Professional development pounded out of existence

Professional development pounded out of existence - PPTA
2 October, 2013

The most effective system intervention to raise student achievement has been privatised, restructured and pounded out of existence, says PPTA president Angela Roberts.

PPTA’s 'Professional learning and development (PLD)' paper, which will be discussed this afternoon at the association’s annual conference, examines the results of two separate PPTA surveys.

It shows both teachers and school leaders agree current PLD provision is inadequate, piecemeal and incoherent and raises serious questions as to whether the $200 million a year the government is pouring into it is well spent.

“Yes there are a few wealthy consultants who profit off these failings in PLD – of course there is with an investment of $200 million – but I doubt if many delegates at this conference have seen a fair share of this money in their schools,” she said.

PLD delivery had failed in New Zealand through inadequate policy development and delivery and most schools no longer had an ongoing relationship with a local provider, she said.

“This year’s conference paper on PLD argues that this piecemeal approach has to change.We didn’t just arrive at this point of view, we had schools scream it at us. We asked all members and leaders what they thought and, as you can see from the conference paper, they thought about it a lot and they know what they want,” she said.

Teachers wanted to collaborate with colleagues across schools to hammer the broken PLD visor back into shape, Roberts said.

“I’ve never met a teacher who doesn’t want to learn. What they don’t want is snake oil salesmen calling by the staffroom once a year and then leaving them to it,” she said.

The paper questions who is ensuring the quality and provision of PLD and examines ways of creating a better system that works for teachers and students rather than the providers themselves.

“We can do it by listening to what our teachers and leaders are telling us. Quality teaching is founded on quality professional learning in a quality system. We will not rest until this is provided because we know teachers are worth it,” she said.

PPTA’s annual conference runs from October 1 to 3. It is being held at the Brentwood Hotel in Kilbirnie, Wellington and media are more than welcome to attend. It will also be webstreamed live at www.ppta.org.nz

The conference programme and papers are available at: http://ppta.org.nz/index.php/events/annual-conferencec
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