Effective facilitation is complex What is central to leading powerful and effective facilitation in professional learning? You. Gone are the one-size-fits-all answers—instead, you’ll draw from your own knowledge and expertise to lead your PLC in actively solving complex problems that are unique to your context. For professional learning to have an improvement impact for both teachers and students, it needs to be more than a single event. Truly successful professional learning is sustained, collaborative, evidence-informed, and student-focused—generating multifaceted solutions to real-life, real-time issues rather than focusing on one piece of the practice puzzle at a time. This book, based on the results of a five-year research study, provides: • An innovative approach to the design and delivery of professional learning grounded in principles of adaptive expertise • Easy-to-use one-page summaries of "Deliberate Acts of Facilitation" • Guidance that’s fully congruent with Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning The current educational landscape demands a new kind of leadership. This book gives you the tools you need to apply the principles of adaptive expertise to your leadership and facilitation—enabling you to draw on your own deep knowledge to address the complex challenges you and your teachers face every day.

"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.

This volume provides an overview of key contemporary themes in educational leadership. It focuses on developing professional capacity, organisation improvement and the implementation of change, looking at theoretical frameworks and concepts, recent research studies and case examples of effective practice. The book covers: - leading learning and learner leadership - change processes and distributed leadership - leading professional development for educational contexts. Designed to encourage critical analysis and debate, this volume will be a useful resource for postgraduate and professional development courses in educational leadership and for practitioners. It is a companion to Educational Leadership: Context, Strategy and Collaboration, also published by Sage.

Praise for the first edition: ′Peter Earley and Sara Bubb bring together, in a very accessible way, theoretical and practical aspects of CPD and suggest how leadership and management can be applied in this vital area of staff development. This book will help co-ordinators and school leaders to develop their most important resource - the people who work with the children′ - Richard Stainton, Education Journal ′The most obvious target user for the book is the (not rare) person suddenly hoist with the staff development responsibility petard: but, thoughtfully used, most staffrooms will include several people who could benefit from thinking about its contents and putting some of the ideas into practice′ - British Journal Educational Technology ′This book is a welcome and practical guide to the wealth of publications on Continuing Professional Development... [M]akes an excellent contribution to the current and widening debate on the nature of Continuing Professional Development. For School Leadership Teams it is an essential resource and reference for the managing of professional development and learning. It also serves as an excellent practical guide, and CPD coordinators reading this book will find themselves questioning and as a result developing their own practice. The book is written in accessible language using believable case studies to illustrate the wealth of research that has been carried out. The deeply embedded notion among some teachers that professional development consists of the one day course is challenged, and the reader is left in no doubt as to the range of opportunities that exist and need for them to be harnessed in order to ensure school improvement. The book is will surely act as a catalyst for the review and development of CPD in schools′ - Stephen Merrill, Edge Hill College of Higher Education, British Journal In-Service Education ′A practical guide to all aspects of professional development which ought to be in the possession of every professional development coordinator in every primary and secondary school in the land - and their colleagues in leadership teams′ - Tim Brighouse, TES Friday Magazine This new edition of a best-selling book provides an up to date overview of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), combined with a guide to best practice. Changes include: - expanded sections on the professional development of support staff and the wider school workforce (particularly important in the light of workforce remodelling) and the evaluation of CPD - more on making sure that professional development has an impact, and provides good value for money - the common core of skills and knowledge for the children′s workforce, the new standards for qualified teacher status, induction, threshold, excellent teachers and advanced skills teachers as well as those for higher level teaching assistants. Drawing on the latest research, the contents include: - a clear explanation of CPD and latest developments; - practical tips on how to lead and manage CPD for a range of staff in schools - identifying training needs, designing and implementing programmes and evaluating their impact; - detailed guidance on CPD for staff at different stages of their careers. Written in a clear readable style it covers the latest standards and offers examples of current good practice. It is an essential professional reference for all those responsible for leading and managing professional learning in schools (headteachers, deputies, CPD and staff development coordinators) and Local Authorities (LAs). It will also prove invaluable to training providers and universities.

You’ve just found your new comprehensive guide to designing powerful professional learning! Full of protocols, vignettes, and case studies, this book dissects elements of professional learning, like coherence, connections, and content, and examines each through an evidence-based lens. Destined to become a go-to resource for anyone in a teacher-support role, this book analyzes research from the past 25 years on what makes professional learning work. In addition to focusing on the often-neglected role of the facilitator itself, other features include: A multi-year implementation framework to improve instructional practice Planning tools to shift instruction at the school and district level Techniques and strategies to embed content-based learning for all educators

Today's school leaders are faced with the increasingly daunting task of leading their schools to improve, to innovate and to become ever more responsive to change. There are many resources to help schools to engage with improvement frameworks, but few that directly address the complexity of the challenges that inevitably arise along the way. Based on extensive research in the field, including the outcomes of a five-year project on school improvement and professional learning in Australia and New Zealand, Leading Professional Learning: Practical strategies for impact in schools identifies the challenges that school leaders face when leading professional learning and development in their schools as part of an improvement agenda. Renowned professional development expert, Helen Timperley, has collaborated with a team of prominent authors, including Fiona Ell, Deidre Le Fevre and Kaye Twyford, to uncover the reasons underpinning these challenges and to provide practical strategies on how to address them. Case studies, excerpts from real teachers' experiences and step-by-step examples of useful strategies, including the spiral of inquiry, give school leaders the tools they need to tackle complex challenges in teaching, learning, curriculum delivery and pedagogical practice in both primary and secondary settings. Leading Professional Learning: Practical strategies for impact in schools is a hands-on resource for school leaders to identify specific professional learning and development issues that accompany the learning and change process and to overcome them in their schools.

Support teachers with more effective instructional leadership Leading for Professional Learning offers field-tested guidance to help school leaders more effectively support teachers’ professional development. Leadership is crucial to professional learning, providing the necessary systems and structures that enable teachers to improve their own practice and in turn, improve student learning. With an illustrative case study, this book provides invaluable guidance, packed with practical tools, processes, and expert advice. Because each school differs in terms of strengths and needs, this book steers away from prescriptivism and shows you how to construct a support plan tailored to your unique context. Specific teaching and leadership frameworks guide you through the process of examination, discovery, and execution, equipping you with the necessary tools and insight you need to make positive changes for your teachers – and ultimately, your students. A must-read resource for principals, administrators, and other school and district leadership, this book helps you set your school on the path to continuous improvement. Determine your school’s professional learning needs Leverage existing support structures for the greatest effect Understand the role of leadership in sponsoring and following up on professional learning Ensure intentional changes in teacher practice and student learning Empowering teachers to improve their craft goes beyond merely offering opportunity; it requires collaboration with teachers every step of the way, a deep understanding of how best to support professional learning, a clear set of goals for both individual sessions and an overarching mission, and the necessary technical and relational support required to see these opportunities through. Written by experts from the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership, Leading for Professional Learning provides real-world advice that has been proven effective in school districts across the nation.