ABSTRACT

Professional learning is a significant focus of discussion in most schools but it is not all that common for these conversations to be informed by teachers’ needs and expectations. Instead, they tend to be driven by external factors, such as accreditation, mandated professional development requirements and policies. Based on an in-depth study of a large number of teachers at one school, this paper begins to unpack the participants’ views about and the expectations they hold for their professional learning. Data were collected over two school terms through several focus group interviews reaching approximately two-thirds of the staff. Analysis of the data sets led to identification of themes used to categorise teachers’ perceived areas of developmental need (e.g. special needs, wellbeing, etc.) and what would be required to address these needs (e.g. time, collaboration, etc.). Findings indicate that what teachers receive to support their professional learning is not always what they want or value. Their aspirations regarding their professional learning needs tend to be more informed by their own beliefs about learning and teaching rather than more global, systematic or operational requirements.

摘要

专业学习是大多数学校讨论的重要焦点，但这些对话并不总是以教师的需求和期望为依据。相反，它们往往受外部因素驱动，例如认证、强制性专业发展要求和政策。本文基于对一所学校大量教师的深入研究，开始剖析参与者对专业学习的看法和期望。通过几次焦点小组访谈收集了两个学期的数据，覆盖了大约三分之二的工作人员。对数据集的分析导致确定用于对教师感知的发展需求领域（例如特殊需求、福祉等）进行分类的主题以及满足这些需求所需的内容（例如 时间、协作等）。调查结果表明，教师为支持他们的专业学习而获得的东西并不总是他们想要或重视的。他们对专业学习需求的渴望往往更多地取决于他们自己对学与教的信念，而不是更全球化、系统化或操作性的要求。