This is an excerpt from "The State of Educators' Professional Learning in Alberta: Executive Summary" (Learning Forward, 2018), part of a series produced by Learning Forward. Coinciding with the 2016 Annual Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Learning Forward commissioned and supported a study of professional learning across the…

Research has been at the heart of Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning since they were first conceptualized and shared with the field in the 1990s. The standards are built on a decades-long foundation of research literature that describes the ways in which professional learning can improve educator knowledge, skills, and mindsets…

The four B's framework described in this article grew out of the authors' global study of "collaborative professionalism" (Hargreaves & O'Connor, 2017, 2018). They define collaborative professionalism as ways educators work together with depth, trust, and precision to achieve impact. The authors then set out to study how it manifests…

Doing the Math With Paraeducators: A Research and Development Project funded by the National Science Foundation, was designed to provide experiences to support professional growth by building paraeducator mathematical knowledge for teaching and leadership in Boston Public Schools. Providing paraeducators with sustained professional learning and…

At the heart of the most successful pre-K and early elementary programs is professional learning -- and at the heart of the professional learning is coaching. Even though early childhood is a unique period of development, the success of early learning coaches offers valuable lessons for professional learning across grade levels and settings. It…

One of the challenges leaders face is how to help teachers examine their classroom practice. The use of video technology as a tool for teacher self-reflection, peer collaboration, and coaching has been gaining in popularity for just this purpose. In this article, the authors share how teachers benefit from using a Lesson Analysis Protocol to…

Teachers in a Nevada district office have been reading and discussing Sandra Cisneros' book, "Hairs/Pelitos," and are collaborating on a poster that uses figurative language to describe 38 a character from the text. The participating teachers are preparing to lead this same activity with their elementary students who are newcomers to the…

Teaming--when done well--can make all the difference. Yet where can teachers and leaders learn how to be effective team members? What common challenges do teams face? And how can a developmental approach help teams thrive? In this article, the authors address the painful challenges many adults encounter when working in teams. They discuss how…

In this article, the authors highlight key elements of their new model for developing educators' capacities, as well as key takeaways about the potential of supporting adult development. Focusing on the five elements -- Theory, Culture, Pillar Practices, Feedback, and Sustainability -- of their developmental model for building capacity can foster…

The Arlington Independent School District in Texas has developed a New Teacher Induction Program to foster individual agency for each teacher and empower educator-centered growth, intentionally modeling the same kind of learning designs that teachers apply with students in their classrooms. After exploring elements of the ideal classroom through…

More than a decade of research suggests that improving the quality of instruction and student learning requires leaders to set a vision for instruction, promote teacher learning around that vision, and foster organizational conditions for teacher collaboration and growth (Louis, Dretzke, & Wahlstrom, 2010). Yet designing professional learning…

While working with schools and districts across Canada, the authors have found there is a strong expectation that collaborative teams will improve student learning. Many districts also expect instructional coaches to be a part of these teams, although there is much confusion about what roles they should play within a team. Developing collective…

How can teachers move from working in isolation within ineffective systems to building thriving, collaborative teaching environments in which they are supported and inspired to work with their colleagues in communities focused on mutual professional growth? In the authors' work as early learning instructional coaches, they have witnessed the ways…

This article explains how principals and leadership teams have used a pivotal segments approach to overcome problems of time limitations and other barriers and create more meaningful teaching and learning opportunities. To leverage the power of pivotal segments, teams begin by establishing clear goals for student learning and the sequence or…

Developing early reading skills is important for long-term academic success. Too often, however, young children do not have the foundations of literacy they need. One-third of Tennessee students read on grade level (Tennessee Department of Education, 2021), and in the state's capital city of Nashville, three out of four 3rd graders are not reading…