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- The Open University (OU)
Lecture notes of 21 pages for the course Learning and teaching in primary education at OU (Study topic notes)
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Study Topic 19: Professional learningThe idea that professionals should be learning at work as well as carrying out their responsibilities has not
always been recognised or provided for in primary education. In-service professional learning for
teachers first developed in the 1960s, when training courses were made available through colleges and
teachers’ centres. Previously, an initial teaching qualification was considered sufficient to enable teachers
to continue to do the job. Now, professional learning – also known as professional development, in-
service training (INSET), and continuing professional development (CPD) – is embedded in teaching.
Indeed, it has become a necessity given the constant changes involved in working in schools.
This study topic will develop your understanding of the kind of professional learning that takes place in
primary schools. It will help you to think about your own development and training both now and in the
future. You will also find that a number of the activities in this study topic will help you to prepare for
writing your final assignment.
1 What is professional learning?
The focus of this study topic is professional learning – that is, the learning a person does while carrying
out their current role or working towards their future career aspirations. For you, this may be as a
student or in relation to a role in a school or another work role that you do. Whatever that role is, you
will be aware that there are many ways of learning and many potential learning opportunities.
So far in this module you have read a variety of texts and reflected on your everyday experiences. You
have talked to other adults about your current roles and your Open University study. You may have
sometimes explained to children the activities you carried out. In acquiring knowledge, your attitudes,
beliefs and opinions may have been challenged. Over time, and through experience, you see patterns
that contribute to the process of developing and adjusting your understanding.
Following its introduction in Study Topic 3, ‘Learners and learning’, you have considered a sociocultural
view of learning throughout the module, which acknowledges the importance of the social context in
which we learn and in which we develop our learning relationships with others, whether as children or
adults. This approach also has relevance for professional learning because social interactions can give rise
to new learning.
1.1 Formal and informal learning
If you look back at your own personal and professional learning experiences, you will
probably identify times when you learned formally and other times when you learned
informally. For example, your formal learning may have included attending a structured
training day, or a specialised course where you learned about new subject content with,
perhaps, some form of assessment.
You may have been involved in a performance-management or appraisal process where you
were given feedback on your work and discussed future learning. During your study of E103
you have written assignments to demonstrate your knowledge and experience and to link
your experience with the theoretical concepts introduced. A central distinguishing feature of
formal learning is the way that it is structured for learners. Schools and universities usually
organise learning experiences around learning outcomes for learners, as we have for this
module, and so do most training sessions provided for teaching staff in primary schools. The
risk with such pre-structuring is that training can have a life of its own and be detached from
the actual interests and needs of learners – disembodied from real contexts, therefore.
,Activity 19.1 Informal learning
Timing: Allow about 20 minutes
Think of two recent examples of when you engaged in learning relating to your work or
study in a less planned or more informal way. What brought about your involvement in
these learning opportunities? How effective were they as learning experiences? Why do you
think this was? Write down your thoughts below.
Example 1:
Activity 19.1 Informal learning, Your response to Question 1a
Example 2:
Activity 19.1 Informal learning, Your response to Question 1b
Comment
Work and study to do with children’s learning can be so absorbing that teachers andteaching assistants
often say that they find it hard to ‘switch off’ their involvement. This gives rise to strong feelings of
commitment, which is an aspect of professionalism that we discuss further in Section 2.
Some of your informal learning may happen incidentally in your life away from your work or study.
Perhaps you watch a television programme or read a novel or newspaper article on education that causes
you to pause and think about it, or maybe you find yourself drawn to a particular collection (e.g. of
Victorian toys) while visiting a local museum. You may think that it would be a good idea to involve
children in activities about toys, so you take a special interest in what is displayed, talk to the curator and
collect information.
Whatever your current role is, it is likely that a significant amount of your professional learning happens
informally. For example, at a tutorial you may spontaneously compare notes with a fellow student. If you
have a formal work role you may discuss how you carry out your responsibilities with colleagues or
overhear a colleague making suggestions about dealing with an aspect of a professional activity. If you
work in a school you may gain insights through a colleague at work or observing another member of the
teaching staff. What children or parents have told you and how they respond to you during the activities
you have carried out on this module will also make a contribution to your informal learning.
When thinking about formal and informal learning, it is important to note how these two
aspects can interrelate, complement, and help to develop each other.
For example, in a tutorial you may be learning as a result of the structure provided by your
tutor, but during a break you might have a conversation with another student that makes an
important contribution to your understanding: in this way, formal learning incorporates
informal learning. Thomas (2010) has written about ‘conversational learning’ as a way of
teaching and suggests this can give rise to learning for both children and adults.
Alternatively, you may be browsing through a personal statement that a colleague has
developed to support an application for a role or qualification, and you ask her a question
about her experience. She may realise from your question that you are not quite clear about
her experience from the way she has presented it. So, she might systematically describe to
you the rationale for including the information and which, if any, of the selection criteria it
supports. At this point, informal learning becomes a more structured learning event.
, Such shifts from informal to formal learning can be very subtle and, of course, children
experience such shifts, too.
1.2 Making connections
Working collaboratively with others enables us to learn more about our own approaches to work;
comparison can provide a reason for reflection
Show description Working collaboratively with others enables us to learn more about our own
approaches to work; comparison can provide a reason for ...
In Study Topic 2, ‘Autobiography and learning’, we asked you to reflect on your past work and life
experience. You probably recognised how relevant these are to your work or study and were able to
make connections between the past and what you are doing now. And, in Study Topic 3, ‘Learners and
learning’, you read about ‘knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do’ (Claxton, 1999). This is
an enigmatic phrase that makes us aware of the potential role of past experience in new learning. Having
the confidence to acknowledge that you don’t know something and then to ask questions are part of the
professional learning process. In asking for advice and openly discussing your strengths and needs for
development you begin to feel secure with others and yourself. This is an important part of informal
learning.
In the following case example, Samina Khan, a teaching assistant at Highfields Primary School in
Birmingham, describes how she shares her experiences with the teacher she works alongside.
Samina: working together
I only do literacy. I don’t do maths, science or anything else, and I get to do my own planning and carry
out my own lessons. But I do sit with the teacher once a week and we talk to each other about ideas and
the lesson plans I’m using, and what worked and what hasn’t worked, and how I should go about doing it
next time. And if it hasn’t worked, we explore why and what the teacher needs to do, and what I should
do to make it work or amend it. Or if the children are not picking up what I am doing, then we talk to
each other and see how we can improve the lesson and go about doing it next time.
Samina is confident in her teaching role and is expected to take on a large amount of responsibility for
planning. Nevertheless, she recognises the need to reflect on what she is doing with the teacher and
constantly to reappraise the content of the lessons, as well as her own role and responsibilities.
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