado.net.pk

APPENDIX B6

THE LIVES OF TEACHERS – GROUP PRESENTATION

APPENDIX B7

ACTION RESEARCH – GROUPWORK

APPENDIX B8

REFLECTIVE DIALOGUE – GROUP PRESENTATION

APPENDIX B9

MINI RESEARCH PRESENTATION - GROUPWORK

Appendix B10

Workshop Planning and Presentation

WORKSHOP PLAN

Topic: How to ensure content validity in exam papers?

Group Members: Wali M. Khan, Darvesh Karim, Sultan Alam & Aafiyat Nazar

Learning outcomes:

CPs will be able to use content validity sheet for exam paper formation

S. No	Activities	Time	facilitator
1	Brain storming about formation of exam paper & sharing of objectives	7 minutes	DK/SA
2	Sharing of objective/subjective distribution Sharing of content validity sheet	8 minutes	AN
3	Sharing of formulae for marks allocation	5 minutes	SA
4	Group work Group formation Distribution of books & Content validity sheet Group based support	15 minutes	WMK & group
5	Presentation	5 minutes	WMK
6	Conclusion	5 minutes	WMK

June 20, 2008 Time: 45 minutes

PRESENTATION

Class wise objective/subjective marks allocation

S. No.	Name of class	% Objective Marks	% subjective marks	Total Marks
1	0-1	100	-	100
2	2-3	80	20	100
3	4	70	30	100
4	5	60	40	100
5	6	50	50	100
6	7	40	60	100
7	8	30	70	100

Content validity sheet

S.No.	Chapter/Unit	No. of Pages	Allocated Marks	Subjective%	Objective%	Total

























						100

Formula for allocation of Marks

X 100

Objective/subjective Marks allocation

X marks for chap/unit

[1] Seven Categories of Knowledge: Knowledge of content, knowledge of pedagogy; knowledge of curriculum, knowledge of learners and learning, knowledge of contexts of schooling; pedagogical content knowledge; and knowledge of educational philosophies.

[2] HERP – Hunza Educational Resource Project – a professional development project for private English medium school of Hunza.

A Journey into Creative Writing

Wednesday, June 1, 2011