Doing Away With Some Double Standards

It is interesting, how professional development so often differs from the approaches that are recommended for the classroom.  Collaboration and inquiry are stressed as essential for developing an innovator's mindset in our students, yet when I attend professional development opportunities we often sit and listen to a presenter convey information to us.  This past week I enjoyed reading the following monograph from the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat and it has inspired me to talk less and facilitate inquiry among the teachers who attend any professional learning experiences I plan:  http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_CollaborativeInquiry.pdf

I have also been thinking a lot about the third teacher.  On this topic I enjoyed reading http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_ThirdTeacher.pdf

The third teacher between the parent, the teacher and the child is the learning environment.  It has occurred to me that we need to keep this idea in mind when we design professional learning experiences for teachers also.  I teach in an elementary school and the third teacher is present in most classrooms.  Teachers spend time decorating the class, posting learning goals and success criteria and posting student work.  However, as a parent of high school and university students, I have noticed tat as my daughters go up in the grades the third teacher becomes quieter and quieter until it is silenced..  I see some signs of the third teacher in our high schools but many university lecture halls are pretty bare.  Maybe it is because there is a new presenter and completely new audience each hour so no one feels ownership of the space. Professional development often takes place in even more temporary settings, so this poses an extra challenge.  Still, we need to reintroduce the third teacher in higher education and professional learning experiences.  We need to be creative and use welcoming online environments so that everyone can access them with their devices and make these digital environments an extension of the classroom.