A series of 4 professional learning sessions:

For the strengths you highlighted in Session 1, what led to you identifying these areas as strengths, and how can you take them forward?

How do you know these areas are strengths? What evidence or rationale is there to justify choosing them as strengths?

How do these areas relate to an improvement plan and/or to your own professional development or learning?

How do they manifest themselves at the moment in your professional practice?

Do you lead on any of these areas at present, or could you do so?

What difference might developing these strengths make to you, your colleagues, your learners or your learning community, and how would you know?

• the Model of Professional Learning
• the Professional Learning Wheel

The following link to the Professional Learning Journey and Evidence of Impact will also be helpful:

• Using Evidence of Impact and Examples of Professional Learning Journeys

Professional Learning

"Long term and sustained improvement which has a real impact on the quality of children's learning will be better achieved through determined efforts to build the capacity of teachers themselves to take responsibility for their own professional development, building their pedagogical expertise, engaging with the need for change, undertaking well-thought through development and always evaluating impact in relation to improvement in the quality of children's learning. That is the message from successful education systems across the world." Teaching Scotland's Future (Scottish Government, 2011)

What is Professional Learning?

Professional learning is what teachers engage in to stimulate their thinking and professional knowledge and to ensure that their practice is critically informed and up-to-date. We believe that by undertaking a wide range of high-quality, sustained professional learning experiences, teachers are more likely to inspire pupils and provide high quality teaching and learning experiences, enabling learners to achieve their best. It is important that professional learning provides rich opportunities for teachers to develop and enhance their professional knowledge and practice, in order to progress the quality of learning and teaching and school improvement.

• Professional Learning