ERIC Number: ED570108
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 32
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Job-Embedded Professional Learning Essential to Improving Teaching and Learning in Early Education
Pacchiano, Debra; Klein, Rebecca; Hawley, Marsha Shigeyo
Ounce of Prevention Fund
Improving classroom teaching improves children's learning outcomes. In pursuit of those goals, the early education field has made substantial investments aimed at increasing the quality of classroom environments and teacher-child interactions. Yet, in publicly funded programs across the country, the quality of instruction remains low and improvement stagnant. Informed by a multiyear, multisite implementation of a professional development intervention (PDI) for early childhood professionals, we assert that more-effective investments can be made. Our work and our results are predicated on a simple but powerful shift in understanding and approach: Instructional improvement flows from continuously building teaching capacity on the job. Therefore, we must focus on the organizational supports that hone better routines for teaching practice and sustain instructional improvement. At the core of these new understandings is a call to abandon traditional professional development; that is, professional development in the form of trainings and workshops that are externally delivered and intended for building the knowledge of individuals. Instead, we must strengthen early learning organizations and instructional leadership to drive continuous professional learning and improvement through collaborative, job-embedded professional learning (JEPL) routines. This paper provides a framework for designing and implementing JEPL systems and practices in early education settings in this new paradigm. The authors: (1) unpack the definition of JEPL; (2) contrast it with traditional professional development; (3) outline design and facilitation principles to make it effective in resource-strapped early education settings; (4) illustrate two routines of JEPL that support teachers with planning and implementing higher-quality interactions and instruction; and (5) provide recommendations for leaders in the field to successfully support, implement, and improve JEPL in early education settings. [For the first report in this series: "Reimagining Instructional Leadership and Organizational Conditions for Improvement: Applied Research Transforming Early Education," see ED570105.]
Descriptors: Preschool Teachers, Faculty Development, Instructional Improvement, Workplace Learning, Early Childhood Education, Intervention, Teacher Collaboration, Reflective Teaching
Ounce of Prevention Fund. 33 West Monroe Street Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60603. Tel: 312-922-3863; e-mail: info@theounce.org; Web site: http://www.theounce.org
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Preschool Education; Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Department of Education (ED); Crown Family Philanthropies; Stranahan Foundation
Authoring Institution: Ounce of Prevention Fund
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A