Practice, Learning and Change

Practice, Learning and Change PDF Author: Paul Hager
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400747748
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
The three concepts central to this volume—practice, learning and change—have received very different treatments in the educational literature, an oversight directly confronted here. While learning and change have been extensively theorised, their various contexts articulated and analysed, practice is notably underrepresented. Where much of the literature on learning and change takes the notion of ‘practice’ as an unexamined given, its co-location as a term with various classifiers, as in ‘legal practice’ and ‘teaching practice’, render it curiously devoid of semantic force. In this book, ‘practice’ is the super-ordinate organising idea. Drawing on what has been termed the ‘practice turn in contemporary theory’, the work develops a conceptual framework for researching learning in, and on, practice. It challenges received notions of practice, questioning the assumptions, elisions, conflations and silences on the subject. In so doing, it offers fresh insights into learning and change, and how they relate to practice. In tandem with this conceptual work, the book details site-ontological studies of practice and learning in diverse professional and workplace contexts, examining the work of occupations as various as doctors, chefs and orchestral musicians. It demonstrates the value of theorising practice, learning and change, as well as exploring the connections between them amid our evolving social and institutional structures.

Practice, Learning and Change

Practice, Learning and Change PDF Author: Paul Hager
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400747748
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
The three concepts central to this volume—practice, learning and change—have received very different treatments in the educational literature, an oversight directly confronted here. While learning and change have been extensively theorised, their various contexts articulated and analysed, practice is notably underrepresented. Where much of the literature on learning and change takes the notion of ‘practice’ as an unexamined given, its co-location as a term with various classifiers, as in ‘legal practice’ and ‘teaching practice’, render it curiously devoid of semantic force. In this book, ‘practice’ is the super-ordinate organising idea. Drawing on what has been termed the ‘practice turn in contemporary theory’, the work develops a conceptual framework for researching learning in, and on, practice. It challenges received notions of practice, questioning the assumptions, elisions, conflations and silences on the subject. In so doing, it offers fresh insights into learning and change, and how they relate to practice. In tandem with this conceptual work, the book details site-ontological studies of practice and learning in diverse professional and workplace contexts, examining the work of occupations as various as doctors, chefs and orchestral musicians. It demonstrates the value of theorising practice, learning and change, as well as exploring the connections between them amid our evolving social and institutional structures.

Changing Practices, Changing Education

Changing Practices, Changing Education PDF Author: Stephen Kemmis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9814560472
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This book aims to help teachers and those who support them to re-imagine the work of teaching, learning and leading. In particular, it shows how transformations of educational practice depend on complementary transformations in classroom-school- and system-level organisational cultures, resourcing and politics. It argues that transforming education requires more than professional development to transform teachers; it also calls for fundamental changes in learning and leading practices, which in turn means reshaping organisations that support teachers and teaching – organisational cultures, the resources organisations provide and distribute, and the relationships that connect people with one another in organisations. The book is based on findings from new research being conducted by the authors – the research team for the (2010-2012) Australian Research Council-funded Discovery Project Leading and Learning: Developing Ecologies of Educational Practice.

Learning and Everyday Life

Learning and Everyday Life PDF Author: Jean Lave
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108480462
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
An incisive study of situated learning, analyzed through a critical theory of social practice as transformational change in everyday life.

Learning in Landscapes of Practice

Learning in Landscapes of Practice PDF Author: Etienne Wenger-Trayner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317692527
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
If the body of knowledge of a profession is a living landscape of practice, then our personal experience of learning can be thought of as a journey through this landscape. Within Learning in Landscapes of Practice, this metaphor is further developed in order to start an important conversation about the nature of practice knowledge, identity and the experience of practitioners and their learning. In doing so, this book is a pioneering and timely exploration of the future of professional development and higher education. The book combines a strong theoretical perspective grounded in social learning theories with stories from a broad range of contributors who occupy different locations in their own landscapes of practice. These narratives locate the book within different contemporary concerns such as social media, multi-agency, multi-disciplinary and multi-national partnerships, and the integration of academic study and workplace practice. Both scholarly, in the sense that it builds on prior research to extend and locate the concept of landscapes of practice, and practical because of the way in which it draws on multiple voices from different landscapes. Learning in Landscapes of Practice will be of particular relevance to people concerned with the design of professional or vocational learning. It will also be a valuable resource for students engaged in higher education courses with work-based elements.

Quality Learning

Quality Learning PDF Author: John Loughran
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789463009133
Category : Educational change
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
When teachers are supported to work together in ways that allow them to deepen knowledge of their professional practice, the understandings that emerge from their conversations about quality learning and teaching demonstrate a high level of expertise. Yet such professional knowledge is often deeply embedded within each teacher's everyday teaching; the tacit knowledge that determines how and why they attend to student learning in certain ways. This book captures the professional knowledge of teachers that developed as the result of an ongoing process of school based change, where teachers began to work differently because they began to think differently about the learning that mattered for their students in their school. The explication of their knowledge of practice became possible due to the ongoing support they received from their school leadership - in most part because leadership trusted them as professionals to responsibly lead student learning. Within this culture of trust and valued collaboration, working alongside external critical friends who supported their professional learning, the teachers engaged in regular, thought provoking and interactive professional dialogue. Together they exposed and challenged each other's thinking and beliefs about learning and teaching, captured and examined each other's practice and, ultimately articulated and extended their professional knowledge. The insights about this collaborative learning process and the emergent knowledge and understandings teachers develop about the interactive relationship between learning and teaching, has much to contribute to educational discourse beyond the school setting. Some of that knowledge and the way it looks in practice is shared in this book.

Learning Through Practice

Learning Through Practice PDF Author: Stephen Billett
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048139392
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Practice-based learning—the kind of education that comes from experiencing real work in real situations—has always been a prerequisite to qualification in professions such as medicine. However, there is growing interest in how practice-based models of learning can assist the initial preparation for and further development of skills for a wider range of occupations. Rather than being seen as a tool of first-time training, it is now viewed as a potentially important facet of professional development and life-long learning. This book provides perspectives on practice-based learning from a range of disciplines and fields of work. The collection here draws on a wide spectrum of perspectives to illustrate as well as to critically appraise approaches to practice-based learning. The book’s two sections first explore the conceptual foundations of learning through practice, and then provide detailed examples of its implementation. Long-standing practice-based approaches to learning have been used in many professions and trades. Indeed, admission to the trades and major professions (e.g. medicine, law, accountancy) can only be realised after completing extended periods of practice in authentic practice settings. However, the growing contemporary interest in using practice-based learning in more extensive contexts has arisen from concerns about the direct employability of graduates and the increasing focus on occupation-specific courses in both vocations and higher education. It is an especially urgent issue in an era of critical skill shortages, rapidly transforming work requirements and an aging workforce combined with a looming shortage of new workforce entrants. We must better understand how existing models of practice-based learning are enacted in order to identify how they can be applied to different kinds of employment and workplaces. The contributions to this volume explore ways in which learning through practice can be conceptualised, enacted, and appraised through an analysis of the traditions, purposes, and processes that support this learning—including curriculum models and pedagogic practices.

The Art of Changing the Brain

The Art of Changing the Brain PDF Author: James E. Zull
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000981436
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
Neuroscience tells us that the products of the mind--thought, emotions, artistic creation--are the result of the interactions of the biological brain with our senses and the physical world: in short, that thinking and learning are the products of a biological process.This realization, that learning actually alters the brain by changing the number and strength of synapses, offers a powerful foundation for rethinking teaching practice and one's philosophy of teaching.James Zull invites teachers in higher education or any other setting to accompany him in his exploration of what scientists can tell us about the brain and to discover how this knowledge can influence the practice of teaching. He describes the brain in clear non-technical language and an engaging conversational tone, highlighting its functions and parts and how they interact, and always relating them to the real world of the classroom and his own evolution as a teacher. "The Art of Changing the Brain" is grounded in the practicalities and challenges of creating effective opportunities for deep and lasting learning, and of dealing with students as unique learners.

Exploring Education and Professional Practice

Exploring Education and Professional Practice PDF Author: Kathleen Mahon
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811022194
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This book was written to help people understand and transform education and professional practice. It presents and extends the theory of practice architectures, and offers a contemporary account of what practices are composed of and how practices shape and are shaped by the arrangements with which they are enmeshed in sites of practice. Through its empirically-based case chapters, the book demonstrates how the theory of practice architectures can be used as a theoretical, analytical, and transformational resource to generate insights that have important implications for practice, theory, policy, and research in education and professional practice. These insights relate to how practices are shaped by arrangements (and other practices) present in specific sites of practice, including early childhood education settings, schools, adult education, and workplaces. They also relate to how practices create distinctive intersubjective spaces, so that people encounter one another in particular ways (a) in particular semantic spaces, (b) that are realised in particular locations and durations in physical space-time, and (c) in particular social spaces. By applying such insights, readers can work towards changing practices by transforming the practice architectures that make them possible.

Leading Professional Learning Communities

Leading Professional Learning Communities PDF Author: Shirley M. Hord
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1452294259
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
"Hord is the originator of the triple-headed concept of professional learning communities. Sommers is an experienced administrator and past president of the National Staff Development Council. With the authors′ extensive backgrounds in educational evaluation and the implementation of school change and development, they are uniquely equipped to delineate and defend a particular vision of professional learning communities that has educational depth, professional richness, and moral integrity." —From the Foreword by Andy Hargreaves "The most important volume available to help principals undertake the challenging yet exhilarating work of building true communities of professional learning." —Joseph Murphy, Professor Vanderbilt University "The book does not gloss over the challenges that leaders will encounter. The authors draw upon rich research evidence and personal experiences and offer many practical, proven change strategies. This is a valuable resource for any educational leader who wishes to become a ′head learner.′" —Arthur L. Costa, Professor Emeritus California State University, Sacramento "Hord and Sommers create a powerful bridge between the research base on PLCs and practitioner knowledge and action. The book′s dual focus on principles and ′rocks in the road′ provide a grounded basis for school leaders. A dog-eared copy should be in every principal′s office and in every professional developer′s tool kit." —Karen Seashore Louis, Rodney S. Wallace Professor University of Minnesota, Minneapolis "The authors′ rationale and suggestions will resonate because they come from experience and great insight. The bottom line remains steadfast for these two distinguished educators: you implement a PLC so that teachers learn and students achieve. This text will help educators reach toward that compelling vision." —Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director National Staff Development Council Imagine all professionals in all schools engaged in continuous professional learning! Current research shows a strong positive relationship between successful professional learning communities and increased student achievement. In this practical and reader-friendly guide, education experts Shirley M. Hord and William A. Sommers explore the school-based learning opportunities offered to school professionals and the principal′s critical role in the development of an effective professional learning community (PLC). This book provides school leaders with readily accessible information to guide them in developing a PLC that supports teachers and students. The authors cover building a vision for a PLC, implementing structures, creating policies and procedures, and developing the leadership skills required for initiating and sustaining a learning community. Each chapter includes meaningful quotes from the field, "rocks in the road" and ways to overcome them, examples from real PLCs, and learning activities to reinforce chapter content. The text illustrates how this research-based school improvement model can help educators: Increase leadership capacity Embed professional development into daily work Create a positive school culture Develop accountability Boost student achievement Discover how you can grow a vital community of professionals who work together to increase their effectiveness and strengthen the relationship between professional learning and student learning.

Learning by Doing

Learning by Doing PDF Author: Richard DuFour
Publisher: Solution Tree
ISBN: 9781949539479
Category : Educational leadership
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
In the third edition of Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work®, authors Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas W. Many, and Mike Mattos provide educators with a comprehensive, bestselling guide to transforming their schools into professional learning communities (PLCs). In this revised version, contributor and Canadian educator Karen Power has adapted the third edition for Canadian educators, emphasizing how Canadian educators can effectively improve learning for each student across their unique and widely diverse provinces and territories. Rewritten so that the scenarios, research, and language appropriately meet the needs of Canadian educators, this version is packed with real-world strategies and advice that will assist readers in transforming their school or district into a successful PLC.