Hop On to Great Teacher Development Models From Australia and China

As part of the National Center On Education and the Economy Teacher Quality Webinar Series, NCEE President Marc Tucker recently invited researchers Linda Darling-Hammond, Ann McIntyre, and Misty Sato, of the Learning Policy Institute to discuss their findings regarding teacher professional development models in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and Shanghai, China. The panel also was joined by Roger King, of the Center for the Collaborative Classroom, and Josh Starr, CEO at PDK International. This panel discussion follows up on the one NCEE recently held on teacher preparation in Finland and Singapore which I previously described.

Highly effective school leaders recognize the connection between student achievement and teacher accomplishment as student growth is fully dependent on the teaching skills, content knowledge, and efficacy of those instructing them. Both NSW and Shanghai are aligning systems that link teacher development to student achievement in ways through which the United States might benefit from taking notice. Indeed, in America, there isn't a student learning problem but an adult learning problem, says Josh Starr. Happily, some local school systems in America are indeed starting to heed what is being discovered about both student and adult learning in the Pacific region.

NSW and Shanghai also provide the United States with good examples on how state and/or provincial school systems can develop unique innovations in learning while still being in balance with national education goals. In Australia, while education is the responsibility of the state, as it also is in the United States, all states and territories, including NSW, have agreed upon the Core Components of School Quality. While China has a national education system, a fair amount of autonomy is allowed to provincial and/or city school systems in how they address the national curriculum - whether that be in providing students with linguistically diverse texts in Western China and/or in providing teachers with additional collaborative working time and/or placing focus on student engagement strategies in Shanghai.

Teacher development programs in NSW and Shanghai have several characteristics in common, says Darling-Hammond. Both localities see first year/new teachers as novices in need of reduced teaching schedules so that they can obtain one-on-one mentoring from master teachers, can sit in and observe master teachers instructing students, and can take an observation role during teacher led collaborative professional learning communities (PLCs). In contrast, new teachers in the US tend to have the same number of teaching hours and requirements as senior teachers. Teacher professional development also tends to be teacher led, job embedded, and action research oriented in both the "Land Down Under" and the "Nevernight City". Master teachers in both NSW and Shanghai are also encouraged to reflect upon their collaborative action research findings and/or to publish in clinical education journals. While there are education organizations that are encouraging American teachers to take on hybrid policy/practice roles, beyond that of the classroom - organizations such as Hope Street and Teach Plus, the blending of education practice and policy is in its early stages in the United States.

The New South Wales Model

Teacher professional development processes, in NSW, are in transition; from being event driven to a process driven approach focusing on generating student outcomes, says McIntrye - Australian educator. Providing evidence as to how practice is positively impacting student outcomes also is key to NSW's new teacher development process. Novice teachers in New South Wales have two years to prove teaching proficiency and fidelity to Australia's professional teaching standards and receive a lot of support from mentor teachers to develop their teaching craft during this time. Image: SmartTeacherBlog

All teachers in NSW engage in collaborative learning for two hours per week while novice teachers receive four hours of mentorship which is a key factor in the retention of teachers, says McIntrye. Data from 6000 NSW teachers, involved in the Learning Policy Institute study, verified that this mentorship had the greatest positive impact of all factors on their teaching development. 750 master teachers also described how the process of serving as mentors improved their own teaching craft. For their service, master teachers in NSW are paid at a level commiserate with senior school management.

In NSW, the structure of a teaching career is one where scope of influence increases over time. Teachers start their career being class focused, then become school based teacher mentors. After this, master teachers continue to develop by using student scholarship data to analyze the effectiveness of theirs and others' teacher learning directions and by making more global policy connections to their work. Teachers start by making a difference in the lives of students in their class, then the class next door, the school, and, lastly, the school next door, says McIntyre. This career progression is highlighted in Australia's teacher learning progression plan (2005). For there to be positive impact on student learning, the Learning Policy Institute study found that there needs to be several elements: 1) a focus on teacher directed learning tied to student learning; 2) a need for active/collaborative teacher learning; 3) a sustaining of collaborative practice over time; and 4) teacher leadership learning that is aligned to needs across the school.

Teacher training in NSW is proximal. Indeed, teacher development is most effective when it is proximal, says Roger King of the Center for the Collaborative Classroom. Proximity is not just geographical (i.e. one's own grade and/or school) but also relates to time, added King. Creating a space for teachers to collaboratively reflect on how a particular strategy worked that day and/or during that week, when reflections are clear, is important in enhancing adult learning.

The Shanghai Model

In China, all teachers - including elementary school teachers - are content specific specialists and visit the student's classroom rather than students transitioning to a teacher's classroom. Teachers are located together which results in the creation of a culture for informal collaboration. Student meetings also are held in this space so all teachers are informed. In contrast, in the United States, where teachers are set up in individual classrooms, a culture of isolation is developed. How often, for instance, do teachers in the United States lock doors and/or cover door window openings with paper and tape?

In the United States, educational experts compare the teaching profession to that of the medical field in that both careers conduct observational rounds where the patient/student/teacher is diagnosed. In China, in contrast, people compare teaching to the legal field because they see the bulk of work in both fields needing to occur during lesson planning and/or in case preparation rather than in the classroom and/or court, says Mitsy Sato. Research as to best teaching practice and curriculum is most valued in Shanghai. As such, in Shanghai, a collective action research based teacher process is prioritized over that of classroom teaching hours.

Indeed, in Shanghai, teachers as content experts only spend 12 to 15 hours in instruction using the rest of their time in lesson design groups. In these groups, teachers in Shanghai often engage in a process where they co-plan a lesson, observe a teacher modeling the lesson, debrief together on the lesson's effectiveness, re-design the lesson, and then have another teacher reteach the lesson to students. This practice is also common in Japan. School professional learning communities are then encouraged to compete with one another, locally and nationally, to disseminate best instructional practices so as to expand scale and scope of effective teaching strategies. Interestingly, in Shanghai, at least 75% of teachers also have published their research in at least one clinical journal. Image: DailyMail.UK

As in NSW, new teachers in Shanghai spend their first year in learning by visiting mentor teacher classrooms and engaging in feedback conversations with their mentors. New teachers also are involved in teacher PLCs but only superficially and do not take leadership roles on those teams in their first years of teaching. Teachers earn "master" status when they can demonstrate through data that they have had a positive impact on other teachers and have equally participated in collaborative learning processes.

Learnings for the United States

According to Starr, who in addition to his current role has served as superintendent of the Montgomery County Maryland Public School System, American school administrators need to get beyond the assumption that schools of education have prepared new teachers and develop in-house human capital development programs akin to those found in NSW and/or Shanghai. While school superintendents in the locally run and funded American public school system often struggle in convincing local boards to maintain funding for teacher development programs, particularly in times of economic stress, administrators must continue to communicate to the local community the tie between adult learning to improved student outcomes in concrete terms, says Starr.

Schools in America can think creatively in addressing teacher development needs within current budget allocations. For example, during Starr's tenure in Montgomery County, he worked in tandem with the teachers' union to add consulting teacher positions as part of the teaching contract. Each new teacher to the district is assigned a consulting teacher who mentors between 18 to 22 teachers. After three years, consulting teachers revert back to the classroom to maintain awareness of current teaching practices and to allow other teachers the opportunity to assume this teacher leadership role. Several schools in the New York City Public School System, where I am currently coaching teachers, have also signed on to a city-wide assessment program that is using the Data Wise PLC model to conduct action research by grade level and/or content area PLCs.

Do you know of any innovative teacher professional development models? Please comment if you do.