Learning Conversations

Over the past few years, I have gained enormously by listening to, and engaging with a
number of communities of practice; within teaching, higher education and workplace training.

Existing on the boundaries of these communities has allowed me to bring ideas from different
sectors into whichever job I find myself doing.

Whilst at the Collaborate for Change event last week (also, see Zoe Ross's review), I spent a fair bit of time talking with
people about teacher professional development. But, actually, the ideas being generated
apply equally to almost any other profession or community of practice.

Motivation - the key

The key underlying factor for any successful professional development model is motivation.
I spent a long time, whilst working as a teacher, expecting my school or local authority to
provide whatever professional development it thought I needed. It was only when I moved
to the corporate world, into an environment where responsibility for your actions (and your
mistakes) was devolved as far down as possible, that I discovered the need (and the benefits)
of taking responsibility for my own learning.

That's a long process though, and depends very much on an enabling culture of both management
and financial decision-making. Either that, or it depends on mavericks; people who take
responsibility for themselves, simply because they know it's the best way to improve what
they do.

Alongside that bottom-up driven professional development, there need to be some external
motivating factors that will help reluctant learners to take responsibility for their own
development. These might include:

• Recognition
• Increased pay
• Better chances of promotion

A deepening framework

I have had the chance to observe, and take part in, a number of professional development
opportunities. Some have been incredibly useful, others less so.

The list below comes from these experiences. As you move down the list, the depth of
learning possible becomes greater. Basically, the more you put into an experience, the more you will get out of it.

1. Watching a presentation, listening to a talk or lecture
2. Taking an active part in a conversation where you have to argue a point, both online
   or offline. There are a number of models for this, such as Fishbowl, Study Circles, Action
   Learning Sets, and table top conversations (like we did at Collaborate for Change)
3. Producing and sharing resources to support other professionals
4. Reflecting on input that you have experienced
5. Reflecting on that input in public, and responding to feedback

This is an extreme simplification of some much better thought out models, such as Gilly
Salmon's 5 stage model (which was designed for online learning, but applies equally well to
any context where the aim is to encourage deep professional development).