Professional Learning

Overview – The Professional Learning Micro-Credential involves the school principal’s ability to foster a professional culture that creates trust, promotes adult learning, risk taking, and collaboration. An effective and efficient principal engages teachers to collaboratively design and implement a program of professional learning that ensures each teacher is developing, deepening, and honing instructional skills to meet the changing learning needs of each student – ensuring on-going, individual student growth. Finally, the principal will demonstrate the ability to collaboratively develop and implement a strategic plan that ensures implementation timelines, evaluation, and monitoring process to establish best practices in professional learning.

Essential Outcomes – Professional Learning includes the following four identified essential outcomes:

1. Foster a professional culture that creates trust and promotes adult learning, risk taking, and collaboration.
2. Engage teachers to collaboratively design and implement a program of professional learning.
3. Ensure teachers continually develop and deepen the knowledge and skills needed to address the continually changing needs of the students they teach.
4. Provide a plan with strategies, implementation timelines, evaluation, and monitoring process to establish best-practices in professional learning.

Requirements

Part 1 – Overview Questions

Develop a responsive narrative that answers the following questions (1,000-word minimum):

1. What is the school’s vision for continuous learning of teachers and how was the vision collaboratively developed and effectively conveyed to instructional staff?
2. What are the structures and practices in place to encourage teachers to monitor and reflect on the on-going effectiveness of current instructional practices and professional growth?
3. How does the principal ensure an alignment plan, goals, outcomes, and next steps are clearly defined and agreed upon by stakeholders so that there is a continuous cycle of improvement and support?

Part 2 – Skill Demonstration Product with Self-Analysis

Develop an artifact portfolio that captures the essential outcomes for the Professional Learning Micro-Credential and complete the evidence self-analysis.

For each EO detail you will be required to reference an uploaded artifact(s) and guide the assessor to the specific evidence (page number, video time stamp, etc.) within the uploaded artifact(s). An explanation of how the evidence demonstrates proficiency of the outcome detail is also required. The practitioner must clearly and compellingly demonstrate proficiency of every detail under each essential outcome.

Part 3 – Reflection and Application

Submit, in writing, a summary of your experience of Professional Learning from the Instructional Leadership (500-word minimum) to highlight and provide specific examples of how you applied the two components of Professional Learning Micro-Credential. This could include topics covered such as the process used to collaboratively create, implement, monitor, and assess the plan for professional learning for instructional staff in your school. Include a reflection about the impact of this skill on your professional practice and how you will continue to apply it in the future.